Cleaning Up The Slop

Back in the summer, Rish and I were talking about action figures...who have thought, right?...and Rish mentioned the ferry droid they had in the last episode of season one of the Mandalorian. They took an artoo unit, and added arms and legs to it so that it could row its way along in a boat. As we talked about it, Rish suddenly decided that he wanted that figure. He searched on eBay for a listing, but was discouraged to find that you could only find it available in the four-pack that they sold it in.

"I want to get it, but I don't want to get all the other droids that it comes with," he said.

Well, we left it at that and moved on with life, but then I got the idea that I should get Rish the droid for Christmas. He seemed really excited about it, but only became discouraged when there was no way to get it for a good price. However, I have these goofy aspirations of creating a space station populated with Star Wars figures, particularly droids. I'd love to have the other three droids. I'd love to have the ferry droid too, but the other three are fine. I could get the whole pack, send Rish the ferry droid, and keep the others. I could eat the leftovers, so to speak. I could clean up the slop.

So, that's what I did. I sent it to Rish, but by that time it was about six months later. I think his interest in the figure might have waned. He sent me this text when he got the package with the figure in it.

"Oh, no!" I thought. Does he not even remember that he wanted that figure? Does he not even remember that the figure exists? I wasn't sure how to answer his question.

Well, I don't know if it turned out to be a good present or not. At least he got it. That's better than it has been in other years. It's the thought that counts, right?

Anyway, due to that present idea, I now have several droids that I didn't have before. The first one is Goldy here:

He's got a good look. I like this one. Then there's this pastel-looking, Miami Dolphins fan one:

He's got a good look too. He'll be great on Ankletown. Lastly, there's this one:

This is R1. It's a security droid, I believe. This one is pretty big. He's as tall as a figure. Apparently, this robot flies. It comes with that stand, but when I photograph it, I'll have to use Photoshop to remove it so that it looks like it's flying.

Anyway, here are the three new droids that now roam the hypothetical hallways of Ankletown Station.

The Mad Titan Comes To Ankletown

When I was out with Rish last week, I got two things while we were out hitting toy stores. One was the rover Lego set that I talked about yesterday, the other one was this:

That's Thanos, the Mad Titan. He typically falls into a category of what they call the Cosmic Marvel characters, so he's exactly the kind of guy that should be on an inter-dimensional space station.

Here's what he looks like standing beside the regular figures of Ankletown.

He's taller, but the biggest difference is the fact that he's something like twice as wide as those guys. They look pretty good together if you ask me.

The glove comes off.

So, I could use the Infinity Gauntlet in some other way if I'd like.

I don't have any ideas for it, but who knows. Maybe I could just put it in the window of a pawn shop or something. Could be fun. Having a pawn shop, now that I think of it, could be a really fun idea, actually. I could constantly change out the item in the window, using the accessories of various figures. I'll have to see if I can't make that one of my first building I make.

Red Rover, Red Rover

While I was out of town to see my stepmother's funeral, I had a chance to hang out with Rish Outfield for a few hours. We did what we used to do all the time. We ate some breakfast together and then went around to a few Rosses, Walmarts, and Targets.

I have been avoiding that kind of stuff recently, staying far away from any Ross. I swore that I wouldn't buy anything further for Ankletown Station unless I first created a building for it. Of course, I broke that vow, but not too many times. It was mostly my wife's idea that we should start paying off all of our debts so that we could save up some money instead of just living as debt slaves for the rest of our lives that really got me to start eschewing the Rosses...that and the fact that Ross never had anything good anyway.

While out with Rish, I was still in that mode. I did get convinced to try a few things, though...and by convinced, I'm not talking about Rish doing the convincing, it was just my mind doing that. I only spent about six bucks, but I think they were good purchases. The first one was this:

This thing was a Lego set...one of those tiny Lego sets that they charge $3.99—actually, considering inflation, it's probably $4.99 now—however, it was on the clearance rack, and I got it for $2.50. I thought that it might be cool on Ankletown Station. Having some kind of rover as one of the droids that wanders the station seems great.

It doesn't look particularly Lego-ish. It looks more like an erector set, which is basically what the real rovers look like if you ask me. I like it. I think I'll name it Fred Rover. Fred Rover, Fred Rover, send Artoo right over. 

The real question was, how would this thing scale with the figures that I have for Ankletown Station? Well, once I got it assembled, I checked that. Here you go:

It's perfect, right? Just the right size. This thing is gonna be good...once I build something for it to populate. I'll get there someday. Someday, Jennifer. Someday.

We'll Have Halloween On Christmas...

One of my presents this Christmas was something that I needed for Halloween.

This past October, I found the figures of Frankenberry and Count Chocula at Ross, but Boo-Berry never joined them. I was kind of sad, but I figured I could deal with it. My daughter decided that I didn't need to deal with it. She bought Boo-Berry for me and gave it to me for Christmas.

He's great. I can't wait to set him up along with Frank and the Count this upcoming Halloween. The one weird thing is that the box that he came in is much smaller than the box of the other two. When I set them up for Halloween, I put their boxes behind them, because they look like the cereal boxes.

Boo-Berry's box is about half the size of those two. That'll be weird...then again, maybe it'll be good. I could put it in the middle in front of the other two boxes, and I could fit all three boxes without needing to expand the footprint required to fit them all. I guess we'll see come next October.

Hats

Last year, I talked about wanting to get Santa hats to put on the action figures on my shelf that don't get removed during Christmas decorating. I saw a listing on Amazon where you could get sixty of these hats for $15. That seemed like a really good deal, but I was afraid that the hats would be too big, and would be a waste of money. Then, just the other day, I saw that those hats got marked down to $10. Well, I decided it was time to pull the trigger and buy them.

They came Thursday, and this is what size they are.

They are, sadly, bigger than I hoped they would be. But they still kind of work. When I got home from work Thursday night, I spent several minutes trying to put them onto figures that I thought they'd look good on.

I started with the Incredibles. It was harder than I thought.

Dash has a pretty big head, so it looks pretty good. Others have smaller heads. Bumble Chewbacca has a goodly sized head, so he looks good.

Darth Vader has a big helmet, so it's not bad, but Obi-Wan doesn't...not as good.

I couldn't get it to fit on Russel's head, but it did good on Dug.

Not as good on K-2SO. I tried to squash it down so that the long side hangs out the back where you can't see it, but it's still not great.

Threepio's head is too small for this, but it doesn't look too bad anyway.

I figure I'll see if I can't put hats on Luke, Leia, Han, Lando, Chewie, and probably even Artoo. I'll get them onto all the others as well. It's sadly, not as easy as it seems. The hats constantly fall off, and the figures fall over all the time too. I'll get there, though. After all, I have a lot of those hats.

Holiday Extravaganza: The New Stuff

I haven't done any posts like this yet this year, so I thought I ought to publish a couple of pictures of my Christmas decorations from my toy shelves. To start with this year, I figured I'd do a post of any of the things that are new for this year. First of all, my favorite new addition, the zombie Santa Claus and his little zombie elf friend.

This figure actually inspired the short story that I am writing right now as my final Christmas tale for 2024. I'm calling it "Eve of the Living Dead."

The elf probably needs something of a weathering, because he looks too clean next to Santa, but they look good, don't they? Fun stuff. I'm sad, because this same line had a Terminator Santa Claus too, but it sold out just before I decided to buy it...boo!

I also got several new elves from the Naughty or Nice collection to put with my standard Santa Claus.

I think I only had two last year, and now I have six. That might be a bit of an overkill, but I just like them. I only wish they were more poseable. The Santa is super poseable, but the smaller figures they articulated like classic Star Wars figures. 5POA only. Boo!

Since I got all these new elves, I got a bunch more accessories to go with them. Last year, I had stacks of presents all around Santa, but they wouldn't fit there this year since I had all the new elves, so I distributed the presents around to the other displays on the shelves. For example, I took all those Star Wars holiday figures I got last year, put them into their own little cubby holes, and gave them presents to give. Like the Bumble Chewbacca:

His present even matches his coloring. Pretty cool, eh?

Then there's the snowman snowtrooper:

There's the Santa Jawa and his collection of droids that he's selling for Christmas...nope, not giving away. This is a Jawa, he ain't giving away anything, no matter how much he looks like Santa.

Then there's the festive K-2S0. He came with a present too.

Most of these figures aren't made to hold anything other than a gun, so let me tell you, it was pretty hard to get them to grab a big square box like this.

That was it for the Star Wars Holiday figures, but I did have the new Mandalorian figure that Rish custom painted for me last year. I set him up with a present, too.

That other Mandalorian in the back is just a regular old figure, but I thought he would go so well with Rish's custom guy that I had to grab him when I saw him for cheap at Ross. This is the way...to the Christmas party, right?

I still had more Christmas presents, so I decided to start giving them to my non-Christmas figures. He-man brought a present.

So did Snake Eyes.

And even Cobra Commander is getting into the spirit.

Oh, I almost forgot about these Star Wars guys. I found them at Ross just after Christmas passed us by last year. I was amazed to find three of them.

I love the gingerbread look. I have big plans for these guys in a future year, I'm going to make a gingerbread version of the Endor bunker as their gingerbread house, and have them there guarding it. I know it's not quite right, because they're clone troopers, but it's close enough.

I only have a couple more new things. This here is a Starlord Funko Pop that I found at Marshall's, and I decided I couldn't pass it by. I don't even know if it was a good deal, because I don't buy Pops, usually. But I liked this one.

The one problem with Pops is that they could be anyone. Does this figure really say, "Starlord," to you? Me neither, but at least it has a big Santa hat on, so it definitely says, "Christmas!"

Lastly is this goofy Fortnite guy:

This is their character called Doggo. They made a Christmas version of him. I gave him some Fortnite gingerbread cookies to hold, but in general, I think he's kind of lame. I wish they made some of the more standard figures in Christmas skins instead. The hot chicks in Christmas sweaters and pajamas would work for me.

They did do the gingerbread girl, and I got that one. Hopefully, I can show you what I did with it soon. Gotta finish that, and I just never put the time in, but if I get around to it before Chriastmas, I'll definitely post about it here.

Well, that's all the new stuff, I think. I'll surely have another post later with more of my decorations. I really love them, so I love to show them off. I'll definitely be back.

Early Christmas Present

My nephew, and fellow toy collector, John, just sent me a Christmas present the other day. I had a guess as to what it might be, because he had told me what he was up to in a text, but when I got it, I couldn't believe how cool it was. He sent me a 3D printed six-inch scale Skyhawk for my GI Joe classified figures.

This is an upsized reproduction of a toy they put out in the GI Joe line back in 1984, the height of my GI Joe collecting.

Here's a commercial from the day that shows it in action.

I looked for a video that shows it in the cartoon,  but, though I know it was in dozens of episodes of the cartoon, I didn't quickly find anywhere that someone had that information categorized, so I moved on.

There were a few problems that I ran into. Most notably was that one of the side panels of the ship broke in transit.

It glued back together pretty easily with super glue, though.

I think I'll give it a little weathering, and once that is done, I suspect you won't even be able to see the glue residue anymore.

GI Joe was, like Star Wars, a line a toys that centered around the vehicles. The figures were smaller than the standard had been, specifically so that you could put your guys into the turret of a tank or in the cockpit of a jet plane. 

They've made very few vehicles for the six-inch line, though. The scale of the figures seems to prohibit it. They started out making only the very smallest of vehicles...and charging you through the nose for the privilege of owning them.

First, was the Cobra Flight Pod, or Trubble Bubble. This is one of my favorite vehicles, and I owned one as a kid.

They also made Serpentor with his Air Chariot. Another favorite of mine that I had as a kid.

But I have neither of those things, because they wanted around $80 for the things.

It only got worse when they decided to make the first real vehicle for the line, the Cobra HISS tank. That was always one of my favorite vehicles from the 80s too. Usually, I only had the smallest of vehicles, like the Air Chariot or the Flight Pod because they were cheap, but I actually had a HISS tank as a kid despite its size. That wouldn't be the case with the new HISS though. They put it out as a part of their HASLAB setup, which is where they crowdfund toys. They wanted...I can't remember but it was either $300 or $400 for the thing. Sorry, but I have a mortgage to pay, and I ain't got money for something like a $400 toy, so I had to forego it again.

I think they've done one of the Jeeps from the line since then, but that was pretty costly too...not as bad as the HISS, but still beyond my abilities. I'll let the One Percent have those toys, I guess.

I did get the motorcycle they made for the line. That was the Ram Cycle, and my nephew, John, found that on clearance and picked one up for me and sent it out from California.

So, for the most part, I've been unfamiliar with the scale of the GI Joe Classified vehicles. The motorcycle didn't seem inordinately huge. I had heard that the HISS tank was huge, but I'd never really seen one.

The Skyhawk was always one of the smallest vehicles available for GI Joes in the 80s. It's kind of surprising that I didn't have one, because that seemed like the kind of thing my parents could afford as a present for me. So, getting this six-inch scale Skyhawk just kind of flabbergasts me. It's freaking huge! I took this picture to show the scale next to my 3.75 inch scale AT-AT.

It's basically as big as the whole body of the thing. Keep in mind that this AT-AT is an extra large, closer to actual scale AT-AT than what they'd given us back in the 80s Kenner toyline. Yet, it's still close in size...for the one man ship. It's so wild. No wonder Classified doesn't make a lot of vehicles.

It's pretty awesome to have a vehicle like this, and it automatically becomes one of the most impressive things in my collection. I'm not even sure if I have a space big enough for it on my shelves. I'll probably have to readjust some things to fit it. But I definitely will, because it's so neat. It's also great, because I didn't have to take out a second mortgage to afford it.

Although, in writing this post, I discovered that they have the Cobra Stinger for Classified now...oh man, do I want that thing.

They want $100 for it. I wonder if there's any chance I could raise that money...somehow...

Decor

I worked on it pretty diligently for the last few weeks, and all of my Christmas stuff is up now.

I finished up the last of it yesterday. I'll have to start wowing you with individual posts that show the close-ups, but that's for another day.

Do I Really Need To Add Lars Ulrich?

Having Ollie's nearby may not be a good thing after all. I've been spending a little too much money there lately. Case in point, the other day, while I was chatting with Rish on the phone, I was doing my usual trip to Ross. Ollie's is nearby, so it's now been added to my list of places to stop. I went into the Ollies, and to my surprise, among the usual cast off figures that nobody wants were four Figrin D'ans from the Star Wars Black Series. That's the six-inch scale figures. It's mostly what I collect for display. All the 3.75-inch collecting that I do is only for the Ankletown Station setup.

Four of them! That's a lot. That's more than half of the band, and now I could get them all for half of their original price. I wanted to, but had decided against collecting a set of the Modal Nodes, because getting seven figures would be prohibitively expensive. I've got three kids on our car insurance. We can barely afford our electric bill and don't get me started on the prices at the grocery store. But, if the figures are half price...maybe?

I debated it for a while, (They were $10 a piece. That's $40, and I seldom spend that much money at once on toys. I shop at Ross for a reason. Oh, and I did mention how everything costs way more than it used to? I sure haven't gotten a big raise to make up for that disparity, that's for sure), however, I finally gave in and bought the four guys.

They're pretty cool. Each one comes with three instruments, so even though they're identical, they can pass as different guys in the band...they're aliens after all. Who can tell one Bith from another, right?

They look pretty good all lined up blowing their space-horns.

I have an awful lot of leftover instruments though.

I guess I could probably use them in designing stuff on Ankletown Station. So, I'll find a use for all of this.

Now, there's two different figures in the Black Series Modal Nodes. They're both identical figures, but one comes with the three horns, the other one comes with the three larger instruments, and is sold as a deluxe figure. That one's name is Nalan Cheel. 

All I need is one Nalan Cheel, which is selling for a lot more than those Figrin D'ans are going for on eBay right now. I could get one of him, one or two more Figrin D'ans, and have the whole band. That's going be at least as expensive as what I've bought so far. I did run out to the other Ollie's that opened up on my way to work the next day, and they had no Figrin D'ans. So, I may have to pay full-price...or worse...to get the others. 

Is it worth it? Maybe I won't bother. Those four get the point across, right? Star Wars band. Awesome! Who cares about the drummer and bass player and keyboardist in a rock band anyway. All that matters are the lead guitarists and the singers. Quick, without looking on Google, tell me the name of the drummer and bassist on Van Halen...or AC/DC...or Aerosmith. Pretty much the only way a drummer gets his name out there is by being an asshole like Lars Ulrich or by having a huge schlong and giving it to Pamela Anderson like Tommy Lee. I don't see Nalan Cheel managing that kind of fame.