Yea a meme, Six Random Things

So I got tagged again, this time by Jay over at the Sexy Armpit, a blog that covers NJ in depth and is loaded with all sorts of pop culture goodness!

The Rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged you.
2) Post the rules on your blog.
3) Write six random things about yourself.
4) Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5) Let each of the six persons know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Here are my random ramblings, short and sweet, and with pictures!

one:


I always wanted to be an F-15 Pilot, that was the plan from age 9 to about 15 anyway. Why an F-15? It's just a beautiful plane, and it was a fighter. We live near an airbase and when I was young I would always go to the air show every year, the year that they featured this plane was amazing. It did this vertical climb, straight up and accelerated. Supposedly it was the only plane at the time that could accelerate in a 90 degree climb. I'll never forget, it flew in low, perfect and level, then all of sudden, bam straight up, after burners blazing and everything!

two:


I think John Candy was, and will always be, a comedic genius! Hands down, no competition. The first movie I saw him in, Going Berserk, still a favorite. John Candy has never made a bad movie and any movie he has ever appeared in was improved 200% just because he was in it.

three:

I really thought by this time in my life we would all be driving / flying land speeders. When I was 10 I was sure of it, 20 I thought it could happen, 30 there's still time, now... Where the hell is my land speeder!

four:


I like Tex Mex food more than the average human should. I once had Tex Mex for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner three days in a row (the same restaurant for three of those meals). I then went back to that very same restaurant two days later for lunch. I frequent a Tex Mex establishment close to our house so much they now what I'm going to order and usually have my drink order ready when they see me walk up to the door. My wife and I know the wait staff on a first name basis, and pretty much have a standing order to be seated in Sil or Sylvia's station. Yep there are two and they are both the best waitresses in the world!

five:
When I am working I have certain albums that I work best too. I mean albums that I can listen too and everything just seems to sync. My ipod has 5619 songs on it, the library is made up of my music, my wife's, and my son's. The following albums (mine or not, good or bad) I can listen too from beginning to end and get a ton of work done.

1) Aimee MAnn - Live At St. Ann's Warehouse
2) Crowded House - Afterglow
3) Disturbed - The Sickness
4) Gorillaz - Gorillaz
5) Louis Prima - Collector's Series (best of)
6) Rage Against the Machine - The Battle of Los Angeles
7) Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
8) Tenacious D - Tenacious D
9) Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
10) B-52's - Time Capsule

Two of these are my son's but surprising enough I find them good to work too.

six:


I don't care what everyone thinks, I'm buying this wallpaper, and I think it will look cool in my studio. That's all I'm saying, there is no changing my mind.

And now for the tagging:

Rob at the namtab
The Nostalgic Gansta at Trek Nostalgia
LEon at Open the Toy
Justin at Weirdo Toys
Shawn at Branded in the 80's
Frederick at My Star Trek Scrapbook

There now to just knock on Jay's door and wrap this up.

This is all sorts of wrong...

But that's why I love it so! EMCE/Mego Mugatu is like the cousin from the city that comes to visit the country Mugatu, all dressed in his fancy, space disco attire. What else can I say about this Mugatu that countless others haven't? Maybe just this, he is now one of my top favs from the re-releases.



I will also go on record as saying "dig those crazy feet, man!" Did Mego use those feet anywhere else? If they didn't use those on the POTA merchandise, they missed the boat, those are some sweet feet there, from a sculpting point of view, not that I have a space ape foot fetish or anything.



I think the only thing this guy is missing is some cool Elvis sunglasses, don't worry little guy, I'll find you some cool shades! Then it will be, "look out ladies here comes Space Disco Mugatu!"


You can dance, you can dance, everyone look at my pants!

Stormtrooper of the Week 2009 - Entry 1

So like I was saying a few posts back, I'm brining back Stormtrooper of the Week (SOTW) for 2009. I don't know if I will post a Stormtrooper (and now expanded to Clones and other Imperials by the way) every week, but I like the feature's name so I'm keeping it.

So here is our first Stormtrooper of 2009, which is actually an Artist Trading Card by Eric Stettmeier AKA Bubba Shelby which I won as part of a contest he ran last year around Halloween, where you take a picture of the Question that he drew and make a face for him.


I'll call him Fred, TK 0009, he guards the loading docks on the Death Star, luckily he was on vacation durning the Battle of Yavin

The cool thing about Eric's contest, everybody won something. My package, being the grand prize, included the Question Card and two more of his choosing. I like to think that Eric hand picked everyone's prizes by reading their blogs, cause I got Stormy here and one of my favorites from the Marvel Universe Captain America! Star Wars, DC and Marvel truly an eclectic mix. Thanks again Eric!





These cards are sweet and I plan on trying my hand at a few as well, and will possibly have a contest to boot. To see more of Eric's awesome artwork check out his Art blog, tell him "Texas Him" sent ya!

Oh Yeah!!!

My planned post is being interrupted for some more Star Trek toy news. Playmates Toys has set up a site detailing all their upcoming Star Trek Movie merchandise, or at least the first offerings. I already have a list of things I want, starting with the Enterprise. So click the picture and get to surfing were now man has gone before!



Side note, I had not planned on getting many of the twelve inch figures, but it's freaking Roldy! Yes, I am a fan of Harold and Kumar, I can't help it. Anyway I'm picking up Sulu here, just in case House gets licensed out and we get a Kal Penn figure, then all we need is some NPH!

Oh and also a note to any family members reading this, Hint... freaking Hint!

Spockcation Update 3

This Morning Spock received news that he would be hosted in four more states! Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Florida join the list. I'll post another updated list soon. Till then here's a quick map.



Remember it's not too late to join in, and once we get under way you can still volunteer!

Something Old, Something New...

Way before the holidays, okay about two weeks before Christmas 2008, I found a rather reasonable auction on ebay for a long lost friend of mine. I won the auction without a minute to spare, and got away with a rather nice example of a classic GI Joe, Bazooka. My original Bazooka was the victim of a senseless war back in the mid eighties. My son and nephew were given some Joes to play with on a rainy day and an hour later only two survived out of about twenty. That's all water under the bridge, I need to let it go I'm told (though I will never let the Bossk Encounter go, I will be reminding you both of that every chance I get, family get togethers, birthdays, weddings...)



Best part about this figure is that seventies, adult industry mustache. That is one nice stache. That and where else besides a Top Secret Military Covert Operations Team can you get away with wearing a Football Jersey with your fatigues. Come to think of it, this is probably the reason I found my original split in two, he wasn't wearing effective camouflage.



Now for the new! At first glance the guy sneaking up behind Bazooka looks just like any other vintage GI Joe, Beachhead to be exact. You know Beachhead is my all time favorite Joe, I'm surprised that he has not made it into the blog before this. This Beachhead was a "dollar store" exclusive, if they can have exclusives. He came as is, sans weapons, on a much smaller card, and he was more than a dollar, actually three total. By today's standards I guess that's cheap considering that a 3-3/4" Spider-man goes for almost nine to ten bucks. Ole' Beachhead was released in 2008 with several other re cast and re painted Joes and Cobras, but he was one of the only ones to use the vintage mold. The others used the more updated versions of the characters from early 2000.



I wonder why they decided to use this mold, not that I am not happy they did, just curious. I still have a complete Beachhead, he survived the Nursery Room Massacre, and as soon as I find what tote I put him in he will be making an appearance on Eclectorama, till then Vintage Bazooka will just have to hang with this version.



I wonder if I should start a vintage GI Joe Tally? What about the newer vintage looking figures that are obviously new, but look vintage???

How about Classic Style:
GI Joe: 2
Cobra: 0

Spockcation Update 2

Spock has decided that multiple locations in the same state are now acceptable. This adds a second location in Georgia, and as you can see New Jersey has joined the list of Destinations. The multiple location rule will also open Texas up for another host family, as well as any other state already on the board!

Spock has also narrowed down a departure time being in the end of March, the first week or so of April. As we get closer we'll make an announcement.

So we still need volunteers to host Spock, we hit the four state prediction (not including Texas), but come on people let's get the word out there, Spock wants to do some travelin' this summer! Want to host contact me here, want to know more go here.

Here are our hosts so far:

Canada - host PlaidStallions
California - host Toyriffic
Georgia - hosts Branded in the 80's and My Star Trek Scrapbook
New Jersey - host Aquaman Shrine
Texas - Spock's home state, this Spock anyway!

You don't have to be a blogger to participate, and again we will accept multiple locations in the same state now!

As always, live long and prosper.

Going Ape!

Since my collection of EMCE Star Trek is as current as I can get at the moment, I am turning my EMCE jones to their re-release of the classic Planet of the Apes figures. I didn't have the Apes as a kid, not because I wasn't allowed or my parents did not care, I was probably interested more in Star Trek and Star Wars and they were busy trying to hunt down all those wonderful toys. No, I can say I have liked the Apes Movies, watch them every time they have a marathon on T.V., and often looked into getting a Soldier Ape on Ebay, but I never followed through. I will say having seen some of the classic Apes play sets and remembering the commercials from when I was a kid, I am surprised that I never bugged my mom for an ape when I was younger.



So I had planned on taking any Birthday earnings this year and purchasing two things, one that Animated DVD set of Star Trek and two the whole set of EMCE Apes, which consist of four figures, but I jumped the gun a little. What happened? I found a freaking Hastings about three towns over that had some EMCEs in stock. I did make it out with just the one, but it was pretty cool seeing Apes and Trek on the shelf of a store, like stepping into a time capsule. Also made me kick myself for worrying about ever finding a Hastings to pick up a Khan as they had one there as well. No Spocks though, hum?

So I picked up a Soldier Ape and I have to say he is hands down one of my favorite reproduction figures to date, hell I'm just going to lump him in with the rest of my Trek for now, he's that freaking cool! I really think the hands are the coolest feature, instead of just plain Mego hands, he gets the hands with the Ape like fur texture. Also, he comes with some slick duds and a M-16! Okay it's not Ape like, but cool non the less. One thing is I'm a little bummed that the line ends at these four figures for EMCE. I would have loved to picked up a Taylor or some of the other Astronauts, or even some different Apes. Oh well, I'm thankful for what has been released, maybe I can fill in some gaps with actual Megos or some customs if I feel the need.





I have also spied a blog featuring some of the Megos POTA line that I'm looking forward to reading about, plus as always the Mego Museum is an endless resource for Ape goodness. So till I can get back on Trek EMCEs, I'm going to be Aping it up! Not to fear my Trek followers I have plenty of Trek EMCEs to talk about along with the rest of my Trek Collection.

State of the Aquaman Collection

I try to pay homage to the Aquaman Shrine once a year, usually on the anniversary of my blog, with some picks of the current status of my Aquaman Collection. Last year being the first year I dedicated a whole week, this year I was planning on filling my collection out a little more, but fell short by a couple key Aquaman toys. One being a nice looking loose Mego Aquaman, second a nice loose Superpowers, and third... I keep missing the Minimates auctions! All that aside I am happy to report that the Aquaman branch of my collection did grow this year! So in honor of one of the blogs that got me going, and a belated intro to year three I give you the State of the Aquaman Collection on Eclectorama.



First up I acquired a Black Manta from a trip to the store, I heard that the Classic Aquaman from the same series of DCUC was making an appearance at that very store... nothing but Black Manta, foiled I went home empty handed, checking back a week later, still Black Manta, I did this about three more times, finally I bought the damn Black Manta, because that was the closest I was going to get to Aquaman.



A few months later I was shopping at the "Magic Grocery Store" and stumbled upon the Modern "Chase Variant" Aquaman. I threw him in the cart and upon returning home shot Rob at the shrine an email offering him up. I was beaten by another F.O.A.M. member, so I emailed back to Rob that if he was sure, I was going to go ahead and pop him open. Because this was as close to the classic Aquaman as I was going to get.



Now it wasn't like I hadn't seen a classic version of the sea king, I had actually two days before Christmas, but the figure was horrible. The paint was really sloppy, and it has to be really sloppy for me to pass on a figure I've been looking for. So I left him at Target and went on with my Christmas shopping. I went back a week or so later and of course he was gone, I was sort of relieved as I would have felt like I was compromising quality just to get the DCUC classic figure in my hands.



So once again I find myself at the "Magic Grocery Store" and who should be swimming up from behind a pile of Superman Blue and Red, none other than a pretty decent Classic Aquaman! Yeah! I was pretty excited about getting this figure, and as a side note I am one piece away from completing my first Build a Figure ever, Gorilla Grodd. I just can't make myself buy a Blue or Red Superman, I really do not care for the character. True I have purchased a Blue Superman in the past, but man I just can't plunk down the cash for Grodd's sake. I'll probably break. A second note, this was the second and only time I have seen the Classic Aquaman in the wild.



Now Black Manta can fear both Modern and Classic Aquaman! Buhahahahaha!



Up next is Black Manta and Aquaman Man from Batman the Brave and the Bold Cartoon. These were actually sent to me from the Aqua Master himself, by way of the JLU Club! Viva the JLU Club! I know these are not JLU related, but Rob was nice enough to hunt these down for me in his neck of the woods, as they were yet to be released in these parts. Side note, whenever I receive help or order figures on line, it never fails that they suddenly appear in stores in mass. These took a little longer to trickle in, and I am happy yo report that the Aquaman figure seems to be a big seller here in Texas, he never seems to hang out on the shelves long.





Also, if you are not familiar with this line The Brave and Bold figures are made with children in mind, while they sport near perfect likenesses to the cartoon, they also have peg holes all over them so you can configure the accessories in different combinations all over their bodies. Sort of reminds me of Micronauts. Still I think they are pretty fun figures and worth it if you are interested in the style of the show.



That is the current State of the Aquaman Collection here at Eclectorama, and now I see Rob has started posting pics of F.O.A.M. member's collections on the shrine, I'll have to construct a little shrine shelf of my own and stock it with my Aquaman pretties and shoot a pic to submit.

Happy Birthday!

It's the "big one's" fifth birthday today! Boy how time flies.



Here she is enjoying her second favorite hobby, napping. Happy Birthday Lu!

Tis' the Gorn, after me pot of gold!

To celebrate St. Patty's Day and fly some green, I'm posting my green today. I have a way more important post for tomorrow. So here he is in all his green glory the Gorn from EMCE's latest release of Star Trek Mego Reproduction figures!

The thing is this is a new representation of the figure, to see what Mego had originally produced check out this link to the Mego Museum. I believe this version is based on a custom by James Brady, who did one of the most awesome Gorn Custom's to date in the Mego scale, plus he has done a few other Star Trek customs that are worth the trip, I dig the Klingons, Gary Seven and his partner Roberta Lincoln. I'll say it again this guy does some awesome work!



So, I've been slacking a little in my EMCE posting, and have now jumped way ahead to the Gorn, but rest assured I have photos snapped of the other releases and will be back on track soon with my other favorite of the EMCE re-releases. Till then enjoy all this green Gorney goodness!

This is a Spockcation Update...

Georgia has joined the list this past weekend, so to help you out Spock has prepared this handy Spockcation State Tally Board. If your state is represented in Science Officer Blue (or as close as we could get it and still show up) then that state is spoken for. Hey, there are plenty of states left to go! Better get in before someone claims your state.

Don't have a clue what I'm talking about then go here to learn more, ready to sign up then go here.

As always, Live Long and Prosper. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program...

It's Spockcation 2009!

While the Enterprise is being retrofitted for the new Movie, Captain Kirk has granted shore leave to some members of the crew. Spock is taking this opportunity to tour some of North America! Would you like to host Spock in your hometown? Maybe show him the sights, have a beer and some grub at your favorite diner, even hang out in your collection for a while. Keep it interesting, but keep it clean, we are somewhat a family blog here. Here's what you need to do.

1) Be willing to take Spock around to all the cool stuff in your town and shoot some photos and write down a short description of what's going on, nothing major.

2) When you are finished showing Spock around, email the photos to Eclectorama, pack Spock up and send him on to the next destination.

3) Spring for some postage to the next destination on the list, the closest and least expensive to you. Spock doesn't mind traveling coach.

4) Update: I'm adding one on a suggestion from Eric at Toyriffic, if Spock is staying with you around May, 8th (the release of the new Star Trek movie) then you have to take Spock on a date to the movies and snap some pics, so if he's still at home he'll be seeing the movie with me, if he's on the road he'll be seeing it with you!

That's pretty much it!

I really want to get as many States possible to participate, and as I said before that I would like at least to get the 48 Continental States before we start, reality will probably be four states if I'm lucky. Interested? Contact me here at Eclectorama with your name and address. The list will only be used for Spockcation and not to solicit.

Here's what States (and Country, I did mention that I wanted Spock to see Canada) that have stepped up so far:

Canada - host PlaidStallions
California - host Toyriffic
Texas - Spock's home state, this Spock anyway!

Interplanetary U.F.O.

Back in my modeling days, when I was a young lad. I came across a strange model that glowed in the dark and seemed for all intents and purposes to belong to the Star Trek line of space ship models making the rounds back in the day. My model was rather sloppily built and unpainted, see even then I new the value of glow in the dark plastic, it was best to leave its surface untouched so you could get the maximum glow effect, but it had glorious battles with the crew of the Starship Enterprise, and the lesser known Starship Lexington. My first encounter with this ship ended with its ultimate destruction in a summer of swimming and taking it in the water. It eventually lost it nose cone and wings, and the little ship that could be placed inside the working shuttle bay.

A few years later I made a friend named Randy who owned a copy of the very same ship. I was probably now on my 100th model Enterprise, another Lexington to be exact, that I would use whenever the group of us would play Starships. I was never that good at keeping them together long, but I feel I kept AMT model company in the black for a few summers buying starships, so they kept releasing the model which was good for me. Randy would use his Interplanetary U.F.O. Now Randy was fanatical about taking care not damage his model, and I will go on record as saying it was the finest example of a U.F.O. as ever was seen. We had a whole back story for this ship, it was a friend of the Federation, but no ship could get too close to it because it would melt right through the wandering ships haul. I had a horrible clump of pant on the bottom of the saucer section of the Lexington due to my inexperience with spray paint, so it was common knowledge that in a fierce battle with the Klingons, the Lexington and the Interplanetary U.F.O. outnumbered three to one, tried a flanking maneuver where that resulted in close proximity passing of the two ships. In case you are wondering three decks were lost that day on the Lexington, but the two ships were victorious in the battle known as Lemonwood Lane 324.

We spent a summer of recreating all these wonderful Starfleet engagements when the unspeakably happened, the little U.F.O. shuttle craft was lost, in my back yard. We spent two days and a night combing the area where it was lost before we gave up. Randy never seemed that much into Starship battles ever again after that. You see the kit was discontinued and had been out of circulation. I believe he even crafted a new little shuttle craft out of extra bits from other models, but it wasn't the same. I often thought about finding it on Ebay now, but it is one of the more rarer kits out there so it goes for a chunk of change if they even get posted at all. I've heard of this ship also being issued non glowing as the Lief Ericson, an exploration ship, but I refuse to see it as anything else but the Interplanetary U.F.O. Also I recently learned that Matt Jefferies was asked to designed the model for the AMT corporation, having designed the ships of Star Trek back in the day. What a great link to Trek!


click image to check out Round 2's U.F.O.

So where am I going with all this? Well, when I saw that my favorite Mr. Spock Kit was being re released, I started to wish for a few more kits, now I know the Interplanetary U.F.O. does not belong to the official Star Trek universe, but it was one that I was secretly wishing to make a come back. I'm not sure how I missed this the first time, but having read the article and posting about Mr. Spock, I thought a few days later I would see where I could maybe pre order the Mr. Spock Kit. I went back to the article source and followed the link they gave to a model store and there in front of me was none other than the Interplanetary U.F.O. just as I remembered it. Holy Crap! I quickly found Round 2's website to see if this was true, and low and behold it's going to be re released as well. First Spock and now this ship, how freaking good do I have to be this year now that the toy gods have smiled upon me. So now I'm looking at this a thinking I have to tell Randy, I ran into him about a year ago and we exchanged email addresses, he forwards jokes to me on occasion, but we really never email back and forth much. I knew that I have to send him the link, oh and look how convenient a "mail to a friend" link on the Round 2 page. So I'll have to keep you posted as I'm gathering up the images for this post and to email to a past friend, hoping he's still a geek at heart like me.

Eclectorama Musing

I've been remiss in my blogging duties, I have plenty to report on in the Eclectorama Collection, plus some goings on around the house, and some new Trek stuff I'm looking forward too, but I just haven't been motivated as of late, not sure what it is. True I've been extremely busy at work and I have a few projects going on at home, but no excuse I should be keeping the blog a rolling.

I've been thinking about a few projects for the blog and even bringing back a feature from year one to maybe get me going again. I just need to settle on what I want to accomplish this year and get going. I'm going to throw out a few ideas and see what sticks.

1) I'm thinking of sending an EMCE Spock on tour of America and possibly a location in Canada. Sort of a celebration of the new Star Trek Movie coming out. I'm working on how I can get this accomplished. I will only do it if I can get at least one host from all the continental states. I'm tentatively calling it Spock Tour 09'. My only requirements so far are photos of Spock in your home town, nothing obscene, just out and about at the landmarks, diners, and such sent back to Eclectorama for weekly or bi weekly posts, with short descriptions of the scene and possibly postage to the next destination, I haven't figured that part out. I would definitely start the ball rolling by sending him to the farthest point and then having him find his way back home. As I get this going I'll post an email link for volunteers and specifics.

2) My pal at Toyriffic sent me some really cool artist trading cards, that I'll be posting. I've been interested in doing some as well and posting and then sending some off first come first serve style. I hope to get these started soon. I would like to try new styles on this project as well as my cartoon style.

3) Stormtrooper of the Week, I really liked this feature and I've been thinking about brining it back as Troops of the Empire. I've been thinking of expanded it to Dark Lords, Bounty Hunters, Troopers and possibly the occasional Clone Trooper. Now I know that technically the Clone Troopers were the good guys for a while, but lets face it they all work for the Emperor. I'm just not sure my readership was digging it. Sometimes you just have to go with it, whether it was loved or not.

4) Toy, toys, toys and the fuzzy memories that go along with them. I'm thinking of going two routes with this, Feeling Vintage, were I talk about the fun times with classic toys and The Modern Maniac were I gush about the latest toy to find it's way into the collection.

5) Trek toys, models, and the Spocklection will be back. Once a Trekkie always a Trekkie.

6) Last but not least, I'm hoping to finally get a shot or two of the ever evolving Eclectorama Collection as I get it back on display. Plus some "Limelight" areas of the collection.

Just some ideas I've been kicking around... Stay tuned Eclectomaniacs!