Candid Toy Pic- 11.26.2010

"High five, Spock is back!"

Spock Stop 16: A Teaser

This just came in from Brian B, Spock is safe and sound and getting ready to enjoy some Thanksgiving Festivities. Spock says he is thankful his last host is feeling better and that he is once again able to enjoy his Spockcation.



Looks like he already making friends, more next week!

Miss Me?

After close to seven months of being missing in action, I have confirmation that Spock is indeed on the road again. Some may have thought this was an elaborate hoax, but it is all true. Spock's last host fell ill and was recovering, so Spock sat patiently by his side until he was well enough to send him on. I am told that as soon as he is able I will get some photos from this extended stop, but until then we will all have to wait patiently for photos from Brian B of What My Dad Saw and Under the Giant Penny, as Spock has stopped by his house for Thanksgiving and a check up.

I think I may need to revamp the rules a bit on Spockcation and limit him to a week lay over at each stop. I also need to thank all my new readers that want to participate, but I have already closed Spock's itinerary down a year or so ago and he is booked up, but thanks for volunteering and feel free to join in on the comments from his travel posts.

Since tomorrow is Turkey Day and I will no doubt be stuffed and sleepy I will return on Friday with a Candid Toy Pic and hopefully I will have some time to shoot some toy pics for next week. Happy Thanksgiving everyone, Live Long and Prosper.

Spockcation News!

My last post for Spockcation may have been premature...



As a friend of mine recently said "It's hard to keep Spock down!" There have been some developments over the weekend, please stay tuned as more develops.

Candid Toy Pics

I have always wanted to try more of this and decided that on Fridays I will try and post a candid toy pic. Be warned I may not get to it every Friday, but I will try. I laid down a few rules for myself on these.

1) Phoning it in, meaning I am going to shoot them with the phone. That drawing desk picture last Saturday was a phone pic, I thought it turned out pretty good, they may not always turn out that way.

2) Limited to no explanation. I have always liked photos people have shot of their collections just hanging out on shelves or or wherever. I especially like when you don't know what or where that toy is from and you either have to ask or track them down online.

3) Captions, sometimes yes, sometimes no.

4) Very Limited to no set ups. That drawing desk image was really what was happening on the desk at the time, with the exception of the wrestler playing with the micro machines Slave I. I sometimes pose the toys and walk off and leave them and then come back and laugh, so I thought that would be the only posing, nothing shot specific.

5) Photoshop only to reduce the image size to my blog "standard" no cropping, though I may have cropped the desk party... okay no cropping from here on out.

So without explanation (except for above, I have to start somewhere), no caption this time, no set up, Photoshop to reduce and phoning it in...

Aloha Spockcation

I guess I should go ahead and make this announcement, but my vacationing Spock is gone. I have been putting off any mention in hopes he would turn up, but alas it is not to be. So, with a heavy heart I am announcing the close of Spockcation.

Now I know some of my readers who have signed up to host are probably bummed out about this and maybe had some awesome plans to take Spock to their place of business or their favorite place to hang out. Rest assured I have a plan so that everyone that signed up will have a chance to join in on the fun. So, give me a little time to get things together here and I will be making another announcement soon as to what to expect from the end of Spock's awesome vacation.

To those who stepped up ready to send me a Spock to replace my vacationing Spock, thanks again for your thoughts. I really do appreciate it, but I think everyone will be happy with the way I have chosen to go with this event.

Thanks again I hope all who came to eclectorama for Spockcation will stick around.

Charles "Chunky B" Howell

Drawing Desk Party

Not much drawing going on today, but it looks like I walked in on one helluv a party!

To the victor goes the spoils... part 1

You may remember a little blog contest I liked to call THE BATTLE FOR THE COWL!
Well, the prizes are starting to roll in. Part of the agreement was the loser was to draw the winner an original Batman piece of fine artwork suitable for framing declaring the victor the king of Batman figures... as well as send a Batman from their collection.

To borrow form Reis, click this bad boy to BIF! BANG! POW! size it.

This, my friends, is the totally awesome piece of Bat Art that Reis has just sent over my way and I am freaking out. How cool is this that not only am I getting Batman, but the Bat Family and some of his more notorious villains! This is so awesome it totally trumps the post I was going to post today. The bonus is I am also getting a high resolution version I can have printed and framed for my freaking office!

So, Reis you are indeed a good sport and an all around great bloggie friend, I tip my cowl to you, and you dear reader if you haven't already done so, go now to Reis' art blog or toy blog and follow this magnificent nerdy bastard! I say this in the upmost respect... notice I didn't use the word Geek!

Something a little different

I debated posting this drawing, but after I thought about it I figured why not. It's not your typical Super Hero, Space Going, Robot Stompin' sort of character you are used to seeing from me here, but it's a drawing style I do miss doing. I guess I should say it's the "generic" content that I miss doing from time to time.



As I was cleaning out some file drawers at work I came across this unfinished drawing in a stack of thumbnails and sketches. Unfinished because it never made it past the point of being inked. It was for a little specialty toy division of our company we were thinking about launching back in 2005. Some of the product was to be little puppies in purses and this was to be used on the packaging. The powers that be decided to go in another direction and this concept was scrapped at this stage.

It's sort of funny because I could totally see my wife trying this with our Bulldog... the purse would have to be a lot bigger though.

Wee Little Batmobiles

Over a year ago on the Under the Giant Penny blog there was this post I made a comment on about having the whole set of Microverse Batmobiles loose and I would shoot some pictures for Brian B so he could see all the Batmobiles in the set.

Well, I found all my Batmobiles! Funny what you turn up when you are unpacking Batman toys.



Anyway,this is the set that Hasbro released back in the the nineties. Seemed like sort of an answer to the Galloob Micro Machines, who later Hasbro ended up buying. Like Brian's post on UTGP, they are supper small and the only action besides the wheels is each has a opening canopy with a little wee Batman inside.




Though mine didn't have Adam West... weird. There you go Brian, better late than never!

Battle for the Cowl: Epilogue

Well, in celebration of last Friday's victory I decided to don my Batman T-Shirt for work today. I also just wanted to thank all the readers and followers for enthusiastically keeping up with the competition and thank Reis for giving me a challenge. Reis is really a good sport and all around awesome blogger. If you haven't checked out his blogs on art and toys you need to make it a usual stop in your surfing.



The shirt was just the last of the celebrating, Friday was Chili night and a night off so I added the extras back to the shelf and made a spot for my new Batman, number 106, who's on his way. Saturday we had a viewing of that classic from 1989, Batman staring Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Kim Basinger. Sunday, Halloween, Bat Hound dropped by to help hand out candy with Lulu and Gertie, who decided to dress as Sugar and Spice respectively.

Never fear! There will be more Bat Hound in Eclectorama's Future!

Finally, hopefully this week I will pick up a little reward for myself to either add to the loose Batman collection or some other part of the Batman Collection. Stay tuned for that in a future post. Also as work gets busier I will try to get some posts I have been planning up and make some announcements on Spockcation and something else Reis and I have brewing, so thanks in advance for being patient.