They make them in Orange flavor now!

While I was out with my wife this past weekend we stopped by the local Wally World, it's close and has just set out all their plants, so while she was looking over the nursery I went to the toy aisles. I picked up a Clone Wars figure I had been meaning to get (Not everyone's cup of tea) and passed down the die cast aisle where I was hit with this amazing little guy.

I have said it time and time again, if there is a Porsche 914 on the shelves and it's a different color from what I already have it will follow me home. That's just what this one did. I took a lot of flack on the ride home for buying another one of these cars, but I did point out it had three very important things going for it.

1) It was a Porsche 914
2) It was orange... a no brainer in my book.
3) It was inexpensive!



Some things I noticed on this version is it still has the silver interior, fairly accurate I might ad (not the silver, but the details), it also had a new deco, the "Porsche" decals above the rocker panels. Plus, I don't know if this was the case with all of them because I have only seen the one, but the signal lights are all missing their paint deco, front and back. I figured if it was like that on all of the orange models because of the new deco on the sides, maybe cutting into cost. I will have to check if I see another one.



Even with the signal deco missing I think this is a great little find and I for one am glad they are getting some mileage out of this car. I would welcome some more colors... hint we need a white one, a black one and a silver one : )

Hang In There!

I guess this would have been a better title if I had actually hung Spidey upside down or something, but I figured you the reader would see the connection. What a crazy weekend I totally feel unorganized starting this week, I hopefully will have something new for you this week. I picked up a few little toys this past weekend and have even started a loose collection organization project I might float by you to see what you think, also to ask how you store your loose figures.

So stay tuned true believer... Oh and this is a Famous Covers Spider-Man form series one if you were wondering, he surfaced from a tote I was cleaning out and has been hanging around on the computer desk. Right now he looks disappointed that he hasn't been featured on the blog and that I have slacked in my Marvel based posts. Jeez, I can't make anyone happy.

Candid Toy Pic - 03.26.2011

"Look buddy I don't care what you and yer Droid are going to do at Toshi Station, I only know one Skywalker and his name ain't Luke!"

Cantina Crawl

Making your way in the galaxy takes everything you've got
Taking a break from all the wookies , sure would help a lot

Wouldn't you like to go far, far away?

Sometimes you want to go

Where no one can pronounce your name (bumm, bumm, bumm)

and the drinks all look the same. (bumm, bumm, bumm)

You wanna be where droids can't go,
and some aliens have big fangs,
You wanna go where no one can pronounce your name.

I think you will like this next photo assignment, I know I am excited. We are going on a good old fashioned Cantina Crawl! So dig out your Hammerheads, assorted Aliens and Cantina denizens we are going to kick back with something stronger than blue milk. Here's the cool part, they can be from any franchise! Star Wars?... of course, Star Trek?... they had Quark's on Deep Space Nine (Moooooorn!), heck even Superman is an alien. So if you have any Aliens or other weirdness that looks like it belongs in the Cantina send it in. I'm even giving you a little time with this one, deadline will be almost three weeks form now on Wednesday, April 13th 2011.

As usual here's the skinny...

1) Submit one JPG image to me by Wednesday, April 13, 2011 of your favorite alien(s).

2) Include your first name and if you have a website you want linked to, include that. Funny caption if you want.

3) Send your picture and info (see above) to eclectorama [at] studiohowell [dot] com, with "No Blasters, No Blasters!" in the subject.

4) I will post all the photos on Friday, April 15, 2011, so be back here then to see what people sent in.

5) Last but not least NO DROIDS! We don't serve their kind here at this photo assignment. They had their own.

This isn't a contest and I don't want too much trouble put into your picture, line them up, snap a pic and send it in! I am not collecting email to spam you, I don't have that much time,it's just for fun!

Also, since this is my game I will not be posting mine on the 15th, I will be peppering my usual posts with my favorites starting next week, I might have one a week or a few, who knows.

UPDATE: A little clarification. I will be posting everyone's on April 15th, 2011 and posting mine leading up to the 15th, it's my blog so I may pick several of my own to post, this will also act as a reminder of the deadline.

Trooper Doodle

... don't ask, not sure what I was trying to do here either.

Spring has sprung...

...and the IG-86 Assassin Droid is frolicking in the flowers!

A Straggler

"Hide all the green women, Captain James T. Kirk has arrived! Hello? Anybody here? Where did everyone go? I swear the invite said wear green and be here on Monday...

"Nice Suit..."

"...does it come in extra, extra, extra large?"



Come on guys leave him alone and lets get the rest of these green toys packed back up... I can't leave you two alone for a minute.

My Original Turtles

These guys were kind of hidden in Friday's photo and I thought they needed a little spotlight of their own. They are some of the very first toys I collected.

Let's See Some Green!

It's that time, and I thought I would post my pic first this time. I realized while I was pulling all my green stuff out and getting ready for pictures that I tend to collect a lot of the same character, over and over again, not very exciting now that I think about it. Believe me I also had a tough time with this one, where is the cut off? Aquaman has green pants, Kirk owns a green shirt, I finally settled on these green characters and not using all the versions I had on hand. I tried to mix it up a bit. So here we go.

LET'S SEE SOME GREEN!

So, this is my green... well most of it. Click the image to super size it, I put stuff in there for everyone. See what you can recognize!

John aka Jboypacman from Revenge from the Cosmic Ark sent in the first submission this time.

Reis from Hey! Look at my toys sent in more awesome green stuff. Seriously Reis has some of the best toys.

Matt, a loyal reader, sent in his Yoda collection... very nice. Matt needs to do a Star Wars blog.

Not to be out done, by no one, Erick from Wonderful Wonderblog blew me away with his Hulk Shrine... speechless.

Iok from That figures sent in this awesome photo with this explanation " I know not everything here is green but the light effect - which I caught purely by accident - more than makes up for it.It's a display of some Microman Command Replica figures from Takara's 1999 re-issue run, with an M142 Hudson Spy Magician (also from 1999) at the fore." Thanks and yes it does make up for it.

Ruben, a newcomer who's blog/website I didn't catch, hit us up with this motley crew of green dudes. How cool is this setup?

Brian from Cool and Collected sent i three pics, this one shot for the Green Project here and the next two with the largest group of TMNT I have ever seen and what I think is a Hulk Coin Bank...





Eric aka BubbaShelby from Toyriffic! shows off his collection of Green at work!

LEon from Open the Toy shows off his Green from his collection with the hopes that he did not leave anything out.

Jason from Jasonvorhee's Blog Has some stuff I haven't seen in a long time with his Green collection, thanks for the trip down memory lane with this one.

Colin from Super-Duper Toy Box sent his in with this explanation:

"As a kid, I never paid any attention to Martian Manhunter, but I'm absolutely fascinated with J'onn J'onzz as an adult. His intellect & thoughtful nature combined with enormous power appeal to me greatly. While sharing "sole survivor" status of his race with Superman, J'onn was not raised on Earth within our culture- he also witnessed the death of his homeworld. He is truly a "stranger in a strange land", something I can often identify with. *Clockwise, from the left: DC Direct New Frontier MM, Mattel DCUC MM, DC Direct 13" Deluxe MM, Hasbro 9" MM, and front/center DC Direct History of DC Universe MM."

Doc Atomic over at Attic of Astounding Artifacts and
Galactic Awesome Brings us these with this explanation:

"Oddly enough, I don't have many green toys in my collection. However, here are two that I really love -- and that have a connection to each other.
First, the Flash Gordon Signal Gun, which was made by Marx in 1938. When I first started collecting ray guns, this was a holy grail... And when I finally got one, I felt like my collection took a huge leap forward. Fun fact: For what I think are pretty obvious reasons, it's sometimes known as the Martian Boob.
The second toy is my Return of the Jedi Force Lightsaber, made by Kenner in 1983. I've been looking for one of these for a while now, but could only find the more common red one -- and since I'm a huge Luke Skywalker fan, that just wasn't gonna do. Besides, I had the green one as a kid and I really wanted it back!
So, the connection? Well... Before George Lucas sat down to write Star Wars, his plan was to license the Flash Gordon character! Yep, we almost had Flash fighting Ming the Merciless in a galaxy far, far away. Instead, we got Luke versus Darth Vader... AND Mike Hodges' version of Flash Gordon a couple years later. Score!"

Brian from Yesterville Toy Room sent this great pic of his favorite Hulk toy just being a toy!


How fun was that, I actually received more than I thought and very little overlap of green I might add, not like we were looking at a bunch of turtles at a pizza party... wait, never mind.

I'm having such a blast with this I have another one in the works, not sure when I will make the announcement for it so stay tuned.

It's LuLu's Birthday!

LuLu is seven years old today!
Happy Birthday to Lu
Happy Birthday to Lu
Happy Birthday dear LuLu
Happy Birthday to Lu

She looks really excited doesn't she? I think this is the most excitement I have seen from her all week!

Batman Number 110

I needed to break up all that talk of Star Wars with a Batman break. This was a gift from a buddy (name withheld to protect the innocent) of mine during the 28 Challenge that took the edge off the drought of toys a bit. If you missed the post it was here, but I thought it would be a good time to give this Batman his official number and welcome him to the Batman Shelf. So thanks again pal, rest assured this Batman has found a great new home.

Another reason for this post was I was just talking it over with my buddy about our top ten favorite Batman figures and I was feeling in a Batman sort of mood. Tomorrow more STAR WARS!!! Just kidding.

I can't get Star Wars off my mind!!!

I do not often do this, but thought it might be fun, here's a weeks worth of Star Wars haul ending today, I guess you could call this a Star Wars Week... or Star Wars Weekending 03-13-2011... or too much Star Wars Swag... oh you get the point, let's see how this goes.

First these two arrived from Hasbro Toy Shop, I had been meaning to pick them up for a long time, they were stationed in the freezer until they climatize to the South Central Texas weather.

Then while looking for cheap AT-AT's I found Han Solo frozen in Vintage Style Packaging. No cheap AT-AT though.

Oh and if you are at Target and hanging around the Easter section here's the Star Wars LEgo set, I don't mean to brag but my wife even refers to it by it's nick name, the Chicken Walker... also if you are looking for those new DC Superheroes Funko Pop Figures, they have them there for 6.99, the Batman ones I saw were pretty bad on the paint so I will be waiting till the next trip to get one.

The finished AT-ST "Chicken Walker" on patrol in the backyard.

Last, I shouldn't have picked these up, but how cool is that Aqua Droid? Like something out of Gundam. Also my favorites from the Clone Wars Series, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka... I saw Ahsoka's Droid so maybe next time I will pick that up and I even might replace a Jedi Starfighter I gave away in a toy purge with Ahsoka's to complete the set.

I also picked up a couple of GI Joes, the first in a long time, since I think the movie came out. They are different versions of two of my favorites and they had so much equipment packed with them I couldn't pass, but you don't want to hear about those.

Just kicking back with Chewie...

...enjoying the day and drinking some tea.

Rebuilding the Falcon

The one on your left is my 1995 POTF2 Falcon, the one on the right is my original Falcon from around the time Empire Strikes Back was in theaters. I remember the day I picked this up with my mom, but that is a story for another day... or blog. This is about rebuilding my old childhood Falcon, as I get more and more into it I plan on posting images of what I have and what I have done, this may take a long time, but that is okay just be warned that every once in a while it will pop up here on the blog.

Jabba, you've lost weight!

Ha ha ha, this just makes me laugh. Yesterday I caught word on the interwebs that Giant AT-ATs were being purchased at WalMart for 49 Bucks. I couldn't resist, I had to check the Wally World by work so I took a little 15 minute break to scope out the nearby big blue for some AT-AT goodness... lets face it I know I'm getting one and if I can save a few bucks , why not. Well zippo, no AT-ATs to be found, but plenty of other Star Wars stuff including the extremely rare Jabba's Palace set pictured above with weight watchers Jabba.

The funny thing was I saw this tucked behind a few others of the same set and from the top I was thinking "which long neck alien is that?", ha ha it's Jabba!

Okay this sort of stuff has really ticked me off in the past and this is actually the second time I have seen a swapped figure at this WalMart, but now it's like this guy or gal is not even trying. What a wonderful world, the lesson here is I will not be buying any boxed toys at this location and really inspecting the bubbled and window boxed stuff carefully.

Let's See Some Green! Update.

I have already received three great shots over the weekend, having just posted this Saturday, that makes me super jazzed on what's to come with this. remember if you only have a few or even one green toy, take a pic it will be fun. So dig out your Hulks, Green Race Cars, Greedos, Yoda... whatever.

See the Post below for all the info!

Let's See Some Green!

No I'm not asking for money, but now that you brought it up I have been thinking about another little toy purge on eBay, more on that later. Anyway I had a blast with "Show Me the Droids!" I wanted to do something on the heels of that event, I actually have a couple ideas, so for March I'm thinking of the theme "Let's See Some Green!" so round up all your green aliens, superheroes, cars, trains, planes, you name it and group them together and snap a pic, that's it! same deal as before...

1) Submit one JPG image to me by Wednesday, March 16, 2011 of your green stuff.

2) Include your first name and if you have a website you want linked to, include that. Funny caption if you want.

3) Send your picture and info (see above) to eclectorama [at] studiohowell [dot] com, with "Here's some Green!" in the subject.

4) I will post all the photos on Friday, March 18, 2011, so be back here then to see what people sent in.

This isn't a contest and I don't want too much trouble put into your picture, line them up, snap a pic and send it in! Also I am not collecting email to spam you, I don't have that much time, Just for fun!

Oh and yes I know March 17th is St. Patrick's Day not Friday, but March 17th is Lulu's day that spot is already filled, I can't argue with that face.

Show Me the Droids!

It's finally here and what a fun ride it has been, well on my end. I have always loved seeing pictures of people's collections so I figured this would be a neat little project. I'm glad to have opened it up to all robots, I know it started with just an R2, but hey they are all mechanical brothers and sisters, so without a lot of jabbering about binary load lifters lets get into the pics... Show Me the Droids!

Name: Reis
Favorite: "All R2s. And that little guy is technically an R2 knockoff from Galaxy Laser Team, but I've always loved him."

Name: Matt
Favorite: "My favorite R2 from the photo is the Clone Wars action figure just because it looks the coolest."

Name: Bill
Favorite: "Kenner 4-LOM (called Zuckuss back in the day)"

Name: Colin
Favorite: "Please accept my humble offering of the only surviving droids of my childhood :)"

Name: Jeremy
Favorite: "My favorites so far are the R5-4D and the Gonk droid. I just wish the Gonk had more painted details."

Name: Jason
Favorite: "my one and only Star Wars Droid, R2-D2"

Name: Leon
Favorite: "3 of my favorites Droids from 3 different era packaging. One from Kenner another 2 from hasbro. :)"

Name: MOCK
Favorite: "My favorite is probably the red 3PO unit. A while back I tinkered with the idea of customization and painting figures. Droids were both the easiest and hardest to do. You can see a few attempts in the photo..."

Name: Christiam
Favorite: "OFC they aren’t SW related but i love’em, all of them (that’s why any of them is marked specifically)...
Greetings from Colombia !!!"

Name: Brian
Favorite: "The original Kenner R2D2 is my favorite R2 figure of all-time. He
may not be screen accurate but he was part of that magical first Star
Wars action figure commercial for the Early Bird Figure Set. At a
time when Star Wars fans only had comic books, calendars, and trading
cards, these figures were a promise of many great things to come.
This R2 has a very strong association, for me, with the earliest days
of Star Wars and wonderful memories of childhood."

Name: James
Favorite: "My favorite is
probably the Wall-E figure as it looks very accurate yet has an insane
amount of articulation, so it's an insanely fun toy to play with."

Name: Ron
Favorite: Ron didn't specify so I am going to have to say they are all his favorite, that is an awesome group of bots!

Name: Mario
Favorite: "Here's my contribution to Show me the droids! I decided to stick with astromechs only for the picture, for simplicity's sake. I think my favorite of the bunch is R2-B1 (the blue and yellow one with a grey dome in the second row). Mainly because I like the blue and yellow color scheme, even if drink carrying Artoo is the most versatile of the bunch."

Name: Dan
Favorite: "I like the Jedi Treadwell Droid"

Name: Doc Atomic
Favorite: "Takara SW collection, made up mostly of droids. They're all from Japan; some are die-cast and fire missiles, others are remote controlled, and one has bump-and-go action! Collectively, they're some of my favorite Star Wars toys ever. However, if I had to call one the tip-top favorite, it'd probably be the wind up R2-D2. It's a tough choice, but I'll go with him."

Detail of the Windup R2-D2 from Doc Atomic.

Name: Brian
Favorite: "These may not be the droids you are looking for, but they're some of my favorite ones. Most of these are all reproduction tin windup robots, and my favorite one is the orange-headed guy in the back, solely because he has a propeller on his head that spins around."

Name: Victor
Favorite: "...my droids collection, R2-Q2 is my favorite because he's black and it's radio controlled."

I decided to just show my R2-D2's. So here we go...
I'm Charles, these are my R2's, my favorite is being held by the large R2 in the back, it's the Tomy Remote Control R2-D2 released around 2005 (Hasbro recently released these over here in stores, but this is the Japanese one) I like this one becasue how cool is it to finally get a 3-3/4 scale figure that actually moves and beeps.

This was a blast, so much so I decided to do another, tune back in tomorrow for the announcement. Also what do you think of making "Show Me the Droids!" a reoccurring feature? Like maybe a couple new entries featured each month. Leave a comment.