Don't forget the Red, White and Blue!

Today was the deadline to get something in for the Red, White and Blue photo assignment, but Captain America(s) convinced me to give you a little extra time, so if you can have your picture to me by Friday, I will post it. After that and not even a motorcycle full of Captain Americas can save you!

Meanwhile in the backyard...

Gertie has a new friend, and they share one thing in common, they both like to eat.

I present to you the World Eater...

" Ahhh, smells delicious!"

and also the World Eater...

"Hey, don't hog all the grub!"

Yes, two pees in a pod indeed.

I have been waiting to debut this Galactus for quite sometime, it was a sweet reward from none other than my pals at Tate's. I will have to do a better post later, plus show off some of the other swag!

Look what lives in my front yard!

Okay, okay I know, not about toys or drawings or puppies, but come on it's a bunny! Everyone loves bunnies. Okay, well it's a wild hare, but still it's a baby one.



So here's something you may not know about ole' Chunky B. When I go to Chinese Restaurants and look on the little paper place mats, that's right, I'm a Monkey... but my son is a Rabbit!

Also, I used to raise little dwarf rabbits, it started with one I bought my wife, the tiniest little bunny I had ever seen and the pet shop swore it was a female, and it was. Then we had to get it a friend and it was even tinier than the first, it was hands down the smallest and cutest thing I have ever seen in my life (and I have seen a lot). Anyway again the pet shop swore it was a female... this time they were wrong and two litters later I was raising dwarf bunnies! True story, we couldn't get rid of all of them ( and we were giving them to good homes for free!) so I had Seven bunnies all running around this little yard at a town house we rented. I secured the fencing, built them a hutch and they played in that yard and had little tunnels and all. They would all come to you (sometimes) to be put up at night so the wild critters wouldn't get them. They were a great bunch of rabbits. Named them all after candy too.

Amassing the Fleet

So, I haven't been in too big of a toy buying mood lately, not sure why. There is a lot of cool stuff out there, just not feeling it right now. Anyway I decided to go through some of my loose totes to organize some more. I have been attacking them every once in a while when I can squeeze it into the schedule. The next tote up is what I refer to as the old Star Wars tote. This tote is mainly POTF2 (Power of the Force 2) action figures and the occasional oddity or two.

click to enlarge

I picked up a new tower of little drawers and set about sorting and figuring what's a keeper and what needs to go, side note this whole tote is a keeper, ha ha... anyway I sort of sorted them in little piles of Droids, Jedi, Scum and Villainy and a pile of Rebels. Then talking with a buddy of mine it made more sense to sort them by franchise (New Hope, Empire, Clone Wars, etc.) though that hasn't happened yet. As I unpack stuff I I tend to have little flash backs and start messing around, getting side tracked is easy with this tote of stuff. I noticed several little, heavy bundles at the bottom all wrapped in tissue paper, I unwrapped one and rediscovered a little Galloob TIE Fighter. A few more unwrapped bundles and I had my little collection of 90's era Die cast.

For the most part they are all Galloob, the exception being the Blockade Runner, which I think when Hasbro took over making these was it's first appearance, say around 2006. You may or may not know this, but Galloob, the Micro Machines Company, was bought by Hasbro and rolled under it's banner of toys. The Hasbro Titanium line was born from these Die Cast Micro Machines. I was always saddened that the smaller, almost rubbery, plastic Star Wars Micro Machines didn't make the cut. That was such a great line in itself.

So borrowing a cue from Collin over at Super Duper Toy Box, I labeled an image to help you sort what's what.

click to enlarge

A. Imperial Star Destroyer - One of my favorite all time Sci-Fi Starships.

B. Y-Wing -Can't have an X-wing without a Y-Wing. "Stay on Target!"

C. You know this one, it made the Kessel Run in les than twelve parsecs.

D. The Rebel Blockade Runner (Obviously these are way out of scale)

E. "Red Five Standing By", Luke's X-Wing, not big enough to be a threat to the Death Star... right?

F. The TIE Fighter that spurred this post.

G. Boba Fett's Slave I

H. A Jawa Sandcrawler, though this seems a little squatty, this is a fun one.

I. Luke's Landspeeder, another fun one. I am not sure if it's intentional or not,
but the wheels are off slightly on the axles and it
makes a cool,subtle wobble when rolled, like it's floating.

J. This is a all plastic version of Slave I, part of the X-Rays line,
showing the detail inside the ships. They came in two packs, this
may have come with Darth Vader's TIE Fighter, which I gave away
to my son or one of his friends long ago.

These were a great little find in the bottom of that tote and I found a few other things in there that may be of interest to Toy and Star Wars fans alike, you'll have to stay tuned for those.

"Follow Me Friend"

I am so excited about this next little illustration I have been working on I decided to drop a sneak peek up here on the blog. It's funny how you can be checking out sites and one thing leads to another and you are watching an old cartoon on YouTube and you get the notion to draw your version of one of the scenes.



I made a version of this for Tate's Comic Shop to use as a sticker and I am thinking of making a Hi-Res available on my art on the cheap page up above for a free download. Anyone want some free art of a bounty hunter riding a orange, water dino ?

UPDATE: I made a 11"x17" Mini Poster available for download on the art on the cheap page!

The Gert Days of Summer

I know the official start of Summer is about five days away, but we are having a really unseasonable June this year. This week alone the highs are already hitting 100º Fahrenheit by noon, which is not weird for Texas... in July and August that is. The last good rain we had was in January, so far for this year our rainfall has been about 4.02" and 2.66" of that was in January.

Even with the water restrictions going into Stage 2, you cannot have an overheated bulldog and the Gert has her own pool for when we are outside, sometimes on weekends we throw a bag of ice in it which she tries to eat, she loves her pool!

The Bassets on the other hand love the A/C...

In Florida? Going by Tate's?

Be on the lookout for some more stickers...

Brand spanking new Kirk exploring strange new worlds!



Plus Spock, based on this illustration, doing some Tricordering... or is it Tricording?



Tate's told me these were just sent off to the printers! Also you can Facebook them here, I think they dig the Spock one : )

This one is for you Bubba!

Laugh it up fuzzball...



I figured I would get this out of the way, yes I ordered a Sideshow Princess Leia. I told you after seeing Brian's I would either get this one or open up a boxed Hasbro one I've had since the nineties. Well fates have a funny way of handing you stuff, I saw a post on the Mego Museum boards about some EMCE megos on clearance at gohastings.com for some decent prices, I had all the ones they were talking about but curiosity got the best of me and I decided to check out what else was on sale. Well turns out it was Leia here, 29.00 big ones, that seemed like a really decent price for a Sideshow figure.

I will do a more thorough post later, but for now let us sit back and enjoy the comic stylings of Bubbashelby... commence oh festival...

Pizza Porkins!

Last Friday I posted a fun little image of Rebel Pilot Jek Porkins and almost by second nature I included a Mynock (Chicken) Leg for our dashing X-Wing pilot to chew on for his portrait. Almost as soon as I posted it I received my first comment on the post from Dave Lowe of Para Abnormal fame. I think this may have been the first time Dave has commented on my blog. Dave is an artist that I hold in pretty high esteem, not only does he do the daily Para Abnormal blog, but he is also a prop designer of great talent having worked on many shows and a yearly celebration of Halloween at his own home. So, I was pretty excited to see what Dave had to say. Here's the comment for your reference:

"How come fat guys are always cartooned eating chicken?

Sincerely,
Fat Guy in Van Nuys (who prefers pizza)"

Okay, Dave has a sense of humor, so here was my reply...

"First I think that may be a Mynock leg, they taste like chicken so it's an understandable mistake. Second I think he finished the pizza after the cheeseburger and shake, or was it the taco, then the pizza, the cheeseburger, the Mynock leg then he likes his shake... anyway Third, I think I may be having chicken or Mynock for dinner tonight.

Best Regards,
Chunky B, Fat Guy in San Antonio (who luvs him some Tacos!)"

I was pretty proud of myself, having rubbed elbows with a cartooning great, I thought I did a pretty good job. So I waited for a response and as comments came in on loving the image, questioning if Jek could fit into an X-Wing the way I drew him and what not, not another reply form Dave. I thought maybe Dave didn't take it in jest. Then I thought possibly I had chosen the wrong words or even pushed it a little too far, which wasn't my intent. I was bummed, this was probably the second time in my life of drawing that I may have messed up and offended someone (I don't think the farting Jar Jar counts, if so make that three times).

So at risk of further offending and making people on the Internet mad at me I made a version of Porkins with a slice of homemade Bantha-eroni Pizza! Sort of a Peace-a-Pizza offering... though I think the Mynock leg works better, just saying.

Not My Toys!

Not a lot of participation for this one, which I totally understand as we all have lives, mater of fact I sort of phoned this one in myself, ha ha. Still the ones I received are awesome and need to be shown! I am also using the text that each person sent as an explanation which makes the story complete.

Remember at the bottom of this post will be the next Photo Assignment! So here we go... these are Not My Toys!

Colin sent in this awesome shot, smooth as velvet and with some toy history.

"Found in my pal/bandmate Jackhammer's basement: These Mattel toy cars were called "Zowees", and they are about 1/2 the size of a Hot Wheels car. Fourteen of them were produced in 1972 (the year of my birth), the initial eight as promotion with the Shell Oil Company, free with a gasoline purchase or 49 cents alone. Later on in 1972, these cars (in slightly variant form) along with six new cars were made available retail, as well but as a variation of the Shell Oil versions. From left to right: Numb Skull, Shifty, Good Knight (Shell Oil promo version), & Goin' Fishin'"

Here's Reis' entry, which made me laugh pretty hard when I saw the email, you know I have run across a few of these type of scenes in the toy aisle, but this one is just too perfect.

"While trolling through TRU the other day I spotted this lovely little scene near the Schleich toys in which someone carefully placed what appears to be a Bernese Mountain Dog into a scene with a rather large dragon, thus making me imagine what could very well be one of the strangest Disney movies ever. I'm calling the movie "Barney & Scales" and it will be rated G."

Last but not least is my entry, like I said I may have phoned this one in. These are technically not my toys... yet anyway. I am working on some DC Comics projects at work and Warner Bros. sent these over for inspiration. So they are in my office and to be used on the project, but not really mine. After the project and if I am good I may be able to assimilate them into the Bat Shelf and give them official numbers.

As you can see I already opened one up and was checking him out. The Unicorn is from Despicable Me, it was left on my desk for some reference shots and now as a joke I keep it around, besides "It's so fluffy!" well, not really, but still funny to have staring at you while you work.

That wasn't so bad, you know it was not a lot, but what I got was really worth it. I think even my phoned in one wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, ha ha. So, what's next? Glad you asked.

The next Photo Assignment is "Let's hear it for the Red, White and Blue!"... get it? July... Red, White and Blue? Okay the photo does not have to be patriotic in nature, it can be but it can also be of any toy or toys, just use all three colors in the picture.

Here's the details...

1) Submit one JPG image to me by Wednesday, June 29, 2011 of some Red, White and Blue Toys. They can be any combination, but lets face it if you send in a Captain America you obviously have it made... oh and that would be way to easy. This is open to every one, not just people in the USA, every one has some sort of Red, White and Blue Toys! It can be patriotic themed or just a Red toy, a White toy and a Blue toy. It just has to be all in one picture.

2) Include your first name and if you have a website you want linked to.

3) Send your picture and info (see above) to eclectorama [at] studiohowell [dot] com, with "Some RWB for ya!" in the subject.

4) I will post all the photos on Monday, July 4, 2011, like that? I knew you would. 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! I am not collecting email to spam you, I don't have that much time,it's just for fun!

Eject! Eject!

Another drawing just to draw and this time it's Porkins! This one reminded me of my Star Wars Kids magazine days, those were the days...

Thank You Admiral Obvious!

Just drawing to draw, thought I would try a quick drawing to take a break. Enjoy.

All Vintagy and Stuff.

I finally got around to downloading the Hipstamatic app for my Gen One iPhone, that's right baby still rocking my Gen One, getting my moneys worth! Anyway, I have been wanting this app for quite some time, it's not expensive it's just I never got around to downloading it, I'm pretty choosey on the apps I download too. This one was well worth the price as I am having a blast shooting pics with it. Here's some of my first attempts, this makes me miss the days of of actually using film and hanging out at the photo lab with my pals.

The Bassets, Lulu in the back and Squee, the blurry one, howling at the door.

Some home made Whoopie Pies cooling on the rack.

A Extra Large, "Big Head" Han Solo roaming the living room.

Lulu sitting in her favorite spot, gazing out the window.

Spock Stop 21: Woodbridge, New Jersey

Long time Eclectomaniac (and I mean long time, I think he has been leaving the occasional comment since I started this blog) Jay of the Sexy Armpit was Spock's most recent host. I knew when Jay signed up Spock would have a good time, I mean come on Jay likes Batman and lives in Jersey, Spock was bound to have a good time... forget 'bout it!

Jay also stepped up on the creativity level by not only taking Spock to some key New Jersey pop culture locations, but he also combined the New Jersey Spockcation Experience into a great little comic (I'll post the link further down the post). Also, a first for Spockcation, but not a first for little Spock (ask Barbie, wink wink), a Spock Nude Photo!

So hang on to your Vulcan ears it's time for Spockcation!









Here's a the link to Jay's Comic, probably easier to read than these low res images I posted, big thnaks to Jay for taking on the first of a two part visit to New Jersey, Spock's next Jersey location is with none other than Rob at the Aquaman Shrine. I hope Aquaman doesn't mistake Spock for Namor, stay tuned and remember to Live Long and Prosper.

I know you are but what am I?

click it and tell them Large Marge sent ya!