with ammo being as scarce and expensive as it is now, i have been selling my guns and collecting more toys...toys can be expensive too, but at least they last unlike ammo...i thought i would find some good loot during my trip to hong kong, but the store that i wanted to go to was either closed or moved to another location...based on the reviews, the store seemed to specialize in out of production toys, and i was hoping to find some expanded universe star wars figures...i ended up only getting two star wars metallic puzzles and a tomica die-cast of the car from initial d...there were several other stores that had lots of toy collectibles but didn't have what i was interested in (although i regret not getting the new kids logic metallic optimus prime figure)...hong kong is definitely cheaper than the states though for things like masterpiece transformers and anime stuff
after i got back, i went to frank and sons to see if they had anything worth getting...there was a vendor who sold the new line of official star trek die-cast ships for a good price, and i got nx-01 and defiant (bought enterprise d at a convention last year)
the quality and detail are much better than the models from furuta, konami, and hotwheels, which makes collecting easier since i'll only consider getting these from now on for star trek ships
there is more merchandise now for a show that was cancelled over 10 years ago than when the show aired or when the movie came out...i hope the trend continues, and they finally make some good realistic action figures like the star wars black series
i'll end this post with a pic from the ferry in hong kong...i haven't been posting much, and i might delete the blog if i am too lazy to post regularly
this is the 400th post, and the blog is 2 years old...looked through the archive, and i started this blog on march 1, 2011...
this is a firefly related shirt that i would have gotten if it wasn't a mash up with dr. who...dr. who has a pretty huge following, and my guess would be that a lot of firefly fans also like dr. who, but i'm not one of them...i didn't add a pic of the tshirt, because i probably don't have the right to use it...
the name is a reference to the rewritten pilot episode named "the train job" where the fox network wanted a more fast paced series premiere, and whedon and minear had to write a new pilot episode...sign that the show was doomed to fail from the start
i wasn't planning to go to lbcc, but i came across a 10 dollar discount from livingsocial for sunday and decided to get a ticket...it was smaller than comikaze and less crowded, but the comic selection was better...i picked up the color edition of bone...it was an impulse buy that i shouldn't have made...the deal was better than what i could get on amazon but still way more expensive than the black and white version...it's a good print though, and the pictures do look a lot better in color...
i was very tempted to get the absolute sandman volumes, but they are super expensive (5 volumes at about 80 bucks each)...a new slipcover set is coming out this weekend, so i'll wait for that instead...the absolute volumes have more content, but this slipcase set is a lot cheaper (still expensive though)...
pulp fiction is going to have a black friday sale, so i'll check them out...they had a large booth at the convention, and the employees knew their comics...their prices were also similar to amazon, which is rare for a brick and mortar store...even with a discount, the sandman and invisibles books would probably cost about $200 together...not cheap
they had the walking dead compendium 1 and 2 for a good price, but i think i'll wait until the series is completely over before deciding to get them...
i hope this isn't the start of a comic book collection...
there was a new vendor that sold metal "posters" of firefly that was really cool...the california browncoats had a raffle for a similar metal poster with jayne instead of mal, but i didn't win...he also had ones for buffy, star trek, and star wars...the walking dead one is cool too with live action and comic counterparts (my camera stinks)...
he also had metal bookmarks, but only had them for lotr and harry potter...i asked why he didn't have firefly, and he said the original thinking was to have bookmarks for stuff that were books...made sense to me, but if he had firefly bookmarks, i would have bought them...i was close to getting the mal poster, but i really wanted one of the whole cast and the ship and without the writing on the side...maybe he'll make some new ones...
here is an article of some of the cosplay...pictures are better than anything i could have taken with my camera...
i may have a disposition for collecting things...i collect mainly books and firefly stuff, but i just started collecting hot wheels and small model ships...the strange part is that i also have a dislike for accumulating too much stuff...having a lot of things weighs me down, and the burden i feel is proportional to the cost and physical size of the item...it's why i don't like furniture and have put off buying a bed, sofa, and a real dining table...they're large and expensive - double whammy (but i did find a dining table i liked but world market wasn't willing to work a cheaper deal for a floor model...yes, i even try to haggle at retail stores)...i feel like i have to get rid of stuff after a certain point, and i think i will with some of my books and guns...i'll start reading books that i don't want to keep and sell them off as i finish them (some books i got by buying bulk lots on ebay, and that is why i have a lot that i don't really care to keep)....
i can't really explain why i collect other than i enjoy it, but it is in constant conflict with the side of me that doesn't want a lot of material things...i also see the futility in collecting things, since you can't really do much with the collection other than display it (maybe it's my way of decorating)...my tastes will probably change as time passes as well, and i might want to get rid of some of my collections later...for now, as long as i don't spend beyond my means and doesn't take up too much space, then it's ok...i already have buyer's remorse and can feel the cars "weighing" me down, because i bought too many...i can apply to get on "collection intervention" if it gets out of control...
for those who know me, it's pretty obvious why i collect firefly stuff, but i prefer things related to the ship and the characters (like the little damn heroes series from qmx)...the serenity ships that i have are what led to collecting model spaceships, and i thought it would be nice to have figures of ships that i liked...i'm interested in star trek ships like the various versions of the enterprise, voyager, and the defiant...i also have a few star wars ships like vader's advanced tie fighter, millennium falcon, and x-wing...i also have a version of mass effect's normandy...futurama's planet express is another that i am looking for, but that one is hard to find...i found one on ebay, but it's too bit expensive for what should be at most a 20 dollar toy...
my other new collecting hobby came about after a trip to the collectibles show called frank and sons...it was a few weeks after comic con, and i wanted to see if they had any merchandise from the convention...i walked by a vendor that had hot wheels and saw kitt, ecto-1, back to the future delorean, and the a-team van (my favorite of the four)...it wasn't too long after i read ready player one, so 80s references were fresh in my mind and couldn't pass up getting these cars...
blurry pic of kitt, ecto-1, a-team van, back to the future dmc-12, curiosity mars rover, original 60s tv batmobile, dark knight batmobiles, and little damn heroes in the back
in stores, they would only be a dollar each, but employees and scalpers get them all as soon as they're in stock and resell them at a higher price...they were still cheap when i got them though...however, i've seen kitt sell for $12 and ecto-1 for $15 now, and some vendors are planning to sell for up to $25 during xmas...buying these led to looking at regular hot wheels of cars that i liked, and i picked up a few ferraris and porsches...this led to buying more cars that i liked, and now i have too many...hard core collectors have thousands, but there is no way i could ever collect that many...the good thing is that outside of the 80s tv/movie cars, the cars that i like are not very collectible, so most are reasonably priced at around $1-3 bucks each but they still add up quickly...hot wheels makes limited edition treasure hunts and super treasure hunts, and these are what most collectors look for...i just look for die-cast versions of real cars that i like...mostly hot wheels, but matchbox makes some good ones too (both are owned by mattel)...the main difference that i can see between the two brands is that hot wheels is flashier and matchbox tends to be a little more realistic...hot wheels is easily the more popular brand though...there are some international brands like tomica and kyosho (japan) and corgi (uk) that are good, but are harder to find and more expensive...i'm going to have to find a cheap case to display the cars...
i went to the annual hot wheels convention in garden grove, but it was pretty small...about 5-6 rows of tables with people selling their cars...i ended up buying a few 50 cent and 1 dollar cars, because it felt like a waste to go there and pay for entrance and parking but leave with nothing...it was more for hard core collectors who were willing to spend hundreds of dollars per car for super rare or custom ones...there were also hot wheels designers who were signing stuff, and i think they introduced next year's new models...
i also went to a k-mart collector day...this is when k-mart lets people get first access to new hot wheels shipments and happens about 3 to 4 times a year...usually there are more people than cases, so people are given raffle tickets...if your number is called, you can pick a case to open and keep the ones that you like...afterwards, you can look for more that people left behind...the k-mart that i went to had a good ratio of cases to people, so i had the chance to pick a case...i was able to get two curiosity mars rovers and one treasure hunt from the box...the majority of the people there were older men and women in their 40-50's, and the collectors were pretty eager to get at the leftovers to see if people leave behind the more collectible stuff...there was a grandpa wearing a hot wheels tshirt who was pretty anxious to get the cars in my case (probably could tell that i wasn't a typical collector), but he was nice enough to tell me which were worth keeping...i heard some say that he worked at mattel but was a collector too...he ended up buying about 3 cases worth of cars...can't imagine how many cars he has if he started collecting them since they were first introduced...i had several special angry birds hot wheels, but since i'm not a fan of angry birds, i gave them and most of the cars in the case to the grandpa...in hindsight, it might have been better for me to buy them and trade them at frank and sons since they're selling for about 5 bucks each...below is a video about "k-day"...
i've always liked cars and used to collect micro machines as a kid, so maybe it was just a matter of time before i got interested in die cast cars...i still have the micro machines and have seen them in collectible stores for 1 to 5 dollars each, but i don't think there is much demand for them...it's pretty easy to go overboard with hot wheels and matchbox since they're small and fairly cheap, so i have to be careful...i think i'm pretty close to completing my collection for now...they release new models frequently, so there could be other cars that i might want...i look for exotics like ferraris and porsches, older model european and japanese cars, and certain makes like audi, bmw, and volvo...
i also have a few star wars figures (started by wanting to collect jedis and sith only), but my interest in star wars decreased greatly after the prequels and stopped buying them...those were some crappy movies...there are still certain characters in star wars that i like, and i came across a limited revan figure...i caved and ordered it on ebay (i need to stop looking at ebay and spending all my money)...revan is the main character in the knights of the old republic, which is part of the star wars expanded universe (the game also has a cool ship called the ebon hawk that would be great for my collection if they made a model of it)...i don't really consider this a real collection at this point...
haven't opened it yet
thanks to robokel for the yoda/vader bobble heads, large vader/maul, and inara's shuttle...doesn't take up too much space, but the rest of the cars are not pictured
i have a small gun collection, but there have been enough posts about them in my previous posts...also, i've decided that i want to get rid of most of the guns that i have now, and restart my collection...however, i'll hold off buying new guns for now...
the last thing i collect are books, and i won't delve too much into my book collection, since it will probably require its own post...for me, collecting books has a deeper meaning than collecting things like toys...books play an important role in the development of civilization as a whole, and they represent knowledge and progress in physical form...you can argue that it is really the printing press that allowed for the advancement, and digital print is just an evolution of it...however, there are many places in the world where electricity and electronic devices are still a luxury and the best way to spread information is through a real book...books are still a very important medium for spreading ideas, and it is something that is lost on kids growing up in the digital age...there is a reason why the nazis burned books, and reminds me of a well-known and prescient quote by heinrich heine..."where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people"...i can't deny the convenience of e-readers, and i actually would like to have all my books in digital format once they become as easy on the eyes as text on paper...however, i would still collect real books because of what they represent to me and the permanence of something on paper versus digital bits...i might pare it down to about 200 core books that i like, which would consist mostly of classic literature/fiction...i also don't trust the ebook business model, but that is a completely separate topic...
if you read this entire post, then i applaud your threshold for crappy rambling...that covers just about everything that i collect...collecting these things is pushing up my geek quotient, but as long as i don't larp or cosplay or play d&d, wow, 40k, or mtg, i should be outside the rarefied echelon of geekdom...what is needed is an official geek hierarchy chart
10th anniversary edition book...it's a collection of three books plus photos of the cast...i already have two of the three books but still worth getting
the best lego serenity so far...70,000 pieces, 135lbs, 7ft long...even opens up and has all the rooms except the engine room...even detachable shuttles...probably would cost several thousand bucks just to buy all the pieces...
update to the post...adrian drake, the creator, did an iama on reddit, and he said it was $7-$10k just in lego...with all the hours of labor, he would be willing to make a copy for $25k...if i were a billionaire, i would attempt to make it
most of these, i already knew...the one interesting one was that nph auditioned for simon...whedon made up for not giving him the part by giving him dr. horrible
10 year anniversary panel for firefly at comic con...maybe the whole crew will show up...too bad i'm not going this year...comic con has gotten too crazy and too difficult to get tickets unless you buy at the convention every year
serenity not appropriate for all ages?...i would have to question what they find about firefly that is worse than something like star wars...i don't see how star wars is any more appropriate for kids...star wars has an entire planet full of people being wiped out, incestuous overtones, racist caricatures, slavery, dismemberment, torture, murder, child labor...doesn't seem very kid friendly...if they don't think it'll sell, then they should just say so instead of coming up with a lame excuse
Congratulations on 10,000 supporters! Here is our decision on the IP’s fit with the LEGO brand.
2012.05.08
First and foremost, huge congratulations to tbone_tbl for reaching 10,000 supporters on LEGO CUUSOO, and toward everyone for all of the support of the Firefly Serenity Playset project!
LEGO CUUSOO gives the opportunity for adult LEGO fans to submit product ideas. You submit some incredible things, and we’re huge fans of all of your work. This is a beautiful model and a skilled rendition of the beloved Serenity built with LEGO bricks.
When reviewing projects for production, the LEGO Jury first looks at how the concept fits the LEGO brand. We learned the IP was questionable regarding a brand fit, and since we anticipated this project reaching 10,000 the team got a head start and reviewed the project on these criteria.
LEGO produces toys for children. Therefore all LEGO products, regardless of age target, must be content-appropriate for this core audience. With this in mind we have decided that as cool as the Serenity model is, the Firefly TV show and Serenity film contain content that is not appropriate for our core target audience of children ages 6-11. While we know this news will disappoint those who supported the project, we will not be producing this as a LEGO product.
Opening ourselves to new product suggestions invites popular ideas that don’t always fit our brand. We are grateful for the spirit behind projects like the Firefly Serenity and for the opportunity to be challenged. It keeps us sharp and looking toward the future of the LEGO brick.
