Joes & Photoshop

Just like the title says “G.I. Joes + Photoshop = all teh funs”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BotCon 2008

Hey all! I just checked my eMail and guess what I found? Got an eMail from Brian at the Transformers Collectors Club with details about BotCon 2008. Read it and weep fellas, read it and weep!

 

Hello **** ***********!

Here is the start of the information you have all been waiting for:

BotCon 2008 will be held in Cincinnati, OH at the Duke Energy Center.

Convention dates are: April 24-28, 2008

The hotel is across the street and is the Hyatt Regency.
You can make your reservations online by using the link at BotCon.com or call:

888.421.1442

Note: There will be tours and classes offered on Wednesday April 23 and
Thursday April 24. Currently Shawn will be teaching his class on Wednesday and again on Thursday so we will have 50 slots. We are also working on potential classes in sculpting and or molding as well. We can’t answer any specific questions currently but we wanted to give you a heads up for your hotel reservations needs.

Convention registration and details to follow….

Don’t delay as last year’s rooms went in less than a day….

Thanks for your support!

Brian

PS. The con set is really going to shatter your world….
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Cincy, that’s drivabel for me! I could do that on a tank of gas. 0f coarse given current gas prices, it still might be cheaper for me to fly. lol

As much as I hate to give that city any of my money, with all the trouble I’ve had out of there latly… I’m soooooo there! Anybody else going?

I can’t believe Ohio got a second one, that’s so awesome it warrents a “Breakdancing Soundwave” LOL

Take It To The “Max”

OK, Transformers geek time!

So, the other week I totally flipped my fuckin’ nugget! I splurged and bought a rather expensive Transformer, I didn’t pay “eBay” prices for him, but he defiantly wasn’t cheap. I got a rather good deal on him from another collector, and I just couldn’t pass it up. No I’m not going to tell you what I actually paid for him… you’d either laugh at me or rob me. LOL

It took me a week or two to come up with the money, and had to sell a few thing on eBay to pay for him, but he finally arrived earlier this week and he is awesome!

BEHOLD… BRAVE MAXIMUS!

Yea he’s as big as he looks, the largest Transformer ever made! A city-former that’s truly deserving of being called a city. Over two feet tall, 100% complete, minty fresh, and he’s all mine.

I’ve finally crossed that threshold from casual collector to serious collector, not that I was casual about my collecting before but now… well now, I’ve got a “Max”. Here’s a few more pics of him and all his awesomness.

 

 

 

 

O.C.D.Epiphany

Well I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything and I apologize. This whole Senate Bill thing has left me so physically and mentally drained that I haven’t had much time for anything else other than work lately.

I started off today with the intention of writing something about my latest obsession in collecting, G.I. Joes, just so that I could say that I wrote something. Yea I know that’s kind of a cop-out but “hey I’ve been fuckin’ busy, and that’s not how it worked out anyways. So no harm, no foul… right?”

I often joke about having O.C.D. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) because of my obsessive collecting of things and need to have them neatly organized and displayed… no matter what they are. I’ve always had these tendencies and they run in my family. With my aunt and grandmother its M&M figures, with my uncle its die-cast NASCAR models, and for me it used to be CD’s. I would spend entire paychecks at Sam Goodie and Media Play on CD’s and hours meticulously categorizing, organizing, and cleaning them each week. Then it was DVD’s, Homies, Low-Rider cars, and books. Now Transformers and more recently G.I. Joes have been added to the ranks of useless shit that I’ve started collecting.

Despite all the jokes and ribbing, I’ve never actually taken the time to read anything about this disease. I had no clue as to what it actually was or any or the symptoms until today. During my half assed blog entry, I made a half assed reference to it and decided to check it out for myself… “Ya gotta love Google!”

Wikipedia listed the symptoms as this:

Symptoms may include some, all, or perhaps none of the following:

• Repeated hand washing.
• Repeated clearing of the throat, although nothing may need to be cleared.
• Specific counting systems — e.g., counting in groups of four, arranging objects in groups of three, grouping objects in odd/even numbered groups, etc.

• One serious symptom which stems from this is “counting” steps — e.g., feeling the necessity to take 12 steps to the car in the morning.

• Perfectly aligning objects at complete, absolute right angles, or aligning objects perfectly parallel etc. This symptom is shared with OCPD and can be confused with this condition unless it is realized that in OCPD it is not stress-related.
• Having to “cancel out” bad thoughts with good thoughts. Examples of bad thoughts are:

• Imagining harming a child and having to imagine a child playing happily to cancel it out.
• Sexual obsessions or unwanted sexual thoughts. Two classic examples are fear of being homosexual or fear of being a pedophile. In both cases, sufferers will obsess over whether or not they are genuinely aroused by the thoughts.
• Strange and chronic worried about certain events such as sleeping, eating, leaving home, etc without proper items. An example would be one who literally can’t fall asleep without a metronome.

• A fear of contamination (see Mysophobia); some sufferers may fear the presence of human body secretions such as saliva, sweat, tears, vomit, or mucus, or excretions such as urine or feces. Some OCD sufferers even fear that the soap they’re using is contaminated.
• A need for both sides of the body to feel even. A person with OCD might walk down a sidewalk and step on a crack with the ball of their left foot, then feel the need to step on another crack with the ball of their right foot. If one hand gets wet, the sufferer may feel very uncomfortable if the other is not. If the sufferer is walking and bumps into something, he/she may hit the object or person back to feel a sense of evenness. These symptoms are also experienced in a reversed manner. Some sufferers would rather things to be uneven, favoring the preferred side of the body.
• An obsession with numbers (be it in maths class, watching TV, or in the room). Some people are obsessed with even numbers while loathing odd numbers (they cause them a great deal of anxiety and often make the person uncomfortable or even angry) or vice versa.
• Twisting the head on a toy around, then twisting it all the way back exactly in the opposite direction.(see even body section)

“Motherfucker! I have all of those, and I don’t mean just a little bit either, that entire article couldn’t have been more about me if it had my fuckin’ name, address, and social security number at the top!”

I don’t do the “hand washing” thing, but I compulsively clean my ears. If I see a Q-tip I can’t help it, I have to take three of them out and clean my ears, even if I just did it an hour ago. Needless to say, my wife has learned to hide them, I can go through a whole box in a week if they’re left out, but if I don’t see them; “No problem”. *weird*

Some of the other things I do never even crossed my mind as being O.C.D. related; constantly clearing my throat, counting things/steps, aligning things in perfect parallels or right angles, obsession with even numbers, and public bathrooms? “Fugetaboutit, I could catch something“. *fuck*

It wasn’t until less than a month ago that I was able to cook chicken for the first time since I moved out on my own, for fear of salmonella. Less than a year since I’ve been able to cook pork, and I burnt the shit out of it just so that I could make sure that it was done all the way through. I love chicken, and sausage is one of my favorite foods, but unless someone else cooks it I worry about stupid shit like that. Microwave chicken patties and nuggets; I can eat them like I’m an Ethiopian because I know they are already cooked, but no go on buying raw poultry and preparing it myself. *geezus*

The only good thing that came out of reading that article is that it put to rest (slightly) one of my phobias. I’ve never admitted this to anyone, or even spoken it out loud, until now. But I’ve literally lost sleep staying awake at night, worrying myself sick, to the point of feeling physically nauseous, because I was afraid that I might turn into a pedophile. I’ve gone as far as to plan out what I would do, and what I would say to my family before I left if it actually got those urges.

Now let me clarify: I’VE NEVER HAD A FANTASY ABOUT A CHILD OR ANY URGES TO DO ANYTHING INAPPROPRIATE WITH ONE!!!

In an attempt to further relate the immense distress that those afflicted with this condition must bear, Barlow and Durand (2006) use the following example. They implore readers not to think of pink elephants. Their point lies in the assumption that most people will immediately create an image of a pink elephant in their minds, even though told not to do so. The more one attempts to stop thinking of these colorful animals, the more one will continue to generate these mental images. This phenomenon is termed the “Thought Avoidance Paradox”, and it plagues those with OCD on a daily basis, for no matter how hard one tries to get these disturbing images and thoughts out of one’s mind, feelings of distress and anxiety inevitably prevail. Although everyone may experience unpleasant thoughts at one time or another, these are usually warranted concerns that are short-lived and fade after an adequate time period has lapsed. However, this is not the case for OCD sufferers.

It’s that whole “pink elephant” thing alluded to in the article on Wikipedia. You see something on TV or read a news article about a child molester, and you have that image in your head. You tell yourself to not to think about those type of things even though they are not fantasies, and the more you try to “not think about it”, the more it weighs on your mind. It starts this whole downward spiral and you start to wander, “If I can’t stop thinking about it, does it make me one?” “Could I ever hurt my daughter the way he hurt his child?”

Of coarse not! The mere thought of it is repulsive, and to say it out loud (or even see it in type) sounds’ fucking ridiculous, but that doesn’t stop you from working yourself into a suicidal depression over it… literally.suicidal.

I’m not sure how I feel about it now that I’m thoroughly convinced that I actually have O.C.D. I’m not a medical doctor and I don’t have any kind of medical background, but damn near every sentence in that article pertained to me, it sent chills down my spine with every word. It was funny to make a joke about having it when I didn’t think that I actually had it because everyone would be laughing with me, but now it’ll be more like they’re all laughing at me instead.

I guess the discomfort is a small price to pay for the peace of mind that it gives over other things, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. One thing is for sure, I’m defiantly going to follow this up with a proper medical exam, and maybe I’ll self medicate myself tonight just for good measure… I’m just kidding, the days of partying and illegal drugs are long over for me. Seriously though, I don’t think it can hurt to get it checked out and maybe get some treatment. I’m noticing that the older and more set in my ways I get; the more vocal I am about things and it’s starting to cause problems in my home life. Nothing major yet, but the writing’s on the wall and it’d be better to take care of it now than wait until it’s too late and try to piece something together that’s already broken.

Random Thoughts of a Trans-Fan

Hey guys, not much going on here lately. I have managed to finish organizing my Transformers on my new shelves… more or less. There is one shelf that’s just seems to be a “junk shelf” consisting of all of the stuff that I couldn’t find another place to display. All in all I think it looks OK. I did also manage to update my collection thread on TFW2005. So for all of you Transformers collectors out there, if you’re interested here’s a link with some more in depth pictures.

Oh yea in other Transformers news, I was also able to snag the last few Alternators that I needed to finish up the line. It’s the only line that I’ve even been slightly interested in being a “completest” with. I’m waiting on Rodimus, Swindle, and Swerve to arrive and then it’ll be all be done. *cross my fingers* This, for some reason, fills me with an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment, and for something that I normally don’t spend a lot of time telling others outside of the collector community about; I just want to tell everybody. Strange how that works I guess.

I totally got called out at Wal*Mart yesterday. I finally found a new movie figure, Payload by the way, and when I was walking up to the cashier to check out she gave me a sly little smile and asked “Is this for your collection?”

I was so taken off guard that all I could do was kind of smile an shyly agree. She then proceeds to tell me how her husband wanted to go see the new movie, but she wouldn’t let him because she thought it was too childish. What a cunt. Her husband begs and pleads with her to go, offering up argument like “I used to play with these when I was a kid” and she can’t even sacrifice an hour or so of her time to let him relive his childhood for a moment or two. I bet if it was a Barbie movie, she’d drag him along to go see it. Then she takes it upon herself to use this experience to try and belittle me… grrrr. That’s why she works at Wal*Mart, and her husband will end up cheating on her.

I’ve been thinking about trying my hand at an on line toy store here lately, I’ve sold a few items on eBay here over the last few weeks and have been pleasantly surprised at the results. I’m teetering on the edge of taking that plunge and actually investing in getting a business license and keeping a small inventory of figures on hand. Not as scalper, more along the lines of an importer or something. I Figured I could do that for a while, until I get enough money together to carry a full inventory that would warrant me getting a dot com type store. I dunno, maybe it’s just a pipe dream, but it would be nice to be able to make my hobby pay for itself instead of just sucking up all of my extra spending money. LOL

Anyways, I know I’m just kinda jumping all over the place today, but that’s the fun of a “random thoughts” entry I guess. Cheers all, and thanks for taking the time to look.

The End of a Long Quest

Well as you all know… I’m a toy collector; I collect some of the toys that I had when I was a kid, and their modern day counterparts. I get a bit of joy from being able to reclaim part of my childhood when I sit in my office and look at my collection. It feels good to be able to escape the everyday pressures of being an adult for a few minutes and just get lost in the innocence of yesteryear.

No matter what it is that you collect, there’s always that hard to find object that just kind of drives you buggy because of it’s elusiveness, sort of a “Grail“ if you will. For me over the last six or seven months that object has been a toy from the Go-Bots line called “Monsterous”. Monsterous is comprised of several smaller robots that combine to form one large robot, commonly referred to as a “combiner”.

I know that among collectors this not a particularly sought after piece. Not because there’s anything wrong with him, but because he’s not a particularly well know character from a not too particularly well know line of toys. Go-Bots were generally regarded as “generic” Transformers back in the 80’s (yea I’m that old), therefore didn’t have the fan base to support a large collecting community like the Transformers did or do.

This toy however for me has some sentimental value, and after coming across a couple of the smaller bots that form him in a box of my old toys, I was hell bent on finding the rest of him and completing the figure.

As a child he was the only “combiner” type toy that I owned, and I didn’t just own him, I won him. I earned this figure all on my own. I grew up poor and therefore most of my toys came from garage sales and second hand stores, but this was one of the few toys that I had gotten brand new. I won him in a “kiddy tractor pull” at Quality Farm & Fleet, he was my trophy! I pulled a trailer loaded full of weights with a peddle tracker farther than anyone else in my age group, and he was all mine!

After finding three of the six robots that formed him, I made it my “quest” to find the other three and make him whole again. The first two I found rather easily on eBay. They cost a little bit more than I thought they should have, but in a supply and demand economy sometimes that’s the case. They had what I wanted and I had to pay if I wanted them.

The last figure, South Claw, was another story though. After months of searching for him in eBay, both by name and just looking at what seemed like thousands of pictures on auctions simply labeled as “Go-Bots” or some such, I had all but given up.

Then one day after sifting through the googolplex of irrelevant search results that Google will so nicely provide you with, I stumbled across a small site that catered to the “collector” trying to complete his vintage figures. Not only did they have the last figure that I needed to finish him up, he was only going to cost me $6.00. This site, FortMax.com, helped me get back a piece of my childhood, and they didn’t even rape me to do it. I grudgingly paid $20 for one of the “easy” to find figures I needed on eBay, but these guys provided me with that last hard to find figure for what I felt was a great price, and I didn’t even get screwed on the shipping cost like so many eBay sellers will do.

So here he is in all his glory 🙂

 

Home sweet home

 

 

And some box art