While we don't want to jinx anything, it is looking fairly certain that we will be moving in the next month. Not only that, but we'll also be making the transition to a space we actually own. (!) More details on that will certainly be coming in the next few weeks. After renting for the last 10-12 years we're excited to buy some things we've stopped ourselves from getting until we had a more permanent space. And we get to paint!
I really like this living room layout (designed by Fawn Galli from last month's Domino) and I think Ryan is pretty much on board. I would like to add some blue and I don't think a white couch would be safe for us. Any type of animal rug is obviously a no-no too but I like the general feel of the space.
Today Action Figure Friday presents to you...Perseus from everyone's favorite 80s semi-animated movie about Greek mythology: Clash of the Titans!
This one is tough because I have so many things I would like to say about the movie in general and Bubo the owl and Ray Harryhousen (I love you!) but I'm going to try to focus really hard and just talk about this hunk of plastic. And by hunk, I mean hunk.
Look at that sword wielding power! Medusa is so shaking in her snakes right now.
Kudos to the sculptor of this figure because I actually think the Harry Hamlin likeness is very strong.
They got the eyebrows, the nose, and the hair (as close as they could get in hard plastic - it would have been fun to have a "real hair" version too with the feathering). And, wow. I didn't realize that Perceus was so pouty. He's very sassy. Being a big fan of Veronica Mars season one (anyone with me?), this face evokes some other feelings in me as well - feelings that I will not share at the risk of spoilers. Actually, I've only seen Harry Hamlin in Clash of the Titans and Veronica Mars so all my emotions toward him are very conflicted. I will continue this dialogue in my head now so as not to babble about a show that I imagine few of you lovely readers have seen. But might I suggest adding VM Season One to your Netflix queue? While you're at it, put Clash Of The Titans on there too if you haven't seen it in a while or at all.
There is virtually no articulation in Mr. Perseus which is fine with me. He can kick, he can turn his head, he can bend at the waist, and he can swing his arms. Sure, I mean, you'd really think that the son of Zeus might be able to do knee bends but apparently he isn't having any trouble keeping those thighs in shape. He has good genes, I guess.
His accessories include a gold sword and a foxy shield with an eagle imprint. You can also buy separately his winged horse (that's Pegasus for those in the know, wink wink) and Ryan actually does own that but I didn't photograph it. I thought I was obeying some kind of self-imposed law of action figure review by only including what comes with the figure but now I kind of regret that decision because the Pegagus is glorious.
I really like this Perseus both for his vintage appeal and his sexy good looks. Four and a half tentacles! And five tentacles for the unseen Pegasus! (Is that allowed?)
It's time for another installment of "Those Who Share". This time we highlight Carl and Caren - proprietors of the Velveteria, authors of the newly released book: Black Velvet Masterpieces, and an all-around cool couple.
We just got the book and it looks really sharp. It even has a velvety rich cover. Ooh la la! They've put together a history of the velvet painting, a how-to section, and a great gallery of their collection featuring everything from religious icons to nekkid ladies. If you are in Portland you must go visit their museum, The Velveteria, to see some of the work for yourself.
We've always been especially fond of the "Banditos" velvet painting genre.
Good job Carl and Caren!
We actually own two velvet paintings. One was a garage sale find from Ryan's mom - this intense wolf:
And the other is a Juanita original of a Pabst can:
The funny thing about this one is that one might assume that it's an homage in our house to Pabst when really I am quite a beer snob and I probably have one Pabst a year at most. Generally I don't really drink any beer from a can. I used to drink Guiness but then I learned about their non-vegan friendly isinglass processing so I cut myself off. So, we consider this painting an homage to how awesome Juanita is!
Ryan took off this morning with a gaggle of boys to go to the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. I was thinking about doing a post with pictures of my do-nothing morning but then I realized he took the digital camera with him. I really hope he uses it to get a photo of him with Wil Wheaton!
So, I've decided to document the morning using royalty free images from the internets. Typically I wouldn't want to bore anyone with the trivial doings of my day, but I don't get many mornings like this so today is quite exciting for me. Later on, in the spirit of nerding conventions, I might scan and post some gems from one of our trips to Star Wars Celebration in Indianapolis a few years ago.
Thanks to these people for their photos: Stefan Klabunde, Computer; Craig Jewell, nail polish; Marja Flick-Buijs, coffee; Steve Woods, bagel; Yaroslav B, gramaphone; Katia Grimmer-Laversanne, Crossword.
Another goal for the weekend is to get more photos on my Etsy site. I've been trying to get this done forever so here's hoping it finally gets done!
Hi gang,
Due to many many other activities taking up my time this week I haven't had time to get an action figure review done. I'm sorry! I promise I'll be back next week bigger and better than ever!
Also coming soon - we will be accepting votes and suggestions for the next animal release! What can we say, we wanted to be on the election year bandwagon.
Hopefully we'll have a few other posts up in the next week too.
We posted the new oceanic animals to Berkley Illustration's Etsy site yesterday. Please welcome the dolphin, the shark, and the seagull into the fold!
We're pretty curious if the shark will blend in with the rest of the animals. I gasped a little when I first saw him!
Now that we have those listed we're allowing ourselves to go a movie today (Iron Man) and then a Cinco de Mayo party (really, Cuatro de Mayo). Plus it's sunny outside. Hooray!
Hoorah! I've been waiting for the day when I get to review one of Ryan's He-Man toys! Let me give you a little back-story on these as I have two strong waves of nostalgia from Masters Of The Universe.
First of all, like many a child of the 80s, my brothers and I had some very superb specimens. While I recall that we largely pledged allegiance to the Thundercats (can anything top the trials of Lion-O???!), He-Man was not too far behind.
The second wave involves the times when I first met Ryan. It was back in college and he was 21 years old and had his own room for the first time in his life. He took advantage of this and every inch of his room was covered in toys and posters but his window had the most glorious display of He-Man figures I'd ever seen. I don't know if it was all the He-Man or just Ryan himself but fate had it so that we've been together almost every day since I first saw that display. I don't think it hurt our chances when he saw this TV tray I had in my own collection:
Now, jump to present day and this installment of Action Figure Friday. Today we take a look at Mosquitor!
Truthfully, at first glance I wasn't as familiar with Mosquitor as I am, say, your classic Stinkor. But my visceral memory of pushing that button to churn his chest blood definitely brought some feeling back.
Obviously they had to switch out the classic He-Man body shape given to almost every other MOTU character ever to accommodate the blood-chest feature. As a result, Mosquitor has a classic "long torso". I can attest that having this long torso can been difficult to dress being long in the midsection myself. I've also heard that Lindsey Lohan has a long torso and has to choose blouses and swimwear accordingly. [Reminder to self - Google LiLo to get tips on dress fitting.]
Some other keys talking points of Mosquitor would be his spiffy square moon boots and the general shape of his chest cavity. It looks like it's either a "W", an eagle silhouette, or a bat. None of those makes a ton of sense to me, though if he was prone to hanging upside-down the "W" would certainly be more relevant. Actually, in that case the bat would make more sense too. Don't bats eat mosquitoes? Oh, okay, I get it. Mosquitor is trying to throw them off by identifying as one of them.
I'm not remembering at all this weapon that Mosquitor wields. It has some type of dragon pig hybrid in it and I'm racking my brain trying to think of how this might relate to blood sucking.
You know what? This figure is actually really gross. Churning up a blood factory for sport? Someone thought this would be fun for children? I wonder how many kids went on to be doctors, or vampires, because of their bloody Mosquitor obsessions.
For full effect of the blood sucking action, I would like to present my first interactive videos ever. I think I'll be shopping these around to some festivals so see them here first!
In all, Mosquitor is a solid Masters Of The Universe figure with bonus interactive features. Four tentacles!
As I write, I am finishing up the next batch of "Etsy animals" for May.
I hear the pleasant sound of seagulls in the distance... These ones promise to be fun.
And as always, we will offer a plentiful array of new prints available as well. We hope to release them by this weekend so stay tuned!
On a side note - Last weekend we really lived large in the cheapskate life. We went to the Aurora Colony Auction on Saturday and never bid on anything, though we did make these supplemental bidding cards for ourselves in case the mood struck us:
On Sunday we went for a walk with friends...check out these awesome free items we took from someone's "free stuff" pile in front of their house. Lucy needed a step for her aerobics, Ivalle needed an OPB Radio bag, and Anna needed an outdoor rug. How fortunate!
After living the free life, though, we splurged and spent $3.99 on Slurpees. I'm so excited for warm weather.
That was my initial reaction when this figure was set down in front of me to review. My second thought: this is ridiculous! My third thought: is this some version of Juggernaut? [That's a little shout out the nerdier readers out there except you probably think that I'm crazy for suggesting such a thing to begin with. So really, that reference wasn't necessary at all.]
This is Hulkbuster Iron Man. So, yeah, I get it. You should be big to take on The Hulk. But really - do you have to be? I'm going to have to check with Ryan but it seems like a crafty and creative foe could just as easily take down the Hulk with speed and/or trickery a la Jack and the Beanstalk and about 3000 other fantastic stories. I don't know for sure but I do know that this figure is a little hard to handle - save for one special feature that I will get to in a second. And yes, I fully admit that I don't know the backstory of this figure and there could be very logical reasons for why he is like he is. But I'm just going to approach it like I'm here to review the figure, not the story.
What is up with this airplane he is flying on? Or is it a hooverboard? Because if so, I much prefer the Marty McFly crafted style.
I don't like how the scale of it is confusing. I can't tell if the entire figure is supposed to be bigger than an airplane or if the platform is just strangely puffy. It also reminds me a little of the Playskool Star Wars toys. Something about the sizing and design just seems really inconsistant.
A lot of his joints are pretty hard to bend. For instance, even though I see a hinge in his elbow I can't make his arms straight and I think I'd have to sleep on the couch for a week if I pulled too hard and broke it so he will forever remain of bended arm. The bended arm certainly does lend itself to the high-five again, though. Maybe he and T Hawk should be basketball watching buddies.
The special feature I like is the pop up head shield to reveal operator Tony Stark hidden in the controls of the suit. I like this for three reasons. A) It makes me laugh to pop open the head and see a mustachioed so-and-so inside; B) I like secret compartments in general; and C) It really reminds me of Ryan's drawing "Big Sur-prise" and that drawing always makes me laugh.
This feature is enough for me to pull the rating back up to two tentacles. Lose the hoverboard/airplane and he gets another half point.
