Toys for Tots Toy Drive

As a reformed toy collector, I feel that all kids should get to experience the joy of that new toy smell!

From November 6th to the 11th, Walden Media is sponsoring this great toy drive for Toys for Tots. They plan to break the Guinness World Record by collecting over 12,000 pounds of toys from 10 US metro areas. If you are affiliated with a school, library, or community center, see what you can do to get them to participate. Even if you don't live in one of the areas, they will still help you collect and donate the toys, they just won't be weighed for the record. Or, gather some toys and find out who is participating. This is a great cause to support!

To host a drive, sign up at the website below by September 28, 2007.

http://www.walden.com/walden/properties/magorium/toysfortots/toysfortots.php#

I am going to see if my school will host a drive and I might donate some unopened LOTR figures. :)

My Lazy Ass...

As you can see, by the fact that it's been nearly a month since I bothered to make a post...I've been a 30-year old lazy ass. :)

I am, however, in recovery. I joined a gym. Wha??? Yeah, after handing over a major chunk of paycheck (no more collectibles for a while :( ), I am a card-carrying 3-year member of . No, I'm not telling you which one so you can come to point and laugh. I've been going to personal training sessions and I do pilates and yoga every week. I must admit, I do feel somewhat less like a lazy ass, though many, many of my body parts are unhappy about this turn of events. The best part was when my brother's friend (he used to work there, so we decided to hook his friend up with a commission) was entering my info in the computer, looked at the DOB on my CADL and said, "Oh, you've just had a birthday." Waits a few beats and then goes, "Wow, a big one!" Yeah, thanks dude. No need to remind me. At least I still get carded at bars. Though no longer young, I can still look the part...

My brothers and I had some time on our hands today, so we went to see "Shoot 'Em Up," the new Clive Owen movie. I am not typically a Clive Owen fan, but we were thoroughly entertained. I'd been wanting to see it since the panel at Comic Con, where they previewed at least 2 of the major action sequences. It's an over-the-top wink-wink clever action flick, that has very little downtime and a very little running time (1 hr 20 min). Owen's character, Mr. Smith, is Bugs Bunny to Paul Giamatti's Elmer Fudd. Hilarious. Ooh, and a bit cringe-worthy. I'm a pretty jaded movie-goer and even I had to burrow a few times. I really didn't care too much about the characters' backstories, which were blatantly obvious. They really didn't need to explain any of that! :P I'm surprised that it didn't do better than 4th place in its opening weekend against 3:10 to Yuma (I like Russell Crowe far less than Clive Owen, so good luck catching me watching any of his movies!). I don't think it was marketed very well to the target audience, which I'm assuming is males 17-35. Then again, the R rating and post-summer release isn't helpful either.

Oh whatever. I'm going to bed. My lazy ass won't be up again until this afternoon, in case you want to join me for drinks (don't tell my trainer!) tonight! :D

Last Wednesday

I was editing my profile and noticed that the number next to "Age" has changed. This sucks. This couldn't possibly mean that I have to start acting, gulp, my age, does it?

Anal Retentive Obsessive Compulsive Collecting

Okay, so I realized after my last post that I have a problem. It's called "Anal Retentive Obsessive Compulsive Collecting" or AROCC for short. Here's an example of what I mean:



"What's that about?" you might ask yourself. That, obviously, is a pile of business cards. I started picking them up when I was in high school, I think. They're free, they want you to take them, and they're small. I very rarely pass up a business card that is just sitting out in the open. If you're not careful, and you did not offer, I'll sneak one out from off your desk when you're not looking. Most are just from stores and restaurants or from friends and business associates, but I've got some from artists, museums, and I don't know who else. Every once in a while I'll unearth a little stash of them while "cleaning" in my house. That's the obsessive compulsive part.



To serve their useful purpose, I devised this oft-neglected organization system. I have a binder with these card sleeves in it. Business cards are sorted by type. From the picture, I think you can tell where I usually shop for my wardrobe. If you're in the know, you can probably also guess that I'm a UCLA alum (mmm...cookies). Originally, I thought this would be useful. Like, "Oooh, I want to go to -fill-in-the-blank-restaurant-here- tonight, I should make a reservation. Let me get my business card book." Yeah right. I never use this thing. I also haven't put a new card in it since 2002. It may have something to do with increased internet use. Yet, I still compulsively gather the cards. My anal retentiveness makes me feel like it must be perfect or I won't do it at all, so now I have cards sitting in boxes and bowls all over the house.

You may have noticed that it also says "Menus." I collect these too, under the assumption that I might want to order take out sometime. I haven't in years. Now, you might say to yourself that you have a menu drawer or folder too. Well, do you laminate them? Alphabetize them? I didn't think so. I do this with directions and maps too. For years, whenever I went somewhere, I pasted the map into Word and added directions to/from my house. After printing it, you guessed it, laminate and alphabetize. This way, I never had to print the directions again, they were spill-proof, and they looked uniformly tidy. In fact, nearly everything I own that can be alphabetized will at some point in time, be alphabetized.

Okay, enough about my neuroses...I think I've over-shared.

;P

Other Things I Collect

Besides debt. :P

Before I became a "collectibles" collector, I had various and sundry little things that I liked to collect. I amassed a big tangle of keychains, flirted with stamps and coins, but I didn't get obsessed with anything until my Lord of the Rings habit. It was weird because I didn't have a lot of toys growing up, I had moved on to books at about the age of 5. The toys I had would collect dust on a shelf. My brothers were the toy guys (GI Joes, HeMen, Transformers, all that 80s goodness), so it's crazy that I was the one who wound up with hundreds of little plastic men. :)

I do still have a couple of other collections which I cultivate: postcards and shotglasses. I pick them up to mark my travels, but I receive many as gifts as well. Above, a few new items I got in Vegas this week.

With the postcards, I like to get one postmarked, so I mail them to myself. Lame, I know. I will often just stick an address label and stamp on it and draw a happy face. I've mailed myself postcards from Canada, Scotland, England, Wales, and all over the US. When I was studying in London, I brought a sheet of address labels so I could easily send cards to all my friends. There are a few old Chinatown and Disneyland ones from my parents and from friends around the world. A while back I bought a postcard spinner at Pottery Barn that I LOVE! The sales guy tried to sell me on its uses as a photo display, but I really wanted it for postcards. :P Of course, my collection has already outgrown the thing, but whatever. I just signed up for http://www.postcrossing.com/, which sounds promising. Only, I recently discovered that it costs 90 cents to mail a postcard internationally (via a returned-for-additional-postage card), which is more than double the 26 cent domestic rate. What's up with that? I normally would just put two postcard stamps if mailing overseas. Sigh.

As you can imagine, the shotglass habit started about the time I turned 21. Hehe. I had long stopped collecting keychains, but I still wanted a small, ubiquitous collectable I could pick up on my travels, in addition to the postcards. It didn't hurt that these could get some practical use. ;) Since they are breakable, I get a little nervous about using the "irreplaceable" ones. I try not to spend too much on them. The ones I got in Britain usually cost . Whenever possible, I get one that is $1 or less. One favorite is from Maui. My best friend picked it up on her honeymoon, I think, and it has a little island sculpture inside. Another is from Stratford, with a "gold" rim that I paid one pound for at a shop near Trinity Church. I like the standard single and double shot shapes best, though I do have a few novelty ones.

See? Some people are just born collectors. :P

Best Buy 300 Special Edition DVD

So the other day I was whining about selling my Comic Con 300 DVD because Best Buy didn't ship me my Spartan Helmet version:

http://marybluefairy-forest.blogspot.com/2007/08/300-special-edition-dvd.html

Well, amazingly Best Buy came through. :) "Backordered," I think, is code for "We're going to string you along until you can't get a copy anywhere for a decent price and then we're going to cancel your order." Hence, great shock to get an email that it had shipped and then four or five days later, to actually get a package. I don't suppose it has anything to do with the scathing review I gave them when they sent me a customer service survey about my purchase? Hmmm? I've always had horrible customer service from Best Buy, but that's another story. Shipping box was crushed on one side, thankfully all items arrived safely.

First off, even though it seems like it may be made of some type of plastic, it is fairly heavy for its size, approximately 12oz. I haven't compared it to any of my LOTR helms yet, but it looks roughly the same scale. It was actually secured to the bottom of the box insert with what looks like rubber cement. Just FYI, you can safely use a bit of Goo Gone to remove the residue. It's too bad that they didn't use the velvety black material from the SDCC version on the insert in this one. That was classy. ;) Mine is tilting off to one side and there are some small paint appilcation errors, but all in all, it is quite satisfactory considering that it basically cost about $10. I like it much better than the mask, but then again, I have the full sized Immortals mask, and like the helmet, both masks were made by Neca, so there isn't much difference in quality. It's too bad the helmet is not removable, though I suppose there is no purpose for that being the case, is there? Haha...

Inserted with this set is a little bonus, a set of four cards featuring mighty Leonidas. They are about 5x7 inches with the 300 logo embossed on each one. I thought they were going to be trading card size, so I am very pleased with them. I have a slightly larger card of Leonidas holding his shield up in the rain which I got at Comic Con last year that might go nicely with these. So with these, my Immortals mask, arrow, and cardboard shield, I'm starting to have enough 300 stuff to set up a display!

Sorry about the poor images, lighting conditions were not optimal. :P

SDCC 2007: Ebay Watch

I didn't buy nearly as much stuff for myself as most con-goers, but I picked up a couple of goodies and out of sheer curiosity I wanted to see how they are fairing at the 'bay right now. I think all 4 items are now sold out. Not shown are the 3 art prints I bought.

Gentle Giant Glorfindel Bust

LE: 500

MSRP: $50

Ebay: $115-120 (35 auctions)

Probably the hardest to get of the four, by virtue of small edition size and the crappy GG line situation.

Weta Mini-Manmelter Raygun

LE: 500

MSRP: $30

Ebay: $65-70 (4 auctions)

These 4 are unsigned, a signed one went for about $80 recently . Had this pre-ordered, easy-peasy.

Mine is signed. Teehee.

Sideshow Stealth Iron Man Comiquette (Pre-Order)

LE: 1250

MSRP: $300
Ebay: $650-700 (8 auctions)

Ordered this for my brother. Despite the edition size, which is 500 more than what was rumored in San Diego, it is still pre-selling for more than double the MSRP. Crazy. For those that missed out on the red and gold version, I guess this is a slightly less expensive alternative. At the same time, it has light up features, which the other two do not. I wonder which I would choose if I had both...?

Gentle Giant Luna Lovegood Bust

LE: 1000

MSRP: $50

Ebay: $75-80 (40 auctions)

I got this for my sister-in-law, after trying frantically to reach my brother (since I was lucky enough to get into the line, I figured it was better to buy it than not). Of the items listed, this is the only one I'm getting rid of so far. I really don't have any other GG Harry Potter items (she has the new Harry and Cho), though I must admit that they are tempting. I was really eyeballing that large-scale Voldemort with the fabricated um, gown, but the Harry was a no-go.

So that's it. I really only bought one bust, one gun, and three prints. That's some restraint, eh?

Update on the Raygun as of 8/18, I just saw one on Ebay that sold for over $100, unsigned. Impressive gains on a $30 item...the others seem to be levelling off a bit.