Hosive

i have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…

i had been collecting some futurama toys…and some kid robot simpsons toys. then kid robot made futurama toys….i picked up 2 to check them out.

i made a promise to theresa that i would only buy 2 more futurama kid robot figures for a total of 4. well below the 12 available figures out there. i promised. i have kept my promise. in fact, i have not purchased any more futurama kid robot figures at all.

this is the story of how my life works.

theresa’s uncle who works for futurama decides to buy me a whole case of figures. just for fun. no joke. when we arrived in la, he surprised me with it. to theresa’s dismay.

i just shrugged. this is how my life works.

when i went on my graphic novels fast, someone sent me a graphic novel in the mail just because.

on the side of the box, you can see the available characters including 2 chase figures.

the case has a whopping 16 figures in it. it is as big as my daughter. at least when she was in la. in the blog universe, we are still in la and it is still the early fall. i am way behind on my blogging.

the figures are in blind box batch….meaning you don’t know what you will get. what we know is that we we have doubles. theresa’s uncle wants the doubles for his kids(who can say no to that request???). and we get to keep the ones we don’t have already. we take turns opening the boxes……

and this is some of our booty….not bad. aunt su is the big winner, coming up with a lot of rare and special characters.

ironically, i am two figures short of the whole collection. and of course, i have two more figures i am allowed to buy.

but before you run off with the magical ending…the two figures i need are amongst the rarest of the rare. and it looks like kid robot has finished making these figures. sold out.

but that’s ok….these figures were an unexpected gift. and a lot of fun to share with theresa’s family. they were into the blind box, magic thing!

btw, there is some foreshadowing in this photo. foreshadowing is part of this column.

the downside is the waste it takes for westerners to have fun. its an al qaeda motivational shot. speaking of which….they are expected to make a splash in the next 6-7 months. strange that this was not front page news with the ny times.

my boy michael huang of  animediet.net fame snagged me my san diego comic con toynami futurama exclusive this past weekend…apparently, he was the first in line as you can see by the exclusive numbering.

first in line is how we like to roll. will pick up when we head west in the fall right before another visit with the boys.

i  have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…

i’ve been collecting these futurama figures…

wave 6 of toynami’s futurama series of figures came out recently so there are a few milestones reached in my collection. i decided to collect this line because of the quality of the sculpts, there were limited edition figures, and few enough figures to actually be able to get everything without selling my firstborn. then there’s also the build a robot feature….

waves 4, 5 and 6 contained the parts to build the santa robot figure…so now the figure can be assembled. i love the bonus figure program…it tickles the collector in me. something magical about the bonus figure being a robot.

the three waves were also anchored by a justice team theme with alternate sculpts of leela, bender and fry as their superhero identities. the three would battle crime ala the justice league or the super friends of dc fame. so this subset of collecting has also been completed.

we got another member of the planet express team….amy wong. she’ll go well with the kif kroker figure as well. the relationships between the released figures are filling out.

after trying to communicate that these figures were not for kids by giving an age range…something like for 13 and up, they went explicit by labeling these as toys for grown ups with jobs. but the choice of the wording-adult collector-gives me the willies.

finally, we go robot building again! here is the glorious bonus figure assembled!

having completed 6 waves and also been lucky enough to get all the convention exclusive and variants, i will soon post pics of the related figures in assorted formations and line-ups.

btw, it is the weekend of the san diego comic con where i’ve sent my former student to help me scoop up this year’s exclusive!

i already have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…

the only toys i am currently collecting are the futurama series….well made figures…but a small enough allotment that it’s an affordable luxury. and they don’t come out very often. perhaps 2 figures every 3-4 months. and they are usually late.

in addition,  there’s the build a robot draw that i’m a sucker for. each figure in the set comes with a part to build an additional figure….6 figures become 7!

once my daughter is born, we’ll see what she’ll collect. and perhaps i’ll pass the collecting gene and torch to the next generation.

here is wave 5….

a robot fest this time with calculon……the soap acting ham.

and a bender variant as his super hero alias…super king.

both come with a part to build the killer santa robot. one more wave of figures and off to robot building!!

i already have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…

i’ve been collecting the futurama line of figures and showcasing them the past year. 6 figures in waves of 2 have already come out along with a host of variant/chase figures available mostly at comic conventions and online deals.

the first three waves proved popular enough for toynami to come out with another three waves. i was disappointed that they did not come out with more of the regular cast like professor farnsworth or hermes but we will get amy wong later on. however, we do get the start of the justice team variants of fry, bender and leela. toynami had to make money…and more of the popular characters will get new and casual buyers. hardcore collectors are in no matter what.

up first is captain yesterday.

stranger is the selection of nudar from the new movies. i am guessing this character was not a good choice….i saw three of these left while there were none of the captain yesterday. i’m sure there are more popular secondary characters to produce….must have been a favorite of the higher ups at the toy company.  i’m a completist…but the new and casual crowd probably said no thanks…

the other motivation driving me other than my ocd to purchase is that i wanted to build this…..

the variant robot santa figure….the build a robot program is still up and running. each figure has a part….buy all the figures in the next three waves and assemble the bot. i am a sucker for stuff like this. i love the 7 figures for the price of 6 nonsense.

another two waves and we go robot building.

the sculpting on these toys are excellent. they look like what their on screen counterparts look like….no easy feat. there are many a action figure that look like some overweight version of the character. or flat out not look like them at all. the downside of the line is that they do not always stand well. that is an indirect confession that i take the toys out of their original packaging……these toys are for me to enjoy…not someone else. they can have them at the discounted price when i’ve passed on.

i already have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…

the simpsons toy line made by playmates(not those playmates)is regarded as one of the best toylines ever made along with gi joe, transformers, the original star wars figures lines and cabbage patch kids. welcome to the toy subculture. in japan, the subculture is actually mainstream…more extensive and involved…intimidating if not scary.

the history of the simpsons playmates line is too extensive to recap on my site. but there is an excellent article with pictures of every figure and diorama from the line here. you don’t have to read the whole thing….just look at the pictures(i feel a weird playmates theme arising).

this is theresa’s workstation. at her office, there is a culture of collecting and displaying toy collections from robots to kinder egg toys to the current vinyl toy craze. theresa features our simpsons figure collection by bringing in a different diorama and cast of characters every few months.

with so much snow during this winter, i think of where kids would go on snow days back in my time….the comic shops were full and so were the arcades. “not safe enough to travel for school” said the officials but the kids knew better…it was a free play day. snow got old fast and the budding video game culture was being born in the 80′s…snow was a midwife.

to commemorate, the simpsons has this diorama of an old school arcade depicting a time when the place had more of a mystique. before you could own a video game system…or two…and play in your own living room.  this was the only place for this kind of magic. it was usually ruled by jimbo, dolph, kearny and other thugs. good kids went at their own risk…but when they did….i can attest to the joys of galaga when my mom wasn’t looking or there was a window of time unaccounted for.

the set comes with jimbo but i had to find and acquire the rest of his gang. sometimes bart joins them.

happy snow days!

in early december, we attended the jam packed uglycon at the giant robot nyc and had a great time seeing the exclusives, art and prints….and hanging out with rabid ugly doll fans. it was also fun getting called in the raffle early to get access to some of the limited edition merch.

look how happy we look.

we limited ourselves to only one purchase of art….and theresa decided on the yakatori on the left with uglydolls waiting to eat at a japanese food stand though she was also interested on the one behind this young fan with the uglies in monster costumes. success! getting in early, we had our pick of the litter and got the framed version of the yakatori.

the whole ugly exhibit would be up for another month but after that we would be able to pick up the print.

but when we called to see if we could come by to retrieve the print, we were told that there was a mix up and the yakatori had been sold to someone else earlier in the day. this is not us disappointed but rather the manager telling us to pose angry and we obliged!

giant robot apologized profusely and bent over backwards to make amends. luckily, they had an unframed version of the print we purchased and offered a choice of either an unsold framed print or two unframed prints for free! they even said we could purchase anything in the store at the employee discount rate! we declined on using any more moola but we left the store with these:

we chose free art over free framing….we figure that we can always buy framing…but we can’t always buy art.

some of these pieces should look good in the baby room! anyone know a good framer?

Posted under android dungeon/card shop, uglydolls

i already have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…

we know that president elect obama collects comics. he was featured in a special issue of spiderman this past week…….

but, look at what the younger obama daughter collects…….in the bottom left of the photo above.

the same dolls my sweet t collects!

uglydoll.com is reporting that sasha obama has a mini version of babo’s bird. theresa owns the mondo version of the same ugly doll….her birthday present last year.

daddy obama has his blackberry….sasha has her babo’s bird! more ugliness to come!

happy inaugaration weekend!

i have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that we are all collectors. its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…what’s your poison of choice? my father in law collects expensive liquors and figurines. i have a friend who collects lighthouses. my mom loves little trinkets and toys. my dad collects pieces of wood. no joke.

i collect all kind of things…too many things…

theresa collects a series of dolls called uglydolls….they are only mildly ugly and mostly cute. though some of them have facial hair. the irony is that while we have over a dozen of these dolls, we have not actually purchased many of them ourselves. most of them are generous gifts from friends! this is what happens when you collect stuff…people wind up helping you out. in this case….helping us out a lot. our collection has grown without buying one for years at a time.

since we started “collecting”, the dolls have taken off and are an industry. part of the scene are these uglycons/uglyconventions around the world including sf, la, tokyo and now nyc. art, chance to meet the creators to get autographs and sketches, exclusive figures and limited edition merchandise have drawn crowds at each of the cons.

the nyc con was held at the tiny giant robot storefront in the east village….here’s what is was like that day……

hanging at the top were hand made exclusive, one of a kind figures going for hundreds. there were also one of kind art pieces also for hundreds. which left us pretty much the option of buying more affordable(and reasonable) prints and limited edition dolls(as seen in the lower corner…these are variant figures in different colors and accessories like them wizard and sailor hats)….note these pictures include foreshadowing.

the con was packed…wall to wall on the inside of the store…….

and on the outside. a raffle was held to determine the order that we would enter to have a chance to buy the goodies. there was no guarantee that we would get any exclusives! or that the exclusive(s) that we want would still be available once we got to go in. it turns out that people would wait for hours…hours! as they waited for their raffle ticket to be called.

as reported elsewhere, the crowd was so big that it blocked traffic to the anger of the local residents. one unfriendly started swearing at the crowd that was comprised of mostly kids! the adults yelled him inside! but later, during the costume contest, he pour cold water on the kids from his window. it was already cold enough….and the kids were drenched. wow. ugly.

while outside, theresa and i debated what we would get. though she was in love with the plaid exclusives, they  were not figures we liked and the price was hard to justify. so we settled on perhaps a print and a few limited edition variant figures.

we were about the eighth raffle ticket to be called. i was so excited that i cried out nerdily: “we won”…we got in relatively early….15-20 minutes in…as opposed to the aforementioned hours! some of theresa’s bridemaid’s relatives told us that they waited at least an hour and a half!

here’s theresa’s prize….sailor ice bat. it is a 1 of 25 in the whole world plush! theresa also picked out a print that will be on display until early january.

and i got this…weird…um…christmas poe? on that note, merry christmas!!!!

ok…this is it. we did get a krusty. so yay! but we also got sideshow bob….a repeat from last week. methinks the show is over…for now. that’s enough repeats.

the reality is that these figures were bought weeks ago….and a lot of my entries are not written in real time but actually sometimes weeks or months after things happen. i don’t really like to be so up to the minute that people(predators)can track us.

after we got these two, we went on to to buy 4 more boxes…all repeats. so we just stopped. it was too painful. it became no fun and a little bit of a drag. we didn’t even discuss it. we just stopped. we may buy more but we will take a break.

so while there will be an episode of android dungeon and baseball card shop next week, it will be of something other than simpsons. it will be of a collection where we know what we’ll get before we open it…and before we buy it. see you next week.