If you didn't enter, you have only yourself to blame!

If you didn't win fourth, though, I guess you can blame me.

From Geeks for Tots, I won fourth place! A $10 gift card to 80sTees.com, two cool bars of geeky soap from Yeung Moxey (50s style robot and R2-D2) and three Star Wars figures from Brian's Toys! Nice!

A big thank you to Geeks for Tots, and I heartily encourage you to check out their sponsors, as well as The Robot's Pajamas and Dinosaur Toy Vault. I'll be checking them out today myself...
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Axe of Hordes, Dread Axe of Darkness, Slicey McCutyaone...

Got my Dread Axe of Darkness from Poe Ghostal and his Points of Acquisition! Then knocked this out on the fly: Bill and Conan are standing on my computer speakers there. (La-zy. Sorry, I worked overtime, and am watching Deadliest Warrior!) Last I checked, he was halfway to sold out, so hurry if you haven't already!

Just an evil looking axe: I absolutely picture it encouraging mayhem. The only downside to getting it? It inspired me to get out a lump of Super Sculpey I had for some reason, and try to carve out a sword, or ray guns, or a .44 Automag for the Warlord, or that Manhunter mask...and the only limit is my imagination my utter lack of sculpting tools and ability. Well, still kinda fun, and I do have a hankering to see I can cobble together a bootleg version of Stormbringer. Maybe next month, since I'm kind of all over the place for the next little bit.

Nice going, Poe, and thanks!

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Post #771: In which I have nothing to complain about...

Quite the opposite, in fact! In December, you may recall I donated some figures for Toys for Tots at the Comic Book Shop for Paul's contest over at Toy Bender! And, with the links, I just wrote this sentence like the end of a game of Clue for some reason...

And, I won second place! I got some Star Wars Order 66 two-packs, a Sideshow Bespin Luke Skywalker figure (here's a review from MWC Toys) and a $50 gift certificate to Big Bad Toy Store!

I attached the review because I'm not a 12-inch collector, and as such don't know much in that area, but that Bespin Luke is probably the nicest toy I've had...ever.

My BBTS order arrived Thursday: a Battlestar Galactica Helo (possibly still on sale in their Winter Clearance!) and DCUC Hawkman and Mr. Miracle! Now, Helo was just because he was on sale, I didn't have any BG figures and wanted to check one out, and I like that he was initially a character that was intended to be written off, and instead has managed to make it to the current episodes. Now that I have his figure, you can rest assured Helo is completely doomed.

But Hawkman and Mr. Miracle I was totally looking forward to. I already had homemade strips written for them, something I almost never do until I have the toys in hand. On the other hand, I was also sweating as their arrival date needed, since reports of Mattel's quality control problems have been making the rounds. Happy to say, both of them came out just fine.

It is only slightly ironic that I received Hawkman, the day after he (and Hawkgirl) were apparently killed, again, in Final Crisis. Why the Hawks? Couldn't kill a Flash again or something?

No, none of that today: today, let's have a big ol' thanks for Paul of Toy Bender and Big Bad Toy Store, and I of course encourage you to check them both out, they're awesome. Thanks again!

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'Yes, I, the Silver Surfer, declare total war on all of humanity, from this moment forward, until...when I forget.'

A big thanks to Fin Fang Doom and Jean-Claude Van Doom at Doomkopf.com, the Legion of Doom! Sorry Silver Surfer: Requiem wasn't your cup of tea, and to be honest? I confess I'm a little sad that I liked the book as much as I did, since I wanted a book to give the critical reaming to. Had the knives out and everything...

Still, as you can tell from the page above, I've been a Surfer fan for a long time. Not from the time of this original issue, though: it's from 1970's Silver Surfer #18, the last issue of his first series: "To Smash the Inhumans!" Written by Stan Lee, pencils by Jack Kirby, inks by Herb Trimpe. (Aside: I bought this in the mid-90's at the late, lamented Red Iguana Comics in Missoula, MT. The logo price tags still behind the backing board. Good little shop, and they got me on Preacher there.)

Even though he's super-pissed on this page, the Surfer's anger was gone by his next appearance, mostly due to an editorial oversight, I believe. He often seems cold and emotionless (and has had his emotions taken away more than once); or just mopey and sad. (I was looking for another panel, where the Surfer takes the proverbial gloves off, but didn't have time to dig for it now. It'll come back.) I think I slightly prefer the Englehart or Starlin style cosmic superheroics to the Stan Lee philosophizing, but I've grown to like that too.

Anyway. Still have to go through those quarter books: a couple might end up as full entries, and some we can just dog out right now: I got all of World War III and 52 #50 for $1.25, and it still wasn't great, for example. But, that'll have to keep 'til later, I'm afraid... Read more!