Saturday, August 24, 2013

Snaggletooth Goes Camping!

Hey kids! Just thought I'd check in an share some pics from my recent camping trip.

I know, that's not all too entirely geek-centric, but luckily, as I stopped for gas before hitting the road, I was digging into my backpack to grab my wallet when I found a certain little stowaway. I think he got left behind when I brought a bunch of my vintage Kenner Star Wars figures to work. Well, lucky for him, because it looks like good ol' Snaggletooth is going camping!


We had a good time rocking out to my Pandora Metallica playlist during the 3 hour drive into the National Forrest Preserve.

When we arrived, we found that the majority of the group who had come a day earlier had all gone fishing, so the place was deserted...


Fine by us, since we used that time to get the tent set up. He wasn't a whole lot of help, but he did a good job of supervising...


We did all kinds of fun stuff over the next five days. Like hiking...


Sitting by the campfire...


Snacking on beef jerky...


Take a dip in the river. It was sooooo cold!


For lunch, we grilled hot dogs over the fire...


And slathered them with cream cheese, the Seattle way...


We did a lot of sitting around in our camp chairs, joking and laughing. Snags found one that matched his outfit...


And I can't lie, he had a couple of brewskis. What the heck. It's camp.


He had a lot of fun playing with the dogs until they were worn out from all the adventure...


We even built him a little house!


And there was lots of snacking...


Every night, tired and smelling like wood smoke, we hit the sack in our sleeping bags to get a good night's sleep in the fresh air...


It was one heck of a trip for this little guy and as much as we were all looking forward to getting back home and taking showers, it was a little sad to say goodbye to our faithful favorite campsite for another year...


But we'll be back again next year! And if he's good, I'll be sure to bring Snaggletooth along again.

Friday, August 9, 2013

SDCC Toy Haul Report! Crap Zombie Edition!

Yeah, yeah... I know. I'm hella slow about posting about my SDCC haul. Hopefully the sheer absurdity of what I'm posting today will make up for my laziness.

I'm not usually one for these "art vinyl" types of toys (or "hipster garbage", as the savages on 4-chan like to call them), but working on so many blind box toys lately, and the stunning amount of art vinyl at SDCC has started to sway me quite a bit. At least enough to pick up these two oddballs...







Crap Zombies! Wait... what? Well, I admit that nowhere near hip enough to know anything about these, but I had a moment while browsing around the "toy growers" area at the convention, and there was just something about their shape or size or colors that grabbed me.


I learned a bit more about the designs (and the buttloads of variations) on their website.

I wish I had some hi-brow, hipster, art-scool B.S. thing to say about their "juxtaposition of the complementary colors" or some such nonsense, but I'm just a regular schmuck who happened upon a couple of amazing little critters and had to have them.

And I'm sure their not meant to be played with (their art, for cryin' out loud!), but mad props to the artist for giving them little grippy hands, so I can make them hold laser rifles...


PEW! PEW! PEW!

And that's all I have to say about that.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

I Think I've Got Smurf-Sickness...

We interrupt our regularly scheduled SDCC 2013 Toy Haul Report to point out the fact that Smurfs have been invading my desk (and waking moments) a lot lately.

It all started a while back when I scored a few vintage Smurfs at a local toy show...


Then, I somehow managed to steer away from several various Smurf collectibles at SDCC, which had the reverse effect of causing me to want Smurfs even more once I got back. A classic case of Damn-I-should-have-bought-those-itis.

Which has all led up to me practically losing my mind during a recent Toys-R-Us run when I picked up several new Schleich Smurf PVC figures...


And these unbelievably adorable micro Smurfs from Jakks (I love these little guys so much I can't stand it)...


And even these "just okay" Smurf blind bag figures from Mega Bloks...


THAT'S THREE DIFFERENT STYLE OF SMURF TOYS IN ONE SHOPPING TRIP.

I need help, people.

I've always loved Smurfs, and I make no apologies about it. And more than once I've bought a bunch of these little blue guys (and one gal) only to give them away after a while, but this time I think I'm in it for good.

Oh, and I capped my Smurf-themed shopping spree by buying 10 volumes of Smurf comics on Comixology.

Did I mention that I may need help? Because I may be losing my smurfing mind.