Lego Minifig of the Week! #22

Random Toy Pic #26

Knock Off Iron Man (with removable mask) from Fabio.

Video Blog #26

Not Quite Dukes of Hazzard Toys...

So, no, today's spotlight collectibles are not technically "toys" but they are a major part of my collection, brought me the same amount of joy as a chaild and nicely wrap up "Dukes of Hazzard" week here on the blog.

I'm talking about my vintage Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox, thermos and digital watch!

I scored this lunchbox and thermos as a set at the last Emerald City Comic Con. The guy wanted $50, I talked him down to $40 and to be honest, he was probably thrilled to have found the one Dukes fan in the entire convention, at least according to the look of relief on his face. 

It's in almost pristine condition, having fared far better than the very same one that accompanied me on my many adventures throughout the 3rd grade. In fact, in the world of grade school lunch rooms, the lunchbox you carried said a lot about you and often weighed heavily on how popular you were. Needless to say, my Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox spoke volumes about my character, thus declaring to my fellow students that I possessed a strong appreciation for fast cars, a certain disregard for the law and women in very short shorts.

One of may favorite aspects about this lunchbox, and most lunchboxes of this era, is the series of exciting action shots on all sides. Above we see the General Lee defying gravity once again over a pair of crumpled Hazzrd County Deputy's patrol cars. Actually, the patrol cars above are labeled "POLICE", but we all know that Hazzard County was "protected" by an elected Sheriff and his deputies, never mentioning if the main town had their own city police force, which I assume they didn't.

Here we see the General Lee's famous ability to come flying down from the sky and causing be-striped muscle cars to flip over in a ball of flames. Wait... what? I see that this artist was the type of fellow to just run with things.

My favorite shot is the brilliant panel above showing Cooter and Boss Hogg running away from a side-wheely-ing General Lee. Maybe they're afraid that they'll burst into flames like the muscle car. Actually, Cooter doesn't look all that concerned.

And finally, rounding out the collection is this priceless little gem. I received a watch identical to this one for Christmas of 1981, which, if memory serves, wasn't very water resistant, proven so when I jumped into the local community pool the following Summer with it still on. Still, despite it not working, I wore the waterlogged blank-faced watch on my wrist for pretty much the rest of the Summer until my Mom finally made me take it off.

So, that ends Dukes of Hazzard week! Ya'll come back now, y'hear?

Lego Minifig of the Week! #21

Payback Stormtrooper for Chunky B!

Next up in my series of art pieces designed to payback some of the kickass fellow bloggers that have sent me cool stuff in the mail is this Stormtrooper piece for Chunky B of Eclectorama fame. I tried to include some of the more famous Stormtrooper moments, like getting taken out by a rock thrown by an Ewok.

Enjoy, Chunky B! I'll be mailing your signed print soon!

Random Toy Pic #25

"The Dixie Chargers" from Midgetoy. One of the more blatant Dukes of Hazzard knock-offs from the early '80s. The "General Lee" car has the number 89 on the side, you know, so folks didn't get confused.

Lego Minifig of the Week! #20

Lego Minifig of the Week! #19

Another Hiatus...

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'll be off to San Diego for a couple of weeks again for work, so the ol' toy blog will be taking a long nap. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Lego Minifig of the Week! #18

Random Toy Pic #24

Kids' Rock-n-Roll T-shirts!

Here's a couple of t-shirt designs I did a while back. I really tried to break out of the usual style that my former employers produced, and unfortunately, that earned them a spot in concept limbo, never to be produced. Whatever, I still thought they were cool.

Food Frights!

Another idea for a line that I came up with at my old job was a series of t-shirts with accompanying toys that were sort of what you'd get if plastic toy food had babies with a bunch of Madballs. This was our "gross out" line that we ended up calling "Food Fright".

Sadly, the idea was so great that they immediately took it away from me and gave it to another guy!

Oh well... Here's the logo that I came up with that was eventually used as the hangtag for the shirts...

And here are my original concepts for the toys, which would have been the same kind of squishy foam that the old Madballs were made of, which is quite perfect for throwing at other people. (click the images to view monster sized)

Lego Landspeeder!

From yet another awesome toy care package from a fellow toy blogger, this time the mighty Chunky B of Eclectorama fame, comes this classic Lego Landspeeder from the first series of Star Wars Lego sets (back when the figures were all still yellow).

I missed out on this entire series when it first came out (back in 1999), so I'm pretty friggin stoked to finally get my greedy mitts on this set! I know it's kind of old, and probably worth a bit of moola, but I don't care. I just had to crack this baby open and put it together!

Since my real love for Lego centers around the minifigs over the actual building pieces (which was the other way around for me as a kid), I can't help but find this little Luke and Ben Kenobi simply adorable! Although, this Obi-wan actually looks more like a gray-haired George Lucas.

The Landspeeder itself is a gem! 

And now I can finally re-enact famous silver screen moments from A New Hope such as this scene when Ben tells these Stormtroopers to bugger off. (I don't actually have any Stormtrooper minifigs or a C3PO, so I had to improvise.)

So, thanks Chunky B! Now I can have really, really, really tiny lightsaber duels! Pzzzhheeeooowww! Vwhhhoooommm! Ptch-OW! Vwhooom! Vwhoom!

Zombie Kid!

Here's a little quick illustration I did for a Halloween make-up kit. You may see it in store this year, so keep your eyes peeled! (And the doors boarded up...)

Lego Minifig of the Week! #17

This was my very first Lego Minifig way back in 1978. I loved these guys so much, I was inspired to permanently declare it...

Skate Themed T-shirt Designs!

Just showing off a style I experimented with at my old job. I think that these designs sold and you can find them in boys' sizes in JC Penny. But don't quote me on that.

Random Toy Pic #23

Chocolate Monsters!

One of the funnest things that I got to design at my old job are sticker packs! This is a sheet that I did for this odd little chocolate themed gift pack. NOM NOM NOM!