SDCC 2013 Toy Haul - Part 3!

I know that these aren't the most exciting things in the world, but my recent love for all things old school Disney and my love for tin collectibles and my love for tiny figures all collided into one glorious set of objects in these old school Disney tin figures...

Seriously, I couldn't love these more if I tried. And believe me, I'm trying. But I just can't.

More stuff to come! We're just getting started!

Vintage Disney Wonderful World Lunch Box!

So, my vintage lunch box addiction has gone full-blown. I'm in deep, people. I don't exactly know what it is that I I suddenly love about them. Perhaps it's that I've been working on tin products for the past few years and I'm starting to see the artistry in the graphics and embossing. Or maybe I just like how they look all lined up on my shelves.

Either way, you guys and gals can count on a lot more lunch-box-centric posts from me in the coming months.

My latest acquisition is this beauty of a lunch box from 1980 featuring Disney's heavy hitters within Disney World backdrops.

The front shows Mickey acting as the engineer of an old-timey railroad engine, accompanied by Pluto and only one of Donald's nephews, which is weird to think that Huey, Dewey and Louey went out and did stuff on their own every now and then. Where are the other two? At the dentist? Freaks me out.

The flip side is less exciting and I guess they were trying to promote some ice skating show. Still, that's a lot of showgirl thigh to be showing on a kids lunch box.

What I really love are the side graphics, which serve as a virtual tour of Walt Disney World. Under the handle we see  Mickey, Donald, Pluto and two of the three nephews gettin' all space-agey in a rocket ride.

We also get to see Goofy acting goofy in front of a hippopotamus...

Here's a beautiful scene of Donald going through the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Incidentally, this happens to be one of my favorite scenes on the Disneyland version of the ride.

But my favorite has to be the shot of Mickey running in mortal terror from a few Haunted Mansion ghosts...

Now, unlike most of my vintage lunch boxes, this bad boy came with a Thermos. The graphics echo the scenes from the lunch box, with more pirates, hippos, trains and ghosts.

I normally don't care about the Thermos, but if I do get one with my vintage lunch box scores, I much prefer these cylindrical ones with the graphics all the way around.

I scored this baby for about $20, but it looks like a million bucks on my shelf.

Many more lunch boxes to come!

When You Wish Upon a Deathstar...

As a person who runs a geek-centric blog, and as a self-professed total Star Wars nerd, I figured I should take a moment to throw out my two cents on the whole Disney-purchasing-Lucasfilm thing.

Now, I remember when Disney purchased Marvel and everyone freaked out (including me) and we spent several weeks slogging through countless mash-ups of things like Spider-Man wearing Mickey Mouse ears and Donald Duck dressed as Wolverine. And then life went back to normal. So I'm doing my best to remember that latter part and skip right to the normality.

But I do have a few thoughts on this that I thought I should at least put out there and then move on. So here goes...

First off, after I had time to pick my jaw up off the floor, I came to the realization that I'm actually okay with all of this. And the following thoughts will explain why.

Disney can't ruin Star Wars for me, because it has already been ruined (for me, personally) by Lucas himself. I've had to turn my back on anything created post-Jedi and just pretend it doesn't exist. So if Disney makes some horrible Star Wars movies, what do I care? I'll just add them to the other pile of trash that I actively ignore.

This also gives me a glimmer of hope. Before Disney bought Marvel, their movies were not great. The first Spider-Man was pretty good, but that was about it. Then Disney bought Marvel and suddenly we had Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and then the greatest superhero movie I have ever seen (I'm not exaggerating), The Avengers. So just imagine if that happens to the Star Wars universe.

Other writers and directors taking a swing at a Star Wars movie who aren't George Lucas? Yes please. If you doubt that scenario, my I submit to you The Empire Strikes Back.

THE POSSIBILY OF AN ENTIRE STAR WARS THEME PARK!

And finally, I have been expecting a total of 9 Star Wars movies since I was 7 years old. And no matter how horrible the last trilogy was, that little 7 year old in me still gets excited about 3 more Star Wars films. Again, it gives me hope that if it's all done well, the whole thing can be saved. This is literally A New Hope for me. What if the new movies are brilliant? What if the characters and locations take us back to the same feeling we experienced in the first trilogy? Just the thought of that gets me excited, and no matter how bitter I am about the prequels, I'm still willing to dive in as a fan once more, ready to re-embrace Star Wars.

To sum up, I'm not going to join the haters who are crying about the death of Star Wars. I do honestly believe that it will live on and can only be improved from here on, by people who are ready to take a fresher look at my most beloved science-fictional universe. I may be wrong, of course. They could make it all completely suck even worse, but again, that'll just put me right back to where I am now, ignoring everything else outside of the original trilogy. But I'm hopeful that won't happen.

I guess we'll all see in the end. In the meantime, I'll try to keep my cool and calmly watch it all unfold.

How do you all feel about it? Share your thoughts!

Video Blog #21