I spent last weekend at Anime Boston, a convention for Anime fans.  Like comic conventions, they have panels, people dressed as characters, costume contests, artists signings, dealer rooms, etc.  I hope to cover several aspects of the convention over a series of blogs.

One panel we attended was "The Chibi Project." 

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When the end result shows up in the mail in bunches, it makes the soreness in the morning and the aches and pains when I roll into my condo at 11:30pm each night worth it.  My boss at the piano store (where I have my packages sent) was kind enough to drop them into my Jeep while I was at work this evening.  I opened them up and suddenly had a pile of rarities on my counter.  Between this and a visit from a certain very attractive female this evening (hopefully more on that later), life is definitely very good right now.

For those that aren’t familiar, in that picture are the following : PlayFul Super Amigos Penguin (alternate card artwork than any other release), Gulliver Robin (alternate card artwork than any other release), 33-back Green Arrow (one of the rarest production releases from the Super Powers line…certainly less than 10 known to exist), and one of the catalog-exclusive Secret Wars 2-packs (sealed baggies!).

A big "thank you" to Joe G. for trading me the Robin & Penguin.  He’s a stand-up guy and really appreciates my passion for this line.  Hopefully sometime in the future I can repay him 10-fold.  He’s one of the reasons I stay at AFI…a really cool cat. 

A good day, and now I can sleep.  

Peace,

Chip

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For those who don’t check LOLCat on a daily or weekly basis, I thought this was hilarious and wanted to share it with y’all :

Peace,

 Chip

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Between the years 1987 and 1996 writer/illustrator Mark Schultz composed 14 issues of comic brilliance called Xenozoic Tales. I struggle not to sound trite when describing Mark’s visual art and storytelling. I find when rereading Xenozoic Tales, for instance, I get stuck on certain beautiful panels that leave me just shaking my head in awe. In the early 90′s Xenozoic Tales was adapted into an animated TV series. Between 1993-94 the rebranded Cadillacs and Dinosaurs cartoon ran for 13 episodes. Saturday morning cartoons mean toys and Tyco was the one to pick up the license (for better or for worse.)

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Yesterday President Obama observed Memorial Day in the tradition of sitting U.S. presidents, by placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington, D.C. Before the ceremony, a number of university professors petitioned the White House, urging Obama “to end a longstanding practice of sending a wreath to a monument to Confederate soldiers on the cemetery grounds.” Despite their call to “break this chain of racism,” Obama continued the Confederate monument wreath-laying tradition. But he may have started a new one, sending a second wreath to the African American Civil War Memorial honoring more than 200,000 blacks who fought for the North.

Speaking before more than 4,000 veterans and family members at the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater, Obama paid tribute to the nation’s fallen in his first Memorial Day address as commander-in-chief. “I cannot know what it is like to walk into battle,” he said. “I’m the father of two young girls — but I can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a child. These are things I cannot know. But I do know this: I am humbled to be the commander in chief of the finest fighting force in the history of the world.” Speaking of those who chose to serve and those who made the ultimate sacrifice, Obama said, “They answered a call; they said ‘I’ll go.’ That is why they are the best of America, and that is what separates them from those of us who have not served in uniform — their extraordinary willingness to risk their lives for people they never met.”

In his weekly address, President Obama acknowledged that “we, as a nation, have failed to live up” to “the responsibility” of serving America’s veterans “as well as they serve all of us.” “We have failed to give them the support they need or pay them the respect they deserve,” he said, adding, “That is a betrayal of the sacred trust that America has with all who wear — and all who have worn — the proud uniform of our country…and that is a sacred trust I am committed to keeping as President of the United States.” Indeed, according to a recent Center for American Progress (CAP) analysis, “many men and women who have served our country…are still in need of services to improve their quality of life — before, during, and after deployments.” Almost one in five Iraq and Afghanistan vets experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and yet only 53 percent of those suffering from PTSD or major depression have seen a physician. Attempted suicide and substance abuse rates among veterans have skyrocketed since 2003. More than 150,000 vets were homeless on any given night in 2007, with nearly 300,000 being homeless at some point during that year. Moreover, vets make up one-third of homeless Americans, even though only one-tenth of all adults are veterans. The economic downturn has hit vets hard as well. The CAP analysis notes that “foreclosure rates in military towns were increasing at four times the national average” last year. Additionally, “more than 75 percent of veterans report ‘an inability to effectively translate their military skills to civilian terms.’”

In his address yesterday, The President reminded Americans of the servicemen and women who have fallen in the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. “A quarter of a million marble headstones dot these rolling hills in perfect military order, worthy of the dignity of those who rest here,” he said. “Today, some of those stones are found at the bottom of this hill in Section 60, where the fallen from Iraq and Afghanistan rest. The wounds of war are fresh in Section 60. A steady stream of visitors leaves reminders of life: photos, teddy bears, favorite magazines. Friends place small stones as a sign they stopped by. Combat units leave bottles of beer or stamp cigarettes into the ground as a salute to those they rode in battle with. Perfect strangers visit in their free time, compelled to tend to these heroes, to leave flowers, to read poetry — to make sure they don’t get lonely.” “[I]t doesn’t take being Commander-in-Chief to honor the fallen,” Iran and Afghanistan Veterans of America Paul Rieckhoff said yesterday, adding, “This Memorial Day, I hope you add your own words of remembrance for the brave men and women that have heroically served this nation, and perished on the battlefield. It is the duty of every American to ensure that they are never forgotten.”

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Well, hello everybody!  I thought I’d switch things up a bit this week and do my first Secret Wars highlight.  Not just content to give an overview of some common ruffian, I’m starting things off with a bang and putting the spot light squarely on Electro.

As most Secret Wars collectors know, the line had been canceled after series two and Mattel decided to ship off the three figures currently in production to overseas markets.  Of course, what that means today is that the three said figures…Electro, Constrictor, and Iceman, usually command pretty steep prices on the collector’s market.  That’s not the only thing those characters have in common, though.  None of the three actually appeared in the Secret Wars maxi-series, which was a common theme to the Mattel Secret Wars figure line.  It makes you actually wonder what they were thinking back then…did they want a Marvel Figure line to combat Kenner’s Super Powers line, and they just figured they’d use the big Marvel event title to hitch their star to?  Mysterious decision.  Not only that, but a LOT of major players in both the series itself and the Marvel Universe proper were ignored in favor of more obscure characters.  However, looking at the line today that definitely contributes to the charm of it.  Based off of Secret Wars, yet really having nothing to do with Secret Wars, it’s a fun line to collect.  Most of the pieces are readily had (though not with clear bubbles, especially series 2), and there are some rarities that aren’t THAT difficult as well as most of the vehicles being affordable.  Electro is one of the rarities that isn’t THAT difficult to obtain.  One seems to pop up every month or so on eBay.

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Please take a few moments today, tonight, this week, to appreciate all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. So many of us truly don’t understand the cost our military has endured, and what the families left behind have lost. Perhaps instead of simply remembering those we lost in grievances of the past we can work to prevent the grievances of the present and future.

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A letter from the Clerk of the Court of Okmulgee County arrived saying I was being summoned for jury duty on March 3^rd. Ended up on a civil case where a young man was terminated because he hired an attorney to handle his worker’s compensation claim when his employer violated state law and didn’t pay him 70% of his regular salary while he was disabled. All this transpired in 2003 and he just got his day in court. He was asking for back wages from the time he was terminated in September of 2003 until he found employment in late November although it was for less money that he had been making. And he was only making $8/hour at the job he was fired from!

Oklahoma is a right to work state. What that means is that you can be fired at any time for no reason and you have no recourse. That is only a tiny step above servitude. So, most employer’s and the managers that work for them here generally treat subordinates like Charlie Chaplin in Hard Times. There is one caveat to the law which prohibits terminating an employee who was injured on the job and draws worker’s compensation. What was so amazing about the case was that one of the interrogatories clearly showed that the company lied about the facts surrounding the case, specifically claiming the plaintiff had abandoned his job 6 months prior to his actual firing and while he was under medical care while on worker’s compensation. Further, they claimed that upon his return to work after medical release that he quit because he refused to work in a particular job; yet the company didn’t protest his filing for and receipt of unemployment benefits. Clearly violations of the termination law.

As unbelievable as it may sound I ended up being selected as the foreman and was able to persuade the two holdouts of the jury that the young man had a viable claim and pointed out, with the assistance of several other jurors who agreed with my view, the discrepancies in the defense’s case. Then we set about computing the damages. It was really funny to see my fellow jurors bewilderment on how to approach this issue. So I said that we had to set some parameters. I suggested that we could use his salary as reported to the State Unemployment Office as a base which was $18,839. I then divided the amount by 12 months ($1,533.17 or $1,533) and multiplied that by the last three months of 2003 and the first three months of 2009 ($9,198) and then added that amount to his cumulative salary for 2004 through 2008, a period of 5 years ($94,195) for a total of $103,393. I then deducted $387.00 for a two week job he held until he found a full time job. THEN, I calculated 70% of that amount, or $72,104.00 because when you receive unemployment in Oklahoma you get 70% of your salary. That was acceptable to the rest of the Jury and we awarded that amount as actual damages. We then added $18,839 as punitive damages and he received $90,943.00 to send a message to employers in Oklahoma as well as compensate the plaintiff for his diligence in pursuing his wrongful termination.

I gotta tell you, I felt really good about the outcome of the trial. It really grates me how employees are treated in Oklahoma. Maybe, just maybe this trial went a little way in correcting what I see as a gross injustice. It wasn’t changing the course of mighty rivers or bending steel in my bare hands, but, for a few minutes, I certainly felt like a masked marvel.

What was surreal about the trial was that the lawyer for the defendant looked exactly like the Ventriloquist from the original animated Bruce Timm Batman cartoon series. I swear to god! This man could have been the model for creating the character. It was eerie. He had this large case (one of those that are used to carry samples by some sales people) that contained reams of paper, but I kept expecting him to pull out Scarface with his tommy-gun and mow us all down in the jury box!

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So my girlfriend and I encountered something peculiar at a local Wal-Mart on May 1^st. This particular store had previously reduced the space dedicated to G.I. JOE figures to one peg for singles and one peg for comic book two-packs, in addition to its glut of Combat Heroes sets. When I walked into the action figure aisle that evenening, however, they had expanded JOE’s area to five pegs for single figures and two pegs for the comic packs. What was really interesting, though, was what was on those pegs.

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I just watched the trailer for Superman / Batman: Public Enemies, the next WB/DC Animated movie on the main page of this site.  And I was moved to write.  If you’ve been reading these for a while, you know I have very opinionated views about comics.  Superman/Batman is a series that I highly recommend. 

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The dog ate my homework.

Seriously.

I was done with this blog.  Finished.  Just putting the "Peace, Chip" on the end.  

I hit "Save Draft."

It came back empty.  

So…given who I am and my certain sense of humor, I have to say the following :

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 May 16, 1990.  That’s the day the world lost a very unique individual — Jim Henson.  (more…)

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Welcome to my latest Super Powers Highlight!  I apologize for the relatively lengthy delay between entries.  I didn’t have access to a digital camera to take some decent shots for the blog here, but I got a chance to not only borrow one but also purchase a nice used Nikon off the ‘Bay…so hopefully no more interruptions of a week or more on these.  I’m having a blast putting them together, and will actually get to a figure next time that three of my readers have suggested…ya feelin’ me, android fans?

Anyhoo…no, you’re not seeing double, and you don’t need your eyes checked.  This blog is about Two Riddlers.  Why two, you ask?  Well, for most average Super Powers collectors, it is known that the line is essentially 35 figures, and not 34 as indicated by the backs of the final series’ cards plus Clark, of course (Thanks Joe!).   For most anal-retentive-obsessive-compulsive Super Powers collectors, it is known that the line is essentially 36 figures (and possibly 37)…but we’ll get into that "abominable" mess at another time.

So, about that 35th figure.  Well, the Pacipa Toy Company of Argentina decided to throw their own little curve ball over the Super Powers plate and make a nifty repaint of the Kenner Green Lantern figure.  Thus, "El Acertijo" (The Riddler) was created.  As I stated before, most people would actually search this guy out to "complete" their collections and for most of them it’s a grail piece.  Difficult to obtain, and usually costly.

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Know the following before we proceed:

I have never loved any geekery more than Star Trek: The Original Series and its accompanying movies.

I am a stickler for and lover of continuity in sagas/universes/stories.

I am generally a great fan of J.J. Abrams’s work.

I hated some of the things I heard Abrams say about his attitude toward original Trek and his intent to re-imagine it.

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Last week I blogged about my 10 Most Wanted figures for Hasbro’s super-cool new Marvel Universe line. This week I wanted to do the same for one of my other favorite toy lines: Mattel’s DC Universe: Infinite Heroes.

Most AFI readers know that I’ve been championing this line since it first debuted at the 2008 Toy Fair. A 3-3/4" DC line has long been a dream of mine, and I’ve been thrilled that DC finally brought that dream to toy shelves. 

So, without further ado, my Top 10 Most Wanted Infinite Heroes figures (at least as of this writing):

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