Sunday Reflections: LOVE

A few days back I had a great day with my family. We were all raking the piles and piles of leaves in our backyard, completely daunted by the task, when my wife had a fun idea. We should spell something with the leaves! We weren't sure if it would work, or what we should spell, so we just kept raking away. Then it hit us, we should spell "LOVE"! We already kinda had an "L" by accident, why not finish it off? Well anyway, here is the result:

Pretty neat, huh? This fun filled day got me thinking about that wonderful 4-lettered word. What is love exactly? What does it mean to love someone? How do you show your love? How do you know you are loved? What are your thoughts on the matter?

Scarecrows In My Pocket

With Thanksgiving approaching I thought it appropriate to share my two little scarecrows.

Here we have the Playmobil Fi?ures Scarecrow and the recent LEGO Scarecrow from Minifigures Series 11. 

I love the Playmobil Scarecrow. He certainly is scary! His Jack-O-Lantern face is very menacing and I like his orange bull cut. His clothes and hat are nice and tattered as well. And what's not to like about a neon yellow pitchfork? This guy's just plain awesome.

The LEGO Scarecrow isn't scary at all, but he's still a great figure. He has a nice print on his torso and his legs. His pitchfork is really nice too. He's perfect for a LEGO Castle MOC or an easy custom Scarecrow figure from The Wizard of Oz. Speaking of which, LEGO Wizard of Oz is a possible future CUUSOO set!

He even has a detailed back-print, which is always a nice bonus with LEGO minifigures.

The fun little crow on his head was borrowed from the LEGO Lone Ranger figure Tonto. Pretty sweet.

Dad's Collection: Peewee Herman

Some of you may have noticed a little poll on the old blog, "What should I be for Halloween?" Well, the costume idea that won out in the end was Pee-Wee Herman! Hurray! Well, sadly, I couldn't for the life of me find a grey suit, a red bow tie, or a nice white pair of dress shoes for a decent Peewee costume. I feel like I totally jipped my loyal readers! I'm so sorry! Can you all ever forgive me!?

I apologize!!!...forgiven???

Man, Pee-Wee's house is so awesome! He doesn't care what time of year it is, he celebrates every holiday all at once. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure is just an amazing movie, I need to buy a copy already, what's wrong with me!

It's too bad, but my wife is absolutely terrified of Pee-Wee and hates him with a passion. So, maybe it's a good thing I wasn't able to get a costume together. 

So, to make it up to you, I decided to feature my Dad's vintage Pee-Wee Herman figure! That's just as cool, right?

The background looks like it's to scale with Pee-Wee! So weird, but cool!

Fantasy Shopping Frenzy!

This week’s assignment from the League: Hake’s Auction #210 Shopping Spree!

It’s become somewhat of a regular feature here, which is great because I personally can’t think of a more fun activity than browsing auction catalogs filled with pop culture gems. This week’s assignment for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers…

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You won the lottery and bought Tony Stark’s mansion, but the rec room could use a little help in the redecorating department after all the renovations. Lucky for you, Hake’s Americana & Collectibles just announced their latest auction. Check out the catalog and go on a  fictional shopping spree to set up the ultimate cave of collectibles.

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Hake’s has given us permission to reuse their photos and descriptions in our responses to this week’s League challenge, just be sure to link back to their auction. One blog entry will be selected to receive $100 credit to spend at Hake’s! Good luck everyone!

As a new leaguer this is my very first fantasy shopping spree. I've never checked out Hake's Americana &Collectibles, so let's see what they've got that tickles my fancy.

Vintage Robots!

One of my holy grails of collectibles would be a nice vintage robot toy, so if I won the lottery I buy every single one! Here are my favorites:

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Now, the cool thing about this book, Robot by Pierre Boogaerts, is that my Dad owns a copy! It's a really nice book to have if you don't have loads of cash to spend on vintage wind-up robot toys. I was actually thinking of posting about it soon so stay tuned for that.

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Gotta get me an Action Planet Robot! This guy's so cool!

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This guy's just classic, gotta have 'im! 

Peanuts!

I love comic strips and Peanuts is one of my all time favorites. These are definitely going in the cart!

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These little figurines are like Precious Moments, only cooler and way more valuable.

Beautiful Little Dead Things!

If you know me well then you know I love dead things. Taxidermy, entomology specimens, skulls, skeletons, and most of all fossils. I have always wanted to own a legitimate fossil, so these beautiful specimens are definitely coming home with me.

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Dragonfly

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Sea Scorpion

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Mesosaurus

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Now, I've probably seen almost every episode of the Golden Girls, but I don't really care to have a signed picture of them. I just thought it was kinda funny that this item was categorized under the "Fossils and Minerals" section!

PEZ!

You know I love PEZ, so I'd snatch up every last dispenser they have! Here are my favorites:

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Spaceman PEZ!

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A couple of nice Witch PEZ dispensers.

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Gotta love these PEZ Pals! They kinda look like Elmer Fudd incognito.

MEGO!

Man, MEGO figures! I have always wanted to own at least one MEGO figure. I would snatch up every single figure! Here are my favorites:

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The name's Bond, MEGO Bond.

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Awww yeah, MEGO Batman!

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Just look at this guy, he's just amazing! To own this would be unreal!

I'm gonna have to stop myself there, this list could go on and on and on and on. What would you get? Here's what other Leaguers would grab:

The Mayor of Neato Coolville wants some monstrous and out-of-this-world swag!

Dex of AEIOU And Sometimes Why scopes out some haunting treasures.

Check out monsters, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Spy vs Spy at Grey's blog, Achievements In Gaming.

Ace in Space!

I picked up this cool GI Joe figure from neat little vintage shop known as Fantastic Mr. Finds.

I totally thought he was an astronaut, what with his helmet and white space suit.

His helmet is removable. Pretty neat!

Turns out he's actually Ace the fighter pilot! This American Hero was released in 1983, so he's as old as me! Also, since he's a fighter pilot n' all, he's 100% complete, well, minus his Skystriker fighter jet of course. But that's okay, he totally looks like an astronaut to me.

Ace makes peace with local life forms.

G.I. Joe Ace figure circa 1983

total cost: $3

Sunday Reflections: Am I Too Old For This?

At our Halloween party I was showing off my amazing garage sale find consisting of scores of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I was as giddy as a school girl over my find, but my brother-in-law jokingly told me "I'm really afraid you're becoming a hoarder."

Ever since Ava started crawling around it's not uncommon to hear me say,"No no baby, those are daddy's toys."

These and other instances make me wonder sometimes. Am I getting too old for this? Should I trade in all my LEGO for a set of golf clubs? Are cartoons really just for kids? Is it really so strange that I prefer "childish" entertainment such as video games, over traditional "grown-up" pass times like golf? (I'm totally not ragging on golf. I even have my Golfing merit badge. It's just one of those games you're "supposed" to play when you get older to network or something. It's just not my game I guess. Well, I hear Mario Golf's pretty good, but I'm starting to ramble here.) I dare say nay! I'm turning 30 soon and I'm not getting too old for this. Rather, I believe I'm getting too old to worry about what people think of my love of all things awesome. 

I know other fellow collectors of awesome have had these same doubts. I'm sure you've all come across well meaning family and friends that feel you should ditch your childhood already. How do you overcome and keep that geek flag flying? Or am I totally off base here? Do I need to "put away childish things" (1Corinthians 13:11)? What do you think?

Frugal Friday: Happy All Saints Day!

It's All Saints Day! Does anyone out there celebrate? I like to celebrate the day with the annual Halloween clearance. 

I was so tempted to pick up more candy, but my teeth still hurt from Halloween, so for once I showed some will power.

I did pick up some discounted Monster Cereal that I missed out on and these awesome Halloween string lights that were 50% off.

They really do look great on our hearth and I have big plans for them for Creepsmas. We've got some big plans for Creepmas this year, it being the first time we've even heard of the new holiday n' all. It's the perfect opportunity to share all the spooky stuff I didn't get around to during the month of October.

Laura and I were also lucky enough to go  see Ender's game today! It was pretty good, I highly recommend it to fans of the book and Sci-Fi fans everywhere. I spotted this LEGO The Movie poster. So many movies to see, so little time!

I just want to take this moment to thank everyone for there comments, follows and support during this, my first ever Halloween Blogathon! It was pretty crazy and I'm so very very tired! It was all worth it though, I loved every moment of it. I'm probably gonna go a little easier on the posts until Creepsmas and Christmas. Don't worry though, I won't completely fall off the map, I turn the big three-oh on November 21st, so I naturally I love Thanksgiving. Until next time, this is Mason, signing off!