Creepy Cruisers: The Street Creeper

As you may know I love spiders. So this week's Creepy Cruiser is probably my favorite by far. Everything about this Hot Wheels car is just superb. I can totally see a little spider crawling into the driver's seat and driving off in style!

Very nice paint job, I love it! Great colors.

This little lady has eyes in the back of her head!

Nice attention to detail!

Please, if you spot the Street Creeper cruisin' done your street, have a heart and don't squash it! It's a beautiful little vehicle!

I don't know how the Street Creeper handles on official Hot Wheels track, but I would love to find out. If you have any spare Hot Wheels track laying around or any diecast cars that would fit into the category of "Creepy Cruiser" then please let me know! Thank you!

Also, turns out I'm not the only one that loves terrifying little automobiles. Be sure to check out Dex's Halloween Garage at AEIOU!

Sunday Reflections: Learning With LEGO

It's no secret that my favorite toys are LEGO sets. There are just so many possibilities, you can really let your imagination run wild. If you don't like coming up with your own creations you can always just follow the directions and still have a fun old time, all whilst developing your brain.

 Here's what the kids came up with.

   

LEGO bricks aren't solely for the mind, they can be a tool in the hands of God! Today we used a Primary activity we found at Sugar Doodle. We split the children into groups and had them choose one of 2 bags. One bag is labeled "bad choices" and one is labeled "good choices." The bad choices bag was filled with twigs and a glue stick, while the good choices bag was filled with LEGO pieces. We then asked the children to build a house with the materials provided. Needless to say, they much preferred building with the good choices bag.

          "I like her hair better this way!"

What lessons have LEGO sets and other cool toys taught you?

Of Beards And Men

I've had beards on the brain lately and that eventually led to a beard on my face. Not the grizzliest of beards mind you, my facial hair has always been a bit odd. Half of my facial hair is blonde, despite my dark brown head of hair. I never could grow a decent beard, though I did grow the nappiest goatee you ever did see during the tail end of my senior year in high school. I've always been a bit like my fictitious hero, Napoleon Dynamite. I was always super jealous of anyone in high school that could grow a nice beard or mustache. I totally have beard envy.

LUCKY! (Source)

Jared Hess (Director and Co-Writer of Napoleon Dynamite) with actor Jon Heder

(Source)

From soul patch...

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...too full on beard! His wife, Jerusha, co-writer of all the Hess films, seems pretty thrilled about Jared's awesome beard!

On another note, I really like what Peter Jackson has done with the dwarves in The Hobbit movies. Each dwarf has a unique look with a unique beard to boot; proving that you don't need a huge honkin' 3 foot long beard to be considered a true dwarf. All you need is, at the very least, a few sprigs of facial hair. I may not have the fullest of beards, but by Jove, it's a beard fit for a dwarf!

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When I first read The Hobbit I couldn't tell Nili from Gili, or Bofur from Gofur for that matter. In my mind's eye they were all just a bunch of dwarves, all with the standard dwarfy beard. They're pretty much identical in the original cartoon as well. No donut beard experiment going on here.

Since my wife isn't the biggest fan of my new facial plumage, I'm afraid it'll just have to go. Soon I'll be back to my baby face self again and I can expect to be called "buddy", "hey kid", "young man" and I've even been called "sweetheart" and "little one". Please, never ever refer to a grown man with such terms! Unless that man is your husband or boyfriend these terms are just downright hurtful!

  "it's like kissing a bush!"

         

My sister Percie was recently wed to a wonderful bearded man. He's quite the musician, so be sure to check out Rob's band L'Anarchriste and their latest album "Giant" on Kickstarter!

Laura of Boo Bobby suggested I catalogue some portraits with my toys before the beard goes down the sink and is lost forever. What a grand idea! 

 Shave that face, human scum!

       

Real men take care of there own, beard or no beard.

The beard came off and I went just mustache for a day!

It's not a hotdog mirror, but it's close enough.

The lip brow

The walrus

Bearded Blogger Greats:
Cal
The Geek
The Nerd
The Trash Man
Lord of all Little Weirdos
Laura's Hubby of Boo Bobby (that kinda rhymes!)

If I didn't mention your blog then I don't know whether or not you or one you love has a beard. Throw in a link below and I'll add you to the Bearded Blogger Greats! Mustaches count!

Dad's Collection: Carded E.T.Figures

It's time again to share some treasures from Dad's diverse and extensive collection of awesome stuff! Today we're looking at Dad's carded E.T. figurine collection, it's a real beauty!

Pink is SO in right now!

E.T., the horticulturist.

Reading is out of this world!

WAAAZZZZUUUPP!?

And the crown jewel of the collection, the E.T. & Elliot Powered Bicycle! "Pull it back and watch it go!"

E.T., with his big alien puppy eyes, just begging to be let out!

If anyone ever sees any carded or loose E.T. figures then let me know. Please help my Dad complete his collection! Thank you!

So, what do you think? 

Extreme Fighting Action Playset, CHAINSAW TO THE BOOTLEG!

I snagged me a new bootleg toy from the dollar store, an eXTreme Fighting ACTION PLAYSET. It's the hottest new thing!

Now, normally I would never buy a bootleg wrestling toy, but there was something very special about this "playset" that you may have noticed.

HE HAS A FREAKING CHAINSAW!!!! What kind of luchador (this figure is in the likeness of Mistico, by the way) carries around a friggin' chainsaw!? Extreme Fighting is right! Makes the Xtreme Fighting League look like a joke! I will most likely keep this one on the card simply because one would ever believe it came with a chainsaw if I ever opened it. Besides, the toy quality is so crapy that I might as well leave Mistico forever encased. Sorry buddy, looks like you'll never get to fight in the ring with your trusty, rusty chainsaw. It's a crying shame.

It kinda reminds me of the Thundercone in the Napoleon Dynamite Animated Series.

In classic bootleg style the card back is as plain and boring as can be.

Since we're on the topic of bootleg toys, I thought I'd show off Crypto 137, from the Destroy All Humans video game!

Those eyes! He really does want to destroy all those humans!

Big old screws in the back, a bootleg staple.

 This cute little guy came in a Goodwill grab bag along with my Playmobil mummy. He's pretty cool for a bootleg and he's creepy as sin! I wish I had the ray gun he normally comes with. Oh well, he'll just have to use his telekinesis or something to destroy all humans. You'll find a complete review of this "Alien Power" toy at Poe Ghostal's Points Of Articulation. "SAVE OUR PLANET"!

Sunday Reflections: New Year, New Calling

My wife and I were called as Primary teachers, just in time for the new year! We taught the CTR 5/6 year old Primary class today. It's amazing just how close to the Spirit these little ones are.

Today we taught lesson #1, I Can Be Happy When I Choose The Right. I taught the lesson while Laura helped and watched (our now 1 year old!) Ava. The lesson was simple. We learned that Jesus Christ wants us to choose the right so we can be happy. We showed the children pictures of CTR rings and I showed off my own CTR ring.

Olivia shared a story about how she wrote a letter to Jesus. She attached the letter to 2 balloons and released it into the heavens, but it got stuck in a tree. So cute!

So far I'm enjoying this new calling. I know this calling is from God. Teaching kids the gospel is fun and I'm pretty much still a little kid myself. 

 2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little ^achildren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 4 Whosoever therefore shall ^ahumblehimself as this little ^bchild, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my ^aname receiveth me.

-Matthew 18:2-5

From The LEGO Bin: Ice Planet 2002

2014 is turning out to be a cold year indeed, but at least I can better enjoy my favorite Space sub-theme, Ice Planet 2002! I love the snowy whites, the icy blues, and the wonderfully flashy translucent neon orange! This amazing series of LEGO sets only lasted a mere year or so from 1993-1994. With the series being so short lived it featured only 3 minifigures. Let's take a look at these guys (and gal)!

This young chap is coldly referred to as the Ice Planet Astronaut. He even bleached his shaggy hair to fit the bill. I believe the Ice Planet series was the first to feature a chainsaw piece.

Here we have the Ice Planet Female, as brave and resourceful as she is beautiful! She was the first female minifigure from the LEGO Space universe. She sports lovely red hair instead of the usual white hair that most Ice Planet Astronauts have for some reason. She wears a bold red lipstick and her simple black hoop earrings are a nice touch.

Last but certainly not least I give you Commander Cold, the fearless leader of this scientific expedition to planet Krysto. No fearless leader is truly prepared without a manly mustache and bushy white eyebrows! And of course, Commander Cold bears the uniform of a high ranking officer, unlike his younger, less experienced subordinates.

As a kid I only had a few small Ice Planet sets, but you may recall my lucky LEGO score at a garage sale a while back. (Read about my amazing find HERE!) It's taken me several months and some serious back pain to finally piece together the shattered remains of The Deep Freeze Defender, but it was totally worth it! Get ready to feast your eyes upon the most beautiful of all LEGO Space ships!

This thing is massive, measuring over a foot in length! Now, truth be told, I am still missing few little detail pieces. Hopefully I can hunt them down and put the finishing touches on this hulking beauty. If anyone out there has spare Ice Planet pieces that you would be willing to part with or trade/sell then please let me know pronto! Thank you in advance!

 The 2 front scouting ships can be detached from the main hull.

WOOOOOOOO!

Modern Tie-Ins

One guy that comes immediately to mind is the Yeti from the recent LEGO Minifigure series 11. He's the perfect roaming local life form for planet Krysto! And he even comes with a yummy ice-flavored popsicle. Yum!

I'm sure there are other great modern tie-ins for Ice Planet. What other modern sets can you think of?

So there you have it folks, Ice Planet 2002, an icy cold space odyssey! So what do you think? Is Ice Planet the greatest Space theme or what?