Jan 27, 2021

Plunderlings Goblin Figures

It took about a year longer than expected but I finally got my Plunderlings figures!


The Kickstarter originally launched in August 2019. The figures looked great and were overflowing with character. The hard part wasn't deciding whether or not to back it but keeping myself in check and only going in for two figures. I looked back at the page for this post and found myself saying "Why didn't I pick that one?" a whole lot! You can see the page and all the figures on Kickstarter.

 So let's start at the beginning and get my least favorite thing out of the way.


The packaging is very cute. It comes with cardboard ears that you can slot into the sides to make a fun Plunderling head. However, the box is terrible at showing you what's inside of it. It's not a huge deal because, trust me, if you have any of these guys you're going to want to have them out of the box!

Jan 19, 2021

Disney's Haunted Mansion Attic Diorama

 I didn't want to do another Haunted Mansion post and start it off with "Welcome, Foolish Mortals!" but what are you going to do? That's like THE thing.


I got this diorama set for Christmas and couldn't wait until October to post it! (Only 285 days til Halloween!) This is one of two sets that are available in parks or on ShopDisney, when they're in stock. The other one is of Madame Leota's seance room and it looks pretty sweet.

Inside the box is a floor, three walls, some connectors to hold them together, the bride, and a whole lot of attic stuff.


I mean, this isn't even everything! I love the chaise lounge with the tiger pelt draped over it. It's hard to see in the pics, but the wedding cake topper has a headless groom. And yes, there's an axe on the table with the tea setting. It wold have been cool if they had a hole in the bride's hands so she could hold it.

There isn't an "official" story of the Haunted Mansion but if you see the attic bride on the ride, she's surrounded by reminders of her previous husbands and they definitely "lost their heads" over her. You can see some of that on the walls, there are portraits of her with different men.

The left wall has a banner that's dated 1872 and says Love Forever, Frank and Constance. The room is more narrow at the back and widens as it gets toward you which angles out the side walls so you can see them without having to stick your head in there to peek at them.
 
 
Adding a little blue light for a ghostly effect.

I really like the way this one came out. If I was more skilled with Photoshop, I could have done a transparency thing to make her a little see through.

This is a really cool set and hopefully ShopDisney will get the other one back in stock so I can get that one too.

I did this one for scale so you can get an idea of the size. I don't have any "spooky" 3.75" figures but I think the scale is close enough.


LEGO on the left, Playmobil on the right.

Jan 13, 2021

The TypEtching Art of Winifred Caldwell - Part 2

 Yes, this is the second half of a story! If you haven't, go back and read part one first.
 
 
As I mentioned at the end of Monday's post, I reached out to Mike Devaney, grandson of Winifred Caldwell, through Facebook and explained to him how I had come into the magazine featuring his grandmother and her letter.

He told me that she was quite the promoter of her art and that he had several pieces of correspondence from people that she had reached out to but did not have any of the letters that she sent out.

He offered to send me a reproduction print of her art that was made in the 60s and would sell for $7.50. While I was interested to see if he wanted the items, I wasn't looking for anything from him when I contacted him. It just felt like the right thing to do! Can you imagine if someone contacted you with 60 year old documents relating to a family member?

Jan 11, 2021

The TypEtching Art of Winifred Caldwell - Part 1

Back in October, I bought a Vincent Price Trick or Treat Memorabilia grab bag on eBay. It wasn't particularly spooky so I didn't post it in October. It's actually a fun way to kick of the new year due to the story that came out of it.

The grab bag was put together by his estate/daughter and contains all sorts of random things you might find if you were going through his desk at different points in time. It was a priority flat rate envelope packed with all sorts of ephemera.


This is just a small sampling of what was included. There were a couple of photos, several things relating to the art world such as gallery opening invites, holiday cards, random newspaper clippings, wedding invites, and even a children's birthday party invite.

Jan 6, 2021

Hauilday Excerpts

I usually try to do the after Christmas post before the New Year. At least I think I do, I'm not going to go back and check. Here's a few highlights from my gift haul 2020.


Starting off with a couple of really cool shirts. I love the art style on the Strange one, plus is kind of a subtle reference that non-Marvel people will miss. We'll get back to Mando & Son, there's a lot more of them coming up!


I got my first Funko Soda ever. I've always held off on getting any of these because I usually want the 'regular' version and don't want to take the chance on getting a variant. I like the kinda chunky, solid figure design.

The other thing is a Disney's Haunted Mansion diorama set. I've seen pictures of these from the parks and was definitely going to pick one up on my next trip (Which would have been September 2020, thanks Covid.) It's part of the attic scene and there's lots of little bits and pieces to it. This will likely get its own blog post whenever I get around to putting it together. Looks very cool! I also got the Hallmark Hitchhiking Ghost ornament.
 
 
In recent years, the Disney Store has been selling these collector keys. They come in all sorts of themes and characters. This is a pretty cool set that covers a few different aspects of Disney. The Marvel one has Avengers symbols and the Star Wars one has Vader and Luke on it.
 

There's just something really fun about having a "Star Wars Christmas" again and this year was definitely one of those! On the Pop front, we have Moff Gideon with Darksaber and Mando & Son in the desert. Top right is a pair of Mando and IG-11 Cosbaby bobblehead figures. Not pictured, a Mandalorian 2020 wall calendar.


For when you need to shoot and capture your bounty alive: the Mandalorian Polaroid camera! It's the odd perfect combination of modern day Star Wars with 1970s technology. It might be the 21st century but the photos still look like how you remember Polaroids from back in the day.
 
 
The camera itself looks like it would fit right in with Mando's armor and even has a Mudhorn skull on the back. Do you remember the last time you had to look through a viewfinder to take a photo? Me either! My one minor complaint with the setup is the position of the shutter button below the flash. You have to pay attention to your hand position when snapping those pics otherwise you're going to get finger shadows on your subject. The original cameras didn't have a flash, or if they did it was on an additional part of the camera that flipped up.

The film has Mandalorian themed borders and graphics on it. What's really cool is that when you prep a new film cartridge, there is a film protector that gets ejected (bottom right). This one of the Armorer is numbered 5/8 so I'm guessing there's 8 different cards to collect as well.

So that's some of the stuff I got over the holidays. 
What kind of cool stuff did you get? 
Let me know in the comments!

Jan 1, 2021

Monthly Media Recap - December 2020

 Well, that was...a year. But we made it and the horizon of '21 is looking bright. Wherever you are and whatever you celebrate, I hope you're having a great holiday season!


Streaming

Death to 2020 (Netflix) - A funny look back at all the crazy that was 2020. Highly recommended.

The Mandalorian (S2, Disney+) - Just...wow. I am so glad I was able to stay spoiler free through the whole series. A handful of episodes had me geeking out like I was a kid again and truly excited for Star Wars. Give these guys some movies already!

Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun (Netflix) - The only thing I can equate this comedy trio to, even remotely, is Monty Python. The jokes are quick and the WTF-ness if way off the scale! Love it.

Creepshow Holiday Special (Shudder) - I liked the animated Halloween special but this one was so much more fun for me. The way it twists Christmas lore is superb.