Adventure Time Playpak Series 3 Trading Cards

C'mon, grab you friends, we'll go to very distant lands to take a look at the Adventure Time Playpak Series 3 trading cards from Cryptozoic.

 

 I've actually had these for maybe two months and haven't ripped the entire box yet. I'm most of the way there but I like saving a few for when I need a quick pick me up during the day. The packs and box art feature Fionna and Cake the Cat, the gender swapped universe versions of Finn and Jake the Dog.

 

 I haven't see these in any stores and am glad I was able to grab a box directly from Cryptozoic's site. There are 24 packs per box with 5 cards in each pack. In theory, that's enough packs to get two full 45 card sets with some extras left over. I have 7 packs left to open to get the one card I need to complete a single set. 

 

Let's see what sort of fun cards in the packs.

 

Rhode Island Comic Con 2018

I went to Rhode Island Comic Con this past weekend for the first time and had a blast.

If you're a regular reader, you might recall me having gone to several Boston Comic Cons in the past. The last time I went was before they moved it to the new location so I don't know how it now stacks up now compared to RICC. But I will say RI seems to work much better than where Boston used to be.

The main drive behind checking out RICC this year was that celebs from Mrs Dex's favorite show, Smallville, were making an appearance. Not that I wouldn't want to go otherwise. Who doesn't love a good comic convention? We got to the con about an hour after doors opened and although there was still a line, it went very quickly and we basically walked through the queue area and right in.

After getting in we checked out some cosplay and herded ourselves to the autograph area to check them off our list to make sure we didn't miss them. The auto area was pretty well laid out but there were some congested areas. We walked around to see all the celebs. You can see the guest list here. The "headlining" guests were in a different building altogether and I didn't even try to sneak a peek at them fearing the crowds.

We got autos from Tom Welling (Clark) and Michael Rosenbaum (Lex). Laura Vandervoort (Supergirl) was there also. Tom was a lot taller than I expected and when I mentioned that he said thank you. He followed that up with something else which all of us were laughing about when the photo was taken. We didn't do a selfie with Michael (although he was super fun) because it's all about the money. I can understand having to pay for a selfie if you don't get an autograph but having to pay extra just for a photo taken on your phone is crazy to me.

I don't want to rant too much on the whole pricing thing but I'm interested to see where celeb con appearances go in the future. Between autographs, selfies, and pro photos I can't see the prices some people are asking lasting.

After the Smallville peeps, I wanted to meet John DiMaggio (Bender/Futurama, Jake/Adventure Time) but his line was capped because he had a photo op going on. We got lunch and went back to wait in line for him. It was still going to be about 30-45 minutes before he came back but I was second in line when he did.

Well, make that third in line. There was a group at the front of the line with service dogs. John not only took photos with the people but also the dogs!

He was also genuinely nice and took time to chat with everyone. We then had a little bit of time to explore until we had to get in line for the Smallville panel.

The person that made these was never at their table which is too bad because I would have loved to chat with them about the Labyrinth stuff they did.

We got in line for the panel about an hour before it started. A lot more people that I expected ending up showing up so it was a good thing we got there early! After the panel, we headed to the photo op area for our scheduled time.

The people before us had to take a couple photos because the flash was reflecting off their glasses, so Michael is playing with my wife's glasses lifting them up and down during the photo. Usually these pro photos are a blink and you miss it thing and while we were only with them for a minute or two I didn't feel like we were rushed through like other times I've done these.

With the last of our scheduled things done by 5:30 we finally had time to walk the vendor floor. Of course there was a ton of cool stuff and lots of artists but I only bought one thing.

A Creature from the Black Lagoon Buddha! The photo isn't fuzzy, this "statue" was 3D printed. It looks a little better in person. The guy selling these had a ton of different ones. Pretty much whatever your fandom is, he's got something. This was also the smallest one but it was the best shade of green so I went with it. Definitely check out MuckyChris to see his 3D printed stuff, inlcuding a couple of light switch plates that are pretty neat.

The local Star Wars costuming and droid builder groups were there and had quite the crossover happen when they got a visit from another franchise.

These guys are amazing to see in person. Yes, the eye moves and makes the sound! I'm presuming these are the same guys I see at other local cons because how many of them could there be?

Normally this would be the part of the post where I send you to Flickr for the rest of my pics but there were so many great costumes I have to show off a few more.

Left is one of my favorite group cosplays. There was quite a bit of crossplay (gender swapped characters) going on at the con which is great. The dude on the right was rockin his Wonder Woman outift like nobody's business. Unfortunately, I was only able to catch him while going up an escalator and didn't get  his sword in the shot.

How awesome is that Red Fraggle?

This Gravity Falls group wasn't even together. The girl dressed as Mabel saw the other guys and rushed to get her photo taken with them. The wizard on the right goes by Brandon the Shapeshifter on Instgram. If you like incredible costumes, go check him out. It's hard to tell from the photo but the spell book lights up too.

And that's a wrap!

Even though we probably spent close to half our time at the con in line for something, be it autograph, photo, panel, or food, I still feel like we had a good day and got to see a lot. I know there are areas we didn't get near but I'm good with that. I'd still like to check out the new place where the Boston con is held and would definitely like to go back to RICC again.

Here's all the pics from the day.

Adventure Time Playing Cards

What time is it?

Time to play some cards, so c'mon grab your friends!

I found this deck at one of those holiday-time mall calendar/game kiosks that pop up every year. It was post holiday season so I managed to snag this for 50% off.
$3? Yes, please!

What sets this deck apart from most others is that every single card has artwork on it, not just the face cards! I know a lot of the images are variant covers from the Adventure Time comic series. Buying a small deck of cards is a lot cheaper (and easier to store) than a stack of comics with different covers.

While looking for info online, I found out there's also a Fiona & Cake deck that I must own!

They also sell both decks as a set in a tin, which I would definitely be my preferred way to pick them up if it was an option at the time. Tins like this usually end up costing just about the same as getting each deck on its own, plus you have a nice collectible tin to hold them.

League Post - Dinner Party

This week the League of Extraordinary Bloggers has been tasked to hold their ultimate dinner party. Invited guests can be living, dead, and/or fictional.

I was good up until the fictional part. It's hard enough putting together just five people from real life people, never mind all of literature, TV, movies, and video games! So I'm thinking this may call for some creative interpretation, also known as cheating the topic.

For starters, here's my real world guest list. Not to be confused with the Real World, although it could be interesting to see these people living in a house together.

If you know me at all, it's no surprise that Vincent Price is numero uno on my guest list. I'm pretty sure I'd have no problem with him being my only guest for the evening! His daughter is coming to Salem in October and I'm hoping really hard that I"ll be able to attend her lecture. It'll be the next best thing to being able to actually meet him.

Second is Roger Corman, King of the B Movies! Not only do I love B movies, but he's worked with so many people during his career, he's got to have some fantastic stories.

The next two gentlemen should need no introduction. I'd love to pick Walt's brain about theme park design and attractions. Maybe even ask him to design his version of a Star Wars ride, after showing him the movie of course!

Jim and Kermit are a package deal. I wouldn't make Jim perform, technically. I mean, if I'm bringing people back from the dead, I'm sure there's some magic way Jim could "be" Kermit without having to be under the table, right? I don't even know where I'd start with them. Sesame Street and The Muppet Show have had such an impact on me. I'd probably be more star struck and tongue tied trying to talk to Kermit.

My last guest does need an introduction and his name is Howard Scott Warshaw. Maybe you've heard the name, maybe not. But if you owned an Atari 2600 as a kid, chances are you're familiar with at least one of his games: Yar's Revenge, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or E.T. Yar's is one of my favorite video games ever and the Atari was a big part of my childhood.
I promise not to bring up E.T.

Now we come to the fictional party list!

Right off the top, it has to be The Doctor, but which one? Maybe he'd start at 1 and regenerate into each version as the night wears on. Or he could just randomly rotate between 4, 9, 10, and 11 all night. Wouldn't that be fun? Or some (or all) could show up at once, not like that hasn't happened before.

Next is probably my most loved character in printed fiction, Tasslehoff Burrfoot from the DragonLance novels. He's like a halfling with ADHD and has a habit of "borrowing" things that aren't nailed down. He's pretty much fearless and if there's trouble to be found, he'll won't just find it, he'll find it and poke it with a stick!

From Marvel comics, a pair of distinctly different doctors: Doom and Strange. When it comes to comic characters, I tend toward the more mystically inclined. Doom might try to steal the TARDIS, but I'd bet Tasslehoff would be stowed away in there and drive him crazy. And Strange I've been a fan of almost as long as I've been reading comics. I'm much more into his extra-dimensional adventures than the Earth-bound ones.

I was going to put Rocket Raccoon in the last chair. But as much as I'm into Guardians of the Galaxy right now, I have to put Adventure Time's Finn as my final fictional guest. He knows how to party but if Tas isn't plundering the depths of the TARDIS, he and Finn will probably run off to find adventure somewhere. There's so much doctor going on at this party, I had to use this particular image of Finn, even though he's not a doctor.

Check out other League members' guest lists
Retro Robot Review has got some creative inspirations
Author! Author! over at Kalem Klub
Super Powered Fiction invites some world changers

Check out all the participants at Cool and Collected!

Boston Comic Con 2014 - Vendors & Artists

This past weekend Boston Comic Con was in town again. It seems like they're committed to improving it every year, which is good news because I think it has big potential, but they're going to need a bigger space to hold it! Friday night they posted cautioning people that were planning on buying tickets on site Saturday to consider getting tickets for Sunday instead due to the expected crowd.

I'm breaking my one day at the con up into a few posts to avoid making one TL;DR post where everyone is just looking at the photos. Today, I'll be showing off an incredibly small fraction of the artists/vendors at the con.



I didn't grab a card from this vendor, so I can't tell you where to find their work. They had a whole display of characters made from recycled metal covering all sorts of properties. I'm presuming this is Jango Fett because of the dual pistols he's sporting.



Here's an Alien and Predator not trying to kill each other.
You can see the top of a Dalek in front of them. They also had a kick ass mini AT-AT.



These custom Adventure Time figures were done by Shaun Nakasone. He had a few amazing customs on his table but if there's one thing that gets me, it's Simon and Marcy. Shaun works with all kinds of vinyl figures like Munnies and Mighty Muggs. You can check out his work at Flying Sciurus.



These "Companion Suitcases" are functional works of art featuring Firefly, Star Wars, and Doctor Who. They also had an assortment of geeky lockets, earrings and prints. You can find them at Ursula and Olive.



One of my favorite crafty booths was by Geeky and Cheeky. These doll characters stand about a foot tall and are infinitely squishable! They also take custom orders online. The people running the booth were overjoyed when I asked if that was Dungeonmaster on the bottom left. They said I was only the second person that day to identify him, which I couldn't believe. Parents, educate your kids!



They also had a 3' tall Weeping Angel doll which is a little more creepy at that size!

Super Sox Shop is the perfect place to go if you need a little something special to hang by your chimney in the winter. They also have plush weapons like Thor's Hammer, Cap's shield, Zelda sword & shield, and the Mario star (a good tree topper!). I also really like the Pac-Man stuff which you can see on the table in the left pic.

Before I get to the art that I actually bought, I had to show this postcard I picked up. This artist is doing a piece of Bea Arthur art every day for a year. I looked through his print book and there is some hilarious stuff in there combining Bea (and the Golden Girls) with all aspects of pop culture. He plans to compile them into a book when finished. Follow him on Twitter for daily updates and check out his online shop.

 

I've got a fever and the only prescription is more raccoon! I mentioned it during Guardians of the Galaxy week, but I've been a fan of Rocket since the 80s and now that he's in he spotlight, you can't swing a twig and not hit something he's on. This postcard size print was only $3 and I couldn't pass it up. The art is just too cute, but don't tell Rocket. 

Artist: TinaT8m

This is artist Katie Cook working on a custom piece for me. Can you guess who it is? I've been following Katie's work for years when she started doing work for Star Wars. Currently, she's best know for her work on the My Little Pony comic. She said she had a lot of people ask for a dancing Groot custom.



On the left is (surprise!) Rocket that I had her do for me. On the right is Snoopy that was one of the many pre-made cards she had on her table. Other people had her do custom work while we were waiting our turn and it was pretty cool to watch her knock out these little works. The cards are maybe a quarter inch bigger on all sides than a playing card to give you an idea of their size. Rocket is about as tall as my first thumb knuckle.

Finally, the Pièce de résistance... (ooh la-la)

How awesome is this??

Artist Matthew J Fletcher had a few other Peanuts gang prints and even a mashup with Star Wars. This was the big winner. I can just picture Linus/Drax assaulting people with his blanket. Or Chuck's "Good grief!" when he tells someone his name is Star-Lord and they reply "Who?" Honestly, I'm a little freaked out at the thought of a 9' tall Woodstock though.

Well, I said I wanted to break this up so as not to make too long of a post but this was plenty long by itself! Stay tuned this week for more from Boston Comic Con 2014!

Final note: I linked to all these artists and shops because I like what they do. I'm not getting any kind of kickbacks or discounts from them. Support your local artists!

May 2014 Loot Crate: Adventure

Before I dive into the latest Loot Crate, I wanted to let you all know that this is blog post number 500! Thanks for reading!

This month's Loot Crate theme is Adventure and is probably my most anxiously awaited one to date because we were told there would be some Adventure Time goodies in it!
But I'll let the suspense build...

If you've been following my Loot Crate posts, you'll recall they usually come with a mini-magazine that tells you about the enclosed Loot and contains a few brief articles. Well, they did something different this month and went digital with it! Future Crates will have both physical and digital copies. You can check out this month's here.

The other monthly staple, is the collectible pin with the current theme on it. This one features all three properties in the Crate: Adventure Time, Minecraft (swords) and Legend of Zelda (shield). Next to that is a pretty sweet Zelda keychain/bottle opener that recreates the famous "It's dangerous to go alone" scene but with Link receiving a Loot Crate.

Here are some stickers representing the YouTubers who helped put together the items in this month's Crate. I have no idea who they are but you can read more about them on pages 18-19 in the magazine. Also, notice the sheet on the left is slightly bent? The box is just a tiny bit too small for it to lay flat, a problem I've noticed with the mini-mags as well. I know I can't be the only collector type person that doesn't appreciate having things with a slight bend in them. Yes, I could probably put it under something to flatten it, but who has the time?



Next is blind packed item: a Minecraft hanger. I'm not all that familiar with the game beyond some of the amazing things I've seen people build but I dig the retro graphic style. I don't get the hanger though. You're just supposed to...hang it somewhere? It's not even like something you could put on your backpack because the plastic ring doesn't open.

@CRPechonick has since informed me that they do open. I was looking at the base (home plate) of the ring. Turns out, it opens on one of the sides!



Even as someone that's only ever played the original Legend of Zelda (still have my gold cartridge), I have to say this is a pretty cool shirt. It's pretty striking in person, the colors are great and there's a lot of words crammed in there. What's not so hot about it though is the material. It's a very thin shirt, which I'm not a fan of at all. Maybe it's because I'm not 20-something with the accompanying body, but I like my t-shirts to have some thickness. I will probably not be shopping at Zen Monkey if all their shirts are like this.

And finally, my favorite item...



Adventure Time Mystery Mini Tins! I knew Funko was doing a line of Mystery Minis but I had no idea they'd be coming in these mathematical tins! There are 8 different tins and 12 different figures. Obviously the tin does not indicate what figure you get. Fionna is 3" tall at the tip of her ears and is one of the most adorable things I've seen lately.
I'll definitely be on the hunt for more of these.

Usual Disclaimer

Loot Crate has provided these items in exchange for a review.

If you'd like to get cool stuff like this delivered every month, head over to Loot Crate and enter promo code AEIOUWHY for 10% off your order!

Adventure Time Playpak Trading Cards

After weeks of passing these by in Target, I finally gave in and decided to check them out. Initially, I didn't think it was a good value which is why I haven't picked them up before now. Each $3 pack comes with 5 cards: 2 base cards, 1 sticker card, and either a standee, temporary tattoo, or Princess glitter card.

The base set of 18 cards are your standard trading cards. The stock is pretty solid with a nice glossy coating. On the reverse of each character it has a quote and facts about them such as species, occupation, hobbies, and trivia. 

These are some of the fun cards. Starting in the top left, we have a Princess Bubblegum scratch n sniff card. If you ever bought cards when you were a kid that came with a stick of crunchy gum, this is that smell. I love it! It's so much nostalgia in something as simple as a smell. There are 3 of these to collect and on the back it shows you how to draw the character.

Top right is a sticker card, who doesn't love stickers? There are 9 of these and their backs feature puzzle pieces that you match up to create a 3x3 picture. Yet another throwback to the trading cards of childhood.

On the bottoms are a couple of glitter Princess cards. I tried to capture their sparkliness as best I could. Thankfully, they've sealed the glitter in the card, unlike those glittery greeting cards that have unnaturally sticky glitter that gets all over you. There are 9 Princesses and the reverse has an activity like spot the difference or a secret message to decode.

 

Smack in the middle is one of the 3 possible standees featuring the Ice King. These are punch-out cards that you can make into a little stand-up version of the character. Like so...

Getting the slots set just so is a little bit of a pain in the butt, but otherwise these are probably my favorite type of card in the set. I just wish they did more than 3 so I could set up a little Land of Ooo.  This is labelled as Series 1 so hopefully there will be more coming!

If you want to see all the cards you can go to the product page and click on Links & Downloads at the bottom for a pdf checklist. There's another set scheduled for Q3 that is more collector oriented with some really math inserts like autograph cards, sketch cards and "totally fabricated" wardrobe cards.