On the same day I had a few of these finds, at the same flea market, I got a Wii in decent shape, finally. Not bad for one flea market! Unfortunately, I really haven’t used it much. Wii games require space, and our living room isn’t set up for it yet. Happily accepting recommendations of sleeper Wii and GameCube games (yes, I know about Mario Kart/Smash Bros. etc., so tell me about the stuff I don’t know about) to get me moving on this.
A large group of Mego-scale action figures, too many to list in a polite image caption, are pictured.
Barring a Mego-scale skeleton that I’d get later in the year, I got the last of the Mego-scale figures that I got for the year in June, too. First, I got The Creeper (yep, right in front; I waited 40 years for that figure to exist…). Then, I added Uhura, Freddy Krueger, Bruce Lee, The Invisible Man, and Count Orlok from Nosferatu to this party…
Mego Glow In The Dark Frankenstein action figure in original packaging. Action figure of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’s Monster (a white skinned humanoid with black hair, in a black suit and grey shirt) in shackles, in bubble on red card with painted Frankenstein image.
…and decided to keep glow-in-the-dark Frank on his packaging, because I had regular Frank at the party already, and because the packaging for this is great.
A red bin filled with hundreds of Heroclix super-hero game figurines.
Does anyone need any Heroclix? No, really, I’m serious. Get ahold of me if you’re interested.
A close-up picture of a decaying Jerry Mahoney ventriloquist dummy’s head. White skin, orange hair, brown eyes and eyebrows, red lips, white dots for teeth, red bowtie with white polka dots, brown jacket collar. Paint visibly chipped throughout the face, especially on the jaw.
Another Jerry Mahoney turned up at the flea market, this one far more cursed than the last.
Picture of seven 1952 Topps baseball cards, all featuring men with white skin and brown hair in baseball uniforms, on a black table. Top row: Bobby Hogue (Yankees), Ferris Fain (Athletics), Solly Hemus (Cardinals), Paul LaPalme (Pirates), pictured as painted portraits against various backgrounds. Bottom row: Johnny Wyrostek (Reds) swinging a baseball bat, 3/4 full body shot), Hank Edwards (Reds), and Eddie Kazak (Cardinals), the last two being portrait shots against various backgrounds.
These turned up the same day, though, so I can’t complain.
Television seasons binge-watched in June 2019 (1): Jessica Jones Season 3 (liked it better than season 2, but the series is…complicated…the whole way through)
First-run movies watched in June 2019 (1): Deadwood: The Movie (LOVED it. Really nice and finally a proper send-off to the series, if it is indeed a send-off.)
I didn’t forget y’all! Just had some other business to tend to.
May 2019:
Visited NJ in May, hit my old local, and got a little closer to finishing ’72 Topps.
Two 1972 Topps baseball cards, one of Johnny Bench In Action (a white man wearing a grey uniform and red catching gear trying to catch a baseball with another player in the background, framed by red, yellow, and white borders), and one of Ted Williams (a white man in a red baseball cap, a blue wind breaker jacket and a white shirt, with his name written below him and “RANGERS” written about him, bordered by a yellow frame and a white outer border).
Added to my DC Direct collection a fair deal this month.
A picture of approximately 25-30 action figures of DC Comics super-hero characters, mostly by DC Direct, with some DC . Visible in picture: Batwoman II, Vigilante II, Batwoman I, Batgirl II, The Question I, Black Manta, Batgirl I, Hawkwoman, Blue Beetle, The Phantom Stranger, Bat-Mite, Ace the Bat-Hound, Eclipso, Killer Moth I, Captain Marvel (Fawcett Comics), Catwoman, Catwoman’s black cat, Changeling, Adam Strange, Red Tornado, Hawkman II, IB’Wana Beast, Metamorpho, Changeling (in green monkey form), Kid Flash (Kingdom Come), Hourman I, Wildcat I, Atom I (second costume), Robin (Carrie Kelly), Atom I (first costume).
Oh, and I made it to the top 500 in May.
A screenshot of multiplayer wins statistics from MobilityWare Solitaire for iOS, showing that the author is in 500th place overall.
Hopefully, this ends up summing up the transition between years pretty well…
Here’s how 2019 ended, the last card I pulled from a box I got from Marc at Remember The Astrodome right at the end of the year…the rest of the really generous trade was MUCH more exciting (Thanks again, Marc!), and I’ll very likely circle back to some of it soon, but sets gotta get finished, even goofy ol’ 1989 Bowman (I never seem to find those $5 factory sets when I have money to burn on 1989 Bowman), and sometimes, you just gotta take your Wally Joyners where you can get ’em. He was the last face that emerged from the box, so he gets the honors for 2019.
A 1989 Bowman baseball card of Wally Joyner. Against the backdrop of a blue sky, Angels 1st baseman Wally Joyner (center), a smiling man with white skin and brown hair in a blue, red, white and grey baseball uniform, swings a barely-visible baseball bat behind his back. A fascimile autograph of Wally Joyner’s appears across the bottom third of the card. The card has a white outer border, a red inner border, and a Bowman logo that resembles a baseball field (green field, brown outfield warning track) with a red B in the middle of it, with “Bowman” written in black letters around the edge of the outfield.
As the year began, I got another really awesome box of cards from Kerry at Cards on Cards, and this was the top card in the package, when I opened it.
A 2019 Panini Rookies baseball card of Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.. Against a leathery textured brown, denim blue and beige background, Blue Jays 3rd baseman Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. (center), a man with black skin and blonde dreadlocks, wearing a blue and grey uniform, swings a beige baseball bat.
Kerry got me pretty covered on ’19 Vlad Juniors and a bunch of other stuff, so thanks again, Kerry!
Screenshot of someone getting the “To Live Forever” Trophy in the video game No Man’s Sky. A faint, greyish-green sunburst in the center of a black screen, with the “Trophy earned!” Playstation Network icon at top left.
As I mentioned, I did hit 100% on No Man’s Sky’s trophy achievements in April. I had a lot of help on the “Reach the center of the universe in Permadeath mode” part. I found someone who had been alive in that instance for over 2 years, and had a base built 1 warp from the center of the universe, and they sent me an invite to their game after friending me. Before that, I had probably invested over 100 hours in my various attempts (though I’d probably be able to do it again, and more efficiently, if I tried now), and got close a few times.
Interior screenshot of Second Life nightclub Heck. A human with white skin and black hair, in black clothing (front and center), is seen at a DJ booth from behind. The building has black walls, accented by purple furnishings and green arrows that function as the club’s teleport buttons. Photographs hang on the left and right hand wall. A tip jar sits on the stage to the left of the DJ booth.
I returned to Second Life after a fairly extended hiatus in April, wrote about it in May, and events, if sporadic, continued at my club there, Heck, throughout the year, and will continue in 2020. I’ve also been DJing periodically at Vegetal Planet and The Velvet, and DJed at SL16B, Second Life’s 16th birthday party, on June 25th.
A Marvel Legends Black Knight action figure (a human figure with white skin in a blue tunic with a red insignia and red trim, blue, gold and grey armor, a brown utility belt, and blue boots and gloves, holding a large black sword with a gold hilt) stands on a wooden window sill, with green foliage in a window behind it.
I don’t buy a lot of Marvel Legends, but I couldn’t pass on The Black Knight.
An empty glass display case, center of picture, rests up against maroon walls, with some white boxes on a black shelf to its left.
Picked up an IKEA DETOLF display case for a corner of what we call “the study” in my house. Fit perfectly, and helps me display some more things like this…
Various toys and sculptures sit on a shelf: Ideal’s KRUSHER doll, a green monster with orange trim; ROM The Spaceknight, a grey robot with red trim; Hugo, the Man of a Thousand Faces, a bald puppet with white skin wearing a blue denim shirt; a statue of a vampire version of comic book character The Joker; a green, pink and white ceramic statue of a sad looking dog with large green and black eyes; A green duck wearing a pink cowboy hat, being ridden by a pink cowboy.
From left to right, bottom row: ceramic dog bank that’s been photographed and used as Heck’s mascot since it opened; Zimot Industries cowboy riding a duck sculpture.
An overhead shot of the basketball courts of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. approximately 15 people play basketball near a number of basketball hoops, in a circular basketball gym with pictures of famous basketball players off in the distance.
Finally made it to the Basketball Hall of Fame with some visiting friends in April. The museum was mid-renovation, which I didn’t know at the time, and it seemed like a significant section was closed off, but we still had fun…
The Michael Jordan display case in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. A Chicago Bulls #23 jersey, white with red trim, once worn by Michael Jordan, a red and white Nike Air Jordan sneaker, and several inscribed basketballs are visible in the case in this picture.
…and I got to see some other old friends.
The Julius Erving display case at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. A University of Massachusetts maroon and white basketball jersey, an inscribed red, white and blue basketball, and a white Converse basketball sneaker with red trim are visible in the case, along with a placard that is not legible.
First-run movies watched in April 2019 (1): Avengers: Endgame (I have really mixed feelings about the story directions and deviations of course they chose for various characters, to put it mildly, but I still think it’s amazing to see live action, George Perez-level super-hero crossover events done well. (I haven’t watched the Berlanti-verse Crisis On Infinite Earths yet, so I can’t speak from a position of authority on that one, but obviously the budgets are very different there.)
Comic books cancelled or ending in April 2019 (1): West Coast Avengers (Marvel Comics). This was another great series that I really wish more people had picked up on. Lots of fun, a great new take on a few older concepts, and I wish it had more time. Jeff the Shark forever!
Cover of The Green Lantern Volume 1 trade paperback. Green Lantern Hal Jordan, center, a white man with brown hair, wearing a green mask that covers his eyes and nose, in a green and black bodysuit with white gloves, holding a green lantern, pointing a glowing green ring at “The Green Lantern” logo, stands in front of an outerspace background, with various yellow stars and planets in the distance. Artwork by Liam Sharp.
I was a little late to this party, and had to track down some back issues in a hurry, but The Green Lantern (I linked to DC’s site, but c’mon, go buy it at your local comic shop) is both the best Green Lantern comic book and the best Grant Morrison comic book in ages. Liam Sharp’s art, kinda intense ideas about human anatomy aside, is terrific, as well. It’s basically like Judge Dredd in outer space with Hal Jordan instead of Judge Dredd. I got in on it in February of this year. The first 12 issue, 1 annual “season” is done, and is collected in 2 trade paperbacks if you can’t find the individual issues, and they’re finishing up a three issue interlude series, Green Lantern: Blackstars this coming month, before going into Season Two #1 in February.
A selection of TSR Marvel Super-Heroes role-playing game handbooks, fanned out to the left, and a white legal pad with a pen and a large array of 10-sided dice to the right, on a brown table.
I actually got out the TSR Marvel RPG stuff in March, and rolled up 4 characters (creating them near-entirely from cues my dice rolls gave me, and taking few if any mulligans) that I have done nothing with since. I should go back and look to see if there’s anything good there. I also need to find people to play Marvel with me, as it’s still my favorite RPG system of all time. Is anyone here interested in trying to navigate an online Marvel game on Roll20, assuming their data breach didn’t scare you off?
A ceramic sculpture of a neon green duck wearing a neon pink cowboy hat, with a neon pink cowboy riding it, his fist raised triumphantly.
I got some art in 2019. This is one of the earliest pieces from the current iteration of Zimot Industries, though I own a few other pieces of theirs. As fantastic as this sculpture is (and it is truly one of my favorite things that I own), it was just the beginning for Zimot. Just go look, and buy some stuff.
1989-1990 Topps Senior League baseball card of Dock Ellis, pictured in the center of the card, a man with brown skin and a black beard, wearing a red St. Petersburg Pelicans hat and warm-up jacket. Card has a woodgrain border, and logos from Senior League Baseball at top left, Topps at top right, and the St. Petersburg Pelicans at bottom left, with Docks name and abbreviation for his position, P for pitcher, at bottom right.
I posted about the 1989-1990 Topps Senior League Baseball set back when I got it in March, but it was one of the highlights of my card collecting year, so here’s the Dock Ellis card again.
Sometimes, in the dead of winter, weird stuff happens…
A Mego Tootie action figure from The Facts of Life series, a teenaged looking female doll with black hair and brown skin in a maroon and white private school uniform, drinking a mug of beer.A Mego Jo action figure from The Facts of Life series, a teenaged looking female action figure with white skin and brown hair in a maroon and white private school uniform, drinking a mug of beer.
First-run movies watched in March 2019 (1): Captain Marvel (I enjoyed it, and am looking forward to more.)
Television seasons binge-watched in March 2019 (1): Punisher Season 2 (I also enjoyed this, but I’m sad that it’s over. Hopefully, Disney rethinks the cancellation of the Marvel Netflix stuff and puts it on Hulu or something.)
