BLOGPOCALYPSE: Random Toy Photography

I've been dry on blogging ideas as of late, or rather unmotivated to post something.

So here's at least Something. Something to get the post count up for the year 2020.

I've been taking lots of random toy photos as of late. Mostly outdoors, on my front driveway and various other places in public.

This has garnered some strange looks from passers by and onlookers.

I don't care.

I'm an adult that loves toys.

I have made peace with that.

I'll leave it there.

Enjoy this summary of toy photos from the great pandemic outdoors.

-@herokenflatt

BLOGPOCALYPSE: 5 Movies to Watch at Easter

Spring has sprung and 2020 has brought Planet Earth its most apocalyptic edition yet. Instead of sampling the weather, society has to stay indoors as much as possible to avoid a mass silent killer on the loose. Since the theatres are closed, there’s the back of the DVD cupboard, streaming services and watch parties to delve into for movie night awesomeness.

Make a blanket fort and grab some survival food supplies be it storebought or homegrown, and dive into some suggested Easter movie action. This holiday season is not cancelled by a long shot.

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1/ Mallrats (1995).

Not one for the kids, but always a real good Gen X romp with Jay & Silent Bob tagging along for the ride. Whilst Easter is in the timeline and no oversaturation of holiday theme in the background - it features the Easter Bunny (or rather a guy in a costume) getting mugged in the mall grotto. There’s also the infamous Stan Lee pep-talk which is now more of a tear-jerker than ever before. Spring Break (as they call ‘The Easter Holidays’ in the US) spent hanging out in a shopping mall has never been this entertaining.

Mallrats also hits the 25^th year milestone this year. Where does the time go?

2/ Critters 2: The Main Course (1988)

Again, not another one for a younger audience. It does however feature a church Easter Service being gatecrashed, a bit of Eddie Deezen, a near cameo from Freddie K, and some decent alien bounty hunter action. Bradley, from the original Critters takes centre stage along with the returning and now sober ex-farmhand Charlie. The Easter narrative plays well (via found and painted Crite eggs) into this second Critters invasion with the ‘Grover’s Bend’ setting from the first movie expanded on from just the Brown household.

This movie is so much fun and easily my favourite of the Critters franchise to date! 

 

3/ Rise of the Guardians (2012)

Take the Easter Bunny, Father Christmas, The Sandman, Jack Frost and The Tooth Fairy, and assemble them into an Avengers like superteam! The Guardians (of Childhood) movie is based on a long running series of books about the adventures of this supergroup and the children they help.

I rate Guardians as an Easter Movie because of the timeline, setting and the main antagonist Pitch being a threat to the holiday. This films version of the Easter Bunny as a Hugh Jackman voiced, Boomerang-wielding Australian Ninja has to be the most epic version of the character yet! Cool versions of a tattooed Santa and EB aside, the movies most breakout star is Jack Frost who continuously has a huge online cult following. It amazes me still that Dreamworks has not given this movie a follow-up of any kind - but will greenlight a sequel and an animated series for The Croods (2013)….

4/ Hop (2011)

Before James Marsden co-starred with a blue CGI hedgehog, he co-starred with a CGI Russell Brand voiced version of the Easter Bunny (EB for short). Hop is an acquired taste, but worth a try for curiosity viewing alone. In a lot of places Hop feels like what could have been a Christmas themed movie with a different lick of paint. ‘Penny’ from The Big Bang Theory is also in it! 

5/ Passion of the Christ (2004)

We can’t have an Easter entry without the guy this holiday is truly based on. Devoid of Chocolate Eggs, Chicks and Bunnies, this is the true tale of Easter! I passed on the chance to see this early whilst spending ‘Spring Break’ in Toronto and opted to watch Kill Bill volume 2 (2004) instead.

Passion of the Christ’s first viewing for me came 3 Easters later in my hotel room at Butlins Minehead where I worked at a Christian event called Spring Harvest. It was an unplanned motivator but certainly a better time to take in this powerful movie. As good as Passion of the Christ was, I list this along with Trainspotting (1995), and Titanic (1997) as strict one offs to watch in a lifetime. Some films are just too effective and emotional.

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Hopefully these recommendations will be of use or perhaps you the reader has a better movie idea or two (that’s what the comment section Is for : ) ). Thanks for making it through the latest entry of Blogpocalypse Season. Stay Home, Stay Safe and make the most of what is otherwise a difficult period in history – as we may miss the better aspects of it.

Stay Snug and Peace out.

BLOGPOCALYPSE: Ice Armor Skeletor set free

 

 After almost 17 years of living in my loftspace, I decided to set Ice Armour Skeletor free from his prison of bubblecard packaging! Ice Armor Skeletor was price slashed down in 2003/4 by my local Keynsham Entertainer to a mere 80’s pocket money level of £3! I instabought ol’ Bonebrain after being captivated by the awesome figure design. The entire Masters of the Universe 2002 toyline was sculpted and designed by notorious ex-McFarlane collaborators - Four Horsemen Studios whose efforts nowadays can be seen put towards collector market figures more than retail releases.

I could have sold this badboy for big bucks on ebay (search for Ice Armour Skeletor and see for yourself), but this particular action figure deserved to be shown off and incoherently blogged about… 

So, what you get is Skeletor in winter fashion (or rather an icey repaint of Fire-Armour Skeletor). He’s got a new Havoc Staff that launches the skull-end as a projectile and two very cool icy blades that fit on the back when not in use. Again, the design is incredible and features a lot of collector-level depth for a toy marketed to be taken out and played with.

For photograph purposes, I wanted to wait it out for a snowy day to free Skeletor, but the Apocalyptic Spring of 2020 seemed like a better time than any. Fortunately, I have a snowy diorama background my daughter and me put together for the purpose of Christmas Card toy photography and Disney Frozen scenes. Also, my backyard featuring an unkempt lawn with stray Nerf darts and garden toys scattered around also made for a fun backdrop.

Do I have regrets opening Ice Armour Skeletor? Absolutely not. I put off taking this toy out for well over a decade and now I want to dig more unopened figures and toys from years gone by. With the current (as I write) Pandemic the world is under it is important to use the downtime to make ourselves happy when possible. Even if we’re looking silly in front of the neighbours taking photos of toys on the back patio… 

Enjoy the gallery.

#BLOGPOCALYPSE : #Heroicustom Riker's Pizza box props.

Welcome to the first entry of Blogpocalypse Season!

2020 is set to be a bumpier ride than running a peddlecar along a street of cobbles. Still, the human race can use this difficult lockdown period in history as a character-building experience to learn new things and get creative.

I've finally blown the dust off the Figured Out dashboard in order to get Blogging about junk again. This is a coping outlet if anything and should there be an audience - that's a bonus!

I've picked up on consuming Star Trek again in recent months. I finally got round to watching Star Trek: Discovery and now I'm really enjoying the new Picard series too.

A particular episode I really liked most of the first season featured the return of Captain Riker and Deanna Troi that showcased thier new life on Nepanthe. This episode also involved Pizza! Without spoiling too much, the Star Trek brand now has a pizza chef!

There's been lots of Riker's Pizza fanart since the episode, but I decided to try and lazily photoshop together something different instead. Cutout action figure scale Pizzaboxes!

Download the image, follow the instructions, print on card and assemble! Since toys cant do social distancing on government oriders, your action figure shelf can now have a Pizza Party!

Have fun.

(Box template from allFreeprintable.com)