Nexus Toy Fair

Today I popped into the quarterly Nexus Toy Fair for a look around. Unfortunately I could only get there for the last half an hour, so I'm pretty sure I missed some great bargains, but there was still a lot of interesting stuff to check out. Quite a few loose Star Wars figurines as I was hoping, but not many troopers which were what I was really after. Found a Spike (Buffy) bust for $30 (!!) when I first walked in, but I'd set myself a spending restriction and didn't want to blow most of it on the first thing I saw. After I'd done a lap and came back for it, it was gone. Damn. Quick or the dead in this game. I did however pick up this chap as a consolation prize, for the princely sum of $25:

According to his tag, he's made by Applause, and is part of the Star Wars Classic Collectors Series. Made in 1996 I believe as well. He's about 26cm tall (just under 12"), so he's a decent size. He may not even be worth $25, but I was looking for something tall-ish to fill the gap on my 'Fett' shelf, and he's perfect. In good condition, apart from a nick on the front of his helmet.

I also bought a loose Clone Trooper for $5. I think it must have been one of the preview figures as it's unarticulated. The pose is ok, but like many of the figures from EpII & III it can't stand up without the aid of Blu-tac (or an action figure peg if you want to be fancy). It's the main reason I didn't really bother with buying any of the Revenge of the Sith range. It's pointless having action figures that you can't display properly. But for $5, I can spare the Blu-tac for this guy.

As far as Nexus goes, I only wish I had more time to look around, as I'm certain there were some great treasures to be found. The next one is Saturday the 10th of October, and I will most definitely be there.

During the week I went to Toys R Us 'just for a look', and came back with a few more members for my Galactic Heroes and Super Hero Squad armies. I'd been trying to find this little fella in the shops for ages, so I didn't have to pay stupid amounts of money to get one off ebay:

Alright, so I had to pay for a four-pack to be able to get him, but he was with Wolverine, Archangel and Apocalypse, so it wasn't too bad. Look at how cute he is! I really like the pose on this one, his tail and right hand provide the support, leaving his other limbs to party like it's 1999.

I've got a few things due to arrive in the mail within the next week or so, so expect excitement and poor studio photography skills when they do turn up.

Wall Update

My risers arrived! I never thought I'd be so happy to see three bent little pieces of plastic. So I've sorted the mess out a bit, things are starting to look a little bit better, so time for an updated Wall photo.

There are still boxed figures at the back of some of the shelves, they'll get sorted out....eventually. What, you want a blow-by-blow rundown of the shelves? Well ok then!

1. The 'Classic' shelf
aka 'Things that are just about as old as me'. Currently my Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves figures are up there. Tell you what, I looked after my stuff as a kid. I think I'm missing a couple of arrows, but apart from that, top condition. I still even have the sheriff's tiny gold medallion. Some of my less crap vintage Star Wars figures will likely live here, and I'm chasing up a few toys from my childhood like Captain Planet, Biker Mice from Mars, etc etc, so if I get them, this is where they'll go.

2. The 'Batman' shelf  
I think this one speaks for itself. There's a couple of random EpI & II figs in there, but they'll probably get chucked in the bin packed away somewhere, and then it'll be all Batmanny glory.

3. The 'Fett' shelf
Again, fairly self explanatory. EpII Slave I, Boba replica helmet, Jango EpII preview figure, standard Jango & Boba EpII figures, and a little vintage Slave I. Maybe looking to add a Boba bust, but this one's fine as is at the moment.

4. The 'Super Hero Squad' shelf
My collection of the Marvel Super Hero Squad line isn't exactly impressive at the moment, so I'm currently building stocks. Once I have more than a handful, they'll be going in here. No idea what I'm going to do with that TIE fighter, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

5. The 'Time Squad/Doctor Who' shelf
In the next couple of weeks I'm going to buy the entire first wave of the Time Squad figurines. I can't wait. They're even cuter than those damn chibi Batman figures. And they will live here. Alongside the few Dr Who action figures I actually like. The Jack Harkness figure is just...blergh.

6. The 'Junk' shelf
aka, 'I have no bloody idea what I'm doing with this yet'

7. The 'Er....' shelf
Plz see description of 'Junk shelf'. At the moment my Supernatural Chevy Impala and Mark & Robbie Take That dolls (squee!) are up there, but eventual plans are uncertain. I'm thinking about maybe having my Batman Black & White statues up there, then I was considering getting the Star Wars Biker Scout statue to put there, but I've found out it's not really that big, and it's expensive, and argh. Decisions, they are hard. Mark and Robbie get to...stay another day.

8. The 'Galactic Heroes' shelf
Eventually this shelf will be 90% Galactic Heroes, with a few normal figures. At the moment, it's mainly all Episode II. I made such a mistake with those. I was working at Toys R Us, I had staff discount, I got caught up in the moment...and now I have a crapload of poorly-designed toys from a ridiculous movie. Episode II was a mistake on many fronts, it seems. But anyway, yes. Galactic Heroes. Here.

9. The 'I bought all the horse figurines from LotR and forgot to buy any normal figures' shelf
But damn they're cool. This shelf is done. Aragorn/Brego, Legolas/Asfaloth, Minas Tirith 'keepsake box', Ringwraith, fancy Aragorn/Brego.

10. The 'Book' shelf
Imaginitive, huh? Star Wars, LotR, Heroes and comic art books propped up by Xmen 2 Nightcrawler and a Deluxe Class Optimus. I need the 'Art of Return of the King' and 'Art of Attack of the Clones/Revenge of the Sith' books to complete what I've got, then the next one I really want to get is 'Mythology', the art of Alex Ross.

11. The 'Bustin Out' shelf
I think I'll probably keep this as Star Wars busts. Batman will go on the Batman shelf, and Gollum will go...somewhere. Keen to get a Kit Fisto, perhaps a couple of troopers. Eventually. This shelf isn't a high priority. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn will do for the time being.

12. The 'Oh, I DID buy some LotR figures!' shelf
The size of the LotR figures is both a blessing and a curse. Blessing, in that they obviously look impressive and have more area for detail in their sculpting, but curse cause I've got six of the buggers and the shelf is already full. Pippin, Merry, Faramir, and Orc and two, er, Legolii? Legolases? Two of Orlando Bloom's character, anyway. I want to get a Boromir and and Eomer, they better get used to being all squishy and man-touching in there.

13. The 'Trooper' shelf
My hero piece, my beloved vintage AT-ST. Eventually he'll have all different sort of troopers milling around his feet, but I'm in no rush cause as far as the troopers go, the cheaper I can get them for, the better.

14. The 'Robot Heroes' shelf
More or less just the Revenge of the Fallen line, with a few G1/Universe/whatever figures thrown in. As good as the riser looks, unfortunately I'll be able to fit way more in WITHOUT it in there, but at this stage it's ok, so I'm leaving it.

15. The 'LotR weirdly-shaped figure' shelf
Oh Sam and Frodo. You do everything together. Including having action figures with really annoyingly-shaped bases. If I put them to the back of the shelf, you can't see them, but if I put them at the front, you can't see anything behind them. Grunt. I'll find a solution eventually.

16. The 'I am Optimus Priiiiiime' shelf
Because 'I am Legolas Greenleaaaaaaaf' just doesn't have the same ring to it. And because Legolas will eventually be living on the entertainment unit, and my Leader Class Optimus will be taking his place, with a whole bunch of G1/Universe/whatever-they-were Robot Heroes around his feet.

So, that is it. I'd say I'm getting closer to completion, but there's no such thing is there?

Supanova loot

A couple of pics of some of the things I got yesterday. These Batman chibis were so cute they were begging to be photo'd.

They're only little, about 3" tall, and at $20 each they'll definitely be relegated to the 'every now and again' collecting pile. I could get a decent statue for the cost of collecting this whole series. The full range includes Classic Batman, Robin (these two), Modern Batman, The Joker, Catwoman, Batgirl, Two Face, and a 'mystery figure' who I can report to be Nightwing. I definitely want Modern Batman, The Joker and maybe Nightwing, but the others aren't really must-haves, I don't think. Check out how they all look at this website here.

Little bit of gratuitous handsomeness to round out the post. I will probably sound like a broken record, but he really was delightful. Even if he did continually refer to Australia as 'the West Island'. 

Supanova 2009

My first Supanova proved to be a pretty overwhelming experience. Though, to be fair, after being there for 7 hours I had a slightly different level of 'whelm'. I went to the Tim Sale and Karl Urban panels, and had things signed by both those gents. I'm a bit of a LotR nut, so getting some facetime with Eomer was freakin brilliant. Had a Heroes comic signed by Tim Sale, I mentioned that if I had one of his commissons done I'd love a Sylar/Batman faceoff. Logistically it'd be a rubbish matchup, but I love those two characters and to have them in one drawing would be amazing. Tim's face just lit up while he was talking about Sylar and Zachary Quinto. He'd seemed...not sullen per se, just very serious for most of the day, but talking about Sylar the grin came out. It was just nice to see the artist as excited about the characters as the fans are. Cause let's face it, Sylar's really the only good thing in Heroes now.

As far as loot went, I went relatively easy. I need to curb my spending for the time being, the next thing I'm going to buy is the Doctor Who 'Heroes' range, and then I'll be organising what I've already got, before buying anything more. Bought another Batman from the 'Black and White' series (as far as collectible lines go, this is one of my favourites), Art of Marvel Vol 1 & 2 books, Marvel Civil War trade, Heroes Vol 1, and weird little chibi Batman and Robin. They were ridiculously cute, but a bit too expensive to buy the whole set at once.



As far as photos go, first things first:

If you own, or would like to own, any of the items pictured above, please close your browser window now. This blog is no place for your kind. However, the cartoon version of the poster was really cool, and if I wasn't so opposed to the revolting franchise I totally would have bought it.

Comics. So many comics. Everywhere. I've never been into comics in a big way.  I browsed the Kings Comics stall a few times (this picture isn't it), but there were just so many goddamn comics it was slightly intimidating. Civil War is the first comic I've bought since the Attack of the Clones series.

Signed things! There was an A3-ish photo of Nathan Fillion from Firefly/Serenity/Dr Horrible/Castle etc I was considering before the 'But where would you PUT it?' logical part of my brain kicked in. And I would have felt silly buying a photo just for the gratuitious handsomeness of it.

I may not really be into comics, but I sure do love books ABOUT comics. Cause that makes perfect sense. I bought the two on the far left, they'd been on my ebay watch list for ages, and here at the con they were only $20 each. Craziness. Unfortunately the ones second from left on the top were already gone when I came back to buy. I love Alex Ross's work, and it was a collab book from him and a few others. The shelf on the Wall of Nerd that actually has books on it (books in a bookcase? Madness) is looking a lot healthier tonight.

So. Many. Delicious. Collectibles. I'd told myself I was going to be good, but it felt like I was a recovering drug addict walking into a meth lab. Bombarded from all sides with shiny colourful wonderfulness. But I held out. My only major purchase was the Batman on the left, whose box I do not have near me so I can't tell you which designer/sculptor duo he is. But he's great. I'll do a post on the Black & White line in the future. They're stunning, and while I 'like' a lot of lines, I LOVE this one.

The chaps from the 501st Legion were there, posing for photos and raising money for charity (and in Vader's case, crushing tracheas). While everyone else was freaking out and having photos with the very impressive looking Vader, I was all about the Scout Troopers. I have an irrational love for Scout Troopers, to the point where they're just about my favourite thing in Star Wars (a fascination I will attempt to deconstruct in a later post). The troopers weren't quite the buff, athletic members of the Imperial army I'd hoped them to be, but still. Scout Troopers. OMG.

I'll share the blame for these crap-tastic photos. Partially the camera, but mainly the major-league absence of light in the theatre. Nevertheless, Karl Urban's panel was fantastic, even if he is a Kiwi. I think it went for 45 minutes, but it felt like 10. Most of the questions were Star Trek related, which was understandable, but a bit 'meh'. He's a funny guy, I couldn't stop looking at his black and shiny gold Nike 'kicks', paired with a suit jacket and almost-skinny leg jeans. Dapper, to say the least.

There's a minor chance I may go back tomorrow to try and get a custom drawing done, but more than likely, that's Supanova done for 2009. It was great fun, and I'm really glad I went.

Macro preview

My other expensive hobby of choice is photography. I picked up my new Canon SX1 in time for Supanova tomorrow (more on that later), so I thought I'd test out its low-light and macro capabilities on models that weren't going to argue.

RotF Robot Heroes Starscream

RotF Robot Heroes Megatron

RotF Robot Heroes Sideswipe

Attack of the Clones preview Jango Fett

Lord of the Rings Ringwraith animated maquette

It's only the first go-over with it, the auto-focus is a bit fussy, and the grain at ISO1600 is pretty noticeable, but for what is essentially a beefed-up point and shoot, the quality's nice. I'll be taking it along to Supanova with me tomorrow to document the madness.

Supanova is the closest thing Perth gets to a comic con, a weekend of anime, science fiction, comics, collectables, wrestling, guest speakers, etc etc. I'm quite keen to check out the panels from Lord of the Rings' Karl Urban, and Episode 1's Jake Lloyd, but generally I'm just going to soak it all up. I didn't go last year, and after seeing all the photos I wished I had. So expect photos from that in the hopefully not too distant future.

Wilkommen

Greetings, salutations, and good day. My name is Jacinta, and I have a problem. Collecting. Collecting toys, specifically. Since I was old enough to have an income, I've amassed a collection spanning several fandoms and quite a few years. Not until now have I made a conscious decision to display all my bits and pieces. A trip to IKEA and three bookcases later, I bring you: The Wall of Nerd.

There we have it. The Wall, circa early June 2009, not long after everything was pulled out of storage boxes and messily thrown on its shelves. Pandemonium; Batman next to Star Wars, Xmen alongside Transformers. This blog's intention is to document the wall's transformation from cheap Swedish furniture containing a ragtag bunch of plastic playthings, to a shrine to various fandoms, well organised AND containing quality pieces.

Google told me there wasn't many toy blogs being run by girls. Google also told me that there wasn't any toy blogs being run by Australian girls (but I bet Google just wasn't looking hard enough). I love toys, and statues, and busts, and collectables, and I'm sure I love them for different reasons than the really hard core collectors, so that's the other part of the blog. WHY I spend occasionally ridiculous amounts of money on things that serve no other purpose than just to sit there and look good.

And shiny. Don't forget shiny.

Off the top of my head, my fandoms include Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, X-Men, Transformers, Serenity, Doctor Who, Batman, Buffy, Angel etc. So stick around if you like any of that stuff, and I'll attempt to stretch my studio-setup skillz to take some photos of the bits I've got.