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Television & Movies ToyBox

At the mountains of little plastic madness

This morning, my attention was drawn to a Kickstarter campaign to fund a short-run, homebrew toy company making a new line of Star Wars action figures based on the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. The donation/invstment thresholds at which you got Neat Stuff – including a full set of all four figures, a print of the packaging artwork free of text and logos, and other goodies – were really reasonable. I was in love! With the 3 3/4-inch spawn of Cthulhu!

(Before going any further, those interested can find the Kickstarter here.) And at the same time, I realized that this has got to stop. The boutique, niche-interest toymakers of the world have got to stop tempting me with things specifically engineered to appeal to multiple flavors of retro nostalgia at once. … Read more

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Music Television & Movies

Kasatochi: The Original Trilogy

Kasatochi Wars!To be fair, this is not a franchise that’s short on awesome video game music, but with this release, Kasatochi rolls the tape back a bit and beeps up the music of the three movies of the original trilogy, with an emphasis on the first one. Yes, there will be a prequel trilogy album; no, I’m not sure exactly when just yet.

Go grab it from the dedicated Kasatochi page; you can see the track listing after the jump. … Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3

I used to bulls-eye Yoshis back home in Beggars’ Canyon

He's switched his computer offAfter I’d put Little E to bed tonight, I could’ve sworn I heard him talking like he was lecturing somebody with utmost seriousness. I had allowed him to pick his bedtime music as a “completed chore” reward, so of course he’d picked the Star Wars soundtrack. But what the heck was all this talking? Who was he wheeling and dealing with?

I went around the corner, and boy, did I find out. … Read more

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Home Base ToyBox

STAR WARS EARL JR.

Secret plansI’ve been talking for some time about tearing down my man-cave, only for a variety of reasons it hasn’t been happening as fast as I’d like. Today I emptied out, moved, and refilled one of the heaviest, most awkward pieces of furniture in my house, a 6+ foot tall bookshelf that my folks got for me, and my dad built for me, one Christmas in the ’80s. It matched a computer desk and printer table which are no longer with me. It’s still in one piece, reasonably attractive, and it’s damned solid. And yeah, the fact that I remember watching my dad build it while knocking back a beer and cursing a lot has something to do with it. I do the same thing with build-it-yourself furniture, minus the beer (though as I get older, and the printed instructions gradually become more incomprehensible, I have to admit that the temptation is sometimes there). … Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Funny Stuff Television & Movies

I never asked this question in ’77

Little E and I were watching Star Wars (again) on Friday night; toward the end, when the Imperial Flunkie asks Tarkin if he wants his escape pod fired up and ready, my son suddenly blurts out “ARE THEY TRYING TO TEXT EACH OTHER?

I have no. idea. where. that. came. from. I don’t have a plan that allows for a lot of texting. Texting is something that really doesn’t go on in this house. I’m old and unhip. But, you know, if George is going to keep reinventing Star Wars for a new generation, then I guess this road only leads to one place…

TEXT WARSRead more