Gil Toss: The "Burdened with Glorious Purpose" Edition

As gamers, anime enthusiasts, movie buffs and music lovers - we're in the business of collecting. Our favourite companies have implemented rewards for our obsessive behaviour, haven't they? How many hours have some of us spent trying to platinum a game, grinning when a pesky achievement was unlocked or did some internal bragging after managing to find and collect every single coin a particular stage had to offer after repeatedly dying?

Our in-game collecting has crept into our real lives too - figmas of video game and anime darlings and concert ticket stubs - Why even while walking down the street, some of us are collecting things. That little green light on my 3DS tells me I've found a kindred spirit and fellow collector of virtual people. It's a bit creepy when you think about it. But I suppose it'd be even creepier if I could use them as virtual paper dolls and change their outfits and hairstyles. I'm not secretly wishing that I can do that... honest.

Happy H1's Day

Happy St. Paddy's Day (or whatever it is you people call it)!

In celebration of her own day, H1 bought us some cupcakes.  Hiding within the chocolate muddy frosting were nasty surprises...

...the sort of nasty surprises that one may close their eyes and have nightmares about.

Or perhaps the sort that will have me sleeping with one eye open tonight.

As if these tiny, green hellions are not terrifying as is, what with a third hand growing out of their heads and straight through their hats (a feather in their cap, you say? Look again!), whilst digging their hands into their chests to tear out their hearts, then certainly...

...the "gold pots" clutched under their arms are cause for alarm.  Gold pots? Or children's heads turned to gold?!

Currently: nervously watching my back.

Having Friends in Lego Places

An obsession with Lego began some time in May and it has since then descended into madness.

In the future, there will probably be a full-on post capturing the sets we've built since May of 2012 but for now, I'd just like to thank the wonderful Marvs for her contribution (and enabling) our current bad habit.

For Christmas (and yes, I know I owe a Christmas Loot list to all and a proper thank you to all...I will get to that too!), Marvs sent us a cute package containing some of our favourite friends.

Not only is it awesome having a friend who lives in the U.K. who has access to little Lego sets that may otherwise pass us by, it's even more spectacular having a friend living in the U.K. who is also employed by the greatness that is Lego.

In our little package were Avengers loose packets (which is fitting, since it was my obsession with Tom that started it all...curse you "Hiddleston Chain Reaction") and a tiny friend from a very Special Edition mini-figure set.

That's right, I've my very own Olympics 2012 Team Great Britain Tennis Player.

Just look at his fabulousity!

And look at his smug mug.

Did he actually win gold? Because I'm not so sure...! A quick Google Search tells me that the Mens Single was won by Brit, Andy Murray.

Well then, considered me served.

Carry on.

Currently listening to: "Sit Down, Stand Up" by Radiohead.

A "Keed"napping at the Job

It was Thursday when members of The Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. and Friends of Hello Kitty went missing.

A missing report with Reward details were posted.

I guess no one will take a knuckle to the eyeballs seriously.

A ransom note and follow up "demands" letter were received.

Chitauri, It is

In shopping for A'Face's Birthday presents and a potential scheme of racking up Lego Club points for the discounted purchase of a Haunted Mansion (which we have now estimated will take me 29.1 hours to build given my current building rate...ugh), H1 confiscated the Lego Captain America Avenging Cycle that I was going to buy for myself and squirreled it away for my Birthday.

I was bored yesterday, found it and built it.  I think this means I'm not getting a Birthday present come October 4th and I may be regretting things at the moment.  

In any event, I did not have that much fun building Captain America and his Avenging Cycle.  There was not much to it but I did love his shield and the finished product.  It was pretty cute.

So here's the thing with my abilities to use decals: I have non-existent skills.  From finger prints to crookedness, it's usually a right mess with me.  I can never be a Surgeon for many reasons and that's definitely one of them.  No comments from the Peanut Gallery, H1!

Conundrum

In case you missed it a couple of posts down, I've come to the realization that I enjoy building Lego sets.

Now, I've only done two so far and while I'd like a Lord of the Rings: Mines of Moria set and The Avengers Quinjet set, there's one set out there on the horizon that makes me forget my wish for a Cave Troll or my desire to destroy a Lego Black Widow.

I present to you, the Lego Monster Fighters Haunted Mansion set:

As if it was not cool enough, it actually opens up like a play house with various rooms in your typical haunted mansion - a torture/potion/kitchen type room, a creepy basement, and a piano room.  I may be stretching it wtih a 'torture' room but I'm using my imagination as Lego would like me to and thinking up things my Haunted Mansion will have, okay? Okay.

Even cooler!!! (because why stop there), the set comes with a a zombie chef.  A zombie freaking chef.  And! ghosts...ghost that glow.  In.  the.  dark.

In discussing this with Bughie J. (Confidant for all my musings of ridiculous schemes involving Lego, toys and video games (while kindly reminding me I have a Hot Toys Loki to pay for at the end of the year)), we decided that all manners of things can live in this Haunted Mansion.

Some where along the way, the conversation on the Haunted Mansion went a little like this:

Me: ...people could live in there.  Like Loki.

Bughie J.:  and command his zombie chef to make him fish n chips! and Dalek cakes for you.

Me: He and I still trying to sort out the alleged chortling.  Let's not talk about it.  There was no chortling! pfppbbttfftt.  Hm? What? You heard nothing.

Bughie J.: Nothing? Or Something.

Me: Uhh...pancakes? No, nothing.  Really though, do we want to eat fish n' chips from a Zombie Chef?

Bughie J.: Depends how good!

Me: It's probably Gollum's fish, all rotten and stuff.

Bughie J.: Might be worth the risk.  Fish n' Chips and all.

Me: True.  True.

Bughie J.: Plus i'm sure the alcohol will protect me

Me: Who's brewing alcohol in the basement? The ghosts? Well, who else to brew some alcohol than some spirits, I guess.

I can see great things for this house and great frustration in my trying to build it.  14+ difficulty at 2,064 pieces, huh? Should make for hilarious times.

Currently: Trying to justify spending $16 for tax and shipping on the Wizard Edition of Ni No Kuni

Fish, Anyone?

My precious Gollum from my aforementioned Lord of the Rings Lego set...in pictures!

Creepy...nightmare inducing pictures.

Have some fish...

...yes.

Have some.

There's nothing busted about him as some may have you believe.

Currently listening to: "Dance Little Liar" by Arctic Monkeys.

A Lego Story

I built my first prefabricated Lego set last weekend.

Is that some sort of blasphemy on my part?

Lego sets are cool but the HOchieS had some lego bricks back in the day when the pine trees were the coolest spiral shaped things ever, and most everything you built was left to your imagination.

I don't recall having the instructions to build movie and television franchised sets back then.  I'm not sure Lego existed in that capacity as it does now.  It's rather brilliant and a little sad on some level, perhaps.

But I can report that it was lovely fun building last weekend.  It was such fun that I am considering buying everyone Lego sets for Christmas.  It's a sort of calming thing and I am impressed by the genius of Lego Engineers.  I don't know what you call the people who think up the construction of these things but I'm sticking with "Lego Engineers".

There have been some amazing sets from Lego but I never have space for anything and the last thing I need is more toys or something else to obsess over.  Really.  I don't.

But as with all my obsessions, they start somewhere.  It's usually a villain in an anime, or video game or in this case, that blasted Joss Whedon and his The Avengers, a certain Brit, and one bad-assed Agent Coulson.

I decided to start small and with $20 later, an hour or so of my life spent dealing with tiny bits of super heroes and a very helpful BooHead, I finished the Lego set "Loki's Cosmic Cube Escape".

There is in fact a demented looking Lego Hawkeye driving Loki around.

For some reason Iron Man was included in this box and I guess they did not think Loki could sell it on its own.  Well, that's crazy talk! ...or I speak crazy.  I don't know but the other thing that sold me on it was the fact that it involved S.H.I.E.L.D.  They could not very well include a mini-figure of Agent Coulson because he is just too awesome to include in any Lego set and I understand.  The world would implode.

Obsessions of the Month (May 2012)!

The Avengers

To be more specific - Loki. Or rather, Tom Hiddleston. A whole blog post followed because I had nothing better to do.


Though I did enjoy the Avengers, so much so that I saw it twice and would see it again if the rumoured Director's Cut makes it to the theatre in August.  So much fun! So much Tom.  Stop judging me.




Persona 3 Portable

Some time ago, I started playing Persona 3 FES. I'm not sure what happened (probably a broken PS3 that did not allow for PS2 games to be played) but I never finished. I got near the end and....yeah. So now, I've been playing P3P and it's even more fantastic than I remember. It's a lot deeper than I recall: all the relationships I've been investing my time into and I'm honestly having fun. I'm probably over hour 60 or 70 at this point but I'm only now feeling it wear on me. It's been a fun journey and I hope for a stellar ending. Also, I'm looking forward to P4: The Golden in the Fall. Wooo!  (Update: I finished it and loved it but those 80 plus hours were draining).




Lego Mini-Figures

At some point, I became obsessed with these things. Perhaps it was in part due to the fabulous work by Mike Stimpson or Powerpig but in my tiny brain, I figured I could re-create some sort of epic story by using lego mini-figures. Um. Yeah, I'm still trying to think of something funny and have come up with diddly-squat. I'll probably just use them to keep on playing inefficiently with my macro lens. So expect some pictures of mini people in the future. Or mini robots. Or mini...minis?

A Few of My Favourite Things, Series v. 2.0 (The Precursor of Things to Come)

My foray into replaying the Jak and Daxter series in its glorious HD re-release made me come to a few realizations.

1. 10 years after the fact, I really enjoyed the first game a lot more than I did back then.  I loved it then but I was so much more enthralled by it this time around.  It may be in part to how accomplished I felt collecting everything and earning my first (and possibly only) Platinum Trophy.  Trophies are silly little things sometimes and getting them all in Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is really not that big a deal.  Truly, anyone could do that.

2.  With my broader gaming knowledge of different genres (but no, not an expert by any means), one of my favourite games in Jak II has me just a tad big frustrated on the replay.  You know, it's not that it's not fun still because it is but talk about annoying at times! Controlling vehicles in that game makes me want to fling controllers.  I don't know if my tolerance for pain and patience was higher back in the day or if my skills were just better.  I'm amazed I even finished the game the first time. 

But, my love for those stupid two characters is as great as ever because they are wonderful.

3.  I began a little Series entitled A Few of My Favourite Things in 2010 to discuss some things I used to love when I was younger.  Series 1 was all about my Original Army of Misfits, while Series 2 dealt with just a few games I played and loved during the period 1997 through 2005.

My intention was to write about more recent times and interests in that vein but I never got around to it.  Really this endeavour will give me an excuse to mess around with my macro lens and write at length about various things for my own guilty pleasure and because I like hearing myself speak.

Since I haven't really formulated a plan yet as to how to begin, I'm leaving this post here as incentive to get on it and get those zombie creative cells to shamble along slowly and noisily in my brain until maybe Saturday.

Maybe.

Ah, First World problems.  Gotta love them.

Currently listening to: "Basement" by Shoji Meguro, from the Persona 3 Original Soundtrack.  Here's another game I've decided to play, since I got near the end and never finished.  Again I find myself appreciating it quite the lot and more so this time around.  It also does have a fantastic soundtrack (except for those times when I feel embarrassed at outsiders listening...like H1.  She must judge me).  I cannot wait to play Persona 4: The Golden whenever that is released.

Ridiculous Sightings in Retail

These were some toys H1 and I spotted over Christmas last year at the Wholesale Club BJ's.

They seem...I don't know, a little bit racist maybe?

Just us?

Hiding in the Tall Grass...

An epic battle is about to begin!

A battle that's not so epic because what does that Smug Leaf think he's doing? He knows he's grass type and will get his ass busted up by the fire-breathing type.  This is going to be a damned massacre.

Not the Glamour Shots I Had Hoped For

Yeah, so I wanted to some how incorporate pictures of Judge Magister Gabranth into my earlier post about my concert almost one week ago... (wow! It's just about Friday already again.  Awesome).

Unfortunately, I could find no way to write him in, so instead I'll just call this my photography post...the one where I use the macro lens to do stuff.

And FAIL!

Anarchist My Ass

X sent me a prezzie.  I was informed it was Rotten.

Upon Rotten's arrival to his new home, I found him to be hilarious.

Peeking out from his box, I could tell Rotten had personality.

"Confound it!" he screamed.  I assumed he was confounding his plastic prison.

 I released him and found that well, he had no confounding face.  Or any face for that matter.

So I set out to personalize him...in the face. 

Rotten wears his sunglasses at night (so he can see, of course).  He's got a bad-assed koi for a devil eye-brow.  His nose is pierced with a rather unsafe safety pin.

He cages devil fish in his Hannibal mouth.

A skull with wings has been tattooed to his side.  He spent 9 seconds in the chair for that.  A lot of work that.  "And a lot of pain", he wanted you to know.

He continues, "and even more pain in the ass to have this one done."  Why...thank you for the insight, Rotten.  I guess?

He's even got a "I love Mom" tattoo under his foot! You can't see that here but all in all, he's one bad mother-chucker.

H1 put in the plug to get this mosh pit started.  Rotten reacts to music he hears.  You put on a song and his face goes wild for it.  Here he is mouth open small.

Here he is, mouth open wide.  He's really getting into this...

This...this...thi.. LADY GAGA song?!?!?!

Rotten loves Lady Gaga.  Right after that song ended, I discovered he loved the Justin Timberlake song that played.

He doesn't really care for Mindless Self Indulgence.

And Marilyn Manson? He thinks it's okay but he can take it or leave as per his unenthusiastic facial expressions.

....

.......

Meet Rotten Ana.

Ana had his cool name rights revoked due to his less than anarchist ways.

And do you want to know what I think of Ana?

Me thinks that Anacanchistmyass.

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. Hare, Hare, Hare.

We've already come to the last month of 2010.  How did this happen? I know, it's called "Time" but it sure seemed to have gone by really quickly this year.

Good luck to everyone this month.  I hope it's wonderful for all, as The HOchieS start getting really, really busy.

This month, I want to give a special bit of luck to our Clownie over there in Edinborough.

We're sending you some good luck, Japanese style!

What's in the Box?

I got a pleasant surprise on Saturday via the Post.

A familiar box! Full of coins? A 1 up mushroom, perhaps?

No! Better! It's almost the entire crew!

The best: Luigi

Mario oppressing Yoshi (as per usual), Toad and a cute Goomba to stomp on

Peach with some brain crushing power on the part of my new favourite -

Bowhahaha.  Bowser's truly bad-assed.

More awesome from behind!

And so, that was the my Elite Reward Status from Club Nintendo for the 2009 - 2010 Year.  Pretty cool, I must say and much more awesome than the Mario Hat of last year (although Mari Ho was fabulous).

I am uncertain if I will make the Elite status for the 2010 - 2011 year.  It's looking a little bleak right now, but with more than half the year to go, I am not too concerned.

In the meanwhile....

No, Thank YOU, Nintendo.

A Very Simple Entry to a Very Special Competition

In celebration of Bloggie Boo's 5 year Anniversary, The HOchieS are running a competition.

Unlike the last time when we taxed your very creative, witty brains for entries; this Blog-away/giveaway's rules are very simple.

To Enter, we need you frenemies to do the following:

1. Leave 5 comments per person on this post and be sure to include your Word Verification in the comments left.

We are going to trust you all to give us your first word verification received, whatever that may be, and not refresh the page for one you think is hilarious.

The whole point of this exercise is that the Blog is going to be "choosing" the winners.  We all know the Blog is not the most uhh...friendly of entities, but it often gives us real gems disguised as word verifications.

EDIT and UPDATE to the RULES (posted on 10/22/2010 at 10:30 p.m.):

At H1's suggestion, we will be running this competition for 5 days only (one day for each year the Blog has been alive).

Each person may leave one comment a day for each of those 5 days, OR 5 comments in total during the competition period (and don't forget you must include your word verification).  At the end of the 5 days, we may compile the word verifications during that period and see who fared best.

We're doing this because one word verification per person for the whole time may not decide clear winners.  Hey, leaving 5 each could mean they're all crappy (depends on what the Blog decides he wants to give you) but we think the chances at getting something good may be increased this way.

IMPORTANT: The Competition starts TODAY! and ends at 11 p.m. on October 27th, 2010 at 11 p.m.

The Prizes

Kid Robot's Mongers Toys

Series 1: Menthols (2 boxes bought)

Series 2: Filter Kings (3 boxes bought)

Series 1: The possibilities are endless.  I hope someone gets bacon.

Series 2: More possibilities.  I hope no repeat of the Drake incident.

As you all know, one of my favourite things to do with Beetchie is go to Toy Tokyo and we each buy a blind box of toys.  Capsule machines and blind box toys are an unhealthy obsession of mine (silence! I know I have many!), but this one... oh ho ho.  It's bad.  And it's bad for a couple of reasons (other than it being hilariously ridiculous and hilariously sad), such as the example here and here.

Fortunately for you guys, I did not pick these toys for myself so your chances may be pretty good at getting something you actually find amusing from this batch.  My luck is good for others, just not for myself.

I also feel I must apologize to Beetchie in advance - there just weren't any other good toys for me to run for this competition! They ran out of the Japanese Poop toys!

The HOchieS will pick 5 winning entries (or the 5 who fared best with their WVs), and these 5 will be the proud owners of 1 new Monger toy each.

And why wouldn't you want a Monger toy?

I mean...just look at them.

Good Luck!