Relaunch the Lair blog?

Has it really been 6 yrs since the last post.

I'll make this quick.

Considering relaunching this old blog so I can use it as a record of what I was doing in life. Probably with a heavy emphasis on the GI Joe stories.

Is there hope for mankind?

http://www.viralnova.com/hilarious-facebook-fails/

So I found this on Facebook today. It is a quick compilation of people posting things that end up being really dumb. It’s not the first time something like his has shown up. I’m sure millions of people have read it and it’s been shared probably by at least half. I’ve been noticing a lot of these types of posts been going up lately. It’s good for a laugh, which is the purpose.

But I can’t help that there’s more to it than just a laugh.

We are laughing at people’s dumbness. We are laughing, rolling our eyes, saying “omg, are they really that stooooopid?”, and etc. This isn’t any different than watching the ‘fail’ videos on youtube or the different tv shows where people do stuff, fail at it and we laugh. There’s an industry for this. Charlie Chaplin comes to mind.

A skateboarder trying a rail trick, fails and racks his nuts on the railing. It’s funny. It’s actually NORMAL (for skateboarding). We wince at how painful the hit is. We laugh. We point. We tell others all about it. Rob Dryek, pro skateboarder, managed to create a tv show from people’s video taped follies. But when it comes to txts and what people post on facebook,  something feels different. It’s more like this…

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Should I even be laughing at how dumb people are? Should I be shaking my head and wondering about the state of education of normal people??? All because some dude doesn’t know the difference between an eagle and a parrot? Or that kids don’t actually know what the Civil War was for? Or that Africa is a continent not a country (wait till they found out where Egypt actually is!). Those are just 3 examples of the 31 ‘fails’ that was compiled.

Part of me says, “why am I laughing at these people?”
Part of me says, “this is bad karma to laugh at the dumb”.

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Because I know, I’ve done dumb things with all intents and purposes being truthful and honest. To be called out on it in this way, it’s almost character assassination. Yet, these people texted/wrote it, right? Should these be reproduced on a social website for everyone to see? You don’t see a whole lot of students’ grades being posted, right? I’m not entirely sure I’d want to be called on every other mistake I’ve made in life.

A simple post like that got me thinking in other weird ways too. The world human population keeps rising. The village gets bigger and bigger. When it keeps getting bigger, does that mean there are more village idiots to the point that you have a village of idjits? (I sometimes wonder if the amount of dumb people is a certain percentage of the world population. Therefore, 30 years ago, there were significantly less people so were there actually less dumb people? OR because of the internet (and tv), the dumb become more pronounced?) And I’ve heard that Alaska is really an island and can only be reached by boat.

Corrosion Of Conformity

For those who have known me for awhile, know I that I started skateboarding in 1986. Or at least, I got my 1^st skateboard that Christmas. Debate the timeline all you want, but the real point here is that some of my musical tastes came from Thrasher magazine. Back in 5^th grade, I checked out the magazines a friend had. 6^th grade, I think I ended up with a subscription for a couple years. Thrasher, unlike Transworld, covered the world (ie; culture) of the skateboarding scene. From clothing to contests to skaters all over, but also, music.

At that age, aren’t we all pretty susceptible to the stuff around us? Music, tv shows, how to act around females (and vice versa), clothing style, etc, it all comes into play. Thrasher covered music; good and bad. From what I could remember, they were usually pretty fair in their reviews. I’m not sure how many albums I bought from random bands just because Thrasher had ads for them or a quick blurb about them. Despite being a skateboard magazine, they didn’t cover just punk. Heavy Metal and some hip-hop/rap showed up. I found bands like Metallica (good), Warrior Soul (gah), Prong (good), Boneless Ones (gah), Drunk Injuns (good), and hundreds of others. The focus of today’s blog is CORROSION OF CONFORMITY.

The album they kept on putting up ads for was for Technocracy. I never did end up with the album, but it looked hella cool (see picture). I believe this was also around the time Metallica’s “…And Justice For All” was coming out.

It wouldn’t be until college that I picked up a Corrosion of Conformity album. “DELIVERANCE”. MTV was airing the video for “Albatross” and it got me interested. I think one of the Mack Dawg snowboard videos used one of their songs too. Since I remembered these guys from middle school, I figured, “hey, I remember them. They are often in the same sentence as Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica, etc (and other metal bands around at that time)” Got the album probably from Columbia House or one of those mail order music companies (I’m sure they are long gone) where you can get like 12 albums for 1 cent or something like that. 

The album in itself was ok. They weren’t my favorite heavy metal band all of a sudden. But for that one album, it was cool enough. Yet, I never picked up another album for some reason.

Recently, the Corrosion name has been popping up on Facebook. Mainly because it’s through a band I “liked” tagging them or something. Don’t know if it was Anthrax or Metallica, but there were ads popping up for their new album. Besides downloading it thru Amazon.com, I also looked up info about the band. I suppose I was always curious about them since I would see Pepper Keenan’s name pop up now and then. Probably due to the fact that he showed up in the band DOWN with Pantera’s singer, Phil Anselmo. So if Pepper’s hanging with down AND he tried out for bassist for Metallica, I figured CoC had called it quits. But with a new album, then who was in it and how would it sound?

Well, it’s definitely not the sound I remember. I looked ‘em up on Wiki. It’s southern metal! (But isn’t Down and Zack Wylde’s band southern metal too?) It’s a 3-piece. With the creation of the internet and Amazon.com (and youtube.com), one can sample music. Sure, I didn’t sample their new album which is self-titled. But I did try out Technocracy and OMG, it sounded PUNK! Just babbling on here.

Oh right, talking about where some of my heavy metal tastes came from. Thrasher magazine. Targeting Corrosion of Conformity. Their new album which is self-titled, really don’t know what to say about it. Other than I find it hard to listen to. But I do admit this, they definitely did things their own way and not worry about what anyone else was going to think. Good old Thrasher magazine…

Roll Bounce Part 1

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Roll Bounce Part 2

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I'll admit it. It can take me months to finish a set. A diorama set. For my DioStories (you know, I photograph action figures in either handmade sets or outdoor locations that tell a big ass story). I've been working on an engine room for months and it'll only be for a handful of shots for the scene!

I stopped at Ace Value (or Ace Hardware, whichever you want to call it) and picked up some random plumbing pipe pieces. It turned into what is pictured. What'll be fun here is that I can reuse that tubing in different ways; just a quick repaint and it'll be something entirely different. The engine room set, well, it's pretty close to being finished up. I'm actually waiting for the paint to dry on the base. Cuz then I'll use a watered down black paint to make it look slightly dirty and weathered (like what you see here).

My sets are usually pretty simple. I'm not a welder or sculptor so I don't do some of the really cool diorama sets. Plus, I do stories so I need the sets to be able to be broken down easily and quickly. Then used again. Even the walls are reused. Because I almost never show the whole set, the viewer doesn't get to see the whole thing. It's very manipulative in that way. Which is sometimes a mistake on my part cuz I won't convey the possible sense of 'grandeur' of the set. And honestly, sometimes it's not worth showing the whole thing.

Even with the set shown, you really don't need to see anything else cuz there's nothing there! :D

It’s rambling time!!!

Every now and then, Shane Welin, a member of DioWarriors.com, holds a DW HANGOUT on google.com. It’s a chance for toy collectors from, in theory, all over to chat. However, most come from DioWarriors.com. At the last hangout, a topic was brought up about the state of toys in today’s world. In particular, the state of the plastic action figure. How will it survive? Will it survive?

This is how I see it. (there are a lot of thoughts going on here…)

To make a toyline successful:
-Support (the wave needs to be able to build on itself. Also primarily includes tv show and/or movie)
-Advertising
-Quality Product (includes good design>Sculpting>Colors>Paint Applications>Excution/Production)

-Overall Interest

-Character selection (Snake Eyes has 50+ versions, most starting from 2002)

-QUANTITY produced
-Price point

I’m gonna skip over most of those and just get to the point.

There’s one other aspect that isn’t part of the original points. That would be ‘additional series’. This is when a toy company will “kiddy-fy” their original product to try and target a younger audience to buy. Sometimes they come in the form of some sort of game. Other times as little trinkets to look great on an office desk or shelf.

For a business to expand, they have to take so many things into account. When these toy companies start making expansions, all it really does is confuse the consumer. It spreads money thinner in terms of what is bought. At the same time, the energy needed to support all series of a toyline is spread thin.

It’s a gamble. Will it sell or be a total mistake? How many resources do we need to make these? What will the cost of the resources? Resources aren’t just the ingredients used to make the thing. We’re talking about marketing, design, sculpt, the time frame of when they can be mass produced (cuz we all know those Chinese factories gotta change the molds up and they are also making all sorts of toys, right???), packaging and everything else that goes into this addition to a toyline.

Does that mean companies can’t do this? No, but listening to their staff analysts with their expensive degrees are proving to the buyers that they are failing more than they are succeeding. It’s a mixed bag for the consumer. Some companies will ‘leak’ comments like, “we have a lot riding on this. If this fails, the whole line will fail.” When the regular buyer hears this, then they feel compelled to buy ‘the crap’ just to sustain the numbers. When reports pop up about ending whatever expansion occurs, it creates distrust in the company.

We’ve all heard, “well, if they put in more effort in the main line, they would’ve been better off.” Or “well duuuuuuh, it was a stupid idea”. Or “if they supported it, it would have done better”.

What I’m saying here is that anything that detracts from the primary line is a distraction. If something has the potential to be kiddy-fied, it probably shouldn’t. Focus should really be on what needs to succeed.

What am I thinking of when it comes to kiddy-fied/expansions for the GI Joe brand?

GI Joe Micro Force
GI Joe BTR (Built to Rule; Lego wannabe)
GI Joe Combat Heroes (according to yojoe.com, aimed for pre-schoolers!)

GI Joe cosplay gear
GI Joe TCG (anyone remember that cool product by WOTC that lost support way too early???)
GI Joe Retaliation 12” figures (like 5 POA and a total waste of space)
GI Joe KREO (This one is a stretch cuz it hasn’t been figured out if it’s selling well. Collectors are going after the blind bag figures but otherwise, it seems to be gathering dust. IMO)

If you’re in TRU in the next week or so, take a gander at the TMNT and Power Rangers sections. You’ll see the regular figures. And then you’ll see EVERYTHING else that is going with it.

And that’s my 2 cents.

It’s rambling time!!!

Every now and then, Shane Welin, a member of DioWarriors.com, holds a DW HANGOUT on google.com. It’s a chance for toy collectors from, in theory, all over to chat. However, most come from DioWarriors.com. At the last hangout, a topic was brought up about the state of toys in today’s world. In particular, the state of the plastic action figure. How will it survive? Will it survive? What will happen to the GI Joe brand since it’s the 50^th Anniversary and Hasbro is selling it only through Toys R Us? Death of GI Joe?!?!

This is how I see it. (there are a lot of thoughts going on here…)

To make a toyline successful:
-Support (the wave needs to be able to build on itself. Also primarily includes tv show and/or movie)
-Advertising
-Quality Product (includes good design>Sculpting>Colors>Paint Applications>Excution/Production)

-Overall Interest

-Character selection (Snake Eyes has 50+ versions, most starting from 2002)

-QUANTITY produced
-Price point

I’m gonna skip over most of those and just get to the point.

TOO MANY FIGURES ARE MADE!!!

I would love to point fingers and say a brand like He-Man rehashes the same characters too many times. GI Joe uses their Core to death. How many versions do we need of Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker figures?

I would love to say that wasting resources (like PLASTIC) on 5 Point Of Articulation figures will cause the death of the action figure and GI Joe.

I could say that lack of support is a great way to kill a series. Like what Sigma6 became (cartoon, but lack of new toys AND vice versa!). Or how GI Joe’s Pursuit of Cobra just fizzled out (even tho the movie was coming) with no love on small screen or big screen.

It’s tempting to point out that a single GI Joe figure in 80s was on average, $3 MSRP. It became $7 for the 2 packs from 2002-2005 (Could go back a couple years to RAH rehash packs just before the JvC theme). When Sigma 6 came out, an 8” basic figure was available for $8 MSRP. By 2007, a single 25^th Anniversary figure went for $6 MSRP. 2014, Retaliation figures were, on average, $10 for a single figure.

The way I see it, what will kill the action figure genre is not the plethora of competing toylines, but the amount of product created.

Being a fairly frequent TRU and Fred Meyer shopper (with a side of Target on occasion), all I see are masses amounts of plastic made by factories in China and companies trying hard to get the attention of a passer-by. Admittedly, I’ll check out Adventure Time or Regular Show product. But visiting the action figure section (which of course, is divided up by brand), is a sorry state of affairs. To this day, I can still find figures from the Avengers movie (2012), 1^st wave GI Joe Retaliation figures (Mar. 2013), even stuff like Green Lantern (2011), Captain America (2011), Dark Knight Rises (2012) and several others seem to still linger.

Fact is, the toy companies release the 1^st wave of movie toys one month before the movie release. They usually release the toys in very large numbers to saturate the market. A company like Hasbro will even back off on other lines to support whatever movie is being released. What I have found is that those wave1 toys clog the pegs to a choking point and the stores have a very hard time getting rid of them, even on clearance.  Successor waves, if produced, come in far smaller numbers to the point that they can be hard to find.

It is my opinion it’s that these 1^st waves of figures are going to kill the action figure toy genre. I’ll even spare the ‘kiddified’ versions if they were made in smaller number. But the fact is, these companies come up with certain numbers to produce what that they think will sell. Unfortunately, the inflated numbers for movie figures just kills the releases of successor waves.

And that’s my 2 cents.