The Blue-Furred Nalfeshnee, At Last

Posted on by vastcyclopeanvistas

So it’s been a long, long, long while at the ‘Vistas…we’ve moved countries, among many other changes, in the last five years. Sorry for the cyclopean absence.

Here’s my latest effort–made in my new man-cave-type study/office/workspace/closet in Prague. Maybe the longest work in progress ever, too; I assembled and primed this guy not long after the Reaper Kickstarter Four (!?!) and began painting him in December of 2019…

And now he’s done. I don’t know why I’ve always thought these Type IV demons have blue fur, but there it is. I’m happy how he turned out.

Next up: my first-ever Red Dragon.

Loving Little Pink Weirdos

Posted on by vastcyclopeanvistas

Just paid a visit to Emerald City Comics in Pinellas Park, Florida.  As always, had a great time immersing myself in this year’s pop culture moment, and enjoyed browsing through their thousands of action figures, games, and comics.  My haul this year included this retro stuff of which I am the target audience:

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Yep. Those are Alien M.U.S.C.L.E Things from Super7.  (As I couldn’t find the Dark Crystal action figures I was looking for, these had to do.) I was really happy to find that some other Gex X geek thought, back in 1985, that it would be great to have M.U.S.C.L.E Things that weren’t just weird Japanese characters that we had no context for, even if that was a main part of their appeal.

Understand that I had the entire collection of M.U.S.C.L.E Things when I was a kid–I even had the poster from the mail-in offer so I could keep track of my collection.  When I finally liquidated my childhood back when my parents sold their house, the whole collection fetched a pretty penny on eBay.  I only saved my favorite one (pic from musclefigures.com)

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Not sure why I love #178 so much, but there he is. He just seems so alien and inscrutable.  He’s perched over my desk at work, and perhaps I take a little inspiration from him for my teaching style.

Thanks to the obsessive work of people like Nathan’s Muscle Blog! this little corner of collecting madness will never die.

So I picked those Alien Retro figures up, and then started poking around online as one does on Summer vacation, and lo and behold, I discovered this great site.  What a cool combination of the inexplicable and the well-organized!  I’d love to spend a few hours browsing this guy’s collection…

Gotta get back to work in a week.  These pink critters will certainly be front and center on my desk!

Fantasy Toy Soldiers…who knew?

Posted on by vastcyclopeanvistas

If you’re an aging Gen-X geek with a few hours to kill, head on over to Fantasy Toy Soldiers right now and indulge in one man’s obsessive quest to document off-brand (and often wacky) toys along the lines of plastic army men or dinosaurs.  I can’t count how many of these things (or ones like them) I lost at the beach, in the back yard, or under the bed…

I love this blog!  I came to it after finding some ebay sales on old Arco The Other World figures, which I had as a kid…I especially liked the phoenix with antennae and the two-headed dragon.  Check out the zany box art!

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Enough digging around on FTS will turn up all kinds of craziness. I love how this set (also from Arco, it seems) rips off classic D&D lead sculpts from Grenadier, Heritage, AND Ral Partha, all in one go!

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I wish I could get my hands on some of these things, given my latest obsession with all things plastic.  I’ve been painting the recently canceled Handful of Heroes figures again, and have approximately 1,000,000 Reaper Bones minis awaiting paint…

In the meantime, check out Fantasy Toy Soldiers.