Figure:
Die-Cast Spider-man

Series:
TV (I have never actually read a comic with Spidey in black costume, but I love the cartoon).

Recipe:
I simply repainted a Die-cast Marvel Heavy Metal Heroes Spider-man.

Accessories:
None.

Reasoning Behind The Effort:
I had bought a lot of Die-cast super heroes a while ago, and I had a slew of leftover Spider-men…so I figured I’d custom them up. In fact, I did an addition 2 version, pictured below. They were simple repaints, so why not?

Additional Thoughts
These were great figures, but I really have acquired a distaste for my personal, hand-painted toys–which is kind of odd but just how things work out sometimes. Anyway, I threw these in with a lot of other DIE-CAST figures. I hope they liked them. (FIGURES COMPLETED IN SPRING 2008)

First, we are up in Sac-Town today, so i am not posting. So, this “end of the week” update is coming from the middle of the week.

Second, the ripples of the flood water continue to expand in concentric circles of suck, and I do not see the effect stopping for some time.

Third, Thank you for reading. For other things I am thankful for, scroll down to my Thanksgiving post.

Fourth, I am so excited for the holiday season. I hope living in the gulag that is my apartment does not ruin it.

Fifth, It’s been a long time since i handled my nun-chuks. I gotta bust them thangs out.

Sixth, Love to you all!

C

REASONs-MY-WIFE-IS-AWESOME-OF-THE-WEEK: Her #1 concern for the week was getting Christmas stuff together for her family so that it would all be ready to go when we left to visit them. My main concern was our apartment. She is better than me.

Song of the Post:“Life is a Highway” by Tom Cochrane from the album, Mad Mad World.

Figure:
Shopkeeper Tara

Series:
Buffy

Recipe:
Skirt of a Season 5 Anya, Torso and Arms of a “Together Forever” Willow, and head of “Together Forever” Tara. Glued in multiple parts–neck, waist and painted throughout. .

Accessories:
LOADS OF GOODIES from throughout the Buffy line, including a painted furniture unit.

Reasoning Behind The Effort:
Parts user for Tara.

Additional Thoughts
This was a fine Tara, and she had a slew of cool goodies. I sold her as I didn’t need multiple Tara’s in my collection. I just had no reason to keep her, and again–not in love with painted customs. (FIGURE COMPLETED IN 2005)

Just kidding, this post has nothing to do with feet. On Tuesday, my good friends Brenda and Dave put together a list of everyday things for which they are thankful, and I was inspired to do the same…thus, for Thanksgiving. I give you a Stunk’s Stage Top 21 (7 x 3) everyday things I’m thankful for this year. These are in no order, by the way.

21. I’m thankful for wonderful words/phrases that just sound awesome or are fun to say. Examples include: “Portent”, “Lotus”, “Sim-sim-sala-bim”, “Milky”, “Nugget”, “Sneak”, “Boom”.
20. I am thankful for podcasting technology. I can’t imagine living in a better time in history. I get to discover conversation and thoughts on pretty much anything I want, and I can listen to the content again and again. Plus, I’ve gotten to enter my own thoughts and ideas into the pool with my own podcast, the Stunkpod.
19. I am thankful for the literacy and the many forms of reading we have. Getting through novels is a daunting task for me. It takes me about 3 minutes to get through a standard, published page in a novel, that means for a 300 page book, I am making a 900-minute (or 15-hour) investment in the story. However, because of my love of visual storytelling, I can get through a graphic novel of the same length in probably a third of the time. Because of my understanding of screenplay construction, I can get through a screenplay at about a page a minute. magainxe/online articles I can also read with relative speed. I’m just so thankful we have these different facets of literature to enjoy and engage.
18. I am thankful I have fingers. With the exception of my pinkies, I use my fingers constantly, and I am thankful to have them.
17. I am thankful to not only have a job but to work where I work. I LOVE my job, my office, my co-workers, and my overall employment experience at present.
16. I am really, really thankful for my friends from coast-to-coast. I can be a real bag sometimes, and I am thankful for those who have stayed my companions, buddies, and comrades over time. Living with myself 24-hours a day, I know how absolutely ludicrous I can be. SO I am very thankful for those who have tolerated in the past and continue to do so.
15. Jumping off the friends deal, I am thankful for my experience making the Boys of Summer trilogy, a set of independent movies I made guerilla-style with many friends in DE during my college years. I’m still putting together the DVDs for the cast and crew; and I am really trying to make them special, because the experience I had making those movie was so profoundly important to my life. They are the evidence that I have lived my dream and I did it with friends I love.
14. I am really thankful for not only movies, but for a handful of amazing films I’ve gotten exposed to this year, namely: Slacker, Hoop Dreams, Speed Racer, The Dark Knight, Do the Right Thing, and Once. Each of these films has had a very real effect on not only my view of film but of the world at large. I love them all.
13. I am thankful for the security and stability I have through my faith. In a world wherein many things seem upside-down, wherein I oftentimes feel misunderstood or hated, wherein times are uncertain, and the future looks frightening (for any number of reasons), I am thankful I can always rest assured in my faith, that God is who he is; and he’s not gonna abandon us. It’s a calming thought which I embrace daily and am thankful for.
12. I am so thankful for toys. I shouldn’t be; they are needless trinkets. I’m way too old to love them, but I do. I’m sorry. But toys, to me, are incredibly useful for children to work through ideas and issues with which they are dealing, in a construct they can understand and control–which is encouraging given how little they know and control in the real world.
11. I am thankful that the Stage is still going strong. Thank you for reading it.
10. I am thankful for the HOLY BIBLE. Even if I didn’t believe it. Even if I thought Christianity was stupid or silly, I think it would be difficult to make a case that the Bible is not the single greatest literary work in Western civilization. It’s an iconic and interesting collection full of ideas, characters, concepts, and conclusions. Regardless of its religious implications, the book is a magnificent piece of beautiful and complex literature, and I am thankful we have it.
9. I am thankful for my family. Both my birth family and my family-in-law are wonderful. i am so blessed to have a wonderful support group on both coasts. I am so thankful for such an amazing group of people I can call family, and I love them all.
8. I am thankful for the sense of taste and smell. Sure, the use of these senses does not always work out as I’d like…some things smell foul and taste bloody awful, but for the most part, these senses are wonderful aspects of existence, and I am so thankful to have them both.
7. I am also incredibly thankful I can see. My vision is pretty shot in and of itself, but thanks to the technology of the bi-focal, I can see very well, and I am so thankful for it.
6. I am thankful for coffee. Yeah, Coffee. And beer.
5. I am thankful to live in the age and place wherein I live. These days, in this country, most families live in greater comfort than the generation before them. Technology gives us the ability to communicate more consistently. We have A/C and heating. We have endless ways to entertain ourselves. We have abundant food. We live in good times.
4. I am thankful for music in general, but I am thankful for Piano and Guitar as specific instruments. I do love them so.
3. I am thankful for healthy outlets for aggression. Violent video games, boxing clubs, treadmills, weights…whatever the means, i am glad I can let out life’s frustration on something instead of someone.
2. I am thankful for the dialog of existence. I am thankful we can discuss our world, our lives, their meaning, our purpose. I am thankful that we are beings who can question, do question, and discuss outcomes. I am thankful for contrasting ideas, for points of contention, for mind-expanding concepts, and the ability to express them all. I am thankful we are not animals, we are something wholly more complicated…by the virtue of the fact that we can express that we think we are.
1. I am thankful for my loving, beautiful, supportive wife, who stands by me through thick, thin, and all consistency in between. Regardless of my current hobby, fad, or interest, she supports me…and loves of all things. I cherish her. She is as good for me as non-fat chocolate milk, and sweeter than Butterscotch Crimpet (for those who do not have Tastycake in your region, she is as sweet as your favorite donut, for those who do not have donuts, I don’t know how you have not hung yourself out of sheer contempt for the fates.) I love my wife, and I am so thankful for her.

…now featured at PopCultureZoo

Figure:
Deluxe Spike

Series:
or Angel (or Buffy)

Recipe:
Head of a DST Season 5 Spike on the body of a DST deluxe “Destiny” Spike. Done and Done.

Accessories:
Lots of Angel-episode Specific accessories, such as the poles, cross, chalice, and stand from “Destiny”, interchangeable arms, and other random weapons.

Reasoning Behind The Effort:
Parts user. Plain and simple.

Additional Thoughts
As he was a parts user, he was also sold. A great figure with full articulation and minimal paint apps on an accessory only. He’s the type of custom I would have kept, but I did not NEED him for my collection, so he had to go. (FIGURE COMPLETED IN …I’m not sure when.)

I have another recent review up at Figures.com, check out my review of a recent release from the Mezco HEROES line, Claude

I have been very excited for Frank Miller’s directorial debut, The Spirit. Miller’s visual style in the comic medium has been not only interesting but also vibrant and incredibly unique. Anyone who has read Sin City as well as The Dark Knight Returns knows Miller understands visual storytelling, and the man can do both the artistically unique, never-before-seen as well as the direct and simplistic. Miller knows how images can convey expression, which is why I have been absolutely and completely ecstatic that he has finally been allowed in the director’s seat.

I’ve not expressed my excitement, however; because all the trailers for his debut look awful. I don’t think that means the movie will be awful. Great movies don’t always make good trailers, but for those who use solely the trailer to gauge their interest, I wanted to avoid putting up a singular trailer that I thought was poorly constructed and uninteresting. Today, however, I found the below COMMERCIAL AT YAHOO MOVIES, and I finally think they got it right. This is a commercial that makes me say:

1) Oh, this LOOKS interesting
2) This feels different than other things I’ve seen, but similar enough that I may “get it” when I watch it.
3) and, hey, that’s pretty brilliant to use the stirring, compelling musicality of “Carol of the Bells” to promote this odd, unique superhero film coming Christmas Day.

None of the other trailers conveyed anything remotely intriguing to me, other than Miller himself, but this commercial got me really excited. I’ll be in DE when the film is released; and I don’t really want to spend time away from fellowship while there (except maybe to see David Fincher’s upcoming, Benjamin Button with the wife and ‘rents, if they’re interested), so I may not see The Spirit until I return to Cali-Cal. Whenever I see it, however. I truly look forward to it.

Figure:
Hamilton

Series:
Angel

Recipe:
Super Easy recipe. Jayne from DST’s Serenity line on the body of a DST “Bad Girls” Wesley, with the hands of a Fantastic Four movie DR.Doom. The beared head of Jayne was then filed down and smoothed out with sculpting clay. The face was painted to balance the sculpty to the face.

Accessories:
Just a Wolfram and Hart Base.

Reasoning Behind The Effort:
I had a Hamilton done, but I sold him, so i made him anew with some tweaks to make him better.

Additional Thoughts
I didn’t make him better. In fact, i like this version less than my prior Hamilton, so he too was sold. (FIGURE COMPLETED IN SUMMER 2007).

Series:
Firefly

Recipe:
Just like my other Wash figures, I put a “Fool For Love” Spike head on a “Final Battle” Mal, sculptied up the vest and painted over the shirt in a dark brown shade to match Wash’s outfit as well as Wash’s hair.

Accessories:
The cardbaord insert from A Diamond Select Serenity figure which doubles as a base, a bunch Firefly-verse gear and some cash.

Reasoning Behind The Effort:
Shamefully, this was another attempt at my building a “full Serenity Crew” that fell apart under the weight of its own ambition.

Additional Thoughts
This was a good figure…and another one I sold. i just could not get myself behind a full Serenity crew. I tried, really I did; but it just got to be too much, so this Wash met his fate on Ebay. (FIGURE COMPLETED IN —I don’t remember.)