An All New Collection For The Whole Family!

I'm not totally sure why we've just NOW gotten into our newest household collection, but we're all into them nonetheless. At least my daughter and middle son and I are. What am I talking about you ask? Why Lego Minifigures, of course! Now don't get me wrong, we didn't just discover Legos. I've been playing with them since I was a kid and my own kids have tubs and tubs full and have had for years. For some reason though, we've never collected the series of minifigures until now which is Series 5. We've got some catching up to do. Anyway, once the kids got a few in their stockings, the quest to collect them all was on!



There are 16 different figures in each series and they come 1 figure per bag for about $3. We got all of ours at Walmart, and yes, we pack searched to avoid doubles. Sorry, had to to it. Besides, it's kind of fun to feel the pieces in each package and try to figure out what is inside. The first purchase we made we grabbed 4 random packs and didn't try to feel what was inside at all. We ended up with doubles of the graduate. Since then I've managed to go double free, correctly guessing a perfect 10 for 10 with no doubles. That means we have just 3 figures left to reach sixteen. Guess what I have to show you now!



You guessed it! The final 3 figures and again, I managed to avoid doubles. It really isn't that hard once you know what pieces are unique to each figure. And, unlike packsearching for that one hit per retail box of cards, all of the figures seem to be evenly split per box, so you're not really stealing anyone's chance of pulling something awesome or anything. So I don't feel guilty packsearching in this case. So as you can see, one of the last 3 figures was the clown.



We also found the evil dwarf...



and the royal guard, both of which are fairly easy to distinguish because of their unique headwear.



Here you can see the completed Series 5 checklist that Baby Peas has filled out. As you can see there is a double checkmark next to the graduate and also the lizard man. {I actually found another lizard man on purpose because I wanted one for my desk at work.) Now that we are done with series 5 we are looking towards series 6 which should hit stores soon, though all of our local Walmarts have so much series 5 in stock, it may be awhile before 6 shows up.



Here is the completed set of series 5 figures. We'd really like to try and find some of the older series to complete, but seeing as they've been out awhile, they won't all be cheap. I really want to find a tribal chief somewhere, he's got a sweet headdress! So if you are into Legos at all and haven't given these little dudes a look, I suggest you do. They're a lot of fun! Later.

I Beat Panini To The Punch! 2012 NBA Big D Customs Are Here!

Since Panini isn't going to bother giving us any new NBA cards until Feb or March, I figured I might as well get mine out there. Here are some brand spanking new, 2012 NBA cards for you to enjoy. This is basically my "flagship" BigD set for the year. This batch features a bunch of new faces in new places both veterans and rookies. By the way, Davis West isn't a rookie, just a typo I was too lazy to fix combined with a blogger snafu that put him at the bottom with the other rookies, oh well. Hope you like them. Later.

Score From The Junkie!

We are still quite a few stickers short of filling our 2011 MLB sticker book, but thanks to dayf, also known as the Cardboard Junkie, we are quite a bit closer.



Dayf sent us 4 custom built packs including only stickers we needed. One of the packs was custom wrapped in this note:



Let that be a lesson out there to all you collectors. Keep your tea away from your cards & stickers! Lucky for us, the stickers turned out to be just fine. No vintage teas stains at all and they don't even smell funny! Since dayf has already filled his sticker book, he said he didn't need anything from us, but then he had to go and not play fair. There was more that just stickers in in the envelope he sent.



There were Mavs cards too, including an ant's eye view of Samaki Walker and a pretty sweet metal card of the Mantis himself, Shawn Bradley. The Bradley card is actual metal. It's much noisier than a regular card if you should drop it and could even scrape ice off your car windows in a pinch!



The previous 4 guys are relative Maverick spares (though I love them all equally!), but this next group are a few notches above. JJ, Harper, Fin and Kidd all contributed in a big way while they were here in Big D. Finley ranks number 2 in my Mavs player collection for number of cards and this sticker was one I didn't have, so that's a big plus. That's not all dayf sent, though. It gets better!



The last 2 cards are the best in the package and they both feature Dirk. One is a rookie card that I didn't have yet and the other is a sweet hand drawn custom sketch card. Is that awesome or what? Now I feel happy sad. Happy that I received such great cards, but sad that my blogger friend would double cross me so! Now I'm gonna have to dig up some Braves or My Little Pony stuff to send back so I won't feel so guilty. Though, after reading his New Year's Resolution post about getting rid of some of his junk, it will probably just get thrown out anyway, so maybe I should just save myself the postage. That'll teach him, right? Later.

My Mavs Are Disappointing, But Holy Crap, Panini Actually Made Me Happy!

Well, the Mavs are of to an 0-3 start after Kevin Durant stuck a dagger in us at the buzzer tonight. I'm not worried, though. I have faith that Dirk and the rest of the Mavs will right the ship before the end of the season. What I don't usually count on is Panini producing a product that I actually want. They have an exclusive though, so if it's NBA cards you want, it's Panini you're stuck with. So it was a bit of a surprise while killing time on ebay that I ran across this gem.



Nice, right? This comes from their Black Box product which is quite simply, another in a long list of sets made by Panini that I will never buy a box of because it is too expensive and frankly not worth it. Thank goodness, for secondhand singles though. I must give Panini props, however, for at least producing several cards of my second all time favorite Maverick Mark Aguirre this past year. It's good to see that he's retired but not forgotten.




They even used a different photo on the back, something they've gotten much better at doing lately. So while I'm still not totally on board with Panini and their products, it's nice to at least know they are capable of surprising me every once in a while. Hopefully, when what appears to be their only affordable set this year (HOOPS) arrives in March, it will be full of surprises. If nothing else, the Mavs ought to be back in the thick of things by then, and that will be no surprise to me. MFFL! Later.

I'm Back With A Rant! NBA Action Is Almost Here And Panini Blows! (But You Already Knew That, Didn't You?)

Well, I've been gone for a while, but today I read something that I had to post about and even though it's Christmas Eve, I'm afraid it's kinda negative. Tomorrow the World Champion Dallas Mavericks will tip off what I hope to be another successful season. I couldn't be more excited for the NBA to be back. I'm also ready for some new basketball cards to collect, but unfortunately for me, it doesn't look like I'll get to do much of that this season. Panini recently released their plans for NBA cards this year and guess what? They are gonna put out a whopping FIVE sets! WOW! Now I get that the NBA season is shortened and they are getting a late start with all the roster changes and what not, but still isn't 5 sets kinda low? The number of sets, however, isn't what's got my blood boiling. The problem is the makeup of those 5 sets. Here is what Panini says they are putting out.

Preferred - 4 cards per pack @ $200 per pack. Supposed to be all autos and the previews show plenty of empty white space and gradients! Whoopee!

Hoops - $1 packs retail and $2 hobby. Not sure how many cards per pack, but I'm gonna guess around 7 based on their other low end stuff like Score. The Hoops previews that came out last year looked pretty good to me.

Limited - Not sure what's in store for this season but I'm sure it will follow season's past. Something around 7 cards per pack for around $100.

Past & Present - Totally new concept. Who the hell knows.

Gold Standard - Again, no info for this year, but if we go by last year we can expect 12 hideously blinged out gold cards for around $150. I think Donald Trump may like these, but probably not very many other people.

So what is the problem you ask? The problem is, Panini doesn't put out anything for the regular joe to collect, and I'm a regular joe. I can barely stomach most of Panini's designs as it is, but when the prices are as high as they are it makes it even worse. The only set I'll be able to buy packs of for sure is HOOPS and MAYBE Past & Present. Won't know on that set until more details come out, but the other 3? No way! I'll try to grab singles here and there, but that's about it. I just don't get high end, I guess. Are there really that many people that blindly throw that kind of money around for hopes of pulling something good? Whatever happened to COLLECTING cards, not buying cards and then hoping to SELL them for a profit? I really feel like that is the only purpose of high end stuff. I want to collect my favorite players and teams but I'd like to have a chance to get more than one card of each guy. This high end stuff, especially something like Preferred where every card is an auto, means most likely, I won't get even ONE card of any player from that set. So that puts me realistically at only being able to get cards from 4 sets this season, and that isn't much variety to keep me interested. I guess we'll see.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on, but I have to wonder if anyone else is equally frustrated with the state of NBA cards since Panini took over. All I see on Panini's blog when they show new stuff is people gushing over their product so I feel I'm in the minority for sure. I can't wait for their license to end. Pleeeaase NBA bring Topps and Upper Deck back! Well, that's all I got for now. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Go Mavs! Later.

Anyone Wanna Trade Stickers?

Nobie is getting somewhat close to filling his 2011 MLB sticker album so I told him I'd post a want list. Let me know if you've got anything we need or if you'd like to get a hold of some or our doubles. Later.

This is what we need: 5, 7, 11, 20, 39, 49, 70, 80, 89, 98, 107, 109, 111, 119, 121, 123, 128, 130, 133, 137, 145, 147, 151, 154, 158, 183, 185, 208, 211, 214, 216, 222, 227, 230, 232, 233, 238, 244, 248, 254, 255, 264, 284, 288, 291, 303, 305, 307, 308

This is what we have to trade: 2, 3, 9, 16, 18, 21, 31, 37, 38, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 55, 66, 69, 74, 75, 77, 81, 84, 85, 91, 96, 100, 101, 105, 106, 108, 110, 112, 115, 117, 126, 127, 129, 134, 140, 141, 142, 146, 146, 148, 152, 153, 155, 156, 157, 161, 163, 164, 168, 170, 171, 179, 181, 192, 194, 198, 200, 202, 210, 212, 218, 219, 220, 234, 235, 236, 240, 241, 251, 252, 258, 268, 272, 273, 280, 285, 287, 293, 294, 296, 298, 300, 304, 309

Wanna See Where I Work? A Cubicle Tour.

Ok, so I said I was gonna mix it up a little so here we go with something a little different. Like a bunch of people in this country, I spend 8 hrs a day in a cubicle. Thankfully, my employer let's us pretty much decorate them however we want. Some of my co-workers have plain Jane cubes, but I wouldn't be able to stand that, so mine's pretty well covered with stuff to break up the monotony. Let's take a look, shall we?

This is the outer wall as you approach my cube. It's sufficiently Mavs championshiped up thanks to the pages of the Dallas Morning News. I'll give you a tour of the interior beginning with the view from in front of my computer and continuing to the left as I spin in my office chair.

The wall behind my cpu has a poster of Devil's Tower in Wyoming which is one of my absolute most favorite places ever. I spent a lot of summers in Wyoming as a kid with relatives and I never go there without visiting the tower. Next to that I've got a Michael Finley Sprite poster. Fin would rank third all-time on my favorite Mavs list. On top of the computer we've got Spidey, Deadpool and Hambone. What a cool superhero team they would make!

Behind my twin monitors (us artists need lots of work space) there is a Mavs team poster from 2008 I believe.

On the left side of my desk sits my scanner which doesn't get used a whole lot anymore, but it does a pretty good job of holding a Rangers schedule, an SI NFL preview issue and an Amazing Spider-man CD of comics that I'm borrowing from a co-worker. On the desk itself is a recent issue of Spider-man and the jug I bring my milk to work in for my morning oatmeal. Yummy, right?

The shelf above the scanner holds photos of the wife and kids along with bobbleheads of Cuban and Dirk. There is also a Smurf for some reason, which was given to me by the same co-worker that loaned me the Spidey CD. Two more Mavs team posters cover the wall behind the shelf.

Here is the only large interior wall of my cube which gives me some room for a couple of full-sized posters of the Mavs and a Humberto Ramos rendition of Spider-man.

As, you walk into my cube there is a pillar on the right with a little room for some full sized movie Spidey and 2 Dirk game giveaway posters.

This is my window to the outside world that I'm lucky to have. Most people in the office don't have one. Another Spidey stands watch on the ledge. On the desktop is a stack of Sports Illustrated, Playstation and SLAM magazines, a plush Snoopy and Spider-man, my fan and an old monitor that doesn't really work anymore. I've also got 2 more of the Mavs giveaway posters featuring the Jet and the Matrix. The orange you see between the desk and wall is the bottom half of a talking Ricky Rudd Nascar Tide standup. His top half is behind the bottom half and out of view. I had to take the batteries out and dismantle him to keep my co-workers from constantly making him talk. I haven't had it together for at least 5 years, but I still remember what he says, "Hi, I'm Nascar driver Ricky Rudd. On the track or off, Tide takes the checkered flag. So remember, if it's got to be clean, it's got to be Tide!" That's how many times that danged button was pushed!

The right side of my desk hold my Mavs water cup, my radio that is constantly tuned to Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket and a sweet poster of Mark Aguirre dunking in his short shorts. This is also where I tack my calendars to keep track of those precious days off.

Finally, the last part of the cube tour is the shelf above my desk on the right. I used to have about 2 paper boxes full of various toys filling my shelves, but with my last cube move I cut it down quite a bit. Now I've just got these few Mighty Muggs figures of Snake-Eyes, Storm Shadow, Wolverine, Black Suit Spider-man and original Spidey. Oh yeah, and a sweet Chewbacca figure that appears to be threatening to blow Spider-man's brains out with his bowcaster.

So there you have it, your own personal tour of my home away from home. I hope it meets your approval. Later.