Pillow Freeze

Before we finally got central air conditioning at home, on hot summer nights I would put my pillow in the freezer before I went to bed. After brushing my teeth and doing whatever it is one does to get ready for bed, I would have a nice cold pillow to sleep on. It's not really THAT hot right now, but I'm tempted to put my pillow in the freezer.

Minimates

Those of you who know me know I collect action figures. I'm sure most of you think it's incredibly bizarre and childish. I don't think I could ever persuade you to collect toys, in fact I would discourage you from it. I can, however, explain why I collect toys.

Two words:
Plastic. Crack.

Collecting is just another form of addiction. It's this must have mentality. There's varying degrees of it, but collecting really amounts to purchasing things that have no useful purpose and take up space. If I look at my hobby objectively, I agree it looks like a waste of time and money. But I enjoy it. I think what I like most about buying toys is opening them. Opening a new package and freeing the toy from its plastic prison. Maybe the smell of plastic out of package makes me high, I dunno.

I have standards certainly. I admire the detailed sculpts, the paint work, the ability to make toys super articulated. I also appreciate consistency. I won't just by anything. I don't mix toys of different lines. That is, company A might make action figures of a certain license and company B will too. But they're oil and water -- I do not mix them. usually this doesn't happen at the same time because usually only one company has the licensing rights at any given time.

Collecting can be difficult. Unless you have money. If you can freely spend money, then collecting toys is incredibly easy. Sometimes certain retailers will have exclusives, meaning that only that store can sell a particular wave of a line of toys. And depending on how well the local stores are stocked, there never seems to be enough available. And I hate resorting to eBay. For those of you who have listened to me whine and complain about a hobby as ridiculous as toy collecting, I thank you. I collect 2-3 toylines at any given point in time and I'm a nigh-completist. That is I will try to get almost every figure, except those that are dumb variations on already released characters. For short periods of time I can (mildly) consumed about getting that one missing figure.


Hmm, I didn't actually mean to write about toy collecting as a whole. I originally just wanted to talk about my latest obsession: Minimates. Plastic crack. They're small and they come in packs of two. They're reasonably cheap (although it's getting to be more expensive than I'd like). They have many licenses, such as Marvel and Ghosbusters, and a ton more. They look like glorified Legos. Comparing them to Legos is a disservice, actually. They're block figures, so there's an overall consistency across licenses, but many of them have their own unique parts that make them stand out individually. Back in the day I started buying one or two here and there of characters I like. Now I've been getting more and more. At least they're small so they don't take up too much space.

I need me more Minimates.

Next: Iron Man 2 Minimates

BOO!

BOO!