Tatooine Days

And right on cue, we're getting our late-May heatwave here in the UK. In between bouts of sweating and drinking lots of water I've been working on a couple of films, and by chance, for two nights only have the opportunity to use a Canon 600D with a couple of lenses. I couldn't let the chance pass without getting some toy shots...

I also couldn't resist the opportunity to retake one of my favourite shots (top, and you can see the original here), and as always it was fun to photograph Kenobi. Of course, I also recreated the very scene I built this set-piece for... Well, if you apply a little imagination!

"Well of course I know him - he's me!"

The New Hope!

On Sunday I went shopping at my local discount store, where my girlfriend spotted an ROTS re-issue of the 'all new likeness' Princess Leia, packaged with a plastic cup, for the paltry price of £4. After purchasing and opening said figure, I knew it was finally time to open my ANH Blu-Ray Commemorative Pack.

I was not disappointed.

The sculpting and posability on these figures is second to none, especially for a seasoned (former) POTF2 collector as myself. Luke looks like Luke, Ben Kenobi is incredibly accurate and the Sandtrooper is the boss, completely. Even the R2-D2, which I thought would be the weakest of the four, has a nifty action feature whereby you twist his dome and his sensor pops out; and that's on top of a superb sculpt and crisp, clean paint apps. I don't think there's any going back now...

Given the increase to my ANH principal cast, it meant I was finally able to better utilise my Death Star walls, and get my own version of that classic promo shot...

The Leia and Han are nice place fillers, but they really pale in comparrison (literally with the Han, he's from the Jabba pack and his skin is almost green). Time to upgrade the POTF2s, no?

Finally, sorry it's been a while between posts, but college work, film-making and other projects have taken over. My comic/writing/film-making blog is now up and running at http://dopemeat.wordpress.com; take a look if you have a spare couple of minutes!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the Mos Espa Collection, 2012 (+13 days). The viewing figures for the site have actually been immense over the last two months, for whatever reason, so I figured you may like to read a post that isn't merely holding station for images... So, new acquisitions!

I guess this is the New Hope collection. Well, minus a Han, Chewie, Leia, C-3PO, Stormtrooper and all those other irrelevant characters :D... These and my OTC Dagobah set are the only non-POTF2 modern figures I have, and the temptation to open these is huge. But! The Vader is unpunched and sealed in a starcase. I don't exactly know what that means for it as a collectible, but it does look nice, and, let's face it, the packaging is one of the biggest draws of the Vintage Collection (if you know of any significance about ol' Darth being packaged like this, please let me know in the comments).

So, I think this might be the first time in my life I'll buy two of a figure to keep one carded. To make that argument ten times harder than it would be though, check out this review of the Vintage Collection Darth Vader over at Chase Variant, a rather excellent toy review blog I came across recently.

The Episode IV Blu-Ray pack is a different prospect. As much as I'd love to open the package and start populating a Jundland Wastes display, as well as framing the nifty mini-poster, this set was bought before I'd properly consulted my finances post-student loan installment. As such, these are staying boxed until I get part-time work, or else I'll have to sell them on to eat come April! Sad times... But a nice looking set all the same.

And finally, because this wouldn't be a Mos Espa collection blog post without an action figure shot...

You may have seen this on my Flickr. Photographing vintage figures isn't going to be a new direction for me, but this guy is in honour of my upcoming weekend catching up with old friends and playing X-Wing vs TIE Fighter until the small hours of Sunday morning. Being geeky may be, y'know, geeky, but it's also incredibly fun :D