WARNING, HARRY POTTER BOOK #6 SPOILER BELOW!!!

Hey All,

Been busy for the last few days, including over the Holiday. Hope everyone had a good Memorial day. I spent mine out at Crown Hill cemetery in Indianapolis doing a cermony at Confederate Mound. The Confederate Mound is a collection of graves of those Southerners who died while imprisoned in Indiana during the Civil War. I've done it for the past 10 years, and it's probably one of the more meaningful reenactments we do.

I spent last Saturday and Sunday tucked away in a recording studio with my bandmates recording our first album. You can see pictures from the two days at our myspace page. I think you have to log in to see the pictures. Those that are interested, the album is slated for an early August release, and they will hopefully be available online in some fashion. If you like System of a Down (I don't), you'd like it. If you like Kris Kristofferson (I do), you probably won't like it.

On the toy soldier front, I'm mostly waiting for the pictures from the Texas show to start showing up online. Usually new items show up at shows, surprises of some sort, and I hope this one proves no different. I mean, it's pretty awesome when the news that Snape killed Dumbledore was leaked before Harry Potter 6, but you don't know what the next Barzso set is going to be until the release date. These guys know how to keep a secret. Uhhh, if I ruined a plot point for anyone right there, major apologies. I know, I'll title this entry with a Harry Potter spoiler warning. But seriously, if you haven't read book 6 yet, get with it man.

Ok, keep rockin', and I'll continue to keep an eye on the usual suspects for news on new stuff.

MURDER!!

An APB has been put out for "Manny The Poodle". Manny was seen by witnesses in the heinous act of first degree murder. He is about 1 foot tall, weighs 4 pounds, blonde, and goes by several aliases including "puppy", "mouser", and "that stupid dog". If you see him, do not try to apprehend him. He is fierce, remorseless, and unmerciful. Plus he has really pointy teeth.

Initial reports indicate that the victim was one Conte G.I. He was a decorated war hero with a perfect record of not falling over in a display. He will be missed by his unit and not easily replaced. Pictures of the crime scene can be found here (WARNING: Pictures contain graphic material of a plastic nature.)

Tack Putty to Keep em' Standing

Conte's flag bearers are some of the nicest and most useful poses that came in their ACW sets. Wonderful sculpting, lots of detail, great flag motion, but dang it, after a few years of sitting on my shelf, they can't quite support themselves anymore. Both of these tip to the left and won't stand up. After some experimenting with different things, I've found that Elmer's Tack Putty works really well to fix them up. It's the blue stuff you hang posters with so that you don't have to use tape or push pins. Really cool stuff. Plus, you can remove it and reform it anytime you want. The only color I've found of it is blue, which works great for the Union figures. But I'd like to find a different color to work with the Confederate pose. Maybe a white would work if they don't make gray. But for now, it works, and gets these figures back into battle.

21st Century U.S. Mortar Team

This morning I picked up the 21st Century U.S. Mortar Team on a blister card at my local Wal-Mart for $10. Not a bad price for what you get. First, the good things. The officer figure molded to the base is really good. The base is fairly large had has a crate molded to it as well. Lots of detail and the figure is a nice "behind the front lines" pose. The next part is the bunker piece. Again, a wonderfully sculpted plastic bunker. Much smaller than the one that came with the German Mortar team, but very nice none the less. The two figures that are loading the mortar are nicely done, but unlike the German Figure set, the standing figure does not come with a detachable base. A mistake in my opinion, as he DOES NOT stand on his own. You have to use him with this particular bunker piece, or create a base from scratch. The German standing figure came with a circular base that you could attach him to. Also a downfall is the fragile mortar itself. While wonderfully sculpted, mine was snapped when I opened the package. A little glue will fix it, but I need to be careful, as the whole thing seems very fragile. The German mortar was the same way. Overall, for 10 bucks, you can't beat it. Doubt I will get the listening post set, as I already have the bunker piece and the figures are nothing I need.

Meeting Ken Osen

This weekend I participated in the Conner Prairie Civil War reenactment right here in Indiana. Really nice historical park that is set in 1836. This weekend the Union army fast forwarded to 1862 and occupied the town.

One of the dealers at the event was the W. Britain Company, and Ken Osen was running the booth. Ken Osen was the sculptor for many of the Conte sets and had a hand in many other aspects of our hobby on both the Plastic and Metal side. He has a wonderful lineup of figures at the W Britain company that are worth checking out if you do metal. I bought my first sets this weekend, and I love them. Anyway, I got to spend quite a bit of time talking to Mr. Osen, and he is just a fantastic guy, not to mention a very talented sculptor. For me, being WAY into this hobby, it's nice to be able to talk to one of the guys that actually makes these figures possible on the most basic of level. It's from his mind that these poses come, and that's just rockin'.

I woke up singing Boston songs today

It's a cold morning here in Indiana. Cold. Yup. Middle of May, had been gettin' around 85 degree weather, and now it's close to frosting - Eh, negate that word "close"... it did frost, I just looked out at my car. Bother.

I've been hearing that some guys have started to get the new TSSD figure sets, and the reviews have been mostly positive. There are some nice pictures of them over at the Hobby Bunker forum (registration req.) under the New Plastic Figures category. And now that these have been released, we can start making all sorts of wild guesstimations on what the next set will entail. According to their site, it's a civil war set, and it's going to be released in September. Hmm... what will it be... We know that TSSD likes to do original things as they have done in the past, such as the three sets with longcoats and the WWII heavy weapons team. For the civil War they have already done a nice grouping of charging Federals, some motley Confederates, and some federals in Greatcoats. What could be next... If I had my way, I would like to see a cannon crew of some sort. And now that they've shown they can make accessories (The heavy weapons team), I think they could throw in a cannon as well. Another request would be dismounted Union Cavalry. But, I bet this set will be Confederate since the last one was Union. Meh, I don't know. What do you think?

Saving Plastic Ryan

Now be honest. Do you have the next 7 1/2 minutes free? Nothing to do? If so, check out this clip of toy soldiers reenacting the last battle of the movie Saving Private Ryan. It's awesome, a little funny, but mostly just impressive. The creator uses mostly Airfix copies and Tim Mee figures, but also has some nice custom city landscaping. Very cool!

Conte Blog Page Update

Joe Baker, webmaster for Conte, has posted a new blog entry over at Conteco. I absolutely love the dioramas the guy is able to create. Now, I know there is some digital trickery going on, but man, these are some really good toy soldier shots. I wonder if he used plastics or metals for these latest WWII shots. The guy hanging out of the bell tower is awesome. I really like that stone wall he has too. Is that formtech? I know some of the rubble wall pieces are standard FoV accessories.

Anyway, the whole Conte site is filled with great pictures. I've used them for my computer backgrounds before. I got to talk to Mr. Baker for just a couple of minutes last year at Chicago during the Sunday show (the Conte table was VERY busy), and he seemed like a super nice guy. I can't wait to see what he does with the Plastic Spartans and Persians that are coming. Rock on!

Top 10 Star Wars T-Shirts

Ah, this was too good to pass up. Found via theforce.net, this guy ranks the best Star Wars t-shirts of all time. I've only seen one of them before, and that's the "Han Shot First" design near the bottom. You can get that from thinkgeek.com. A rockin' store that'll also outfit you in your favorite Penny Arcade gear. My two favorite are Metal Vader and Run R2 Run. Classic!!

21st Century German Mortar Team

I picked up this set for $10 at Wal-Mart last night. They had previously just had them in combined mini-playsets with a vehicle, the troop carrier I think. The American Mortar team came with a halftrack. Last night was the first time I had seen them on individual blister cards like that. They had the German Mortar team, the American Mortar team, and the American Listening post. I had all three of them in my hands and asked Stephanie which one I should get. She picked the German Mortar team because of the bunker it had with it, and I agree, it's an awesome piece to be found on a blister card in a Wal-Mart. Life is good when you can find stuff like this in the big stores.

I added the size comparison picture as well. From left to right is Airfix, Conte, TSSD, 21st Century (3 figs), Marx, and FoV. He fits in perfectly with TSSD, Marx, and FoV. He is of course taller than the Airfix figure, and I believe he would be just a smidge taller than the Conte fellow if they were both stretched straight. But he's a good fit all around, and it's nice to have a German Mortar figure. The Mortars seem to be gettin' some love these days. The TSSD set coming out, the Italeri set with their, um, mortars, and these 21st Century figures. Rockin'.