Wal-Mart moved my Cheese

I walked into my Wal-Mart tonight, and of course headed straight for the toy aisle. I about fell over from shock to see that entire side of the store empty!!! Not just empty shelves, but NO SHELVES AT ALL!!!

I got panicky for a moment. Changing my little Wal-Mart routine troubled me more than I realized it could. For years I have walked into that Wal-Mart entrance, turned right, passed the Ovaltine display, turned back left, turned right at the Hot Wheels and travelled to the 21st Century section, and from there rounded the corner to find the Star Wars figures. It was habit, it was routine, it was almost ritual.

Of course, I did find the new toy section a few minutes later, and the hyperventilating ceased. They have actually upgraded the new toy section and it's going to be really nice once they are all done. Nothing new in the 21st Century section, but let's just be thankful they are still there.

The Dark Knight

I went and saw the new Batman movie last night in IMAX with a few friends. After standing in line for an hour, we finally got in a got pretty good seats right in the middle of the theater.

I give it a 10 out of 10. For me, it lived up to the surrounding hype. I don't want to talk too much about it, lest I give away something to those of you who haven't seen it yet. The one thing I will say is that when it says PG-13, it means PG-13! I'm not sure I would take any kid under 16 to see this movie. My wife and I disagreed on this, but I felt it was one of the darkest movies I had seen in awhile. Of course there was no profanity or graphic violence, but there was a copious amount of implied graphic violence.

Can't wait for the sequel.

2 New Somethings from Weston Toys

Just a quick note, you should go check out Mr. Weston's site. He says on there that he hopes to have 2 new surprises with him at OTSN. See?? This is why I love the run up to the Chicago show. It's all about teasing us, the vague website postings, the rumors, the wild guessing... It's probably just as much fun as actually going to the show!!

Updates to Hat Greeks

At the Hat forum you can see the latest updates to their upcoming greek line, along with a Persian sculpt. The Greek poses look good, and should really help to bulk out the line. No, they may not be as detailed as the Conte Spartans, but hopefully we will be able to buy them in larger quanities, and really fill up a table. Same with the Hat Persians. Plus, who knows when the Conte Persians will be released. Like I've said before, anything ancient that isn't a Greek will probably suffice for Persians for a long time. Marx Vikings, Celtics, Mongols, Normans, Indians, Aztecs... well, I may have to draw the line somewhere.

It's crazy how the year has sped by, and again, OTSN is creeping up on us. Usually at OTSN, we get all sorts of cool new things. Ron Barzso usually has something new, TSSD always has cool stuff, if not a new figure set, and Mr. Conte usually pulls a few surprises out of a bag as well. Plus, last year he was having some crazy sale prices on plastic. It's only two months away. I still haven't convinced myself that I'm going. If I go, it can only be for Sunday because of a wedding. The most fun is to be had during the days and evenings running up to it. I always like talking to the dealers, fellow forum boarders, and random people that I meet while digging through 50 cent buckets.

So yea, I'll probably go.

30 seconds of your life you'll never get back.

Toy Soldiers are Nice
Almost as big as Mice
Though lacking tails
And carry less Lice

Toy Soldiers are the Best
Our own little plastic Fest
I buy all I can Afford
And wish I had the Rest

Sometimes I have too much Time
So, so much Time
to write bad toy soldier Poetry
that actually does Rhyme

*written whilst VERY tired, but stuck at a library lock-in. I'll probably delete this entry in the morning, or whenever I finally wake up.

War Torn Worlds

I was at a game store earlier today and saw that they had expanded their line of War Torn Worlds terrain pieces. I talked about these a couple of years ago on this site, but thought I might mention them again, as they have released quite a bit of new items since then. You can get all sorts of walls, hills, rock pieces, ect. I believe a lot of it is made for 28mm gaming, but most can be used with 54mm as well. I know a lot of you create your own terrain, but for those of us lacking the "do it yoursef" initiative, this might be a good way to dress up your displays.

Indiana Jones in 1/32

At my local Wal-Mart I found this Indiana Jones toy in approximately 1/32 scale. Close enough anyway. It has limited uses for anything other than an Indiana Jones set-up, but hey, it's pretty rockin'. They also had a figure of "Mutt" from the new movie on a customized motercycle in about 1/32, but maybe a touch bigger.

These are part of the Titanium series, and come fully painted. Right now, the one pictured and the "Mutt" figure on the motorcycle are the only ones in roughly 54mm scale. You can see the entire line here at the Hasbro site. You 1/72 guys might find something you need. Hopefully they will release something similar featuring some Germans.

Hat Forum talks about 1/32

There was an interesting post on the Hat forum board a couple of days ago. It referred to the possibility of future 1/32 figures. It's short, vague, and encouraging.

We Never Get Tired of ACW

If I had to guess, the road to riches in the toy soldier industry is lined with American Civil War sets. You could probably take all the Rev War guys, WWI guys, Alamo guys, Modern guys, Western guys, Napoleonic guys, Ancient guys, put them in a room together, and they still wouldn't outnumber all the Civil War fanatics out there. I think we can all agree that WWII and Civil War are the most popular topics for Toy Soldiers, and I'd be willing to bet a whole $10 that Civil War probably comes out on top. (Hey, $10 is a lot of money these days. It's almost half the cost of a new Conte set.)

Sooooo...., I think it's a smart move for Conte to bring out a new Civil War line. They have the beginnings of it posted on their blog, and might I say that Zouaves are cool! If they can do for Zouaves what they have done for American G.I.s and their soon to be released Spartans, that'll be great for us ACW collectors. WARNING: 4 Zouave poses don't help anybody. Zouaves fought as entire regiments, not as single troopers in a line of regular sack coated soldiers. I know it'll be more expensive, but I am a fan of really doing a series up right rather than piece parting it.

Back from Gettysburg

I just arrived home from the 145th Gettysburg Reenactment. It was a long week of Historical goodness. We hit Antietam first, then Harper's Ferry, then Monocacy, and finally Gettysburg. The battlefields were a lot of fun to tour, especially with other guys interested in Civil War history. At Harper's Ferry I ran into Jonathan, an intern working there, and who is a reader of this site. That's crazy!! So I got to talk toys for a bit with him before we ran off to the next adventure.

The Reenactment was... meh. Of course, we were already exhausted from camping for the previous five days, so three more nights of camping just drained us more. We were like zombies walking around the event. I barely remember much of it. There was a battle, a funnel cake, some ticks, a whole lot of spiders, a frock coat that caught on fire, and several cans of spam.

I did get to visit Gettysburg Miniatures Soldiers. It's a nice toy soldier shop right on the strip that had all sorts of cool stuff. I picked up a set of CTS Japanese, and some reverse colored Conte Civil War figures. If you're ever in Gettysburg, you should stop by.
So now it's time to clean up all my gear, get unpacked from the trip, catch up on any toy soldier news I might of missed out on, and to generally take it easy for the rest of the day. Rock on.