I think I've finally accepted that I'm just not that into Star Wars. Not like hardcore, anyway.

So, when I'm about at my lowest, my brother brought this guy home to me:

And he's awesome. It's not that it's Star Wars, or that it's Darth Maul. This guy is classy.

Obviously intended to appeal to the same type of people that most designer vinyl appeals to, but in a licensed way. And at a fraction of the cost. For $10, you get a nice slice of fun.

Other than possibly mistaking his lightsabre for candy, I can't complain about this guy. Just a simple toy that is begging to have pictures taken of it. If I were to offer some criticism, it would be that this series needs to 'break the mold' more - get into some mixed media, such as cloth capes and robes. On some of the other figures, they look too restricted, but the ones that have a little something extra, such as Darth Vader who has a helmet, look like winners.

As if I'm not addicted to enough, Mighty Muggs will be delivering Marvel and Indiana Jones in addition to Star Wars. Of all the Indiana Jones toys that were shown at Toy Fair, the Mighty Muggs are the ones I want most. And the Mighty Muggs Lando is perfection.

Here we go again ;)

Wow, I was really depressed.

Now, I'm a very happy guy :D

I've been waiting for the Anitherian Nine for so, so long (got space reserved in my display case and everything). But I can't forget just how awesome the Mynothecean's are. I don't know why I never thought of this before, but I've dubbed the Guardian of the Dark Outland to be "Angus" - as in Black Angus, the kind of cow my Father owns a herd of! Of course, being "Angus" he should either have a pair of shorts and a guitar, or a claymore.

I choose Claymore.

I'll admit it - I've stalled out on finishing my custom Transformers Alternators Barricade. Seriously, all that is left is a little bit of decal work. So why'd I let the project fall apart on me?

I didn't have a plan. All I wrote was "decals" on my task list. Insufficient. On a high-level, that would be adequate, but that isn't how I need to manage myself. Nope. Even when I did the digital prototype, I knew exactly what I needed to do, but I failed to record that.

The decals I need are:

Ahhhh... Much better

I feel better already. Time to get to work and finish this guy off so I can start customizing all the Scion xB Transformers

This, I know.

I also know that what breaks me down faster than anything else is when my teeth ache. Case in point - just last week, I get a growing pain in my upper right molar. Normally, I do everything I can before taking any kind of pain killer, but not this time. I went straight for the pills until the hurt went away. I rarely get a toothache, but when I have had one, it's gone away. This one did not. After a day of pain - pain that starts in my tooth and spreads through half my face - my eyes hurt, my sinuses hurt, my cheeks hurt, my ears hurt, my brain hurts, and my other teeth hurt. I can't stands no more and get an appointment with the dentist.

Now I've had a root canal and am awaiting a permanent crown.

This crown business is messing with my mind. I didn't think I would have a problem with having a gold crown in my mouth, but now that I have the temporary one in, I am starting to wonder. I felt the area where the tooth used to be after they performed the root canal and ground the tooth down to a little stub so they can glue the crown on later.

I've got something in my mouth that isn't mine...

Keep in mind that this is all happening about a month and a half after becoming unemployed, so money is already non-existent. I'll pay it back eventually, I hope.

And the real kicker is that between the pain from the infection, or the super pain killers prescribed to me by the dentist until he could get me in for the root canal (a couple days, but it felt longer), I didn't feel much like running around, so my sciatic acted up, and my leg felt horrible for a day or two.

There you go. I'm broken.

This was a little tougher than expected. I didn't really think it through about which pieces I needed to tape off so that the articulation would still work normally. After painting, I had to sand down a few parts to get them to reassemble and retain articulation. Lesson learned. Also, I started to feel the cheapness of the plastic used (remember it's a knockoff).

At this point, I just wanted to quote Red Dwarf and say "It took me two hours just to put this foot together!"

I was still super proud getting this far. Once I got rolling, things came together great.

And there he is - a thing of beauty.

And now I need to get some decals together and polish this thing up.

Let's get to the nitty-gritty.

There are two types of weather in Washington: Cold or Wet. It's been plenty of both. Painting has been tricky, but I got it done. Everything is being painted with Krylon Fusion - mostly black, with just a little white.

Lots of paint. Now for putting it back together.

Painting wasn't too bad overall. I had a small snag with one batch of painting went a little wonky due to humidity and I ran out of a can of paint too. I think I got things worked out, but I can tell.