There is hope for Humanity.

At Wal-Mart today, I had to get out of the way so a twelve year old girl could look at Star Trek figures. I warned her (with every intention of being a smart ass) that Wave 2 had not arrived yet. She responded that she knew, and was looking for the short packed Uhura from Wave 1. I realized, this girl knew that of which she spoke. She then however, said Captain Pike was an idiot as she shuffled past his figure in the stack. (For the record, that's when Jennifer just walked away.) I asked what her beef with Pike was, and she went on to explain (SPOILERS AHEAD) that Pike must have been on the Kelvin, and did little more than run. I said sure, he'd written a dissertation about the Kelvin, but we didn't know he was there. "If he knew Kirk's Dad, and knew so much about the Kelvin, didn't it make sense that he was?" Dear God, she was right. I conceded and applauded her, and went on to say how it did my heart good to see ANYONE under 30 like Star Trek again. She replied, in a Great Bird of the Galaxy blessed voice:
"I was born a Trekkie."

I realized at that moment, regardless of everything wrong with the species, humanity was going to make it. We were still breeding Trekkies. Aham'd Allah!

Happy 43rd, Star Trek!

Yes indeed, it is that time of the year again. The Great Bird of the Galaxy has let our planet revolve around the sun one more time, and we again find ourselves on Trek Day! To celebrate Trek day this year, I made a custom Mirror Universe Sulu based on the new movie, and wanted to share a special Trek story with you as we all huddle around the glow of the intermix chamber and quietly sip our Saurian Brandy.




Once when I was but a young inquisitor for my firm, I was working for a pretty cool boss who was going to go have a nice little meet with a member of one of our competing firms (we were trying to get that firm to work with our firm, so it was actually a friendly conversation in a Neutral Zone!). We went to pick that guy up, when suddenly, he was joined by a DIFFERENT member of his firm, who was there to make sure he didn't say too much to my boss. In the old days, some people would call that guy a “political officer.” So, my boss asked me to distract the Political Officer so she could speak freely with the Officer she actually wanted to butter up and question.

We went to a cafe in the Eastern European city we were in, and we all ordered our food and “kava c shlagam” (coffee with cream) and sat down to chat. I immediately went to work trying to get the attention of the political officer, and was having a poor time of it. What does a 25 year old American, still just an E4, have to say to a 50 year old Eastern European political officer wearing Colonel rank? While fishing for subjects, I mentioned that back in the days before I joined my firm, my friends called me “Spock.” He immediately turned to me, his eyes wide.

“Spock like 'Star Trek'?” he asked. I confirmed that and told him I was a huge fan.



























So was he. We spent hours mulling over the fine details of “The Corbomite Manuever” and “Balance of Terror” and since he'd never had a chance to see it, I was able to fill him in on the Next Generation, and first couple seasons of Deep Space Nine. He was enthralled. We were still talking Trek long after my boss had finished doing her thing with the guy who was actually the objective.

When we started to leave, this former Communist Political Officer- enforcer of his Empire's will, gave the young American his address and asked if he would send some Trek his way if he ever got the chance. I had to tell him there were rules which prevented that, and he obviously understood, though was a bit sad. Still, he thanked me, and asked if it was OK if we met again when my boss met with his friend again. Just to talk. He wanted to show me his Trek scrap book.























Mission constraints quite unfortunately prevented me from seeing him again. What an incredible experience though to be able to reach out and find camaraderie with a man who should have been an enemy. Knowing that for those three hours we were just fans discussing our beloved Star Trek meant a lot to me, and was a lesson on how to deal with other cultures and countries. I think it would have made Gene Roddenberry proud.


Here we are in the 43rd year of Trek, and it is stronger than ever with a new lease on life in the terrific new film. May the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless our planet for another year (at least until New Trek 2 comes out!).
















And of course, goodnight Jolene Blalock, wherever you are...

This makes no sense.

Pictured here is the coolest nonsensical toy I have seen in years. It's a Hot Wheels sized 57 Chevy, taxi cab, with homemade armor and a Gatling gun on its hood. In a toy aisle filled with licensed ads for television shows or movies, here's this random line of cars with heavy machine guns attached. No stories, no background, just cool cars with big guns.

It was love at first sight.

Some random stuff...

Well, time grows short here in the Great and Free Northwest States of Greatness and Freedom, and soon I will be heading to warmer, dryer climates. I've had a few Blog ideas bouncing around in my head, but nothing too definite, so I figured I'd throw out a few little ones.

Though with less fanfare than her High School graduate brother, The Daughter has also reached one of life's milestones; finishing the 8th Grade. Her school did nothing for it, so she wasn't particularly excited, but my youngest is now a High School student as well, and will be attending the school from which I matriculated many years ago. At last we will have revenge.



The Lovely Jennifer started it, but now everyone I know is calling me "Sheldon." If you haven't watched CBS' The Big Bang Theory you may not get the reference. It is a very funny show, however tired of being compared to the main geek in the show, I was going to do a blog entry pointing out five reasons I was NOT Sheldon. I could only come up with three.

In related news, the 3 3/4" Star Trek figures at Wal-Mart have been marked down to five bucks. I have been buying Scottys and putting GI Joe heads on them to make expendable Red Shirts. I see a Landing Party gone horribly wrong in their future...


Related to that- I got my JJprise keychain. It makes me happy to sing the music from the film loudly and fly the ship around. More joy than any keychain should bring any man. BTW- I am campaigning for Jolene Blalock to play T'Pring in the next film. Likely? No, but Star Trek is about hope, isn't it?





Kind of a no-brainer I think...







That's all for now- on the road soon, and I will likely next broadcast from a state with a setting sun on it's flag. Hope I can find sushi...

I told myself I wouldn't do this...

So, I have been very specifically avoiding any discussion of the new Star Trek film here until I see the movie (this Thursday in Imax if you are waiting for my review...). Regardless of how good or bad the film may be, I was really looking forward to the fact new action figures for the film were coming out in 3 3/4" scale, my favorite figure scale. Sure, I still have some Star Trek: The Motion Picture 3 3/4" figures from 1979, and some Star Trek: The Next Generation 3 3/4" figures from 1987. Finally though I was going to get Classic Starfleet uniforms in the type of scale which would allow Kenner Boba Fett to flee from Hasbro Indiana Jones in my Mattel Dark Knight Batmobile until stopped by GI Joe's Snake Eyes, and beamed onto the bridge by 3 3/4" Scotty. Dream come true, right?

Well, the lovely Jennifer went out and bought all ten of the new figures for me on the day they came out, and they were awful- really poorly produced by Playmates toys. I also bought the Bridge playset (needed it for the above scenario), and it came out of the box damaged.

So, not one to stand for having Geekus Interruptus, I emailed pictures of all the problems- bad molds, lousy paint jobs, broken screens, all to Playmates toys. I then went off on a rant about how well they handled the Trek license in the 90's (I still have a couple HUNDRED of those figures!) and how disappointed I was over this new line. I figured that was that.

Today in the mail, I received free of charge replacement parts for my bridge, and a whole new Kirk figure. Oddly enough, it is much better produced than the ones I bought in the store! Here's a couple of pics:






The non-lipstick wearing Kirk on the right is the gratis Captain...

Playmates had my money- I had already bought all their crappy action figures, yet they bothered to send me not only replacements, but improvements! Good on them. That's a type of customer service sorely lacking these days. Hopefully the next set they put out meet this figures standards.

As for the movie... I will give you my deep thoughts in a week or so, until then click here to read my 2006 dissertation on Trek. Live Long and Prosper.

Cheeseball factor nine!

This is completely fan-boy, but I just wanted to exclaim with geeky glee that my amateurish attempts at making custom action figures can be found at http://www.toymania.com/custom/ under the gallery "Weerd1." I think however I may have the only Mogo on the entire site (if you aren't familiar with Mogo, this will clear it all up for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogo ). I was going to make him to scale with the other figures, but 1/18th of the world's population kept stepping on it....