What A Slacker!

Now My Cat Has Fleas Too

1 comment April 29th, 2008

So your kitty has put up with the combs, she’s put up with the shampooings, she’s even put up with the drops. Now it’s her turn for revenge on that little pest that’s bothered her so long.

Get your kitty this adorable little plush flea catnip toy and watch her go crazy. The flea catnip cat toy is 3” long and filled with genuine organic catnip from the fine folks at Multipet who know pets just wanna have fun.

Give your kitty one of these and she won’t mind you asking her in your kitty voice, “Whose got fleas? Who’s the kitty with the big bad fleas?”

Your cat will love getting the bite on this cute critter.

Last week I told you all about the dog toy I bought without having a dog just because it was so darned cute. Well now my kitties get to have fleas too and they just love it! Thanks to the fine folks at CatToys.com.

Megabloks is Giving Me the Kreaps

Add comment April 24th, 2008

 I picked these up a few weeks back for my monster toy collection [it is not all Star Trek you know]. I got the ghoul, gargoyle, and mummy, but there are six all together. The other three are a werewolf, vampire, and zombie. Of those three, I think the only other one I might get would be the zombie.

The Plasma Kreaps come inside a rubbery bag inside a plastic crate. Once you free all the parts you get to put your monster together. Best part is you can mix and match your Plasma Kreaps to make other strange monsters. The bits and pieces are interchangeable with other Plasma toys to make some rather interesting creatures. Each toy stands about 3″ high.

Earth Day is Going to the Dogs (and Cats Too)

Add comment April 22nd, 2008

Today is Earth Day and it’s going to the dogs. I have already written about my favorite eco-superhero Captain Planet and his trusty sidekicks the Planeteers the other day listing a few helpful things you can do every day to make our planet a better place to live.

Today I want to write a little about our pets and what we can do to help them help us on our quest for a more environmentally friendly planet. I just think it is important that we make changes in every aspect of our lives and this includes our pets.

First and foremost are the toys besides treats this is what we buy the most of for our furry little friends. Pet toys vary in product types and the materials used to make them.

Look for toys that are either recycled or can be recycled. These can include plush, rubber and plastic toys. Remember to recycle the packaging too. Most packaging is made of recyclable cardboard and plastics. Be mindful of what you send out to the landfills.

Try to find all natural alternatives to pest control instead of using harsh chemicals. This is better for the environment and for your pet.

Organic treats will not only be healthier for your pets but will not add unwanted chemicals and fertilizers to the soil thus reducing ground pollution.

AKC’s Green Planet Collection of toys are made of recycled materials and so is the packaging.

West Paw Designs Eco Toys are made from recycled plastic bottles. Not sure how they do it but the material and the stuffing used to be plastic bottles. Pretty cool huh? They also make beds and rubber out of the recycled materials too.

EcoPure Naturals makes natural products for your pets from flea and tick spray to aromatherapy for dogs.

Robbie Dawg makes tasty organic treats for dogs and cats.

Whole Life treats are freeze dried treats with basically one ingredient. Those ingredients come from free range or wild caught animals.

These great toys, treats and other fine products are available at DogToys.com and CatToys.com check them out today!

By Our Powers Combined, We Can Save the Planet

Add comment April 21st, 2008

Earth Day is coming up [tomorrow, but you should think of every day as earth day] and it seems like all my TV stations have been going green of late. Well at least for the last week or two any way. They are all changing their station ID bugs [you know those stupid little logos in the corner of your screens and sometimes the entire bottom third of your screen]. They all have an eco-friendly or green skew to them. Which is a nice little reminder for all of us watching their shows to take time out to take the necessary steps towards saving our environment. [But I know next week it will all go back to the regular old logos.]

My favorite of these eco-friendly ads is The Captain Planet and the Planteers commercials I am seeing on the Cartoon Network. I remember watching this show way back when it first came out in 1989. The edu-tainment show was the brainchild of Ted Turner’s TBS, which was then taken over by Hanna-Barbera when TBS purchased them and the rest is enviro-history.

So take the time this April to get to know Captain Planet and the Planeteers and do something good from Mother Earth.

Remember the power is yours! Head over to the official Captain Planet website to watch Planeteer Alerts, little 30 second PSAs on what you can do to help.

Here is a list of 10 things you can do to help from the Captain Planet Foundation:

1. Start a Carpool or Walk or Bike to Work
2. Get Involved [see Planet Green for more info]
3. Be an Environmentally Conscious Consumer Buy Recycled/Recyclable Items
4. Change Your Light Bulbs to Energy Saving Fluorescents
5. Get Rid of Hazardous Waste Safely Don’t Send It to the Landfills
6. Recycle, Recycle, Recycle
7. Save Water by Checking the Location of Your Sprinklers and Turn Off Taps
8. Take Reusable Bags to the Supermarket and Buy in Bulk
9. Clean Up Wisely When Camping
10. Use Natural Alternatives to Chemical Cleaners and Pesticides

Head to Hot Topic to pick up a Captain Planet t-shirt to wear while your out picking up trash, planting new trees or dropping off your recycling.

My Dog Has Fleas

Add comment April 8th, 2008

Okay, so I don’t have a dog, but I do have nefew and niece dogs not to mention friends with dogs too. I came across this very cute flea dog toy and I just had to get it for my favorite little white poodle fondly known has Pooper Scooper [his real name is PC aka Prince Charming, but he has been Poop D. Scoop since he was a wee little pup and thus he will remain].

The dogs live with their family [my sister, her hubby and thier kids] next door to our folks so they come down to visit all the time. Even having sleep overs at Grandma’s house. So I dropped the toy off there knowing that eventually the doggies come down and get their reward if they aren’t there when I stop by.

Well the other day I stopped in and Mom had the FLEA on her sofa nestled in the throw pillows. I don’t think the dogs will be seeing this toy for some time. He is awful cute. The flea dog toy looks a lot like a Muppet more than a dog toy. I love him! He is twelve inches high which seems big but he isn’t really. Even little dogs will like biting back this flea. They can bite until he squeaks or just grab a leg and shake him. It is a nice little revenge toy for your dog. Let him get back at the pests who bother him [and you].

I just found out that they make a cat version too! My favorite online store for cat toys does not have them yet but I emailed and they say they will look into carrying them. Yeah!

 Update: Like I said the catnip flea cat toy is now available at CatToys.com.

More Star Trek Handheld Games

Add comment March 26th, 2008

After coming across the Coleco Star Trek game on the Handheld Games Museum I decided to poke around and see what other Star Trek games they had listed and which ones I did not know about. Here is what I found…

1. Milton Bradley Microvison Star Trek Phaser Strike

2. Collins Wrath of Khan Video Game Watch

3. Konami Star Trek 25th Anniversary Game

4. Tiger Electronic Star Trek: The Next Generation LCD Game

And while not a Star Trek game in name the Bandai Pair Match game has been used as prop on TNG as seen in the screencaps below.

Guess I have some eBay shopping to do now.

Star Trek Handheld That Never Was

Add comment March 26th, 2008

I just stumbled onto a Star Trek Toy I had never heard of before. While this is not a very surprising statement to many people, I pride myself in knowing quite a bit about Star Trek collectibles. After all I have been collecting the stuff for nearly twenty years now.

I am far from an expert on these things more of an obsessed fan really. Check out StarTrekToysOnline.com if you need proof of just how crazy I am when it comes to Star Trek toys and collectibles.

Today’s find is a Coleco handheld Star Trek game based on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. According to the Handheld Museum this toy was most likely never made. The really good ones often aren’t. Just look at the Palisades Roddenberry/Captain Kirk set which never went past the prototype stages.

There really are a lot of Star Trek things I still don’t know about out there [so feel free to post a comment to this and let me know of anything out there that you see that is unique].

Star Trek Goodies Gone Bad

Add comment February 13th, 2008

The other day I received several boxes in the mail all containing Star Trek goodies. At first I was extremely excited and happy to be having such a geeky good day. But that feeling faded quickly.

First up was a small envelope, which contained my Spock Elf mini mate. He was all perfect and minty fresh in his sealed baggy where he will stay. Sorry Elf Spock you’ll have to hang out with the other hard to get minimates variants who’ll remain encased in their plastic carded prisons.

Next up was a box from Rick at New force Comics (my favorite place to get Star Trek collectibles). The folks at New Force always pack your stuff to get to you minty mint condition even when you buy an opener. But even their fine packing skills cannot hold up to the Samsonite gorillas (remember that Commercial or am I showing my age?) that work for UPS. The box was crushed and so were the contents. Every thing in it was smashed to some degree, while I am normally an opener some of these items were to remain mint in box. I know it was not New Force Comics’s fault and these things happen so I let them know about the damage to the contents and they gave me UPS’ number which I promptly called the next morning [2/9/08].

Now all I have to do is wait for UPS to pony up the insurance money to Rick so I can get my replacement items. The phaser’s box was badly smashed, the EMCE mego-like figures had smooshed corners on the bubbles and the best was the space seed Kirk and Khan which some how got packing peanuts way up inside the package (this is actually really funny-take a look).

Then there was my box from the online shop at StarTrek.com. The outside of this box was mostly fine but the contents were not. The items were damaged — all of them — although I did not notice some of it until after I had already spoken to customer service. It was pretty clear due to the type of damage on the First Contact Data that this figure was picked and packed if that condition. Come on people you are dealing with collectors, Star Trek collectors at that, we are a very picky bunch and this quality of product will never do! The figure was already opened completely along one side. As I stated earlier these were going to be staying in their packages not going to be opened sort of defeats the purpose when they come already opened.

The next item out of the box was to be a replacement for my cloaked Romulan Ship from Johnny Lightning series three, mine had a nacelle rolling around in the packaging (not sure how that happened since I had not moved or dropped it since it was added to the collection months ago), but there it was broken. Happy to find just the ship I needed I was glad to add it to my order, but extremely disappointed when the replacement I received had the exact same problem! Now this could have happened in transit so we won’t blame the folks at the Star Trek store for this one, just everything else in the box. Oops, check out the picture the bubble is smashed guess they are to blame afterall.

I called customer service [2/9/08] to report the problems; they were nice enough, apologized and promised to send replacements. As I said earlier that was before I got home and looked at the remaining items the EMCE toys mego-like retro Kirk and Klingon, both of which were to remain mint in box as I had already opened my set I received from Rick at New force Comics months ago. Both of these figures had bubble damage and were certainly no longer MIP. Again this damage appeared to be a pre-packaging problem as the box had no outside damage and was packed with air pillows. Either that or the air pillows were not enough to protect it during shipping, which is also a possibility. 

So upon final inspection I called customer service back [evening of 2/9/08] to explain that the entire order was damaged and not up to my standards. Again they apologized and promised to send out replacements for the other items [Kirk/Klingon figures] as well. Okay fine, sounded good to me. They get their damaged items back and I get (hopefully) better quality replacements. So I box everything back up and await the call tag with my new items now coming in two replacement orders. Oh and did I mention this was my first encounter with this particular online entity? Well, it bears repeating. First and last I might add.

UPDATE: I got my packages from the Star Trek store [2/12/08], they sent me too replacements of the Data figure and Romulan ship! No sign of my retro figures and no sign of their precious call tag either. So now I must call up their customer service, which has a really long wait (I hate being on hold) to clear up yet another one of their mistakes. I really don’t think I will be going back to them again anytime soon. If you buy from them make sure to point out special care in picking and packing, that you want mint items, etc. or you may wind up with poor quality and service like me.

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE: Called customer service [2/13/08] to get this mess cleared up once and for all so I never have to deal with them again. They had no record of my order being for the Kirk and Klingon even though I had read the customer service rep the item numbers some how they were confused and simply repeated my first replacement order. So I asked once again to have the one Kirk and one Klingon resent. And since this was now my third call and third package from them I asked to speak with a manager to see what if anything they could do for me. Well, I was never allowed to speak with said supervisor the customer service rep returned and said they would return my original shipping and handling. Oh joy, that makes up for my having to wait for the items for a third time and then have to trudge them all out to a UPS store to ship them back, I think not. To top it off she comes back to tell me that she will send out the Kirk figure as an order for the Klingon was already placed (Yeah because I needed another one and was mistakenly buying it from them. I was paying for that order it was not a replacement order! So I guess their idea of good customer service is to have the customer PAY for their own replacements when they send out damaged items.) I have little hope that I will be receiving two packages from these people next week, which contain the right items. I have absolutely no confidence in this company and recommend that collectors stay away from them.

Jodie Foster Action Figure — kind of –

1 comment February 9th, 2008

Diamond Select Toys has announced that they will be making a boxed set of minimates based on the film Silence of the Lambs.

Come Closer, Clarice…

To enter the mind of a killer she must challenge the mind of a madman.  Next in our continuing line of Movie Minimates releases comes this Minimates set based on the thrilling 1991 Academy Award-winning Best Picture “The Silence of the Lambs”! Prepare to explore the darker side of humanity with this Minimates box set featuring Clarice Starling, the twisted Dr Lecter, Buffalo Bill and the ingenious Hannibal the Cannibal!

All four Minimates feature all-new Art Asylum sculpts and accessories, including Hannibal’s removable straight jacket, Buffalo Bill’s signature Death’s Head Moth and Hannibal the Cannibal’s trademark mask and gurney!

So all us Jodie Foster fans out there will finally get those Jodie Foster Action figures [sort of] we have always wanted.

Who knows if the film Nim’s Island is a big hit maybe will get something other than just a 2 inch Clarice Minimate to playwith.

Elf Spock in my House

Add comment February 8th, 2008

I got a small enevelope in the mail containing the very elusive Elf Spock Minimate.

This particular minimate is not available any where [except maybe evilBay] as they were a holiday giveaway from Diamond Select Toys to their retailers and folks they do business with.

Once I heard about him I had to have me one! Not that I am a completist when it comes to my collection [I still need a YE Yar to complete my Playmates Star Trek Collection], but I have been trying to get just about everything and well I just love the minimates since they are so small and cute.

You can check out the Spock Elf at StarTrekToysOnline.com. Heck you can even join and rate him if you so desire.

The Avenging Unicorn Play Set

Add comment January 17th, 2008

Unicorns are magical creatures that only exist for those who believe. When they are not frolicking in dewy meadows or posing on windy cliffs they are helping believers do away with daily annoyances like new age happy ladies, creepy mimes, and arrogant businessmen. So if you believe with all your heart and soul they will answer your call.

Unicorn Code:

• Unicorns never lie.
• Unicorns always lend a helping hand.
• Unicorns are loyal.
• Unicorns can keep a secret.
• Unicorns don’t use drugs.

Like their seafaring cousins the mighty narwhal they have four different magical horns each with its own special power.

The pearlescent horn gives the unicorn mind control, weather control, and super hearing (kind of like the bionic woman). The spiral horn’s power is illusion casting and super healing (like the Mr. Meaty episode “Unihorn” where Parker heals folks, with his magical unicorn horn). The glow horn gives the unicorn the power of hypnosis and enhanced agility. (But isn’t hypnosis very similar to mind control and illusion casting?) My personal favorite horn is the chrome horn as it gives the powers of electromagnetism, speed-reading and teleportation. The three inch high unicorn is fully articulated to be better able to impale his enemies with his mighty horn.

The avenging unicorn is not alone in his quest so be sure to look for the other play sets: Unicorn vs. Narwhal, Good vs. evil Unicorn, and the Cold War Unicorns where the all American unicorn defends us against the red menace. Any unicorn fan has to get these. Another fine desktop toy for you get.

Avenging Narwhal Play Set

Add comment January 16th, 2008

The Avenging Narwhal Play Set is hilarious. Each narwhal comes with four magical tusks and three natural enemies.

From the package: for centuries, the narwhal was the great mystery of the sea, with the body of a whale and the horn of a unicorn, many people believed that these fascinating creatures were harmless inhabitants of the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean. Recent studies, however, have exposed the secret agenda of these mysterious mammals and the true purpose of their extraordinarily long pointy tusks.

Million of years ago penguins, snow seals and koalas ruled the earth. They feasted on whales, dolphins and other sea mammals. But the narwhal went into hiding biding their time and planning their revenge. They reemerged, tusks gleaming with newfound magical power, and fought back against the adorable creatures that threatened their existence. The battle was long and many narwhal were lost.

Now once a year to keep their enemies at bay they return to Antarctica to hunt baby seals and penguins stopping in Australia along the way to attack the deadly koalas.

The back-story alone is worth the purchase price or about $13. You can have loads of fun impaling these dangerous yet adorable creatures through the heart. Remember not all narwhal tusks are the same so be sure to choose the right one for the right job. The crystal tusk is used for mind control, hypnosis and global communications. The Onyx tusk causes instant paralysis, while the ruby tusk drains the victims of all their blood. Finally, the ice tusk freezes water, creates icebergs, and chills beverages. So choose wisely. Above all have fun. Not for children under 3 and perhaps not for children at all. Having a sense of humor helps when playing with these toys so if you find you are devoid of fun stay away. They make great office playthings.

Blackie Steve is Crazy

Add comment January 12th, 2008

Had dinner yesterday with friends [they probably figured something was wrong as my mood was starting to reflect my depression]. We went to The Works a fun place if you’re in the mood. They have a game room, bar and of course eats. It is kind of like a Chuck E. Cheese for adults. The foods okay but the atmosphere and friends are what makes it. Normally, this post would be about the so-so service we had or the fact that the food wasn’t really good, but not today. [Yes, my bad restaurant karma is still intact. I just have not been out of the house much since getting out of the hospital.]

There was a young couple with two kids at the table next to us. [Again this post would normally be geared towards chastising the parents for not watching the kids, but not today.] The little girl next to us was a little rambunctious but a little cutie. She and her mother had gone off to play games and came back with a toy dog on a leash. The leash was stiff like those old gag invisible dog leashes you used to be able to buy at the boardwalk. You could tell she was very proud of her new dog. I was a little afraid of being hit buy the toy or the child in my sore knee, which was sticking out from under the table in the line of fire.

Instead of being my normal bitchy self I decide to play nice with others and asked the little grrl what her new doggie’s name was. She answered me in a very 2-3 year old-ish version of the English language. Thank goddess her mommy was there to translate. I learned the new puppies name was Blackie Steve and he was crazy [that’s craaaze—Y!].

While I enjoyed our friends, I do have to admit that crazy ole Blackie Steve the little stuffed black lab on a leash was the highlight of my evening.