What A Slacker!

High Cost of Oil Takes Its Toll on My Toys

Add comment May 13th, 2008

I noticed the scale of action figures seems to be going back down in size. Instead of all the hulking, big seven inch pieces of plastic we are once again seeing smaller three inch scale figures in the toy stores.

Since plastic is basically a petroleum based product do you think the trend in smaller toys is being caused by the higher oil prices? I know the cost of action figures and toys is going up. So where does that leave me and my collecting days? Are they numbered? Will I have to stop collecting or simply cut back in the amount of toys I buy? Honestly, I don’t like either option. I don’t want to stop or even reduce collecting my Star Trek figures. Maybe I just need to stop with the other items. No more Indian Jones. No more monsters. No more Lego. NO!

Star Trek References on Numbers

Add comment May 6th, 2008

Catching up on my DVR recorded TV shows this weekend and I spotted some more Star Trek references on a CBS show. Any chance CBS/Paramount moved the new Trek movie date from Xmas 2008 to May 2009 so they could exploit their TV series for additional exposure and try to make Trek more hip? Geek is as good as gold these days you know.

The April 11th episode of NUMB3RS had the following Trekkie conversation.

Megan Reeves : Look at you guys. This is kind of like when Captain Kirk used to beam down and would leave Bones and Chekov in charge.

Dr. Larry Fleinhardt: No actually the chain of command went Commander Spock to Lt. Cmdr. Scott to Lt. Sulu then once during season two it actually went to Assistant Chief Engineer DeSalle.

Or is it simply all us math and/or science geeks must also be sci-fi geeks and vise versa?

Why Vulcans Have Green Blood

Add comment May 1st, 2008

It looks like CBS is making sure that we all remember Star Trek. Tonight’s CSI had a fun conversation between Hodges and Simms discussing a case with green blood and the agent that caused it which turns into a talk about Vulcan blood and Mr. Spock.

Liz Vassey who plays CSI Wendy Simms just happens to have a Star Trek connection she appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation — Conundrum — thanks Memory Alpha. Someone should really make a six degrees of separation site for Star Trek in general. It would be kind of cool to type in an actor and see how many hops until they are connected to something Trek. Or maybe it’s just me.

Any who here is their conversation.

Simms: What do you think turned it green?
Hodges: I suspect it might be sulfur.
Simms: Sulfur is a naturally occurring component in the blood.

Hodges: But in massive doses it tends to turn the blood a blackish avocado green. When the sulfur atom joins the hemoglobin molecule red blood turns green. Which is why First Officer Spock’s blood is green in Star Trek.

Simms: No it’s not.
Hodges: Ah, yes it is. Trust me I’m an expert.
Simms: Apparently not. Otherwise you would surely know that the oxidizing agent in Vulcan blood is copper. And that is why his blood is green. Or maybe that and the fact that he had a Vulcan father since his mother is actually human. And further more he was promoted to Captain just prior to Star Trek 2 and then he retired as civilian ambassador.

Hodges: You’re like a geeky, nerdy guy trapped in a woman’s body.
Simms: So are you.
Hodges: As I was saying here on Earth sulfur containing compounds could turn otherwise normal blood green.
Hodges: As I suspected.
Simms: Share.
Hodges: She wasn’t Vulcan.

Nice to see them showing women can be just as into Star Trek as guys.

Toys and Time Travel

Add comment April 28th, 2008

The guys of Big Bang Theory buy the prop time machine from the film The Time Machine. Leonard jumps in and sets the machine to March 10, 1876 the date of the famous first phone call. They proceed to argue over the fact that they all want to go but they would not be able to all fit into the small lab and agree that they should travel into the future to get a cloaking device first. Here’s their conversation about the cloaking device.

Sheldon: First go into the future and obtain a cloaking device.
Rajesh: How far into the future?
Sheldon: If I remember correctly Captain Kirk will steal a cloaking device from the Romulans on stardate 5027.3, which will be January 10th 2328 by pre-Federation reckoning.

As a collector and a fan that plays with their toys the scene that followed was hilarious with the four guys acting out the high speed action that goes on around Leonard while traveling in the time machine. Penny comes in to tell them all how pathetic they all are for still playing with toys. Leonard then goes on to re-evaluate his life, his maturity and his collection. (Bad Penny.)

The Nerdvana that Leonard has created is disappearing as he is packing up his collection to sell to the comic book guy down the street. All his friends want to buy it off of him but he refuses saying it will hurt their friendship if he sells his stuff to one over the others. They try to stop him and he pulls out a Playmates Star trek figures and threatens to open it.

Sheldon: No I can’t let you do this.
Leonard: Sheldon, get out of my way.
Sheldon: (Grabbing a sword from Leonard’s box) None shall pass.
Leonard: Okay. I did not want to do this, but…I have here the rare mint condition production error Star Trek: The Next Generation Geordi Laforge without his visor in the original packaging. If you do not get out of my way I will open it.
Howard: Okay, man be cool. We’re all friends here.

Penny comes out and Sheldon lets her have it.

Sheldon: You hypocrite.
Penny: What?
Sheldon: Little miss grown-ups don’t play with toys. If I went in to that apartment right now would I not find Beanie Babies? Are you not an accumulator of Care Bears and My Little Ponies? And who is that Japanese feline I see frolicking on your shorts. Hello Hello Kitty.

Penny then apologizes to Leonard about the day before and he just about asks her out when a hunky guy comes up and goes into her apartment with her. Leonard grabs his toys and heads back into the apartment saying, “My turn on the time machine”.

The Bar Jar Conjecture Trek Transcripts

Add comment April 26th, 2008

Earlier this week I wrote about all the Star Trek references in Monday’s episode of The Big Bang Theory but I had missed the first few minutes of the show. Thanks to CBS.com for posting full episodes I was able to see the rest of the show and get you all the following transcripts of the stuff I missed on Monday.

Howard: Yo, more details about the new Star Trek film. There’s going to be a scene depicting Spock’s birth.

Rajesh: I’d be more interested in a scene depicting Spock’s conception.

Sheldon: Oh, please. For Vulcans mating or if you will , Pon Far is an extremely private matter.

Leonard: Still I would like to know the details. His mother was human and his father was Vulcan they couldn’t just conceive.

Howard: Maybe they had to go to a clinic. Imagine Spock’s dad in a little room with a copy of Pointy Ears & Shapely Rears.

Rajesh: How come on Star Trek everybody’s private parts are the same? No alien lady ever told Captain Kirk, ‘Hey get your thing out of my nose’.

Sheldon: You want me to use my intelligence in a tawdry competition? Would you ask Picasso to play Pictionary? Would you ask Noah Webster to play Boggle? Would you ask Jacque Cousteau to play Go Fish?Leonard: Come on you need a four person team. We’re for people.Sheldon: By that reasoning we should also play bridge, hold up a huppa and enter the Olympic bobsled competition.

Penny: Tickets to that please.

Leonard: Sheldon. What, do I have to quote Spock’s dying words to you?

Sheldon: No. Don’t.

Leonard: The needs of the many…

Howard: Out weigh the needs of the few…

Sheldon: Or the one. Damn it I’ll do it. (Holds up the Vulcan salute.)

Trekkin with Geeky Guys on Big Bang Theory

2 comments April 21st, 2008

Tonight’s Big Bang Theory was hilarious, especially for all of us Star Trek geeks. The episode starts out with the guys sitting around talking about Spock’s conception and Vulcan mating rituals, pon far, and a possible fertility clinic with Sarek going in with a copy of Pointy Ears and Shapely Rears [I think that was the name of the mag he came up with]. and how all aliens on Star Trek have the same private parts and why no alien woman ever told Kirk ‘get your thing out of my nose?’. [I missed the first few minutes so I am not sure why they were talking about Spock’s conception, perhaps they were discussing the upcoming new Star Trek film].

Then the boys quote Spock’s dying words to get Sheldon to join them in the physics bowl. The needs of the many out weight the needs of the few or the one. Works every time. Sheldon agrees to do it and holds up his hand in the familiar Vulcan salute.

Sheldon then designs the perfect uniforms for the competition. Colors are based on Star Trek the guys will wear support red and he will wear command gold. [Is he saying they will all die before the end of the episode, er contest?] When he walks out in his command shirt followed by three red shirts I got the giggles.

After the contest Penny comes in to prove who is the smartest with a bunch of trivia questions. Here are a few of those questions and responses…

Penny: What actor holds the record for being named People magazines sexiest man alive?
Sheldon: William Shatner
Leonard: I don’t think it’s Shatner.
Sheldon: Then it’s got to be Patrick Stewart.
Penny: No.

Penny: Tweety Bird tought he taw a what?
Sheldon: Romulan.
Penny: Yes. He tought he taw a Romulan

When this epsidoe finally hits the net I will have to rewatch it. Thank goodness for CBS and other stations putting full episodes on the web.

Another Mangled Mailing

Add comment March 30th, 2008

What is it with me and getting Star Trek stuff in the mail? Or is it just anything via mail order these days?

I just received my copy of Brent Spiners new CD Dreamland. Well actually I just received my second copy of this disc. My first one came to me a bit mangled and the plastic part that holds the CD was broken and the disk was scratched.

Since I paid extra to get a signed copy and being the big ole Star Trek collecting geek that I am I had to get another one since the first one was no where near mint.

I have not had time to listen to the CD yet. I am too busy listening to the Philip Pullman books in the His Dark Materials series. Already finished The Golden Compass and I am about half way through the second in the series, The Subtle Knife. Once I complete these I will through Brent Spiner’s Dreamland into the MP3 player and give her a listen. I have a feeling I will like it as I liked what I heard before I bought it.

While I am on the topic of Brent Spiner, I have been hearing rumors and questions from people wondering if he is gay. Quite honestly I would have to say no. The ole gaydar has been ringing for years with him but I think it is a false positive. Hey people seem to think Wil Wheaton is gay too, but he is married, I think. I never got that from him either. Most likely people are just reading their geekiness as homosexuality, but I could be wrong all around. Wouldn’t be the first time you know. As far as I know the only out gay member of any star trek cast is George Takei. Again, this does not mean there aren’t others.

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…

Milton Bradley Microvison Star Trek Phaser Strike
Collins Wrath of Khan Video Game Watch
Konami Star Trek 25th Anniversary Game
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

Coleco Star Trek Game

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.

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the rantings and ravings of an antisocial slacker