The Balok Interview!!!!

Can you tell me your name and a little bit about yourself? But first...we drank Tranya! Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha!

HaHa, yes! “I hope you relish it, as much as I !”

Charles Schultz, 51 & lucky to be living in beautiful Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, with my lovely wife and 3 young daughters (who enjoy me right now, but will soon outgrow me as I reached peak cognitive development at age twelve). Thirty-nine years later, I still enjoy comics, toys, and any movie Ray Harryhausen worked on.

Clint Howard's alien in Star Trek is such an obscure name for your blog, I am actually very jealous of that! What made you choose that name for your blog/Instagram?

Thanks Tim! Clint Howard’s performance as Balok still stands out, doesn’t it? He’s one of those characters that hypnotizes kids with sheer weirdness…my own kids still react to the show in good ways that remind me that creative thinking (even low budget) can still beat CGI. The actor also seems humble, fun and clearly has a good relationship with brother Ron. During our annual family watch of ‘The Grinch’ (movie) my kids always say: “Hey Dad, there’s Balok!” In a nutshell, Balok makes me smile!

How long have you been doing your blog?

Started when I got this iPad…going on 3+ years now?

What was the first toy that just left a huge impression with you as a child?

In the early 70’s an older neighbor-boy’s Mom donated a huge box of his Mattel Major Matt Mason toys to my younger brother and I. I still know this fellow today and he hasn’t gotten over it, lol. The rubber-bendy figures were worn out, but everything else was top-quality and unique to anything at the time; soon the whole house became ‘outer space’ to us. The enormous 3-level Space Station was the very definition of PLAYSET. Over the years, the Space Station became the headquarters of various Fisher-Price Adventure People and… the Micronauts (mix in some Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and other 3&3/4” figures of the time).

What got you into toy collecting?

Never stopped. I guess I’m old enough to title my toy-buying habit a collection. The truth for me reads better as: ‘continued acquisition with the intent to play’. The dream of a glorious day when I set it all up on the living room floor and have the most epic play-time (as my younger self regularly did), is still with me. Also, I am like many middle-aged collectors who see toys as an artifact-link to happy, simpler times. We are all eager archeologists when it comes to our own pasts, be that through picture albums, cars, toys, etc.

Do you have a favorite toy company when you were a kid? How about now?

MEGO Corp. brought Micronauts toys to kids in North America, so that’s the big one in my memory (also enjoyed their pocket Super Heroes, Black Hole, Buck Rogers, etc. lines too). Today its Takara-Tomy who brings us Diaclone and not to bore anyone with the well-known historical link between Micronauts and Takara’s Microman, but there’s that lineage, it’s pretty cool.

Do you have a favorite Independent toy company that you would like to see get more publicity?

Onell Design https://onelldesign.blogspot.com  founders of the GLYOS connection system which has spawned a literal family (they treat each other and customers like a good family) of toy creators & companies. I’d love to meet founder Matt Doughty in person. He has created not just amazing toys and a rich ‘Glyoverse’  but a culture of kindness and respect in the GLYOS collecting community; never seen anything quite like it

.

Do you have a Holy Grail piece or are you still eagerly looking for it out there?

Many Grail pieces have passed through my hands over the years; I just can’t stay focused, haha!  Some of the original 1980 Dialcone items qualify (based on the regret I have for selling or trading them off, years ago); let’s say the original Diaclone playset: a boxed, clean, complete version of GREAT ROBOT BASE is the Grail item for me.

Did you have a favorite sci-fi movie as a kid? As an adult? Do you still feel like those things that were important to you then are still things you care about?

‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ (It’s partly SciFi, right?) was on TV often enough during childhood to really become a staple for me; still enjoy this movie today. A modern-day film I revisit often is ‘The Fifth Element’. Probably like yourself and most other SciFi fans, I could go on…for days, but to spare you, these two came to mind first.  Themes and stories that held my attention as a child often still do today; hence a favorite quote from Forrest J. Ackerman: “You can grow older, just don’t grow up.”

What are your favorite top 5 toys when you were younger?

Only five!?!? …(sulks)…ok

Late 1970’s/early 80’s had some big hits with me:

1)      MEGO Micronauts (Baron Karza ruled) and that Ken Kelly card-art for the Aliens!

2)      Mattel Battlestar Galactica (Viper & Cylon Raider)

3)      Mattel Space 1999 Eagle-1 Playset (often stood-in for the Galactica while playing with #2, otherwise it was piloted by Micronauts, of course)

4)      MEGO Black Hole Maximillian Robot, my first and only experience with cereal box-top mail-away figure, both a joy and disappointment (no articulation).

5)      LJN Advanced Dungeons & Dragons showed up without warning (if ran across a fully stocked toy isle when these guys came out, you’d remember).

With Sectaurs getting a revival, do you have a toy line that you would love to see get a second chance?

Sectaurs were awesome! Part of that whole He-Man & Black-Star genre that I admired from afar. Well, since Micronauts had a reboot (bless you Palisades Toys) and now seems forever locked in Hasbro’s vault of indecision, I’d root for a STARCOM comeback.

  This short-lived COLECO (later Mattel in the UK) line was ahead of its time with brilliant features at a tiny scale that allowed for epic SciFi play (by epic, I mean how a tiny 2-inch, articulated figure transforms a kids room into a huge landscape in a way that larger scale figures cannot). The magnetic feet used on STARCOM figures were done just a few years earlier by a TAKARA line that I feel shares many similarities with STARCOM, that being Diaclone. I often mix STARCOM vehicles and accessories into Diaclone scenes because they are such similar lines. Diaclone figures at only half the size of STARCOM at 30 mm tall, still look good in many STARCOM rides.

You have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the Diaclone line. When did you become so enamored with that line?

  What’s a Diaclone? LOL. Too much credit, in fact I kinda avoid knowing everything about Diaclone because a touch of mystery allows freedom to make up my own stories around these little guys. Take Star Wars toys for example, everything is cemented into a role, no room for a kid to speculate different stories for the figures; they never become a part of the kids own creative play-mythos if you will. I remember our first Storm Trooper figure (before seeing the movie 150 times) and assigning him all kinds of powers (like Iron Man’s armor); but knowing too much…he’s demoted, just another clone who can’t shoot straight. I think that’s why Boba Fett held power for so long…he was mysterious! Fett is diminished (in my opinion) by too much back-story.

  Diaclone:  Must have been 1980-81 when I chanced upon a tiny figure in red plastic & shiny metal in a schoolyard, trampled into the grass/dirt. He remained a mystery for years, but his chromed head reminded me of Micronauts (had no idea of the relationship); thought he was some kind of vending-machine trinket or candy-
prize.

 The tiny scale and puzzle of what he was, stuck with me and he rolled around my belongings until getting lost (as I gather many of these tiny Diaclone pilot figures were lost). Within a couple of years, I acquired the remains of a Great Robot Base at a flea-market! This was it…still not knowing the name of the line, yet two of the (similar) tiny pilot figures were still manning their posts inside the main control room (a work of art among toys)…I had found his home! It was quite a thrill to stumble on this toy! Pretty sure I turned my early-teens room upside down searching for that schoolyard Dianaut, but he left behind the ability to spot his brothers, haha.

  A long period followed before even the name Diaclone became known; they didn’t show up in Canadian stores to my knowledge.

  Finally, the Internet!  By the late 90’s via online trades and eBay, gathered a respectable Diaclone collection and foolishly sold it off (except my beat-up Great Robot Base) to help pay for a move.

  Now... back in, and what a reboot this line is enjoying from Takara-Tomy!  What a surprise to see this line reappear (found out on YouTube, thanks to Knerdout) and I think it was towards the end of 2015 that I dug-up my Great Robot Base to help celebrate and anticipate the arrival of Dia-Battles V2. Since then the line has blown up!

  My advice on Diaclone collecting: Pace yourself and don’t buy every repaint, otherwise your spending could become more like military-spending ;)

Could you also give me links to websites and other places that you would like to advertise?

This website is in Japanese only, but it’s the best archive of original Diaclone toys I know of: www.diaclone.net/orid/list.html

The Onell Design blog, a gateway site with links to everything Glyos: https://onelldesign.blogspot.com

Here’s a link to Shapeways 3-D printing service, remarkably a good source for original Dianaut (and enemy Waruder) figures in the original 80’s style (search under INCHMAN): https://www.shapeways.com   

You can follow Charles at these sites:

https://balok-blog.tumblr.com/

Dellamorte Dellamore

I used to work with a lady at the Public Library that would challenge me to work out my writing muscles daily. 

We would write Haikus every day. I don't really know how it got started. She knew that I was a writer and decided that we both should some kind of exercise daily. She wrote mostly funny ones about food, and I would write weird, shocking, or creepy ones. Sometimes a cute or romantic one would slip through, but for the most part, I just mainly wrote creepy ones. 

We would alternate who would come up with the subject every other day. Our daily ritual would usually start with one of walking by the other and saying, "Today's word is..." and then the word that we would either use in a haiku or write about. I usually did both. 

One day I went above and beyond writing one haiku when she walked by my desk and said that the word of the day was Cemetery. 

My brain reeled with possible things to conjure up! The only thing was, I kept seeing Rupert Everett's face in my mind. Seeing him in the 1994 Italian Horror classic, Cemetery Man. So I submitted to Rupert's guile and wrote what you see below. Enjoy.

Cemetery man.

He buries the walking dead

never to return.

Cemetery man,

Haunted by his one true love.

Who came back from death.

Cemetery man.

Works tirelessly all night

burying the dead.

Cemetery man.

Keeps his secret from everyone.

The dead keeps rising.

Cemetery man. 

Doomed, but remains a staid man.

Just on the outside.

Cemetery man.

Carrying out his sentence.

With help from no one.  

I did a bad thing

1989.

I was 15 years old and looked not a day over 11. 

Japanese Emperor Hirohito dies.

Tim Burton's Batman becomes a blockbuster hit. 

The Berlin Wall comes down.

And I stole a Snake Eyes action figure from Wal-Mart. 

Back then Wal-Mart was in its original building. Where Hobby Lobby currently resides. And it was definitely frowned upon by your peers to go down the toy aisle. But it wasn't like I had street cred to protect. I was a round-faced, bespectacled, toe-headed kid that looked younger than everyone else. But I felt the strict code enforced by my classmates.  Even though you're just into your teens, you have to act like nothing is awesome, you can't show excitement, and you certainly couldn't let anyone know that you still played with toys, you might as well be caught masturbating in the school bathroom. 

I would sometimes have my younger sister accompany me down the toy aisle. We'd pretend to be looking for our imaginary cousin a birthday present. Or if she wasn't with me, I'd sometimes act like I was looking for a younger sibling that might have been lost. 

I felt ashamed for still going down the toy aisles, but I just couldn't stop myself. It was like I was going into a truck stop or a greasy convenience store of ill repute and trying to gather up the courage to purchase a skin mag. It'd be easier to steal a toy than to garner questions and odd looks by the clerk or snobby cashier. "What's this for?", Aren't you a little old for buying a toy?", "You shouldn't be buying toys, you should save up your money to take a young lady out." to which I wanted to yell, "Look at me, lady! You've probably seen better definition on a roll of uncooked biscuit dough. What makes you think I'll have girls that are interested in me. I still play with toys!" 

I was already teased and bullied enough at school for it and my Grandmother couldn't accept the idea either. While going to garage sales with her one Saturday morning, I asked her to buy me a Legions of power vehicle. But instead of silently buying it for me, she was embarrassed and had to add to it with, "My grandson wants to be an astronaut." Why?! What does that have to do with wanting a toy? 

And, what does childhood teach you? to feel guilty about wanting to stay a kid. To be ashamed of playing with toys.

I am not trying to justify my actions but people minding their own business would have helped me out loads back then. 

Geez, there I go again. Digressing.  I got more baggage than a Kardashian going on holiday. 

So, one day in 1989 my mother and my two younger sisters go to the local Walmart. As soon as we walk in, I split up with them and go to do my normal routine of circling the aisles around the toy area then finally walk through. The shelves were lined with Ghostbuster figures, Robocop toys, New Adventures of He-man, micromachines, which were huge at the time. They even influenced The Transformers toy line with the Micro Masters. 

But also, there were the G.I. Joes as well. I walked over, looking carefully at them all, The 1989 line up. A new version of Rock & Roll looked pretty outrageous with his miniguns. The tundra ranger Stalker had as many accessories as Rock & Roll! But on the peg next to Stalker was Snake Eyes. A newer version!

He looked, kind of like a cross Version 1 and Version 2, except he was embracing the ninja aspect of his aesthetics and getting further and further away from the commando look, which in all honesty, I liked better. The Ninja aesthetic was huge in 1984. I remember my parents buying me a black shirt that had red kanji on it and a hooded face, with the words, "Ninja" in English on the bottom. It even came with a mask you could wear too! So yeah, 5 years of Ninja stuff kind of got old. 

He resembled a bad guy that an aging Burt Reynolds would be determined to take down. And looking back now at his cover art with adult eyes, this version of Snake Eyes kind of looks like a paramilitary gimp suit with silver accents, the two knives on his chest, the padded leather parts on his arms and knees and the motorcycle boots. You can almost hear him breathing heavy after you work him over with a tire iron. The places my mind goes, man...

This version of Snake Eyes was designed by the legendary Mark Pennington. And in issue 95 of G.I. Joe, you find out that he took on this look after being captured by several men that were wearing different parts of this outfit. He managed to get free, take his captors down and then took some of their clothing to create his new attire. Who was called, "The Paine Brothers". 

But the 15-year-old me in 1989 was in awe of this figure.

Still, he was an impressive sight to see. With his sword, blow gun, an Uzi submachine gun, and a three-piece nunchaku which was actually a sansetsukon. Hey, shut up! I know some stuff about oriental weapons okay?!

Sansetsukon...It sounds like a town in Quebec

I had parts of Version 1 Snake eyes but not the complete figure. I missed out and deeply regretted not getting the Version 2. I remember this kid in my 6th-grade class playing with him and being so envious of him for having him. 

All of that bubbled up out of me and I grabbed him off the peg and stood there looking at him. I knew my Mom wouldn't buy him for me. And I had no cash, and I also knew that some kid would quickly snag him up if I didn't do something right then. So, I walked around with the figure, holding it next to my stomach, running my thumbnail between the card and the plastic packaging. I kept looking for a spot where there weren’t any cameras and found a corner in the paint section that allowed me to pry the bottom open enough for the figure and its accessories to drop out. I immediately stuffed him in my coat pocket and kept walking around, feeling paranoid about what I did and seeing if any zealot of Sam Walton was looking to take me down for my actions. 

But no one seemed to care. I found my mother and told her that I was going to the foyer to play the Superman arcade game. I pretended to play and watched the exit to my right. Still, no one came. 

I started to formulate a tale on how or where I came up with this new figure since I knew my sisters would ask me about it if I got it out in the car. 

My Mother and sisters finally came out and I followed them out the exit. It was a busy Sunday; the parking lot was pretty full, and we seemed to be following the flow of the tide of commerce. It was as if everyone was leaving all at the same time, and my mother stopped the cart and was digging through her purse for her car keys. I decided then to execute my master plan. I stepped over to a nearby garbage can and dumped snake eyes out of my pocket next to it. Then I looked over and feigned surprise. 

“Oh, wow!” my prepubescent voice cracked. “Why’s this laying over here?” I said, bending over to pick up my “discovery”.

I made a big deal to show that I found it next to the garbage can, and no one cared. Neither my sisters or my mother couldn’t care less. They were almost past the crosswalk when I looked over to see if they were looking at what I was holding up to them.

I took off after them and helped put the groceries away in the trunk and then got in the back, feeling a little weird. I felt guilty about what I did, but also, I felt a little sad that my performance fell on deaf ears. That they didn’t see how hard I was selling my surprise at finding a G.I. Joe figure outside the exit of Wal-Mart.

I got him out of my pocket and looked at him again. Then said, “I guess he fell out of someone’s bag.”  My youngest sister who was eight at the time looked over for a moment but then went about talking to my other sister.

I felt a little relieved that no one was coming after me that day, and I was a little paranoid going back into that Wal-Mart again later. I figured that someone from security had memorized my chubby face and was waiting for me to step back in the store and get arrested for theft.

I felt weird about my actions that day and played with him briefly. Something about getting him out made me feel bad. I didn’t like that I didn’t control myself and could have gotten into some serious trouble. After a while though, the odd feelings went away, and the new Snake Eyes came out and joined the team for adventures around my room. But, even still today, I get a rush of memories every time I get him back out and look at him.

For a mute Ninja, he seems to have a lot to say to me, even still to this day. I guess he’ll always be disappointed in my behavior. 

The FP

2011 was a terrible year for me. I was fired from job a that I had been at for 16 years and the girl I was seeing was cheating on me and I moved out into an apartment the size of a breadbox. I was in a very bad place and developed insomnia and stopped sleeping. I had to stop taking my anxiety meds and worked part-time at a hardware store. I couldn't get motivated at all about my life.Then  I saw the trailer for The FP and was immediately sold. I used money that I didn't have and bought it from the local video store.

This movie inspired me. It told me to pick myself up, dust myself off and get back to hustling. It made me go to work with a hurt back. It made me got to work with a fever and sweating profusely. It showed me intestinal fortitude that I didn't know was there. Especially after I was micro managed by a foul, cheating, sociopath that lost her mind when I didn't congratulate her about getting pregnant by a redneck with caterpillars for eyebrows.

 It psyched me up when life would piss in my face. It made go all out and work harder than the 18-year-olds that I worked with.

That was seven years ago and I still go back to it for inspirations and to never be ignorant and getting goals accomplished, and I think it's high time that I wrote something about this masterpiece.

Trost doesn't slow down anything to over explain what's going on, he doesn't coddle the audience. You either get it or you don't or you watch it again with subtitles to catch all the subtle intricacies of this world's slang and over the top dialogue.

He took the Ben Marcus approach with world building through words. Only Jason Trost took it up a notch with his off color slights and descriptions. Ham sandwich. A certain rainbow wigged Clifton Collins Jr. calls Jtro's crew the insult.  At first, the word brings up the imagery of the food about to be eaten or perhaps it's setting on a plate with potato chips, but in fact, the thug is calling them "basic" for not partaking in the black market pharmaceuticals.

Another example of  word use,  the antagonist refers to the hero as cranberry juice, which at first strikes you as odd  but upon deeper inspection, the trash talking carries a weight to it. Drinking Cranberry juice helps with urinary tract infections, bladder infections, and aids with menstrual cramps. The use of this word is used to take jabs at his masculinity, toughness, and his overall health as well.

It's language building on par with Anthony Burgess, the writer of Clockwork Orange and the creator of Ulam, the language the Neanderthals used in the film Quest for fire. Burgess was a translator, linguist and lectured in phonetics and if he was alive today, he would nod in agreeance about Trost's cinematic opus.

It's creating a believable world by keeping the main character sane, while the others that populate it are turned up to eleven most of the time. And doing all this on a very small budget by Hollywood standards. But it's the character's dialogue, costuming and acting that made it feel immense. It made you daydream about the Frazier Park and the world beyond it.

When the Beat Beat game suddenly announces  Omega gangster mode L Dubba E says quite frankly, "I don't give a fuck." while everyone is dumbstruck by the new mode that has been unlocked. It was as if the game suddenly came up with it unbeknownst to the players.

L Dub beats Btro just by sheer confidence alone. He is at a Zen level of "No fucks given."

Even the fellatio in the movie is a comment on our culture and how we are devolving our customs and formalities. It's as if these people that populate this world see it as an absolute pre-coital introduction. It's like how in our world, sexting has become the way things are in today's culture and no one bats an eye anymore when a risque picture is leaked. We are desensitized to wrong things.

People need to look deeper into this man and see what he's about. Past the evolved gangster rap vernacular. The FP is a film that isn't afraid to bleed for you and also it won't hold our hand and walk you through it.

Hello blogspot. I missed you.

Welp. I tried. I tried going over to Tumblr and doing the blog thing over there, but I didn't feel at home. Not anymore at least. Once I started a new account and started moving stuff over there, Tumblr was very quick to start shoving other blogs down my throat every time I got on there. I used to have a Tumblr account waaay back in the day. (well, not that far back, but I guess it seems like that because time moves differently on the internet.)

I'd say I started up one around 2007 or 2008. It wasn't anything awesome. It was just me posting links that I could look at later. It was like a virtual back up brain. Then I also started posting poetry and random pictures of things. It was a place that I would usually visit once a day or so. Reblogging or posting stuff.

I don't know what made me stop doing it. I just got tired of it and stopped posting stuff. Then the SJWs moved in. But that has nothing to do with me.

Warren Ellis keeps telling us to delete our accounts on social media. He keeps saying it, and like all bad habits, it just takes a while to stop doing it sometimes. But upon revisiting Tumblr and moving this blog over there. I felt like nothing ever got read. I felt as though I was just another geek blog that was mediocre.

I think I got away from why I started this. I started this blog for me and no one else. I made this blog because I felt like I had things to say. And I still feel that way. I have all these ideas to write about and so many topics that I would like to share. If you read them, that's cool. If you comment on it, that's cool too. But I guess I started worrying about being never read and that kind of cut my will to keep this place going. But now, I realize that I still love this little corner of the web.

So I am back here and it feels good to back. Like your own side of the bed, or couch or piece of chicken.

I hope to be publishing something soon on here that you might enjoy. It's definitely something I think I should share though.

Sorry to everyone for being so wishy washy.
Hope you are well and I hope to see you all real soon. Now, I have to go over to Facebook and update everything again. bleh.

The Jennifer Stroud Interview!

Have you ever read something that made you blush? Just something written that goes into your brain and finds the most intimate memory you have and puts it under a magnifying glass and spotlight? Have you ever read something that can quieten down your mind and tunnel your ears? If you answered no, then you really need to buy Ruby Lane by Jennifer Anne Stround. Her poems are breathless, emotional, witty and teeming with personality. They’re colorful and sensitive and sometimes so vulnerable that we the reader, flinch for her. She's found her true voice and that is something that most poets struggle with all their life.

Tell us a bit about yourself?
I'm a huge music fan. I remember my mom listening to Helen Reddy, Barry Manilow, & Stevie Wonder in the living room & my dad would be listening to Patsy Cline, Jonny Cash, & merle haggard in the garage. And I Love live shows. That leaving it all for everyone to see on stage is so intoxicating to watch. I adore a great melody but for me, it's always been lyrics. Songwriters are poets to me.

Music and poetry go hand and hand,
when did you first start writing poetry?
I first started truly writing when I was 15 or 16 years old. I had an incredibly hard time talking to guys. I was awkward and self-conscious as we all are at that age. But words came easy, I could write something simple and leave an impression. My fingers worked when my tongue was tied. 

What inspires you to write poetry?
Usually, it's a feeling. Or an insistent line running through my mind all day. Ever see Stewie on Family guy saying "mom" without stopping? That's my brain on poetry. 

Have you ever written any short stories?
I used to write erotic short fiction on a website that caters to that kind of thing but it's been years. Not a big enough audience or feeling that I was touching or connecting with an audience. 

What is your favorite subject to write about?
The human condition. 
What we feel and how we connect. 

Do you have a favorite poet?
I have many but not as much as I have favorite songwriters -
Jim Steinmann, Elton John/Bernie Taupin,
Jeffrey Isabel (Izzy Stradlin), Robert Plant/Jimmy Page, Myles Kennedy 

What is your inspiration?

I want to be able to touch the reader so they see the world as I see it. Even if it's just for a moment. To find the beauty even in the darkness. 

You were on Diaryland back in early 00’s, do you feel that blog or live journal is a dying animal?
I feel it has run its course. People tend to want immediate gratification, a blurb or better yet a vine to give them a sensation or an emotional response. I used to enjoy those sites because we connected and found like-minded souls. Nowadays people claim to want that and yet do almost the opposite. 
They were a great place for me to find my voice. 

Sites like that died out pretty quick because of myspace and then facebook.
Pathetic (a poetry website) and others are becoming an apathetic ghost town whose webmasters just don’t care about their creations anymore. Do you see this as the death of the community sites?
In a lot of ways, yes. Because now you can build a community page on sites like Facebook and have everything you need in one place. Without the traffic, it's hard to want to keep up almost obsolete pages. It's like a forgotten art form.
 

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words” -Robert Frost

Do you think that poetry will continue to be around in this age of instant gratification and every changing fads? Do you think poetry has its roots placed firmly in our society?
Poetry is part of our human makeup. It's our dream speech. We babble and make noises before we speak. This is our brains own poetry and our first communication. It's our first music. And music is one of the only things that uses both sides of our brain. Poetry is always there, you just need the eyes to see it. 

 
In the 80’s it seemed as though poetry was getting a bad rap as something everyone could do, but seldom were very good at. It seemed that the market was saturated with mediocre poets, nowadays it seems like poetry has become less imaginative and written to enrage or cause a prescribed response. What are your thoughts on this?
I had a taste of one of those sites early on. I bought the book I was featured in and the experience left a bitter taste. It was like everyone getting an achievement award.

I've had a little success since sending my work out but the backlash of those sites is that it seems journals and zines became more choosy about their subject matter or style they would accept. I'm self-taught and think rules for writing are in some ways outdated. Sound and voice get lost in parameters. 

I understand going for the easy response. People will remember it if it's short or elicits a fast emotion like anger or fear. But is that writing or the literal equivalent to a video of the same nature geared for likes? I guess it's our job as writers to keep putting out quality to turn that tide. I know I don't plan on giving up any time soon. 

Thanks so much for this Jen. You're a legend!

Thank you. I've enjoyed this a great deal.

You can find Jennifer's Book in the link below. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/198616554X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523589200&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=ruby+lane&dpPl=1&dpID=41BFVSeq0bL&ref=plSrch#

On Barnes and Noble

https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/ruby-lane-jenifer-anne-stroud/1128192398?ean=9781986165549&st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_New+Core+Shopping+Books_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP164972&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4Yiq7OC32gIVDdNkCh2ihAVkEAkYASABEgK7lPD_BwE

Twitter - JENIFER STROUD (@ENYMPH): https://twitter.com/ENYMPH

On Instagram as @jeniferstroud

On Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/user/Enymph

Mini blog!

Hello everyone.

I promise to publish more blog posts soon. But also, I am going to start doing mini blog posts as well. Little blurbs about toys and little-known facts. Here's my first one.

Did you know? C.O.P.S. character Checkpoint is related to a very recognizable character from another toyline/cartoon?

Checkpoint's real name is Wayne R. Sneeden III, he grew up in Auburn, Alabama with his father, who served with a certain top-secret anti-terrorist unit during the 80's - 90's. And if the name and the clues don't spell it out for you. I'll just tell ya.

Boy? You better not be on the juice!

His dad was non-other than our favorite southern, salty, stick in the mud, by the book, army ranger and a personal fave of mine, Beachhead! Since C.O.P.S. was owned by the same Hasbro, so it was fine to do something cool like this for the fans out there.

My Dad had great taste in toys!

In 1983 My father came home from national guard duty with a present for me. I actually don't think it was a present for me. It was something he bought for himself and ended up giving it to me. I don't blame him. I would've done the same exact thing, except I would not have given it to my kid. In retrospect, I believe he bought it for himself because it was a toy that you had to put together and he gave it to me already assembled and stickers applied before he gave it to me, and I was one of those kids that loved putting things together by myself. The building and sticker application gave me a feeling of accomplishment and that I had a hand in its creation even though it was made by toy company overseas.

                                       

I didn't really care though. I was just happy to receive a cool looking toy that I had never seen before. 

It was a toy from TOMY called a Zoid. The toy's name was Elephantus and had a windup motor that moved the ears and legs. I absolutely loved it! The colors, the little blue rubber pegs that kept the bits in place, the white cockpit with the shiny gold pilot inside. I was immediately hooked on this toy line and needed more. 

Original box for Elephantus

Elephantus

Elephantus's aesthetics are so charming that it pushes aside its scant details and makes us fall in love with the overall simplicity and functionality, sure it has armaments, but they blur into the figures being. The whole line had that going for it. TOMY had thought they dropped a dud with toy line in Japan. Over there they were called by Mechabonica. It wasn't until these pre-hysterical monster machines made their way over to America that the name was changed to Zoids. Even back then though these would be Proto-Zoids. They didn't have any enemies to battle, they were just roaming around the plains of our imaginations like giant metal nomads. 

Garius

This newly discovered toy line was something my father and I had bonded over. I was finally getting some attention from him and I was loving it. He and I were always on the lookout for more of the toy line out in the wild. We were able to find several more that summer at the local toy store Toys by Roy, it was the T-Rex robot called Garius that very much resembled a pseudo-accurate (at the time because of its upright gait) Tyrannosaurus skeleton that had been made into a robot and the skull replaced by a white cockpit. 

They were a good price back then!

I could look at this pic for hours!

Being from a small town, meant that you didn't have a lot of choices when it came to hobby stores and places like that. So you usually had one toy store and a couple of department stores that may carry toys that were up to date and were not full of a bunch of shelf warmers. Needless to say, the original line up of Zoids were very hard to find, but somehow he found the Spider Zoid. This guy quickly became my absolute favorite toy of that time! I mean what's not to love about this toy! It's got 8 legs, two blasters and it crawled around like a quasi-real spider!

In the summer of 84, I went to spend a week with my aunt and brought Spider Zoid with me. Little did I know, she had a deep deep seeded fear for anything with more than four legs. She saw it on the floor of the spare bedroom and stomped it.

Poor Spider Zoid. *plays taps*

The toy line suddenly disappeared from the shelves of all the stores that I frequented. Until what seemed like much later, I saw a random, lone Power Zoid at K-mart. I saw tank first and he was misplaced with the He-man figures, Tank was kind of interesting but it and then around the corner, I saw Giant Zrk! Both of these new Zoids were battery operated which made me conflicted. I liked the idea of it but I liked the wind-up toys a little more because you'd have to replace the batteries sooner or later. 

Power Zoids Tank

Giant Zrk

I found out later that the Starrior toy Runabout, was originally going to be released as a Zoid at first. In the picture below you can see the Helic republic stick on the side of the head. Its name back then was Bigmanks. Which sound like an 80's rapper. 

Those years, I felt like I was the closest to my father that I had ever been. We kind of felt like a team and thinking back on those memories. I really wished that feeling would have stayed around a lot longer. 

I found out today that my father had passed away. I felt like it was kismet that I was thinking about him. I wondered what he was up to today and how this blog post started about Zoids but veered over to his direction. I thought about the parts of our past, like our love for movies, cartoons, and toys. He would never complain about any cartoon that I watched no matter how silly. He was a big kid in that aspect. I remember wanting to rent Thundercats on VHS and he was totally fine with it, in fact, he watched all with me. He did the same with G.I. Joe and Transformers as well. We'd talk about what we liked and didn't like about the episode that we watched.  

My relationship with him as an adult was volatile at times and I had not talked to him almost two years because of an altercation. I felt like trying to reconnect with him again recently. I am filled with regret now and am plagued by all the "what could have beens".  I feel guilty for not trying harder with him. I have a feeling that even if we were on good terms at the end, I would still feel this way.
It's the nature of things I guess. I will have those good memories of you with me until I'm gone from this Earth. I love you dad, thanks for memories and the Zoids.

"Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new." Ursula K. Le Guin