Monday, November 26, 2018

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/


Friday, November 23, 2018

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.  


Sunday, November 11, 2018

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.