Last Minute Christmas Idea #6

Last Minute Gift Idea #6:  Muppet Whatnot


Muppets are awesome.  I've loved the Muppet Show since I was a kid.  I continue to love the videos that the Muppet Studio continues to make, such as this which is fitting for the season:



So I was very excited a few years ago when I found out that FAO Schwarz was going to offer a custom Muppet creation lab.  You are not making copies of the existing Muppets.  The object is not to recreate Miss Piggy or Kermit.  You are creating your own personalized Muppet...like if it was an extra for the Muppet Show.  How cool is that?  What kid wouldn't want to create their own Muppet?  A kid who is destined to be a soulless serial killer.  Jeffrey Dahmer would not want to make his own Muppet.  But assuming that you are not a soulless serial killer, you want a Muppet.  You know you do.  I am lucky to already have a Muppet Whatnot, you may remember Vick Fyre.  He is awesome, and I am starting to think he might need a friend.  Making your own Muppet is easy.

1) Go to FAO

2) Pick your body style

3) Pick your eyes

4) Pick your nose (ha ha - I've been saying "pick" just for that joke, normally I would have typed "Choose")

5) Pick a hairstyle

6) Pick your clothing

7) Hit "Preview" to check out your Muppet and order if you want.


A couple quick examples:

Scientist / Doctor - using your whole fist doc?

Hippie Chick - damn dirty hippies

Monster

Balding but hairy elsewhere

Right now Muppet Whatnots are about $100, I've seen a little cheaper but usually they are about $120-$130...but really they are worth it.  They have high quality construction, and are just plain cool.  You might be thinking that you don't play with puppets - it is pretty rare for me too, but just seeing my own Muppet sitting there across the room fills my heart with joy (plus you always have it for those Muppet emergencies that do come up).

Everyone have a Great Holiday Season (or don't...I don't want to force it on you, do what makes you feel comfortable).

Last Minute Christmas Idea #5

Gift Idea #6 : Star Wars: Frames

At $3000, this makes the Tim Burton/Danny Elfman music box set seem down right affordable.  Especially when you consider that he probably used film frames from the crappy re-mastered editions instead of the original trilogy.  And I don't think I really need to spend $3000 to look at 230 film frames from each movie that were personally picked by George Lucas.  Hasn't Lucas already proved with the prequels that he really doesn't understand why people liked Star Wars?  But damn, that wooden case is cool as shit.  I also hate how it is a limited edition of 1138...really?  I liked the movie THX 1138, but why does a Star Wars box set have to pay it tribute.  Just cheesy and dumb...I am really surprised they didn't choose 1977 editions, that at least would have made a tiny bit of sense.  I mean as long as we are tying in Lucas' movies that have nothing to do with Star Wars, why not have Howard the Duck laser etched on the box?

You can buy one for yourself (or me) here.  Can I just get the case for $50?  Or maybe just the Vader medallion for $10?

Last Minute Christmas Idea #5

Last Minute Gift Ideas #5 - Gyrowheel

I am not the target audience for this - I know how to ride a bike, and I don't have kids who are learning to ride.  But man it is still cool and looks like fun to play with and see a kid use.  It is a wheel with a gyroscope inside.  You replace your child's front wheel and with the gyroscope turning their bike becomes incredibly stable.  They learn to ride without the aid of training wheels.  Just one of the many things that I wish existed when I was a kid.  I know, you will miss out on video taping all the fun crashes that your child will have and that you will be able to laugh at for years to come...but on the bright side, you probably won't have to make them wear a 'tard helmet for at least a couple years till they start the danger stunts.  Extra bonus - gets your kid out of the house for a while so that mommy and daddy can have grownup, super happy, fun time.  I can't believe they don't put that in the bullet point features...what are you supposed to watch your kid the WHOLE time?  They will have to learn that they are on their own in this world sometime - might as well start them young.

Last Minute Christmas Idea #4

Last minute gift idea #4: The Boardgame Remix Kit.

You ever get a little bored with the games you have?  These guys took four of the most popular games -Clue, Monopoly, Scrabble, and Trivial Pursuit and remixed, combined, and re-wrote them to make all new games, new ways to play, speed versions, and rule tweaks.  An exciting way to add new life to your old games.  Why sit around watching crappy reality TV when you can dust off your board games from when you were a kid.

Available in book, card, ebook, and iphone app.  Sounds like a lot of fun trying them all out...maybe some day there will be a Kackle Dackle remix.

Last Minute Christmas Idea #3

I love games - like board games, trivia games, or even little kid games.  It is just a fun way to let loose.  I have to think Hedda for pointing this German game out to me.  Behold -

Kackel Dackel

Click here to check it out on Amazon Germany (not available in the US at this time).  So basically it is some kind of game where you feed a wiener dog play-doh and then it poops it out in dog turd form.  Brilliant.  What child wouldn't want this?  $42 shipped from amazon.de right now.  I am so tempted...and watching this commercial only makes me more so.



PS - it looks like the toy really makes those noises too.  Awesome

Kackel Dackel is by far my favorite dog shitting themed game.

Last Minute Christmas Idea #2

I like this t-shirt a lot:

If you don't know what this means, do yourself a favor and read about the alots here.  This article changed my life and made me to be a happier person.

Thanks alot!

Last Minute Christmas Idea

Just in case you had an extra $500 laying around and were wondering what I would like - I would point you to this:  The Danny Elfman & Tim Burton 25th Anniversay Music Box

The music, and often unreleased score from all 13 movies that Danny Elfman & Tm Burton have collaborated on: Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman (1990), Edward Scissorshands, Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, and Alice in Wonderland...just to name a few.

I think that it is awesome that they are releasing all of this music but I also have some big problems with this boxset.

First of all, $500!  Yikes.  Sure it's 16 CDs worth of music...but that means each CD would cost $30+ each.  Now some of them I would probably pay that for Pee Wee, Nightmare...but Batman Returns, Mars Attacks, and Big Fish would probably not be on that list.  If DVDs of all the movies were actually included also, I could see how this would be worth $500...but just the soundtracks is not too me (which just goes to show how much I have reined in my fanboy ways).

Secondly, I have already spent tons of money on most of these movies.  I've seen most in the theater (at least once).  I currently have many on DVD.  I have had several on more than one format besides DVD - like VHS and Laserdisc...that Nightmare boxset laserdisc was not cheap!  I already own several of the soundtracks and musical scores on CD as well as the Music for a Darkened Theater collection CDs.  I have t-shirts, posters, toys from these movies.  I have literally already spent thousands of dollars on these movies over the years.  Do I really need to spend another $500?  I am a repeat customer, can't I get a 10% discount of something for my loyalty?

Thirdly, this is one of the things that pisses me off the most about the entertainment industry and leads to piracy.  I hate when music companies only release certain tracks through huge expensive box sets or re-releases.  There is only so many times that I will buy an album...but yet, you keep making changes and re-releasing it with new tracks.  Of course I want the new tracks but it's an album that I already have purchased the album on vinyl, cassette, CD...now you want me to pay for it all again for 2 extra tracks?  Why can't I just get the 2 tracks (PS - thank you itunes for helping with this)?  Once again, why can't I get a discount for having already purchased this.  Or even worse, only put the music on a super expensive or limited edition box set that few can afford.  I don't support piracy, I believe in paying people for a job done...but in these situations, how can I not think that piracy is the best option?  I seriously hope that someone takes the fancy little flash drive that this comes with this set and uploads it the day that it comes out.

Finally, that thing is huge!  Where the heck would I put it.  Looks to be over a cubic foot of packaging.  Do I really need the box to be a zoetrope?  No, no I don't.  I would much rather just have everything in a nice and tight little package...in fact, I would be happy just to be able to get the flash drive and save all the expense of the box, the zoetrope, the CDs, etc...  This is just way too bulky to be sitting around my house collecting dust.


http://www.burtonelfman.com/



A very cool idea...but I wish I could just get them music.

Two Minutes Hate

Ummm...that doesn't really help.

I buy things on eBay.  Not a lot, but probably more than many people.  I have seen all kinds of stupidity throughout the 12+ years that I have frequented eBay, but I am still always surprised by some people's idiocy.  Today I am annoyed by people who list auctions for "pickup only" but they don't list their exact location.

I have an automatic notice set up for listed pinball machines in the state of Iowa....but I kept getting notices of auctions that listed a locations for such things as "Iowa" or "Hawkeye Country" or something similarly stupid.  I understand that selling a "pickup only" pinball machine is probably not their normal items...but seriously it is annoying when you don't list your city.  Iowas is about 56,000 square miles...yes, for the right machine and the right price I would drive to nearly any corner of the state, but you are pretty much automatically making me skip your auction due to the fact you don't list where I am going to have to go.  You could be 10 miles away or you could be 300 miles.  I don't know and chances are that I am not going to go through the trouble of finding out.  I figure that if you aren't comfortable listing your city on eBay, you are probably some sketchy idiot and the auction is going to be nothing but a headache for me.  Admittedly, I am a lazy consumer...but one with a fair amount of walking around money - you as the seller are the one that loses out in this situation.  Seriously, just list your city when you have a pickup auction.  You don't even have to change your profile, just throw your zip code in the item description.  It is SO easy, much easier than having me email and wait for you to get back to me.

End Hate

...No Service

I ran across this at Target a few months ago...

Yep, Twilight Barbies.  I wasn't really surprised, I suppose many young girls would like to recreate the domestic abuse type relationships, low self-esteem, and pedophilia that the books and movies seem to advocate.  I guess if I was going for cool doll gifts, I would probably go with the Monster High Dolls...they are at least slightly (very slightly) more original.

I was however, disturbed by the Jake doll.  He comes with shorts and shoes.  I heard he doesn't wear his shirt too much in the newest movie and that they want to show off his wash-board abs...but couldn't they at least throw a shirt in the box?  Everyone else has a shirt AND a jacket.  Does he always have to walk around Barbie land half clothed?  He can't go out to eat with the other Barbies, he can't go to the store.  Poor Jake, always left out for want of a shirt.

One great thing I did find was the selling points on Amazon.com for Jake:

Product Features Based on the #1 New York Times Best Selling book series Twilight Inspired by the character from the New Twilight film, New Moon Jacob Black as a werewolf Girls won't wait to get their hands on Jacob For the adult collector

Not only is it funny, but wouldn't you want to use "can't" instead of "won't".  It just sounds strange.

But maybe Mattel was actually trying to prove a point about how U.S. policies over the past 150 years have left the majority of native Americans well below the poverty level.  It is not that Jake doesn't want a shirt...but he can't afford one.  He is stuck on the reservation, jobless and penniless.  OK, maybe not.