Transformers UK

This week

2012-01-27T17:37:00.000Z

Stevie has been in constant pain all week, the immune suppressant drip is finished but he has chronic joint paint and a very high fever. The doctor was here a while ago, he said the the side effects he is having are very common and so far there are no complications. The next stage is the tablets that regulate his immune system now it’s been suppressed.

Right now I am just working and looking after Stevie, there is very little time for much else, I have had to ease off on eBay and therefore our collections and house plans are not making much progress at the moment.

On the work front I have managed to secure a place for my team, exactly where I wanted to be, I have access to much better information on what’s going on now and looks like jobs are going to be secure for the foreseeable future so that is one less worry.

Will try and update again next week.

Original Transformers Generation 1 Comic Starts Again

2012-01-27T17:33:00.000Z

A new Generation One comic is coming out this summer, by the original 1980s writers, and starts at issue 81, carrying on after the original Marvel series was cancelled in 1991. We will be getting these we have all the original run in graphic novels and it will be nice to have something of teh good old days that is not Prime, Animated or the Movie bullshit. Here is the last issue of the original run.....

More Shots Of The Lego Lord Of The Rings

2012-01-27T17:27:00.000Z

Helms Deeep from UK Toy Fair.

Defence

2012-01-27T17:25:00.000Z

HMS Protector

HMS Protector the Royal Navy's new ice patrol ship, has arrived in Antarctica for the first time after her long sail south from Portsmouth. Her first task was to disembark stores and personnel for the British Antarctic Survey teams stationed on the Antarctic Peninsula.

HMS Liverpool

Type 42 destroyer is being decommissioned after 30 years but before that she is to visit London on farewell tour. She recently returned from a seven-month deployment off Libya where she became the first Royal Navy warship to be fired upon in 30 years.

HMS Daring

Few more shots of her maiden voyage, leaving Portsmouth.

Sub HMS Turbulent with Type 23 Frigate HMS St Albans

On deployment together.

Dragoman And Cobra Khan Pack Shots

2012-01-27T17:19:00.002Z

Christmas Transformers Classics Trailbreaker, Frenzy & Rumble, Warparth and Scourge

2012-01-27T17:17:00.000Z

All of the Transformers that came out in 2011 went on to our Christmas wish list. Stevie brought me all of these. There are very few on the horizon this year. I wish Hasbro would put more effort in to make deluxe versions of all the original characters, oh well we should be grateful for what we have. There is another batch I will upload next week.

Transformers Classics Trailbreaker

This is a mini size and very crap. But it will do until Hasbro make a deluxe size.

Transformers Classics Frenzy & Rumble

These are from Takara and still have not had a UK/USA release. These guys look great but they are a little delicate and tricky to transform.

Transformers Classics Scourge

Absolutely beautiful, would have liked his Target Master.

Transformers Classics Warparth

Really Warpath is a mini, but this version at deluxe scale just makes me wish they would almost every character this size, this guy is beyond awsome.

Stevie

2012-01-23T18:57:00.000Z

That's the lot for a while. I think it that the blog will be in bursts when time allows rather than daily updates. Stevie’s treatment started with the drip of the immune suppressant he is having 8 hour sessions. The doctor has been in and out since last week. He will go on to drugs at the end of the week. He has had a lot of shivers since it started which is normal. He will be out of action for weeks at least, and it will be months before we know ifit is having any effect. Things have changed at home, I thought I would be bored but there is so much to do every day to ensure he gets no infections, clenaing him and the house, as well as doing all the stuff he does like cooking! There is not much free time.

Movies & TV Shows

2012-01-23T18:51:00.001Z

Cowboys And Aliens

It’s not bad, but we thought that if you took the Aliens out and made it a regular western with the same cast of this it would have been an awesome film!

This is a new series by JJ Abrams, which looks very interesting, it seems to be another Lost type mystery this. The opening intro says “On March 21, 1963, Alcatraz officially closed due to rising costs and because of the outdated facility. All the prisoners were transferred off the island. Only that's not what happened. Not at all.! The cast included Jorge “Hurley” Garcia as Dr. Diego “Doc” Soto, a PhD in Criminal Justice, author of books on Alcatraz and comic book enthusiast and Sam “Jurassic Park” Neill as Emerson Hauser, an FBI agent and former SFPD officer. Not sure when it will hit the UK, but well worth a look.

First official Skyfall picture has been released.

Another Hobbit pic.

First official picture has been released from Diary Of A Wimpy Kid 3 Dog Days which has a 3^rd August US date. Looks like the part where Greg visits Rowley’s parent’s country club. Not sure that it will hit the UK until later so if the Blu-ray does not come out until maybe Easter 2013, we may not get to see it until Christmas 2013!

Air Dates

True Blood Season 4 FXUK - Sunday 5th February at 10pm

The Secret Circle Season 1 Sky Living – Weds 15th February at 8pm

The Walking Dead Season 2 – Friday 17th February at 10pm

There is a bit of good news, Warner Bros and Fox are negotiating to reduce the show's licence fee.

The potential new deal would lower the amount that the studio charges the network for each episode. A fifth season of Fringe would benefit Warner Bros, since it would likely see the show hit the 100-episode mark needed for syndication. Co-creator JJ Abrams has said that he remains hopeful that Fringe will be able to continue. Fringe Season 4 continues - Wednesday 8th February at 10pm On Sky 1 HD in the UK.

Battle Ground Evil Lyn & Demo Man

2012-01-23T18:38:00.000Z

December's figures. These are both really nice figure, they are not part of the original line but we are keeping them as they look so nice.

Den Clean Up

2012-01-23T18:35:00.000Z

The weekend before last we had to disinfect the Den from top to bottom for Stevie so we figured we would combine that with the spring clean, Henry clean out and change around things. We had wanted to move the TV for some time as you could not see it from the desk. We had a really good sort of all the books so they are in some sort of order and easy to find. Took all weekend but It looks great.

Marvel Universe Hobgoblin & Electro

2012-01-23T18:12:00.000Z

New Stuff

2012-01-23T18:01:00.000Z

The Man With the Golden Gun

Caes Case

Troll

Short Round

Toph & Sokka

Lego Lord Of The Rings Legolas

2012-01-23T17:53:00.000Z

Comics And Magazines So far This Month

2012-01-23T17:43:00.000Z

Upcoming Start Wars Figure

2012-01-23T17:34:00.000Z

The Phantom Menace Wave is just about out, next up is the Episode VI Deleted Scenes wave.

Inside A Care Bear

2012-01-23T17:32:00.000Z

HMS Daring 1st Mission

2012-01-23T17:29:00.000Z

Having left Portsmouth HMS Daring stop by Gibraltar. After her visit she was escorted out of Gibraltar by the fast gunboat HMS Scimitar and is on her way again.

2013 Mondeo

2012-01-23T17:27:00.000Z

We won’t be able afford the latest Mondeo, it does look mega cool. Maybe the model a few years after! (Thanks to Simon the heads up!)

Stevie’s Birthday Presents

2012-01-23T17:24:00.001Z

Fred And George

Parrot
Sleepy Boy

Hadrass

Tie Fighter Pilots

Deep Blue Sea

Live And Let Die

Night Bus (With Amazon Voucher)

The Burrow

Dobby

PS3 Harry potter 4-7

Black Pearl 2 – Yep another one, this was a gamble that paid off, I had a feeling Stevie would want parts to extend the ship, this is the more economical way to do it as we can sell the stuff he does not use. He is doing it a segment at a time. He has started work and already extended the ship and added two cannons. He is gonna build another deck and extend the ship further to included store, brig, sickbay, officers quarters. We will post pictures at some point.

This Week

2012-01-18T08:48:00.000Z

It’s been mega hectic, as well as Stevie’s Birthday we spent the weekend cleaning the den and disinfecting everything, we also had a charge around it looks cool.

Monday the nurse came in delivered supplies and checked everything over. She was very happy with the set up. Tuesday I went to the office picked up supplies and talked to my potential new boss. If I end up with him it will be cool, he is really nice. Treatment starts Friday, I have arranged some extra time of work just in case there are any complication. We will post again after treatment has started.

Happy Birthday Ross!

2012-01-17T14:00:00.000Z

Happy Birthday Joshie!

2012-01-15T15:45:00.000Z

Happy Birthday Squirt!

2012-01-13T07:51:00.001Z

Lego Marvel Super Heroes On The Way

2012-01-12T17:41:00.000Z

Just got this year’s Lego catalogues. Looks like Pirates and Harry are finished this year no new sets for 2012, not a sign of them any of the 3 catalogues Lego produce in any case. In the store catalogue, which is the most comprehensive, it has an advert for Marvel Superheroes saying they are on the way April as well. I am fairly sure we won’t touch these no way Lego will produce all the various characters we would want and unlike Harry Potter they would not be easy to custom. Using Harry’s Gryffindor body you can create just about any Gryffindor student, but Marvel charters are all total different and creating some obscure Avenger like Moon Knight would just not be possible and they have to look decent. We have discussed collecting the Star Wars characters and selling the Hasbro collection but even Star Wars Lego which has been going ages is missing about 500 hundred of characters. Thank god really if we have to sell over 650 Star Wars figures and 100 Marvel we would never get the loft clear. But still it’s great for the casual collector and the kids of course.

Quick Update

2012-01-11T19:37:00.000Z

Blogging, e-mails ect will slow right down for a time we are about to go through a few things, so in case you don't here from us for longer periods than noirmal here is why....

We got the call to confirm Stevie’s treatment will start Friday 20^th. We have someone coming in next Monday to bring some anti bacterial supplies, give us a hygiene/infection prevention chat and have one last check on the set up of the house. The following week treatment will start, last time he started treatement he almsot died and whilst this is far less agressive we are a little edgy.

Not on the same level, but I could well do without it, on Monday when my work laptop died and I had to go the office yesterday and pick up a replacement. It absolutely exhausted me and the headaches have come back with a vengeance, I had my first nose bleed this year and I am back on the sleeping pills. So not good. I am still abit shocked by it I have not been this bad in a very long time. I guess since I have done nothing since before Christmas it was too much too soon. The problem with M.E. is that when you feel OK you tend to forget you have it and go too mad.

In work they are reorganising in the office and I have been asked what line management area I want to be in, sounds simple but it isn’t, I have no idea what to do for the best. The primary goal is to be somewhere that does not end up closing down. But being at home means I don’t have all the information or contacts I would have had a few years ago when I was in the office a few days a week. So I will have to go with my gut! But things will be uncertain for a good few weeks now whatever I decide, and who knows just how much they will take that it to account if there are agendas behind the scene I don’t know about. So a bit unsettling.

And lastly it is Stevie’s Birthday this weekend so all in all things here are a little mental! But will try and get a post in here and answer an e-mail there.

Food Processor

2012-01-11T19:22:00.000Z

Just finished saving up enough points (took almost 2 years) on our home shopping scanning we do (to do with surveys) to order for a new food processor for Stevie. He has wanted this for a very long time, all he has right now is my mum’s old one and it is about 20 years old. Should be here in 28 days or less.

Wind Raider

2012-01-11T19:16:00.000Z

Here is the first, and last if it does not sell well, last of the MOTU Classic vehicles. It is magnificent no doubt about it. What strikes you most is the size, it is huge. The detailing is perfect, what were stickers in the original are now factory painted, the flight controls grips are soft plastic so the figures can hold them and most impressive is the display stand, the thing is flawless. It is the one seater version not the large cartoon version, just as well given the size. We still have not found a place for it.

This Weeks Beano

2012-01-11T19:14:00.000Z

Flying Monsters

2012-01-11T19:05:00.001Z

I have to say I was very sceptical about this, it was made by Sky not the BBC and it appeared drenched in CGI. But being presented and written by David Attenborough I brought it for Stevie for Christmas. We watched it Monday night and we both think it is amazing, in fact people who like Walking with Dinosaurs (which we don't like it) probably won’t like it much, there is only CGI where there needs to be, and a little CGI for fun (like where a GCI pterosaur comes to life in a lab and David interacts with it), but mostly this is fairly a scientific endeavour documenting the and fall of the pterosaurs with as much emphasis on fossils as there is on CGI and it fits perfectly in with the of Life series. It would now be fantastic if he would so a similar series on the Dinosaurs which would round things off.

We have had to give the Wildlife shows their own shelf.

The New London Bus In London!

2012-01-11T18:57:00.000Z

Fringe And House On The Way Out? Terra Nova Looking Safe

2012-01-11T18:54:00.000Z

TV show renewal period is upon us, Fox has started making noises about 3 shows we watch. The worst news is that it looks like Fringe is in real danger, Fox has said that it is losing money. So it’s now a case of does it get a massive budget reduction or move networks so that it can finish on Season or will it be axed. The writers are saying it will end in a good place if season 4 is the end, although it sounds like it will be written before a final decision on season 5 is made so not sure how that works. But a whole season to bring it to a proper conclusion is what’s needed.

House coming to an end is being discussed but it will get time for a proper ending, honestly it lost its way after season 3 and we watch it out of habit and often skip silly episodes, so don’t care what ever they decide.

Things look more positive for Terra Nova, apparently it is making money, a few episodes back we would not have cared less but we stuck with it and the last few episodes have been really good so this is good news.

HMS Ledbury & HMS Daring

2012-01-11T18:50:00.000Z

Minehunter HMS Ledbury has is the first Royal Navy vessel to deploy this year, sailing from Portsmouth, the warship will spend the next six months attached to a NATO mine hunting force in the Mediterranean.

Eleven years after she was ordered, nine years after the first steel was cut, six years since she was launched into the Clyde and three years after she arrived in Portsmouth for trials, the first Type 45 destroyer, HMS Daring, set sail today (11 January) on her maiden deployment east of Suez, safeguarding sea lanes.

Wolf Love

2012-01-09T18:23:00.002Z

Work On the Loft Starts

2012-01-07T18:56:00.000Z

Started our work to get the loft sorted by the end of the year in earnest today. Found a load of small things to sell, some missing Lego, some stuff for the charity shops, cleared some rubbish and found Stevie’s first ever games console. His Gameboy Color which he got Christmas 2000, it had 5 games with it and the batteries still worked! Must have been put up there when stuff from his old house was moved over here in 2005. We thought it had been chucked out.

That’s rather cool cos now we have his first Gameboy, my first Gameboy as well as our joint 3DS. I love, our loft it’s a real treasure trove. There is one section that is unreachable that has not been touch in over 15 years, who know what we may find there.

The Weeks DVDs

2012-01-07T18:48:00.000Z

Buck Beak Our Latest Edition

2012-01-07T16:52:00.000Z

HMS Kent

2012-01-07T16:37:00.000Z

HMS Kent returned to Portsmouths in December following a year-long, £24m including an overhaul of all her hull, a new 4.5-inch (medium-range gun plus new 30mm close-range guns on her port and starboard sides. She has also had a new command system, target control radars and new towed array sonar fitted. She is now on sea trials.

HMS Ocean Back Home & Rare Shot Of Diligence

2012-01-04T21:11:00.000Z

Blog Stats for 2011

2012-01-04T20:27:00.000Z

We doubled the amount of hits in 2011 which is just amazing, so thanks to everyone who looks in on our lives!

King George’s soldier, Narcissa Malfoy and new legs For Elizabeth Sawn

2012-01-04T20:24:00.001Z

Stargate Atlantis Profit

2012-01-04T20:01:00.001Z

You really do have to watch online prices, as well as the DVD price watch we use Stevie watches everything we want that is available on Amazon, as prices fluctuate wildly. The new Atlantis Blu-Ray goes for around £100, Amazon has it for £90, but for some reason it dropped to £57.99 , so Stevie brought it and just as well it back to the old price again. We have just sold our DVD box set for £71.50 so it is a right result.

First Day Back At Work

2012-01-04T19:53:00.000Z

Nothing major happened in work it was fairly quiet over Christmas. However, it looks like the person who left may be coming back, we were doing well day to day, but no one has been appointed to take over and it does not look likely to happen, with just two of us covering is a nightmare and nothing gets done when I am away, the unit is more likely to be kept as if we don’t need to start asking for cover, with the way things are it is probably in my best interest to have him back.

Stevie slept all day, he woke up at 4:30 well after I finished, and stayed awake for all of an hour and half, I microwaved us dinner, not exactly freshly made turkey soup. It is very quiet and dull at home with all the decorations gone and Christmas over. The weather is so meh, there is no sign of snow it’s just miserable and wet. Still waiting to hear from the hospitalk so so things feel a little empty at the moment

It was a good move only doing a two days week this week, work just depressed me, this weekend I will go in the loft and get started on the next batch of Lego we are gonna sell.

Oh yes and we saw Captain America last night, first half great, second not so much until the very end with eth Avengers bit.

Thor, Captain America and Pizza

2012-01-03T15:11:00.002Z

This evening, if Stevie can keep his eyes open, we are gonna watch Captain America and have a Dominos. Before hospital this morning we watched Thor and I have to say I was well impressed, especially the way it link in with Avengers, Hulk and Ironman. It was good to see Nick Furry and Hawkeye make and appearance. Work starts again tomorrow, yuck!, at least it’s only a 2 day week!

First New Stuff In 2012

2012-01-03T15:08:00.000Z

As I mentioned part of our 2012 plan is to be more focused on clearing the backlog of collectables and media we want. The first new items of year arrived today, strictly speaking they were brought with last year’s eBay money and we will kick the plan off proper this week. The plan is to stick to getting a DVD/Blu-ray, 2 Marvel Figures, 2 Lego figures each week and a book every 2 weeks. We will also get any Blu-rays that turn up on our target price watch list, like the Jurassic Park Blu-ray set above which we got for £19.99 and sold our DVD set £7.99. Stevie has worked out we should be done towards the end of the summer. We kicked ebay off again and yesterday we sold our first items of 2012.

On the Lego front we got custom Aang, Sukko and Uncle Ihro from Avatar.

And the mega rare Alfred which we won on ebay on Christmas Day they can go for anywhere up to £50 and we go him for £19, Stevie placed a £20 bid on Christmas Eve we did no release we had won until a few days ago.

Christmas Marvel Universe Figures

2012-01-03T15:03:00.000Z

Powerman

Ironfist

Falcon

Apocalypse

None of these are bad Apocalypse looks the best and they did a good job with falcons wings. That just leaves us with Transformers and Star Wars figures from Christmas to blog, but they are still in Photoshop and we will get them finished and uploaded over the weekend when Stevie has recovered.

Christmas G.I.Joes

2012-01-03T14:23:00.000Z

Crazy Legs and Lowlight do the job just fine, the Vipers are really nice a massive improvement on the 25^th mould, the goggles are attached now thank god and the silver face paint is perfect, the only complaint is the hands and the main gun, they just don’t hold it properly and we ended up using one of the other.

Pirates of the Caribbean Lego Figures

2012-01-03T14:14:00.000Z

Customs

These are all the figures Stevie got from the Pirates sets. I also made him some customs form a bunch of parts for Prison Dog, Cotton, Louis, Parrot, Jack the Monkey and Marty. I also got him and Ragetti and Pintel but they have unofficial painted customs so they will be replaced.

1st Transfusion Of The Year

2012-01-03T14:10:00.000Z

Stevie’s transfusion went well this morning, we were given a letter to say that we would hear about his treatment start date in the next week, we were not given the next transfusion date so it looks like it will start really soon.

Bank Holiday Monday

2012-01-02T19:54:00.000Z

Today we obviously did some work on the blog, cleared up downstairs, watched Frozen Plant and the first part of Treasure Island on Sky, which was magnificent and that was about it for our last day. That’s our Christmas all blogged and over, it was a fantastic break, but not quiet over cos now we are gonna order a curry a now and watch Part 2 of Treasure Island.

New Years Day

2012-01-02T19:51:00.000Z

We had a couple of nothing slobby day the New Years day we took down the decorations, put up the 2012 calendars and have a small change around in the Den. We saved some presents to open New Year’s Day. Ahsoka, Crazy Legs, Lowlight, Falcon, Apocalypse, Wheeljack, Trailbreaker, Whindcharger, Perceptor, Kup and Sunstorm. We had a Chinese and watched X-Men First Class, which was first class.

29th Shelf Trip

2012-01-02T19:41:00.000Z

I made an early morning trip to Homebase and brought 3 new shelves to cater for the new stuff. We bid farewell to the Draco, Snape and Hermione poster that has been there since the 3^rd movie to make way for Stevie ships, a shelf for Lego figures and one to display new figures we get. I got to play with my new drill and Stevie built Hagrid’s Hut. We watched Transformers 3 which was very very Meh. We ordered a curry and I talked to one of the guys down there that I had not spoken to in two years he had left but had popped in for a day.

28th Toys R Us Trip

2012-01-02T19:29:00.002Z

We went to our new local Toys R Us to spend some money, Stevie was a little nervous but turns out there was no one in there. He brought Hagrid’s Hut, I know we have just sold our old Harry Potter Lego sets but Stevie wanted this for 2 reasons - there are so many characters in it we need, Hagrid, Scabbers, Ron, Hermione, Norbert, Aaragog, Erroll and Pig it works out cheaper than buying the figures separately and it looks much better the old sets. It actually is rather nice, not as nice as the pirate ships however. If we get any more will depend on the cost of buying characters individually. In the afternoon Stevie made his traditional Turkey Soup, which is to die for and we watched The Last Airbender.

27th December

2012-01-02T19:13:00.000Z

Stevie finished making the Queen Anne’s Revenge and we stuffed turkey sandwiches! and we watched Deathly Hallows Part 2, awesome movie.

Boxing Day

2012-01-02T19:04:00.000Z

Stevie finsihed making the Black Peal in the morning and freaked when he open his Queen Anne’s Revenge we also got Frenzy, Junkheap, Rumble, Scourge, Painter and Panicky Smurf. We had lobster for dinner, it was a fair amount of whork for what you got, but it was nice and we will be trying crab next.

Christmas Day

2012-01-02T18:49:00.000Z

Another totally awesome Christmas Stevie was gobsmacked with his Black Pearl which he started Christmas Day and finsihed Boxing Day, the turkey was the best we have had so far, well worth paying extra for fresh free range. Saving movies to watch is a class idea, Seeing Deathly Hallows for the first time was so much better than anything on TV! We have almost nailed the day. Between presents and food we watched the Queen and spoke to the family on Skype.

Stockings

Our Big Presents

Stevie got me a Philips Aqua Touch Razor – You can use it with shaving cream in water it really is awesome, works wonders on Stevie’s peach fuzz too! Rachael got us Nintendo 3DS and case. Brad Got us Star Fox 64 3DS, Mario & Sonic Olympics and Winter Olympics and Street Fighter 3DS. I got Stevie the Lego Black Pearl, and I want to thank Mum and Dad for getting it for me as it sold out everywhere. Mum and Dad got me a cordless Black & Decker Coreless Power Drill & French with Paul Noble, it is regarded as the best way to learn French something I have wanted to do since I was about 8 but never could get to grips with all the grammar this is more speaking based rather than writing. So all pretty cool.

Chritmas Movies

Diary Of A Wimpy Kid 2 Blu-ray – Even better than 1.

X-Men First Class – Outstanding!

The Chronicles Of Narnia The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader Blu-ray - a bit disappointing, too short.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 Blu-ray – very good faith to the book so nothing much happens.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 3D Blu-ray - (Our first £3D Blu-ray – for when we get the new TV) Outstanding movie, all the old cast showed up, far better ending than in the book. Best made of the 8 films.

The Smurfs 3D Blu-ray – Surprisingly awesome!

Pirates Of The Caribbean 1 The Curse Of The Black Pearl Blu-ray

Pirates Of The Caribbean 2 Dead Man's Chest Blu-ray

Pirates Of The Caribbean 3 At World's End Blu-ray

Pirates Of The Caribbean 4 On Stranger Tides Blu-ray

Transformers Dark Of The Moon – Yes thanks to Brad for this wind up present – but as with the first two it’s an OK action movie, it is just insulting as a Transformers movie.

Winnie The Pooh DVD – More like the first movie than any of the others but Tiggers voice is all wrong!

There are some we have not watched, Thor, Captain America South Park 13 & 14, Eden. We also got soem Bu-ray upgrades, Master & Commander, the X-Men and Fantatsic Four movies.

The rest

£210 Christmas Money, Diary, Denis The Menace Mug, Lego Mug, Black And Decker Sander thanks Brad, Stanley Fat Max Case & Blades, Garfield Calendar, Camera Lens Filter Kit, Star Wars Calendar, Beano Calendar, Pirates of The Caribbean Calendar, Lego Pirates of The Caribbean PS3, Lego Star Wars III PS3 Thanks Rich, Lego Pirates of The Caribbean The Captain’s Table, Lego Pirates of The Caribbean Figure Pack, 3 Bottles Of Wine, M&Ms, Harry Potter Bookmark, Smurfs Bookmark, Blind Cleaners, Diabetic Chocolates & Sweets – Thank you Rich!!! Milky Bars Polar Bear and Buttons, Natural Sea Sponge, Candle, Ginger Bread Men, Calculator, Scarf, Transformers The Vault, Maltesers, Revels, Bar of Whole Nut, Farmer Smurf, Handy Smurf, Hefty Smurf, Jokey Smurf, Chef Smurf, Bomb jack Original Gameboy Game, Dr Mario Original Gameboy Game, Garfield Book 63 Wassup, The Beano Book 2012, The Aubrey-Maturin Chronicles Volume 1, Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Cabin Fever, Leather Bound Peter Pan – I love this Rachael, Beano playing cards, Power Man & Ironfist, Transformers Keys Rings – really lovely Ross and Taylors Coffee.

Mega Thank You’s

Thanks to Brad, Mark Lisa and the boys, Rachael, Rich, Ross, my Niece, Brother and Mum & Dad for all our stuff. I don’t think that there was one thing we wanted we did not get!

This Week's Beano

2012-01-02T17:24:00.000Z

Henry 1030gms

2012-01-02T17:10:00.000Z

Christmas Eve

2012-01-02T17:05:00.002Z

We watched 2 new movies, Planet of the Apes – was OK, not as good as it looked and Super 8, really had the feel of an 80’s movie like ET until the alien was revealed, then felt like a normal CGI fest. We also got 8 new Cobra Vipers and a massive pile of Star Wars figures. We went to bed about mid night and Stevie slow cooked tithe turkey over night.

Mulled Wine Glass Pre Christmas Present From Rachael

2012-01-01T15:06:00.000Z

Prometheus Trailer

2012-01-01T14:43:00.000Z

Not sure why the fuss about this not being an Alien prequel, this could not be more Alien if it tried and so much the better, this looks frickin awesome! We are long overdue a decent sci-fi movie and I have a feeling this is it.

Welcome Back!

2012-01-01T12:06:00.000Z

Well we are back, Christmas was perfect, we ate and drank loads, saw some fantastic movies and we got so much stuff its unreal, we even have some presents we are going to open later today. Stevie is fairly weak now but he lasted out really well, there were no health problems apart from my asthma playing up a bit. We still have a few days left before life starts again on the 3^rd Stevie has a transfusion and I start work again on 4^th.

2012 looks to be an eventful year, Stevie has major immune suppressant treatment starting this month and continuing until the summer, work will undoubtedly change and continue to be uncertain for the foreseeable future. The UK has the Olympics and Queen’s Diamond Jubilee both overshadowed with the threat of recession. Whilst we have very limited interest in the Olympics, I do think it is a good think for the UK. On the navy side of things, we should see the new aircraft carriers taking shape and perhaps some early designs on the new frigates.

The car was meant to back on the road by now but the 6 month treatment has meant is seems a waste of money since we can’t go anywhere. I will probably get the MOT done just before Stevie’s treatment starts which means I just need to jump online and tax it, only if we need the car in a hurry.

This year we should get the final piece of tech we have been missing, an iPad, from rumours it is out soon and will be more than we have saved, but we may wait and see how much the 02 Pay As You Go version is, so we can use it in hospital, so we may not get it straight away (that may be easier said than done of course!). We will see.

In movies and TV, this year will see the Hobbit released, unfortunately we may not get to see it until Christmas 2013! After this I really only want them to finish The Chronicles of Narnia and Stevie is hoping for new of Pirates of the Caribbean 5 & 6. There are not any other film series we are that fussed over. We should learn if Fringe will get to Season 5 which is where it has strongly been suggest it will end anyway. True Blood season 4 starts here soon thank god. The best show on TV, Walking Dead kicks off again next month just a day or two after the US. There should be some news soon on Battle Star Galactica Blood and Chrome. Again the other shows we watch we enjoy but are not that fussed over. The Vampire Diaries which was getting awesome has pissed us off by killing too many of the cast in pointless ways.

On the toy front we should be getting the Sorceress soon, which leaves only Ram Man and Mech-a-neck from the main characters that we are desperate for. Lego Batman and Lord of the Rings are on the way. We have agreed that Lego sets are only going to be for Birthdays and Christmas, so we will only be getting mini figured though the year. G.I.Joe multipacks and the new club subscription should mean by 2013 we need only a handful of charters. Star Wars is very quiet as 50% new releases we don’t purchase as we already have the characters and multiple troop figures will be few and far as the ones we got for Christmas mean there are very few figures we will be buying more than one of. Transformers has come to an almost complete halt there are the club exclusives run-about and run amuck but that is about it. As far as we can see it’s all movie and Transformers Prime, G1 has dried up. Explains the lack of interested we got when we tried to sell old stuff on ebay last year. It does seem the G1 collectors are not a numerous as in the past.

Last night we sat up for hours discussing our 2012 plans. We came up with some changes. We were going build a deck in the garden, but we have decided we are going to instead concentrate on clearing the loft and selling on ebay. I doubt we will get everything sold this year, there is still too much up there, but we are going to make the best of being house bound. As a first priority we want to get caught up with books, Marvel, Lego characters and Blu-rays, so we hit 2013 only needing new things, and given we are getting towards the end of most of our collections it will mean collecting will play a much small role in our lives. We may very well laminate the Den floor before we start any further DIY jobs, the Den is our nerve centre, it makes sense to get in here finished before we pull the rest of the house apart. When we start depends on ebay, once we have brought everything we need and the loft is tidy with stuff to sell in boxes and ready to list as opposed to all over the place a sit is now, we will ease down on the selling and spend the time on the house. But realistically nothing much will be done on the house in 2012 apart from small jobs or repairs.

We are going to continue the blog although on Boxing Day evening we almost decided we would no longer bother. But there will be some changes. The blog started off as a Transforms review blog. Those days are long gone and we want to move away from formal reviews. We will post pictures of new things we get and movies we see of course, but there will be now scoring system just a brief note on what we thought and for the most part, no elaborate photos of the figures, although Stevie will continue with the Marvel figures as he enjoys doing the photos for them.

We are going to take down the decorations now, will post Christmas pics over the next few days.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T18:29:00.000Z

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T12:29:00.001Z

So this is our last post before Christmas and maybe even the last post of the year, that depends on how we feel.

We want to wish all our readers, friends and family a very very happy Christmas and, just in case, a very happy, safe and peaceful 2012.

Logo Harry Potter Neville’s Toad Trevor

2011-12-23T12:24:00.000Z

Has to be the smallest Lego figure ever!

Garden's World January

2011-12-23T12:22:00.000Z

Henry

2011-12-23T11:35:00.002Z

Final Trip Of The Year

2011-12-23T11:34:00.000Z

Had to leave Stevie at home for this morning’s trip Sainsbury’s he got up and I got him dressed but he was a little too weak to be wondering around, it was a shame there were only 3 other shoppers in the whole store when we arrived, he would have been ok. But I went with mum instead as she needed stuff and it was good to spend some time alone with her. Managed to spend another £125, but all this will last us well in to next year. Picked up the Turkey, Sainsbury's were great the girl went and got it for us while we walked around, and I am well impressed with it and more importantly so is Stevie, fresh is so much better than frozen. I also got top marks for the other fresh stuff I picked (with mums help). There were a fair few deals on we got 25% for fresh ham and I got some very good wines that were well desicounted and an extra 5%. Mum gave us all her nectar points which was very handy cos it left us with loads of money leftt over, so it's a curry tonight I think!

Stevie has just cooked the last batch of mince pies, which are for us. We are gonna do some tidying up and then sit down and watch some 007.

30th Anniversary MOTU Art Work

2011-12-22T17:16:00.000Z

Lego Harry Potter: Peeves Seamus Finnegan & Fawkes

2011-12-22T16:50:00.000Z

A few more arrived today, Seamus is a custom the other two are originals.

Tomorrow Never Dies

2011-12-22T16:48:00.000Z

The last of the Pierce Brosnan Bond movies arrived, so we can start to watch his in order now. Will be a good way to fill the time before Christmas Eve starts and we start watching new stuff. This one is on DVD as there is no Blu-ray yet, we suspect next year being the 50^th Anniversary will see the release of the other movies on Blu-Ray.

No It’s Not A Fad

2011-12-22T16:46:00.001Z

Just has a anonymous comment that said:

“You boys seem to jump from collection to collection, now you have started a Lego fad, they are hardly like a proper action figures, you should stick with the large scale figures”

Was gonna save this for a Q&A but let me answer this one now. We collect and have always collected Lego plus Star Wars, G.I.Joe, Master Of The Universe, MASK and Transformers. We collect only characters not play sets and vehicles. And yes a Lego Mini Figure is nothing like a 6” regular figure but for us it’s about having the charters, not collecting figures in boxes, variants, collectors editions or anything like a “regular” collector.

We have a few Lord of The Rings and Avatar figures but the lines finished quickly and were incomplete. Lego resolves that problem because you can make custom characters and with loads of people online using high tech printing method you can get customs that are as good as the real deal. With something Like Batman we were going to spend about £15-20 per character for a regular 6” figure, Lego mini figures come in at between £4-10.

Stevie and I have both had Lego since we were babies. I have got every product catalogue since 1991 up to this year’s, even when I was not collecting I still picked one up. As and adult I collected Star Wars Lego and Stevie has collected Harry Potter from a small boy we have truck loads. We made almost £2000 selling Lego over the past couple of months, we had all the boxes instructions ect and sold most of the Potter stuff for far more than we originally paid. So it’s is the most cost effective way of collecting for us. We have every Lego video game and if they made Star Trek Lego we would collect that too! On top of that since we are house bound, we find building Lego is a lot of fund, we had a total blast building up all the sets to sell. We do get a few sets still but mostly we just collect the figure which is cheap. The other good thing is a Lego figure takes up far less space than 6” figures.

So that’s the history, Lego has always been there but there is so much cool stuff in the range now and loads more cools stuff, Lord Of The Rings, on the way and that is why our blog appears to have gone Lego mad. Collecting aside anyone from 1-100 if they are honest will admit that building Lego is just good fun!

Stevie has a few more Harry Potter figures coming from Germany and we won a Trevor the Toad Tuesday, but not sure they will arrive before Christmas. After Christmas we are gonna get the Avatar figures as there are only 9. It was the shortest lived series with only 2 sets but there are some customs figures that look very cool. Of course there is always the chance Father Christmas may bring some Lego for Christmas!

Lockie Leonard

2011-12-22T16:41:00.000Z

Brad’s lent us the first part of the second season of his favourite TV show Lockie Leondard, all about an Australian surf rat. The first season was good fun.

Transfusion

2011-12-22T16:39:00.000Z

Transfusion went exactly as planned we were there just under 6 hours. His white count is a little lower than they would like but since the last person we will come in contact with will be Friday morning he should be OK. His platelets are good, which we guessed from the lack of blood and sores in his mouth so we should get to New Years Eve before he starts going gown hill again. Awesome!! He is sleeping now but he was fairly with it after the transfusion. I have just clean out the main tank downstairs, I am always at a loose end when Stevie is out of it.

And Now The First Poster........

2011-12-21T17:56:00.001Z

Work Done Just One Transfusion To Go

2011-12-21T17:22:00.000Z

Thank god work is over for two weeks. I must admit however that I have been enjoying it, with the person I was not fond of gone, but we something will need to change next year as two people are not enough. But for now we got everything finished today and all is well. All work related items have been removed from the Den so we are free now until 4^th January.

Stevie has a very early transfusion tomorrow and we hope that we will be home by 3pm, he is weak but not enough he can’t do stuff, he has no infections and only a small amount of bleeding in his mouth. So as long as the transfusion causes no problems he should be back on his feet Christmas Eve and we will be free of hospital unil January too.

It will be weird having nothing to do; the last ebay things we sold Mum and Dad posted for us this morning. Work is done, ebay is selling finished and we only got 60 e-mails today! So this evening we are just gonna do a ebay stock check on what has not sold, check the shopping list ready for Friday morninf final shop and make sure Sky+ is set up for everything we want to record.

The last blog post will probably be Friday afternoon after which phones e-mails will all be turned off and we will take a break from world and do nothing but drink, cook, eat, watch movies & TV, play with our presents for 2 weeks.

We are gonna crack open some mulled wine now!

At Last - An Unexpected Journey Trailer!

2011-12-21T05:40:00.002Z

Falkland Islands

2011-12-21T05:36:00.000Z

A South American trading bloc consisting of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay have agreed to close its ports to ships flying the Falkland Islands flag. This will blow up again, over the past few years the noises from south America have been getting louder. Argentina's President announced at the meeting that decided this that when there is need for more resources, those who are strong are going to look for them wherever and however they can. This is why the navy is so vital to the UK. UK oil compaines are exploring for oil in the waters surrounding the islands. If ever there was a reason to build keep and opperate both carriers this is it.

Lego Commissioner Gordon

2011-12-20T21:45:00.000Z

Our first Lego Batman figure it one of these hi-tech custom jobs it is all properly printed and we are well impressed, we have since removed his gloves and he now has flesh hands which do look better, the coat could have been blacker but not complaining he is really nice and will certainly do the trick until an official version is created.

Die Another Day & The World Is Not Enough Blu-Rays

2011-12-20T21:41:00.000Z

We just have Tomorrow Never Does in the post somewhere, hope that comes soon so we can watch the Pierce Brosnan movies in order. We start Timothy Dalton in January.

Future Combat Air System

2011-12-20T21:37:00.002Z

A new research contract just awarded to BAE aims to sustain and develop the UK's technology and skills in combat UAVs. It will inform the MOD's unmanned air system strategy over the coming decades to ensure that the best use is made of new technologies. Currently, the vast majority of unmanned aircraft flying is surveillance and reconnaissance in support of front line troops, providing them with intelligence. Following this new contract, we should start to see development of UK unmanned combat drones.

Happy Birthday Dad and Henry!

2011-12-20T08:13:00.002Z

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer

2011-12-19T21:41:00.000Z

Lego Harry Potter Fang

2011-12-19T19:51:00.000Z

Just a standard Lego dog really.

Christmas Incense Sticks

2011-12-19T19:49:00.000Z

More Details Are Released On The LOTR Lego

2011-12-19T19:46:00.000Z

9469 Gandalf Arrives:

Gandalf and Frodo.

9470 Shelob Attacks:

Samwise, Frodo and Gollum

9471 Uruk-hai Army:

4 x Uruk-hai with a siege crossbow, 1 x Rohirrim Soldier, 1 x Rider Of Rohan with his horse.

9472 Attack On Weathertop:

Samwise, Frodo, Aragon and 2 x Nazgul with their mounts.

9473 Mines Of Moria:

Frogo, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, 2 x Goblins, 2 x Skeletons and a Cave Troll!

9474 The Battle Of Helms Deep:

Aragon, Gimli, Legolas, Theoden with horse, 5 x Uruk-hai

Fursty Ferret & Hopping Hare

2011-12-19T13:09:00.000Z

Another two in the Badger line of beers, this stuff is so nice!

Van Helsing Review

2011-12-18T18:39:00.000Z

Never got around to seeing this, the 12 rating put us off. Starting in 1887, Transylvanian Doctor Frankenstein (Samuel West) brings to life his Monster with the aid of Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh). Dracula kills Frankenstein after revealing that he helped him only so he could use the Monster to bring his undead children to life. The Monster then escapes to a windmill, which is burned down by a pursuing mob. One year later, the Knights of the Holy Order, stationed at the Vatican, dispatch Gabriel Van Helsing, who has amnesia, to kill Dracula. He is given a torn piece of paper with an insignia on it. He is joined by Carl (David Wenham), a friar who provides support and weapons. Arriving in Transylvania, the two meet Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), who tells them her brother Velkan (Will Kemp) was recently killed by a werewolf. This is 2004 movie so the CGI is not perfect but good enough, the big problem is the 12 rating a 15 would have let is spread its wings. Dracula is just not right he is too young. The sets are beautiful and atmospheric but its not enough to save it. Starts off well but gets increasingly silly towards the end. The soundtrack is awful. Could have been so much better.

New Hobbit Pic

2011-12-18T13:50:00.000Z

Whoops!

2011-12-18T13:49:00.001Z

Another £2.99 job, but a mistake on my part cos the Blu-ray is available, I did not check properly cos of the Internet being off oh well, I am sending this back to Amazon and have ordered the Blu-ray which was £7.99, shame cos we really want to see this today, we will have to make do with the Quantum of Solace.

M.E.

2011-12-18T13:48:00.000Z

So I have been walking every day recently and had 2 fairly big days out. Although there was a lot of sitting down, it was certainly a lot more that I have done all year. I still feel fairly tiered and I am certainly not right, but I am far from wiped out, had no nose bleeds and the headaches have been very light. So certainly going though a good patch with the M.E. right now. It’s a shame we are house bound for the next six months or I would try going a out a little more. Still it’s good news for a change. But I am seriously considering a second London trip with Stevie before treatment starts.

London Whittard’s Visit

2011-12-18T13:36:00.000Z

Love that store so much. Got a tea pot for one for Stevie, so we both have one. A bone china Tiger Mug and the nicest instant tea ever, mulled wine flavour. We have drunk almost a whole tub already. We will need to get some more next year.

Family Night

2011-12-18T13:30:00.000Z

Had a family meal last night with my Mum, Dad and brother, it was a real good night. My brother brought me over a mini Christmas tree. If it does well we are gonna plat it in the front garden at the side of the house. We want to have trees all around the front garden to give is more seclusion.

Roo

2011-12-18T13:26:00.000Z

It has taken me many years to find a Roo in scale with our of Pooh charters, and Friday we finally got one!

Lego Snape and Colin Crevey

2011-12-18T13:24:00.000Z

Colin is our first custom figure, he is fairly easy to create but there are some places that even make printed on bodies and heads, we brought a custon Jim Gordon today, he has new printed head and body, if he looks OK then so we should be able to get a lot of characters that Lego may never release.

Harry Potter Christmas Card

2011-12-18T13:20:00.000Z

How cool is the Lego Harry Potter Christmas Card Simon sent us!

London December 2011

2011-12-18T11:00:00.000Z

Perfect day apart from the fact the new M&M store that recently opened in Leicester Square in had a power cut, we went back 5 times through the day but had to give up. I may try and take Stevie back up before his treatment starts early January. Saw the new Route master bus was on display in Trafalgar Square. Covent Garden was fantastic they have giant tree there now much better than the one in Trafalgar Square.

Lego Have the Rights To Lord Of The Rings!

2011-12-17T18:15:00.000Z

We will be selling off all out large figures next year and will replace them with Lego versions. This has to mean a video game is on the way too!!

Internet Fully Restored!

2011-12-17T17:01:00.000Z

In somes ways it was good having a brek from the net. But not somehtinf I want to go through on too often. We will have to think about a 2nd line one day but for now all systems again and thank god!

Christmas Cooking Starts

2011-12-16T06:46:00.001Z

Stevie started on the first batch of mince pies yesterday, they have become another tradition and he makes about 100 between us, Rich, Brad & Rachael and my Dad.

MOTU Classics Windraider

2011-12-16T06:43:00.002Z

Ordered Windraider, the first vehicle in the line and the last MOTU item released this year. I doubt we will see this before January. Had to order it on the iPhone as the internet connection is worse than it was yesterday.