jcastick

We cut off Cable from Comcast last year and granted, I do miss a few of my favorite channels...it is not a huge thing.

Since we live with my wife's family, we decided to get our own Netflix account since you can only share 1 account with only a few people and there are 9 of us....so we have our own that we will share with her mom, my brother-in-law shares his with the others.

So we have Netflix Streaming with one Disc at a time, Hulu Plus and I installed the Crackle Channel and Vudu on my PS3.

We also us an antenna for local channels but for us, it is always a crap shoot. Yeah, the picture quality is good but we never know when we are going to lose a channel. Our room is the old Sun room so the signal strength isn't very good in here so I'm sure we can use the assistance of a rooftop antenna.

So it does indeed save money, but I do miss having cable.

Hopefully this doesn't become a permanent thing. I can not stand giving shopping Wal-mart and if they are going to start selling mates and possibly having exclusives, I am going to have to try and find them else where or completely miss out on them because I refuse to give them any of my money.

I just picked up the set today, had $4 in rewards cash and surprisingly saw these on the shelf.

My Quick review on them:

Ironman - A very good addition to the Hall of Armors. I'd actually like to get a second on of these because I'd like to make a custom Ironman with regular legs, some torso accessories and the Arms from this one.

Scarlet Witch - Stellar figure, my only complaint was that her left hand is VERY tight....extremely hard to move it or get it off the arm...other than that, love it!

Protector - Another great figure, pretty simply design but does look great.

Cyclops - Least favorite of the figures. soon as I took him out of the package, his feet fell off....mine are very loose on the legs. I do like the Phoenix Force Fire effect and the helmet and head decal are kinda neat but on the whole, I'd much rather have seen Emma in this set I think.

All in all, a very good set. I seriously only wanted to get the Ironman from this one but having seen them up close they really are very decent figures.

Is it me....or are you missing Frodo from that pic?

The only way I'd want to see Star Wars is if there were going to be a Maxi-Mate sized Rancor, if not it's a big skip for me (Except for Boba Fett.....I'd buy a Boba Fett mate)

To be honest....I'd much rather have DC than Star Wars.

Enter

Very thoughtful of you sir!

What the hell did I just read????

Those look great Jeff!! superb job!

Tony is ready to party till the world collapses!!

I look at my collection I have on my desk at work added in with the various plastic bins I have of customs finished, in the works, or other and think the same thing. Then I realize how many people are dedicated to this hobby, the knowledge I learned from making customs and the happiness it brings others when I show them off. It really is worth it.

I had the same feeling about Marvel Legends- but that I went the opposite direction. Once Hasbro bought the line and it was getting harder to track down figures let alone characters I actually wanted to have, PLUS maintaining the shelf space/dust for them I quit cold turkey. I ended up putting them all on Craiglist and had a guy buy the entire lot. With minimates though, it's different, and the reasons why I still collect them to this day:

1. Size

(take up way less space than 6 inch figures)

2. Character selection

(a few stragglers, but they've pretty much made everyone at this point and to go beyond just super heroes with movies, video games, and tv was a brilliant move)

3. Consistency

(remember trying to collect a whole wave of figures back in the toy biz days only to miss one crucial character?--then finding him in another wave but a completely different scale? I HATED THAT!!

4. Customization

(swapping parts was the first thing I did with my FF set, I knew it had potential, I needed/wanted to get more)

5. Luke Porter

(yep, without him I wouldn't have gotten into customizing or discovered this awesome forum)

6. DST's Zach Oat

(you know you have a great line when they actually care what you have to say and comment on a fan forum- that's dedication)

So there you have it.

I completely agree and couldn't have said it better myself, nicely said Jeff!

That Kratos is indeed stunning!

Undeadpool, the list is there just not updated with the correctly guessed santas

I was able to pick up a 3 foot Inflatable Gold Yoda Pepsi Can from a few years ago. "Thought" it was cool at the time....

I know how you feel Jason, I applied to my local TRU and didn't get it. I find it funny that when I go in there I end up helping people with their questions, no one that works there has any idea what anything is. I just assume it may be a requirement to have some knowledge over their products in order to work there, I guess I'm still upset about it too

I've only been to the mall that store is in a few times (simply because it is a pain to even get into the place and it's a bit of a drive), but the times I was there, I did get a sense of the employees not truly knowing the product all that well. Now I have been to the one in Disneyland and those folks are on the ball!

So it makes me wonder what they are looking for when a person with 10+ years of retail experience and knowledge of the product doesn't get chosen for the job. 0_o

I keep trying to see when the local LEGO store here is hiring. I applied once but apparently didn't make the cut even considering my 10+ years of retail experience and LOVE the product (sorry....still kinda grumpy about it....)

But yeah, hell of a perk!

I bought and finally had time to play 007 Legends this past weekend. It's...just as bad as the reviews say. Did i enjoy playing the classic films? Sure. There were a lot of fun aspects to it. But overall the game is just bad. Skyfall was a disgrace. It really is a slap to the face of Bond fans, and a damn shame for what could have been amazing. Sigh.

I really don't think anything is going to beat Goldeneye in the James Bond realm of games. Which is sad because there is SO much potential.

Very well done Lobsterman!!

Good job guys!

Just sent my gift out today. My "child" should be receiving their present soon!

Here is the shirt design I was wearing

Got it from Teefury a year or two ago.

People still have those packs of mates at their TRU??? Dang....all mine has is The Amazing Spiderman, Taskmaster/Spencer pack, Halo and Universal Monsters.

Blacksun: I do what I can, I have to look somewhat presentable from time to time.

And yeah, this gift was just stellar but now knowing my sleuthing skills have once again failed me and Lobsterman ISN'T my Santa.....I think I am at a loss.

So until the reveal, I'd like my Santa to know how grateful I am for this, it truly is an awesome gift!

Your Drumm brothers are superb!!

I really like how Daniel turned out....very spectral like!

Happy Birthday TM2!

So here we go, my documented opening of my Secret Santa gift:

1.

I opened the package and found a letter from my Santa and the Minimate Collector's Case! Very cool!

But notice that it is kinda heavy.........hhmmm....

2.

3.

4.

Needless to say, I was quite surprised!

5.

So layer one included - Mega Man Zero, Aunt May, Hale Caesar, Red Hulk, Glow in the Dark Pirate, Mr. Church, Little Red, Alice, Ken, Juggernaut, Zangief, Poison.

Plus many delicious candies!

6.

Short Candy Break

7.

Uh oh.....That's Not candy!!

8.

Oh Crap.....I've lost control.......Kit Kats, Rolos and the Pure joy of opening tiny gifts.....Unstoppable now!!!

9.

And here is what layer two consisted of - Medusa, Meggan, Tool, Lee Christmas, Anne Bonny, Cammy, Captain Britain, Stealth Ironman (MvC3), Nightcrawler, SHIELD Agent, Morrigan, Sam Haim and Guile.

10.

Super stoked and totally exhausted from such an awesome gift!!

Needless to say, I am completely blown away from this gift!!! I was truly speechless after opening the package initially but after all this....there just aren't any words. To say thank you a million times over would just be the tip of the iceberg showing my gratitude for this gift.

If my guess is right, Many Thank yous to Lobsterman but if I am incorrect my guessing continues as well as my thank yous!!!