Happy 2017!

Well, here we are again. A new year. That last one sure was something, huh? Something that at times was very much not good. And in addition to the tire fire nature of the year itself, a familiar capstone was placed on 2016, allowing it to end in the same way that 2015 ended, with the death of a beloved persona in its final hours. This time, it was Princess Leia, Carrie Fisher here on earth, who we lost literally days away from the merciful end of the year, followed the very next day by Debbie Reynolds, her mother.

I’ve been MIA owing to the usual set of end-of-year matters – holidays, an adventurous journey, life developments. This year, my wife and I drove to Colorado and spent a few days hiking around the beautiful Rocky Mountain National Park, and when we got back home a few days ago, we adopted a cat, a soon-to-be three year old named Butters, our first pet together. These things along with trying to get some rest and back on track with all manner of things in the vacuum created by the end of the semester a couple weeks ago have left me a bit strapped for time for the Coffin, which is something that I always dislike. 

So, here I sit, with a few half completed articles open on my computer, with a few folders of pictures taken on toys yet to be written up, with a pile of new, unphotographed, unwritten of toys just waiting to get the Coffin treatment. Half written articles are hard to work with, because I was, at one time, typing away at them with a full head of steam, but then whatever happened, dissipating the momentum while leaving behind the hopeful idea that “I can come back to this later.” Which you never can. I’m two albums in on the second Mass Burial project; I’ve got a handwritten list of my top figures of the last year, but I haven’t been able to photograph and review all the entries yet, so I feel slightly odd publishing the list itself; I have a pair of think pieces in stages of half completion, one which I feel should be completed before a slew of new articles on figures go up. One of the gifts my wife got me for Christmas is a backdrop for photographing objects, like a photo box or stage of some sort, and I have yet to get any time to test it out. So, I have a new addition to the evolving Child Sized Coffin picture taking set up, having begun on a turntable before graduating to an actual table; now, the highest quality, most professional set up in Coffin history is available to me, but I haven’t gotten to try it out yet. It will come, hopefully this weekend I’ll give it its inaugural workout, but there are a few articles soon to come that will feature toys on the ol’ table yet again. But going forward, man. Professionalism. 

I tweeted this when it happened, but I got a pair of Detolf shelves, the popular (and again, professional!) IKEA glass shelving units, for some of my more awesome toys, and also in preparation for our cat.  So I spent some time putting figures into them, and then ever since have been thinking what I should take out or rearrange. And while that is kind of work, it is never a bad thing for a collector to spend time with their collection. Speaking of the general state of the collection, prior to Christmas I engaged in a pretty successful round of weeding out unwanted things, and as is the usual result, I can’t say things are leaner at all, but my collection does feel a bit lighter for the eliminated elements. I mainly sold off live action movie style Transformers, because they are not, in my opinion, very good toys and they don’t really fit in with the overall aesthetic of my collection very well.

Most of the time, my live action movie buys post-2007 have been motivated by them being the only available Transformers at retail; but now, I think that I’ve found a far better (and more expensive) substitute in the Third Party scene, so I am prepared for 2017 to be a movie year. Another horrible live action movie awaits us this summer, with Hasbro only recently stating that they are working, now, after four of those tragedies, at constructing a cinematic universe. I’m sure that this translates into a terrible, barely comprehensible movie that retcons and paints over whatever tripe it needs to in order to cobble together some type of cohesion, since the official line from the company for nearly ten years has been that there is no cinematic universe, and that there is no narrative throughline for the tire fire summer movies bearing the Transformers name. But, you know, Marvel Studios sure has been successful with their cinematic universe, so now Hasbro wants a piece of their own. More on that later in the year, for sure. 

Anyway, I guess that’s enough of an intro, so I’m going to end here and get to work on some new articles. A whole lot of stuff to get through on my end, so I should be excited. I’m mainly worried that I’ve gotten so far behind, and feel like I won’t get caught up quickly enough for it to matter. Again, I’ve got things waiting that were brand new when I came to possess them, and by now, they’re old news. And, even when I get this first wave of articles done and posted, I will still have a slew of things that haven’t even been photographed yet. Whatever. Happy New Year, hopefully a better year than the last, and stay tuned for more from Child Sized Coffin.