When I said that I wanted to live in a fantasy world I didn’t mean a dystopian one. That’s where I am going to leave that, right here at the top and let people decipher my meaning.
I’ve been struggling with doing my Bullet Journal this year, I think that the theme is what is making it challenging. I love Marvel, it’s my favorite, but it’s hard to theme everything to one character per month for me. Some people probably do it super well, I am clearly not one of them. I have my theme for 2023 already, but not 2024 I might go back to simple theming in 2024. I don’t know yet though, I am not there.
Alright so April, May, and June. I am still working on July; it’s just getting it colored because I have to do that. I am trying, but I am struggling. I haven’t started August yet and I might change the theming for August, I don’t really know yet. I am not feeling the theme that I had planned originally because I am not sure how I could make it work. So I might completely overhaul August.
April: Deadpool
Cover: Who doesn’t love Deadpool? I went simple, I feel like I am going simpler on my covers this year and that’s totally okay with me. I went all out last year and the year before and it was so much. I loved doing my really complex covers, but this year I just haven’t had the time or the want to really go all out with them. I am working on it, I am looking and saying “what can I do for this character that represents something that I can do to the ability of my artistic prowess?”
Mood Tracker: Unicorns, because of course. I love stained glass and I have been really using that this year because it is something that I can do. It’s Deadpool though and a unicorn stained glass window makes sense. It makes so much sense. April was a rough month for me at the end so there are some days that were not great for me. I had some betrayal in my life in late April so it was a rough go there for a while.
Last Page: You want to know where I stopped enjoying doing my Bullet Journal this year? Here, you can tell by this page, I loved the idea, but I never really finished it.
May: Iron Man
Cover: Iron Man is my favorite Marvel character, there is no lie there, he’s a lot. I loved Dum-E because that’s one of the funniest things in the film franchise. It took me a lot longer than I would like to admit to do this cover because it took me weeks to actually finish. It was fun to do though and I like the robot.
Mood Tracker: This scene in this film broke me, it broke me. I went with the snap and shards like the world was breaking apart, I had fun with this page. I really did, but I think this was the last page that I have actually had a lot of fun with. Sometimes life hits you and doesn’t let up, so here we are.
Last Page: Proof that Tony Stark has a heart, it was a fun thing from the movies that went from the first Iron Man to the close of the Infinity Saga. It got very sad, but again, here we are. I didn’t finish the background on this page either, but that’s where I am in life at the moment, it got done it was a lot of coloring and sketching so I just let it as is.
June: Spiderman
Cover: Ignore Spiderman in the center, I can’t draw people. We know this, we have known this for years. I wanted the cityscape and the webs so I rolled with it. It was a lot of coloring and stuff and it’s like my June cover last year a lot of lines. So many lines.
Mood Tracker: It’s a spider web, because duh, what else would I do for Spiderman? I regret some of my color choices because they are so close together, but other than that, it’s fine.
Last Page: I loved that scene in Civil War so I had to put it in where Spidey steals Cap’s shield, it’s a great scene and I wanted it in my Bullet Journal. My July theme is Captain America so you are going to be seeing a lot of the shield in the next post.
Well, that’s it for this one. I am hoping to find my joy again with my Bullet Journal because it’s a fun and such an important thing in my life. I enjoy working on it and I know that it helps me keep my life organized, but right now things are just so sucky and I hate it. If you want to check out the first three months of the year that is a thing that you can do because by now y’all know I love to link past posts.
I will be back later in the week with another post, so until then…I want to say stay safe, happy, and healthy, but we all know that there are people working against that. So for now I want everyone just to stay safe out there.
I have been meaning to write this post for like a week but have been putting it off. I don’t know why, I just didn’t feel like writing it. Sometimes creativity flows and sometimes the drain gets clogged. The beavers are building a dam upstream so nothing gets through and you become an unmotivated mess.
I am going to preface this post with some truth, I have not bought a comic book in about a year and a half. I just haven’t, I love them and I used to get single issue comic books almost weekly. I don’t have a local comic book shop, so that makes getting things more difficult. I have a lot of trade paperbacks as well, but I have over 100 single issue comics that I need to really get bagged and boarded because right now, they are just sitting on a shelf and that is not the best for them; oops, my bad.
Some of these might be series that I got in single issue and some will be those that I got as trades, they are not just one comic brand, though much of my collection is Marvel.
These are my recommendations as of today, they are characters that I enjoy, and I do not have a large comic collection as compared to others. I like what I like and if you don’t, that’s cool, we can agree to disagree on our faves.
I only started reading comics in college because I liked the MCU, so don’t come for me I don’t know all of the things . If you want people who know all of the things go and listen to The Wizard and The Bruiser podcast on Spotify, that’s not a plug they just do a lot of research and I have learned a lot from them.
The Wicked and The Divine
I only have the first five trades in this series, there are nine trades in the series and it’s finished so I need to get the rest of the collection. I started reading it on a whim and it’s so good. Every ninety years twelve Gods return to Earth and in two years they are dead (paraphrased from the back of trade one The Faust Act). It’s this cycle and it’s so good, the art is amazing! I need to reread them before I continue the series but it’s so good! If you like modern retellings of mythical God’s this one for sure is for you.
The Umbrella Academy
This one should be obvious on why I am reading it, first of all huge My Chem fan, second it has a Netflix series, which is so good. This comic is for sure different than the show, but it’s really good. Ironically the song I Think We’re Alone Now is playing on my Spotify and that’s hilarious. I only have the first two of three trades that are out there currently, I will be getting the third one at some point, but not today.
Labyrinth Coronation
It is no secret that my favorite movie is Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, it’s been my favorite movie since the first time I saw it. It’s ridiculous and everyone I have shown it to does not share my enthusiasm to it. I only have the first volume and I need to get the rest, this is a prequel of sorts to the movie and I love it so much.
Civil War
And Civil War 2, I have that all in single issues. Civil War the comic is very different from Civil War the movie, I know, I have read the novelization as well, you can see how I felt about that in my books read post number one from last year. I said it there and I will say it again here, if you consider the comic and book as one entity and the MCU film as another they are both amazing, they are not real similar.
U.S. Avengers
Yes, the first issue is a variant cover. I was living in Indiana at the time and I had to have the Indiana Avenger cover.
I have all of the single issues for this one as well, I don’t have any of the trades though I would like to get them some day. I really enjoyed the series when I read it and it sticks in my brain even though I haven’t opened any of them since probably 2018, if not earlier. That is the only Avengers series that I have in single issue and I really enjoyed it.
The Invincible Iron Man (2008)
Really any of the Iron Man series that have come out recently but My Five Nightmares was my first trade so it holds a very special place in my heart. It was also the first series that I read from front to back. The art is great, the story is great, and Iron Man is my favorite so of course I liked it.
Ms. Marvel (2014)
I loved this iteration of Ms. Marvel, G. Willow Wilson did an amazing job bringing this character into the modern realm and making her believable. I only have the first five trades and need to get the rest, I keep saying that, but it’s true. I loved this series when it came out. I actually may have some single issues of it as well but I don’t remember at the moment and my stack of single issues is large and unmarked because I am an idiot. This series is amazing, there is nothing else to say about it, it’s amazing.
Harley Quinn (2013)
Any of them, I have a few different Harley series and I love her. She’s been one of my fave characters since I was a kid, she was a doctor before being manipulated. My favorite crack ship is her and Deadpool because that would be the most chaotic thing ever. She’s a really strong character when she’s not juxtaposed next to The Joker, this series is all about her being on her own, at least the first trade is. I have a lot less DC comics than I do Marvel, though I have a lot of first issues, Titans, Teen Titans, Hellblazer, Superman, Wonder Woman as well as others that I can’t think of off the top of my head at the moment. I grew up on all of the animated Batman series of the 90’s and 2000’s, I loved the old Justice League, but I didn’t start collecting DC comics until after college and I have no single issue DC comics from the current generation. Grab bag comics from the 90’s and 2000’s sure, but I never sought out DC like I did Marvel, Dark Horse, and Image.
So there it is, some of my fave comic’s all trades except for a few and I bet anything I have in single issue I would get in trade now, I know that there are thousands of series out there and we can all have our favorites, from the most chaotic to the most heroic. I have Captain America, Hawkeye, Thor, Avengers, Guardians, and many other Marvel comics, but if I added more it would just be a list of the around 30 series that I have in my collection, some of those are just the first trade and then I didn’t buy any others. There are other series that I have wanted for a long time and never got, but I have a lot of comics books and giving a small sample is probably for the best.
I hope that everyone has a great rest of the week and I will be back on Sunday with another post!
Sorry this post is late, I kind of forgot that today was Wednesday so I am writing this at work, I am hoping that this gets posted today but it will for sure get posted tomorrow if I don’t have time to actually post it on Wednesday. It’ll be up eventually, I promise.
So Animal Crossing has been out a year now and my island will be one year old on the 26th. My best friend bought me the game for my last birthday and my island has grown a lot over the last year and I know I still have a lot to do on my island to make it exactly what I want it to be.
In my last Animal Crossing post I just showed my house, this time I am going to be showing some updated rooms and some of my outdoor spaces. They are not Pinterest worthy, not even close but it’s my island and I’ll do what I want on it.
I have been playing the game for a year now and participating in almost daily play still because I just really enjoy being on my island with my villagers. I don’t pay as much attention to them as I should because most of my time on my island is spent running around looking for things or trying to finish out my Critterpedia.
I actually put a bunch of pages in a journal for all of the museum categories that I have and that I am missing. I had a really stressful weekend one weekend and did it all on a Saturday because I needed to get my mind right, so I made lists.
Some of my fave outdoor spaces though, let’s start there. Some of these are finished some are more in progress because I need more materials or crafting patterns to actually complete them.
My 50’s Diner
This was an idea I had over a month ago, I still want to do more with it or potentially move it so I can expand it a little bit. It’s not finished yet, it’ll be finished eventually but that’s what ACNH is like, it’s never fully done and you can grow and evolve your island whenever and however you want to.
My Tiny Library
Another space on my island that isn’t finished yet. I have a lot of those spaces where I start a project and then realize to do the whole thing I need DIY recipes that I don’t actually have yet. It’s never fair. I just wish that there was some way to purchase seasonal DIY’s before they were suddenly gone.
Astrological/Zodiac Garden.
This is not going to be the permanent home of this feature on my island and it will get done some day, when I have all the celestial DIY’s I need but that will be no time soon because I need star fragments and DIY recipes but for some reason I feel like Celeste never visits my island and I miss her, she’s one of my favorites. I have seen some cool things with the celestial DIY’s on the internet and I want something cool of my own on my island.
Up Top Flower Garden
For probably 10 months my island was covered in flowers, I mean I had flowers everywhere and I decided one day that I didn’t need all of those flowers everywhere, so i started to pull them up. This idea came from me using flowers in the colors I really liked to create a little contained flower garden. I still spend way too much time picking flowers/ digging them up after a rain storm and it rained on my island for like two days so I know when I log in tonight I am just going to have more flowers to pick. I will probably add more things beyond just the bench in here but for now I am happy with this one.
Greenhouse
This was an idea I saw on Pinterest and I pretty much copied it because I was looking for ideas on what to add to my island and this was one of the ideas I really liked. I had a flower patch here at one point but I got rid of that when I stopped caring about crossbreeding flowers when I decided to get rid of 75% of my flowers. This is pretty much the one thing on my island that is like 99% done. I may use a simple panel to put on a door but I don’t know yet, I haven’t decided. I may expand this one as well and put a couch or bench in it so I can hang out there if I want to. Let’s be real. I want to live on my Animal Crossing island.
House Updates
I haven’t really changed much in my house, I have updated my living room, kitchen, and bedroom a little bit so I will show those again because looking back at my house from my last post. I have put more things in all of my rooms because I am still a trash goblin. Happy Home Academy tells me every week to have furniture all the same color and I don’t wanna so I wish they would stop telling me that.
So that’s about a look my outdoor spaces, I wish there were a few quality of life updates that they would bring out but I don’t remember a single one at the moment. Maybe except a cart in the Able Sister, also being able to buy seasonal DIY’s that you are missing as the season ends. Like I didn’t get the Sakura bonsai tree recipe and I needed that for another DIY project so now I have to wait until next year to get it and that’s annoying.
I should find other games to play but let’s be honest with ourselves, i am like really bad at gaming because I get frustrated more than I should, I love playing games but I am more on the line of The Sims, Minecraft, and Animal Crossing, casual world building games because they aren’t as stressful as other more involved games and I don’t want to be angry when I game, I just want to enjoy myself.
Alright, well that’s it for me today. I will be back over the weekend with another post so until then I hope everyone stays happy and healthy.
So this week was one of those weeks that started out pretty okay, it was just running really slow. Then about mid-week and the rest of the week wasn’t so great or reasons that I cannot specify, but it isn’t not great, nothing for me personally but something that is going to affect me. I have been sitting in an anxiety attack for pretty much all of today which isn’t fun. I made like eight pages of lists in my writing notebook all about Animal Crossing because my brain needed to focus on something but I am for sure feeling a lot of stress in the pit of mt stomach. Normally February and March are my low months and I was hoping to avoid that as much as possible this year because things are going okay but this is just one of those things that will change things and it’s in my periphery at the moment.
I needed a list kind of post today, it’s Saturday and this goes up on Sunday so that’s just where my headspace is at the moment. I’m a little foggy at the moment and sometimes my anxiety does that, I can’t focus on anything and it’s not fun but it is what it is and this me sharing it with you all at the moment. Spoiler alert: I took a break yesterday and now it’s Sunday morning and this post is going to go up at noon so there’s that.
I think that my first one was one of the Iron Man variants from Iron Man 3, I think, it could have been sooner than that. I know that my first was an Iron Man because I saw it at Barnes and Noble and decided to get it. I have been collecting since 2013 so as you can imagine I have a pretty large collection. I have many many more than I actually have at my house. I don’t have an actual count, well I do it’s 164 overall but because some were stolen from my old place and I am still a little salty about that because some of them are not replaceable or too expensive to replace. It’s been almost 4 years and I am still not over it because no one should feel the right to take things that don’t belong to them.
So here are just a few of my favorites! Let’s be real it’s most of the ones that I have in my apartment at the moment, the rest as in a box at my parent’s house. One day I will have all of them displayed somewhere but today is not that day. I have not only Pops! but Dorbz, Rock Candy, and a few other of their series that have come in subscription boxes that I used to get. I used to subscribe to their Marvel Collector Corps box and the Disney Treasures box until they gave those to other companies and I had to say goodbye.
Rosie the Riveter:
Excuse my grammar book.
I got this one a few years ago and it was in my Anatomy of a Creative’s Desk post, some of these have been in that post as well. I have always loved the mystique and the power behind the figure of Rosie the Riveter.
Hulkbuster:
This was one of the really cool parts of Age of Ultron, which is not a bad movie but the Hulkbuster armor was for sure really cool. This was a Collector Corps exclusive and I got this box after I subscribed because they used to sell the older boxes that didn’t sell out and I really wanted this one. It used to sit on my desk when I still lived in Indiana and now it sits by my front door.
Smaug (both of them):
I love the golden one, I wanted it to eventually go on my desk at work so people would know when I was upset and that still might happen when I have a permanent desk. I got the second one so I would always have it at home. They both sit on the same bookcase and the golden one actually sits with all of my Tolkien books, my illustrated Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy is off the shelf at the moment flattening out another book that got all crinkled up in the move and then was lost for almost three years so it was a mess.
Labyrinth:
I have all of them but Ludo and I have him in my Amazon cart and have since they came out, I don’t know why I never ordered him but eventually, right? I haven’t bought many Pops since I moved but it is what it is. The Jareth in white was a Hot Topic exclusive, I think. It’s my favorite movie so where is the shock that I have all of them except one.
Horton:
I think this Horton is actually technically a Dorbz XL but I love him so much, he’s just really cute. I know that I say that about a lot of things but he just looks so happy and I like having him in my living room.
Sylvester and Tweety:
My mom’s nickname for me has always been Tweety so I knew that when these came out I needed them and again I was buying a lot more a few years ago when I still lived in Indiana, things have changed since then but I still like having them out because I smile everytime I see them.
Groot:
Another Dorbz, well Dorbz XL, I think this was a con exclusive in like 2015 or 16 and it was at Barnes and Noble, I honestly can’t remember, I got it on sale and I had plans for where it was going to live but things changed and I moved here so it sits with my comic books because I cannot think of a better place for it to sit.
Adipose:
I have a funny story about this one, one of my only Doctor Who Pops to actually survive because he wasn’t in the box that was taken, there is a book called The Adventures of Beekle the Unimaginary Friend and the main character looks like an Adipose with a crown on, he used to have a crown but that has been lost to the ages but I can’t see an Adipose without thinking of Beekle, that’s what happens when you work in an elementary school.
Sailor Mars:
I grew up on Sailor Moon that was one of the first anime that I ever saw and Mars was always my favorite, so when they came out with the Sailor Moon collection this was the one that I really wanted though I regret not getting the rest of them.
My Desk Fellows:
They are on a bookshelf right now because I needed more room on my desk for other things and less things to knock over and I talked about them in my Desk post so I am not going to really talk about them again besides the fact that I waited for the Coca-Cola one for like six months, totally worth it.
The Random Group:
To be honest I didn’t want to take four individual pictures so what’s pictured?
Chewbacca, I got into Star Wars late with the new trilogy actually no matter how people felt about it, it was my gateway into enjoying Star Wars.
Stitch, Lilo & Stitch is one of those movies that I loved growing up, my Godfather took me to see it when it came out and he passed away in 2019 so whenever I see that movie I think of him so having Stitch out makes me think of him. (I can’t watch Moana without crying either because it came out less than a year after my grandmother died.)
The Eleventh Doctor: Another survivor even though I lost many of them, this one, the Adipose, my TARDIS, and maybe one or two others are actually still in my possession but the Eleventh Doctor is my favorite so of course I have to have him out.
The Winter Soldier: This is the one from Civil War, I have two others and I pre-ordered one where he’s holding Captain America’s shield and I think that one comes out in May.
Porg:
To be honest the best thing to come out of the new Star Wars trilogy, I love it so much. I feel like I have been saying that about a lot of them but that’s (1) where my brain is at the moment and (2) true because these are the ones that I have displayed in my home.
I have over 100 of these between my apartment and a box in my parents basement so there would be no way for me to share all of them with y’all. This post has been on the books more than once but I never got around to writing it, I figured out last year that this was my blog and I could post what I wanted to so here is me, posting what I want to post.
I hope that everyone has a great start to the week and I will be back on Wednesday for another post. I think it will be my updated highlighter collection post but who knows at this point, there is no space in my brain at the moment for anything but lists so roll with me.
Seriously, I hope everyone has a good start to the week! Stay safe, stay healthy.
So truth time, I am done with my 2020 bullet journal because I made a promise to myself this year that I would bullet journal the whole year not skip a single month and I didn’t so I am really proud of myself for that one. Quarantine really did allow me to spend some time on creative pursuits and that’s about the only upside to it. I also have all of my “base pages” done for next year so all of my month things all I have to do next year is the pages at the front, the covers, the mood tracker, and the miscellaneous pages at the end of every month. So I really am going for it with this bullet journaling thing; only took three years to do every month, good job MJ.
So let’s review my last four months May, June, July, and August. My art is still not all that great but I am trying and at the moment that’s all that matters because practice does make perfect and that’s all I can ask for at the moment.
Like last year was Star Wars themed because May the Force Be With You is just fitting for May. I am not going to show my mood tracker because it’s all very fanciful lightsabers and I don’t want to deal with the inaccuracy of colors on here.
Cover: It is a much more expanded version of last year and I found a cute porg drawing on Pinterest because I love the porgs and I wanted them in my bullet journal again this year. The Falcon is a little less detailed than last year but I have been doing more with my covers this year so having nods to the new trilogy and the original trilogy on this page was great. The Death Star up in the corner was a lot of fun to draw though it’s not perfect.
Movie Checklist: I haven’t seen all of the Star Wars movies I am missing Episode III and the the stand alone films which I want to watch but it’s just sitting down and watching them when you know all of the spoilers because of the internet but I also haven’t see The Mandalorian but The Child had to be a part of my bullet journal and I was really proud of how it turned out after again a tutorial off Pinterest
June Theme:
I am a child of the 90’s so I remember the original Pokémon and how big of a deal it was when it came out; I still have my Pokémon cards but because of that Pokémon has been a part of my life for most of my life, it came out here in what the late nineties so I was in my very early elementary school years at that point.
Cover: Eevee is my favorite Pokémon and I know how cliché that is but it is, my buddy on Pokémon Go is an Eevee named Monet and I love him. So the Eevee-lutions became my cover and I had to draw about half of them twice because I put the originals on the wrong page like an idiot but it gave me a lot of practice drawing them.
Mood Tracker: Poké Balls and I feel like that’s just an obvious choice and I was going to pattern them like all the Poké Balls but I figured just the standard would do best here.
Final Page: I watched the original series as a kid and I loved the section of “who’s that Pokémon” and I chose another favorite which is Piplup the penguin Pokémon who was also one of my buddies on Pokémon Go and I named him Orwell.
July Theme:
Okay so video games have always been a part of my life I just don’t play many of them and I love watching gaming content on the internet but I pretty much have had mostly Nintendo systems from the Game Boy Advanced to the Switch so July’s theme was video games.
Cover: Lots of Nintendo and from video games I have mostly played (have not played a Kirby game but he’s so iconic) but I took a lot of time on this cover and it’s not half bad in my opinion.
Habit Tracker Drawing: It’s Pac-Man I have played my fair share of Pac-Man and I thought it would make a cute little drawing to go with my habit trackers.
Mood Tracker: Also have played a lot of Tetris and I really messed up on some of the pieces because I am an idiot but it worked and it was Tetris themed.
Final Page: I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing, there is a whole post about my Animal Crossing New Horizons fun but this at the time was my house and my outfit and I figured why not wo a full page drawing of it because I had no idea what else to do.
August Theme:
I grew up on Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, my fourth grade teacher read us The Hobbit and I have been a fan ever since so August was Tolkien themed and I have loved it since I came up with the concept.
Cover: Bilbo’s house in the Shire, the Lonely Mountain and a quote, I know the map on the side is not actually correct but it was most of the major locations from The Hobbit series and I really enjoyed doing this cover.
Mood Tracker: Cartoonish Smaug because I wanted Smaug in my bullet journal but I didn’t want him to be menacing and this was something I found on the internet and again did my own rendition because there are a lot of people who are a whole heck of a lot more creative than me when it comes to art and I sometimes need help.
Final Page: Quotes from the world of Tolkien, it’s all The Hobbit and lord of The Rings because I have most of the things he wrote but I hadn’t read all of them and I could have had more quotes but I have a meme quote in there too which I kind of love.
So there it is my second bullet journal update of the year and I cannot believe we are far enough into it that I have two updates because we are almost in month nine of the year which I am still processing March so I have no idea what day it is anymore. I cannot wait to show everyone the rest of the year in December because my late year themes are some of my faves so I am looking forward to sharing those.
I will see y’all later in the week with another post so I hope it’s a good week!
I am not really a gamer, casually at best. I am the person who when playing Assassin’s Creed Syndicate I apologized every time I ran into people then got stuck on the train which is like mission two and stopped playing. I want to play it I really do but I get pretty frustrated by games. I think the last game I beat was Pokémon Ruby, so it’s been a while. Like a said casual gamer, sometimes I play Minecraft on peaceful because well Creepers are terrifying and I don’t like to be stressed out when I play games.
As the world was falling apart my birthday happened and my best friend being her best self sent me a copy of Animal Crossing New Horizons and I have been obsessively playing since late April. Maybe it’s because I am such an escapist or maybe I want to sell my soul to a tanuki named Tom Nook, who knows. I like the idea of living on an island where I can sell literally anything to two other tanuki’s and make millions of bells, don’t judge me.
I feel the need to clarify something early, I didn’t play Animal Crossing as a kid I was aware of it and I was confused but I have been playing Pocket Camp since it came out so having a console game with the full Animal Crossing experience has been great in this time of what seems like never ending quarantine. (which is a word I still can’t spell properly, thank you autocorrect)
I feel like a lot of people are playing Animal Crossing right now and that is totally okay because we all need something to smile about. This isn’t a review or an island tour (if I was still actually using my YouTube channel (one day I will get back to to) I would do an island tour video but that’s just not in the cards at the moment.) Also a piece of MJ trivia as a child I could not for the life of me understand how island was pronounced as it was and my third grade teacher got really mad when I kept spelling it iland because that is how it should be spelled, the English language man it was my first language and my only fluent language and even in my late 20’s I still haven’t mastered it.
My character had a closet full of cute little outfits that I wish I had in real life and enough hats to attend several fancy parties, because, hats. Also let’s be honest Pinterest has given me unattainable expectations of what I want my house to look like because they have so many cute ideas and it makes me feel like my house in inhabited by a trash goblin who had no tastes and then I remember I also see those houses on Pinterest and feel exactly the same way about the real place I live. So trash goblin makes sense…
Top Row from left to right: Living room, Bathroom, and Bedroom Bottom Row: Kitchen, Downstairs, and Upstairs Craft Room
My residents are really cute and I have cycled through a few since I got my island at the end of April but for sure my current faves are Bones, Zell, and Sherb they all are just so happy and cute and I love them. I got Lyman as an original villager and he’s a koala which are my favorite animals so he is eternally my fave.
The NPC’s that visit the island are I feel like becoming more numerous and they are great but it means that you don’t get to see certain ones very often, there are some that are there every day so I don’t count them, so Isabelle (whose morning updates I love because that would be me as someone who had to do morning announcements just telling people all about my TV habits), Tom, Timmy, and Tommy Nook, Mabel and Sable Able, Blathers, and Pascal (who is the best). But I’m thinking more Sally Mae who brings the turnips on Sunday mornings, Celeste who is Blathers sister and brings you star fragment recipes, Gulliver and Gullivarr who are both sea gulls who wash up on your island because they are not really great seafarers, Red who tries to sell you art but some of it is fake art, Leif the sloth who sells plants, Kicks the skunk who sells accessories, Label who is the last Able sister who is a fashion designer, CJ and Felix who collect fish and bugs respectively, Wisp the ghost that you have to find his spirit pieces to get items, and I know I am missing a few but my brain at the moment can’t remember, I could look it up but I feel like that’s cheating.
Pascal is for sure one of my favorites because he gives you these “deep truths” and for some reason I feel like I am talking to the stereotypical hippie and he’s just the best.
I just paid off my home loan completely, so I don’t have any more expansions and now I get to focus on other things on my island like making it a five star island and trying to breed certain colored flowers, blue I have got but purple and black are evading me at the moment.
It’s just been something that I have been whole heartedly enjoying and I have logged something like 200+ hours in it so far which I feel is a little excessive but come on, I want to get all the critters and creatures for museum and balloons are great so I play as much as I can and want to.
I’m not the most experienced player nor do I want to be, I don’t want to know how to get rich quick or try and outsmart the game because I just want to enjoy it. Like I use all sorts of cheats on The Sims 4 but rarely anywhere else.
If you play Animal Crossing what’s your favorite things, got a room you’re proud of, a resident you love to pieces, or even a fish or bug that’s your favorite? Let me know!
I hope everyone has a great rest of the week and I will see you on Sunday with a new post!
So 2020 has been a time, not a great time and let’s be real I am still not going out more than I have to because I don’t want to go to the Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour (Thanks Game Grumps for putting that in my life). I have been going out only when I have to which means I have been watching at lot of YouTube, Netflix, and movies and playing like a lot of Animal Crossing (which I will talk about more in my next post. I have also just been like picking up hobbies which I will also be talking about later in the year because I have been trying to plan out blog posts so I can actually keep myself to a schedule. I’m trying, it’s not working but I’m trying.
So I am a huge Marvel fan and let’s be honest Endgame wrecked my entire heart, I want to name my first dog Stark, my last car was called Jarvis and my new car is called Vision so I think it’s pretty clear that I am a fan of Iron man. I have like a bunch of Avengers Funko Pops! at my parent’s house because at the moment I don’t have room. There are a few of them I haven’t seen so I can’t say that maybe one of those wouldn’t be on this list. I haven’t seen Captain Marvel (I love the comics I just haven’t seen the film), Ant-Man & The Wasp, The Hulk, or Spiderman Far From Home (which I own but haven’t sat down and watched yet).
But which ones are my personal favorites? We can disagree that’s why opinions are cool, everyone can have one and my favorites may not be your favorites but we don’t spread hate around here so in the immortal words of Thumper from Bambi, if you ain’t got nothin nice to say don’t say nothin at all.
These are in no particular order except when they were release to be honest they are just my favorites. I mean lets be real, I am going to through new Marvel movie withdrawal right now because of everything that’s going on in the world so I wanted a feel good post today. Also spoilers ahead, duh, but some of these movies have been out for almost a decade so come on. Grab some popcorn and hunker down because this one is a long one.
The Avengers (2012)
So this was a great ensemble film and it was the end of the phase one Marvel films bringing all of those heroes together, you cannot beat the original Avengers film with the original MCU Avengers team. I love the new iterations of the team but you cannot beat the OG six. I loved that film and the soundtrack was great and I still quote parts of that film because it is so good.
Iron Man 3 (2013)
This is a Christmas movie, fight me. I watch it every Christmas season and I love it so much, it is just such a movie full of character growth for Tony Stark that amazes me every time I watch it. It’s dealing with the fall out of the Avengers and Tony dealing with some mental health issues that continue to come out as the MCU expands. I loved the misdirect of the villain also. Iron Man was one of the first MCU superheroes that I saw and even though Iron Man 2 is panned a lot I still like that one as well.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
This one for sure ranks really high on my list of really great Marvel films, it’s just so good. I have for sure said “on your left” to my friends before and we bust out laughing every time. I loved the introduction of Falcon because he is such a great character and balances Cap out so well and I for sure had a jaw drop moment when the Winter Soldier was revealed. Like it’s in the comics but I wasn’t reading comics as much at the time so roll with me. There is an argument in this movie which is for sure a hill I will die on if someone argues against me, I’m not going to talk about it because it’s the internet and I know better because people can get inflammatory.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
2014 was just a great year for Marvel movies because Guardians of the Galaxy came out as well. I loved them film I think that my best friend and I saw this movie at least three times in theatres, that was our thing when we lived in the same city we would go and see Marvel movies multiple times and it was amazing. We now live like 1,500 miles away from each other so we don’t get to do that anymore which hurts my heart. You can check out her blog if you like book reviews (http://rolloutreviews.com) she’s awesome but I have to say that, she’s my best friend. Guardians was a great film though that broke away from the very serious Marvel Universe mold that was in place to this point also the soundtrack was fire. The ensemble cast all played so well off each other and I left the theatre emotionally compromised by a tree voiced by Vin Diesel which I was not expecting.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
2016 was another great year for Marvel movies and I loved this movie so much. My best friend and I saw this at the midnight premiere and the girl who was next to us hugged a pillow and gasped the whole time, if you are like that in a movie theatre; shame on you. I loved it, I have read the comic and I have read the novelization as well. Though the movie is for sure very different from the book and comic but I loved it. I loved seeing all of these characters really show their powers and the dynamics between them.
Doctor Strange (2016)
This movie is great, the visuals are amazing but it does have a similar story line to Iron Man and I ain’t mad about it. I don’t think I really have much to say about it but it is a great piece of cinema that opens up a lot for the next phase of films that came out after, all of those movies that were leading up to Infinity War and Endgame.
Black Panther (2018)
So good, I loved seeing the introduction of Black Panther in Civil War and then to see the whole technologically advanced society of Wakanda it was so good. There are so many good one liners in the film that just amuse me every time I watch it and there are so many bad ass characters throughout the whole film that just got you so pumped up throughout. Great movie all around.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
The guy in the theatre next to me was texting the whole time a terrible person and also don’t do that in theatres either. The first part of the epic third installment of the Avengers was intense and amazing. I need to watch it again but I will eventually. There are so many good one liners in this one as well especially at the beginning. The way it ended I was so upset, I mean I didn’t know how truly upset I would be after the next installment.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
I spent like 75% of this movie just upset, I was so happy to have the team back together and the final battle scene was probably one of the most epic battle scenes I have ever seen. That movie wrecked me at the end though and I had a feeling it would because I saw a spoiler of who dies early because I didn’t get a chance to see it for over a week after it came out but I still wasn’t prepared for both of the major character deaths, I was not okay with either of them. It was such a good movie cinematically and the production was absolutely phenomenal.
I mean there are like 20+ MCU movies and I gave you nine of mine, these are just straight up MCU movies though I don’t count the original Fantastic Four or Deadpool, which I loved both Deadpool movies so much. I have not seen many DCEU movies just because I grew up on DC cartoons.
I’m not great at movie reviews but these were movies I enjoyed and I hope that you guys enjoyed a little bit of a break from my normal content because this is what I needed this Sunday.
So I will see everyone next time hopefully with my Animal Crossing island and all that (who knows I’m gonna try).
So something I have for sure been doing while in quarantine is reading, not as much as I want to but still I’m reading. My goal is 36-40 books this year and I’m eleven in, I have a lot more reading to do this year. I have no specific genre that I read, I read mostly anything if we are being honest. A few years ago I read a lot of historical fiction and I burned myself out on that for a while, but other than that I actually really enjoy reading.
I read 32 books last year and 12 of t hose were read in December as I made a last ditch effort to reach my 35 book goal. I haven’t hit my book goal since 2017. My goal in 2018 was 35, I read 6. I have been tracking all the books I have read since 2016 and I wish I could say that I have read more than 116 in those four and a half years but here we are. In reality I would ideally be up around 50 books a year but life doesn’t work like that all the time.
Okay getting away from the long winded introduction, here are the books I have read so far in 2020:
Spending the Holidays with People I Want To Punch in The Throat by Jen Mann:
I read this in one day, New Year’s Day actually, I do enjoy reading essays that people have written about events in their lives and bonus points if they are funny or something I can relate to. This book was hilarious to say the least and it makes me want to read her other collections of essays because I think they would be just as amusing.
Star Wars: Bloodlines by Claudia Gray:
I am a relatively new Star Wars fan, I don’t read a lot of the novelizations, I read a lot of Doctor Who novelizations and even Marvel but Star Wars is still pretty new for me. I was in elementary school when the prequels came out and didn’t see any of them until I was in high school, I spent a weekend in 2018 watching all of the original trilogy and I have seen all of the new ones as well. I know that the new ones get a lot of hate, but I didn’t hate them but again; I’m new. The book was dense, I liked it; it was a pretty good lead up to the events that happen in The Force Awakens and it continues to reinforce the fact that Leia Organa is a certified bad ass.
I’ve Got This Round by Mamrie Hart:
Again, a book of essays. I like hearing people’s drunk stories because I don’t really have any of my own and I like it that way. Reading the things that other people get up to and are up to telling others about is amusing to me. Mamrie is a great story teller and she is a very funny entertainer, I used to watch her on YouTube when I was in college; not so much now but I still enjoyed reading the second one of her novels. If you like humor and alcohol fueled adventures this is for sure a good read for you.
Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes by Cory O’Brien:
I saw and excerpt of this on Tumblr probably four years ago and I bought the book because of it, I really like myths and stories of the like so reading an almost satirical telling of all of these really heavy myths; it’s just a lot of fun to read. It gives a different perspectives of all of those myths and it makes them a lot more fun to read.
It Gets Worse by Shane Dawson:
Like I said, I really like essays and I read his first book I Hate Myselfie in one day in December, I have been a Shane Dawson fan since 2012-2013 somewhere around there and rediscovered him in 2018. It was good and very honest throughout.
Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt:
This book is going to be the oddity in this list and you may be saying, this seems like an off choice between two autobiographical novels. Well this we read for One School One Book and I couldn’t put it down. I work with elementary school kids and this book was a really feel good novel, it is a great story about overcoming, about embracing what makes us all different and that it doesn’t matter how we learn as long as someone is willing to take the time and figure out that maybe we all learn a little different and that doesn’t make us any less.
Girl Logic by Iliza Shlesinger:
I love Iliza’s comedy specials and her podcast is hilarious, the book was fine. I think I would have liked it better as an audiobook but I did enjoy reading it. I know that sometimes my girl Logic gets the best of me.
Mortal Arts (Lady Darby Mystery #2) by Anna Lee Huber:
This is book 2, book one is That Anatomist’s Wife, it’s based in the late 1800’s in The United Kingdom, this one was in Scotland and once I got into it I couldn’t put it down. I love mysteries, usually of the cozy variety but this one is a little more serious. It wove a vivid tale of how mental health care was drastically different in those times and how that affected the people who suffered with it.
Lark! The Herald Angels Sing (Meg Langslow Mystery #24) by Donna Andrews:
This is one of those cozy mysteries I was talking about. I have read every book in this series and I have loved every one. I am going to write a review on the first book for a post alter in the month, when I do I will link it here because this series was what inspired me to try my hand writing mystery. (it’ll happen one day but I think for now I will stick with fiction.) This is one of my favorite series by far though, I actually read the 19th book first because I wanted a Halloween mystery and then I went back and painstakingly tried to buy the rest of the series.
Ghost Hunters Adventure Club and The Secret of The Grande Chateau by: Dr. Cecil H.H. Mills:
If you want a mystery novel that has just a touch of satire and enjoys breaking the fourth wall between the characters and the author as well as the outside world do I have a book suggestion for you. It does start a little slow but as you get wrapped up in the mystery it becomes compelling and overarchingly funny. It actually had me guessing who the culprit was until it was revealed; I never saw it coming. So good.
Civil War by Stuart Moore:
I love Marvel, I have the Civil War comic and I have read it so I knew what was coming but I like reading the novelizations because it allows for more detail and the ability for someone to visualize it without looking at pictures. It is nothing like Civil War the film which is one of my favorite Marvel movies, the only real similarity is the Registration Act, that’s about it. If you see them as completely separate entities they are both great. There are a lot more characters in the comic and novel but you know, studio licensing.
I hope to tell you more of the books that I read this year because, books. There isn’t much else I have to say in this post so I will see everyone in a few says with a new post.
I can’t believe that it is already this time of year! Like 2018 has taken three or four solid years but the last three months of this year have flown right by and we are two weeks out from the end of 2018. Cannot even believe it.
I wanted to do a few holiday posts even though we are only a week out from Christmas but this is the time of year for themed movies! I did a post like this for Halloween and so I felt like I needed to continue the trend of the “my favorite movies” but now for Christmas. I did something similar if not the same last year on my YouTube channel but I have taken most of this year off of my channel, hopefully
Now I am going into this as the top ten movies that I watch during the season, it doesn’t mean that my number one movie is my all-time favorite, they aren’t really in any order so here we go.
All thoughts and opinions are my own, per usual.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
There are two movies that I watch every Christmas Eve and this is one of them, usually the first film of the pair that I watch. I have been watching this movie for probably longer than I should have because of some of the language and the themes that are involved but who doesn’t love a good old fashion family Christmas from the saga of the tree, to the Christmas lights, to the reality that is having a big and diverse family around at the holidays. It’s one of those movies for me that no matter the time of year I can pop it in and enjoy it no matter what. It has some really memorable lines that I reference in conversation every once in a while if I know the other person has seen the film.
2. A Christmas Story
This is the other movie that I watch every Christmas Eve, TBS shows, it or at least used to for 24 hours and I would try to stay up all night on Christmas Eve and watch it over and over, there was a good chance that I actually would only catch about half as I dosed in and out of sleep. Now that I am an adult I prefer sleep to trying to stay up all night like I did as a kid and even as an adolescent, when I was a kid it was the excitement of Christmas morning when I was a little older it was just me seeing if I could do it. I don’t think I ever did. Such a good movie though, whenever I bundle up to go outside and I have a lot of winter clothes on my first reaction is to say, “I can’t put my arms down!” because that is one part of the movie that makes me laugh every single time I see it. Also the word “fragile” neither my father or myself can resist saying it like they do in the film whenever we see the word.
3. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
I love both of the incarnations of this film that have been out for years, I have not seen the version that came out this year but the one I am referencing in this list specifically is the 2000 live action adaptation. We went to the theater I think two days after Thanksgiving to see this and the whole family went my mom, my dad, my grandma, and me (small family). Now I watch it at least two or three times during the season because this is the movie I wrap presents to, normally that means I don’t really watch it so I have to watch it again and usually the second time through I end up falling asleep so a third time is required. I watched it for the first time yesterday and I was only a little distracted while trying to write this post yesterday, it didn’t work. (Then I watched Coco and cried a little.) It’s been one of my favorites since I got it on VHS in 2001, that’s right VHS; let that sink in for those of you who remember what a VHS is. I was 8 when this film came out so I grew up watching it and I still watch it every year.
4. Muppet Christmas Carol
Okay so I have a confession to make on this one, I didn’t see this movie until 2014 in my senior year of college, I told one of my roommates that I had never seen it and she was appalled because this is one of her favorite movies. I may have seen parts of it beforehand but never all the way through so we watched it and I have watched it every year since. It was on Netflix, then it was on On-Demand and then I had to get the DVD because no one else had it on TV or to watch online one year. I love a Christmas Carol; I need to actually sit down and read the original Dickens prose because it’s one of those pieces of literature that is so ingrained in our popular culture in so many different forms. Bah, Humduck! a Looney Toons Christmas Carol and A Flintstone’s Christmas Carol both are on my list to watch every year but didn’t make the top ten, though they were rather close in the running but I didn’t want more than one movie adaptation of a Christmas Carol on here.
5. The Santa Clause
Another movie that I grew up on, I am talking about the original Santa Clause here not the second one which was fine or the third one which I haven’t seen. I’m talking original mid-90’s movie. This was another one I had on VHS growing up so I watched it every year without fail. I love the story that goes along with the film, but there are some pretty dark themes to it that as a kid you don’t see. Like Scott losing custody of Charlie because everyone thinks he’s going insane, the mistrust of things that you don’t understand, and some other things that are at the moment slipping my mind.
6. The Nine Lives of Christmas
I am a sucker for a Hallmark Original holiday film, even though they all have roughly the same plot formula, I don’t care. I will sit and watch a whole day of the same movie over and over because it just makes you feel so good inside. I actually did read the book for this movie and it is a lot different from the movie if we are being honest. Though my cousin borrowed the book in like 2015 and has yet to give it back, I probably should go buy a new copy because I have a doubtful feeling that I will get my original copy back. This movie is just super cute, I’m not even a huge fan of cats but this is one of those feel good movies that you can’t look away from no matter what. I don’t even get the Hallmark Channel now with my cable so I haven’t watched a single Hallmark movie this year.
7. Yogi’s First Christmas
I scoured the internet for this one year because I remember watching it as a kid and it was one of those things that I just couldn’t find, thankfully Amazon had the DVD so I ordered it because I needed to watch it and relive my childhood. There were plenty of Christmas specials on Cartoon Network when I was a kid, they had days dedicated to it or at least evenings about the time the Christmas break for school started and I watched so many things that I don’t remember the names to now. There was one movie about Santa with fairies and I had to look it up because for a while there I couldn’t find it to save my life, it was The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus.This movie is just one of those movies that brings back memories from when I was little so it’s really nostalgic even though it came out over a decade before I was born.
8. Arthur Christmas
I mean, it’s a cute movie and Christmas is the time of year where animated movies rule the day. It’s a really cute movie about family and acceptance, it has some really good messages and this kind of amazing theory on Santa Claus. The animation quality is great and it’s just a feel good kind of film that takes a realistic look at a family business.
9. Home Alone
How could this movie not make this list? I mean it’s one of those movies that gave everyone the thought that they could so take on a burglar if they were Home Alone, though to be honest calling the police would have been a better option than maiming others. It’s a really violent movie if you watch it as an adult, no hate I still watch it every year and laugh throughout the whole film but after watching videos of medical professionals and others talk about the survivability of some of the stunts in the film it makes you question how super human Marv and Harry really are.
10. The Holiday
Another really feel good movie, holiday house switch both women find love. It’s very cliché and I love it either way. It has a really all-star cast and a really good story of stepping out of your comfort zone and not dwelling on things that bring you down and letting go of toxic people in your life. It’s cute and has a really great score behind it, if you haven’t given it a watch and romantic dramedy is your thing I would suggest it.
I want to take just one second and talk about some of my favorite holiday specials growing up, The Rugrats Chanukah episode, it was something that taught me as a kid about a different holiday instead of Christmas and it was one of my favorites. Also the Proud Family Seven Days of Kwanzaa episode, again it was a holiday that I knew nothing about that was showcased on a show that I loved growing up to tell a different story about the season.
So have you got any favorite holiday movies, TV episodes, or specials?
First and foremost because this is a Marvel post, RIP Stan Lee, thank you for bringing so many influential characters into my life that have shaped me since I was a child. You will be missed by so many but your influence will live on with every fan whose heart you touched with a character, a comic book strip, or a delightful cameo in a film that made everyone wonder “when is Stan Lee coming in?” The first film without one of your cameos will be difficult, thank you for everything.
Per usual, all of these views are mine and I’m not holding back on this one. This is no shade to Funko or their very creative staff who create some of the coolest and most fun collectables that I own. I am talking very much about the quality of the box as well as the confusion I am feeling for the execution of the theme within this box.
This post is going to be super long so grab some popcorn or a snack and dig into this with me.
Now onto the box itself, I feel like I have no words for how I feel about this box. I had to stop and write my thoughts down on how disappointed I am with this box. I was so hopeful that after the Venom box being so much better than the Deadpool box that the Marvel Studios 10 Year box would be super cool because 10 years is a big deal for a lot of fans. I expected a nice spread that was representative of the first 10 years, 20 movies, and countless characters that have changed the lives of so many people both from the comics as well as the feature films. The box contained four items, I am going to say this right here right now, I miss the pin, patch, and comic book; I know that I have said that before but I feel like I need to say it again louder for the people in the back. It took some of the magic of the box away when they got rid of so much of what made the box so cool to get every other month.
The emotion I am tying to this box is confusion, there are no other emotions that I can tether to this in this moment beyond utter confusion as to the choices and the items within the box itself. I feel like I need to do a show and tell with the items before I actually explain why I am so confused with the whole thing.
The box was pretty standard but it came inside an Amazon box, granted I am going to use the outer box again but I thought it was kind of pointless to ship a box in a box when in the past it has never come in a second box; unless they had a rash of thefts with other boxes, if that is the case then it is understandable but then why put a Collector Corps box on the inside, just ship it in an Amazon box and put a card in it that explains things and some themed tissue paper.
The contents of the box were underwhelming, I even texted a picture to my mom and she said she was unimpressed and she used to think these boxes were really neat, they aren’t neat anymore.
The first item I pulled out of the box was a Hulk Pez dispenser, the Hulk was from Thor: Ragnarok and I was confused as to why they chose something from Thor: Ragnarok and not a more recognizable Hulk from any of the other films that The Hulk has been featured in like one from one of the Avengers films? I just found it odd that using the Hulk with the battle helmet was their choice, it is also gold. It makes the character not less recognizable but less detailed than it would have been with the traditional coloring of the Hulk.
The next item was a movie moment which is a pretty new series from Funko and the movie moment was the fight between Whiplash and Tony Stark (Iron Man) in Monaco on the race track from Iron Man 2. It’s pretty cool and it was the highlight of the box. I am again confused why that was the movie moment that was chosen to be featured, I can think of many others that would encompass the first ten years of Marvel Studios better than this one. I was one of the few people I know who actually like Iron Man 2 but it is my least favorite Iron Man solo film, I would go even so far as to say that it is my least favorite movie with Iron Man in it. Like I said highlight of the box, it was the only thing that wasn’t gold. I would have liked to have seen a movie moment from one of the ensemble films because I feel personally that would have been more representative of the magnitude of the Marvel Cinematic Universe when it comes to the impact of the first 10 years of Marvel Studios.
I feel like there was a very King Midas moment with this box, everything but one thing was gold. Like I said with the Hulk Pez, it makes them much less detailed. The last two items in the box were two pint Sized Heroes in Thanos and Thor from Thor: Ragnarok. I am going to start with Thanos because I need a moment before I go into it about the tiny Thor.
I understand why Thanos made it into the box, he was the foreshadowed ultimate villain, the final boss if you will for much of the first 10 years but again, he’s gold. I can understand one gold item but not three, on the card in the box it said gold was chosen to represent the magnitude and the weight of the first ten years so one item, sure, but not three. Give me something that I can’t go and buy in a store and spray paint myself. Give me something that actually has some weight to it. Thanos is cute, Thanos should not be cute.
Now on to tiny Thor, again this is from Thor: Ragnarok so half of the items in this box were from one movie. One movie, let that sink in; out of 20 movies in the Cinematic Universe they chose two items from one film, a film that came out last year. When I first saw it on the card insert I thought it as Mordo from Doctor Strange which confused me even more but seeing that it is Thor on the packaging I was a little less confused; just a little. It’s gold, I didn’t know who it was until I looked at the packaging because when you make something all one color it makes it harder to know what it is on a figure that is small and not as detailed as a regular Pop! Figure.
Now onto the fun part (not really more of the review of the tape after a losing game), my full and honest review and why I am cancelling my subscription. This box was in a word disappointing; I have no other adjective to describe it. Maybe in a few days I will but at the moment I was just incredibly disappointed in the quality of this box and the lack of quality in the last two out of three boxes that I have received. I want to break this down into a few categories as I go through this, the content, the reasons I am unsubscribing, and everything else.
The Contents:
This box was supposed to be a representation of the first ten years of Marvel Studios, it was supposed to encompass 20 films, it encompassed two and a general character. I was shocked to see nothing from Guardians which is a major part of the Cinematic Universe, I was really shocked to not see anything that was Captain America themed, that is one character who is a huge part of the franchise, he was the “First Avenger” after all and it was just so odd to not see anything in this box that featured him. There were so many characters that could have made appearances in this box and they didn’t, pick a villain that people love to hate, Ultron, Ulysses Claue, The Mandarin, Loki, (don’t come after me, I like Loki but in the beginning he went from misunderstood to trying to rule Earth, redemption was great but come on.) Red Skull, heck Ego. Give me the heroes that we all love, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, Vision, Scarlet Witch, The Falcon, War Machine, and so many others that are huge parts of our popular culture.
There were only four items in the box where when it was under the Funko umbrella it was usually more and the quality of the items and the theme was more cohesive. They could have picked a different movie moment it would have had more impact if it would have been from a more popular Marvel film or a more memorable moment, it was not groundbreaking to me. I want to know how they chose this moment out of thousands that were more impacting on the franchise. Heck Black Widow flipping Happy Hogan would have been more memorable, or Rhodey and Tony in the botanical garden after the Hammer expo and that is two in that film alone, I mean if it was possible doing the moment of Tony sitting in the donut with Fury and Black Widow looking on would have been cool too, or even Coulson telling Tony if he left he would tazer him and sit and watch Super Nannyand all of those moments are from Iron Man 2, Tony next to the car holding the door after Whiplash took it off, that would have been cool too. I understand that they have to keep it on the simpler side because it is so much work that is put into even creating one of these let alone many but in my opinion this was not really a good representation of the magnitude of the first 10 years.
Everything else was gold, I am not going to get into that again, I already did that above, but I would have preferred to see my favorite characters looking like themselves instead of spray painted. Also with the pint Sized Heroes, I think it would have been cool to have a certain number that were gold and then that would have made it super special for some people.
On the card in the box it said they chose three distinctive Funko styles, movie moments came out either earlier this year or last year, the Pez is something that I don’t personally collect and I don’t know many people who do, Pint Sized Heroes are cute but they were underwhelming. Putting a Pop! Figure in here, putting in a keychain, putting in a tee-shirt or a wearable, putting in something from the homeware collection, putting in a plush, or putting in something that you can use like stationary. They had so many options and one I get, two not so much.
Reasons I am Unsubscribing:
In the last three boxes since Amazon took over the subscription service two have been confusing and underwhelming, they have not upheld the quality and the content that I came to expect when it was under the Funko umbrella. The Venom box was pretty cool, there was a variety of things in that box that made me think that maybe they were getting their feet under them, that they were listening to the feedback from people from the comments on their website. Then this box came out and it was just them throwing some stuff in a box and shipping it out, that’s how it feels; disjointed. If you have a theme I love themes but for the collector these boxes are fine, they are not great, they are not groundbreaking and you can disagree with me, I have no issue with that. I didn’t like it, I gave it two chances and now I am just sitting here disappointed that it wasn’t all that I hoped it would be. Before you come after me read the other two reviews, they will be linked somewhere in this post, go on Amazon and read some of the reviews for the Deadpool box like I did after I got it. I can imagine that there will be some reviews for this one as well. It seems that the first two boxes focused on one character one they did really well one they did poorly, I gave them the benefit of the doubt after the Deadpool box that it would get better; it was the first box, they are still figuring it out. I can’t do that anymore, I can’t wait and hope that the next box in January will be better, I can’t justify spending money on these when I am going to like one or two items in it. It is not worth the price tag if that is the case.
There is just too much missing from the original Funko boxes that I loved so much, I loved getting them in the mail and unboxing them; it was so much fun to see all of the collectables that I couldn’t get anywhere else. It didn’t feel like I was forcing myself to like them then, now I feel as if I am lying to myself trying to give the benefit of the doubt. Maybe in six months I might try again and see if the quality has improved and maybe at that time I will resubscribe. This isn’t the first box I have unsubscribed from because it was no longer something that brought me joy or there were more items that I didn’t really like opposed to the items that I absolutely loved. So for now I am going to say goodbye to a box that I have subscribed to since February 2016, that may not be a long time in the grand scheme of things but it became a part of my life, my routine, and added some really cool things to my collection. It’s like saying goodbye to a friend, someone who used to bring you joy and has slowly changed to a point where you two no longer see eye to eye. I know that is a really heavy metaphor for just unsubscribing to a box but that’s about the thin and thick of it, I don’t want to spend money to be disappointed in this box anymore. I miss when it was still a Funko held box, when it was coming directly from them because the moment it stopped coming from them it was like the other side of the coin and it went from a nice shiny quarter to play money.
Okay, that’s it for me, a lot of things and if you have a different opinion; you know what, that’s super cool. If you subscribe are you loved the box I am happy for you, it just maybe isn’t for me anymore. If you do subscribe what are your thoughts?
Have a good week and see y’all Saturday! (That’s right I am actually going to try and keep to my intended blog schedule for the first time in months!)
Wait It's MJ 