I had a great Christmas this year and thought I would share some of the great presents I received. To the left is a group shot of most everything. I got a few modern Star Wars figures, a Canon Camera bag to hold my new DSLR camera with plenty of room for flashes and lenses, a Lili Ledy (Mexico) Luke Jedi vintage cardback, Transformers Encore 17 Cassettes, and a Canon 50mm F1.8 Lens for the camera.
Here are some pictures taken from the Takara website that show the cassettes for Soundwave and Blaster. They recently released the 3rd set in Japan and I hope to add those sometime soon to complete the set. One nice little touch is the fact that the marking on the sides were stickers on the originals and on these they are actually painted on. Now there is no chance of them falling off and getting lost.
I also had a very nice surprise this year. Some friends that I have met online grouped together and got me a Secret Santa gift this year. I’ve helped a few international collectors this year by having some items come through me and then mailing them on to them. There are quite a few sellers that will not deal outside of the U.S., so it is a way to help collectors still get what they want. Three collectors went in on this with two being from Australia and the 3rd in Romania. It is a Cardback with the bubble still attached for Luke Jedi from Mexico. The company that brought the figures out in Mexico was called Lili Ledy and all of those items are highly sought after by collectors. I hope to add the actual figure to go with the card some time this year.
The same Romanian friend mentioned above also got me a piece of original artwork. The artist is also a collector and has been doing these character pieces under the name “Attack of the Cute” I’m really impressed with all of the pieces I’ve seen him do and think it makes for a great one of a kind collectible. I can’t wait to get mine framed and up on the wall. You can see more of his art on rebelscum at http://threads.rebelscum.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Fanart&Number=2545921 and his official website is http://www.jpc-art.co.cc/
Finally, here are a few pictures that I have taken with the new lens. I’m still learning a few things with it, but am taking the pictures in full manual mode on my camera. It was an excellent Christmas and thanks to everyone for the great gifts.