Cases are in

Tonight, Heather got a well deserved night off from the Star Wars room while John and I went to go see Clerks 2 again after work. After the movie, he agreed to come by and help me lift the display cases into the Star Wars room. They are much too heavy for Heather and I to lift on our own. We used cardboard to get the one case into the room and it took us about 5 or 10 minutes.

John and I moved the other 5 in in only about 30 minutes. They were really heavy and it was a tough job, but the Star Wars room is now intact.


All that remains is putting the glass shelves into the cases, the shelves into the cabinets and then cleaning them up with some Windex. I think at this point, I'm going to hold back on the pictures until I have some of the collection in there. It'll be more impressive that way.

In the meantime, I got a few figures yesterday morning thanks to a tip from Chris. It's the Endor Wave!

Shelves are UP!

When I got home tonight, Heather already had the cabinets all built. After last night's torture of an evening hanging those brackets, she was worried I was going to be frustrated, but tonight...they went up like a charm.

In the first hour, we had two more shelves hung.



They are hanging about 10 inches down from the ceiling, which turned out to be just enough to stick a carded figure between the shelf and the ceiling. The ones I hung last night were 9 1/2", which wasn't quite big enough, but the rest of the room will be ok.



We leveled out the brackets all the same height and finished up the room before 10. We had time to eat dinner and watch 2 episodes of ER before it was time to go to bed.

I had to stop in one more time before the night was through to admire the handywork. I know it may not seem spectacular, but the fact that we got all 8 shelves hung (and level with one another) in 2 nights was a really big deal. Even though it was tough, I was really glad that I got to do all of this with my wife, who was kind enough to give up several of her evenings to work on this room with me.

The hard part is done. From here on in, it is all fun stuff.

Progress update

We took a day off Sunday to recoop from my trip to the Gorge for Pearl Jam and Heather's trip to Steve and Katie's wedding. We both slept in late and spent the whole day taking it easy. Even though we had planned to hang shelves this weekend, Sunday was not a day to work.

Today, I went to Home Depot on the way home from work and bought screws and a metal cutting blade for my jigsaw.

I sliced up all four of the 7 foot long metal brackets while Heather put together the white Ikea cabinets we're hanging on the walls.



Each bracket had to be cut into just under 6 foot lengths, then I had to cut one of them into two 3 foot pieces. Heather finished 6 of the cabinets while I was doing this.



Then came time to screw the brackets into the wall. It had been a very long day, so I was already tired, but the fact that I had bought the wrong screws just made me furious. The dumbass clerk at the Home Depot gave me a back of sheet metal screws when I needed Drywall (wood) screws. I don't know why I didn't notice it until I opened one of the baggies, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. The stupid things wouldn't chew through the studs and the heads were being stripped by the drill. After two failed attempts, I had a short temper tantrum then went back to Home Depot.

When I returned, Heather had all but two of the cabinets done and we proceeded to hang the first bracket. By 10pm we had it up and by about 10:30 we were done with hanging the first two shelves.

This was a perfect time for a break. Tomorrow, we will hang the rest of the shelves on the walls.

Some Pre-orders are in

Today, I pre-ordered the Sideshow Jabba. Jabba himself is 119 bucks, his throne is another 200 and then you have to pay 30 bucks for all the critters. Damn expensive, but this is the best reproduction of him I have ever seen in any scale. I'm definitely going to make this the centerpiece of my 12" collection, and I have enough figures to go along with him that he won't be a lonely Hutt for long.



Also pre-ordered some clones through Starwarsshop that are based on Republic Commando. Actually, Chris ordered them and I'm going to piggy-back on his order to save on shipping.

Combine that with all the things being picked up at Comic Con for me (Shocktrooper bust and bust up, Vader bust up, Hasbro Figures, a couple of Halo toys and as of 2 hours ago, the Chasing Amy inaction figures) and this is going to be one expensive month!

Luckily, I hope by the end of the month I will have my killer Star Wars room finished and can start setting all this stuff up!

Promised photo updates

First of all, yesterday I snapped some pics of all those figs I bought early in the month but neglected to take pictures of. Here they be:




Next, this Weds, I went and bought a ton of the clearance skirmish in the senate multipacks. Here those are:



Yesterday evening, Heather and I went down to Ikea and picked up 8 shelves for the Star Wars room. These will be hung above the display cases. I hope to build them this Sunday. Here they are in particle board packaged form.





Last but not least, in case you did not notice the super cool new paint job, I should single it out. Black and white. That will be the theme of the Star Wars room. Heather did the majority of the finishing work on Weds night before I got home from work, including touchups on the popcorn ceiling, which is now black. Very cool stuff.

Paint it black

I came home from work this evening and Heather had the room pretty much finished. There wasn't even any rolling for me to do. She was using the paint pad and roller to put the finishing touches on it.

We took a trip down to Ikea yesterday to check out what kind of shelves we might want for above the display cases. We found them, and just need to decide between the birch and the white wood. I think I'm going with the white, as this room is going to be totally black and white, like the Vintage packaging.

Pictures to follow very soon.


In other news, Comic Con is underway and we're not there. I'm looking at the merchandise on Galactic Hunter and Rebelscum. Gentle Giant's Leia is my new favorite statue this year and a total must have for me. The Sideshow Jabba is my number 2 favorite and I will definitely buy that.


Star Wars room, here we come.

The new Star Wars room is underway

So, there has been a lot of progress on the Star Wars room this week. Heather can be thanked for most of it. She called me on Thursday to tell me that there were shelves on Craigslist that I would love. I was stuck in a meeting, but I know she knows my tastes, so I asked her to go ahead and email them. We've gone through this several times and I keep missing out because I'm not first. This time, she got a hold of the seller within hours of these display cases going online, so I was right in there.

Friday evening, I went to the cell phone store that was selling the display cases. It was a Sprint Store that had been merged with Nextel, so all of the display cases had to go. They were exactly what I wanted. I called the owner and agreed to buy several of these.

The next day, Craig came out with his truck and we made 3 trips to 2 different Sprint stores, where we loaded up his truck with shelves. Because the Star Wars room is downstairs and the garage is upstairs, we came up with a more creative way to unload the cases. Craig drove his truck right down the hill of the vacant lot next to my house, through the trees and everything.




After unloading all the shelves, the next task was to paint the room. On Saturday morning, Heather and I had moved all the toys out of the room (they're now all over the bottom floor of the house) and while I was moving the shelves with Craig and Andrew, she taped up the entire room to get it ready for painting.




She also managed to clean the house while we were gone, so that we could have a BBQ when we got done working. Pretty cool girl, that one I married.

Sunday morning, I woke up feeling very ill. Probably something I ate from the grill. I was ready to bag the painting idea for that day (I could barely sit up) but Heather decided that the show would go on. She went to Home Depot, got the paint...and her and her brother primed the entire room while I was passed out upstairs.

Today, I went to work and when I came home, she had already put the first coat of black on the roof. Yes, we're painting the entire room black. It's going to look really cool. She cut the rest of the room in while I did the walls...and by 8pm tonight, the first coat was done. Tomorrow, we may put on coat #2 or we may let it dry one more day before doing that and spend tomorrow picking out the last few shelves instead.





More updates as they come, but this is going to be the best Star Wars room yet, I know it.

The Boba

The other day I was browsing around Rebelscum and someone posted a link to this Ebay seller selling Boba Fett statues from Gentle Giant for 140 bucks shipped. I had to do it. It arrived last Thursday. I opened it up, took it out of the box and set it up on my desk for a little while. Then I packed it up without remembering to take a picture.

Sorry about that.

In other Star Wars news, the guy with those shelves is apparently not interested in giving them to me, even though the last 2 weeks have gone by without anyone picking them up. That was kind of a bummer.

In further Star Wars news....I just bought a handful of toys that I have yet to photograph. It was a couple of titaniums and 2 figures from the Tatooine wave. This blog is becoming very scarce as far as photos go, which I will try to remedy soon.

Completely out of the blue

I was just visiting Rebelscum (as I do 30 or 40 times a day) when I saw the front page news that this bad boy is up on StarWarsShop.com



299 bucks, and I already have the copper version. The copper ones were for Lucasarts employees and only 400 were made last year. This one is limited to 500 pieces. I couldn't pass it by and can always cancel my order if I have buyer's remorse, but I have a feeling I won't. If I get rid of one, it's probably going to be the copper one I bought last year. This was too sweet not to buy, and I predict a sellout by tonight.

While I was up there, I ordered two sets of AOTC bust ups (battle damaged and clean) for a total of 47.94.

Today was an expensive day, but these don't ship until November anyway.