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Friday, August 12, 2016

Birthday presents

So, almost a month ago now I had myself a birthday. For the most part I'm not big on celebrating (or even acknowledging) the day of my birth, but there is still one living person who is...my mom!

Even though I act like I don't like the attention from her that the day brings, inside I do sort of enjoy it (don't tell her though). The only thing I ask of her every year is to not go overboard with the gifts, which thankfully this year, she didn't.


First up is this 1967 Topps NL home runs leaders:

It's interesting to note that 1966 would be the last year that Willie Mays would hit over 30 HR's in a season.

Next up is this 2013 Topps 75th Anniversary autograph of Major Don West himself:
I don't know how many Lost in Space fans are reading this, but as someone who grew up watching reruns of the show, this is a very cool autograph to get. I was also struck by how attractive Mr. Goddard's signature is.

Hopefully no one is getting tired of seeing me show books yet:
I haven't mentioned on here before, but I have a minor obsession with airships. I don't really know where my interest in them stems from (TMNT blimp?), but it's there. I have a somewhat humble collection of items that I might start showing at some point. The biggest problem with collecting airship related items is that there are more collectors out there, than there are items to collect, especially the old stuff...which really drives up the prices.

As for the book itself, this 1961 publishing was the only American edition, which of course means it's been long out of print. General Umberto Nobile designed and piloted both the Norge and the Italia, the latter of which crashed on Svalbard (an archipelago off the coast of Norway) in 1928 while returning from the North Pole. Because of the resulting tale of survival on the ice by the crew, many books have been written about the crash and two movies have been made, Dirigible in 1931 and The Red Tent in 1969. Of the two I prefer Dirigible, (even though it's only loosely based on the Italia) mostly because for the special effects and the neat old stock footage that's used. It also doesn't hurt that amongst the cast is a 24 year old Fay Wray, who's looking 24 kinds of hot!

Moving on to a couple of action figures:
I haven't seen Iron Man 3, nor do I plan to, but that doesn't mean I don't have any interest in the figures.
Here he is out of the package.

I have seen packages in just about every kind of condition over the years, but I had never seen one that had the top of the card pinned back with paperclips. No matter though, especially if your a dedicated package opener.

This Spawn Widow Maker figure is so much more impressive once she was freed from her plastic prison.

So I will wrap it up by saying thank you to my mom for the presents, and more importantly, for still being able to make me feel like a kid at least twice (Christmas) a year.


                                
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6 comments:

  1. Billy KingsleyAugust 12, 2016 at 2:45 PM

    Great post! Happy belated birthday. After coming within 5 minutes of not having anymore birthdays, my family now celebrates mine twice...on my actual birthday and the day I came home from the hospital. I also love airships, I have never seen that book before though. I just found this past week the Zeppelin company has a Facebook page for their museum. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who opens their action figures either. Iron Man 3 was a pretty good movie. I liked it better than the first two in the series. I won't spoil it but I found the end a little disappointing but not enough that I won't watch it again, in fact I've seen it twice, which for me is a lot as I really don't watch movies too often.

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    1. JonAugust 13, 2016 at 9:46 AM

      Thanks, Billy! Not dying does seem like it might be the best reason for an annual celebration that I can think of, it really shows how close your family is to start doing something like that. I'm very envious of that kind of family closeness, especially since my family might be the complete polar opposite of that.

      I don't know why, but the Zeppelin museum having a Facebook page sounds very strange to me. It seems like an odd mix of the old and new.

      I have never understood why anyone would keep their action figures in package, especially when it comes to displaying them. Although, I suppose now people don't open stuff as much since grading action figures became a thing. A stupid thing in my opinion!

      I guess on your recommendation I will have to give Iron Man 3 a chance at some point. I only made it about halfway through the first one, before deciding that it just didn't seem to be getting any better as the movie progressed.

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  2. Mark HoyleAugust 12, 2016 at 6:38 PM

    Happy Birthday my friend. That 66 HR leader card is a favorite of mine. I love leader cards from the 60's loaded with HOF players

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    1. JonAugust 13, 2016 at 9:51 AM

      Thank you, Mark! I really do appreciate you saying that. I too, really love the stat leaders cards from the 60's. I especially like the backs because of the extensive lists. I wish they would have done the basketball leader cards from the early 70's the same way, instead of just listing the top ten like they did.

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  3. AnonymousAugust 13, 2016 at 1:08 PM

    That 1966 leaders card is cool, but the Mark Goddard signature made me say "Oh, wow". I watched the show a lot as a kid, but now I look back at the campy later episodes and wonder what the show would've been like if it stayed more serious and didn't focus so much on Dr. Smith. "Oh, the pain... the pain..."

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    1. JonAugust 14, 2016 at 5:44 AM

      Even though the show was always supposed to be meant for kids/teens, towards the end Irwin Allen really seemed to be catering to like the 10yrs and under crowd. He did the same thing with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, I really love that show, but a lot of the episodes in the later seasons are almost unwatchable.

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