Richards family Christma party

Hey peoples. I'm gonna blog on the Richards family Christmas party. Here it goes.

So our family left at around 9:30 to go there. The Richards are our grandparents that came for Christmas. It was snowing here but there it was just light rain. We opened most of our presents after we ate turkey sandwiches for lunch. Even their dog Daisy had presents under the tree.

I got a bomber jacket, a hoodie, some PS3 games, a Nerf gun, and iTunes gift card.


Unfortunately I already had that Nerf gun so I will probably get this one.



Katie got a lot of stuff for her upcoming new room. Alex received 2 transformers, a Angry Birds play set, and a huge Helicarrier from Avengers among other things. I also got some shirts as well. Afterwards me and my grandfather went outside for a while and tossed a small football that had a shaft and styrofoam arrow fletchings on the back so it goes pretty far.


Pretty soon My uncle Chris, uncle Jonathan, aunt Jessica, my cousin Brittany, and her husband Jason arrived.

We sat in the living room for a while and talked while Jason and Alex played a maze game on his iTouch. Before dinner me and Jason played a game on my iPad called Solforge which is a virtual card game. My grandmother made roast beef, mashed potatoes, salad, and some really good gravy. Next we sat down for more presents. From Brittany, Jason, Jonathan, and Jessica Alex and I got a remote control car for Alex and a terrain twister for me.





I tried the terrain twister today and it can go on land, snow, or water using two huge screws attached to the sides. Katie got a Tinkerbell figure that flies up into the air, a stationary kit, and a watch. Finally we ate ice cream and cookies before we had to leave.

So that was the Richards Christmas party. Thanks for the presents and the great food. Bye!


By Ashton

Christmas Books

Hey peoples. Today I'm gonna write about the books I got for Christmas. Here it goes.

First the two horror books I got. The first is called Grande Illusions. It is from the films of special make-up effects artist Tom Savini. He participated in films like Friday the 13th part 1, the Burning, and Creepshow. The book first tells about how Tom Savini became a make up artist and his time in Vietnam and then make up techniques for horror movies. The other is called Famous Monsters of Filmland and has pictures of the hobbit on the front. It looks really good but I haven't read it yet.






I also got a bunch of Marvel comics books and two DC comic books. I have read the Green Lantern and Nightwing books which were really nice especially because both of them involved the death of Batman and the beginning of Blackest Night. I have read some of X-Men Vs. Fantastic Four and that is really good too and I like how Franklin Richards is involved.


















I got two sci-fi magazines from my Aunt Robin and they are really cool as well. One talks about Walking Dead. The other magazine features the Hobbit movie. I also got a years subscription for it as well. I still have to read the one about the Hobbit though.






So those are my Christmas books. Thanks peoples. Bye!


By Ashton

Another cool alien by Kev Crossley

Christmas action figures

Hey peoples. This blog is on the toys and action figures I got for Christmas. Here it goes.


One of the things I got was Neca's Falconer Predator from the movie Predators.



His articulation is okay. His predator boots can turn all the way around. The knees bend but they are stiff and fragile. The chest can turn. The head can turn. The arms can go up and down. It is not very durable and the joints are very stiff I would not recommend it for kids planning on playing with it a lot.

The detail is very good and as far as I can tell, accurate, without seeing the movie.

It is a little lacking in accessories though. It has a wrist blade although it doesn't fit very well in the gauntlet and falls out a lot. They could of at least have included the actual falcon too.


I also got a terminator made by Hasbro that was put out for Terminator Salvation. It is a T-800 as seen in Terminator but it is just the metal inside without the flesh.



The articulation is very good only lacking in the chest, waist, and neck.

The detailing is good and movie accurate for a Hasbro toy meant for younger kids.

It comes with a gun around sub machine gun size and a pistol.


I got an Engineer from Prometheus too. It is in it's full pilot suit as seen in Alien but the suit is not connected to the pilot's chair. Made by Neca.






The articulation is good for a display figure. One odd thing is that the head turns but doing so makes the tube connecting the nose of the helmet to the chest turn out of place.

The detail is great and a good addition to my collection.


Another great Addition is the T-1000 from terminator 2. Made by Mcfarlane.








The articulation isn't great but the detail and accessories more than make up for it.

It comes with two chests that fit onto the waist with a sturdy fat peg that shouldn't break. One of the chests is the one from the end of the movie after it gets hit by the rocket. The other is one is filled with enter and exit bullet holes in the chest and a big one to the face with one arm transformed into a blade.

It comes with a pistol, two hook arms you can fit onto the arms on the bullet ridden chest, and a large skull statue holding the Terminator 2 movie poster with Mcfarlane's Movie Maniacs logo.


Probably the other great addition to my collection beside the Engineer would be a Corporal Hicks by Mcfarlane.



The articulation isn't great but it's worth because it is the only space marine made in this size that I know.

The detail is awesome on the figure and the base which is the metal grating from Aliens is ridden with the hive goo and metal. Although the face doesn't really look like Michael Biehn and it is a bit to muscular.

It comes with one main accessory besides the base which is the awesome Pulse rifle. Although the figure does have a bunch of holsters and pockets all over the body amour and the motion scanner is attached to a strap slung over his chest. It doesn't have great movement but it is a great addition to a collection


I also got the Engineer without the suit from Prometheus. Made by Neca
It has around the same amount of Articulation as the chair suit Engineer but the head can't really turn because of it's fat neck although it does have a joint. It is also more fragile and the left hand on mine pops off easy although it can fit back on without glue and still turn around.

The detailing is great especially around the creepy eyes.

No accessories here and it would have been great if they included the mutated worm that attacked Fifield in Prometheus.

Finally I got a awesome alien action figure from Alien Resurrection by Mcfarlane. I know Resurrection is probably the worst alien movie but this figure is the best alien I have in terms of detail and articulation.




The double jointed legs in the movie aren't jointed here but they do move out and in and back and forth at the thighs and the feet move down and up so you could have a leg higher than another and the feet would look right. The tail is very long and bendy. The wire in it is better than the other alien I have with a wire tail because it bends very easily into whatever shape you want. The chest has a ball joint and a flap of alien skin bends to be under the ribcage hiding the joint. The arms can turn up and down at the shoulders the elbows and the hands can turn. The head can move back and forth too. The head I got on is tilted a bit to his left but I don't know if that is on purpose or not but either way it is not very noticeable.

The detail is great, the texture on the smooth head is great and most areas of the figure the skin is soft and mushy.

No accessories except it also has a skull statue holding a movie poster but it is not as big. It is probably my favorite figure. Bye!


By Ashton

A creepy book cover for John Carpenters The Thing

Christmas

Hello people's. Today I'm gonna write about my Christmas and Christmas Eve. Here it goes.

The next three days both me and Katie will be writing a blog probably relating towards Christmas. So Beginning on Christmas Eve morning mom made bacon and pancakes. At around noon my mom's parents came over and my grandad played with me and my siblings using styrofoam planes we got at a Christmas party and three of those small footballs with the foam wings on the end. It started snowing when we were outside. Try to tell me that the first snow of the season happening on Christmas Eve isn't a coincidence. After a while we went back inside. Then we sat down down and watched the Polar Express. Then we opened presents from our grandparents to us. I got some tank tops, pajama bottoms, and a nice new robe with a hood. Alex got a fun pack with some gliders a small wooden catapult, and some small plastic dinosaurs to paint. We were going to go see a daughter of my dad's friend but we cancelled due to snow. After two more Christmas specials we read two short Christmas books and the yearly tradition of reading Santa Mouse. After putting out cheese, cookies and milk for Santa and Santa Mouse. Our dinner was pretty early at 3:10 but the food cooked by my mom and grandmother was really good. Finally Alex and I packed in bed. After the inevitable talk and excitement between us was finished we slumbered off. After a dream I woke lazily and went Oh My God I just slept on Christmas Eve I excitedly looked at my clock to find out it was only 4:20 in the morning and slept again until Dad woke us at 7:00 to get up!

In our house you have to stay in your room until they come and get you. I desperately stumbled for my robe and hobbled out into the hallway. One entrance led to the living room where turning right would lead you straight into the sunroom where the presents awaited. Dad said "Okay... Go!" and slowly unblocked the entrance Katie and Alex ran out that way only to find I had taken the other entrance and was already way ahead of them. Katie flew into a jealous rage and Alex's demise was coming so Dad had to hold back the punches of the early Christmas morning race to the presents.

Beating siblings to presents like a boss.



After stockings and presents I had a Playstation 3, six games, six new figures to add to my horror memorabilia, a new card game, a large mass of comics, two horror books, two geeky T shirts Im wearing now, and a bunch of little toys from my stocking. Blogs on those soon. Afterwards we had bagels with salmon, sausage, and muffins for Breakfast. The playstation was half Mom's too who likes to play and she set it up while me and my grandad shoveled the driveway. When we got in my mom and I spent the rest of Christmas day in a glorious game-fest. Finally we opened presents Aunt Robin and her family and mom and dad opened their presents from each other. Dad got a disturbing, floppy, spiky, light up, sticky, squishy, Captain America and mom got a iPad Mini. They were equally happy.

So that's my Christmas everybody! Thanks for the stuff! Have a merry Christmas, a good snow, and a happy New Year!


By Ashton

The Predators are Jewish!

Hey people's. Today I'm gonna tell you about one of the many legends circling the Dill household. Here it goes.

Okay so before you get the wrong idea by predators I mean the humanoid hunter aliens that travel from planet to planet hunting big game, usually us or xenomorphs. So I'm taking a page from my Dads blog and telling you a story about them and our family.

So the family is just sitting around the dinner table eating. The conversation goes on and eventually we get to me being a horror movie geek getting Aliens and Predators for Christmas so my dad cuts in and says
"Do the Aliens celebrate Christmas?"
" No! Of course not!" I said not joking at all.
"Do the predators celebrate Christmas?"
"Well, they probably celebrate some sort of holiday collaborating with their hunter personality and society as well as-
"Hanukkah? Katie interrupted...

"THE PREDATORS ARE JEWISH!!!" I yelled.

The table erupted into laughter and my dad immediately called Instagramming it. I argued profusely and managed to get it into the blog post. Bye peoples!



Katie obviously very enthused about being involved.

Another alien by Kevin Crossely.


By Ashton

Night with friends

Hey peoples. Today I'm gonna talk about my last Saturday night. Here it goes.

So a while ago my dad and some of his friends agreed to watch Die Hard at larry's house. I was allowed to come too. I have seen Die Hard before but it is still an awesome movie. We stopped at Ledos pizza and got some buffalo wings for all of us. Katie, Mom, and Alex babysat Madeline Bline so I'm sure she will blog about that today as well.

So last summer I started mowing lawns and my dads friend Heath was one of those lawns. His lawn wasn't my favorite. The grass was always long, the lawn mower setting was longer grass too, the lawn mower was self propelled but the self propel was broken so it only made it heavier, It was harder to start, and not to mention the sink holes. And no I am not joking. I was still relatively okay with those but I also had to bag the grass and dump in the sinkholes. This meant I had to repeatedly go back and forth across the lawn and restart the mower each time.

Heath and Steve are fighting to see who is dads meanest friend by proving it to me.

I guess that was what started the war between dads meanest friends Heath and Steve who both came to the movie. Heath wasn't really very mean it was his lawn but once I said that Steve wasn't the meanest friend it sparked a war between them with Heath actually trying to be mean. Shortly after I told Steve it became war at the Thanksgiving party with Steve winning because Heath spent most of the time buzzed or talking to me about a college even though he knew it was war. Heath is winning now because Steve was exhausted at the movie and spoke a total of 6 words.

Heath



Steve



So there is the rundown on that. Place bets on the meanest friend. Bye!

An Aliens play set by Micro machines.



By Ashton

Mcfarlane Toys

Hey peoples. Today I'm going to do some of Mcfarlane's toys today. Here it goes.

So last blog I did Neca toys and said next time I would do Mcfarlane. Mcfarlane basically makes toys around the same size, quality, and both do a lot of different horror toys. I currently do not have any Mcfarlane toys but I am hoping to get some for X-mas. One of the things I was hoping to get were the figures they made for John Carpenters The Thing movie. They made two figures and a company called Sota toys did a boxed set that came with a human and the creature turning into a dog. The monsters don't have much articulation but I imagine that is very hard with something as complicated as that and they still are cool figures due to there detail.

The Norris creature with head crab


The Blair creature


Sota toys set


I also decided to get the alien they made from Alien Resurrection. They also made the dog alien and that would of been cooler but I guess that one was more popular as it sells on eBay for twice as much money. Everyone says the movies are bad but these are the only figures I have seen made except for Hot Toys and Hasbro.

The dog alien


Alien warrior from Alien Resurrection.


I have seen eight terminator toys by them so far although they could be more. I have seen 24 different aliens and predator figures and three different statue dioramas from Alien vs Predator.



One of their dioramas

Another cool thing that they have made was a action figure for Corporal Hicks although it doesn't really look like Michael Bein.



Another company that has made some cool stuff is a Japanese company called Kaiyodo. They have made a alien queen, a drone, a warrior, and a predator. They have some really cool paint apps especially on the aliens with them being transluscent in some places and spray painted black in others and the predator looks wet and slimy like he did just run through a rainforest. The only thing I saw that could have been done better was the inner mouth on the aliens but I guess I'm lucky I got one at all. These come at around a 100 dollars in America.









So thats that. Thanks for the blog ideas but I might need a little help with #7. Bye.

A xenomorph the artist calls "temple breed". Unknown artist done in 2003.



By Ashton

Neca toys

Hey peoples. Here's a blog. Here it goes.



A while ago I had a blog about the alien toys Hot Toys makes. In that blog I mentioned that the closest thing to that kind of quality was an alien that I learned was from Neca. Neca and Mcfarlane, which the latter I will do my next blog, are two different toy companies. Both of them have around the same scale figures and both of them do Aliens and Predator without the foot tall size which is a little big for my tastes and the price which is hard on a 13 year old collector like me. That alien by the way also came with a base big enough for the predator that came with it, some eggs, and some facehuggers.





The predator in the two pack wasn't the best figure. It had not very much articulation but some good detailing although I felt the head wasn't proportionate and the dreadlocks were to thick and short.



Some of Neca's predators

Neca has made eight AVPR (aliens vs predator requiem) figures even though six of these were just different variations of the same predator (masked, invisible, battle damaged ect.) Technically nine though because the predalien has a version with fangs spread outward and one where they are closed. The warrior they made has no variations. All of these figures have great detail and articulation, only the aliens lack in accessories.


My favorite predator about to get jumped. Note the detail and the poses you can get them in.

I only have the one figure from this series which is the un battle damaged, unmasked, non stealth predator. Right now he is my favorite predator due to his detail, articulation, accessories, and size. The one cool thing about all the variants is that half of them come with a facehugger and chestburster instead of predator weapons. They also made the alien from Alien and the alien from Aliens but I think they have no accessories. They made a but load of predators from all of their movies at 36. These all have good detail, articulation, and accessories. Neca has two Prometheus figures out with the engineer with the bulky pilot suit seen in Alien and the lighter weight suit at the end of Prometheus all though they are expected to make more. They have made 16 different Terminator toys so far of which I have 1. The detail is great and definitely looks like Arnold but it only has 1 accessory and very little articulation.



Their alien from AVPR. It looks awesome.




The predalien. What they used for the movie could have been better but the figure is great.

There's the rundown on my favorite horror movie toys from Neca. Some blog ideas would be appreciated. Bye!



Funny pic. Think back to the movie Princess Bride.




Apparently also by Tina in 2003 who did the last drawing. The queen looks the same but the warriors have spikes on the head. Perhaps Praetorians?

By Ashton