Goodies From Oklahoma

Jeff from Cardboard Catastrophes is at it again.  I saw the padded mailer on the counter today labeled "Napkin and Son Doon" and knew exactly who sent it without even looking at the return address.  Jeff has without a doubt been one of the most generous bloggers that I've met during this little blog project.

And this package was also sorts of cool.  First, and I assume this was intended for the "Son Doon:"

A huge stack of vintage Star Wars cards. These are so cool.  I've got a bunch more of these in a box somewhere, so I need to see if I have the complete set.  I bet if I didn't, this group filled in a lot of gaps.  I think my son wants to take these to school Monday.  I suppose he could take a few.

And there was something for moi as well, and this is plain badass:

I don't have any of these Camo cards of the Rangers, so I was really pumped to get this.  Not sure why my scanner cropped the hell out of it. 

Thanks again for the nice cards Jeff! 

Hoarding, I Mean Collecting, At Disneyworld

The Lovely Wife and I took the kids to Disneyworld two weeks ago, and I'm just now recovering enough to write about it.  Wow, was it fun, and wow, was it exhausting.  We hit all four major parks (Magic Kingdom-twice, Epcot-twice, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios).  I'll spare you a recap of the trip other than to say: yes it was expensive, but Disney vacations are of such high quality and the kids (and parents) had such a blast that it was worth every penny.  Speaking of pennies...I was able to lay off cards for a week, but thanks to my son, my collecting hunger didn't go unsatisfied.

About two years ago, we took my son to the Tulsa, OK zoo, where he got a pressed penny as a memento.    He's since picked up a few more here and there, and has sort of started a collection.  Disneyworld was a prime place to blow up this collection, as there were pressed penny machines everywhere.  We got as many as we could find:

The scanner picked these up better than I thought it would, and you can get an idea of all the places we went.  Sadly, (or more like thankfully) my son does not seem to have inherited my collecting gene.  After we had made about 15 of these pennies, he lost some enthusiasm for them.  "I think it will be ok if we don't get anymore," were his exact words.

"I think it will be ok if we don't get anymore."

"I think it will be ok if we don't get anymore."

No, young man, it will not be ok.  Don't you understand that we must get them all and fill up a pressed penny album and then look for more and more and more?  Don't you understand that???  What do you have, perspective or something???

Thankfully, he wound up deciding he needed a few more and we managed to come home with over 20 pennies.

My kids also picked up a couple of other things I thought were cool enough to share with you:

The Star Wars ride at Hollywood Studios was awesome, but we had even more fun in the gift shop.  Unfortunately, there was no pressed penny machine (no license from Lucas) but there was a cool table where kids could custom build their own R2D2s and get them packaged.  My boy made one for himself, and one for his little sister, both R2s complete with Mickey Mouse ears.

Downtown Disney had a Lego store that could have kept us for hours if we'd had the time.  The kids were able to fill up some large cups with whatever Lego pieces they wanted, and then they were able to make their own Lego figures.  Nachos Grande would be proud:

 Yet again, I can't get my iPhone pictures to show up turned correctly.  If you could see this better, you would notice the firefighter my son built in the middle is wearing makeup, and the guy on the right has handcuffs.  Not sure what's going on with the guy on the left that my two year old built, but I like the helmet.

A Long Time Ago...

A very nice fellow, Jeff,  from the fantastic, witty, and  well written blog Cardboard Catastrophes sent my little boy a package out of the blue.  As much as I enjoy getting yellow mailers for myself, it was pretty fun seeing a package addressed to "Doon Son" and seeing my little boy get excited when he found out is was for him and got past the confusion of seeing "Doon Son" on the mailer. 

Inside was a generous helping of vintage Star Wars cards that completely delighted my boy:

 The Tusken Raider card is his favorite (mine too).

I actually am embarrassed that I'm just now posting about it since Jeff sent it a few months ago.  This was a totally unexpected and terrific surprise from him, and further evidence of the type of person he is.  Thanks Jeff!

Napkin Doon Attic Treasures #5: A Long Time Ago…

In a small Texas town far, far away….  Little Napkin developed his early hoarding tendencies with Star Wars toys and products.   I distinctly remember my parents suprising me with my first Star Wars figure, R2-D2, right after seeing the movie for the first time.  My obsession was on.  I still love Star Wars, and still have all my toys.  I can’t wait to give them to my boy once he shows some interest, and then I can play with them again!

I just realized my two lifelong hobby interests have been Star Wars and baseball cards.  2 out of 3 of the geek triple crown.  The other, in my opinion, is comic books, and I never really got into those.  How in the hell did I ever manage to convince my lovely wife to pick me?

When I came across these cards, I was horrified to see that they had been wrapped in rubber bands.  The rubber bands were so old, that they fell apart when I tried to remove them.  Thankfully the cards were no worse for wear because of it. 

Actually, the cards weren’t in half bad shape, considering how much I handled them as a child.  I also have near complete sets of all 3 movies, so I might have to add these to the Super Duper Checklist and create an album for them.  Anyone have a suggestion for filling these types of sets?