Toys and Stuff: June 2013

Sunday, June 30, 2013

2013_06_30 Vegas Valley Big Sky Pics - Sunset

“I believe I am in Hell, therefore I am.”
― Arthur Rimbaud

Last weekend the big news here and abroad was the Super Moon. Many of us photographed it and many more simply enjoyed viewing it. This weekend however is such a different story. It was to be a record breaking scorcher with forecasted temperatures of 117°F / 47°C today and although we managed to dodge that bullet the official temperature here in Vegas was still a toasty 113°F / 45°C. The photos Bettina took of the sunset today certainly give one the feeling of stepping onto Hell's doorstep! Enjoy - if your staying cool!

Photos by Bettina Berg

***UPDATE***

7-1-2013

Apparently temps here in the Valley did in fact reach the 117° mark as I pay more attention to the news :-)

Today is s'posed to be a lot cooler, only getting up to 114° :-(

(that was sarcasm by the way)

7:44PM

7:45PM

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7:54PM

Kurt Adler #BM0153 Batmobile

Kurt S. Adler, Inc., is a company which specializes in Christmas decorations, importing and distributing decorations from around the world. One of the series of ornaments is a line of Batmobile's, however I haven't yet figured out just how many different cars they've released. The licensed Batman products currently listed on their website don't include any Batmobile's. To date I've been able to identify at least four different models, one of which is featured here today on Toys & Stuff which I was able to get this for a decent price because it came without the original box.

The ornament itself is 1/43 scale and made of plastic with non-movable wheels. On my particular example the chassis wasn't aligned with the body and so the right front tire raises upward from the surface. When displayed hanging from a Christmas tree branch, something like that is rather immaterial, but collector's like us who put vehicles down on flat surfaces readily notice this. Overall it really is a cool edition to the Batmobile fleet and as the search continues for other variations perhaps they'll show up here. Until then - Enjoy!

Saturday, June 29, 2013

2013_06_29 - The Waning Gibbous

We've been learning a thing or two about the Moon lately. One little tidbit we picked up was that the phase the Moon is currently in is a called the 'Waning Gibbous'. 'Gibbous' for me was an odd word and so it just cried out for looking it up in the dictionary:

gib·bous Adjective /ˈgibəs/

Synonyms:
adjective: hunchbacked, convex, humpbacked, bulging,protuberant

(of the moon) Having the observable illuminated part greater than a semicircle and less than a circle
Convex or protuberant
- gibbous eyes

Web definitions

crookback: characteristic of or suffering from kyphosis, an abnormality of the vertebral column
(used of the moon) more than half full

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=gibbous

(gibbousness) bulge: something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings; "the gun in his pocket made an obvious bulge"; "the hump of a camel"; "he stood on the rocky prominence"; "the occipital protuberance was well developed"; "the bony excrescence between its horns"

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=gibbousness

A lunar phase or phase of the moon is the appearance of the illuminated portion of the Moon as seen by an observer, usually on Earth. The lunar phases vary cyclically as the Moon orbits the Earth, according to the changing relative positions of the Earth, Moon and Sun. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbous

Characterized by convexity; protuberant; Phase of moon or planet between first quarter and full or between full and last quarter; Humpbacked

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gibbous

The lunar phase when the moon is more than half dark, but less than fully illuminated.

http://www.floridaparanormalresearch.com/glossary/

Convex, rounded, protuberant; exceeding a semi-circle but less than a circle

http://huey.colorado.edu/diatoms/about/glossary.php

From a word meaning 'fat' or 'rounded', this refers to seeing a moon or planet more than half lit by the Sun. [See: Gibbous Phase. Also see: Appendix A-Lunar Orbit and Phases.]

http://www.mauriceonthemoon.com/glossary.php

Protuberant; swelling out into a pouch or sac.

http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-CheManu-t1-back1-d1-d4.html

irregularly rounded or bulging, as the moon when in a phase between half-moon and full

http://www.eldritchdark.com/articles/criticism/69/a-glossary-for-the-fiction-of-clark-ashton-smith

Swollen or enlarged on one side; a pouch-like enlargement of the base of an organ.

http://www.anbg.gov.au/jmiller/factsheets/Acaciella/glossary.htm

adjective - 1. protuberant; rounded and bulging 2. designating the moon, a planet, etc. in that phase in which more than half, but not all, of the face reflects sunlight to the earth 3. humpbacked; kyphotic (N.B. kyphotic means hunchbacked)

http://www.gdiproductions.net/srdamd/

Swollen on one side.

http://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/FNWE2/key/Whole_key_html/Glossary.htm

I s'pose it had to happen sooner or later but last night the camera started acting up. I had gone to bed early (12:30AM) while Bettina kept trying to shoot. When I awoke she told of the problems and it seems the display simply refuses to work properly in the 'Manual' setting which we've been using. The following pictures were taken in the 'Aperture Priority' setting which works fine but the point is the camera may be on its last legs. No surprise as over the past few years I've shot tens of thousands of photos with it!

6:25AM

7:20AM

Last shot for today. It's 7:44AM and already getting hot outside - 94°F - so we're packing it in for today.

Premier Plastics & Knock-off Flash Gordon Space Ships – Pt 12 5" Wide Body v.1

Well, we're finally finished with the 5" Flash Gordon Darts - the term I've given to the narrower/thinner of the two styles of Premier Plastics Flash Gordon Ships. Today, and for the next couple of weeks, we'll take a look at the 5" Wide Body variants - the term Wide Body is my own to differentiate it from the Darts. Generically collectors simply call these Wide Body ships as 5", but in actuality they only measure 4 1/2" (11.4 cm) long. If you've been following this series, we began back on Apr 13, 2013 and have had an installment every Saturday since. The specs for this first variant are:

5” Wide Body’s v.1

- Hard plastic

- Made by Premier Plastics

- 6 windows behind cockpit

- 1 strut underneath nose and 2 free rolling wheels in tricycle landing gear arrangement

- No number underneath fuselage

- Original exhaust

Enjoy!