Forces of Valor (FOV) / Unimax Deep Dive: Pt 33 Set #83008 (2007) - #93008 (2007) US 82nd Airborne Division Pt 2 U.S. Pose 6

 The first of five figures in the set, this is U.S. pose 6.

Ed

BREWERIANA: Lionel #6-9851 O-gauge Schlitz Reefer Car (1973)

There was some sad news in the media this past week or so. An old Milwaukee staple and icon of the beer industry has been discontinued. Pabst Beer, the current owner of the Schlitz brand, decided to discontinue  production due to rising costs. Schlitz was founded in 1849 and was once the largest producing beer in America becoming "The Beer that made Milwaukee Famous". Apparently, on one of Teddy Roosevelt's safaris, he brought Schlitz along and the company capitalized on it, using that as a marketing tour de force. As a native Milwaukeean, I personally enjoyed Pabst more, but I certainly appreciate the history and legacy of all Milwaukee breweries.

So far, my one and only Schlitz railroad car is a reefer made by Lionel during its MPC era and was bought on a shoe-string budget with no box included in the sale. Looks like I'm gonna have to search out some more, just for old times sake.

RIP Schlitz!

Ed

 

The doors open allowing the railroader to place details inside the car if so desired.

Marx #4672 'The Flintstones' Playset (1961) - Pt 6 Snack Bar

Marx called this the 'Snack Bar', while others refer to it as the diner, or lunch counter. Whatever. Six of one, half dozen of the other. It comes with a set of three stools and of course the rooftop sign. It measures 3.75" (9,52cm) W x 3.75" (9,52cm) D x 3" (7,62cm) H to top of roof  or 4" (10,16cm) H to top of sign.

Ed

The Snack Bar on my 2011 setup

Forces of Valor (FOV) / Unimax Deep Dive: Pt 32 Set #83008 (2007) - #93008 (2007) US 82nd Airborne Division Pt 1 Packaging and Contents

Here's another set for which I had none of my original boxes and therefore had to rely on fleaBay for photos. This was an awesome set that featured both U.S. GI's as well as German prisoners. I wish FOV would have offered more in this vein. As stated in previous posts, I had all of my figures from the early 2000s in a large box and pulled out the correct ones for photography. I did not re-use previously taken photographs of any figures. Relying on fleaBay photos does allow me to reconstruct the number and types of figures in each set as well as the larger pieces, however, I have no way of confirming the 'smalls' unless there's a really good photo by the seller of what's inside the box. Both of these sets are dated 2007.

Ed

FOV #83008 U.S. 82nd (2007) (eBay)

1st Series 'dark' box

FOV #93008 U.S. 82nd (2007) (eBay)

2nd Series olive green box

Contents

-2 GI's

-3 German POWs

-Log obstacle

-Ruined wall - straight

-Crate #1

-Crate #3

-Jerry can

The crates and Jerry can were the only 'smalls' I was able to ascertain from the photos. There were probably 2-4 Jerry cans in the set as that was fairly standard for FOV, but I can't verify the correct quantity for this set.

My First Chat GPT Image: Space Cowboy (aka The Bloginator)

Way back in 2013 I cobbled an image together in Photoshop combining my head - cut from a photo of me as a kid dressed in a cowboy outfit - and overlaying it onto a toy Premier Plastics spaceman. I added 'The Bloginator' moniker and put it in a post. It was goofy, but fun.

Taking the image, sans script, I ran it through Chat GPT to see what would happen. 

Now, I've been on the fence with this whole AI thing for some time. Most of the hobby groups I belong to in facebook don't allow AI images and there's quite a bit of ambivalence towards it out there. I've seen it done well and I've seen it screwed up too. Imagine seeing an AI generated person move their arm in a video, and part of the arm moves while part of the arm sort of hangs out by itself elsewhere on the image. Clumsy. I've also seen guys animate Little Green Army Men figures that still have the bases attached. Also clumsy. A bunch of guys in the toy train community have used Chat GPT to generate heralds or signs for their YouTube channels, from which they had stickers made, and they're not too bad. The designs tend to have 'thick' components: heavy lines, in-your-face images. Not very subtle, but overall still pretty decent.

So, I approached this with a bit of trepidation. Anywho, it only took about 5-6 minutes to generate the image below after figuring out how to load the image and give instructions. Instructions were actually minimal. I typed in "attach head to body" and it came back with an slightly modified picture of my head on the toy spaceman (it colorized my head). I didn't save a copy of that attempt. My second (and last) command was simple: "make the spacesuit more realistic". That was it. The image rendered below, complete with desert background, was the result:

hahahahaha I like it!

One of the arguments against using AI is that it takes away 'creativity' and I bought into that for some time. But look at this image. There is no way in hell I have the ability to draw this well. I'm not an artist, I'm not an illustrator, and I'm not a animator. I'm a schmuck with a camera that sometimes takes a few nice pictures! That's it.

Will I use Chat GPT again? You betcha! HOWEVER, I don't want this to become an AI-centric blog. I will continue to experiment with it and continue to post occasional images and see how it all works out.

Ed