Jealousy in the Geek Cave - or, Castles, Castles, and More Castles

In possibly the most self-obvious statement ever to be written in this blog, let me start off by saying that I'm an MLP collector.  Which means a significant portion of my paycheques go to Hasbro.  Likewise, Roomy is helping to keep Mattel in business through her MOTU collection.

Now Mattel has done something quite smart in that they have a whole line directed only to collectors, MOTU Classics.  It's not available in stores, it's a bit more expensive than most toys, and it's FREAKIN' AWESOME!

I love my MLP, and I have a terrible weakness for playsets and accessories (gads, how I love accessories).  But I have to admit I'm finding myself rather jealous of Roomy's Classics line just now.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Classics Castle Grayskull:

The Geek Cave just got a whole lot smaller

Box art done by the original artist from the 80s!

You can't believe the detail on this thing.  It's a work of beauty.

Meanwhile, I was building my own (tiny) castle display.  It's not really fair to compare a toy line with a collectors' line, and I do love my G4 castles, but the playsets themselves are definitely improved with accessories, ponies, and some imagination...

Of course the Ponyville Ponies came to Twilight Sparkle's corronation.  They stuck around afterward for the celebrations, too.  Fluttershy and Twilight are chatting while Angel eyes the treat tray.

Rarity is a little preoccupied with checking out all the Canterlot jewelry.  Spike is torn between his love of Rarity and his love of gems.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack were enjoying a quiet snack until Pinkie Pie found the piano.  Well, the Canterlot critters seem to enjoy her playing.

Celestia and Luna aren't so sure about her playing, however.

Elf

Holidays at Elfpony's 2013 version - part 2

This year at the Dream Castle, some unexpected visitors came a wassailing and decided to stay for the festivities...

Queen Marlena: "It's so nice to celebrate the Holidays again!  Sometimes I do miss Earth traditions."

Snowflake: "I think it's nice to have somebody with thumbs to help put up the string of lights!  This usually takes us forever!"
Teela: "I'm happy to help out.  You're all so darn cute."

Orko: "I wanna help out too!  I'll use my magic to string these lights!"
Man-At-Arms: "Orko!"
Orko: "Uh-oh!"
Powder: "Maybe just leave the magic to us unicorns?"

Molasses: "Spike, I don't think you should be sneaking treats before - oh my!  A tiger!"

Cringer: "Gosh, all that food looks so good.  I wonder if anyone would notice if I just take a tiny little lick off this cupcake?"  (Elfpony's aside: if you were a child in the 80s, you totally read that in Cringer's voice, didn't you?  Admit it.)

Best Wishes: "Happy Birthday, Twins!"
Adam: "Thanks, fluffy pony."
Adora: "Adam!  Where are your manners?  Best Wishes has a name."

King Randor: "And then I had to negotiate a peace treaty with them, and you can imagine how long that took.  Well, I don't need to tell you all the ins and outs of running a kingdom, do I.  So after that we went to blah, blah, blah..."
Majesty (noding politely): *Maybe next year I'll spend the Holidays visiting Celestia.  Let her deal with all the polite chit-chat and politics.  I'll spend my time at the buffet.*

Zoar: "Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good night!"

Mechaneck: "Hey, what about me?  Can't I come in?"

And just for added fun, if you want to see the MOTU collector's take on this scene, check out Roomy's blog.

Happy Holidays!

Elf

Holidays at Elfpony's 2013 version - part 1

I've got the MLPs taking part in the holidays in two locales this year - at work and at home.

My office at work needed a little Holiday love, and so did the G3s, so I brought them to work. (Apologies for the not-fantastic phone photos).

Ponies on the filing cabinet

The Ponies are having a great time getting ready for the Holiday season, and everyone's busy.  Snow-glo and Mittens are busy wrapping gifts for all their friends and families.

Winter Wish is keeping the Baby Ponies busy (and making sure they don't see their gifts before they're wrapped!) by taking them on a sleigh ride, jingle bells and all.

Snow'el and Mistletoe are decorating the tree, with help from Minty.

Several of the other Ponies are taking advantage of the lovely weather to play in the snow.  Skating, tobboganing, and building snowmen are some of the Ponies' favourite winter activities.

And after all that, it's fun to join some friends and warm up with some hot chocolate and tasty pastries.

I've also got a string of lights up around my desk, and the G3 mini ornaments (among others) are hanging out there, making spirits bright.

And in case anyone's wondering, yes the ponies are getting locked away in my cabinet for safe keeping every evening.  ;)

Happy Holidays!

Elf

On displaying ponies, and the usefulness of risers

As evidenced by last week's post, we're in the process of slowly converting the shelving of the Geek Cave into Billy bookshelves from Ikea.  It seems that these are the preferred shelves of the Pony collecting community.  They're cheap, they're sturdy, they look nice, they're pretty easy to procure and put together (Roomy's an expert by now) and they work well as a display space.

But Ponies are small, and the shelf space is large.  How best to utilize your space?  Most collectors use risers of some type.  There are a great variety of risers available, from those you make yourself from rigid foam, to found items, to actual risers you can buy.  Here's a look at some of what I'm using.

I've seen some really great homemade risers, but I can draw a straight line with a ruler, never mind cutting one, so this is not the option I prefer.  I must admit I prefer the store bought plastic ones - these are usually intended to go into your kitchen cupboards so you can see what cans you have in the back - they are pretty much the perfect size for Ponies, but unfortunately they don't quite fill a Billy shelf.

To fill out the rest of the shelf, I turn to found items.  I still had quite a few old VHS tapes lying around in the basement, and these fit well into this little space.  Add some MLP packaging on top, and I can just about match the height and width of the riser shelves.

It's always good to have more Pony space.

Elf