Thursday 30 December 2010

Lego Star Wars

I love Lego and I love star wars so its a reasonable assumption to say I love the licensed toys produced by Lego! In particular I like the little people, lego mini figures, the produce such cute replicas of the characters and their costumes. I have 27 Star Wars Lego figures and another dozen regular Lego mini figs, I just cant get enough of them. I recently rekindled my love for these little toys after a christmas gift from my my mother in law, a new lego star wars mini set and the visual dictionary : D what a great gift!


The Lego universe is always changing and has changed dramatically since I last paid it any particular attention, I only just noticed that my Leia mini figs had pink skin and the others had yellow. Then whilst browsing ebay I noticed many of the mini figures had pink and brown skin tones which is great - Mace Windu is my favourite jedi from the council - and the the new revamped mini figs have very detailed feature's and head pieces. My problem is most of my current mini figs have yellow heads, do I buy new pink headed detailed figures or continue my current collection with yellow heads?

Lego have this to say:

"When the minifigure was first introduced 30 years ago, it was given the iconic yellow skin tone to reflect the non-specific and transcendental quality of a child’s imagination. In 2002, as more licensed properties were added to the assortment, the decision was made to introduce ethnic and skin tones more in keeping with the actual characters and personalities who were being replicated. This included the introduction of black minifigures. However, these ethnic minifigures are only used in our licensed sets, all Lego playthemes continue to use the generic yellow face."

I started collecting in 2000 through to 2005 but since getting married I haven't collected many more toys (paying bills becomes a bit more important nowadays) but still don't see how could I have missed this major overhaul of Lego men, blimey!

Thursday 16 December 2010

Metal Chick

If Drowning Pool is looking for a singer, they don't have to look very far.

Lolita the parrot has many great videos on you tube of her singing and cracking jokes originally found at this link.

Saturday 11 December 2010

Student protests dominate headlines

Just to warn you my hackles are up so expect some ranting!

Recently the news has been flooded with stories and reports of the student protests throughout the country. You can read stories from the BB, Times and Daily Mail in case you’ve been living under a rock.

Recently a small number of people attending these protests have grown aggressive and violent. In particular footage shown here displays only a handful of protests at the front of the crowd pushing in windows whilst the rest merely watch. In this event was not an overly violent situation, but one that has been blown out of preportions on several mediums.

There is also talk of how angry the students are, lots of professional/expert supporters defend the violence with this righteous and apparently justifiable anger. It makes ME angry to hear so many people support violence! Protests organised online were promoting attendance but did not suggest writing to the local MPs or using words to solve the issue, a far more effective and peaceful way to start a protest. I support the right for every free man (woman and child for that matter, I’ve attended a few myself in the past) to protest against something with which they disagree. Whether that be Muslim extremist-burning flags at troops home coming parade or BNP members burning copies of the Qur'an for similar reasons, its our most basic human right as citizens of Great Britain to be able to do so.

I am infuriated by how people fighting politically (through the means of peaceful protest) against wars or genocide are condoned for descending into violence but people protesting against student fees are apparently seen as “reasonably understandable” to behave in such a way. Despite my usually open minded attitude I have very little respect for those who believe this.

Then last night whilst on the way to the Royal Variety performance Princes Charles car was attacked by a group of these violent student protesters. There are lots of talks about how the protesters may Charles is responsible for the fees rising or is a symbol of what they are against, in his smart tux riding in shiny chauffeur driven car or on the flip side how students shouldn’t blame him, as he is helpless against the elected government.

First of all the idea that the Prince of Wales, future King of England is helpless is daft. He is very well informed and influential he has great business sense and intellect; he is, in short, a powerful man. But for student protesters to attack his car knowing he and wife Camilla were inside is nothing short of treason, as for shouting chants of "Off with his head" it utterly infuriates me. They smashed the window, threw paint pots as well denting and scratching the car. I heard one report suggestion that Charles should have attempted to reason with the protests by getting out of the car to talk to them. It was a high security meltdown and the royal couple were very venerable as a result.

As I said before I believe in everyone’s basic right to peaceful protest, but this monopoly of the news on student tuition fees rising is getting beyond ridiculous! There are more important things going on in this world that deserve our attention, famine in India, genocide in Africa, oppression in Tibet all of these just causes for freedom. I suppose at least if students are dominating the news the celebrities get bumped from the front page.

Monday 6 December 2010

Facebook cartoon profile pic craze

Thundercats - epic 80's cheese in leotards :)

Facebook is a social network site which, it seems, most of the population is a member of. Its a great way to update and communicate with friends who are out of touch or the area, with blog posts, photos and personal news. The biggest side show of this phenomne is the fun networking games where you send "gifts" and help friends out but there are also the staus crazes that sweep through every so often. Last year there was the bra colour post for girls only to annoy the boys and more recently the cartoon profile pictures apparently to show support for NSPCC.

Bravestarr - less well known but by far my favourite.

No non-profit organization has taken up the responsibility and thus, no money is funneled into a legitimate organization. Some websites have claimed British charity NSPCC to be the one to introduce it but they however deny it. NSPCC has posted on Twitter, ‘Although the NSPCC did not originate the childhood cartoon Facebook campaign, we welcome the attention it has brought to the work we do.’

There is now a rumour that this campaign was set up by paedophiles to lure in children to being their "friend". First of all if everyone is doing it so its not misleading children and second of all Facebook is an adult site meant for over 16's (14yo can join with parental supervision) and even though minors do join (by lying about their age) its hardly the best place for groomers. Although it seems unclear where this craze started, there is no evidence or reports (even on the news!) to back up this rumour.

He-Man - I wasn't a fan but my hubby loves this and M.A.S.K.

Another big question is how does make 'Facebook cartoon profile pic' help to fight against child abuse? A Blogger said that: ‘Facebook cartoon profile pic does not really support the NSPCC unless it inspires or encourages you or someone else to volunteer or donate, which hopefully it will." It does support awareness thats for sure, did it inspire you? It inspired me to write about it and make a donation.

Friday 3 December 2010

Streaming cutness


Yes, in a beautiful collision of cuddly adorableness and PR mastermindery, Mozilla has adopted two baby firefoxes. These cuties (which are actually endangered red pandas) were born at Knoxville Zoo, Tennessee, back in June, but as of today they're now part of the Mozilla community. For the next few months, Mozilla will be broadcasting a live, 24-hour video stream of these two cuties.