Scanner Sunday - Catalogs, Part 3

Looking back over the archives, it seems that I haven't done a catalog-themed installment of Scanner Sunday since about October of 2010. And I also see that somewhere in the vicinity of June of '11 I posted about ordering a new computer and scanner for the house and how, surely, the return of Scanner Sundays was therefore right around the corner. Thus, one fifteen-month corner later, here we are! Consider this a make-up post for Friday, when I had every intention of writing up a little something about the little guy's birthday party but got distracted by a couple of things. First my wife called me in the morning as she was trying to get the kids ready for school because the little guy was behaving abominably, and I needed to talk some sense into him. This did not dispose me well to writing about how four days earlier (at his party), and also three days earlier (on his actual birthday), we were spoiling him rotten and telling him he could have anything he wanted. I might have calmed down a bit more by midday, but then my buddy Clutch e-mailed me with a last-minute lunch invite, and ... the whole day kinda got away from me after that.

But let's return to the little guy's birthday nonetheless, shall we? Pretty much all of his gifts from his mother and me were expansions of his robust Cars (Mostly Lightning McQueen and Mater) collection. At this point he's not interested in the few straggling Professor Z's and Rod Torque Redlines still on the clearance shelves of Target from the release of Cars 2 over a year ago. (It's weird to think he/we may at some point be living in a world where toy departments do not have huge Cars aisles because that's no longer a current thing, but that's a meditation for a whole 'nother post.) So it falls on me to scour Amazon and eBay looking for the specific alternate paintjob vehicles the little guy does want. Admittedly, this is no big hardship for me and in fact appeals to the relentlessly obsessive collector in my heart and soul (which I am slowly but surely imprinting on my son, as well, but again, whole 'nother post).

So the little guy was very happy with the toys we wrapped up for him (as one would hope, since he'd been specifically and unsubtly pining for them for months) but one of those toys (I'm honestly not even sure which one) came via Amazon through a third-party seller, which has apparently put me on a mailing list for their catalog. And they actually specialize in collectibles for adult geeks, i.e. the stuff that looks like toys but is fairly expensive and stupidly fragile and intended merely to sit on a shelf and be admired. Which, again, I totally get. But, as a bonus - hey, new dorktastic catalog to scan stuff in from!

And there was absolutely no way I could resist highlighting this beaut:

So, I must confess, I haven't managed to find time to go see The Dark Knight Rises yet. But I was aware that there is a fairly pivotal scene that happens at a football game. I also knew that for location shooting purposes, Pittsburgh was the real-world stand-in for Gotham City in Nolan's flick. But I didn't know all of that would end up yielding this: an action figure of Hines Ward wearing a Gotham Rogues uniform.

You can see how, for my household, this would kind of be a must-have.

With my wife being a huge Steelers superfan (and me adopting them as my AFC team of choice, at least) and Hines Ward being one of the most identifiable and lovable members of that squad (my grandmother, bless her kooky old heart, bonded a bit with my wife after Hines Ward appeared on Dancing With the Stars, where he won grandma over completely) and me being a comics fan ... come on. Also, I know I've mentioned before how I really need a Batman-as-a-pirate poster as a transitional piece between my pirate-themed bar in the basement and the dorkatorium behind it. I may not have mentioned that there's a bit of a sports shrine cattycorner to both the pirate bar and the dorkatorium, where we have a bookcase with all of our Giants and Yankees and Steelers and Orioles and Penguins memorabilia. Rogues Ward makes for another nice bit of crossover decor, you have to admit. I'm definitely not getting rid of that catalog yet.

But speaking of the Steelers, they open their season tonight but right now I'm missing the kickoffs of the early games! Time to go immerse myself in NFL!