Saturday 22 December 2007

Christmas retail slowdown???

Or just buying the wrong stuff.

All I've heard this last week on the news is how shop owners in the UK are having another bad Christmas as no one is buying anything.

Well, from a toy buyers point of view I would have to say that it's not that we are not wanting to buy goods, but that there is nothing to buy. I'm more than happy to go to the shops with a big load of cash to spend. But when I get there what do I see:

Woolworths - as always they have bought hundreds of toys, but they are all the same one. They Have lots of Movie Transformers, but they are all the same figure. I counted 20 of Recon Barricade. So there is no point in my buying this as I know it will be reduced a few days after Christmas.

Forbidden Planet - Now I always expect to be disappointed here as they are always way over priced. And they didn't let me down this time. They had the new line of Star wars 30th Anniversary Figures there. I'll pick one as their prices always vary from figure to figure, R2-B1 £9.99. That's £4 more than you can buy it for from play.com. That's pretty much the cost of another figure.

The Entertainer - This is probably the best place to go really. As the prices are normally pretty good. But this time they just had nothing to offer unless you like Dr.Who. Everything else had been sitting in the shop for most of the year. The only thing I did get was a Saga Clone Commander Cody for £5. And that wasn't a bad price.

So if this is the state of shopping it doesn't surprise me that people aren't spending any money. Generally there is nothing to buy, and it's just cheaper, easier, and there is a better selection on line.

Bah Humbug!!!

Friday 7 December 2007

Ebay lucky find of the week!

I've just had one of those lucky little finds this week. I bought a job lot of 1970's dolls off ebay, mainly because I wanted the two Space 1999 figures and Kirk from Star trek, but also because you never know what you are going to get. I got this nice little lot for £11.51, a bargain. The guy selling had not really put much effort into his listing as it didn't even say Mego, Space 199, or Star Trek, so most people wouldn't have bother looking at it.



I was more than pleased when the package turned up as they tow 1999 figures were in really good condition, so a nice addition to my collection. And the kirk was also pretty nice, he even came with his belt and communicator.

As for the rest, i have to say I didn't know much about them. Batman was another mego doll, then there were two Lionrock figures which I new nothing about. The larger figure turned out to be from The Lone ranger. Without good old google I would never have been able to work that loot out.

And finally there was a pile of bits and bods, mainly boots but also some guns. In amongst this lot was an Action Man dog tag.



And this was my Lucky find! A quick look on ebay and I found that this little Gem is quite rare. So I put this straight on ebay and a week later it sold for a grand total of £27. That's not a bad profit really.

I'm not sure what the guy I bought the original lot off would think, but I guess he really should have done a bit more research before selling his old toys.

Let that be a lesson to you all ; )

Monday 3 December 2007

Deal or No Deal







This is a link to the latest game I have worked on. I was hired to create a CGi version of Noel Edmonds to host the game. It was a pretty fun job to do really. And the end model looks really good. It had to go through all sort of different people, with the final say so going to Noel himself. So I guess he must have liked it.

It's a fairly straight forward model, nothing too fancy as it doesn't do that much. Just talks to you and moves his arms a bit. It would have almost been easier just to film him against a green screen. But for Noel, I'm guessing time is money.

R2 Test video

I just though I would share a little test animation that I created. I built a rather high detail R2-D2 model a while back and thought I had best do something with it. So here is my little test render, enjoy!