Doug says, "Check out some of my Stuff!", Part 10

Before the Christmas season totally leaves us, I wanted to do one last "Doug's Stuff!" post to show off my especially-geeky Christmas tree. I have to give a lot of credit to my wife, who has encouraged the purchase of many of these ornaments. She also came up with the idea to dedicate one of the trees in our house to all of this.

Starting at the top (sadly, no cool tree topper on this -- but wouldn't something to do with the Angel be sweet??), you can see miniatures of Catwoman, Batman, Robin, and Superman -- all made by Hallmark. Toward the left is the extremely cool Wolverine ornament from Carlton Cards; the Spider-Man in the center is from Carlton as well. I don't know where the Superman and Batman logos (the Batman logo is somewhat hidden near the bottom of this picture) came from -- maybe just Toys 'R' Us? Lastly, you might notice the Super Friends lunchbox on the bottom left, the Superman lunchbox middle right, and the Wonder Woman outfit on the bottom right.

Moving down the tree (by the way, the tree is one of those pencil trees, usually comes pre-lit, and stands around 5-feet tall), you get a better look at the Batman logo and the Wonder Woman outfit, and you can see the Hulk, Superman, Captain America, and two Spider-Man ornaments from Hallmark. To the top left you can barely make out one of Hallmark's comic ornaments for 2009 -- Wolverine from the tv show Wolverine and the X-Men. The Batcycle at the bottom of this frame is from the Warner Bros. Studio Stores.

Heading to the bottom left are the black Spider-Man 3 ornament from Hallmark, the Amazing Fantasy #15 ornament from this year's Hallmark offerings, a very cool phone booth with Clark Kent/Superman action and lights, and some non-descript Dynamic Duo again from probably Toys 'R' Us.

Swinging around to the right, you can see the Iron Man movie ornament that Hallmark offered last year, a neat 5-character Marvel puzzle from Hallmark, a Superman relief ornament, and Batman on his Batrope -- one of the first comics-related ornaments I got. The Wonder Woman hanging off the lower right side is from the Warner Bros. Studio Stores.

Wrapping it up, you can see a Clark Kent outfit near the top of this photo, and above it is a neat ornament from the United States Postal Service -- a picture of Superman from the Siegel/Shuster era on a porcelain postage stamp. In the middle is a Batman holding a Joker jack-in-the-box, again from Warner Bros.

Of course there are several other little wonders I've not mentioned by name, including Mighty Mouse and Bubbles from the PowerPuff Girls!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday season, regardless of the faith you practice. Here's to 2010 being a great year! Stick with the Bronze Age Babies and we'll try to do our part!

Doug says, "Check out some of my Stuff!" Part 7

Welcome back, Effendi! Today's installment of all-the-junk-Doug's-wasted-his-family's-money-on... er, My Collection, is a look at some DC animated balancers from the land of giveaways as well as some of the beanies formerly available at the Warner Bros. Studio Stores (now defunct, sadly).


Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Balancers


Here ya go -- who doesn't need three chunks of plastic that sort-of balance? These three gems date back to the mid-'90's (when Batman: The Animated Series was in its third incarnation and the Superman cartoon was airing as well) and were available as mail-order giveaways from Kraft. I believe they were free with so many proofs-of-purchase, although there may have been a nominal fee for shipping and handling. There really isn't much to be said for the balancing aspect. You may be able to make out that Wonder Woman's legs are affixed to a flat-bottom base that just sits on the larger base. Batman has holes in his feet that connect to pegs in his base, and Superman has a large hole in his belt buckle that sits over a peg on his base. So, not a lot of engineering went into these, but they're kind of cool and perhaps rare -- all depends on how many kids (big or small) sent away for these.











Warner Bros. Studio Store Beanies



That the Beanie Baby craze faded was no surprise, but while it lasted a very cool outgrowth was the appearnace of these (and other) beanie toys produced by the Warner Bros. Studio Stores. You may note from the group photo that I am only a Flash away from having the original seven JLA members; I can't recall if I had the opportunity to purchase him or not. I did buy the Batgirl because I thought she looked cool; the Catwoman, however, I stayed away from -- didn't care for the green hue of her skin. These are dangling from some hooks that I bought at the hardware store, specifically made for ceiling tile systems. There's a little dust collecting on these, but they look neat hanging in front of the shelving system.











Come back next time when we'll peruse some wonderful comics creator signatures -- autographs, baby!