Model Geek

When I was a kid I built dozens of models. All were spaceship models, except for one. It was a model of Superman busting through a wall. When I left home I didn’t have space or time to continue building models. 

Now I have some more time in my life and I have slowly started getting back into model building. I bought a model of the Millennium Falcon. It’s huge and I decided that I wanted to do it right with air brushing the paint on. Unfortunately, the air brush system I have uses cans of air and I cannot find the cans of air for the system anymore. I suppose I could just brush the paint on, but I’m not very good. There is a model of a Battlestar Galactica Viper hidden in my closet that has a very embarrassing paint job done by me. 

So thinking that my model building skills are not that very good, I decided I should just stick with the Lego models. That was until I came across a statue of the Space Battleship Yamato on Amazon. It was a beautiful statue, except for the $261.00 price tag. Undeterred, I look further at the Yamatos and found a model of one for a reasonable of $31.00. I decided it was time to try my hand at model building one more time.

Now the model came from Japan and I was pleasantly surprised by the company Toy Shop Japan HobbyOne. They were quick and friendly. They included a letter in English thanking me for my purchase. 

The model was a pleasant surprise as well. This was my first time building a model from Japan, so I don’t know if all Japanese models are like this. The model is mostly pre-painted. It would look fine without the few dabs of paint here and there. Most of the pieces fit so well together, they don’t require glue. What has me scared while building this model of the Yamato is the tiny size of some of the pieces. There are pieces that are just nubs of plastic. The tiny guns on the side of the ship have to be put together. The barrels are microscopic. 

I have unfortunately had one of the barrels pop off and go flying when I cut it from the frame. I don’t know why I tried, but I did spend a good half an hour looking for that microscopic barrel on my carpeted floor. Hopefully the missing barrel will not be too obvious.

I am proud of the work I have done on this model of the Space Battleship Yamato. Maybe I will take on the challenge of the Millennium Falcon after this. I might also look for some more models from Japan.

Something I have learned from doing this model is not necessarily the finished product. It’s the enjoyment I got from building this model. Don’t get me wrong, having a nicely finished product has all its own pride. However I have enjoyed the challenge of putting together these tiny pieces. It has been great fun watching the model take shape.

Old Geek

Let me start out with a very ugly statement; “Peter Pan is dead.” Now let me explain. In my 20s and even into my 30s I never worried about time marching on. I looked at myself as the same never changing person. Then I was no longer able to ignore the changes that were going on. When my hair disappeared en mass I knew the fabled Peter Pan no longer lived within me.

Now 40 something, I look back on a full life of Geekery. One of my earliest memories is when Star Wars was showing in the movie theatres. Back then you could buy one ticket and stay in the theatre all day long watching the show over and over again. I must have seen the first Star Wars over 50 times in the theatres. 

My first anime, which at the time no one knew it was an anime, was Star Blazers. That one doesn’t stand the test of time very well. You should read my take on Star Blazers. The next anime, which again no one knew was an anime, was Robotech. This one could stand the test of time a lot better. It always blew me away how there was action, but a great story that involved just the characters.

My first real introduction to anime came from the original Bubble Gum Crisis. Back then we didn’t even have English subtitles. We had written out translations and you hoped to all that is Holy they got the translations right.

I did not get into Manga until much later, because I was too used to the colors of comic book heroes. I still have my collection of about 5,000 comic books. My fave comics were all the X-Men titles. My first Manga that I picked up was the big volumes of Akira. Just like the movie it blew me away.

Growing up all I had for movie superheroes was the Christopher Reeves’ Superman. Hollywood did not dare cross into the superhero genre at the time without looking incredibly stupid.

Being a Geek has certainly changed a lot. With Facebook, Twitter, and several other social media it is incredibly easy to connect with other Geeks with similar interests. I grew up without these online connections. It made it a lot tougher being a Geek without a community.

I go to the bookstores and video stores looking for new anime and manga and I see kids in my spot on the floor checking out the new arrivals. I try to be nonchalant about looking through the selections, trying not to feel out of place.

But, I really don’t care that I’m some old guy still collecting anime, manga, and toys. These are things that make me happy. That’s what is really important to any Geek. Finding what makes you happy and embracing it.

So, I offer two pieces of advice. First, do not ever let go of your Geekery. Love it and cherish it for the rest of your life. Second, be nice to the older Geeks. They were the ones that pioneered the way for you.

Thanks to:

Hurt Peter Pan -- huggiebird @ deviantart.com

Yamato Star Blazers -- ColinTheP6M @ deviantart.com

Comic Book Nerd -- saramondo @ deviantart.com

Comic Book Guy -- wagnerf @ deviantart.com  

Geek Cleaning

We have all had to endure the chores of cleaning and we have all cleaned at different levels. There’s wiping everything down with a wet rag, dawning the hazmat suit to use industrial strength chemicals, tossing in a match and starting over. I have used the hazmat suits, when I was in the military. I have never gotten so far to just torch everything, but I have considered it.

At my house I am responsible for all the cleaning and that’s alright. It fits for our family. My wife is very relaxed when it comes to cleaning. On the other hand, I tend to be OCD about cleaning. I have my routines for cleaning the house that make it relatively easy.

However, there is one place I lack when it comes to cleaning and that’s my Geek cave. I have come to the conclusion that cleaning a Geek’s area is a lot different from regular cleaning and wwwaaaayyyy more time consuming. One inherent thing about

being a Geek is we all collect stuff. Lots of stuff. There are books, posters, board games, video game consoles, video games, costumes, action figures, models, and much more. When we collect all of this stuff we tend to cram it all into one small area. All that cramming makes it very difficult to clean.

I have lots of Star Wars Legos and several of them hang from the ceiling. Like everything else they collect dust, but those little Lego bumps make it impossible to clean the ships off. Then there are my action figures. I have to move all of them, clean, and then stand them all up again. Don’t get me started on my desk with its piles of papers, books, and little figures. What would normally take five minutes to wipe down, can be an all-day project. I’m not exaggerating about the all-day project, especially if I start playing with my stuff. 




There is one shelf that is the worst. It is the top shelf of my bookcase. Every square inch is covered in Lego Star Wars mini-figures. In between those mini-figures is a lot of dust. I dread cleaning this shelf because it takes so long to set them all back up. The last time I cleaned this shelf, which was sometime during this past winter, I simply took the duster and swiped all the mini-figures to one side. They laid there in a pile for over month before I took the time to set them all back up.

I should not complain. I have heard of a lot worse areas. All you have to do is turn on Hoarders. I guess I should be thankful for the small area I have for a Geek Cave and how little it is cluttered. I still do not want to clean that Lego mini-figure shelf!


Thanks to Spring Cleaning XD by RedKid11 @deviantart.com

Standing The Test Of Time

Nostalgia can be an amazing trap. I look back on my youth and the things I loved. One of the first things to pop through the haze of my memory is of course Star Wars and Star Trek. These two franchises have stood the test of time. Occasionally I will run past a movie or episode on TV or the Web and will have to stop and watch. As I watch feelings of summers past rush over me. Time spent with friends pretending to be our favorite heroes. Hours of playing with action figures and spaceships. After watching my favorite shows over again, I like to wander into my geek cave and pick up some of those old toys and fly them around the room. 

Unfortunately, there are shows I remember fondly that do not stand the test of my nostalgia. Lately I have been watching Star Blazers again, on the Web. The desire to watch it again is very much rooted in nostalgia. It aired in America in 1978. Yes, I’m that old and older. What I remember of this anime series is it had artwork unlike anything else on television at the time. At the time no one knew what anime was. It also had an actual story line and plot. You had to tune into every episode to follow the story. In the plot for Star Blazers there were several nail biters where you did not know if they were going to survive. As a matter of fact this was the first time I saw some of the good guys die. That was unheard of! 


What I see in the show now is technology that is sadly antiquated. In the show the consoles have levers, switches, and dials. Something I noticed this time around is every station has a flight stick, even communications. What does the communications officer need a flight stick for?!?

Then there is the dialogue. I know speech is going to change over the years and dialogue from almost forty years ago is going to be way different than nowadays. Still, when the fighters launching from the ship they should yell the command, “Launch!” Not saying calmly, “We’re taking off.” 

I know it is good drama to have tensions between different crew members. However, in Star Blazers there really is no chain of command except a captain and the crew. In each episode the crew tends to yell commands at each other and then yell back at one another.

Having said all this there is something refreshing about this old series. In television series today there are the main characters and they go somewhere and meet a group of people. There is conflict with the group of people and then a solution. The next week they do it all over again with a new group of people. With Star Blazers it was all about the mission to get across the galaxy to get a cure for the dying Earth and battle the bad guys all the way. I know some of you out there are going to say, “What about the new Battlestar Galactica? They were all about finding Earth.” You are right. That series is the exception to how it is done now on TV.
 

Yes, there have been plenty of moments of wincing while watching Star Blazers. The amazing series that I remember as a kid just does not stand the test of time. It is still a good story and plot. I hope the rumors I have heard that there is a reboot to modernize Star Blazers are true. I will be one of the first to watch it when the show hits America.

I'm Back

In my blog I like to write about all things Geek. I’ve talked about some favorite movies, anime, and manga. I’ve also talked about the Geek lifestyle and some of the positive things about being a Geek. From my point of view things have change a lot for Geeks. I believed it was much more acceptable to be a Geek. I felt things had changed since I was a kid. Back then it was bad news to be labeled a Geek. You were bullied and scorned for the things we liked and did. Now those comic books we read in secret are blockbuster movies. Those video games we played by ourselves in the dark are now a multi-billion dollar industry. Our dreams of being a superhero or our favorite Star Wars character are played out by hundreds of thousands loyal cosplayers at conventions around the world. The #1 show on TV is all about Geeks. Of course an old Geek like me would think things have gotten better.  

Lately I have seen things have not change as much as I thought. Personally a couple of months ago I got slammed on my blog. I got told I was spamming a site with all of my blog postings and no one wanted to hear what I had to say about being a Geek. I took that really hard and I stopped posting on my blog. 

 
While I have been on hiatus there were some other bad things I heard about. I have heard there is still a lot of bullying going on. Some of that bullying is being done by Geeks on other Geeks. I cannot even begin to comprehend that one. We are all Geeks. We all share the same love of all things Geeky. So what if one person’s Geek is different than your Geekness? We should be watching each other’s backs and sharing time together, after all there aren’t that many of us out there. 

 

Now I hear that girls at conventions are being harassed by the male Geeks….People!...We have spent our Geeky childhoods wishing and hoping for girls to be around us and like us for our Geekdoms. They are amongst us now! We should rejoice! We need to treat them with respect. If you are unsure how to act around a woman then take a class on manners.


 
Now let me talk to those Geeks out there that have been suffering. Do not get discouraged. I know, I did get discouraged when I got flamed on line for my blog and I gave up doing it. That was wrong of me. One unfortunate trademark of a Geek is being timid. We are easily frightened when we see aggression. The other trademark of a Geek is our quiet strength. No we are not in basements benching 300 lbs. We are the ones that no matter what we hold onto the things we love. That is our strength. Geeks seek out other Geeks and together we try to make the world better. Think of every technological advancement over the past 30 years. There was a group of geeks behind each and every one of those advancements. Think about all those blockbuster movies. Those are because a Geek said they wanted to see it on the big screen. Geeks are strong. Things will get better.   

Now to all of you out there let me quote Wil Wheaton, probably the most famous Geek of us all. He has one simple rule he lives by and he asks everyone else to live by. “Don’t be a dick!” Be good to each other. If everyone will be accepting of everyone else this world would be such an amazing place. 

Thanks To:
        Bullying by JazzySuika @ deviantart.com
        Zombie Bullying by FBende @ deviantart.com

Anime Geek: Robotech

Robotech is an anime series that will always be close to my Geek heart. When it first started airing on television in 1985, I still did not know it was anime, or at the very least derived from anime. All I knew was it was different than anything else that was being shown in the cartoon block after school. As I got older and kept revisiting this series, I learned more and more about the Robotech production history. I also learned that it was a foundation for a lot of other anime to come.

Robotech is an anime, but it was Americanized. This was during a time when bringing Japanese animation to the U.S. was a fairly new concept. There were concerns American viewers could not grasp a lot of the Japanese cultural references in the original Japanese version. The Americanization started with the title. In Japan the first series was known as Super Dimensional Fortress Macross. When it was brought here to America the title was changed to Robotech. If you have watched the series, you might have heard the Japanese title referred to in the episodes. 

 

In Robotech there are three series. The first was the Macross Saga. The next two were loosely connected to the Macross universe in Japan. The second Robotech series was The Masters, but in Japan it was called Super Dimensional Fortress Southern Cross. Again, Southern Cross is referred to regularly in the episodes. In Japan Southern Cross was not a continuation of the Macross series. It was created by the same people who made Macross and they used the Macross universe as a background, but that was it. When Southern Cross was brought to the U.S. it was given the new name and the story was changed up to tie in with the first series, Macross Saga. 

 

The third series in Robotech was called New Generation. Ironically this series was changed the least when brought to America, but had the least to do with the Macross universe. In Japan this series was called Mospaeda. It was produced by a completely different group of animators, who just happened to like all things Macross, so their technology and background story closely resembled the Macross universe. It fit so well that when it was brought to America, very little was done to change it, except the title and the character names. Another bit of irony is Mospaeda was created before Southern Cross. The American producers felt the story line worked best going in the order of Macross, Southern Cross, and finally Mospaeda.

To go back and watch Robotech now has a very old school vibe to it, but back in 1985 when the series premiered it was revolutionary. It was the first time an animation was not…well…cartoonish. Everything was drawn realistically and everything that happened in the stories had a real life feel to it. The characters got hurt and some of them died. There were also love interests in the stories. These things simply did not happen in cartoons back in the 80s. They rarely happen in cartoons today.

 
As I said the Robotech animation has an old school feel to it. During the first series, Macross Saga, used still frame shots were a lot. This is when they showed a picture of the action. Nothing moved, but to give a sense of movement they would slowly scan from one side of the picture to the next, usually while the narrator talked. In the following Robetech series, they got away from the still frames and the artwork became more up to date. The only other down fall was repetitive use of stock footage. Even though these animation tricks were annoying, you have to give the creators credit. They were trying to find ways to keep the animation within budget and these tricks helped them to do so.
   

Robotech helped pave the way for other anime and even U.S. animation. Robotech is the start of the popularity of pilot driven giant robots in Japan, which led to the massive powerhouse of Gundam. Cartoons in America used the staple of anvils and slamming into the sides of mountains. About the only action adventure cartoon before Robotech was Super Friends. With the popularity of Robotech we saw the emergence of Thundercats, G.I. Joe, and Transformers. Action based cartoons are now more of the norm. 

 

Since the time of the original series there has been a few attempts at a Macross / Robotech revival. There have been Macross movies and the animation in them is excellent. The only annoying part is they are stand alone and do nothing to move the original series forward. A few years ago a Robotech movie was created that was called Shadow Chronicals. It was supposed to be a jumpstart to bringing back the original series, but nothing has been done with it since. The last movie left us hanging with a lot of frustration wanting to know what happens next.

Even though Robotech is old school and it has been Americanized, I still think it is a great anime and a wonderful way to spend an afternoon lost in nostalgia. I’ll even admit to being such a geek that to help my nostalgia of this show, I used to wear a motorcycle helmet during the fight scenes. It sounds stupid, but it helps with the fantasy. Helmet or no helmet, I hope you take the time to enjoy Robotech! 

Geek Attire

Geek attire is nothing special. As a matter of fact I do not believe Geeks follow particular fashion trends such as Hipster, or … well … I’m a Geek, so I really do not know what the fashion trends are. Geeks are more likely to wear what they like and what is comfortable to them. The closest Geeks get to fashion of some kind are the logos, pictures, or memes that will appear on their shirts, bags, or other apparel.

Now some people will argue that Geeks do try to follow fashions and try to dress accordingly. I think the best example of this is the character Wolowitz, on The Big Bang Theory. He dresses up, I’ll give him that. The skinny jeans he always wears are the closest thing to fashionable, but his pants along with his shirts are usually some kind of bright color. I do not think dickies (The fake turtle neck) he wears is in style. His Beetles haircut went out of fashion about fifty years ago.


Geeks tend to find a “uniform” to wear. These are usually the same clothes, but with different colors or something. Sheldon is a perfect example of this. He always wears a long sleeve shirt with a short sleeve shirt over it. The t-shirt always has the logo of a superhero or a funky design. The one true reason Geeks like to wear a “uniform” is it is simply comfortable.

I am very guilty of having a uniform. During cold weather I always wear a hoody. I always have a t-shirt like Sheldon’s on underneath, but you would never know it, because I do not take the hoody off. It is the most comfortable thing to me. I have decorated my hoodies with various anime logos.

During warm weather you can see my Geeky t-shirts, but I usually have a dress shirt on over top of the t-shirt. I have always done an over shirt kind of thing since high school.

 

I have now added a stylish cap to my uniform. The cap is usually called a driver’s cap or gentleman’s cap. I like to wear it backwards. I think my glasses and backwards driving cap give me a certain sophistication and charm. The truth is I like to wear the cap to protect my bald head from the sun and cold. Yes, this is where you insert the old joke.

The great thing that is going on for Geeks today is there are so many different fashion styles it is easy to blend in as fashionable. It is even fashionable to make your own style. Being a Geek and dressing like a Geek is now fashionable, unlike 20 or 30 years ago. Dressing like a Geek was mainly because of a lack of fashion skills and invited ridicule and bullying. We Geeks of yesteryear blazed a very rough path to acceptance. It is because of us older Geeks who endured our younger years of torture to become successful is why Geekdoms are much more accepted now days. So, if you are a Proud Flag Flying Geek of today, you should thank one of your Geek ancestors. 

Thanks To:
      Geek by Kondang147 @ deviantart.com
      Bald Guy by Pilgrim John @ deviantart.com
      Geek Stamp by Anshky @ deviantart.com