Tarzan Apornas Son Nr 17

A BOOKSALE store that I often visit sometimes has comic books for sale. These are usually what I would call “worthless junk” and they are mostly recent issues (from 2000 onwards). But today it had a lot of older issues: Omega Men #s 5, 6, and 12 from 1983 and 1984 (sadly, no issue #3), some Dreadstar issues from 1983 or so, and Spanner’s Galaxy #s 2-6 from 1985 (which was funny because I used to have only issue #1 of this 6-issue miniseries). Each one had a PhP 50 price (around US$ 0.90). I bought only one issue, this Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan Apornas Son #17 from 1974.

900?

I estimate that there are currently around 900 scale models of vehicles in the collection of my wife and I. Not shown in the picture below are two additional small boxes. I estimate an average of 48 vehicles in each small box, so that gives around 900 vehicles. Most are Hot Wheels and most are “on the card.”

Action Comics #1 CGC 0.5

The Certified Guaranty Company (CGC) grades comic books from a scale of 0.5 (the lowest) to 10.0 (the highest). The Comic Book Certification Service (CBCS) grades comic books similarly, except that it can assign a grade of 0.1 or 0.3 to incomplete copies (interiors missing covers or covers missing interiors).

An Action Comics #1 CGC 9.0 was sold in 2011 for US$ 2,161,000; another CGC 9.0 was sold in 2014 for US$ 3,207,852; and a CGC 8.5 was sold in 2021 for US$ 3,250,000.

A CBCS 0.3 was sold in 2016 for US$ 65,725 (including the Buyer’s Premium). Considering that the Overstreet 2023 GD 2.0 value is US$ 347,000, I didn’t expect a CGC 0.5 to be sold for more than US$ 100,000.

So I was quite surprised when a CGC 0.5 was sold last September 14, 2023 for US$ 408,000 (US$ 340,000 plus the 20% BP). (The image above is an edited version of the one in the link I provided.)

Candy Crush Saga

I’ve been playing Candy Crush Saga varieties for a few years now on laptops with Microsoft Windows, and I’m currently playing Candy Crush Saga version 1.2590.1.0. I reached level 3000 on January 3, 2022 and level 4000 on November 6, 2022. (Notice that the images for the jelly fish changed during that time.)

I’m currently on level 4878 and I’m proud to say I have never bought anything from the Shop, that is, I’ve never paid real money for anything in the game.

Maisto Highway Haulers car carrier

I recently bought this Maisto Highway Haulers scale model. It doesn’t have a specific name, but I’m calling it a car carrier.

Citizen Crystal Date 17 jewels

Yesterday, I passed by a shop selling used objects (mostly from Japan and Korea) and I found this automatic Citizen Crystal Date watch with 17 jewels. Because the serial number at the back starts with a ‘7,’ I suspect that it was produced in 1967.

Demo Destruction

I recently visited the toy store where I usually buy my scale models. There were quite a few beautiful models (from Tomica, Matchbox, and Hot Wheels) but I had to refrain from buying them because they were too expensive or not in the themes I usually follow. But these two models I definitely had to buy.

Winter Bash 2022

Stack Exchange Winter Bash 2022 ends in a few hours. I was able to get 24 hats. I wasn’t able to create a composite image showing me wearing each hat. The image below is the standard image.

The Winter Bash 2022 modal window in my Stack Exchange profile page

My previous record for the most hats I got was in Winter Bash 2020, when I got 23 hats.

Nissan Cefiro A31

I fell in love with the 1991 Chevrolet Caprice when it first came out. Unfortunately, it wasn’t sold in the Philippines. But the Nissan Cefiro A31 (produced from 1988 to 1993) was sold in the Philippines, and it looked quite similar to the 1991 Chevrolet Caprice.

Majorette Nissan Cefiro A31 (front view)

This Majorette Nissan Cefiro A31 is the first scale model of a Cefiro that I have seen. This model number 233A-2 is colored black and was the only Cefiro available at the time at the store I bought it from. (233A-1 is red; 233A-3 is silver; and 233A-4 is white.) At around PhP 250, it is quite expensive, but it has an opening hood, and its front headlights are made of clear plastic, so the price seems fair.

Majorette Nissan Cefiro A31 (back)

The base is black plastic and states that the model is made in Thailand.

Roy Lichtenstein: Magnifying glass

I bought a copy of Roy Lichtenstein (Benedikt Taschen, 1988) from a BOOKSALE outlet a few weeks ago. In a chapter titled “A Closer Look at Benday Dots,” I saw for the first time an image of Lichtenstein’s painting Magnifying glass (1963). (The image below is from IMAGE DUPLICATOR.) I laughed out loud when I first saw it. It is only now that I understand what is so funny about it.

Roy Lichtenstein, Magnifying glass, 1963

The Ben Day dots are intended to indicate that the region has a color that is a combination of the color of the dots and the color of the background. In this case, the intent is to tell the reader that the region with the dots is colored gray (black dots, white background). If a region is magnified, the image that results would still be the same color as the original. (See the edited image below left.) So, the “correct” way to represent the situation is as shown below right, with no change in the Ben Day dots of the original image and the magnified image.

Edited images showing the “realistic” situation (left) and the “correct” Ben Day dots (right)

With Ben Day dots, it is understood that there aren’t actually any black dots. Lichtenstein’s painting is funny because it confuses a model of a reality (a gray plane) with a model of a different reality (a plane with dots).