The Imaginary Village of Allan Gurganus

I watched some interesting content on PBS.The Imaginary Village of Allan Gurganus. is a short whimsical documentary.

List of 2022 Hot Wheels (by Series)

Hot Wheels cars are numbered 1 through 250 in the 2022 list. This list lists the model grouped by series.

Is this Model Citizen being Arrased by the Police?

It seems the police have taken notice of this character and believe his presence is a bit suspicious. The vechicle is from Matchbox and the figure is a capeule toy.

Armageddon

“Men were gathered on the square platform over the smoke hold of the House of Absence. They made way for him when he hoisted himself up the ladder. He was wheezing and trembling so that at first, he could see nothing. Then his saw. For awhile he forgot everything in the unbelievable sight.

The valley that wound from north to south along the base of the Tevar Hill to the river-valley east of the forest was full-full as the river in flood-time, swarming, over-running with Gaal¹. They were moving southward, a sluggish, contracting; always moving-moving southward, the Southing.

But in all the time past there had never been a Southing like this. As far as the eye could follow up the widening valley northward there were more coming and behind them more, and behind them more.

Besides that, slow torrent of people, the Winter City of Tevar was nothing-a pebble on the edge of the river in flood.”

Planet of Exile, Ursula K. LeGuin, Ace Books, © 1966.

---

^{1: "The Gaal were a nomadic native tribe who migrated to the south during the harsh Winter."}

Title changed on 6/22/22. Formally titled the Great Gaal Southing.

The Status Civilization

"This future earth-one vast and stratified society that brutally ejects all who fail to conform.

Barrent had been tried, convicted, and brainwashed on Earth-an Earth frozen by fear of the radical, and the new. For his crime, Barrent has been sent to Omega-a prison planet walled by a ring of guardships that permitted no escape.

Omega was a world of horror, where living and dying were by the law of tooth-and -claw.

Omega was a planet with its own religion-the worship of evil. A planet with its own pleasures-drug induced hallucinations and sex fantasies, and blood-sport games with human prey.

Omega had its own status system-only a killer could climb the ladder of success, one corpse at a time. The life expectancy of a new arrive on Omega was three Earth years…"

The Status Civilization, Robert Sheckley, Dell Publishing, © 1960

All Things Miniature

This a tumbler site depicting the authors collection of miniature things. The authors takes ordinary things and creates miniature works of art. As the authors mentions: "This blog is dedicated to my devotion to miniature things".

It is a shame that this site has not been updated for sometime. Perhaps the author will pick up again and deliver more of thier curious discoveries.

---

Page was updated on 6/17/22

Map Fragment

I found this map fragment in the packaging of a couple of Mimics, two miniatures from the Nolzurs line of D & D miniatures.

How Disney’s Tower of Terror Works

It has been a long while since I last visited Disney World and its Hollywood Studios, so the mention of the Tower of Terror is new to me, however it is no less fascinating.

Disney Water Based Rides

Like many of Disney rides the Jurasic River Adventure, like Pirates of the Caribbean, and the only one I can say I experinced, the 20;000 Leagues Under the Sea were/are water based rides.

City of Paper Miniatures

If I have already posted about this artist who works in paper I apologise, but I don't believe I have made a post on this set of Charles Young paper miniatures.These miniatures were crafted solely from paper.

Adam Savage's One Day Builds: Moby Dick Diorama Maquette!

You got to give to Adam to come up with something unique. Not that Moby Dick is all that unique of a novel, it is only one of a three texts that I never got through. However having seen three for the screen adaptations of the story I can say that the story is fascinating. So what a better theme for an "One day Build".

Gas Lands Greeble

With the exception of the parts for the gyrocopter, these are my newly aquired 1/64 scale kit-basher parts from Creepy Hero Games for my Gas Lands vehicles.

I have chosen a few Hot Wheel/Match Box cars for the transistions, which I will feature in a later post.

Hot Wheels Art Cars

"Hot Wheels Art Cars: Colorful art-inspired vehicles ready to paint the town." These are beautiful models. The amount of detail in some of these toy cars is astounding.

Bully Goat: HCW56

I had to overlook another "Art Cars" the other day. I am afraid I have a budget for my collecting activities. Perhaps next time...

---

Updated on 6/10/22

Machine City

“Banished from humanity, The Machines sought refuge in their own promised land. They settled in the cradle of human civilization, and thus a new nation was born; a place the Machines could call home, a place they could raise their descendants, and they christened the nation 'Zero-One'.”

Machine City or Synthient City was the home to the machines in the world of the Matrix.

Matrix Greeble

Matrix Greeble

This image was found within the bonus features folder of a Matrix DVD.

I, Robot

"Isaac Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics"

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law."

Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A. D.

I, Robot, Isaac Asimov, The New American Library, © 1956.

---

I know that I had read Isaac Asimov’s I Robot when I was still young, and now that I am reading it again, after all these years, I suspect I must have read in again since then. The stories within seem awfully familiar to me.

This volume is copyrighted March 1956 and although this collection-I, Robot is copyrighted by Asimov in 1950 the stories contained here had been copyrighted starting in 1940 and through 1950.

The book includes nine short stories: Robbie, Runaround, Reason, Catch that Rabbit, Liar!, Little Lost Robot, Escape, Evidence, and the Evitable Conflict. Susan Calvin, is a Robotpsychologist who had worked for U.S. Robotics for over fifty years, recalls the early days of Robotics.

---

"The Place is Earth

The year is 2058 A. D.

A time when robots are on the march!!"

Add Rivets to your Armored Panels

In this short video the author takes you through the process of adding rivets to his armored panels. Although he is adding these to his Gas Lands vehicles, the same technique could be used wherever you wanted to add rivets.

The user used a ball point pen to emboss the material, but one could use an object that has a smaller diameter, such as the tip of a tooth pick.

Two Hot Wheels Experimotors Vehicles

Experimotors are another mini-collection created by the people at Mattel. Experimotors are where Mattel "brings back old castings with special features as well as produces new models with extra features". This group is an interesting group of vehicles.

See Me Rollin, HCT81

See Me Rollin special feature is a rollable DIE that is built into the rear tires.It is fitted out as a yellow taxi.

See Me Rollin 2021 card.

Airuption, HCV47

Airuption is orenge and white and has a set of aqua wings that can be pulled out.

Airuption's 2018 card