Toy A Day, What's in store for 2012... and Novelty's other projects.

I can't believed I did it.  For two years, that's 730 days, I opened one toy a day (well, on average for the second year anyways) and wrote about them here on this blog.  Along the way I've made many friends and have had many adventures.  I must say I've had fun in the past two years.

Reaching for the moon!

I've made the jump and have written guest posts on places such as A Year of Toys (hi Mario!), Killer B Hive (hi 3B!) and am apparently one of the staff writers (ha!) of Poe Ghostal.  Poe has even created a sub forum on his site for this blog, which is really all about me opening my toys and writing about one of them each day.

Toys opened in March

Toys opened in April

However, photography and writing aren't my strong suits, and about 250 toys in, opening everything, photographing everything and then writing up about them became more of a chore than something fun.  It wasn't fun anymore.  Still, I persevered and finished off not just one year of this blog, but continued with a second year because my friends (not fans!) were asking for me to continue this.

Meet the Royal Family

And so I have.  Until this year.  I took a break early January to catch up on other things.  It's a nice change not to worry about which toys to open, whether I'm going to meet my write-up deadline and a whole host of other things.  Life was a bit more relaxed, my sanity was restored and I was generally happier.

Who you gonna call?

But what am I doing this year in 2012?  Lemme quickly run down the list of pies I have my greedy fingers stuck in, some of which are loudly baying for my blood after two years of neglect.

Duke Nostalgia - This is my toy site started in 2001.  Among other things, the site was a repository for my Mad Scientist and Centurions resources (and I can't even link to them anymore), some of which are not found elsewhere on the internet.  Due to the server upgrade in August last year, the links went wonky and since I didn't have the time to actually sort them out and fix them, I brought the whole site down, with the promise to myself that I would fix them eventually.  I'm hoping that eventually would be this year though.

Blue Furok - I'm one of the few people who played the Magi-Nation Duel card game, and at this point in time, I'm probably the only person to run a fan-site for the game complete with Forums where fans can interact.  The content really needs to be updated with all the goodies that the fanbase is asking for, and I've tried to keep track with some of the more simpler modifications, but it does really need a lot more love for some of the major contents on the site.

Carcassonne Central - This isn't my site, but if you head over into the forums and check out the Staff list you'll see me listed as Site Staff.  Carcassonne is a tile laying 'German' game.  I actually left the site on hiatus while I started Toy a Day and haven't been too active there since this blog was taking up way too much of my time.  I've had a number of messages from the new admin and the mods there requesting for my assistance on a variety of things, including my former (and still current?) duty of maintaining a number of databases there.  I haven't promised anything, but my friends there need help and I'd be a bastard if I don't help them.

Poe Ghostal - Poe asked me to help out more on the site.  I did say I'll see what I can do to help out.  Poe has been really nice to me, sending me a SDCC Orko (colour change!), free SMC stuff (Yay!) besides hosting the forum for Toy a Day.  I do want to help out, but I don't really know what I'll do there yet.  I still have a Stel review that I promised myself I'll write for the site sometime when I get the time.  That time has still not materialised yet.  It does take quite a bit of time to write for Poe because his standards are just so much higher than what I usually do on this blog, so I do feel I have to live up to those standards, if nothing else to ensure a consistant feel to his site.

That's a lot of Mattel Product - Mark A. Vasquez

So what does that mean for this blog?  Well, there'll be less this year here, not just because I have less time for it, but also because I have exhausted my huge supply of unopened toys.  I'll still do themed months - January 2012 was Movie and Comics gitd month (as January has been about gitd for the past 2 years here on Toy a Day).  This month it's just plain Girlfriend February (as February has been about females for the past 2 years here).  However, it won't be one toy each day.  I'll open what I have and just post them up.  Also, I'm not doing reviews of the toys as such... just my observations of toys and the packaging as I open them.

Every time I see Nov posting that he has bought more Lego sets I keep thinking
"How does he do it?" Cause here they're expensive! - Christopher Sunday

Do not fear, I'll continue to buy toys.  I'm still collecting MotUC and Lego, and I'm getting DCUC and the Voltron subscriptions so unless Matty does something stupid and not send them to me, I'll continue to get those at least.  And I can never avoid picking up toys on impulse as I walk through the toystore as well.  All those toys would find their way to this blog at some stage!

Yay! Cant wait to see the rest of the heroes. - Nick Cathery

I'd also like to custom more of the MotUC figures.  I really did enjoy doing the Fuerza-T bad guys last year, and I hope to complete the good guys this year (please let there be a Jitsu in the second half of 2012).  Besides, there's a whole host of other interesting customs to make - Gray for one, other lesser known minicomic and Filmation characters and the like.

There's something that compels you to have a large grouping of yellow lantern soldiers. - Bryant Garcia

What I do want to do as quickly as possible is to get the Centurions page on Duke Nostalgia up as quickly as possible.  It is a resource that's not present elsewhere on the internet.  However, I do have plans to integrate the work on Duke Nostalgia with what I do on Toy a Day and Poe Ghostal this year.  More details would be forthcoming in future I guess.  At the moment, I'm just enjoying the ride.

I'd like to say thanks to all of you who have supported and encouraged me in one way or another over the past two years... or more... and I hope you'll continue to visit this site and support me and it in 2012 as I go on to ever crazier projects.