More stories from my toyfics

Website Matters:

I uploaded my new index page for ToyzToSell.com today!  I had long wanted to revamp that index page but I kept hitting a mental block on its layout.  It wasn’t supposed to be in this 3-column format like my blog but my original file with the 2-column layout, kept ‘hanging’ for no reason while I was building it.  That file sort of got ‘corrupted’ and I had re-do another file to replace it.  In the end, this is the result I have.

I know that my ToyzToSell website looks very amateur but this is all I can manage right now.  At least,  the website still serves its function.  Some day, I would like to outsource this website building aspect to free up my time.  I need to budget for that though.  Or I could also go for those open-source content management websites.  I just want my website to look more ‘pro’. 

Aweber

Did you notice that I now have an Aweber opt-in form on the top of my ToyzToSell index page?  Yes, I finally signed up with Aweber to start an email list for my subscribers.  It took me some orientation to get around the admin panel of Aweber but I am getting the hang of it.  I tested the opt-in form and it works like a charm, though I had to adjust some minor website details here and there.  Other than toy catalog updates, I definitely plan to provide more valued information to my subscribers in the near future! 

The Ezine picture was done with Photoshop and my current standard is only up till there.  I have not figured out how to insert photos onto the ezine cover.  My friend, who is fast in learning such techie stuff, tells me that Photoshop is easy to use.  Just read the tutorials and follow their given steps and instructions, she said.  I did and maybe it has something to do with my comprehension of English, or my left brain neurology is simply not as developed as in my right brain. 

Anyway, I’ll work out the techie stuff each day.  I got a bit tired from dabbling in so much html today that for a while, I was even typing in the html tab in my Wordpress, no wonder the words I ”bolded” had script next to them! 

Toy Observations / Toy review: 

I love horses for many many years, and I collect toy and model horses too.  These days I collect less because of space constaints and some other reasons.  But anyway besides My Little Pony, there are definitely some horses in my toy collections that leave a greater impression on me than others. 

This highly detailed and well-sculpted horse and rider set is from the McFarlane Spawn toyline.  They are Thunderhoof and his rider Spawn the Bloodaxe.  I got this set many years ago (I think it was either 2002 or 2003)  when they first hit the toy stores here in Singapore.  Actually I can’t recall if it was sold in the departmental stores here.  I got my set from a toy shop specializing in Spawn toys at the former Clarke Quay flea market. 

Anyway, I fell in love with this horse when I first laid my eyes on him at that toy shop.  There were stacks of boxes of him there at that time.  Today, I hardly see this set anywhere, not even at the China Square Central flea market (successor of Clarke Quay flea market). 

Actually I don’t collect Spawn toys.  These toys are not even made for children, but rather for adults who know how to appreciate the fine sculpting details.  The figures are also known to break easily during rough play.  Hence the Spawn toys are more for display only. 

I knew only the bare minimum on what Spawn was about when I brought Thunderhoof home many years ago.  Today, Thunderhoof and Bloodaxe remain as the only Spawn toys in my collections.  Official quote about Thunderhoof:

“Thunderhoof is a powerful and brutal steed with the unique ability to bridge the bottomless stretch of time and space between the lands of the living and the dead.  The horse is currently restrained in a cage made of human bones in the throne of the Realm of the Dead.  Thunderhoof wears a saddle, but no man has ever ridden him.  Until Spawn the Bloodaxe.  Did the noble stallion recognize some basic similarity betwee itself and the disfigured Bloodaxe?  An essential nobility of two creatures trapped in horrific circumstances, betrayed, but not beaten?  Would Thunderhoof be able to carry this warrior across the the unspeakable gulf between the Realm of the Dead and the Land of the Living?”

Toyfics: 

Remember that I mentioned in my post yesterday that I can ’see’ their characters and ‘hear’ what they ’say’?  Boy I had no idea the kind of sinister energy Thunderhoof had in him.  I find that “evil-looking’ toys do have some sort of “dark energy” around them.  Thunderhoof made Brego from my Lord of the Rings toy collection seem like a mere ‘pony’!  See my earlier post about Brego here.

Thunderhoof is a “monster”!  I had to be very careful when handling him, even though he is very small when compared to me.  His head armor is so sharp that I nearly got my fingers sliced off when I first touched him! Thunderhoof even ‘destroyed’ a few of my other action figures that I assigned to be his groom.  Those poor victims were ’stomped into pieces’!  Since then, he has remained in his box in one of my cupboards.

Thunderhoof and Bloodaxe do look like they had just came out from the gates of Hell.  When I was admiring him on the day I got him, his eyes glowed fiery red and he caught me in his gaze.  Then I saw images of a dark land with no light.  Scattered fires were burning everywhere, with bodies and broken armor littered on the ground.  Faceless hooded warriors rode about on their enormous heavily armoured steeds.  Those evil warriors used their iron spears to prod or turn over the bodies.  When movement or sound was detected from amongst the bodies, the warriors thrust their iron spears into the victims mercilessly.  Screams also echoed in the air as the horses stepped on their victims with their giant hooves!

I snapped out of that strange trance and quickly kept Thunderhoof away in my book cabinet.  I have only looked at him every now and then when I needed to find certain books in the same cabinet.  Strange isn’t it?  Some toys evoke such happy and innocent thoughts, but others just do the exact opposite.  I can’t imagine having many of such Spawn toys on display in a someone’s home!

~End of another toyfic that took place several years ago~