Figure Friday: Scoop

It's interesting to notice that such an important aspect of war is neglected in the G.I. Joe toy line. At least until 1989, when the underrated, and often ridiculed information specialist debuts for the G.I. Joe team.

Jump in for the scoop on Scoop!

G.I. Joe Month: Power Fighters

The last two vehicles in the line are controversial. They represent many things the Joe fans didn't want to see in this line: Space, mechs, bright colors, giant chainsaws, completely unrealistic and absolute sillyness.

And I love them.

Read on for the G.I. Joe and Cobra Power Fighters. The end of the line!

G.I. Joe Month: Cobra Moray Hydrofoil... Almost

The reason I say almost is that I don't actually own the Moray Hydrofoil.
The Moray was a maroon and gray hydrofoil boat released in 1985. It's considered one of the best vehicles in the G.I. Joe line. Along with the Mauler, Snow Cat, the USS Flagg, and the cute Night Landing I talked about last week, the Moray makes up for probably the strongest selection of vehicles in a Joe year.

In my eyes, it's by far the coolest boat in the line. It looks sleek, fast, dangerous. It has a wide selection of armaments, it's filled with details and play value. It can hold tons of Cobra dudes, and it's big! For a boat in a 3 3/4 inch line, this is an impressive toy.

And I don't have it.
What I do own, is the more recent hydrofoil release made for the Collectors Club convention. Through luck and associations, I managed to get hold of not one, but two of these boats, along with the extra blue deck.

Read on for... basically the Moray Hydrofoil.

Figure Friday: Action Force Quarrel

One of my favorite G.I. Joe dudes is actually not a G.I. Joe. Nor is it a dude.

As you know, I'm a sucker for female action figures. It's a combination of how uncommon they were, and - I guess - something biological.
The way this toy was presented and sold, to the color scheme and play value, down to the fact that it has a rather interesting background story - it all makes for a great package, even if the figure itself has a rather ordinary sculpt.

Read on for Action Force Quarrel!

G.I. Joe Month: Does size matter?

I promised a month of Joes, and that's exactly what you're getting. I've yet to decided how it will go down, but expect anything from character profiles to philosophical topics, and maybe even some food related entries. Quite a few articles will remind you of the Figure Friday style - where I focus on a specific toy, and throw in a few anecdotes.

After Monday's huge article on the hundred best G.I. Joe figures, I thought it would be better to have a more easily read article, focusing on a tiny vehicle I find incredibly fun. Because good things will come in all sizes!

Read on for Cobra Night Landing!

The 100 Best G.I. Joe Figures

This is the hundredth article I have written for this blog. And to celebrate, I've chosen to create a list of the hundred best G.I. Joe figures!

Naturally I want to make blog entry number one hundred something special. All though it feels strange to leave out the food part, I have been wanting to make a list of my favorite toys for quite a while. This is the right occasion. Now, I had initially planned on it being the top ten toys I own. But as soon as I started sorting my favorite toys, I realized it would be all Joes anyway. And I would never be satisfied with just ten. Or twenty. Or fifty.

So here's the hundred best figures in the G.I. Joe - A Real American Hero toy line (that I own). Also, this marks not only blog entry one hundred, but also the start of G.I. Joe Month here in Toys and Bacon. I'll make sure to get some food related stuff in as well, but every article for the next month will have a relation to Joes.
Now on to the list...

Figure Friday: Lego Spyrius Droid

What looks like a story about Lego is actually a story about alternative universes in superhero comics.

Read on if that's your kind of thing.

There are two kinds of people in the world.

Those that love Lego...
And those that don't want to admit they love Lego.

Good things in life: Bacon toast

Most of the stuff I write about can be described as good things. But that's from my point of view.
I'm of course fully aware that there's something universally good about for instance Lego, bread or superheroes. While other things, like whiskey and bootleg toys - I know these are acquired tastes, not for everyone.

Read on for the universally good bacon toast.

Figure Friday: Galvatron

Galvatron is such a bad ass.

Most people don't know this because the only time they saw him was in Transformers, The Movie, and the following season of the cartoon. Admittedly, he is very cool in that movie, for reasons I'll explain. But he was so much more ruthless and intense in the comic.
Of the movie characters, he was by far the most impressive toy. In fact, I have G1 Galvatron as one of the best Transformers in the original line.

Read on for the evilest of the evil Decepticons, Galvatron!

What's Inside a Burger? (plus a T&B100 Teaser)

In the past, I've believed that the pizza was the best all-round dinner. You could put what ever you want on it, and you could customize the same pizza for different tastes. I still believe this to be true, but naturally there are many meals that have this form of customizations. Anything from tacos to pancakes are versatile in the way that you can alter the content to your preferences without changing the main theme of the meal.

But enough with the philosophy, what follows are two burgers with different content.

Eggs

The most loyal readers of Toys and Bacon will have noticed a recurring ingredient in most of the food I make. But it didn't actually dawn on me until recently, when I showed my buddy JP's recipe for egg-white omelet.

I use a lot of eggs.

I mean, not only do I use them in various recipes, I also eat a lot of boiled or fried eggs separated from any other ingredients.
When I started to count, I soon found out I was eating at least a dozen eggs every week, excluding those that was a part of a more complex composition. So I wouldn't be surprised if I was close to twenty eggs a week in total. Is that a lot? I don't know. It sounds like a lot.



This doesn't necessarily concern me. We have heard about cholesterol issues related to eggs, but I feel ok, healthy.

Over the last eight months, I've shown various simple ways of using the egg, and I've mentioned that this is the beauty of the egg. You can eat it alone or as an ingredient. It can be used to make breakfast, dinner, cakes and desserts. It's in my opinion the most versatile  of ingredients.
Obviously, I use eggs when I make anything from burgers to cupcakes. But I'd like to list the recipes where the eggs play the main role.

First off there was the absolute basic, the boiled egg. It's difficult to do this the wrong way.
The standard omelet is also a good one, notice how mine is extremely airy when compared to JP's thinner style. That could very well be the lack of yolk in his.
The toast with the added fried egg is a funny one, easy to make and it will impress the kids.
Classic scrambled eggs is a favorite of mine. Remember to keep stirring, and take your time. The longer, the better!
Finally, the pancake. Almost as easy to make as fried egg, can be used for breakfast, dinner or dessert.

The eggs I use come from a local farm. Pictured above is the selection. The brown ones cost slightly more than the white ones. The price I pay is roughly $10 for 30 white and $11 for the brown. Why the slight price difference?  Well, like my farmer says: "They taste the same, but the brown ones taste better".

Either way, these eggs cost far less than in the grocery stores or supermarkets. Not only that, they are also fresher, bigger and taste better.
It sounds almost utopian, and I have often wondered why it's like this. They are slightly irregular, and I assume they need to pass a certain measurement or some ridiculous control completely unrelated to actual quality or taste to be eligible for the supermarkets. It's embarrassing that our society is like this, but I can't really complain. It feels like I've found a loophole in the system, a cheat code. With my eggs, it feels like I've figured it all out. And I encourage you all to search your local community for similar solutions. Buy local products, they are probably better in every way.

Figure Friday: Home Made Mission Map

The first blog post of 2012 was a rather detailed tour of my G.I.Joe collection, as it was displayed in the museum.

A few people wanted me to show a more detailed picture of the map from the mission briefing inside the hangar. I still have the map, even though we took down the exhibition. Most of the diorama pieces, like the hangar building and the arctic landscape was destroyed.
But the picture below is actually from when I had just made it. I tried to take a few pictures as I made the various details for the diorama.

The board itself is from Marauder Gun Runners, who make dio pieces for 1/18 scaled toys. The map is printed. I guess I could have cut out from an old map, but I had access to a very good printer. Interestingly enough, the map section shown is parts of the state of Rhode Island. This was not intentionally, as I just googled for some cool map images. Rhode Island is of course where the headquarters of Hasbro are located.

Plastic bits  were cut and glued on to look like push-pins, and additional stuff like a pie-chart and a photo of a dude with a suitcase were supposed to give information on the mission objective.

I can't say if anyone noticed these details from the exhibition, but I knew it was there, and I really like details like this.

-Enjoy your weekend, people!