Really, I’m not. This is not me.

The 2010 Select series 2 was released last week, called “Prestige”. I’m disappointed, on the whole. I mean, it wouldn’t take too much effort or skill with photoshop to sexy these up a bit. Even if the background splotches were more random and unique, they’d look so much nicer. Still, worth the $2.50 I paid for the set of 12.

An interesting web comic/graphic I found on the tubes. I can see that that there’s a lot of truth in this. In today’s society, we do indeed have in infinite appetite for distractions which lead us away from what is really important in our lives and I’m somewhat guilty myself. Can these distractions ruin a person? You betcha.

There’s only 66 sets of these made every year, given as prizes in the Teamcoach website competition. In previous years the structure of the competition has been a little different, with 44 or 22 sets made per year.  They don’t come up on ebay very often, so they’re quite rare and generally expensive. If you come first, second or third in the weekly Teamcoach competition, you can win a complete set of Teamcoach Prize Cards. Occasionally (like once or twice a year) you’ll see a complete set on sale on ebay, but more often than not the seller will break them up into team sets. I’ve seen Carlton and Collingwood sets sell for more than $250. Yes, that’s a six, nine or twelve card set depending on the year. The latest full 2010 Prize Set on ebay sold for $600. A 2010 Richmond set sold for $103. I got this Fremantle set for $16 plus change so I’m pretty stoked. I should probably start playing this game.

Being a Fremantle fan sometimes has advantages.

A friend of mine named Trish and her husband Glen, both of whom I used to work with during the Dark Times at iiNet, got in touch with my wife the other day. They’ve got young kids who are just fascinated with Star Wars, and they’re driving their parents mad with questions. Not being Star Wars fans themselves, they don’t know the answers but they told their kids they know someone who may have the answers they seek by the name of Mr Hoover. They’ve been bugging Trish if they can go and see this mysterious Mr Hoover and ask him questions. So Trish asked Suzanne if I’d be up for a Skype call so the kids could meet Mr Hoover face to face.

So last Saturday Trish and her two kids Skyped Suzanne and asked me to join. The kids were very well behaved, very courteous and had very good questions. I told them “dispense with the pleasantries”, and instead of Mr Hoover they could simply call me Brian. It turns out they haven’t actually seen all the movies yet, just the first half of Episode 4. Trish’s reasoning is that Empire Strikes Back is a bit “darker” and more violent, too much for six and four year olds. That’s her call, and fair enough. But what they have seen has pretty much captured and focussed their little minds to the point where they, and perhaps their parents, would respond to counselling if what Trish tells me is true. I’ve seen a couple facebook updates from her and wondered what they were about.

We had a couple quick fire questions about who their favourite characters are. They haven’t made that judgement yet, because they haven’t seen all the characters. I found this to be a very mature position to take for a six year old. They asked me who my favourite was. I explained that Star Wars is the story of Darth Vader, and that every other character exists only to tell his story. They thought this was pretty cool. They’d heard rumours that I had mountains of toys, and asked to see some. I told them that we are in the middle of moving and they are in storage, but they could see some of them at my web site, DarthVaderFigures.com. They got Trish to bring it up in a browser, and I could see them marveling at what they saw.  I said that I’d been collecting Star Wars toys since I was about their age, so I had quite a few. They liked this idea and I could see their minds ticking over.

The kids told me that they were too young to see the rest of the movies, and that they’d have to wait another 3-4 years before they could see Empire and Jedi and the others. I conceded that their mum probably knows what is best for them and said that they would have great fun in finding more characters and seeing the story unfold when they did get to see the movies. They already knew enough to watch them in the right order, 4-5-6 and then 1-2-3.  I could see them coveting my toys, so they know what to ask for this Christmas. I told them that it was also a good day to talk because Empire Strikes Back was released 30 years ago almost to the day that we were speaking. Wow!

One parting shot I took was to explain that we used to call Trish “Darth Vader” at work because we’d all scurry away in fear when we heard her stomping down the corridors, the same way the Stormtroopers and Imperial Officers would quake with fear when they heard Vader coming towards them. Trish said that she already told them about the name, but I’m sure she didn’t fully explain the reasons haha.

It was a pretty entertaining interview, in all, and reminded me about why I like Star Wars and collecting. It “lets the kid out”. It’s fun, imaginative and also enriching to discover the stories behind the characters.

Mostly the same as last year and 2008, the Chipz are back. 9 regular Chipz per team with onfield headshots, plus 3 foil metalic ones with posed shots. Included this year are five 3D Live Chipz, which I assume you hold up in front of your web cam and an image pops up out of them much like other augmented reality apps.

The Chipz also have some stats which go along with some game you can play with them.

I always like the Teamcoach sets. I’ve never actually played the game at the website, but I’ve collected them each year. I’ve not payed more than $15 per team set, including the Prize sets. The common sets are usually around $3 off ebay. Fremantle are generally cheaper than any other team. Because they suck. There I said it. As usual, action shot on the front with a generic back.

In honour of Fremantle’s first win of the season (and costing me a perfect 8 in the footy tipping) here’s the 2o10 Revelation Gems cards for Stephen Hill and Hayden Ballantyne. They actually played really well, which is surprising and promising. Rookie Michael Barlow had a good game, with plenty of possessions and a couple goals. At this rate, he’ll be a shoe-in for the 2010 series 2 Fremantle Rookie Signature card.

This is the 2010 version of the Tazo. The cards themselves aren’t bad: nice and heavy with good shots front and back. There’s some kind of funky game coming out at their web site. Seems they have the same thing for the NRL. The AFL set has 5 per team with three players plus a team logo and gold mascot for a total of 80 for a complete set.

I picked these up last week for Jett’s collection. Same kind of arrangement as previous years: common set with stats and a Die Cut jersey set. Also features “Force 5 Signature” set of 5 per club, 2 green “Revelations” per team, a “Gem Diamond”, a “Mascot Gem” which is as silly as previous Mascots and a Rookie card.