Topic: Jkno's Imperial Command Center

[jkno]

A nice Imperial propaganda poly-poster arrived and it is up on the door:





There is also a patch there showing my love for Star Wars films :

[jkno]

Just received the R2-D2 garden ornament from a UK ebay seller, sent through Global Shipping Program GSP, and the contents in the box are completely broken. The droid is smashed to bits and pieces, as the seller or GSP didn't use the proper packing materials. The box itself is flimsy as hell, and they only used a thin sheet of bubble wrap, too small for the box, so R2 danced in the box all the way to me, without any other protection. They could have added those cheap plastic peanuts, more bubble wrap, or even crumpled newspapers. These ceramic/resin ornaments seem to be very thin and fragile on their own, why would you ship them like a wood stump without proper packaging?

[Tamer]

Its sad when a nice product is destroyed due to faulty packaging and shipping. Oh don't get me started. Sorry you have to deal with this Serg.

[jkno]

Its sad when a nice product is destroyed due to faulty packaging and shipping. Oh don't get me started. Sorry you have to deal with this Serg.

Thanks Shawn. I didn't have too many bad experiences like this in my collecting life, which is quite good considering I use international shipping 99% of the times. One of the worse was many years ago on a forum where you were member on as well, when the seller sent me Gentle Giant ROTS Darth Vader statue without taping the two halves of the foam box, as he should have, and the heavy polystone statue rattled inside just like this R2 garden ornament. That arrived with the head broken and damaged hands. Got a full refund but was disappointing, though in a few weeks after that experience I got a pristine Vader statue elsewhere and that is still in my collection to this day.

Anyway the R2-D2 garden ornament seller and GSP both refunded me the cost of the product plus shipping. So it is all ok from this point of view. My advice for the people interested in buying these garden ornaments for their courtyard is to say pass (they first appeared in UK and more recently in Australia, I'm sure they will come in US some day too).

They are nice and come in a lot of varieties from OT and ST: Vader, Boba, Han, Leia, Stormtrooper, R2-D2, C-3PO, BB8, Rey, Kylo, Phasma etc. But they are fragile, with very thin walls and most likely will not last outside a year in the sun, rain and snow. Unfortunately these are not made for outside. For inside (collection room, man cave etc.) you can get better and more detailed figures and statues.

Now I'll be looking for some real Star Wars garden ornaments made of stone, rock, marble or concrete, if there are any. Wish I didn't have this experience though...

[jkno]

Hot Toys 1:4 Darth Vader figure, an exceptional piece, quite accurate and really big. Very impressive in person, I like the beautiful details on the suit and helmet. The Anakin/Sebastian Shaw sculpt is amazing, but I will not use it. I chose this simple museum pose for the final display, also didn't take the cell batteries out of their small tray (don't care about lights), I only tested the secondary stand lights which works fine.

I used the steamer on the capes, they were originally very wrinkled, and will use it again one more time, but had to move fast to take the outdoor pics because raining was starting. A great figure, glad I decided to buy it, now hopefully Hot Toys will finally release their 1:4 Stormtrooper too.

[jkno]

An old UK friend made me a cool present: R2-D2 wall ornament (or maybe a R2-Q5? ). After finding out my previous problem with the resin garden ornament that got broken, he bought this for me as gift. It is made of reconstituted stone and concrete, it has about 1.7 kg (quite heavy) and it 20 cm (8") tall. It comes with a sturdy hook to hang on a wall. A very solid piece heavy, you could drop on the ground and not even get scratched. Thanks Rob!

[Clonehead]

Wow, that Hot Toys 1/4 Vader looks exquisite.

[jkno]

Wow, that Hot Toys 1/4 Vader looks exquisite.

Thank you. It is a big piece and quite impressive indeed. Hopefully the pleather suit will last

[FialaFernbrugg]

It's really a shame about the R2-D2 ornament.
The Hot Toys Vader looks very impressive.

[jkno]

It's really a shame about the R2-D2 ornament.
The Hot Toys Vader looks very impressive.

Thank you, sorry for the delay in answering, I have some family problems lately. Glad at least the ornament was replaced by something else.

[jkno]

As some friends have noticed I didn't post on the collecting forums for some time, I guess it is already almost month, well, I didn't quit collecting, doing it constantly for decades, but because of some serious family problems, I wasn't online for too long. Life gets in the way sometimes, though I logged in from time to time, didn't post, still I talked by PM and email with a few friends, thank you for the encouraging messages, as well as for the birthday wishes and presents (though I didn't even manage to celebrate bday this year). In the meantime the collectibles kept arriving, but I didn't have the time nor patience to take photos and upload them. Glad these problems are solved in most part now, so I'll keep posting on the forums, at least more often than in the past month.


One of the items that arrived in this period is the Nemesis Now See No Evil Stormtrooper, or as I call it "Facepalm Stormtrooper"
 

[Clonehead]

Life does get in the way my friend. I always look forward to your postings. I myself had been on a posting hiatus for some time. It’s hard to get back into the swing of things as so much has happened in the time that I was absent.
Im sorry to hear of your troubles. As always, I will look forward to your next post.

[jkno]

Life does get in the way my friend. I always look forward to your postings. I myself had been on a posting hiatus for some time. It’s hard to get back into the swing of things as so much has happened in the time that I was absent.
Im sorry to hear of your troubles. As always, I will look forward to your next post.

Thanks for the kind words. Things have changed a bit, hopefully for the good

Weekend so I had a bit of time to photograph another thing that arrived some time ago - a 501st logo carpet/rug. Pretty cool and very well made

[Tamer]

Thats a great rug. I need to find me one of those.

Glad to hear life is treating you a bit better, man I had a year in 2019 myself!

[Darth More]

It’s funny how many ads I get of those Stormies  since I looked at your post. I like the fact that they sit (like those monkey statues) and I think you got the best version of them all. I could imagine that “don’t tell” Trooper sitting opposite of an Ewok on Endor. As if they made friends, but nobody should know. Unlike Leia’s lucky encounter. Niub niub. Nice insignia, too! You are an imperial ultra collector that’s for sure.