DARKLORD'S Collection**UPDATE**1/23/11

[DARKLORD]

Darklord, great stuff.  Where in Brooklyn do you live?  I lived in Williamsburg/Greenpoint from 1988 to 2003.  I'm now in the Bronx.  Lando the Scoundrel is in Long Island City.  It's good to see another New Yorker out on the boards.

Hah!!! Well, well!!  What do you know?  You used to live in my current stomping ground.  Yup.  You guessed it!  I'm in merry ol' Williamsburg!

Yeah see... most folks don't know this, but... what with my name being Roberto Williams and all,  this ENITRE area was named after my family years ago... hence "Williams-burg".

See, we are a very old and powerful family.  And now I control this entire part of Brooklyn.  People come to my home from ALL over Brooklyn, asking for counsel and for help. 

Some of them even kiss my ring when they see me, and they call me "don" or "godfather".

Yeah, I've been known to do many "services" for these people.   And they know that someday (and that day may never come), I will call upon them to do a service for me...

 

Oh... heh, heh... sorry.  I kinda "geeked-out" a little bit there

Yeah... but anyway... my wife and I live in our apartment here in "Willy-B", Brooklyn.

[speedermike]

Wow.  Too bad you weren't around a few years back, it would have been fun to have a SW neighbor.  Where in Williamsbug do you live?  I lived on Bayard street right on McCarren park for 11 years.  Right now, there are two giant buildings going up on either side of my old 3 story building.

I moved up to Greenpoint the weekend after TPM came out.  I miss Manhattan Ave.  The little toy shop up there was actually great.  I found many hard to find figures there, including the DST trooper wave, and the TC-14 wave.

The Donut shop up there is amazing too,

[DARKLORD]

Wow.  Too bad you weren't around a few years back, it would have been fun to have a SW neighbor.

I've actually lived in Williamsburg for 30 years.  I moved into the apartment I lived in with my older brother, mom and dad back in october of 1976!  That place was over on the corner of Lorimer and Boerum Street.

Years ago when I met my wife, we moved around a bit within Williamsburg.  But ultimately we settled into our current house also here in Williamsburg.

We moved to our place about 6 months after TPM came out.  

I miss Manhattan Ave.  The little toy shop up there was actually great.  I found many hard to find figures there, including the DST trooper wave, and the TC-14 wave.

Yikes!!  I must have missed that toy shop.  Do you recall the cross streets on Manhattan Ave where the shop was?

[Dan]

That is a most incredible collection- what a fleet! I am humbled, and impressed! Just finding that many TIE interceptors is a coup, much less paying for them and giving them a home. Way to go!

[speedermike]

Hi. The Greenpoint Toy Center is on Manhattan Ave, North of Norman, and close to Meserole.  It's right across the street from Cheap Jacks.

Also, do you have any pictures of your custom figures?  I saw your packages, and they're fantastic.  Do you work as a designer?  ---Mike

[commander apoc]

It's a shame the waterworks nearly destroyed you're collection,

I had a incedent with some draining problems in the begining of this year, but luckely my collection wasn't even wet. But hey, I know what it is to almost set a tear over this, but I was goddamn lucky that day. Not even the electricity was hit, my DVD collection was a bit wet (thank god for the plactic-covers), only the wallpaper came off the wall and some the floreparts where destroyed, but the rest was just o.k.

Now I moved my collection up a flore, and put a draining-lock on my washingmachine, so it won't happen again that quickly...

[DARKLORD]

Hi. The Greenpoint Toy Center is on Manhattan Ave, North of Norman, and close to Meserole.  It's right across the street from Cheap Jacks.

Also, do you have any pictures of your custom figures?  I saw your packages, and they're fantastic.  Do you work as a designer?  ---Mike

Howdy again Speedermike!

Photos of some of my custom action figures can be seen in the first two 2 pages of this thread:

http://www.jedidefender.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=10704.0

Thanks for the compliment on my package designs.  I actually do not work as a designer.  I'm a teacher, and professional musician.

[speedermike]

Hey.  I'm a teacher too! Actually, I just started in September.  I teach art at Lehman High School in the Bronx.  Since 1995, I've worked as a children's book illustrator full time, but with a wife and two kids, and a house, I needed a steadier gig.  I'm still doing illustration, but I'm only doing one book every year, as oppsed to two or three. 

Here's some SW related illos I did over the summer...http://www.jedidefender.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=13674.0

I saw your customs way back, and I'm amazed at how similar your Veers is to the one that Hasbro released this year.

BTW, where do you do most of your toy shopping?

[DARKLORD]

Wow!!

It's scary how much we have in common! 

I began teaching in  September as well !!
At night, I'm a musician, hosting several weekly karaoke shows at restaurants and lounges around the city.  And during the day, I go on endless voice-over auditions that my agent sends me to. And then I teach voice/singing 4 days a week at 2 after-school programs.

Speedermike, I really love your illustration work!!  You've got a really nice eye for compositional design balance and your use of color is great! Kudos!!  Great job!!  I particularly LOVE the C-3P0 piece you did.  You captured him beautifully.

Thanks for the compliement on my General Veers!  I was honestly relieved when I saw Hasbro's Veers figure and preferred my own custom.  I was very disappointed that Hasbro didn't even make a back-half for  his armor.  I thought it was a real step down from the otherwise excellent work they are doing.

Oh well.  I guess they can't hit it out of the park everytime.

As for my toy shopping:  I do most of it at Toys R Us, Target, Kay-Bee, and Walmart.  And every once in a while when I am looking for a tough to find item,  I get online and head on over to The Earth Collectible Toy Mall (out of  Cincinnati) or Brian's Toys, and sometimes (when I'm desperate)  E-bay.  But I'm anxious to see if the Greenpoint Toy Center is still around.

How about you?  Where do you shop for little galactic plastic people and their vehicles?

[speedermike]

Hi. Pretty much the same as toy shopping goes.  We live right at the top of the Bronx, so there are many stores up here to visit. There's a new Wal-Mart up in White Plains, wgich is about 15-20 minutes away.  I haven't been up there yet, but then again, I haven't had a hard time finding anything this year.

I did some after school teaching last year, in order to build my teaching resume.  I worked for Wingspan.  They were pretty good at finding me work, but I ended up finding some gigs on my own.  We have an extensive music program at Lehman, there's actually an electric guitar class! It's filled with all these teenage headbangers who just want to go nuts for 45 minutes, but have to endure a lesson each day.  Very, very noisy.

I was wondering if you have any pics of your figure collections.  I saw all of the ships earlier in the thread, but I always love looking at figures.

Take care!---Mike

[DARKLORD]

Here is my recently arrived custom-built Jawa Sandcrawler sitting on a 6 foot long banquet table  in the center of the toy collection room...

[Matt_Fury]

Very cool to finally see some pictures of it!  I look forward to more.

[DARKLORD]

Very cool to finally see some pictures of it!  I look forward to more.

I've posted a bunch more photos over in the customs thread.

[JesseVader08]

Holy... Wow.  Now that's an impressive addition to a collection. 

[DARKLORD]

Thanks everyone.

I've always believed  that the whole purpose of collecting anything (other than personal enjoyment), is to share and commune with others of similar interest.

To that end, my wife and I have had the distinct pleasure of meeting many online friends face to face in our area and we've invited them into our home. I've spent hours enjoying obscure objects in my collection in the company of friends and neighbors from everywhere.

I've routinely given away parts of my collection to children and to other collectors for nothing more than the sheer enjoyment  of seeing the smile on their faces. To me, these are the only reasons to collect STAR WARS toys.  

To me, that is the very sprirt of what STAR WARS stands for.