BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02502 Tomorrow is Andy's birthday. I usually take Andy for breakfast but tonight Allison and Eva were off at a concert so Andy and I went out for dinner in place of breakfast tomorrow. We went to Box Seats for dinner and Andy got a piece of carrot cake for dessert. We had a nice time hanging out. Andy has been rewatching Stranger things before the new season starts. They finished watching it tonight and had forgotten certain parts that hit hard. I'm looking forward to the next season as well. It is great having some programs that we enjoy together.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02413 as a kid growing up in the 80's we had some of the greatest cartoons ever. One such cartoon was Thundercats. I watched that all the time and loved it. I recently rediscovered the show on Hulu. I didn't realize that there were over 120 episodes. I've been watching it whenever I want some background noise because each episode is pretty much the same. It is a comfort show and I enjoy it. Now there is also a new comic book series and it as been exploring the lore of the Thundercats world.  I saw on Temu that they had the Sword of Omens, That is Lion-O's sword and Temu had both sizes. One of the things that the sword could do was grow. It started as a small dagger and then Lion-O would do his catchphrase of "Thunder, Thunder, Thundercats Ho!" Each time he said Thunder he would swing the sword out to one side and it would grow a bit until it was a full size sword. I'm making some 3D printed Sword holders to display these on my wall. Yes, I...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02408 Allison and I were watching a show the other day and there was a character wearing a t-shirt that looked like The Terminator but it was Jesus and the shirt said, "I'll Be Back". I thought it was clever. It wouldn't be something I would wear but I tried to take a photo so that I could use my phone to identify where to buy it. I didn't take photos of anything else today so this photo is my daily one.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02025 With Allison’s parents arriving tomorrow we have been in full scale cleaning mode. While cleaning is occuring there is also some reorganizing happening. Allison cleared out one of the shelves in the entertainment center and decided that we should place all the components and game systems in those shelves. I got out my power drill and made a hole in the back of the entertainment center and rerouted all the wires and put all the components on the shelves. Luckily everything fit and it looks much neater. Now there is only one set of wires that is coming down in the middle of the TV but we can put something in front of that to block it.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01955 Tonight I took Andy to Showcase in Foxboro for the 40th Anniversary Transformers night. The first 4 episodes of the original cartoon were being shown with the first episode having a live table read with many people from the original cast. That first episode was pretty cool and Andy loved seeing the voice actors do their thing. Andy did ask a few questions during the show and they had lots of criticisms of the plot. Questions about how robots as large as Soundwave could shrink down to be a tape deck that could be carried by a human. Questions like why would they make Megatron turn into a gun that needed to be used by other robots. Andy also saw foreshadowing from a mile away. It didn’t help that nearly every episode was basically the same. I explained that the toys were already created and then the show was made around the toys to sell the toys. Plot and storylines were very basic but over the years the lore around the Autobots and Decepticons grew from comi...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01882 This weekend I had to go in to the office twice. This is the new normal for us in that one weekend a month we have two nights in the office. There is really no good reason for this and is more for the day staff who actually work with customers but for us overnight folks that doesn’t make that much sense. Saw this magnet at Five Below and that is definitely my mood regarding being in the office. This is a character from a show that Allison and I watch when we head to bed. It is called Schitt’s Creek and that is Eugene Levy’s son Daniel Levy. He plays David Rose and has such a acerbic, sarcastic personality. He cracks me up.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01822 Our first major print with the 3D printer is The Sword of Omens from The Thundercats. I wanted one for upcoming Comic Book Conventions. The build is in several stages and once it is all together is is fairly large. This is one part of the handle of the sword and it didn’t print that well so I am going to print it one more time. Hopefully that will print better. I’m getting better at the prints.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01821 I put the 3D printer through its paces a bit today. I found a file of the Thundercats logo and decided to print it out. It was very large and I did not add glue to the hotbed prior to printing so partway through the build it separated from the hotbed and did not come out as clean as it could have. It is fun watching these being printed. Interesting to see how each layer is made. The large print was 85 layers and took a little over 2 hours to print. I reduced the size to a 9mm diameter ad that made the print 73 layers and took about 46 minutes to print. The second time I put down some glue from a glue stick and it did not separate from the hotbed as it printed. The second print is so much smoother and precise. You can see on the outer rim of the build that it looks scruffy. That was because the bottom separated from the hotbed and I wasn’t sure if I should scrap the build or let it play out. I let it play out. I can use that one as a test for painting.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01772 everyone had the day off today for Veteran’s Day. Allison, Eva and I went to see the movie The Marvels over at Showcase while Andy hung out at home. Andy is not into the Marvel movies. It was a good movie and we enjoyed it very much. Some good laughs in the movie and the end credits scenes were awesome, they really set up some things to come. In the afternoon I ran out to Walmart to see if I could find any of the ice cream flavors from the TV show Stranger Things. In the show there is an ice cream shop called Scoops Ahoy. Well, some of the flavors created are for the show. I picked up the Triple Decker Extravaganza which is very much like a fancy waffle in ice cream form. The Void was the one I really wanted to try. I was a bit disappointed because it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. The kids loved the Triple Decker ice cream and I had to make sure that they saved some for Allison.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01743 I used to have to have the whole room silent and pitch black to sleep. However, we now watch a show or have a show on while we sleep. the sleep timer on the TV gets a lot of use and show like Schitt’s Creek is a perfect one to sleep to because it is so mellow and, for the most part, quiet. We’ve also seen the entire series several times so it just plays as background noise. If that doesn’t end up doing the trick I usually put my phone under my pillow on the lowest setting and have an audiobook play for a half hour or so. That usually ends up taking care of things. Not always but usually.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01734 I found a popcorn that I fell in love with the other day. I was at Dollar Tree picking up some snacks for work and I found a Mexican Street Corn popcorn from Herr’s. This popcorn beat out Smartfood for my top spot of pre-packaged popcorn that I enjoy the most. I love the heat and the flavor of this popcorn and have tried going to several Dollar Trees to find more of it because I bought the last three bags on my last trip. In the background was the last episode of Never Say Never on Disney Plus. Allison and I became big fans of Jeff Jenkins after watching that series. He went to so many amazing places.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01722 Today I took my old laptop and repurposed it for Andy. Andy loves playing Minecraft and has recently gotten back into playing it via computer. However, we have one family computer and that is used mostly by Allison while she does work for school. I basically took off everything that would be bogging the computer down and installed Minecraft so that Andy could use it. this way there is a dedicated device that Andy can use to play their favorite game. It may be a little slower than the other computer but it still runs pretty well to play that game. The book is the newest Bruce book. Andy loves the Bruce books and asked that we pick this up the other night when we were with Uncle Jim at Target. I haven’t had any free Bruce books sent to me in a while so we bought this one to continue the series. It may be a children’s book and Andy si definitely aged out of them but they still enjoy these funny stories.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01712 I’ve gotten another delivery from TEMU. This time it is of some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures in LEGO form. These are knock offs but I got them because I like to display fun things around my office and I love the turtles and they looked pretty fun. They each come with a skateboard and their signature weapons plus a pizza. They are all nicely done with great prints on each one.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01703 There is this new online shopping site called Temu and it carries a bunch of interesting and eclectic stuff. I received my first delivery from them yesterday but today I took one of the items that I had ordered and added it to my car. I got these decals of the Autobot symbol silver on black that fit the middle of my wheels of the car. I put them on the car today. I have several Autobot symbols on the car in various locations. I try to keep with a theme, although I am considering putting the Thundercats decal on the car, too. But I may just hang on to that for the next car or for something else. I originally ordered from Temu for the Optimus Prime figure in the photo above.It was only $1.25. I thought that it was going to be much much smaller and when it arrived I was really surprised and happy that it was such a decent sized figure with great detail. If this was a legit Hasbro figure it would have cost $32 or more because Hasbro has been price gouging their...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01108 I received this Playmobil set for free from Playmobil so that I could unbox it and review. Opinions are my own. When I was a kid watching the A-Team was so much fun. It was one of my very favorite shows along with Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazard. I was very excited to learn that Playmobil was creating an A-Team Van set and was even more excited to receive it. I think that out of all of the 80’s TV show vehicles I liked the A-Team van the most. Don’t get me wrong K.I.T.T. and The General Lee were awesome in their own right but there was something about the A-Team van. It wasn’t super charged or had a talking computer inside. It was muscle and made even better all the time by B.A. Baraccus played by Mr. T. I liked how the team would always be helping the little guy and sticking it to whoever was trying to get over on everyone. These guys were like The Magnificent 7 and Robin Hood all rolled into a tight 4 person team. the set is awesome and I talk much m...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01082 We received a free copy of The Ultimate Aang and Korra Blu-rayTM Collection from Nickelodeon. Opinions are our own. We have an interesting history with Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra in this house. I noticed that Avatar was on Netflix and suggested that the kids and I begin watching it together. After watching the first episode and the kids not being as enthused as I thought they would be we stopped watching. Then Eva watched the entire series on her own and loved it. She then dove into The Legend of Korra. Now she was the expert on both shows and I had to play catch up when I was the one who wanted to watch the shows in the first place… with the kids. Well, we can watch the shows from start to finish now with this new collection from Nickelodeon. The Ultimate Aang and Korra Blu-rayTM Collection came out on December 7th and it is filled with so many extras including 80 minutes of never before seen content. One of those bits of content is...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01058 Funko sent me the Donatello and Leonardo figures for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II for free to unbox and review. Opinions are my own. I personally purchased the Michelangelo and Raphael figures. I’ve always been a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I wish that I had read the comic books from way back when but I did love the TV show and toys. Donatello is my favorite turtle and I try and pick up most Donatello figures whenever possible. These are pretty nice ones that I added to my collection.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00973 Occasionally Funko provides me with some products for free to review. Opinions are my own. There has been a resurgence of interest in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe which also includes She-Ra. The kids and I loved the She-Ra series on Netflix. It was modern and updated and full of fun characters who had more of their backstories explored. When I saw that Funko had a She-Ra and Swift Wind Pop Rides figure coming out I knew I had to review it. This is a solid heavy figure with excellent detail on both She-Ra and Swift Wind. The dynamic posing shows She-Ra and Swift Wind in flight. She-Ra’s cape flowing out behind her under her long flowing hair. Swift Wind’s Battle Armor looks great, too. While I do like the more colorful look of Swift Wind from the remake series and his super funny personality, I do like how this one is quite true to the She-Ra version from the 80’s. This version is reminiscent of the 1985 Power Crystal version that Mattel made down to the...

I cannot wait for this movie, DreamWorks Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans when it comes out next week! I loved all of the shows in the trilogy and was happy to see that there would be more content in the form of this movie. All of the people from the series are coming together one more time to save the day, we hope. I watched the first clip and I can’t wait to see how the rest goes! Watch the first few minutes of DreamWorks Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans The epic finale premieres worldwide July 21 on Netflix Today, Academy Award®-winning filmmaker and executive producer of the multiple Emmy® Award-winning Tales of Arcadia series Guillermo del Toro, shared the first few minutes of Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans, the epic feature film finale of the saga premiering July 21 on Netflix globally. Watch the action-packed opening scene below! “No More Running” Clip: In the clip, as Douxie (Colin O’Donoghue) attempts to hide Nari (Angel Lin) from the evil Bellroc (Kay Bess) and Skrael (Piot...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00922 We had a custom pen made for Eva for being inducted to the Junior National Honor Society this school year. One of our local comic book stores, The Laughing Shield works with a local artist called Big Z Creations and they make custom wooden pens. You can give them an image of a character and they make a pen around that character. Eva loved The Legend of Korra so she found an image and we used that to make the pen. You can contact John Zirpolo at Big Z Creations at http://www.etsy.com/shop/BigZCreations and see samples of his work at http://www.instagram.com/BigZ_Creations