BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02498 I've been trying to complete my comic book collection recently and with that I have about 14 Transformers issues that I've been missing.Today Issue #61 finally arrived. This is one I have been unable to find for years but I got it on eBay. Most of the Transformers books that I am missing are the much later ones that had a lower run overall. That means that they will be more expensive. Hopefully through searchign comic book shops and comic cons I'll be able to complete the collection some day.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02497 I received a Blokees Optimus Prime figure from the kids at Christmas. It is the one on the left . then I bought myself the G1 version after Christmas and built it tonight. Blokees are fun to assemble non transformable figures of Transformers characters and the ones that I made here are the deluxe versions. they have bigger and smaller versions that you can get including some blind bag options. I bought the first series of blind bag ones but stopped after that. Now I will pretty much only get a character if I am collecting them, like Optimus or Wheeljack. I won't just chance it and get something I'm not interested in getting.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02496 Apparently Funko may be going out of business. I have collected many Funko figures over the years and I recently saw that there was an Optimus Prime Magic the Gathering figure that was going to be released. So I ordered it. I do try and pick up the Transformers Funko figures and I put them on my wall in the office. This one is neat because it has a background of the Optimus Prime Magic card. I never found that or even a pack of Transformers/Magic cards but this looked like fun.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02488 I have finally completed all of the documenting of the comics in my collection. I've also realized that some comic book series that I enjoyed I stopped before they stopped so I've been looking through eBay to complete the collections. I am now missing about 20 or so but still waiting for deliveries. I'm also going to create some better labels that go in the little rectangular spots for each box. I showed this image to my cousin and he said it looked sort of like Optimus Prime. I can see that as well.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02483 For a while now I have been reorganizing and documenting my comic book collection. I moved the comics from the cardboard boxes to some upgraded plastic boxes that provide more protection. I've been taking each comic out and photographing it, documenting the publication date, cover price and more information for each book. The spreadsheet shows about 2670 comics and the album of photographed comic covers is at 2080 so I have close to 600 more to go. Some need boards and bags and some, I am discovering, are missing issues. I discovered that one of my favorite comics, WildC.A.T.S. has 6 volumes of books and for some reason I am missing a large chunk of the 5th volume but have all of the 6th. So it is off to eBay I have been going to fill out and complete the collection. It has proven very helpful to get the collection complete. I figure if I can photograph a box a day I should be done with this by the weekend. Then I can show my new shelf with all the boxes of b...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02478 This year's San Diego Comicon featured a Transformers set that combined the character of Jetfire with two characters from the comic book Void Rivals, Darak and Solla. Void Rivals is part of the Energon Universe of comic books. This would include Transformers, G.I. JOE and Void Rivals. Skybound, which is under Image comic has the license of Transformers and G.I.JOE. They also have M.A.S.K. too because characters from that universe are also running around in this new one.  I have been collecting all the comics from the Energon Universe and they are awesome. I love how they are intertwined. For instance Darak and Solla crash land on a planet in their book and they discover Jetfire. This set is of that meeting. There is even a comic book with a special cover included in this set. It is a cool display but I seem to have run out of viable places for it to be displayed so it is on the back of the futon at this time.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02476 The other day I learned about an Omega supreme extra large Funko Pop. I've been collecting the Transformers Funko POP! figures and displaying them on my wall. So, when I saw this I picked it up. I figured that I'd get a couple of things with the money that I made selling off other Transformers figures. I've decided that if I am buying anything more it has to be displayed.  In addition to the new Funko POP! figures I got I also got some Bitty sized Funko Pop! figures of Transformers. These I can display on my desk. I found a great Transformers shirt as well. There is also a metal model that I need to build. I've never built a metal figure before but that will be a fun challenge.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02473 Today I drove up to New Hampshire to Double Midnight Comics to sell a huge lot of Transformers toys. I'd been collecting these toys for well over 40 years. After college I bought a ton of them and kept buying them. In 2007 I had them all out and did a photo shoot with the local newspaper because a Live Action Transformers movie was going to be released. The local paper was doing a story on people who were Transformers fans and I got into the mix. At one point I had 19 very large boxes of Transformers, many that were still in their own boxes.  Today I sold about 300 toys to Double Midnight. They were split up into 23 boxes. I photographed every one of them and wrote in the descriptions and dates they were released so that Scott at Double Midnight could look them over and decide if they wanted to buy. He gave me fair price for them and so yesterday I got my ad's van and Andy and I loaded up all the boxes and I drove them up today. While I was there I checke...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02472 Today I drove to the Cape to pick up my dad's van so that I could load it up with the Transformers toys that I am selling to Double Midnight comics. They offered me a good price and I'm happy to get everything sold. When andy got home they helped me load up the van with all the boxes. The whole back of the van has been filled completely. I'll run everything up to NH tomorrow. 

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02468 I was in Target yesterday and found a new Wheeljack for my collection. This one has TV accurate color scheme. That means that the windows have that light blue color from the TV show and the figure looks very much like the G1 character did in the original cartoon. I'm loving it.  Last night I rewatched Transformers Cyberverse, a quick 10 minute episode series and it had a cool Wheeljack character. He even had a beard.  I do like when they make Wheeljack more of a badass fighter but is also a mad scientist.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02459 I've got the comic books bagged, boarded and many boxed. The spreadsheet shows me where each one is stored and now I have some labels on the boxes. These are placeholders until I make up some full color ones to make the organization better. I have this little wireless heat transfer printer that can print onto stickers. I found an Autobot symbol online and was able to print it with the printer to make box labels for the Transformers boxes. In the end I'll probably have 8 or so of them. Eventually I'll have the whole collection stored away and be able o take a box at a time for reading. All books are being ordered in a reading order so that I can enjoy all of them. I had gotten way behind in reading but kept up in the collecting of the different series that I enjoy. That means that I probably have a couple hundred books to read and enjoy soon.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02457 Well, I've gone through all of my comic books over the past several weeks and I've determined that over 40 years of collecting I am missing 40 comic books in m collection. So, the hunt has begun to fill in those gaps. So, I'll be visiting comic book shops in the area and trying to find those hard to find books. There have been times when my shop didn't pull a particular comic and I missed that. There were other times when I was just a kid and couldn't get to a comic book shop on a regular basis to find the books for my collection. The biggest gap is in my original Transformers comic book collection. Those were from when I was 10-14 years old. The hardest time to stay consistent in collecting. These are also some of the hardest to find books out there. The final issue goes for around $40. That's crazy but I'll keep looking.  This shop was in Putnam, CT and was about an hour ride. It was worth the ride because it was such a nice store ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02452 As I continue to go through my comic books I keep finding gems from the past. One of my favorite studios was Wildstorm and they made this amazing set of 8 covers that all connected across their various titles. They did an amazing job with it. My new set of black comic book boxes came yesterday and I put them together last night. Today I filled them with so many of my IMAGE comics that I collected through college. I also put together 6 short boxes of comics that I want to sell.  Andy had a friend over after school. Yesterday Andy went to their house and today they came over here. I'm very happy to see that Andy has a friend that lives close enough that they can hang out together. We've always told the kids that their friends were welcome anytime in hopes that they would have friends come over to hang out or play. It will be nice to see this happen more often.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02449 I'm making progress on my comic book cleanup. I've gotten most of my Transformers comics rehomed in the new boxes. I'll need a couple of more to complete the rehousing. I have a set of black ones coming Wednesday for comics other than Transformers. But I'm pretty sure I would need more to cover everything. Progress is being made. Photographing each cover is what is taking the most time, though.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02447 When I was younger I made these labels for my copies of Transformers Universe. I had some stickers of letters and used them to make these comic book boards. As I have been organizing and documenting my comic books I found these. I replaced them with some newer boards. But I had to get them documented. I've only completed two of the new boxes and have three additional boxes just filled with Transformers comics. I've got to go through them all and organize them and figure out what ones I might be missing. There are a bunch that I have never read and I need to organize them a bit more to put them in the correct reading order. Today Andy went over to their friend Onyx's house. Andy made 5 pans of mac and cheese and a bunch of cilantro lime sugar cookies. They came out really well, too. 

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02446 When I was at Granite State Comicon I found someone selling special minifigs including a Voltron Minifig. LEGO oes not make these but I liked it well enough to get it to add to my Voltron display. Th minifig sits atop Voltron. Today I was busy working on my second box of comic books. These were all Transformers books. I am finding a few that I am missing including a couple from my set of Transformers Collectors Club books. Strange that I am missing two of them and these should have all been mailed directly to me. So I am hoping that those two are somewhere mixed in with other books because I did not file them well or something like that.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02445 Today is National Comic Book Day. I have been hard at work reorganizing and cataloging my comic book collection starting with the Transformers. What you see on my desk is a stack of Transformers books that will finish up my first completed box of comics. However, my collection is not complete. I am missing 18 comics that should be in that box. I'll have to be ont he lookout for them at future conventions and at comic book shops around the area. I hope that I can find them all to complete the collection.  Speaking of completing things, I have also been trying to complete watching the Thundercats on Hulu but I am not going to be able to do that since I cancelled Hulu and my membership ends today. I got up to Episode 46 of Season 2. There are 65 episodes in the season. So, I'll figure out a way to watch the rest of them. The shirt is a new one from the convention. Both Eva and I liked it. I got it, though.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02442 It was time to upgrade my comic book storage. I've had my comics in cardboard long and short boxes for a long time. I found these plastic boxes on amazon and got a set of five.So far they have been filled with all the Transformers comics that I've had from over the years. But I have many more comics and ever since I started clearing out my Transformers toys I knew that it would be time to move on to the comics eventually. There are many comics that I am going to sell off but many more that I want to keep and protect. I may even try and complete the set of Transformers comics that I never completed back in the 80's and 90s. I'm missing like 10 of them. It is pretty good seeing as I was a 10 year old kid when I started collecting these and did not have a consistent way to collect my comics until I was in college. By then it was too late. So I'm issing many of the later ones but I'll find them eventually.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02436 I've been working on a little craft project with some of my Transformers collections. I bought a piece of foam that looks like diamond plate and I spray painted it chrome. Then I took my Transformers Robot Heroes and Transformers Movie cars and glued them to the piece of foam. Don't worry, the Robot Heroes are made out of that type of plastic that just feels 'sticky' after a few years. so I am not upset that I'm using them this way. If you are looking at the photo then ont he Left side I tried to put all the Transformers The Animated Movie characters as well as random Robot Heroes Characters. On the Right side I have my G1 Transformers and On each I separated Autobots on the left and Decepticons on the right. Now, I am realizing that I may have done that subconsciously. In the middle are the cars with again Autobots on the left and Decepticons on the right.  I have the foam set in place with some tacky glue dots so that I can remove it when I ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02435 As I continue to clean out and discover things that I have collected I find more and more strange things. At one time Hasbro tried their hand at LEGO-like sets called Kreo. They made this weird one of Optimus Prime but in a skiing jacket with skis. That is really weird. But I found it and now it is on display on my desk.