The Dream isn't Dead.

Today was a pretty special day for me. I had a slot for 1:00 pm to test drive the new Scion FR-S (sister of the BRZ and internationally known as the Toyota 86/Toyota GT86) at Mayfield Toyota in Edmonton.

The car would only be available for 5 hours for demo's and test drives and all of them were pre-booked. It's the first time anyone in the city will have seen the car in flesh. The Edmonton Autoshow had a BRZ on display, but was on a pedestal and locked out.

The one they provided was perfect. It was in Whiteout (Satin White Pearl in Japan for the 86) and a 6 speed transmission. If I were to buy one, that would be the one.

For ages, it seemed the dream was dead. That no manufacturer could make a light weight, rear wheel, small displacement vehicle that would put a smile on your face around every corner, through every bend and in every straight. I grew up admiring all these legendary vehicles, but sadly I was born a decade too late and when I was of age to purchase these cars, many of them had already become clunkers. Since then, most automotive manufacturers have shifted gears and started producing cars with more convenience, better fuel economy and in the end, everyday, liveable, boring cars. But not any more. This car symbolizes the beginning. Although this car is an end product, it's just the beginning of the re imagining of this dream. This car is proof, that the dream isn't dead. It's still out there and after the successful launch of this vehicle, hopefully other manufacturers will follow suit. They will realize what they have been missing all these years and come to their senses.

I met up with my dealership friend and we were waiting for the car to arrive. Looking through the glass of the dealership I saw it come by into the lot. It's remarkable. The pictures show the car having quite a bit of wheel gap and sitting pretty high, especially when its tossing around in corners and accelerating. However, seeing it in the flesh the car sits extremely low, looks extremely wide and I'm thoroughly impressed with the road presence it provided. The curves and angles of the car are indescribable. It looks like nothing in a Sub 30k price range. It's honestly one of the prettiest cars I have witnessed and in my opinion looks much more agile, graceful than any car up to a 50k range. STi's, Evo's, Genesis, RX-8, 370z. The FR-S of course cannot be compared to these cars in terms of performance, but for looks, I feel the FR-S takes the cake.

I was up next and the rules were that you only got 15 minutes with the vehicle.

After I got behind the wheel and starting my route, it's indescribable. The car sit's so low and you feel so connected to the road. The pavement feels like it's flying by right under your ass by inches. The steering is ultra responsive and there was no lack in power. The torque band felt super flat and we constantly kept speeding up.

My friend took the car out after and with Him, the extra tall sales person and myself, the car still went up to 160-170km/hr without any hesitation. It felt like the tip of the iceberg at those speeds.

After getting out of the car, I knew that was the vehicle I'd eventually purchase. It could be in days, weeks, months, half a year or a whole year. But this would be the car I would eventually purchase. No other company had anything remotely close in the works.

If I'm getting it eventually, I might as well get it now, right? I put a deposit down and now we play the waiting game. 

Calgary Expo 2011 - Stan Lee Meet!

Me, CrazyE, Solo and Vertex decided last second that we'd try to make the Calgary Expo this year.
End Result? Freakin Blast. It was ridiculous. The scale of this event compared to the few I go to in Edmonton is 10 folds. Takes up the entire BMO center and line ups upon line ups circle around mid day.

Since going and coming back, I've been hearing a lot of smack about the show in regards to bad organization, late guests and the fire marshal announcement causing thousands of people to miss the show or be rejected entry. Unfortunately, these have tarnished the good feeling that the show has brought the thousands of other people in attendance. I do feel your sympathy, I got locked out midway through too. But I finished everything I wanted to see. Why? I woke up at 5 fucking am to drive down.

I forced all my buddies to wake up at 5 too, because I'm an asshole. Piled us all into the Honda Accord and blitzed down to Calgary in 2.5 hours. We got there 2 hours early.

Why did I need to be there 2 hours early. One Reason:

Meeting the MAN. The LEGEND. STAN LEE.

I had purchased an autograph opportunity with him for Saturday at 10 am. I heard horror stories of 300 guest line ups from the day before and him showing up late with the result of them cutting off the line much earlier. I'm not gonna take risks like that. We were the first 100 people in line for the show. When they opened up at 10, I ran through the barriers, through the "this is not an entrance" entrance and between the black curtains straight to his booth.

I brought my copy of Tales of Suspense #59 (1964). Oldest book I own. This things gonna be half a century old in 2 years. But it doesn't even compare to Stan Lee. At 89, he's the nicest guest I've ever encountered at an Expo. He genuinely cares about the fans and I feel like he appreciated everyone who showed up and enjoyed all the weird articles people were bringing him to sign.

Some short background on my book. I'm not sure this is 100% accurate, so if any of you guys spot something weird, give me a shout. Tales of Suspense was before Iron Man or Captain America had their own runs. Iron Man was created by Stan Lee in Tales of Suspense #39. Cap was created during the times of WW2, but fell out of popularity a few decades later. Tales of Suspense #59 (the one I brought) was a continuation of featuring Iron Man and #59 they added Cap to make it a split book format and try to get Cap back on board with the fans. It proved to be successful and when Tales of Suspense hit #99, #100 became Captain America's own line and Iron Man getting his own in "The Invincible Iron Man." Pretty important book to me. Another side note, Tales of Suspense #59 is the first time Jarvis is introduced, Iron Man's loyal butler.

Snapped some pics of my book going across to him. He looked up and smiled after I gave him my rehearsed spiel about how even though I was too young to read any books he wrote, the characters he created have played a huge part in my child hood and they continue to inspire me today.

There I am. Look at that fat ass grin.

In hindsight, I should have also gotten a close up of the book after signing, since it wasn't coming back with me after the show. I went to the CGC booth to get it slabbed, so you guys are gonna have to wait just as long as me to see a close up of the book when I receive it after CGC gets it's shit together. They say 2 months, but it's probably going to be 4.

"The trick is the second you forget about the book, it will show up at your doorstep" That was the advice I was given. Well shit, I'm never going to forget about this book. I freakin met Stan Lee. So i'm never gonna get it.

But to everyone who's still feeling the blues because of the bad parts of the show. If you were really hardcore, and really wanted to see the shit you were planning to see. Don't show up at 2 in the afternoon. Wake up at 5. Wake all your buddies up. Force them go early. Buy all your tickets early. Then when you get locked out of the show, you won't feel any regrets. 

Just received one of my custom carbon wrapped bases for the Bugatti Veyron.

New Rigg

More details later.
Check it:

1/18 AUTOart Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV (Bianco Canopus)

All good things come to an end (as they say).

This is the Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV. It is the most powerful Murcielago ever produced and will be the last iteration of Lamborghini's flagship car before the torch is handed to the Lamborghini Aventador. The Murcielago has had many body and engine changes through its decade long production life. For the non-roadster production, the Murcielago started with a 6.2 V12 that produced 580 HP. 2006 introduced the LP640 which increased displacement to 6.5 litres and generated 640 HP along with a few body changes, most notably the front and rear fascias, an enlarged inlet on the left skirt for oil cooling, new tail lamps and a single rear exhaust outlet. Near the end of its life this engine was tweaked to generate 670 HP and extreme body styling was incorporated for the ultimate version of the Murcielago creating the LP670-4. I followed the Murcielago very closely throughout its production life and since I possessed the first version of the production Murcielago, I definitely had to obtain the last model.

Normally, I would now go through and caption all the pictures outlining the details and craftsmanship of the model. All you need to know is that many diecast collector's say the Murcielago SV is the best model (quality wise) to come out of the AUTOart factory ever. I won't ruin the Murcielago with my technical break downs and descriptions. Instead, a moment of silence for the death of the raging bull.

The Last Hurrah.

The Fastest. Lightest. Most Powerful Murcielago. The LP670-4 Super Veloce.

EPIC MIGHTY MUGGS. MUDDA FUKAAAAA

Last day of 30 day blog challenge.

So a special thanks to Liam for hosting this event. It was extremely fun, lots of work, but made me feel very productive. And thanks to you guys for for visiting and commenting for the last 30 days. It was a fun experience for me to once again dig through my collection and reminisce on their history, how I obtained them and why I continue to collect.

As a reward for you guys tuning in...I will show you my Mighty Muggs Collection.

I must warn you though. It is not for the faint of heart. It is epic in all proportions and I have invested a ton of time in hunting them down, lots of money in obtaining them and gone through lots of headache to try to complete the collection.

Scroll down....

AND

PREPARE

FOR

EPICNESS

BOOYAKASHA! 85 MIGHTY MUGGS.

INSANITY! Right? I have no doubts I have the largest Mighty Muggs collection in western Canada. Another nice touch is the top of the Muggs have the faces of the figures, so I've also lined them up for additional pictures:

Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber: Luke Skywalker

When I was growing up, the first Star Wars movie we had was Return of the Jedi. I had seen the previous ones, but when I was presented the choice of owning one of the original 3 Star Wars movies, I picked Return of the Jedi. No explanation why. Maybe I was just a crazy kid, or I was dropped. Hardcore Star Wars fans will say that Return of the Jedi is definitely the worse of the original trilogy, but over the years of thinking hard I have come to the conclusion why ROTJ was my favorite one growing up. It was because of Luke's green bladed Lightsaber. As a kid, Luke's green lightsaber always captivated me and the luminescent glow and hum of his first self-made lightsaber was such a treat to see, that I popped in Return of the Jedi time after time (between rewinds of course).

So it was obvious I had to obtain this when they were reissued.

This is Luke's first personal-made lightsaber. The one he used in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back was Anakin's saber which was passed down. The green one was Luke's first saber he assembled after becoming a full fledged Jedi.

Just a small bit of trivia: for several decades there was a rumor that between The Empire Strikes back and Return of the Jedi some film was shot where Luke constructed this saber. Over the years Lucas and even Mark Hamill have denied such a clip existed. However, it was revealed during Celebration V that this clip did indeed exist. It was shown during Celebration V and will be included in the Star Wars Blu-Ray Collection coming out at the end of this month.

Some background on the FX Saber's, they normally range from $130-150 a piece. Originally they were created by Master Replicas and made in very limited quantities. The ROTJ Luke Saber was made especially in low quantities and the price of it quickly skyrocket to over $500. This made it pretty much impossible for me to ever obtain one, which made me quite sad because it was truly the only FX Saber I wanted to own. Luckily, Master Replicas sold the FX Saber license to Hasbro and Hasbro started pumping them out. When it was announced they would re-issue this one I immediately pre-ordered it. Here's the result:

The Lightsaber takes 3 AAA batteries. You can see it directly attaches to the sound module.





When ignited, the blade glows bright green. Because of the string of LED's that travel up the blade its not an instant on or off. Also, the Saber makes humming sounds when its swung around (best use of an accelerometer ever). It also has a detector to make movie accurate lightsaber...sizzling and flesh burning sounds when its hit.