Sorting, Sorting, Sorting

Just prior to the sorting, the bins await my attention.

I recently started sorting my massive collection of action figures -- I had upwards of 12 Rubbermaid totes stuff full -- and it has been a completely upward climb trying to organize everything, especially when it comes to accessories, which I typically just threw into the tote with little thought of the kind of frustration I would cause my Future Self.

I'm somewhat impressed that I've been able to match up so many of the accessories to the various figures, but I still have a couple of small cardboard boxes filled with swords, guns, tentacles, chains, and appendages. I either can't remember which figure the pieces go with or have no idea where the figure is that pairs with the accessories. And The Simpsons figures are another ballgame entirely. Each figure came with three or four accessories. My memory just isn't good enough to pair that stuff up and I don't have the time necessary to research that stuff. At least the accessories in tend to have a similar look so that makes it a little easier.

I've been heavily collecting and reviewing action figures for the last 12 years and I've built quite the collection so as I sort and bag these figures, I'm in a philosophical battle with myself about boxing them back up and shuffling them down to the crawlspace. I don't really get a chance to "enjoy" these figures. I have a small handful of figures displayed and a few large Sideshow pieces out, but that's it. What good are these things doing packed away?

At any rate, I've been taking pictures so I thought I'd share some:

I have enough Halo figures and accessories -- from Joyride Studios and McFarlane Toys --
to recreate Halo: Reach. The pile includes a Prophet and Flood figures.

Mega Man and Pac-Man in Street Fighter X Tekken

I posted this bit of information to AE's News section earlier but it kind of deserves a little more attention.

Mega Man -- as depicted on the cover of the original Mega Man -- and Pac-Man are included as "exclusive" characters for the Playstation 3 version of Street Fighter X Tekken (alongside Cole from the inFamous series). Mega Man in a fighting game is not unheard of and kinda makes sense in the overall scheme of crossover fighting games, but I think it's a stroke of genius to use the original (and ugly as sin) Mega Man cover model.

It does a couple of things that are positive for Street Fighter X Tekken.

The first is publicity. This inclusion is an attention-grabber and will work fighting fans and non-fans into a froth on gaming forums. "How could they do this?" "What will this do to the competitive circuit?" "Geez, that's ugly!" "Geez, that's awesome!" And from what I've read online, there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. Either you're for it or against it. Applauding or booing.

The second thing it does is open the door for other really terrible box art characters to be brought into the digital realm, like Strider or Crack Down. That's either a blessing or a curse. I lean toward the blessing side of that argument.

If for no other reason than to remind gamers of just how far design and art have come thanks to the abundance of processing cycles modern technology allows. Now, what a designer sketches and a concept artist paints can actually come alive in a way that wasn't possible in the early days.

Good on the development team for trying something a little outside the expected!