Hanukkah 2013

So here's how I made out This year:

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - Eighth Candle

So here's the final update list, and like last time I'm going into slightly more detail. I've upped the number and broke some ties to bring you my

TOP 25 FAVORITE FILMS OF ALL TIME

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - Seventh Candle

Some more important changes and rearranges here in the TV list. It's been a while since I've been able to really think about television even though it's been a huge part of my life.

Of course, some of you can probably see the biggest change coming...

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - Sixth Candle

There's a new addition to my Video Games list, and it's right near the top:

Top 20 Favorite Video Games of All Time
20. Crash Bandicoot 1-3 and Crash Team Racing
19. Desert Demolition with Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner
18. Final Fantasy VI and IX
17. Spore
16. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
15. Freaky Flyers
14. Lego Pop-Culture series
13. South Park Rally
12. Star Wars Episode I Racer and Racer Revenge
11. Sonic the Hedgehog 2
10. Star Wars Battlefront II
9. Super Smash Bros. series
8. Mario Kart series
7. X-Men Legends/Marvel Ultimate Alliance series
6. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
5. Star Wars: The Old Republic
4. Skylanders series
3. Pokémon series
2. Kingdom Hearts series
1. World of Warcraft

Skyrim places a close 6th, just narrowly missing ToR. Not bad for a game I used to avoid like the plague.

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - Fifth Candle

A very small change to a very small list:

Top 11 Favorite Novels
11. Frankenstien by Mary Shelley
10. His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philup Pullman
9. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
8. Darth Plagueis by James Luceno
7. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
6. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
5. The Spider-Man Trilogy novelizations by Peter David
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
3. Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
2. IT by Stephen King
1. The Harry Potter saga by J.K. Rowling

Because Darth Plagueis was awesome and Revenge of the Sith novelization was not quite as awesome as I remembered when I wrote the last list.

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - Third Candle

Stop the presses folks!

My list of Top Star Wars Characters? My Order of Preferred Films? The ones I've referenced in dozens of articles? The things I was set on?

Well, I'm changing them!

That's right! I've changed my mind about how certain things are ordered in these lists! Bet you never expected THAT!

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - Second Candle

This is going to be so short I'm not even doing a page break.

I've updated my list of favorite Tolkien characters to reflect characterizations seen in the first installment of Peter Jackson's new Hobbit trilogy, even if they're...err...expanded from Tolkien's original writings.

Top 11 Favorite Characters from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit
11. Bofur
10. Bilbo Baggins
9. Treebeard
8. Peregrin "Pippin" Took
7. Grima Wormtongue
6. The Great Goblin
5. Radagast the Brown
4. Saruman the White/Many-Colored
3. Smaug
2. Gandalf the Grey/White
1. Sméagol of the Stoor strain/Gollum

I was going to list the films to date in the order I liked them, but it occurred to me that, as it stands, I like each film better than the last. That is, Unexpected Journey is my favorite so far, followed by Return of the King, followed by Two Towers, followed by Fellowship of the Ring. Hopefully next year's Listmas will see both the remaining parts released, and perhaps them I can do a proper ranking.

Listmas 2013: Eight Crazy Nights - First Candle

One of my more profoundly aspie traits is that I have a great love of lists and listing things. I love seeing the correlative order. It's why I stay until the end of the credits in movies even if I know there's no stinger. It's why I read and/or watch Top [X] Lists even though I hate how arbitrary they can be.

It's why, last year, I made posts on the Twelve Days of Listmas, listing my favorite things by categories.

Funny thing about personal tastes is that they can change based on new information and the growing of a person. Hence I wanted to check back in once a year to do it all over again. At this point, however, I don't have quite enough changes for twelve.

But I can push it to eight.

Thus, with Hanukkah coming early this year (yes I'll still blog my loot, but it'll start a day or two late due to Thanksgiving), I'm revisiting some of my lists over the next week.

First up: Pokémon!

Hanukkah 2012: Day 8

This is the end...my only friend, the end...

Another Hanukkah has come and gone, but not without a few more parting shots.

From my Father:

Star Wars Vintage Collection Dr. Evazan. To be perfectly 100% honest, I was kind of hoping for Ahsoka, but at least I can finally complete the "Death Sentence on Twelve Systems" set I started with Ponda Baba earlier this year.

From my Wife:

Skylanders Series 2 Fright Rider. I know that his mount is canonically an undead ostrich, but since it looks far more like a Gastornis, that's what I'm calling it.

The 3DS grades and the Console Paths will probably be at least another week. Carissa and I got a "Buy One Get One Free" coupon for Series 1 Skylanders that's good until the 31st, so I want to group them all together.

As for Carissa's present, I saved the best (and most expensive) for the last day: A silver with aqua gems sea turtle necklace. And she did love it, really she did. But that's not what got the best reaction out of her this year. What she jumped up and down in excitement for was a few nights ago when I gave her the Sims 3 Ambitions expansion pack, since it includes a firefighting profession (she was once a volunteer firefighter) and contains a fire engine (which she goes nuts for) called, and I quote, the "Woo Woo 4000". Whatever, I'm always glad when I can make her smile.

Tell your friend Veronica
It's time to celebrate Hanukkah
I hope I get a harmonica
On this lovely lovely Hanukkah
So drink your gin & tonica
And smoke your marijuannica*
If you really really wannica
Have a happy happy happy happy Hanukkah!
- Adam Sandler


*Nilbog's Storybook Land does not advocate the use of drugs and/or alcohol, though if you do anyway it's none of my beeswax.

Hanukkah 2012: Day 7

The penultimate edition...

From my Father:

Star Wars  Vintage Collection Aurra Sing. I give her antenna a week before it snaps off like a twig.

From my Wife:

Lego Lord of the Rings Shelob Attack set. I like this one because it has Gollum in it. 'Nuff said. I'll probably post updates when we build this one like I did the last time.

Hanukkah 2012: Day 6

Only two more of these....

From my Father:

Star Wars Vintage Collection Mawhonic. The dwarf Gran was the first to go down in the Boonta Eve Classic, which reading background information on the planet Malastare makes a very interesting choice (according to such info, the Gran colonized Malastare and displaced the natives - the Dugs). I missed this guy when Wal-Mart had the sneak peeks, but I'm glad I got him on his Vintage card.

From my Wife:

Skylanders Series 2 Pop Fizz. Okay, so he's exclusive to Giants, but Series 2 sounds better since he's not an actual Giant. This Jekyll/Hyde character was the only new character (aside from Tree Rex) I knew about prior to the release of Giants. I'm very interested to see how he handles.

Hanukkah 2012: Day 5

Five down, three to go....

From my Father:

Star Wars Vintage Collection Weequay. I remember reading in a number of sources that these guys are all named after their race, kind of like the Marklar from South Park. With Hondo Ohnaka and his band of pirates, this has apparently been retconned (if it was even accurate in the first place).

From my Wife:

The Legacy Lightsaber.

Technically, this is Anakin Skywalker's (second?) lightsaber. I absolutely love the picture of Anakin they got for the box. However, I call it The Legacy Lightsaber because this is the saber that bridges the saga. It was Anakin's, and then got passed on to Luke.

Now, this one I actually knew about...because I'm the one who bought it! Let me explain...

Remember back in Halloween when we were looking for this saber and couldn't find it? Well, about a month ago, I was at Wal-Mart picking up some things when I see this at (what I thought was) a steal. I called Carissa and asked if it was worth picking up for the future, and she said yes with the caveat that it would be one of my Hanukkah presents.

When I saw it in the store, I noticed how remarkably closer to scale the hilt was than the rest of my collection. Opening it now, I see the downside: The blade is about an inch or two too short. It's still good enough for now, and I'll eventually replace my entire collection with Force FX versions anyway, if I can ever make that much disposable cash.

Hanukkah 2012: Day 4

Halfway done *sigh*

From my Father:

Star Wars Vintage Collection Orrimaarko, a.k.a. Dick Tracy nemesis Prune Face. Yeah...just for a complete character collection's sake.

From my Wife:

Skylanders Series 1 Sonic Boom. More on her when I do the big Skylanders grading roundup at the end of this.

Hanukkah 2012: Day 3

Ahh, the magic three....

From my Father:

Star Wars Vintage Collection Nien Nunb. A.K.A. Chewbacca's Seat Warmer during the Battle of Endor. A.K.A. That weird guy whose name I can never pronounce.

My father always goes overboard with gifts, and I tell him not to get me anything. This year, after years of him never listening to me, I go "All right, if you have to get me stuff, get me Star Wars stuff." Since I have a sub-wishlist on Amazon devoted solely to the Vintage collection, this will probably be a theme this year. Not that I'm complaining in the slightest.

From my Wife:

Skylanders Giants Legendary Bouncer.

A testament to how much my wife loves me (and I love her for it) is that she didn't even look at my wishlist when she bought this, even though this specific and Toys R Us exclusive variant is prominently on there. She caught a sale, and figured I'd want the blue one over the orange one. Not only is Bouncer here my first backup giant, but he's also my first backup Tech Skylander (in Tech Zones thusfar, I was SOL if Drobot croaked). With any and all Skylanders I get this year, I'm waiting until the gift-giving is done to give 3DS grades (moot in Bouncer's case) and Console Upgrade Paths.

At this point I want to assure my dear readers that this giving isn't one-way. I broke the bank for my wife this year. She's been receptive to the stuff I've given her so far. Really likes all of it. But I'm saving the best for the last day, and THAT'S the one you guys will hear about....

Hanukkah 2012: Day 2

So this is what I got after we finished the podracers.

From my Father:

Star Wars Vintage Collection Aayla Secura. Wow she's cool. She does fall into that "female figures stand weird" thing that I thought we got out of years ago, but still. She only came with the one lightsaber, but since my primary experience with her is Star Wars Battlefront 2 where she duel-wields, I knew I had to rectify this. Luckily, I had some spare generic sabers lying around, and one of them was small enough to fit in her tiny other hand (which looks like it was meant to hold something anyway).

From my Wife:

Lego Lord of the Rings: The Video Game. Now, I haven't sat down to play this yet, but you'll get a full review when I do. But I'll probably love it. I love Legos. I LOVE Lord of the Rings. And I've adored the other Lego parody games (SW, Indy, Batman, and HP), so this will in all likelihood be awesome.

One more note, you may see a brightly-decorated tree in the background of some of these shots. My being outspokenly Jewish, this may confuse some of you. Well, the thing is, my father and I both come from mixed marriages, and have always loved the aesthetic of the tree. Since the tree is a pagan tradition anyway, we figured it wasn't too bad it we got one, dolled it up with Jewish stuff (and some pop-culture stuff, since that's the kind of people we are), and called it a Hanukkah Bush. We've been doing it for years now, and we're not the only ones. The only problem is that my wife is severely allergic to pine, so when we get our own place it's fakesville as far as a tree is concerned.

Hanukkah 2012: Day 1

Just checking in via phone to show you guys what I got last night.

From my father:

Star Wars Vintage Series Wedge Antillies

He's a decent figure, but the helmet is hard to get on and off without decapitating him. His flight suit doesn't sit well with the little rings near his knees. But it's Wedge. It's Ewan's Uncle. That's still cool.

From my wife:

Lego Star Wars Anakin and Sebulba's Podracers.

I would collect more Legos if they weren't so expensive. My wife would too. She heard me say that if I could own only one Star Wars Lego set, it would be this one, And I love her that she got this for me. We haven't started building it yet, and may not for a while. But I'm so glad I have it.

See you tomorrow!

UPDATE!!!

My wife and I decided to build them yesterday. Here's what it looked like after an hour and a half:

Another hour and a half, and it looked like this:

After that, Sebulba's cockpit took maybe another fifteen minutes to build. Here's some pics of the completed set:

Wicked. Sweet.

Although, I just realized this. This set comes with an Obi-Wan minifigure...why? He was nowhere near the podrace. It should have been Qui-Gon. Oh well, at least I have A Jedi minifigure now.