fairplaythings.com

Hello faithful viewers… But wait, what’s that echo I hear? Is that really the sound that a 17+ month absence makes, ricocheting off the walls like so much silence?

Sadly, I fear it is just that.

2012 wasn’t turning in the most poignant or pervasive of blogging years, but when I took up with the League of Heroes at the beginning of the year, I’d hoped it would inspire me to return to the toy blogging world. But after a few efforts, I stumbled again. Who knew that a review of the Dark Knight Rises in July 2012 would be the hill my blogging efforts would linger on for a year a half.

I’ve not been without projects since then. There is a version of fairplaythings now hosting on facebook that gets some updates now and then. There is still a robust twitter presence, and appearance at both of the last two TransformerCons in Toronto, Canada. And I’ve been podcasting on occasion over at the roboplastic podcastalyse. And munny projects continue. But for all my plans for this site, like so many grand schemes sadly, they remain as yet unfulfilled.

Taking a look back at the site the last time I had a real presence on here was in 2009, when I began the Transformer of the Day epic. And it went along quite well too, with only minor bumps in the road until the update of the new computer took away my access to a functional version of photoshop. Even then, the series limped along to the mid-point of December, not a bad effort all things considered. Subsequent efforts to continue such relevance (2010’s Collectible of the Week and 2011’s Collectible of the Day) have not had that scale of success.

It makes me weary to try again.

But a funny thing happened on New Year’s Day, January 1, 2014. When all the stores were meant to be closed, there was an amazon package waiting for me on the front step of the house. Inside was a lone Constructobot, Hound, ordered in an ordering frenzy that brought home the Hasbro reissue of Predaking, among other (yet received) items. Realizing the sheer volume of plastic that comes into this house on a regular basis and ending up in the purgatory of the basement (who’s progress faces a similar fate, sadly, as the website), I thought maybe the best way back was to return with something along the lines of a daily Collectible.

Launching on Wednesday, and partially in celebration of 30 years of transforming robots from the planet Cybertron, will be the first of what I hope will be a weekly installment of Transformers to the Basement (originally “Transformers that Ended up in the Basement” which, while a spiffy title, doesn’t have an easy acronym). Rather than attempting to go forward with a regular daily episode of something fun from my collection, I’ll be putting together a collection of items newly acquired or more recently admired over the previous seven days. I’ll try and keep the theatrics to a minimum - just pics and light comments of life in a robot basement.

Look for the first installment Wednesday. Hopefully it will inspire me to clean up the place a bit and return to what this website is suppose to be.