Dusty Plastic HELLside #31!

For the record, Wes supports marriage equality. He’s unlikely to vote for Rick Santorum, or any candidate who panders to the religious right on the issue. Even so, the issue isn’t THAT important to him…  (1/31/12)

Today’s comic — Dusty Plastic HELLside #31 (!) — actually isn’t among the new and upcoming content I’ve been touting for the past several days/weeks/months… but it popped into my head tonight so I drew it up real quick like. Like so many “funny” things I come up with (and like so many comics to come, I suspect), it stemmed from a Facebook status message and my response to it.

Anyway, I haven’t got much else to say here — I think the comic is pretty self-explanatory! But visit this link (preferably not while at work or within an hour of eating) if you require clarification.

Anyway, stay tuned — there’s lots more to come! XD

Ugh, that’s not what I meant.

So I got kinda sidetracked with the promised content for the last two days — my 30-minute “errands” have turned into multi-hour slogs through adjacent cities and whatnot — but there’ll be more soon, seriously! Here, have a preview of something I found today and will be reviewing in the near future.

Even though I got this set on clearance for $3, I think it’ll merit a full review — each Cutant deserves at least a paragraph. The one I truly feel for, though? Pigwich. That thing is so lucky the Polly Pocket girls are perpetually dieting.

Oh, and I made a tumblr for Scary-Crayon! Not really sure about the extent to which I’ll be using it, but I’ll at least be plugging new content and stuff in the hopes that people will spread the links around and maybe get us five new readers or something. I might also synch it up with the blog with respect to really brief entries. Who knows! And you can ask me questions on there and stuff, I guess? Anyway, yeah, that’s there.

(I feel like such an old fuddy-duddy with all this newfangled social media stuff I really don’t understand. :P)

So. MORE TO COME! Stay tuned, people.

Post-Xmas Clearance Toys (Pt 1)

Thrifty collectors know that the best time to buy toys isn’t during the holiday season — it’s after it. Check out Wes’s really cheap toy purchases (with brief reviews) in the first part of Post-Xmas 2011 Clearance Purchases!  (1/27/12)

Little late with this — and I’ve still got another entry I meant to post; I’ll put that up sometime today (Friday) — but here’s Post-Xmas 2011 Clearance Purchases (Part 1)! Who knows when I’ll get around to Part 2. Probably fairly soon, but the problem is that I’m still finding great spillover clearance buys… so it’s like, do I stop here or roll this entry over to Part 3? And how long should this post-Xmas clearance purchase time run, anyway? It’s certainly got to extend at least a week past the New Year (which still includes a handful of purchases). But, after that, am I finding post-Xmas clearance purchases or just regular anytime clearance purchases? YOU SEE THE THOUGHT I PUT INTO THESE ARTICLES?!?!?!

*Ahem*

Hey, while we’re at it, MORE BLOG-EXCLUSIVE CONTENT! Remember that Pony Tails review I posted a while back? Well, I mentioned in that piece that I’d only seen Strawberry Vine and one other pony from the line (a baby pony; her review is still on the way), but since then I acquired this one as well! I wouldn’t call this a true clearance purchase — I think I got her for 25% off or something — but I just thought I’d share. At first I thought her cutie mark was the same, but it’s actually different… so there goes my brilliant plan to name her “Strawberry Vine II.”

Also, this pony was hella sticky and greasy right out of the package — more in line with what you’d expect from a knockoff. Washing her with soap and water fixed that problem, but you know how I feel about greasy toys. Had Strawberry Vine come out of her plastic prison feeling like that, I’d have had significantly fewer positive things to say about the line. So… yeah. I still kinda recommend it, but BUYER BEWARE!

And that’ll do it for this entry — keep enjoying YEAR NIIIIIIIINE of Scary-Crayon! More soon. XD

That’s right — it was on January 25, way back in 2004, that Scary-Crayon first officially opened its virtual doors to you mad Internet folk! We’ve had some hiccups and hiatuses along the way, but we’re still here and still committed to continuing to bring you crazy content, however frequently or sporadically it happens. Even if there’s only one article a year (and there will always be more than one article a year; just saying), as long as I live Scary-Crayon will endure.

Hope I haven’t jinxed myself there.

Anyway! This is only the first of several pieces intended to “celebrate” Scary-Crayon’s continued existence — I’ll have a couple more things to post tomorrow and maybe another for the weekend (if not then, definitely early next week) — but we’re going to kick things off today with this review of Fantasy Land. Like other children’s coloring and/or activity books we’ve reviewed in the past, there’s definitely something off about it… and in true Scary-Crayon form, we highlight that to the fullest by going completely overboard with our interpretation. I could be wrong — this is the Internet, after all — but I dare say this is the only page on the Internet where you’ll find a smiling unicorn attempting to eat from a tree that bears severed pig heads instead of fruit. (more…)

THE HORROR OF FANTASY LAND

Fantasy Land — sounds like a place everyone would want to visit, doesn’t it? Alas, as we learn in this Scary-Crayon coloring book review, you’d do well to steer clear of the land these horrific hooved clones call home.  (1/25/12)

(Remember how I mentioned the possibility of blog-only features in the last entry? Consider this a test run for one of those. 😛 Let me know what you think in the comments!)

So, this past Sunday I attended a toy and collectibles show at the Maryland State Fair in Timonium, MD. I’m writing about here because I originally intended to do an actual article about it — with photos of the show and whatnot — but forgot my camera in my car. And it was cold, and I ended up parking at least a half mile from the convention, so I didn’t relish the idea of walking all the way back to the car just to get the camera. And without photos, I don’t feel like it can be a proper article… and I kinda feel like rambling, so this probably won’t be as “structured” as an actual article (I do try to structure them somewhat, you know). So, yeah. Blog-exclusive content! (more…)

CUTSIE PETS GLAM GAL & PUP!!!

If you’ve never heard of Cutsie Pets, you’re not alone — apparently Google’s never heard of the line either! For better or worse, we’re here to change that with a review of the Cutsie Pets Glam Gal & Pup set.  (1/16/12)

It’s been a while — but we’re finally back with a new article in 2012! It’s another toy review, but this one’s actually not exhaustively technical… probably because there’s not a lot to say about the Cutsie Pets Glam Gal & Pup set on a technical level (no really involved sculpting or paint, complex articulation to discuss, abundant accessories, etc.). And I tried, perhaps too hard, to be funny (and perhaps not hard enough not to come across like a weirdo freeeeak). Let me know if you laughed (and/or found yourself very, very frightened).

Welp, yes. New content soon! I’ve also been wondering about changing up the format of SC, or at least making more content “exclusive” to the blog — if only because it seems like people these days are more inclined to read shorter posts and comment when they don’t have to click an additional link to do so. I’m also thinking I’d like to have more video content, though I do not want to go the route of technical video toy reviews since I think video is the absolute worst format for those kinds of reviews. (I would be more inclined, however, to post three-minute videos of me cracking jokes about a toy or praising its merits in a largely superficial manner.) But it just seems like SC appeals to a certain kind of reader, and I’d like to broaden its appeal (a little) in the hopes of attracting more readers and maybe getting some (very) small measure of Internet fame/fortune out of the site. But we’ll see, and please let me know if you have any thoughts. 😉

And seriously, more content to come very soon! Stay with us.