Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00643

Eva completed painting her room today. She did about 85% of the job herself. Because she did the job on the weekend I was unable to help her out for most of it. I sleep during the day on the weekends and work overnights. I was able to get Eva started on Friday with some instruction and also doing the cutting in at the ceiling. That was only one wall. She completed the other three walls including cutting in at the ceiling. She hadn’t even tried that when I was in the room. She did all of the taping around the molding and did a really nice job. She does have to learn how to clean the brushes better but all in all it was a good experience all around.

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #00589

Let’s say that… a few years back I was a huge collector of Skylanders. I pretty much have every single one except for Master Ro-Bow. That one was very elusive to find. I held it in my hands once and put it back in case I was sent one to promote. I was not sent one but almost half of the figures in the bookcase were provided to me by Activision. That saved me a ton of money but at the same time I spent a ton to get the others.

I had this idea when it was time to switch my office with Andy’s room. I decided that I was going to paint my bookcase black and att lights to it and make it a display for all of my Toys to Life figures. That was the segment of video game related toys that you could activate in a video game. Skylanders was the game that reawakened my love for video games. I picked up a Wii U and then later on a Nintendo Switch to play the Skylanders games. There ended up being six games in all and each with a new set of toys.

I started off the morning by drilling some holes in the back of the bookcase, two on each shelf and then two out the back at the bottom. I then ran a 33ft rope light through one hole up to the top of the first shelf of the bookcase. I got some clips that stuck on with a 3M adhesive. It was not enough. I ended up having to super glue on each clip to keep the rope from falling down. I was surprised, too because the glossy black paint was sticky (even after drying for well over a week and a half) and 3M command strips are the best. I love how they work. I don’t think these were command strip equivalent. Either way I ran the rope light up to the top of the bookcase and then around the top of each shelf back down to the bottom. I almost made it to loop the rope light around the full top of each shelf but at the bottom there was less rope light left. It is a spot you don’t see as much so I think I got away with it not being as bright as the other levels. This was the same rope light set that I got Andy for under his bed and above his futon.

Once everything was complete with the rope light I brought up all my Skylanders from the basement, I then had Andy help me sort them out and start putting them in the bookcase, now display case. I quickly realized that I was in no way going to display any other Toys to Life toys that I had. No LEGO Dimensions, No Disney Infinity, No Starlink or Nintendo amiibos. There simply was not enough room. As it was I only display the characters and a couple accessories on the very top. I do not display any of the SuperChargers vehicles or the power items like treasure chests and whatnot.

I am happy with how everything came out, though. Andy had a great time helping and we’re going to start playing the game together tomorrow. I think he’s now at a level where he will be able to pick up the concepts of this game easily enough. Much more than when he was 3 and 4 years old where I took him to New York for Skylanders Playdates with Activision. He had fun but doesn’t quite remember going. Every Skylander was a surprise to him, too.