Jessica Marie Green was the most important person in my life. She was my best friend, my partner, my companion, and my wife. I think about her every day and I miss her terribly. Below I will try to explain just how indispensable Jessica was to me.

Jessica Marie Cole was born on September 4, 1977 in Saginaw, MI to Douglass Lyal and Diane Marie (Dreffs) Cole. Jessica was the second of two children for the couple, and Jessica grew up with an older sister named Kathleen Mae. The two Cole daughters spent their early years living across Michigan including both Saginaw and Bridgeport. Jessica attended Schlukebier Elementary School, Kauffman Elementary School, Bridgeport Middle School, and Heritage High School. Long before she graduated from Heritage in 1995, Jessica had plans to attend college out west in Arizona.

It wasn’t until Jessica moved across the country to attend Arizona State University that she came into my life. During the start of the Spring 1997 semester, I met Jessica outside one of our sophomore level computer programming classes that covered C and COBOL. We were both attempting to get into the fairly limited Computer Information Systems program within the ASU Business College, and this particular course was one of the key classes.

Before the start of that semester, I had told myself to be more talkative and to try and keep eye contact while I spoke. It just so happened that the first person I attempted to talk to in this manner was Jessica. On January 27, 1997, while waiting for class to start in the hallway, I made some little quip towards Jessica in order to get a conversation started. Apparently that worked quite well and when we moved into the classroom, Jessica decided to sit beside me.

During and after class we continued to talk. We talked about what was being covered and if we should help each other with homework. We exchanged base information like our phone numbers and our new fangled college-assigned email addresses. I said goodbye and said I’d see her later.

After the next class, we continued to talk and I decided to walk with her back to her dorm (The Towers at ASU). I noted to her that I was not very social and fairly shy. I believe that had been pretty obvious to her from the get-go.

The next day I received a phone call from Jessica. She asked me to join her at a local pool hall near campus (Kolby’s). It took some convincing to drag me away from my home, but I did end up agreeing to meet her there. As you can tell if you didn’t already know, Jessica was the one in our relationship who wore the pants, even from the very start.

We spent the next few weeks dating and hanging out. She struggled a bit with the COBOL homework, and I often just did it for her per her request. Jessica was even instrumental in me creating my first website, as well as helping with her own. It didn’t take much longer after that for the relationship to get a bit more serious, and for my parents to wonder why I was spending so much time with her.

Jessica, even back then, exposed me to so many things outside my safe little comfort zone. But as she did, I experienced new things and became more confident in being an adult. We did a lot of fun and silly stuff during this time. Honestly they were nothing that crazy, but they were still experiences that I still treasure today.

We did separate a few times over the course of our college careers, but we kept coming back together. I think she was scared a bit because I was kind of the “normal” guy, the kind you have long-term relationships with and marry. I wasn’t the “fun” college guy that you are supposed to experience at a university. I was a bit more stable than others. Regardless, we kept being drawn back to each other time and again.

Jessica and I both graduated from ASU in May 1999. I was able to get my BS in CIS, but she had struggled to get into the program. There were several roadblocks that she attempted to overcome, but even with her persistence, she was still relegated into receiving a BS in Management instead. However, not being able to get the degree she wanted was not going to stop her from getting a job in technology one way or another.

She had already gotten ahead of the game before graduation, and Jessica worked several different internships and positions that got her foot in the door. She had already worked two separate summer internships at Hewlett Packard, and even dragged me along one summer to San Jose as well. By the time she had gotten her management degree, she already had offers to work as a technologist in Boston, MA. Silly enough, I decided not to follow her there mostly due to my own fears.

However, after about a year or so I did make the trek to Boston to join her. Joining back together strengthened our bond and after that we were essentially inseparable. We decided to get married a few months later and also chose to move back to Arizona. It wouldn’t be a surprise to mention that Jessica had picked out her ring, bought her dress, planned most of the wedding, and set up other arrangements all long before I had formally proposed.

We moved back to AZ in 2001, and began to build a brand new home in the dusty farmlands of Gilbert, AZ. On February 2, 2002, we had our intimate destination wedding among family at Walt Disney World’s Wilderness Lodge in Orlando, FL. And yes, we did have the opportunity to take photos in front of Cinderella’s Castle in the Magic Kingdom before the park opened. It was definitely surreal being driven down an empty Main Street at 3 am. It was an amazing experience to finally marry my princess.

Day-by-day Jessica kept leading the way, helping me to grow into a better person. Her guidance and love were absolutely crucial to who I would become.

Jessica and I did attempt to have a child around this time, but multiple health issues unfortunately did not lend us to being parents, even with the help of fertility treatments. We explored other options, but none really suited us. Our little family ended up being just the two of us and our cats.

Throughout the early parts of our marriage, Jessica continued to climb the corporate ladder. Each job was bigger than the last. Each new role challenged her. But Jessica was more than up to the task, learning whatever skills and technologies were necessary. She was good at what she did and she was rewarded. Even without a CIS degree, nothing was going to stop her.

She did eventually get her technology degree. In 2008, Jessica received her Master of Science in Information Management from ASU. I was tremendously proud of her. She had worked her butt off to get here, and now she had finally gotten the technology degree she had long sought.

Jessica always had a love of genealogy, music, technology, photography, and travel. She was an active genealogist who connected multiple families, plotted family trees, and scoured records at the behest of others. She always wanted to experience new sights and sounds: listening to boisterous music, exploring the latest tech, and visiting far off places. She attended hundreds of concerts, learned multiple computer languages, took thousands of photos, and traveled all over the US and Europe. Jessica was always looking to improve herself by learning new hobbies and skills. She must have tried a plethora of different hobbies over the years, diving deep into each whenever she could. Very few things scared her and Jessica was always looking to try something new, even if I wasn’t necessarily willing to tag along. Her appetite for experiences was insatiable.

We did visit a multitude of places over the years: every corner of Arizona, multiple trips to Disneyland and Walt Disney World, regular pilgrimages to Las Vegas, an escorted tour of the United Kingdom, an Alaskan cruise with the Schaars, and visits to practically every state in the union. Notable US trips included Hawaii, Seattle, Memphis, Graceland, and the Mall of America among many others. Jessica also traveled quite a bit on her own, including a solo trip to Poland in 2017 with some first class travel.

As the years went on, she continued to tutor and support me in infinite ways. I could always count on her hand being there to lead me on, or her shoulder there for me to lean on. To say I am a completely different person because of her presence is an understatement. More than half of who I am today is easily due to Jessica’s love. I had just hoped that I was reciprocating as best as I could to make it up to her.

Sadly, in the back of both of our heads we always somewhat assumed that Jessica would be taken from us via some form of cancer. There was always a nagging sensation that the dreaded disease might rear its ugly head. Even as far back at 2000, there was a cervical cancer scare that pretty much remained in the background for our entire relationship. Other more recent health concerns included a possible brain tumor that cancelled a European vacation, a threat of breast cancer that ended up being nothing, and then the mystery illnesses that preceded her MDS diagnosis.

I don’t want to belabor it, but when we finally found out that she had myelodysplastic syndrome (preleukemia) in November 2017, it gave us some answers as to why she had not been feeling well for so long. She had been tired for years (~6 years by her estimation), and we now had an answer. With this diagnosis we also had a possible cure via a stem cell transplant that could repair her bone marrow, and Jessica moved forward with treatments.

Unfortunately, the leukemia beat us to it just before both of her scheduled stem cell transplants. Jessica, the doctors, and the chemotherapy all tried to get her past her disease. Regrettably the leukemia was too aggressive for her and the treatments just weren’t enough. Not counting the numerous outpatient visits and the regular transfusions of blood and platelets, Jessica had spent 41 days at the Mayo Clinic during her first stay, 33 days during the second, and then 4 days in hospice. It was a very long and arduous 7 months for her and I. Her acute myeloid leukemia was just too strong to overcome.

I had to say my final goodbye to Jessica on June 12, 2018 in the early morning. My mother and I had stayed by her side that entire night. She had finally been able to sleep peacefully since the previous afternoon; after finally receiving a significant dose of pain medication. She was getting much needed rest and pain relief. However without new transfusions to fuel her, and with the disease progressing very quickly, Jessica unfortunately ran out of energy that morning. Her breathing began to slow and she gently passed away in her sleep. She was not in pain, nor did she looked stressed. Jessica appeared to be done with her illness and ready to get some long deserved rest.

To say I am devastated is an understatement. While Jessica had been sick for a long time, it is an entirely different matter to not have her available in any capacity. The love of my life is gone. My partner is no longer by my side. She is no longer there for me to talk to. She is no longer able to share experiences with me. I can no longer care for her like I once did.

It has been a little over a week from when she passed, and yet it feels like it has been multiple weeks or months. Each night I dream that I am at the hospital alongside her, still able to talk with her and able to attend to her. There is a tremendous void in my life now, and no matter how much I try to ignore it and move on, it still tears at me whenever my mind gets a chance to wander.

Jessica’s wishes were to be cremated and then have her ashes spread in the ocean at a later date. She did not want a formal or expensive funeral; she instead wanted a celebration or party. She didn’t want people to necessarily mourn. She wanted friends and family to commemorate who she was and to share good memories that people had of her. As such, in the next few weeks I will be holding a celebration of Jessica’s life at our house. I will be contacting people with detailed information over the next few days.

I will always love Jessica. I thank those that helped to teach her and guide her into becoming the wonderful woman that she was: her family, her teachers, her friends, and her coworkers. It was thanks to their help that I was able to spend an amazing 21 years alongside her. More so, I am also grateful that I was able have her as my beloved wife for 16 of those years.

I would not be the person I am today if Jessica had not been part of my life. She will forever be a part of me, and she was a primary reason as to who I am today. Jessica will forever be in my heart.

Unique Toys certainly has been stepping up their game as of late, and the full set of Ordin bots are a great example of that. Each of the individual figures have excellent engineering and design work on their own. But I must stay that when they combine, they really shine. The use of color and paint across the team pop when joined together. The rather large gestalt is impressive when placed on a desk or shelf.

The combined Ordin robot ranks up there as one of the best third-party combiners to date. The quality of the design and production really shine. From the ingenious hidden elbow joints in the arm bots (Hagen and Alberich), the expressive sculpt of the torso and head (Siegfried), to the solidness of his legs and feet (Troll and Fenrir) – the Ordin team comes highly recommended.

Ordin feels sturdy when combined together. Each limb connects securely and allows for a variety of posing options. His toes can tilt forward, his waist can swivel freely, his arms ratchet in multiple places, and his fingers can be individually positioned. Ordin has a good balance and weight to him as a whole. The chest shield and waist parts also peg in solidly along with his combined gun.

I also honestly really enjoy the individual Ordin bots. Each of them has character in both of their modes. However, the standout is definitely Troll (O-01). Just by himself, he is one of my favorite figures from this past year. The fact that he has four other similar team members – and the fact that he can combine – are extra bonuses.

Where Ordin Fits in Your Collection

I’m a fan of the larger scaled Gestalts like Hercules and Feral Rex, and therefore I feel Unique Toys Ordin fits in perfectly in most Transformers Classics / Generations collections. Ordin is big and beefy, with a great overall aesthetic. As seen in the photos below, he’s roughly the same size as TFC’s Uranos, MMC’s Feral Rex, and ToyWorld’s Throttlebot combiner.

For some, this larger scale of combiner can also be used to represent characters in their Masterpiece collections. Ordin fits that bill with his amount of engineering and polish. The very imposing size of the combined bot also helps. These high-end qualities can justify his inclusion in MP displays as well.

Either way, Ordin is a great entry into anyone’s Transformer collection.

Quick Summary

Highlights

• Solid engineering, strong plastic, and excellent paint
• Great individual bots, especially Troll (O-01)
• Excellent use of bold colors across the entire team
• Spot on homage to the old group of Terrorcons

What to Watch For

• Siegfried’s (O-04) combiner legs have a slight engineering issue that can be fixed with the extra parts included with Hagen (O-05)
• The leg combiner pegs can be a tight fit for the leg ports, so take your time inserting and removing them the first time

Overall Recommendation

Unique Toys Ordin is worth your time. He is a great combiner, has excellent individual bots, and can easily be placed in either Classics or Masterpiece collections.

Looks like both of my novels are now up for purchase on Amazon.com. I’ve been looking to see them there for a while (about 9 weeks), and expected to get a notification from Lulu about them when they did. That never happened. I kept checking the globalReach page for Bag of Snow and nothing on the page for it changed.

Today on a whim, I decided to search for my full name instead (“Andrew Arthur Green” as they were authored) and they both were there. They look to be the edited/updated versions as well. Funny enough, they are discounted without any doing on my part; down from $13.00 to $11.70. I don’t know what that means for my revenue, but I really don’t care how much money I make on these.

Finally, a benefit for them being on Amazon now is that if you have Amazon Prime you can get free shipping.

Also if you are inclined and adverse to Amazon, Bag of Snow is up on Barnes & Noble as well. Rusted Halo isn’t up there for some reason. They are both still up on Lulu.com as they were before.

At the same time I was working on my custom Transformers Animated Windblade, I was also working on this pair of custom TFA figures. Each of these toys is an homage to the misunderstood Decepticon: Transformers Animated Wasp.

In the show, Wasp originally starts off with a similarly constructed chassis or body to the familiar Bumblebee. Unfortunately during his time trying to become part of the Autobot Elite Guard, Wasp is incorrectly labelled a traitor and is sent to prison. He doesn’t do to well in the brink, quickly escapes, and then isn’t quite the same as he once was. Wasp gains a weird voice pattern, odd mannerisms, and promises to avenge himself against Bumblebee, whom he felt has wronged him. He makes his way to Earth to locate the Autobot, and chaos ensues. It is the Wasp seen during these episodes that my custom toys homage. They also reference the Wasp that appears during this transition period, before he is transformed into something more sinister…

The impetus for this pair of custom figures was a local Transformers fan, Nickbot. He’ll be leaving the state of Arizona very soon, and I wanted to make this custom for him for his send off. At the same time, I figured if I was going to make one, why not make two so I could have a Wasp of my own? So “planzzz” were made and I got started on sculpting some heads.

I began by disassembling a loose deluxe-class Elite Guard Bumblebee that I had (which has a ton of parts and pins by the way), and then began sanding down his base head. I knew that I wanted to give him his large mandible-esque chin and to match the control artwork I had as close as possible. So I began to add Apoxie Sculpt to build up the shapes of his head.

I would work on this head in between working on Windblade. I’d mold quite a bit of extra material on to the head, knowing that I’d sand it way down to get the shapes I wanted. I’d then let it cure while sanding the other custom. It took a lot of sanding to get the chin to look as good as it did. My customizing desk was covered in dust and plastic particles. I’d use differing grit levels of sanding sticks to get as smooth of a surface as possible on each contour.

My initial intention was to try to keep the light piping from the original Bumblebee eyes as well. Unfortunately I realized that those eyes would have been too small, so I decided to go ahead and sculpt in some bug eyes in those cavities. But that meant since I already had the chin done, the eyes couldn’t be as big as I wanted.

At least I could add a pretty menacing brow above the eyes, and I really like that feature. I also added to his chin/cheeks so that the mandible would be a bit more distinct. Finally, I tweaked the “antenna” shape on his head and sanded it all down. Test fitting it on the loose Bumblebee I had looked good, and I found that the new head did transform fine in vehicle mode.

With one head done after about 2 weeks of on-and-off work, I started on #2. I knew that while #1 was good, I wanted more buggy eyes, a longer/deeper chin, and for his cheeks to suck in a bit. So I went about creating the second one a bit differently.

I began by really sanding down Bumblebee’s original chin. I wanted a straight and vertical flat mouth. I also wanted to completely remove BB’s horns and crest. Unfortunately I went a bit too far and began to sand through the plastic until there were gaps or holes. Whoops. “I’ll fix it in post…”

I began by sculpting bulging bug eyes. I initially thought they were big enough, but after I made the new chin and brow, I realized they were too small. At this point I had also realized that the new brow I built was made from material that hadn’t been mixed properly and therefore never cured. I had to tear off the soft material and start again, adding another day and a half of work.

Finally I got to a point where I was happy with the second head. The chin had the shape I wanted, his mouth area was wider, his eyes were “buggier”, and his head crest was more pronounced. Overall both heads looked great, and they looked like Wasp.

I detoured briefly and decided to carve out their hands so they would have claw-ish hands instead of Bumblebee’s square fingers. Using sanding sticks and a hobby knife, I trimmed down the hands until I was happy with them.

Then it was off to start painting. I started with the heads and the door panels, and everything looked fine at first. It seemed as though the Model Master Acryl Gloss Green I chose would work.

Sadly, that didn’t end up being the case, as it took forever to paint the base green. Both the black plastic of Elite Guard Bumblebee and the bright yellow of regular Bumblebee ended up being a challenge. Very quickly I got sick of painting green…

Fast forward a couple of days, and a couple of diversions to work on Windblade instead, and I got almost all of the parts for the pair of Wasps completed. The underlying blacks and lime greens were easy. I decided to use a flat black for the windows, and gloss black for detail parts.

I ended up hand painting the head details since I couldn’t mask off the indented areas or eyes. Even though they are hand-painted in the end, they still look pretty good.

They both got reassembled into car mode so I could do the detail hood stripe, I added a few more details, a quick clear coat to even out the dark green, and voila: I had two finished Transformers Animated Wasps.

In the end, the overall effort isn’t as impressive, or notable, as something like Windblade; but they are still a pretty cool achievement. The heads are nicely sculpted and unique. The paint jobs looks pretty spiffy, and both Nick and I now have deluxe-class Wasps for our Transfomers Animated collections.

Oh, my next attempt with this mold will most likely be a certain blue female bot whose character I seem to have an affinity for…

So May 2014 was a fairly depressing month for me for a variety of reasons. It was a bit difficult to want to keep pushing forward, and one of my key ways of dealing with it all was to dive deep into my projects at work and at home. That focus on work let me distract myself with the tasks at hand, and then the time would just pass. As such, I jumped headfirst into trying to get this custom Transformer completed by the end of May.

This custom sculpted and painted figure is Transformers Animated Windblade. The character of Windblade is the first fan-created character that Hasbro has ever developed. She is the star of both her own comic book mini-series from IDW, as well as the inspiration for an upcoming retail Transformers Generations toy. She is also rare in that she’s one of the few female Transformers in the current TF universe, which brings up some interesting discussion since the current TF’s don’t traditionally identify with any gender.

With my custom, I’ve brought the Windblade character into a different universe: Transformers Animated. TFA is one of my favorite versions of the Transformers brand. The re-imagined characters, the homages to Generation 1, the great cartoon, and the excellent toys were some of the best ever produced. Unfortunately, the franchise ended several years ago and no new fiction or figures have been produced since then. That however doesn’t mean that I couldn’t keep it alive by making my own customs…

Once after I had read issue #1 of Windblade’s mini-series, I instantly got the idea to bring her character into the TFA universe with a custom. Sarah Stone’s artwork screamed to get an Animated version. I also realized I most likely needed to hurry to try to get the concept completed before both someone else thought of it and while Windblade was in the spotlight.

My take on the TFA version of Windblade is that she was once a car based Transformer like almost all of her fellow Autobots. However, once she learned that her friends Jetfire and Jetstorm had been granted the ability to fly, she too also looked into getting skyward. After working with the same team that developed Optimus Prime’s Wingblade upgrade, Windblade was granted the ability to soar above the metal plains of Cybertron.

The core figure for my custom is the TFA deluxe Arcee mold. It’s a superbly designed toy that was only officially ever produced three times (with one of those releases being very, very rare). I happen to own all those releases, but I also have previously customized this mold twice before for two earlier customs: Chromia and Moonracer.

I knew that I would have to do quite a bit of sculpting and modification to get her to work. Not only did she have a unique headdress, but she also needed wings because her alternate mode was a jet. My original plan was to scratch build the wings with styrene sheets, but as it happened I had a loose deluxe-class Cybertronian Megatron who I could steal the wings from. They also matched the hooked wing style of the original character.

It took a good two weeks to carve out the spaces for the wings and rebuild the platforms with apoxie-sculpt. I would saw and sand down the original plastic, test fit the wings, and then mold the updated wing pods. I’d give a day for the molding compound to cure, and then I would sand, test, and repeat.

I also worked on her headdress using both styrene and apoxie-sculpt. This also took quite a while to get it to a state where I was happy. It took multiple attempts and updates to get the pieces to look good. The headdress took even longer than the wings to get right.

The biggest problem is that I was getting impatient while I had to wait for the sculpted pieces to dry. I desperately wanted to be able to get some paint on the figure. I was quite pleased once I got to that point of the project and started using my airbrush again.

Painting was a bit more difficult this time around, as I tried to match Sarah Stone’s art as much as possible when coming up with the paint deco. Her upper body and lower legs were repainted several times to get a look that I liked and that I felt hit the right notes to be Windblade. I also had to come up with a paint scheme for her alternate jet mode that matched as best possible. Overall I think the colors and layout work well to convey that this is really TFA Windblade.

The hardest part was definitely getting the eye details correct. I knew I couldn’t hand paint detail that small, so I ended up airbrushing some blank stickers and cutting out the little red curls for her face. After a few attempts I trimmed the shapes to my liking and attached them. I added tiny bits of other red detail to get the stickers to blend into the rest of her face.

Finally after some detail touch-ups she was done. I took some photos and then uploaded them to Twitter. And then my custom project went mini-viral…

Very quickly the photos were retweeted and favorited multiple times. My phone’s was continuously buzzing from notifications and my email inbox somewhat exploded. The first photo I posted reached 94 retweets and 108 favorites within 24 hours. The other photos had similar high share counts. Transformers fans from around the world began to share photos of my custom amongst themselves, even with those with names I couldn’t say or spell. In addition, not only did other famous TF creators and artists begin to share it (like TFA art director Derrick J Wyatt), but the official Transformers Collectors Club even retweeted it for another boost in attention the following day.

My custom TFA Windblade is now complete. Robot mode. pic.twitter.com/4jxvw2YqT8

— Andrew Green (@FloatingCat) May 30, 2014

My concept and planning paid off. I hit while the iron was hot, and it felt good that I still knew what the Transformers fandom liked. The admiration and praise I received for my hard work gave me a boost. That boost reminded me that the fans liked my work, and it reminded me that my talent was highly regarded.

And so by the end of May, I had ended on a high note. I pushed through the rough spots by focusing on my work, and I ended the month with a bit of cheer. Not only did I feel better about myself, but I had a great custom figure for my collection, and a sense of pride within myself as Summer finally started.

It’s been a long road. After starting my first novel back in November 2004, here I am almost 10 years later and both of my books are available in a printed form.

Both novels were written during a writing challenge called NaNoWriMo, otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month. The goal is for the writer to write a 50,000 word fiction novel over the entire month of November. That boils down to about 1,600 words or about 3 full pages each day. That means most writers have to churn out that much copy each and every day without any breaks. Skip or miss a day, and the creator easily gets behind (which is a very common occurrence). The challenge is just to get words and thoughts down on paper or stored electronically. The end goal is to not have a finished and edited piece, but just to complete the exercise and work out story ideas. It’s meant as practice to becoming a better writer.

I originally wrote my first book, Rusted Halo, for NaNoWriMo 2004. I produced a complete fantasy story filled with detailed lore and with a beginning, middle, and end. It follows the story of a warrior named Donovan and his travails through his life. The tale is somewhat dark as I tried to break from the standard “happy” fantasy norm I was accustomed to reading.

The following year in 2005, I wrote a pseudo-prequel called Bag of Snow that starred another character named Marissa. However, her story ended unfinished with a cliffhanger. I tried to reverse from what I had previously written, and chose to write a cheerful, funny, and happier story than the first book. I also tried my hand at writing about relationships.

Both times I reached over the 50,000 word mark, and both times I was very proud of my accomplishment. What I wasn’t proud of was how stressed and angry both challenges made me during the month of November. Therefore, I did not continue to write after the second novel. I also never felt the time was right to set aside the hours needed to polish each story.

Both novels essentially sat in digital storage for years.

During that time, a running gag in Jessica’s Amazon Wish List was that she requested printed versions of the books. Year upon year, those requests stayed on her list. That was until 2013, when I finally decided to attempt finishing both books. And so during this past November, I began revisiting Rusted Halo.

Starting in November and running into December, I returned to both books, editing and tweaking where I saw fit. I worked on cover and interior artwork that I felt was appropriate, and I also got them formatted and ready to self-publish via Lulu.com. Finally, I was able to get some assistance from a co-worker to review and suggest edits for both books (more info about her contributions is below).

So as of today, both books are available for purchase via Lulu.com (and other booksellers) for those that are curious. Note, the bigger retailers seem to be selling them at a nice discount for those who are interested.

Rusted Halo

• Lulu.com – Paperback or ePub eBook
• Amazon.com – Paperback or Kindle eBook
• Barnes & Noble – NOOK eBook
• iTunes – iBookstore

Bag of Snow

• Lulu.com – Paperback or ePub eBook
• Amazon.com – Paperback or Kindle eBook
• Barnes & Noble – Paperback or NOOK eBook
• iTunes – iBookstore

Lulu.com is a self-publisher that prints books on demand, and they actually have a very impressive product. The samples and final copies I ordered for myself are pretty much indistinguishable from standard retail books. In fact, both novels have actual ISBN codes like “real” books!

I chose to format both books into paperbacks, as I personally prefer to read fantasy novels in this format. The quality of the writing and stories somewhat follows what you might get out of a paperback fantasy.

They are currently priced as cheap as I can make them ($13 a piece) on Lulu.com and still be able have them be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other booksellers. I do get a few nominal dollars if you do decide to purchase, but that is not my goal with these books.

I would remiss to not mention that I would not have finished both novels without the help of others.

First, with my wife Jessica‘s patience and support, these books would have never seen the light of day. She was there for me when I originally wrote them, and she was there egging me on to get them past the draft stage so others might be able to read them. Both novels are dedicated to her thanks to her contributions.

I also must give my sincere thanks to a coworker of mine who helped to review and suggest edits for the books. Her name is Kelsie Beaudoin and is also a fellow NaNoWriMo author. She’s not only a great writer, copy writer, and editor; but she also does amazing costume work as well. Her suggestions with grammar, logic, and style suggestions really helped polish both stories into their current states.

Having paper copies of the books in hand is also like reaching the end of a very long creative journey. There is something about having one’s own words “professionally” printed on a page.

The whole process has also revitalized my spirit to write again. I already have tons of notes for a third novel within my fantasy world, and I already know what type of story I want to tell next time around. Most likely this Fall, I’ll be trying my hand at NaNoWriMo for a third time…

Hopefully it will take less than a decade to get that particular story printed.

After quite a hiatus, I finally got back into creating custom figures for my Transformers Animated collection. So what project did I choose? To create an army of voyager class Thundercrackers of course.

In my personal queue of customizing projects there has always been this idea near the top of my list: making a version of the voyager class Transformers Animated Thundercracker. In fact, this project has been in the queue since the very beginning.

You see, this particular custom makes up for a toy that we were promised back in 2009 that never saw retail shelves. At BotCon 2009 we were shown the final toys from the Transformers Animated (TFA) line. Of those, a batch of them were eventually made available for purchase, and the other half never saw the light of day.

Voyager class Thundercracker was one of the toys that was never made available. And with Thundercracker being one part of trio of core seekers, the missing figure was a definite hole is many collections.

Now mind you, the concept behind this custom and toy isn’t very exciting. It’s the exact same toy used for Starscream, Skywarp, and Sunstorm. It was only a redeco in Thundercracker colors. No fancy additions, no remolding. In fact the color scheme of the toy isn’t all that spectacular either. It’s pretty plain and somewhat boring. To the casual observer, it isn’t really all that big of a deal.

But to TFA collectors, it is considered by many to be a holy grail. An unobtainable figure.

A single copy of the figure, probably a painted test shot, is the only one to have made it out into the world. Photos of a complete boxed copy surfaced in marketing materials, but never in person. I even asked a collector who did a video review online of the sole toy what he had sold him for. I got a reply that he sold it for “multiple digits”. So some version of this guy was out there, and we weren’t ever going to ever have him.

So very early on after getting my airbrush, I procured a voyager class Skywarp that could be re-purposed into a Thundercracker. That sealed figure unfortunately sat untouched until mid-2013 when I dug into this project.

My plan was to match the official toy photos as much as possible. No improvements in design or paintwork. No additional details. I wanted him to look as if he came directly from the factory. Even though the toy colors don’t match the show’s artwork, I still aimed for toy accuracy.

I also figured, somewhat naively, that while I was doing one; it might not be too terrible to do more. And I knew my local AZ collector friends would jump at the chance to own a version of this toy, even if not official. I assumed that since his deco wasn’t too detailed that the mass-production wouldn’t be all that bad. So I put the call out to 4 locals, “provide the base figure and I’d paint him up.” And shortly thereafter, I had 5 voyager class base seekers: my Skywarp and 4 Starscreams.

As I was disassembling my Skywarp, the part count began to grow. Piece by piece I unscrewed panels and popped off parts. Then I got to things like the toy’s hidden arm cannon gimmicks and saw the multiple tiny parts that made up the mechanism. I took photo after photo, trying to discern and hope that I could put these crazy mechanisms back together.

So after about 3 hours of constant work one night, the 5 figures turned into several hundred parts, pins, and screws. My extended computer desk was covered in pretty much nothing but pieces of plastic. This was the largest figure I had customized to this point, and I here I was doing it 5 times over. “Hoo boy”, this might be more than I bargained for.

The next steps followed my standard process: wash each part in soap and water, dry them, and then separate into different bowls depending on the base paint color needed. Then it was time to begin painting.

I planned on using as base paint colors directly out of the bottle as often as I could. The more that I’d have to mix, the higher likelihood that I’d run out of the custom color midway through the project. And mismatched parts at the end would be devastating to the final product.

I started with Model Master Acryl Ford/GM Engine Blue on some mini wings as a test. This base blue was as close as I thought I’d get to the plastic color needed, but it ended up being a bit too dark and a bit too metallic. I unfortunately had already purchased 3 bottles as while I ramping up for the production. Oh well.

Fortunately, my second tests with Model Master Acryl Cobalt Blue led to better results. The only drawback is that the base paint is very flat, almost to a point where it’s chalky. Another experiment shortly after this led me to try glossing the paint, which worked surprisingly well. Spraying a bit of Future Floor Polish (yes floor polish), added just enough sheen and glow to make the paint pop. Future is like a thin, clear acrylic paint. In fact, the test parts looked really, really close to the blue plastic I was aiming for. With that test successful, I began painting several hundred parts blue.

Over the course of maybe 2 weeks of on-and-off nightly painting, the majority of the project’s base coats had been completed.

As it turns out, the custom mixed colors weren’t all that bad to create. A violet/pink purple for the wing stripes, and sky blue for their hands and biceps. Simple stuff considering the scope of the project.

Unfortunately the masking of each hip wing (20 overall with double sides), and the main canopy piece took a long time. In fact, the main canopy had to be painted in several stages. Each time masking off 90% of the part just to get a particular paint app perfect. The intakes on these canopies were also kinda crazy as you can see with the mask I ended up making to get them just right. And then the heads were “lots of fun” to paint too…

By this point in the project, I had worked through two entire weekends just painting. Each Saturday and Sunday, from sunrise to well past midnight I painted. Bowl after bowl of parts were sprayed, inspected, touched up, and glossed. Multiple bottles of Cobalt Blue ended up empty. The grind of this project was starting to hit, and in all honestly I was very much looking forward to being done with it.

I was also noticing that I had painted over some of the metal pins that I couldn’t remove during the dis-assembly process. So then I made the decision to hand paint silver on each pin and hinge to make it truly look factory fresh. I even painted some of the springs. Those touches added that little bit of extra authenticity that was needed.

I had also begun to put parts together, such as the legs, while other parts dried. I’d paint one part, and then assemble another. I was putting the army together from the feet up. From his toes to his waist things were going fine. Unfortunately trouble arose when I got to those hidden cannon mechanisms.

As it turns out, there is no rhyme or reason to how each of the hinge pieces go together. I didn’t know which ones were supposed to be in front, which went in the back, which arm they were supposed to be in, and the like. And after I had started putting them together, I found that due to clearance and rubbing issues, certain copies of the arm wouldn’t close all the way.

So after much hair pulling while trying to solve the problem with brute force; I decided to test each arm (all 10 of them with 8 parts a piece), take them apart if they had issues, sand down the hinges, repaint the hinges, and then reassemble each arm. This step alone was an entire evening. All this work for a feature that would rarely, if ever, be seen.

But finally nearing midnight on September 14, a little over a month after I started, I had assembled a fully complete army of Transformers Animated Thundercrackers.

The next day I did a bit of additional customizing work (described later in this entry) and then decided to take photos of the crew. I set up multiple group shots and took all the detailed photos I usually do at the end of a project.

With that done I decided to put away my gear. I cleaned up my customizing table, put away my tools, condensed all my paint bottles, did a full chemical cleaning of my airbrush, and put everything else away.

Then with everything stowed away I looked back at the reference photos on my computer one last time and noticed something… I missed one paint application on each of them.

I grumbled.

To solve this the next day I hand-painted that last bit, and then I had the full army completed to my satisfaction.

The final output is actually kind of amazing. They really do look like the unreleased toy in my honest opinion. The blue is pretty much spot-on to the original photos, as are all the other colors. Each paint detail is there, and every pin and screw is visibly metallic.

The tiny bit of additional work I mentioned above was some paintwork on a set of custom heads I purchased from TinMan.A.H on TFW2005. I wanted to make my seekers stand out a bit from the retail releases, and so I painted this alternate set of resin heads to better match the characters’ profiles. Starscream matches his body’s color and has an Allspark fragment stuck in his head, Skywarp looks fearful with giant eyes, Thundercracker is smirking to match his ego, and Sunstorm has his G1-seeker helmet that he received in an episode of the show. I like the bit of flourish these add to my figures.

The only thing that is missing from these guys are their gold Decepticon emblems. Unfortunately I don’t know where I could procure or make these, and I wasn’t about to try to spray something that intricate. In all honestly, I barely notice that they are missing but I assume we’ll come across a solution in the future and apply them then.

So to sum up; looking at the entire project, I’m estimating that I used about $50 of materials and spent about 100+ hours creating these guys. Again, like the Copperhead project, the workload for this far outweighed my original estimate. I don’t mind that I did the full set, but I really ought to think a bit more about a project before I tackle something like this again.

In the end, I’m still tremendously proud of the achievement.

I’m most certainly going to be taking a sizable break before my next project, which will most likely be a single, smaller figure.

As stated earlier, all 5 are already spoken for.

I will close by saying that along with Thundercracker being in my original customizing queue, so was the other TFA seeker that we never saw a toy for. I’m sure I’ll get to her eventually, considering that I have another Skywarp and a pre-cast head at the ready. I’m sure when I reach that point, I’ll be more comfortable altering the figure to give her a proper toy for my collection…

After about a 12 month hiatus where I was not customizing Transformers, I recently completed 2 repaints that homage pre-Transformers toys called Diaclone.

Diaclone was a Japanese toyline from Takara that predates the American Transformers line. Most of the toys from that line came over unchanged when Transformers came along in 1984, but there were also variants that were available in Japan that never made it over. Also in Diaclone many of the toys would have multiple color variants that we never saw on our shores.

Blue Bluestreak

One such variant was a blue Datsun “Fairlady Z” toy. The original mold was used for multiple TF characters like Prowl, Bluestreak, and later Smokescreen. In addition to bringing over the toys, Hasbro also often re-used the Japanese art on the US packaging too. Again this worked most of the time… except when Bluestreak came along.

Technically Bluestreak is named as such because he is a talker, annoyingly so, and therefore would “talk to you till you were blue”. As it turns out the toy we got was silver and grey. However, the original art was based on the blue version of the toy. So there on your American box for your silver Bluestreak was a blue Bluestreak. Bluestreak should be blue right? The art and instructions show that he is. That kind of inaccuracy can drive a kid nuts… for 30 years…

So fast forward today and I’ve now got my own Blue Bluestreak that is part of my updated Transformers Classics collection. He’s a simple repaint of an existing toy and homages the classic Blue Bluestreak to a tee. The design and idea are not unique and have been done before, but I’m still glad I made him. It feels good to finally have a real version of this toy, even in an updated form.

It’s hard to see in the photos, but his metallic blue paint is really striking. It took quite a bit of work, and multiple layers to get that effect. In person he looks amazing.

Marlboor

Marlboor, or Marlboro Wheeljack, is another Diaclone oddity. The original Autobot cars were based on real racing cars of the time. In fact most of their decos matched existing cars, including their advertising/sponsors. In most cases, Takara would change a letter or two in a sponsor’s name and then call it good. Gitanes = Citanes, Martini = Martinii, and in Marlboor’s case: Marlboro = Marlboor.

Furthermore Marlboor, as he has come to be known, is also styled after the cigarette brand as well with the distinct red stripe. Throw in a uniquely styled head, and you have a 30-year-old figure that many collectors would wish to have.

So as it happens, in 2012 the UK TF convention Auto Assembly produced a kitbash kit that included a new head and stickers so customizers could turn their Wheeljacks in Marlboor. I had a fellow AZ TF fan pick up a set for me, which I promptly sat on for a year.

Again, fast forward to today and I have my own Classics Marlboor. I utilized existing customs from other folks and made my own amalgam of what I’d want my Marlboor to be. I’m happy with how his red paint turned out, and his overall deco is quite nice. However, I do feel that he does look better in race car mode.

Am I a fan of how he’s related to cigarettes? Not in the slightest, but the deco is still cool.

More Diaclone?

After completing these two, I’ve now got the itch to fill in the other gaps of Diaclone cars we never saw stateside. Red Mirage, Black Tracks, Black Ironhide, Red Sunstreaker, etc. If I do go on that path, it’s gonna be an expensive and lengthy process to complete those figures. But oh would they look so nice…

That is quite a bold statement above, but after finally finishing Mass Effect 3 for a second time I can’t think of a better way to put down my opinion on this series of sci-fi games.

I know they aren’t perfect games. I know there are a lot of problems with each one. And I know the universe is just like Star Wars. But here I am with no more Mass Effect story to go through and I’m sincerely bummed. My Shepard’s story is finished. It’s a shame I won’t be able to experience more of the world through his actions, and those actions of his very memorable crew. I believe I will sincerely miss having them around and being part of their world.

Here’s a timeline of my play history:

• Originally started Mass Effect 1 on December 20, 2007 via a friend’s copy
• Played as the default male, named Donovan Shepard, classed as a pure Soldier
• Initially gave up after failing the Luna mission twice and stopped playing
• Picked it back up 5 years later on February 27, 2013
• Chose the asari Liara as my companion
• Finished Mass Effect 1 as a full Paragon (good guy) on March 2, 2013
• Started Mass Effect 2 on March 3, 2013
• Chose to rebuild my Shepard as a Sentinel with base biotic powers
• Completed all the crew loyalty missions
• Bought every ship upgrade
• Saved everyone on the Suicide Mission
• Remained faithful to Liara through the game into Shadow Broker DLC
• Also completed the Zaaed, Kasumi, Normandy Crash site, and Arrival DLC
• Finished Mass Effect 2 as a full Paragon on April 4, 2013
• Started Mass Effect 3 on April 8, 2013
• Completed the From Ashes, Leviathan, and Citadel DLC
• Remained faithful to the end with Liara
• Finished Mass Effect 3 as a level 60 full Paragon on May 20, 2013, choosing the “green” option
• Downloaded the extended cut ending
• Finished the game again for a final time on May 25, 2013 with the extended cut, choosing the “green” option again

Overall Game Time played

• Mass Effect 1 = 34 hours
• Mass Effect 2 = 49 hours
• Mass Effect 3 = 64 hours
• TOTAL = 147 hours

That is a whole lot of my life spent to playing some electronic entertainment, more than 6 full days of gaming combined. And even with all that time spent, I’m upset that there isn’t more. And no, multiplayer doesn’t count. I want more stories I can interact with.

Quick Mini-Reviews

Mass Effect 1

The game is essentially just the original Knights of the Old Republic again. The story is slow to start, there is terrible inventory management, individual stats, really long loading times, bad vehicle sequences, and kind of lackluster action. The framerate on the Xbox 360 version are also pretty terrible, dipping into a crawl sometimes during hectic sections. What makes it compelling is the fiction, the characters, the voice work, the music, etc. Of the three games, this one has the most exploration options and most varied paths. To think there are wildly varied choices that you can make in this game that last the entire trilogy, and change its universe, is astounding. As a pure game it’s weak, but as an experience it’s great.

Mass Effect 2

A tremendous improvement over ME1. Right off the bat, the graphics are better, the action’s faster, inventory management doesn’t exist, and overall it’s just simplified. Yes, it turned into more of a shooter (ammo clips and all), but the game is better for it. The character moments really improved this time out with the loyalty missions being a standout. Interrupt-able conversation trees were also a nice surprise. It’s the best game in the trilogy. And a must for this game is the Shadow Broker DLC: top-notch and worthwhile top-to-bottom.

Mass Effect 3

We definitely have an action game now; it’s practically like Gears of War. The gameplay has been finely tuned and it is still an amazing experience. The story beats are some of the strongest yet, and the stakes for the universe are at their bleakest. Seeing familiar faces from the past show up as part of the galaxy ending war was a treat. Shepard’s story ends on a high-note, but his (or her) story is now over.

Highlights

Choices and being the good guy

I pretty much always end up playing the good guy role, or in this case Paragon, in most games. I can’t usually see myself making the evil choices. So with Mass Effect, it was great to have my Paragon choices have long-lasting galaxy-wide effects: Wrex, the genophage, the rachni, Mordin, Tali, the quarians and geth, etc.

I also made an effort to put a lot of skill points into ME1’s persuasion so I could convince most folks to not end things with violence; so much so I convinced the first game’s “bid baddy” to sacrifice himself versus having a boss fight. All of these experiences above were profound.

Characters

The crew you fight along with are some of the best fleshed out characters in any game I’ve come across. From their unique designs, to their varying attitudes, to their perfect voices they each feel alive. From Tali, Wrex, Joker, Garrus, Javik, to EDI and the others; each is amazing in their own way. You will feel like you know these characters, almost as if they’ve been people you’ve known for a long time. There were only 1 or 2 of the characters that I wasn’t fond of through most of the trilogy, but even by the end each was someone I’m glad to have met.

Liara

The relationship storylines and character romances in these games are well-known. Based off the characters presented in ME1, I chose to be in a relationship with Liara. She seemed to be the best fit for my Shepard.

When ME2 started off I was very upset that she wasn’t part of my crew anymore. There were other new characters who came long and tried to woo my Shepard. But I chose to stick with Liara through ME2, not even knowing she’d show up again in the Shadow Broker DLC. To keep the relationship solid through all of ME2 even when she wasn’t a significant part of the game felt right.

And then when she popped up early in ME3, I was very happy to have her part of the crew again alongside my Shepard. Throughout all of the rough moments of ME3, she stuck by Shepard’s side. On the other side of the coin, he was around when things went sour for her. The final tearful moments of ME3, specifically with Liara, are some of the most emotional and meaningful video game experiences I’ve ever had.

In fact, I replayed the very long and tedious last battle just to see the extra Liara content from the extended ending, which wasn’t present when I finished ME3 the first time. Those additional four hours of playing were worth the extra few minutes my Shepard got to spend with Liara.

Downloadable Content (DLC)

The DLC for the Mass Effect games isn’t cheap, but is some of the best content available for the games. The Shadow Broker has amazing set pieces, character moments, and story. It even plays into the later game in meaningful ways. From Ashes brings a character to your team, Javik, that you’ll want to bring on every mission (I did). Leviathan gives more background into the Mass Effect universe and tells some history about where the Reapers came from that is key to final game choices. I would say that all the DLC I listed above in my playthroughs were worth the price of admission to get that little bit extra of ME.

Finally the Citadel, specifically the non-action/party moments, are my absolute favorite ME content. It is almost the “real” end to the game. The gang all comes back for one final celebration before the last battle. Having characters from as far back as ME1 reappear was amazing. From jokes that spanned the entire trilogy, interesting set pieces and conversations, to character moments where Shepard got to say his final goodbyes. One simply cannot fully finish ME3 without also finishing Citadel.

In conclusion

With Shepard’s story being complete, I’m sad that it’s all done. I’m sure that there are more Mass Effect games in development and I look forward to playing them. I’m not quite sure how they will fit into the mythos my Shepard built. This is because most likely the choices I made won’t have an effect on the new games, and that seems like a shame. The series was great because I got to dictate how things played out.

But even with that said, I’m glad that I invested as much time as I did in the games. It’s a set of experiences that I don’t think I’ll ever forget, let alone experience with another game.