Messing Around on a Foggy Day

 I was going to head up to Marine City to get some pictures of ships.  It was foggy as I left the apartment but it didn't seem so bad.  Then I got on the freeway and it seemed worse, like visibility was down to a couple of blocks.  I didn't want to get up to Marine City and find out that there were no pictures to be had, so I decided to turn around.

I couldn't have no pictures today, so I decided to mess around with posing and photographing my action figures.  I tried to make it look like Stormshadow and Snakeeyes were fighting.  I kind of like this one but I'm not sure it looks like Snakeeyes blocked the shot.

Then I tried to make it look like a flying kick but I didn't have anything to stand Stormshadow on.  I ended up balancing him on Snakeeyes.  I actually like how this picture turned out.  It kind of looks like he's doing a flying kick.

A regular punch that gets block.

Snakeeyes lands a kick.

They square off.

The punch gets blocked.

He lands another kick.

Flint on the flank.

I really need to figure out how to make this whip fly out.

A closeup.

Shipwreck.

I suppose I don't the French enough love.  This is a Rafale fighter and is one of their newest.

A British Tornado.

The SR-71.

I like this shot.

And this one.

A Dutch F-16.

From the front.

I like this angle.

And this one.

An Israeli F-16.

This one has conformal tanks and I think that makes it look pretty cool.

I like this angle.

The oblique angle.

A Harrier Jump Jet.

I like this angle.

An F-22 Raptor.

I think I like this one the best.

From the top.

An E/A-18 Growler.  This is the electronic warfare version of the Hornet and it replaces the EA-6.

And one more shot.

Hopefully the weather is clear tomorrow and I can get out.

Life and Rogue One

I apologize for the lack of posting in the past couple of weeks.  First I got sick and that kind of put a damper on things.  Next I had to move out of my old apartment into a new place.  I think I'll like the new place once I get settled in but that was a bit of upheaval.  After moving into the new place, I had to get my internet access established and hopefully that will happen tomorrow.  Anyway, enough about me....

So last night, I finally got a chance to go see Rogue One.  The action figure above is Jyn Erzo and she is one of the main characters in the story.  Without getting into any detail because I don't want to spoil anything, it was a very good movie.  I will say that it ranks up there with the original trilogy.  But I can't really place it because it is so different from the other movies.

It is basically about the Rebel mission where they steal the plans to the first Death Star.  Jyn Erzo is the daughter of the Death Star's designer and she ends up hooking up with the Rebel Alliance.  Anyway, if you are a fan, go see it.

The Genesis Victory Makes an Appearance

I ended up taking a half day today in order to catch the USS Detroit as she approached Detroit.  She was following a ship that I've never seen before.

 The Genesis Victory was built by Halter Marine out of New Orleans, LA in 1981.  She is owned by Genesis Energy of Houston, TX.

 She was on her way to Toledo, Ohio but I'm not sure what she was carrying.

 Anyway, it was pretty neat to see a vessel I haven't seen before.

Sort of a shot of the tug itself.

May the Fourth Be With You

So May Fourth has become an unofficial holiday dedicated to Star Wars.  Since I'm a Star Wars fan, I figure I should celebrate it in my own little way.   I have quite a few action figures for Star Wars and some of them are from the Sideshow Toys line which means they are quite detailed and if there weren't things like joints and what not in them, could pass off for the real thing.  At any rate, they make good props.

Everyone likes to talk about the opening scene where you see Princess Leia's ship race passed the screen and it is being followed by a rumbling Darth Vader's Star Destroyer Devastator.  Princess Leia's ship is brought into the hangar bay of the larger ship and we cut to the interior of that ship where Rebel troopers prepare to repel boarders.  Many of them look pretty young but you see one guy that looks like he's seen his share of warfare.
At any rate, I think this is an awesome time to be a Star Wars fan.  In December, we have a movie that tells the story leading to the scene above.  Next year at some time, we have the next installment of the new trilogy.  There is supposed to be a back story for Han Solo and Boba Fett.  So  I can't wait.
Part of me wishes they wouldn't fill in the holes because it's funner to imagine the backstories but I guess there's money to be made.  However, since I assume this guy wont have his backstory filled, I can only imagine where he came from.  I don't have to imagine what's going to happen to him though.

A Charlie Batch Action Figure

Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time, knows that I collect action figures.  I have various Star Wars figures, military figures and a few sports figures.  One of my favorite sports figures is one I have of Charlie Batch.  Actually, Charlie Batch is one of my favorite players (well now retired).

 Charlie Batch was a quarterback at Eastern Michigan University in the mid-1990's.  He had a pretty impressive career there and owns many of Eastern's quarterback records.  I was happy to find this figure because it's not often that you see an action figure in Eastern regalia.

 He ended up getting drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1998.  He would play there for four season and he had a moderately successful career there.  I think if he had a better line, he would have had a much better career there. 

 In 2001, he was picked up the Pittsburgh Steelers where he served as a backup quarterback.  He wasn't a bad backup.

 Overall his NFL career was pretty lackluster but he had a pretty long one.

 Currently, he runs the Charlie Batch Foundation and helps out with charity work.  He seems like a pretty decent guy.

I think he also does broadcasts for the Steelers network.

The Submarine That Blew Up a Train

Ever since I was a kid, I had a fascination with World War II.  One of the games that I played as a teenager was a game on the Commodore 64 called "Silent Service".  That led me to an interest in submarines.  Also at the time, I read a series of fictional books about the submarine service by Edward Beach.  The most famous of those being "Run Silent, Run Deep".  While the books were fictional, many of the stories were based on his experiences as a submariner.  Several years ago, I picked up a book called "Thunder Below" by Rear Admiral Eugene Fluckey.  It was about his career as the commander of the USS Barb.

The USS Barb was a Gato class submarine (similar to the USS Silversides pictured above) that was launched from Electric Boat Yards in Groton, Connecticut in April 1942.  She would end up going on a total of 13 war patrols in both the Atlantic and the Pacific.  Eugene Fluckey would go on to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for one of those patrols where he penetrated a harbor in China and wreaked havoc on the Japanese ships that were docked there.  His crew would receive the Presidential Unit Citation for that action as well.
Fluckey was excited to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor until the requirements for one dawned him.  Basically the part about carelessly disregarding his life because to him that meant he was sacrificing his boat and subsequently his men.  After the war, he was asked what his proudest accomplishment during the war was, he said that it was the fact that none of his crew were awarded the Purple Heart, meaning that none of his crew were wounded or killed in combat.

The Purple Heart thing was no small feat given the Barb's record during the war.  This is a picture I took of her battle flag which was at the Submarine Museum in Groton.  Her crew members were awarded a number of Silver and Bronze Stars for their actions.  They managed to sink a Japanese Aircraft Carrier while it was out on sea trials.  They also managed to sink a German ship during one of her patrols in the Atlantic.  They managed to pluck several downed aviators from the sea.  If I remember correctly, they even rescued a ship of POWs.  She also had the first distinction of being the first submarine to launch rockets at enemy targets ashore.  In addition to the Presidential Unit Citation, she would receive the Naval Unit Citation and eight battlestars.  After the war, the Barb was sent to Italy and renamed the Enrico Tazzoli.  She would serve the Italian Navy until 1972 after which she was scrapped.

All of those actions were fairly normal for a US Submarine during World War II.  However, if you look closely at her battle flag, you will see the silhouette of a train.  During her last patrol, on the night of July 22, 1945, she landed a shore party.  The shore party consisted of eight men who set out to blow up a Japanese train.  The action figure above is an approximate depiction of how they would have looked.  They used explosives from the ammunition locker and weapons from the boat's locker.  In order to darken their faces, they used bearing grease from the engines.  They managed to blow up a train and returned safely to the boat.
You will notice that I use the term boat instead of ship in this post.  All submarines are known as boats by their crews. 

Who is Rey?

So I got the other figures from Episode VII that I ordered from Amazon.  I could not find them anywhere around here and now that I have them I will find them everywhere.   If you haven't seen the movie, some of these are probably spoilers.  Enjoy the pictures and move on.  If you have seen the movie, these are merely the opinion of this blogger.

 So we know that Kylo Ren is actually Ben Solo and is the child of Han Solo and Leia.  His grandfather would have been Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker and it seems that he is pretty strong with the force.  We know that he rebelled against Luke and turned to the Dark Side.  Well, we aren't sure that he's turned to the Dark Side completely.  His Master is named Goll...err, Snope.  Where Snope comes from is subject to some debate as well.
Some people speculate that Snope is Darth Plagius which was the person that Papaltine thought he killed.  That seems fairly plausible given that he supposedly knew the secret to life itself (or some such).  There are other that say that Snope is actually Darth Vader reincarnated or something like that.  There was a picture circulating where he scars match the scars of Darth Vader.  That theory doesn't make much sense.
There is also the possibility that he is some random other force user.  Maybe he was standing back and watching Palpatine's rise and fall from power.  We'll see, I guess.

 I guess the bigger mystery of the movie is who is Rey?  Personally, I don't think that it is all that much of mystery because I think she's Luke's daughter.  To me, she looks like a combination of Anakin, Shmi and Padme, so she is definitely a Skywalker.  She could be Han and Leia's child but I didn't see much reaction from them.  Now it's possible that Luke did some sort of mindwipe on them but that doesn't make sense.   It seemed like there was more of a reaction from Luke.
Now this leads to the question of how she ended up on Jakku.  My guess is that when Kylo rebelled and killed the new Jedi, Luke was upset at his failure and hid.  Rey's mother then put her somewhere safe and Luke thought it would be better to wallow rather than hunt her.  But again, we'll see.

There are no mysteries behind BB-8.

A Force Awakens Review

Anyone who has read this blog for any length of time knows that I enjoy Star Wars.  If you've been reading recently, you know that I was pretty excited for the opening of the newest installment of Star Wars.
My excitement started when I found out that George Lucas sold Lucasfilms to Disney.  While was a little leery that Disney would be a good destination, I was happy that it meant it was going somewhere where someone would probably tell George Lucas no on occasion.  While I have enjoyed all of the Star Wars movies, my two favorites were Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.    The thing that both of those had in come was that George Lucas was neither the director or the writer.  He had some say in the direction but he had other people doing the work.  I think that was the best of both worlds, he was still providing the ideas but someone else was carrying them out.
I did enjoy the prequels quite a bit.  While I don't think they hold up against the original movies, I felt that they had some parts with merit.  My biggest complaint was that the ending of Revenge of the Sith seemed rushed.  It almost seemed like George Lucas got about halfway into it and realized that Anakin needed to turn into Darth Vader.  So the part that fans had been waiting almost 20 years for felt hurried along.  One minute Anakin was an okay guy and the next minute he was hacking up young Jedi and there didn't seem to be a big impetus for him to do so.  And then there was the iconic scene where he dons the armor for the first time and he shouts out a comical, "NOOOOOOOooo!".  But for the most part I enjoyed it.
Now we get to the Force Awakens.  First Lucas announced that he was selling Lucasfilm and then Disney announced they were doing Episode VII (and others).  Then they announced JJ Abrams was going to direct it.  I was happy with that choice because I actually enjoyed the Star Trek reboots.  My only complaint there was that I wish they would have set it in the universe and used different characters but I guess I appreciate whey they used the familiar characters.  I didn't get really excited until I saw the first trailer....that hooked me.

Anyway, there are probably spoilers in here....so if you haven't seen it...don't read.

 One thing I liked about the movie was that they introduced new characters.  The first one you get to know is Poe Dameron.  He is a really good pilot for a group called "The Resistance".  In one scene, I think he became a double ace.  The Empire reformed as something called "The First Order" but the New Republic didn't realize the threat.  The Resistance was a way to try and counter that threat.  It didn't have direct support from the Republic but there was some covert support.  While this character didn't get much screen time, he made very effective use of it.  I have a feeling he is going to figure prominently in the other movies.

 One of the main characters introduced was Finn.  He was a Stormtrooper that decided he didn't want to kill for the First Order.  Apparently he was kidnapped as a child and trained to be a Stormtrooper.  He ends up helping Poe escape from the First Order to Jakku.  There he meets up with *the* main character Rey (sadly I don't have a figure of her yet).  It turns out she is force sensitive.  The movie ends with her fighting the main bad guy...Kylo Ren (who is the son of Han Solo and Leia).
Apparently there is a group protesting because the main character is female and the other main character is black.  It is the opinion of this author that they are stupid.  They are both cool characters.

I liked the fact that they used existing character as bridge characters.  I was kind of upset over what happened to Solo but it made sense to the plot.  Luke only appeared for a couple of minutes but I figure he is going to figure prominently in the next movie at least (if not both).  I was really happy that there was no dialog in that scene, it didn't need it.  I'm not sure about Leia but I hope she's back even though people were complaining about her too.  Screw them I say.  There is enough stupidity in the world, we don't need to add to it by poking fun at fictional characters.
I will have to say that this particular series has been set up pretty well.