So here's a story about something that happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I tried to make it funny, because in retrospect it kind of is, to me. To my wife and cousin it was funny at the time too, but I think they were just being mean to me.
You may not realize this, but I have a lot of allergies, and some times they can be really severe, and sometimes, I don't react well to the allergy attacks.
My cousin's main form of income is selling toys on eBay. He buys big lots of toys on eBay, craig's list and yard/moving sales and then stores them in his basement for months because he has far more toys than he could possibly sell in one lifetime.
A couple weeks ago he and I drove an hour and a half to buy some things from a collector that was moving and didn't want to take it all with him. He had lots of great stuff, a couple old, valuable LOTR statues I wanted, some Transformers (mostly movie crap), and a bunch of Aliens and Predators statues, and a ton of collectibles from Peter Jackson's King Kong. My cousin bought a lot of it, some of it he even intends to keep for himself, which is super rare, because he never spends money on himself.
I bought a few things, not much, but the reason I'm bringing this entire story up is because I hate dust. The little bit that gathers on my figures or shelves over a period of a many weeks, to even a few months, that's not bad. It's easy to blow off, or goes away when I move my toys around (my display room is surprisingly free of dust).
Anyway, this guy's stuff was filthy. Like, sitting in the same spot and never moved or cleaned for years. The dust was so thick I felt like it was getting on me just by looking at it, like it was a living, malevolent force. Picking up a toy to check it's condition covered my hands in this thick film of dust that wouldn't come off.
And I started to freak out. Slowly, for sure. I can control my responses for a while, but as I looked at more of his items, the dust growing thicker on my fingers, a panic started to build in me until I was getting ready to burn the house to the ground. Some things can only be purged by fire, after all.
To save himself the hassle of a house fire, the guy showed me the bathroom where I tried to wash my hands and face, but it was too late. I could feel the dust affecting my eyes and my throat. My neck started to itch, my eyes began to itch, but of course I couldn't scratch anything because after washing up, I looked at more stuff so there was again copious amounts of dust on my hands.
Eventually my cousin had made his selections, we both paid the dude, and I got us the hell out of there. But it was too late. I was itching up a storm, and of course I was driving. Hives were developing on my forearms and one side of my neck, and my throat itched inside like hell, and I needed food badly (because I was hungry and also to cleanse the dust from my esophagus) or I was going to drive us into the next concrete barrier I saw.
But as you may surmise, we survived. It was not an easy task though, we skipped the obvious freeway offramp that had food and had to take the next one. The attempt to drive thru town to get back to the food places we had seen at the previous offramp was a disaster, we ended up lost, further away from the food than when we started, but eventually I remembered I have an iPhone with a decent map system, which showed we were going the complete wrong way - I thought we were going North, Rish thought we were going East, and the GPS thought we were going West. It got us back on track, we ate, my allergy attack subsided and the night ended well for us.
But, the trauma of the event meant it was two weeks before I could bring myself to even touch the toys I bought again, but Saturday I gave them a vicious cleaning, and now they are fit to join my collection
DST Voyage Home Kirk and Spock 2 pack.
The DST figures are big, terribly unposeable despite the articulation, but usually have lots of accessories and decent sculpts. Far better than the old Playmates toys anyway. I have a very large collection of these figures, at this point I actually have nearly every single distinct sculpt, just not every repaint of them all, which I don't need. But this was a pair of Kirk and Spock I didn't have, as far as I know, they are new, unique sculpts. Plus The Voyage Home is a fun movie, and they're decent outfits, so I always wanted this set, just not for the prices it normally sells for. Used with no accessories, $6 for the pair? Okay.
Playmates Star Trek 2009 Enterprise
Again, the DST ships are so much better than the Playmates ones, but DST doesn't have the movie license, and this one is decently detailed, has lights and sound, which work, and I got it for $12. And 10 minutes or so of cleaning.
Aliens Warrior Mini Bust
This thing, on the other hand, was complete and total bitch to clean. I spent probably 40 minutes or more with a wet toothbrush lightly scrubbing the entire thing multiple times to get into all the little sculpted crevasses and detailing to get the dust that had been caked on over the years, to the point where it was even sticky in some places. It was not a fun experience cleaning it. But it looks pretty darn swell now. In a sick, disturbing kind of way. All for only $15.
Oh! There was one more thing I got, but I don't know how to clean it, so I haven't dared touch it since I got it. It's a hat, and being covered in dust I was smart enough to not try it on then, so I hope it fits me. But it's an official, licensed Indiana Jones fedora, and it will be awesome, once it's clean.
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