Episode I: The Phantom Collection
Turmoil has engulfed my Collecting Republic. The taxation and shipping charges of getting toys to outlaying collecting towns has limited the funds available for spending.
Hoping to resolve the matter by paying off my credit card I've stopped buying toys and other collectibles and the Post Office has stopped shipping toys to my home in the small town in Utah.
While my wife and I endlessly debate this alarming spending habit of mine I've decided to take pictures of my collection and post them on this blog in order to curb my desire for more toys and awaite the settling of the conflict....
(click images for a much larger version)
Batman
In a half-hearted attempt to somehow correlate the title of the post with the photos I'll start with Batman, because he's kinda like a phantom, or at least a scary shadow, right?
A couple of these figures are actually some of the first action figures I ever bought myself, and some are much more recent. On the top, left to right, some holographic card of Batman from the Batman Forever era, some Batman Beyond figure, some Batman Begins figure, Flightpak Batman, some Batman figure with techno-bat wings and claws and Azreal from a very recent toyline Select Scultps. The vehicles on the top row are the Hotwheels (I think) die cast Batmobile (from the first Michael Keaton film), a plastic Batmobile (from the Batman and Robin Adventures animated series) - it hides a toothbrush inside, the Batman Forever Batwing from some Micro Machines mini playset, then some misc Star Wars micro machines. 
Batman items on the bottom shelf are some version of Azreal as Batman, and a newer, unopened version of Azreal as Batman, or AzBats. Obviously, I need to do some research so I actually know what figures they are.Swords
As a transition from Batman items to my swords, I've got a Batman styled knife. It uses the Batman & Robin style logos.The only swords I have that are worth taking pictures of are the Official Highlander Swords.
These swords are decorative only, they have stainless steel blades, with a negligible edge to the blade. They are rather pricey from the official store, so I acquired two via eBay, and two on the Replica Prop Forum (which is a forum filled with intelligent, creative, talented and skilled people with too much time on their hands - because they do things like build, from scratch, prop replicas and costumes from various movies/tv shows (mostly sci-fi type), often spending weeks and months researching everything, trying to find the exact part used for the original props, or sculpting/molding props themselves. Well, that was fairly tangential to the actual subject at hand, wasn't it?)So, the first sword pictured is Duncan MacLeod's Duende Rapier, 20th Anniversary edition - which means that it is a limited edition (only 3500 were made), and it has engraved upon the blade a quote from the episode wherein the blade was featured. This type of sword is commonly called a swept hilt rapier.
Strangely, the official prop replica doesn't actually match the prop used in the series (or so I'm told). The one used in filming is an actual sword, carbon steel blade and everything. In fact, I'm also told that this is the one used for the show. As in, they used an off-the-shelf product in filming. The prop replica has a gold hilt, and yellow cream grip, as opposed to the silver and off-white cream of the actual sword. Considering the Official Prop Replica retails for $300 and the actual prop used is only $200 (and was actually on sale for $150 when I originally ran across it) I should have purchased the real sword. Seeing the price now, I do, in fact, rather regret that, but I did get the Official Replica for only $140-ish.
The other three swords pictured are, from top to bottom, The "Original" Duncan's Katana, The Sword of Connor MacLeod, and The Sword of Duncan MacLeod.You may notice that two of the swords are listed as belonging to Duncan. The story goes (again, this is all hearsay) that when the series began they were using the "Original" Duncan sword which was nothing more than an off-the-shelf katana with a faux-ivory handle (made by the Spanish company Marto) with a dragon head attached to it. This is the same method (and the same sword) used in Highlander the Movie. Sometime during production of the series someone was asked to produce a sword for Duncan, and the design of the third sword came about. However, Adrian Paul (Duncan MacLeod) didn't like how the sword felt in his hands, so he never used it in the series. I like the feel of it the best of the three, but I'm no swordsman either, so I'm not going to argue with Adrian.
Unopened
Attempting to return to the theme of Phantom collection (it wasn't really a great idea to follow the title themes, was it? I'll skip that on subsiquent episodes) this is stuff that feels like it's not actually part of my collection, because it's all stuffed into a box waiting for me to have time to open it, and find a place to put it - strangely, it felt like more stuff before I got it all out. On a previous entry here, Gillian asked how the cabinet from Ikea is working out - well, it's really great at sitting unopened in a corner because there's too much junk on the floor that I need to go through before I'll have room to set it up. But once I get it set up I'll have room to shuffle stuff around and put this stuff on display. I'd tell you what all that is, but I bet most of you don't really care and are only reading this because you are family and you have to be nice to me. 
