Hi everyone! As you may know, last week we posted a blog about one of our customers, Josh E., and his Star Wars figures displayed in our cases. After we got in contact with him to talk about the post, he sent us a fleet of pictures showing off his complete figure collection and we were blown away. He has dozens of characters on display, and almost all of them are contained in BDC brand display cases! We wanted to take the time to bring you a deep dive into his collection for this week's BDC blog.
First up into the spotlight is the weeping angel from the DR Who universe, the poster child for British television in the U.S. What frightening monsters the angels are. They take the form of decrepit, feminine statues with wings, but only when you look at them. The power that makes the angels so terrifying is also their one weakness, quantum locking. Whenever an angel is being looked at, it looks and feels like a statue, completely made of stone. It is only when you look away, or when the lights go out, that the statue comes to life and hunts down its prey much like a feral vampire. The only way one can "defeat" a weeping angel, short of shooting it directly into the sun, is to make it quantum lock itself in say, a mirror, or another weeping angel. But, even that wouldn't be a permanent solution...
His weeping angel figure is also joined by a cyberman (a space robot that turns humans into robots), a clockwork robot (a space robot that uses human flesh as camouflage and replacement parts), and a Judoon (a militant bipedal space rhino) to make quite a formidable foursome.
Ok! Now that we are done being scared, let's move on to a character that is a bit lighter in tone. The next choice figure from the collection is the merc with a mouth, Deadpool of the Marvel universe. Now many of you may have seen the movie and been a little confused with his antics, so I'm going to let you in on the merc's more comic supported backstory. He was created in the early 1990's, with his design being so "inspired" by the DC character Slade Wilson (more commonly known as Deathstroke) that his writers decided to make Deadpool's real name Wade Wilson, to poke fun at their all too obvious similarities.
Deadpool sets himself apart from with his unique set of super powers and his sense of humor. He has a healing factor in the same vain as wolverine, but DP's is so advanced that he can survive anything, up to and including decapitation. While Deadpool may be lacking in the offensive power department, he makes up for it with the sheer amount of weaponry he uses, most famously the twin katana's Josh's figure is holding. He is written with media awareness, which means that he knows that he is a comic book character, a movie super-hero, or an action figure on a shelf, so he constantly breaks the fourth wall to remind the audience that he knows they are there to watch him.
The last thing I want to pull out for a special look before we get a complete look at his whole collection is actually a pair of figures, Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White.
Before the events of the Lord of the Rings movies, Gandalf lived far west of Middle Earth in the undying lands, and was a Maiar, or servant spirit of the divine Valar, which were the deities of the LOTR universe. He was sent by the Valar, along with four other wizards, too middle earth so he could help defeat Sauron before he rose to power. Gandalf spent many years living among the elves and the other free folk of middle earth. After searching middle earth for signs of sauron's return, he discovered his evil growing in the fortress of Dol Guldur. Gandalf was successful in banishing the evil from the castle for a time, but he knew the Sauron's strength was ever growing and that he would be strong enough to pose a threat all too soon, by using his powers of corruption to grow his army.
After seeing this, he remembered the legends of Smaugh the dragon, who would surely be corrupted by Sauron as his power grew. Gandalf resolved to defeat the dragon with the help of a company of dwarves, and a hobbit names Bilbo Baggins. After defeating the dragon and returning the mountain to the dwarves who once inhabited it, Bilbo returned home with a mysterious ring he had stolen from a cave dweller named Gollum, and Gandalf roamed middle earth, still searching for Sauron and trying to puzzle out the true nature of Bilbo's ring.
Years later, Gandalf found out that Bilbo's ring, now owned by Bilbo's cousin and heir Frodo, was the one ring that gave Sauron power. Gandalf was instrumental in the creation of the Fellowship of the Ring, the group of warriors that swore to bring Frodo safely to mount doom so he could destroy the ring in its volcanic flames. While journeying through the ruins of the Mines of Moria, the fellowship was attacked by a balrog, A giant demon Maiar that oozed fire. The balrog and Gandalf fell into the depths of the mine and battled each other all the way to the top of the mountain that stood above it. The wizard slew the balrog but died shortly after.
After death his spirit was returned to middle earth by the Valar in the form of Gandalf the White. Now, stronger from his battles, the reborn Gandalf helped lead the forces of men and elves to attack Sauron head on, while Frodo carried the ring to mount doom and destroyed it, saving middle earth from evil. After the battle, Gandalf spent a few more years in middle earth before returning to the undying lands with Frodo and Bilbo in tow. He was never seen in middle earth again.
OK! Now that I've taken enough of your time to nerd out again, here is a look at this complete collection, including but not limited to characters and creatures from Star Wars, Dr. Who, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and both the Marvel and DC universes.
Huge thanks to Josh for letting us show off his collection, and for giving us a chance to help him display his story. To anyone who didn't get a chance to catch last week's blog, we showed off the Star Wars side of Josh's collection, and you can check it out using this link. If you have a figure that needs protecting, you can find the case model Josh used right here. The case can be used vertically or horizontally, and we offer a model with wall mounts built directly into the back of the case. Keep in mind we love hearing what our customers are up to, so If you have a story you want to share, drop us a line and you might be the next featured blog right here on the BDC website. Can't wait to hear from you!
We are also excited to announce that we will begin sending out a newsletter that will keep you up to date about blog posts, new products, and new sales launching on our website. And, in even more exciting news, we are offering one completely free display case, to one lucky winner who signs up for our newsletter. The competition sign-up form is located at the bottom right of the page.
Good luck everyone!!!
