Site Updates and Some Info on the new Grand Champions
~NEW STUFF~
Tuesday, March 1, 2005
Woo hoo! I don't have much time today because I'm going to the
dentist pretty soon, but I made a new Logo picture for the
White Zone and updated the layout a little, updated the Fakie Page
with some new stuff, put up the new Link Page, and made
a special page for those Fantasy horses that have never been
identified! If you look over there you'll see Tang's very first kill, which happened last week. I had gone out for errands and forgotten to close the slider, and I came home to find feathers everywhere and this poor little dude, deceased in the living room.
Tang was very pleased with himself, but it was a sad epiphany for me.
He's a young man now, growing up. Not my innocent little kitty anymore...
Also take a look at this
HUGE wolf/malamute mix that visited our apartment complex over the weekend.
He weighs 110 lbs and his name is Chinook! Isn't that cute??
The owner has been decapitated to protect her identity, since I
didn't actually get permission to publish her on the www, heh. :o)
I can't remember if she said he was 12 or 14 years old, but it was very impressive that he was in such robust health, and still active and frisky. He was such a lovey, too, all smiles! His fur was like 3 inches thick. He felt like a *sheep*, LOL! What a cutie.
No Friesian pictures *yet.*
February 25, 2005
I have been without an HTML Editor for more than a month now, so it's been difficult to get site work done. Actually I've purchased TWO editors, so you'd think I'd have one, but of course things don't work out as you'd think...
Nonetheless, I made an Update! Horse Country is now up in all its minimalist glory. I didn't devote that many pictures or pages to it (Frankly, it's undeserving), and I would guess that people aren't too interested anyway.
Most of the news nowadays is in the My Little Pony world, but Kristin discovered this interesting bit at Hobbies UK:
New Classic Friesians ?
It's hard to believe they would use the Clydesdale molds for these, since a Frie has such a different body type, but I wouldn't put it past them. On the other hand, it would certainly be nice to have the draft molds in black FINALLY ! For sure, they will use the draft foal, so that'll be sweet.
There's an offchance that they will use new molds for these guys. I wonder. It could be a good thing - if the Revell sculptor for the UK GCs is actually talented - Or a nasty thing, if the same person who made the Horse Country stallions has made something new.
(*Audience gives a collective shudder.*)
Grand Champions were so disappointing this year, with a lame set of Classics and even more cost-cutting changes made to the packaging, that the handful of nice-looking Euros has been a singular bright spot.
News for Paradise is that there is some kind of funky bug in the system that will delete any page as soon as you go to edit it. It happened when I went to update the Link Page... and POOF! The whole page was gone. Zero K. So that sucked, but I'm glad it wasn't a more important page, and the new link page is nearly finished. It needed a facelift anyway.
The new Breyers are coming! The wait for most of the new classics is over, and ponies will be along shortly, too! Everyone is getting on the Fantasy Horse horse, from MLP to Breyer to Mattel. I wouldn't be surprised if Alpha tries for some special mail-order fantasy GC.
The Grand Champion companies have had a stumbling affair with fantasy horses, going through 3 different lines of them and never hitting paydirt. The market is ripe for it now, what with the continued success of My Little Pony.
I'm really happy with the new Molded-On wings that will grace the MLP line this year. Toy Fair's pics were very encouraging, and there will be some absolute gems to add to the pony herd very soon. From the smelly, fruity ones, to the new pegasus ponies, to the Birthstone set, G3 is really coming into its own and hopefully proving to Hasbro that Ponies can be a permanent part of the toy landscape if they are designed responsibly. G1 only failed because the later ponies changed too much, became gimmicky, and eventually looked nothing like the original ponies. Let's hope Hasbro gets that message and we don't see the past repeated!
Overall, it's a great time to be a horse collector. Actually I think this is the best time for us that has come along since the late 80s, and things are only getting better! (Will Hasbro try again with something like a Fashion Star Filly? Will they come out with something similar to Mattel's new Pegasus line?? We can always hope.)
January 20, 2005
No real update to the site this time, but Angela is the Hero of the Day ! for discovering a gigantic case of Photo theft on the part of:
http://www.equinus-sapientia.net/ fan/grandchampions/codes.php
This was tremendous. A huge number of photos had been stolen from last year's Photo Show, including several of mine that were used on all of the site's pages. Then there were a bunch of pictures that had been cropped and used as link banners to the site. Obviously I don't remember them all (What am I, made of RAM? :o)) but here is a loose list of what I recall:
Cloverhill Dreamcatcher
Nubira in Parade Costume
Sudden Snow
Reba (on Tree/grass background)
Perseverance (on same bg)
Ice Sculpture (on same bg)
Over Easy (Under dappled shade)
Thundershower
Electra (The blue FF that was in the Fantasy category)
Cheer Leader
And there were many others that were just headshots, so it's hard to know whose they were. Oh yeah, that one cool picture that had the two running stallions in the field with the sun behind them and the girl rider with the sun on her hair - that was there, too. There were even a couple mini pictures, including the black mare and foal clydesdale pic that all the judges liked...
But if you found yourself in that list, I guess it means your photo was worthy of stealing. (Yay?)
Fortunately the operator of the site was cooperative and immediately disabled the pages upon being notified of the theft:
Dear Sloane,
Ah, I thought I had placed a credits page on that as I have my other fanlistings. But I apologize about this greatly; I had made that site when I was younger and wasn't sure about copyrights. I shall remove them immediantly and I apologize about this.
~Dianna
www.beqanna.com
It was great that this was resolved without ugliness or flaming, and that she was so quick to comply.
Sunday, December 5th I think
Omg, it has been MONTHS since I updated!! AGHHHHH!! But it's not my fault! Sometime in August my life suddenly exploded. I had a cancer scare, had to go to the dentist about 5 times, had a tremendous attack of Spyware that caused 2 total meltdowns in as many months, and I still have not reinstalled everything. I also worked my butt off to make TWELVE prize pads for the photo show, and did my part on the judging.
I've also been working more and just haven't had a spare moment to work on this place. As for the system now, it seems stable.. I'm on a different version of Aol, which seems to be reducing the horrible spyware problems I was having. (I mean horrible... like 10-15 new spywares for every 30 minutes I was online, and I don't mean the "polite" adware things or cookies. Like nasty, ugly spywares. Eventually it was freezing up every 10 minutes, and finally windows would not load at all and everything had to be deleted. Re-install everything. Wait one month and repeat. Rinse.)
I also wasted money on several stupid ass spyware cleaners that didn't work at all ("PC Protection Pack" can just kiss my ass and go to hell !!!)
I am planning on getting back to work here in the next couple weeks, as there are several mostly-completed sections that I have been waiting to load up (Horse Country among them). The big news in the GC world is that the new 2004s are here, but it's all lukewarm. The Gray Arab mare is ugly in her new mold, the Polo pony stallion has returned in a new outfit, and the Wurttembergers are nothing special either. Coverage of them will be along shortly, but these guys are not interesting enough to warrant a separate commentary page. (*Hears cheers go up at the prospect of having to read less of my babble.*)
Also in the past months, for the first time, Paradise has been down several times due to bandwidth limits. I went through all the files and eliminated a couple thousand K's worth of redundant photos and defunct pages. This should help, but the site is only going to get bigger in time, so I'm sure the bandwidth will be exceeded now and then.
Recent changes to philosophy include:
* Blue Paradise no longer supports or patronizes Wal*Mart. All Grand Champion purchases will be through online vendors from now on. Birdsong and FarmGoods ROCK !!
* Spyware is the bane of everyone's existence now. It's pointless, retarded, and whoever invented it should gouge out his eyeballs with the corners of my f#@&ing "PC Protection Pack" box.
* Horse Country is beyond ugly and just a terrible mistake. The stallions are hideous. Alpha's design team has now proven itself totally incapable of sculpting anything that resembles a horse.
Update this time: The UK Page got a minor facelift, a couple new pictures, and I finally got that beautiful rearing Arab stallion!!!
Sunday, August 8, 2004
It's been a while, but the last update was pretty huge, so I don't feel guilty, and you can't make me. :o) New stuff this time includes a couple new pictures to the UK section, a couple new Before and Afters, and the 2004 Main Page is now up.
The biggest thing that has happened since June/July is that Horse Country has debuted, and boy is it icky! Neena predicted "horrendous" a long time ago, and I think that is perfectly accurate. Well, they all have hacked hair ! So let's see, that means they look nothing like wild horses or mustangs. I have never seen a mustang with the mane that sticks straight up and the tail that is cut to a little stump. They don't have names, and they don't come with any accessories, and they're all in molds of poor quality. Basically they're just ugly, something like MIP Custom Bait.
Will young boys like them? I dunno, maybe? But the girls sure won't, and the collectors won't, so there goes 2/3 of the consumer right there. It's too bad because the shading on some of them is really nice. If they were in better molds and had some character (there are hardly any markings on them), they might be worth re-hairing.
So far there is no sign of the new stallion molds, and that's probably a good thing.
I will set up a page here for the HC guys, but just to acknowledge that they exist. They really are icky.
My Little Pony is still going strong. The new jewel ponies and glitter-types are showing up everywhere. Starcatcher is all over the place, too, in her tacky-winged non-glory. The wings are just awful. I wonder what is conceptually worse? Horse Country or Starcatcher wings??
Factory Flaws are still rampant, so please select your ponies VERY CAREFULLY if you want to avoid the more severe dents, glue mishaps, gashes, extremely thin tails, paint flubs and all other manner of Pony Ill.
Unavoidable problems still include nasty tail glue, hoof dents, and of course various NDS flaws that will not be visible in package. Watch out, peeps. Don't think it can't happen to you!
Sunday, June 27, 2004
YAY! I updated !! And within the same month !!! AHHH!!!! How exciting !! Right??
(*Cricket chirp. Tumbleweed rolls by.*)
Ok, fine, but you'll be happy when you see what I added! A pretty significant Care Section, several pages worth. In fact so many that I can't even link to them here! You have to go to the Zone and check them out yourself. They're pretty cool and interesting and maybe people will learn a couple tips they didn't know before. I just know I have gotten a couple compliments on the hair treatment I give to my guys, and I am still seeing frizz on show horses that shouldn't have it, so I think it is past time to impart whatever techniques I use that might help others.
I have tested most of the links on those pages, but there may be broken ones I missed... Anyway, I worked VERY hard on that stuff, and it was a pretty big huge update, at least for me.
I also added some links to the White Zone so that both the main and detail pages can be accessed from there. That's something I always intended, but I didn't really have the gumption to learn the "nbsp" thing until now. So there we go, and it should reduce bandwidth use. Not that I have problems with bandwidth... and I'd like to keep it that way.
No Grand Champion news this time around. I am still feeling down about GCs and the prevalence of inferior remolds; that hasn't changed.
I went to Toys R Us this week and realized that, as of now, there are NO Grand Champion-type horses there for sale, not even knockoffs. The Chestnut Ridges are gone, and the only equine toys to be found are My Little Ponies, and those Fisher Price friendship ponies. They did not even have any Breyers, so right now I'm wondering if there just isn't a market for these toys, or what..? Wally World still has Stable Champions. Actually I almost bought one because it had a decent head on it and OK legs. Most of their molds are wonky (Especially the one that gray appy is in - the head-down pose. Yech, what a face !) but this chestnut one with the head up was not bad. I considered it, anyway, as there are no new GCs to buy. 6 horses a year is not much, once you track them down... :o/
I am still happy about the My Little Pony jewel ponies. They are just too gorgeous! And the sparkles look great, too, especially Cactus Butt. I Love her !! Oh, I mean "Desert Blossom," hee hee. I will likely get Denim Blue, too, and I'm pleased to see that Rainbow Swirl (Is that it?) is a little different from Rainbow Dash. She will be a buy !! There's no sign of these ponies at my local Target yet, but they're worth waiting for.
Cactus. How can anyone not love a cactus pony?? Cactus is so loveable. It's all prickly and sharp and puts on this show of defensiveness like it doesn't want you to care about it, but inside it's just all moist and squishy and wants to be cuddled. I think it's impossible not to find cactus charming... Or anything that pretends to hate you, because you know it's all an act and really it's just ashamed to show that it wants to be loved.
Hee hee. Cactus Butt.
Sunday, June 6, 2004
I think I broke a record this time for the longest duration
between updates, but I did have an excuse which was that a ton
of stuff happened in May to keep me busy... Mainly I had
Lasik Eye Surgery and couldn't work on the computer much for
about a week, and also I
got to take care of this starling fledgie that fell out of the
nest. I didn't really want to, since nature is better at
these things than I, but there was no way to get him back up
there, and he plummeted to earth in a very dangerous area and
I doubt he would have made it. Fortunately, he took to the
substitute food and was on his way flying in about 4 days.
I was glad to see him go and I can't imagine what torture it
must be to have a human baby that demands feeding
every few hours. Oy. Then I had a weird bout of insomnia that lasted 5 or 6 days and I was totally whipped through all of it. I don't know what causes that but it's really annoying.
What's that you say? You're not here to listen to me complain about my problems??! You're just here for updates. Ok, fine. Here you go, the 2003 Detail Page is finally up. Fair warning, though, I did not really care for this bunch so be prepared for lots of ... uh. Constructive criticism.
I have no solid Grand Champion news except for the bad, that it appears most of the molds now exist in thick-legged remolds, even oft-criticized ones like the "Arabian Stallion."
I am feeling very down about GCs lately because I am not as into collecting them since their quality has deteriorated in this fashion. At this point I am only really getting them to photo for the site. If not for that obligation, I would have skipped most of these 03s, and that makes me sad. I am trying to be hopeful for next year, but it is just plain depressing to see your beloved collectible
spiral into ugliness for absolutely no valid reason. I mean,
1999 was one thing - they had an excuse which was that the
usual designers went on hiatus for some reason. But using
f*cked up
molds that are labeled exactly the same as the older, better ones
is just pointless. If more uglies appear next year, I think I may
just mooch photos of them off of certain nice and generous people.
Fortunately, My Little Pony got her second wind at the start of 2004. My new pride and joy is Periwinkle over there.
The new jewel ponies are really nice,
and the upcoming sparkle set is promising as well. Tang is up to his usual mischief. After much soul searching, inability to find him a home, and pesky Gotten-Attached-To-Him Syndrome, I decided to keep Tang. So now I'm officially a Cat Owner.
©2005 Sloane Eljay
Blue Paradise Stables