I’m not much of a traveler. My idea of a perfect vacation involves me being alone in a quiet room. The windows are open, I’m surrounded by every art supply I could possibly want, and a nigh-endless collection of Doctor Who DVDs and Jethro Tull MP3s for atmosphere. As a result of these vacation proclivities, my travel souvenirs are limited to upstate NY paraphernalia, but my vacations are WAY cheaper than yours, buddy.

If I were to travel, Bill Bryson has already convinced me to see the US first, for all of the vast nothing and everything that it encompasses, since I happen to be a big fan of nothing. Business travel has recently placed me in such exotic locations as Atlanta and Chicago, but I’d not thought to memorialize these rare visits with a single item (aside from a plane ticket or a restaurant receipt) until a dear friend of mine asked me to bring her back a shot glass from Chicago.

PS : Chicago, and I can’t say this enough, your pizza wasn’t that great. If I wanted pizza soup, I’d have ordered a pizza and ruined it myself, and it wouldn’t have taken two and a half hours.

As someone with collecting in my blood, I wondered why I hadn’t thought of the shot glass idea sooner, though I venture that it’s because my blood also has an intense dislike for alcoholic beverages and Dr. Pepper already comes in a convenient can. Regardless, every city in every state is going to have a fair collection of touristy junk, and it’s really not going to be that hard to find. You can’t take fifteen steps in New York City without tripping over a Statuette of Liberty or the omnipresent ‘I Heart New York’ t-shirt - so there’s no doubt that every airport that you fly into (or gas station you refill at) will have a shop to memorialize their fine city in every imaginable form, from underpants to magnets to snowglobes. Of all of the options presented at these shops, shot glasses are indeed the classiest. And state underpants just imply that you’re ‘well-traveled’, in all of the wrong ways. ‘Idaho’ panties are a disservice to everyone.

Chicago’s airport had a fine selection of local shot glasses, but unfortunately, the brief layover in Atlanta did not give me enough time to properly hunt down a companion shot glass. Both airports did, however, yield the requisite local fridge magnets. Magnets, I’d like to add, are far cheaper and simpler to snag and pack away as you vault through the airport. Unfortunately, like most cheap and simple people and things, magnets are far less sexy. Unless you’re some kind of science nerdo with a fetish for vector fields and dipoles.

The origin of the shot glass has been lost to time, and even the time when shot glasses were originally used is an ambiguous thing, with some sources citing ‘the Old West’, and others citing the Prohibition Era, while others cite Italian taverns from over 200 years ago. I’d venture that your average shot glass user is concerned less with the historical origins of their drinking vessels than what’s in them, shortly before they’re more concerned with which direction is the ceiling and which direction is the floor. Shotglass.org informs us that only Utah has passed a law to regulate the size of a ‘shot’ within a shot glass to 1.5 ounces, though a ‘shot’ remains a non-standard unit of measurement.

It’s said that shot glass value rests comfortably around what the average shot glass cost is, in the $3 to $5 range. An aspiring shot glass collector should begin by collecting shot glasses of things that they like. In my case, that would be shot glasses featuring images of Drinky Crow, Star Trek insignia and Batman. As your collection becomes more serious and you want to start adding items of monetary value, scour tag sales for shot glasses that are either old (as determined by clear labeling) or unusual. Shot glasses made from nontraditional materials or decorated by antiquated techniques tend to be worth more than their plain ol’ clear glass counterparts. Shot glasses with limited runs, to promote small business instead of national sports teams, also tend to be worth a bit more. More detailed information can be obtained from Mark Pickvet’s extensive writing about shot glass collecting, as well as Shotglass.org, which includes a message board, and an ever-expanding searchable database, which has many descriptions but few images.

As far as collecting state shot glasses goes, it was nice to step outside of my own collecting tendencies and assist someone else in their own endeavours. Sure, you can order them online from countless websites, but collecting them from the location that they describe seems more genuine, and requires a healthy amount of effort. Usually I’m just hunting for a GI Joe BAT for my toy collecting friends. Shot glasses, somehow, involved far less shame.

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When you have spent more than thirty years working in industrial sales, calling on companies that form or cut metals and plastics, you’ll have seen an abundance of precision hand tools and gages.

Ames, Van Kueren, Lufkin, Starrett, Standard, Brown & Sharpe, Mahr, Federal and Boice are all common names to a machinist. These companies produced gaging and precision hand tools, some for over one hundred years. While companies change hands or merge, most of their names are still used on gaging products today.

My first, and they say you’ll never forget your first, was a micrometer with ruby tipped anvils. It was presented to me by a retiring salesman and owner of the company I worked for. It sat in the drawer of my desk for nearly twenty years till I finally brought it home. By then I had started to collect other gaging items. I don’t remember my second one but the accumulation grew quickly as I joined Wifey for weekend jaunts through flea markets, garage sales and antique stores.

Since I once worked for one of these gage companies, I was always on the lookout for their logo on products. But when at a yard sale and a box full of various precision tools of various brands are offered for only a few dollars, I’m hard pressed to pass them up.  OK, I’m frugal alright, when some very nice vintage examples have crossed my path with prices too high, it’s usually because the seller has priced a new one and considers his or her item still usable I’ll take a pass.

Eventually a machinist case (felt lined wooden tool box) was added to store my growing collection, then later another case was found sitting at the back of an antique booth, barely visible under some vintage clothing, for a fraction of its worth. (Wifey thought it was being sold as a jewelry box, but not big enough for her costume jewerly.)

More gages, a few given to me by clients, others from friends, some in their own wooden boxes. When it was getting out of hand, I decided to only pick out very special examples.

Of course I’ve also found old catalogs from some of these companies. Interesting on several levels, as they show the types of equipment offered, logos and font styles giving a clue to the age of your find.  Catalogs also give clues to the usefulness of some unusual configurations made to facilitate difficult measurements.  Age on some mechanical gages such as micrometers may be difficult to determine since many styles were made for decades without design change.

What to look for with this type of collectible, and I always consider the saleability of the items I purchase.  After all, any collectible I have may wind up on ebay when I tire of the collection.  Lufkin Rule Co. of Saginaw, MI produced a line of steel tape measures and 100 ft impregnated fabric tape measures in leather bound cases that have sold well.  Student tool sets in soft case with micrometers, ruler combination square, center gage dividers and center punch, when complete are a treasure. Micrometers in sizes over six inches in boxed sets create a wonderful wall display.

I own this unique Universal Indicator No.199A from Lufkin, an early example of the “test indicator” in a rocket shaped body.  Special application gages by their very nature are also collectible.

The gage block pictured is inscribed with the company logo “Ford”, and was purchased in Indiana at a flea market.  I don’t think the seller ever saw the inscription nor knew the function of the “metal block”.

Customer names, some for OEM’s, appeared on many gages, especially dial indicators. Manufacturers like Federal and Starrett often screen printed a company name on these indicators, as they were attached to other gaging fixtures or contraptions as the indicating device. Large companies had their own name imprinted to show ownership and cut down on “losses”.

Micrometers under seven inches, dial Indicators, vernier or dial calipers, steel straight edge rules, machinists squares, inside micrometers, micrometer depth gages, scribes, center punches, feeler gages and thread calipers, all are plentiful in the market place.

Boice, Federal, Standard, brands of bore gages and snap gages are still being widely used in industry today, even with 20 or more years of service behind them.  Some of these items display easily, sitting on a shelf, in cases or on stands.   Larger vernier calipers and great big micrometers make great wall displays, as I have seen in quality department offices.

And what is the prize of my collection?  Could be this wonderful boxed test indicator set, or the Ford gage block.  No, it’s this dial indicator, looking rather normal and average till you look at its former owner, Packard Motor Car Company.

If your collection is as unusual as some of mine, please share it with me, and the rest of our readers on Collectors Quest. Remember its your community for collectibles.

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Scooby-Doo Collection

About 12 years ago I got a Great Dane puppy. I named him Saltheart Foamfollower after the gentle giant in Stephen R. Donaldson’s books; but he was called “Salty” for short. Like most dog owners in love with their dog’s breed, I began to gobble up Great Dane collectibles. Being the parent of a then-six-year-old, I also had to include Scooby-Doo things. That is how & why I began collecting Scooby-Doo items.

Great Danes, like many giant dog breeds, are called “heart-breakers” because they live very short lives. After just six years, Salty went on to doggy heaven leaving me too heartbroken to get anything else with a Great Dane on it. That is how I stopped buying Scooby-Doo items.

Grandma’s bought the kids Scooby things, but in six years, I’ve not bought anything with another Dane on it. The clothing, all but one denim shirt with Scooby embroidered on the pocket, are all long gone — wash worn, faded, or if the kid out-grew it but it was still in great shape, donated to another child with a love of Scooby-Doo. There’s also one watch which, like the shirt, I still cannot bear to wear. But mostly what remains of my Scooby-Doo collection are the decorative and kitchen items, like the vase, milk jug, soap dispenser, and Wilton cake pan. Sometimes they still are hard for me to see & use. Boy, I miss my dog.

1999 Scooby-Doo Cookie Jar

You might have noticed that the ceramic Scooby-Doo cookie jar is damaged; he’s missing one of his ears. As a collectible he would seem to have little-to-no value, right? But in this case it’s just the opposite. That missing ear is the very reason I love that cookie jar.

As any Dane owner will tell you about the breed, Salty was a gentle giant like his namesake. But, as any pet owner will tell you, Salty also had his own personality. One of this dog’s quirks was that he had a thing — a hatred — for images of Great Danes with cropped ears.

At first it seemed coincidental when he chewed all the upright ears off the rubber Scooby-Doo dog toys. They are the parts which stick off the toy and are easily chewed away, right? But then Salty learned to flip his toys into my other Scooby-Doo collectibles, eventually, after much loss of other ceramic & glass items, developing a remarkable knack for hitting them just right to remove one ear at a time. I have to say, for the record, that the dog never broke anything but Scooby items, and always the cropped ears. As fascinating as his statement on the cropping of dog’s ears was, it became too expensive to keep those anyplace other than in a cupboard or on top of them, way out of sight.

Now, whenever I see the one-eared cookie jar with lolling tongue goofily peering at me from atop the refrigerator, I smile a sad, wistful smile for the dog who left the cookie jar thus. It’s like the dog is still speaking to me through that cookie jar.

While it’s true the cookie jar has no value as a collectible, I’m sure my eldest child will want it. She remembers the day that ear was swiftly removed from the cookie jar; she remembers the sweet, goofy, giant dog who hated cropped ears on Danes.

1997 Scooby-Doo Drinking Glass

I’m still not ready to get another Great Dane — yet. But, enough time has passed, my heart has healed enough to now consider getting more Great Dane and Scooby-Doo items.

I think I’ll need to start by replacing the Scooby-Doo drinking glasses; twelve years of use and washing has left them rather faded and with the image worn-off in spots.

I know they don’t make the same ones anymore — in fact, Scooby’s popularity as defined by availability in merchandise offerings seems to have waned quite a bit since the late 90’s. So I’ll have to really search for them. But it’s time I started being happy looking for those goofy gentle giants again.

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I had a lot riding on the Iron Man movie. Maybe not as much as Robert Downey Jr., but it felt like a lot.

A pile of action figures, busts, statues, comics and various other collectibles found their intrinsic and personal value hinged upon just how awesome Iron Man was going to be. Sure, my love of Batman survived the pathetic Schumacher years, and I’ve even maintained a degree of affection for The Fantastic Four despite their lackluster cinematic debut, but I didn’t know if I could handle another disappointment of such epic proportions. When you see one of your favorite heroes brought to life, there’s a certain need to see it done right. If the movie failed to impress, my love of Iron Man could easily have gone the way of eBay.

And for two fortunate hours, I was blown away by how completely awesome Iron Man was. As Iron Man was transformed from a B-list Avenger to a household name and lent credibility to the new generation of hero-chic, I could stand back and say ‘I told you so’. This past Tuesday, the DVD that changed everything was released by Paramount. In twelve different retail formats.

The bare-bones, single-disc edition can be found at most retail locations, and includes deleted and extended scenes - which are always my favorite part of a DVD. These scenes are definitely neat and replete with that ol’ Downey charm, but ultimately add little to the story, and were cut for sensible reasons.

The ‘Ultimate’ two-disc edition expands upon this, with the entire second disc stuffed full of extras. The ‘I Am Iron Man’ making-of documentary is as long as the movie itself, and is a ridiculously complete view of the entire filmmaking process, from concept all the way through to final editing. The obligatory behind-the-scenes things that are tacked onto most DVDs are nothing compared to this 7-part journey through the veins and spirit of the film. Such radical transparency about the process, effects, methods and mystery could potentially take away some of the magic of the film, but it’s so well assembled that it only serves to enhance my appreciation of the 2-year process behind making this film a reality. It’s absolutely the selling point of the 2-disc edition.

Add to this another exhaustive documentary about Iron Man comic character, ten minutes of screen tests and rehearsals with Downey and Jeff Bridges, a bunch of galleries of concept art, and a short produced by The Onion in their trademark super-dry style. The whole package comes in a handsome slipcased DVD, and it’s worth the money. Not only because it’s shiny holofoil, which excites me now just as much as it did when I was 5. I mean, it’s EVERY COLOR. Clearly, this is beyond any understandable science.

Eight retail partners have arranged ten different exclusive DVD deals, and unless otherwise noted, all of them include the 2-disc DVD.

Arguably, the best exclusive deal was given to Best Buy, which included a great Iron Man mini-helmet made by Sideshow Toys, as well as a $50 Sideshow gift card. Keep in mind that Sideshow’s gift cards can only be used on a selected group of items, and not site-wide. The whole set effectively pays for itself. If this edition is sold out at your Best Buy, you can still hunt down the edition featuring a lithograph by Gerald Parel. If you’re into this Mark III helmet, Sideshow has also produced companion busts of the Mark I and Mark II helmets, life-sized and 1:2 scale busts, and a 1:4 scale statue. Bowen Designs have produced at least 10 1/6th scaled busts of Iron Man’s various suits, also.

In terms of other neat, toyetic collectibles, Costco’s set includes three Iron Man bobbleheads, depicting all three suits used in the film, with an exclusive ‘damaged’ Mark II suit.

Circuit City purchases include access to a limited selection of Marvel’s online Iron Man comics through their Digital Comics service. Walmart’s edition includes an exclusive Nick Fury comic, and they also offer a 1-disc edition that includes the first episode of the new Iron Man cartoon. Borders includes another collectible book that features the art of Bob Layton, and the ‘top 24 Iron Man covers’.

Packaging variations come from FYE & Suncoast, who both package the DVD in ‘steelbook’ packaging, and Target, which has packaging in the shape of Iron man’s iconic helmet. As I usually have a hard time fitting these into my collection space, I grudgingly opt out. That bowling ball packaged Big Lebowski would have looked great, too.

The ‘Least Exclusive Deal’ award goes to Sears & K-Mart, who offer $5 off of the DVD with the purchase of $25 worth of Craftsman tools, in the biggest stretch of a tie-in I’ve ever seen. My money’s on Costco and Best Buy, for sheer collectible value.

If you don’t mind a few more sentences of unmoderated nerd-gushing, Iron Man is absolutely one of the standards for the hit-and-miss superhero film genre. Bring it home and nestle it in between your Spider-Man and Dark Knight DVDs.

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As a former AP Physics student, I love a game with a good physics engine powering it. Seeing bullets flawlessly arc based on the amount of force put behind them and mitigated by the coefficient of air friction in front of them is always a little bit thrilling, and digital pool balls, perfectly deflected into pockets, put my soul at ease. Sure, I barely passed the course, but that was because I was too busy having a girlfriend and drawing fairies. Yes, it’s possible to do both at once. Explain THAT, physics!

Recently, the internet has given us a vast variety of simple Flash games, all of which can be quickly played in a browser window, and usually for free. Some of these games have enough graceful genius to warrant a subscription fee, and some even make the bold move onto actual gaming systems. Does ‘bored at work’ easily equate to ‘actively playing during your spare time’? Sometimes, it absolutely does.

Line Rider has been a cult-favorite website, elevated to such a status because of its simple, easily accessible execution. The premise is thus : you have two dimensions, a guy on a sled, and you draw lines that he can ride around on. Gravity and slopes in subtle variations control your rider’s path, and if he doesn’t flip over and crash out because of a funky line here or there, you gots yerself a course - the wilder the better. Especially long or interesting rides are captured and dropped into YouTube. Go on over to the site and play around!

Line Rider 2 : Unbound is a sequel of sorts to the online version of Line Rider, presented on the Nintendo DS. It’s an intuitive move - bringing a drawing game over to a system with a touch-screen and a stylus is just smart gaming. If the online version has any drawbacks, it’s that drawing with a mouse is a frustrating and clumsy experience, so ideally, the ability to actually draw your lines with a stylus would cure this.

The game has three modes : Story, Freestyle and Puzzle. Freestyle Mode most closely represents the free-for-all, make-whatever-you-want spirit of the original line rider, which really needs no additions to keep itself fresh. While the online version depends upon gravity for movement, this DS version incorporates a variety of lines that create different physical or dramatic effects for your little sled guy, making the courses even more interesting to create and watch, but easily omitable if you want to stay true to the mechanics of the original.

The ability to draw your lines definitely adds a dimension of fun to the game, but if you have an unsteady hand, your lines will form like the scrawlings of an armless monkey. Who’s had a bit too much to drink. And is choking on a bar pretzel. It’s bad news, and it means bad things for your delicate little rider, who weighs as much as an anorexic hummingbird, based on how often he’s flung from his sled. Fortunately, the game also has a Bezier Curve drawing mode, where the line artist can draw a perfectly straight line and then drag a few points around to stretch it into a curve, not unlike creating something in Adobe Illustrator.

So, the drawing mode is a smart, exciting addition, once you get used to the technical aspects of drawing the lines. Much of the game turns out to be making tiny, slight adjustments to the line paths, over and over, until everything syncs up just right - and since there’s no quick ‘undo’ button, one needs to click from the pen tool to the eraser tool every time you need to make a change, instead of something intuitive like pressing a button to immediately convert the pen to an eraser or to take your drawing a step back. If you’ve constructed a long course, you’ll need to watch the whole thing over again each time you make a change.

Another addition in Line Rider 2 incorporates the Wi-Fi capabilities of the DS. Now, line artists can go online via their DS interface and share their creations with people around the world, whereas the original website didn’t permit this. Tracks can be quickly downloaded (without a preview, unfortunately) and played with in Freestyle Mode or Puzzle Mode. If they’re not suitably awesome, they can also be quickly deleted. At the time of this writing, the online selection was very sparse, but it’ll certainly pick up once more folks purchase the game. I’m a collector of the DS’ Wi-Fi games, since social-interaction-via-Gameboy is still a novel concept to me, and online, pure, competitive Tetris is pure euphoria.

One innovation that would have completely rocked my world would have been the ability to share your DS creations with a worldwide audience via a YouTube compressor or something. As it stands, your audience remains trapped within the DS - which is still an improvement over ‘yourself and your inattentive cat’.

Story Mode pushes your sled guy through a series of puzzles, all of which can be solved with a few cleverly placed lines. These levels are intermixed with some animated cut scenes of cartoonish sledder kids trying to sabotage one another, since the world of competitive sledding is brutal. 515 deaths last year - and that was just from fighting at the ski lodge. The scenes don’t really add too much, since Line Rider’s total lack of story is what keeps it pure and artful, but I’m also in my mid-20s, so perhaps the appeal is lost on me.

Puzzle Mode allows you to create puzzles for the rest of the world to solve, via Wi-Fi upload. The designs start to become fairly intricate, with the involvement of foreground and background details, camera angles and special effects, another interesting (if mostly ornamental) addition.

The translation from online to Nintendo is pretty successful, but the learning curve might be a little disorienting for the oldschool Line Riders. I’m compelled to create either some kind of elaborate course that prominently features dinosaurs fighting robots, or something vulgar and suggestive to give to the world. Even with the endless possibilities, I’ll restrain myself.

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