Happy SPS!

Hello everyone! Welcome to Self-Promotion Sunday! Well, everyone, that time has come. My exam began today--it is a 3-4 week long exam, which I write two APA essays in response to two different case studies provided to me. This is the culmination of 2 years of hard work, studying special education and techniques. This is going to eat up a good chunk of my time for the next few weeks, so I will be scarce. Commissions will be closed during this time, and my posts will be farther between. I hope you will all bear with me, my fellow readers, and wish me luck! I will make sure I do as much as I can to post when I can.

I will be out next Saturday at CT GamerCon. Make sure you come check me out! It will be one of the few times I am out and about during my exam. Otherwise, I think I would go mad!

Check out my latest design, made in honor for the coming of the series finale of My Little Pony. I tried to make it funny, and make sure you check it out on my RedBubble:

The End is Neigh

MARVEL MOVIE REVIEW MONDAY! (SOME SPOILERS!!!)

Welcome fellow readers and EXCELSIOR! Today, we are reviewing the last film that is up RIGHT before "Avengers: End Game" which comes out in about a month. And boy, could there not be any more hype, especially after seeing "Captain Marvel!" This movie was just...just...there are no words! Let's suit up and go "higher, further, faster" fans!


"Captain Marvel" (directors: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck)

First off, for many of the general viewing audience, a warning: be prepared to relive the '90s! Like that's a bad thing?? Seriously, I will start off this review with just telling you how much I laughed at all the nostalgia, bringing me back to my child and moody teenage years, as well as how good the soundtrack was, with the right music at the right time.

via GIPHY

Brie Larson as Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel had a lot to live up to, being the first female solo superhero film for the MCU, and this time, Marvel had the bar set high by their rival, DC. Seriously, "Wonder Woman" and Gal Gadot set the bar HIGH with the first female solo superhero film between BOTH studios, and it almost feels like everything that happened with this film would get measured against that. Seriously, there was SOOOO much at stake! And this movie DID NOT DISAPPOINT!

via GIPHY

Now, onto the good stuff.  This movie was great! It felt like how the first "Iron Man" movie felt, very well done, still serious, but quite a few funny bits. "Captain Marvel" is meant to be somewhere between "Captain America: the First Avenger" (minus the end credits scene) but before "Iron Man," telling the story of Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, and how she came to be, going from human to Kree, to human with superpowers, and having a major change of heart, but always doing the right thing. Felt very much like Cap himself, right down to going against the grain to do what the right thing is. This movie brings us the first battle between Skrull and Kree, which, if you have watched "Agents of SHIELD" you would know that the Kree are pretty much a**holes in disguise, thinking they are in the right. It's pretty much a matter of the Kree saying "You will obey us or be destroyed" sort of thing, and the Skrull were like no. Danvers, while she is still know as Vers, starts to learn the truth of the war, all the while remembering her past (thanks to the Skrull), and learning what she stood for--another Captain America attitude. The battle scenes are fantastically choreographed, and the ending battle between Danvers and Yon-Rogg is just...FANTASTIC! I seriously have no other words for the end battle. The dialogue is great, especially when Nick Fury (brought back by Samuel L. Jackson) and Danvers are stuck in the Area 51 setting (it's not Area 51, it just looks like it) and are trying to escape. And it was great to have back Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg), even though it was only for a short while. Seriously, I wish there was more of this guy in the movies. The Stan Lee tribute at the beginning means more than the cameo, and seriously after the "Spider-verse" cameo, I don't think any other cameos can top that one.

There were quite few questions that were raised for me, the biggest one being a bit of a spoiler, so forewarning, if you have not seen the movie, you are in for some spoilers with the questions: the biggest question I have is, if the Tesseract is one of the Infinity Stones, how could Mar-Vell be working on creating it for an energy core to make light speed? Seriously, I thought those things were made at the beginning of the Universe, according to what the Collector said in the first 'Guardians of the Galaxy' movie. Does someone want to explain this one?

Also, just WHAT did Goose the Cat/Flerken do to Fury's eye? He scratches it and...what? It just destroys the eye? HOW? Because we all know, if we remember "Winter Soldier" that that eye is not gone!

via GIPHY

Next, how the HELL did Danvers BREATH in space??? Originally, she has been shown to have some sort of mask over her helmet, but suddenly, that went away. What the hell? This is the sort of thing that CinemaSins would obsess over, and I now have them to thank for the fact that I now nitpick sh** like this as I am watching a movie. (*Ding*)

via GIPHY

Also, anyone else notice that Ronan the Accuser's (Lee Pace) make-up was different this time around? Where were the black streaks? Honestly, he didn't look the same! (*Ding*)

And speaking of make-up, so are Yon-Rogg (Jude Law) and Korath (Djimon Hounsou) Kree or not? I can understand why Mar-Vell (Annette Bening) is never shown in in the Kree blue, she was (spoiler) undercover, but those two definitely are not. In fact, Yon-Rogg is the one who GIVES his blood to Danvers! So, WHY ARE THEY NOT BLUE? (*Ding*)

Rant over, this movie is totally worth every penny, and obviously, with "Avengers: Endgame" in sight, this should be on your priority list if you are a Marvel fan. I highly recommend going and seeing this movie before you see "Endgame" otherwise, there will be some confusion. Oh, and of course, stay through the end credits!

Happy Fluttershy Friday Pt. 2 ( Why I Fluttershy, and #122 & #123)

Welcome to part 2 of my Fluttershy Friday post. I am going to start off this post by talking about how I became a Fluttershy Fan. This goes back to when I first got into MLP, which is about the ONLY thing I will ever thank my ex for. He introduced me right around the time that I believe season 1 was over, but he introduced me with the episode "Dragonshy." It was the very first episode of MLP I watched since the originals back in the '80s. As I watched the episode, I began to relate to Fluttershy, about how she would try to get everyone to listen but had a hard time getting her voice heard. She was shy, had a hard time with new people, until you got her interested in her favorite subject: animals. I could understand this completely--I am a bit of an introvert, although you would never guess that once you get me talking about some of my favorite topics. I sometimes will have good ideas, I think, but it takes me a while to speak up about them. And when I get loud, I get LOUD! As her character has developed, I could see more aspects of myself in Fluttershy, especially in the fact that I am sometimes too kind, that it has gotten me in trouble. So, as we head into the Series Finale in a few weeks, Fluttershy will always remain my favorite and I will sorely miss her and the rest of the Mane 6 from my TV.

In the meantime, the collection continues to grow. We have a new Flutterbat, and I found a new mini at Five Below just today! So first, let me start with the new custom Flutterbat, by a wonderful customizer friend of mine, Ben. He's done so many customs of mine, and I am so happy to have another epic Flutterbat to add to the collection!

Today, on my way home, I stopped into Five Below. Someone posted in one of my FB pony groups that Five Below had some new mini figures, that were blind bag size, but they were those specific sets that you can find. I had never seen these ones before, though, and I found that weird, because usually Five Below is selling the stuff that wasn't a huge seller in stores like Target or something. But, I found some today and snagged one for myself! I have her next to another blind bag sized figure with a big hat. Doesn't she look cute???:

Happy Fluttershy Friday Pt. 1 (#119, #120, #121)

Hello fellow readers, and welcome to a special Fluttershy Friday! Because I have been lacks in posting this, I am doing a two parter for today, and will be including a bit about how I got into being a Fluttershy fan. Hopefully everyone will enjoy these two blogs. So let's start with the one I meant to post a while ago: 

In this post, which was supposed to go up last Friday, but I never got around to it, we are introducing some new mini Flutters to the army. A quick note, I am no longer using the previous #119 for my collection. Upon doing a hair day for her, some of the strings in her hair had been cut, and while I do not mind having a Fluttershy out of box, this is one of those situations where she was not really fixable. I wish I could have, though. I will probably end up using her for some sort of bait. Who knows.

All of these three are Cutie Mark Crew littles to add to the collection. In the first picture, I already had the one on the left, so I added the glittery one, and the seapony one, as well as the Equestria Girl one. I have really been liking these little Cutie Mark Crew ponies a lot, they have a very chibi look to them and it's super adorable. I need to see if I can find a few more of these girls:

Pokemon Self-Promotion Sunday!

OK, fellow readers, the deadline for me to just try and do normal postings is until March 17th. Once March 17th arrives, my posts will be very scarce, as I work on my comprehensive exam, which will take about a month. I hope you all can bear with me while I deal with all of that chaos.

In the meantime, I still have quite a few pieces I am working on as I get ready for some upcoming conventions. The first up with be CT Gamer Con this month. Make sure you come on out, show me some love, because I will be in sore need of it!

Some slightly disappointing news: my Bob Ross Bear was removed, so if you have been trying to find it, it will now become a con exclusive. I am debating on making it a patch, because it seems just too cool to do as only a poster. More on that another time.

In the meantime, here are some of my latest pieces. I am not planning to post these on my Etsy in order to make sure I have enough stock before the con, but if they do not sell at the con, I will be selling them on Etsy. But because my exam is coming up, as well as my Dremel tool is out of commission, I will have a lot fewer pieces on Etsy until after my exam, so I will need to sort of horde the pieces I make for cons unless I state otherwise.

Here are the latest pieces! All of them are Pokemon, and I did two of the Persians, with an Alolan one in the works.

Movie Review Monday!

So today, the day after the Oscar's, I have three, count them THREE, movies to review! Two of which I know were up for nominations, and one which was just too darn cute looking to pass up. So, let's start it off:


"Can You Ever Forgive Me?" (directed by: Marielle Heller)

Normally, I turn around when I see a Melissa McCarthy movie, and this is because the brand of comedy she does just seems very cringe-worthy to me. Do I think she is a bad actress? No, but personally, her brand of comedy is not necessarily what I subscribe to. So, to see her take the leap into something a little different seemed like a time to give her a chance and watch the movie. Now, I missed this in theaters, but I was able to rent it on iTunes, so I am sure there are probably a few things I missed. But overall, the film itself was quite humorous.

The film is about biographer Lee Israel, and how she forged letters in order to get money, as she appeared to be falling on hard times in the movie. Whether this is true or not, I am sure we will never really know, but I started to get invested when she tried to get her cat looked after--I'm sorry, I own a cat, and if I brought her to the vet and was told I couldn't get her looked at or be able to give her medicine, I would probably resort to something drastic as well. So, suddenly I am invested, all over a cat.  A FREAKING CAT! And there were quite a few times when I was almost yelling at my screen saying for her to take care of the cat! And yes, I cried when (spoiler alert) the cat died.

The banter between McCarthy and Richard Grant (who plays the very flamboyant Jack Hock) was quite witty, and had me laughing quite a few times. I do feel, however, that parts of the movie were rushed, especially when she started getting into stealing real letters, but seriously, how often can you really show trying to sell fake letters? Despite all the "wheeling and dealing" that they say goes on in the collectors world (and I would so believe it, because you see it ALL THE TIME in ANY collectible world), I would have liked to see more of the side of how the FBI got involved. It felt way too rushed after the initial set-up, and therefore got a bit boring too fast. Despite well-given performances by all, the script just went wooshing by, and didn't seem to allow for you to catch it.



"How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World" (directed by: Dean DeBlois)

I never saw the first two movies in theaters, despite eventually seeing them and seeing just how much Toothless is like my cat--seriously, my cat is Toothless, attitude and all. So, when I saw the previews for this, what actually hooked me was the Light Fury. Yes, I know, seems like a very silly reason to be hooked into going to a movie. But I am SO glad I saw this one in theaters.

This movie brings about the closure of the Dragon chronicles in such a way that it definitely feels like you got closure, with Hiccup realizing he has started something that might be detrimental to his home--overpopulating it with dragons he and his friends save. Now, while this might be a noble pursuit, it's not helping anyone on Berk. So, in order to help his dragon friends, they pack up and try to find the Hidden World, a tale that Stoick would tell young Hiccup about. Along the way, they have even more problems to deal with as another enemy tries to kill off Toothless and allow for all the dragons to be controlled.

First of all, the script is fantastic, along with dialogue that is wonderfully written, though I will be honest, my favorite line from all the films is still back in the first one, "Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile." There are quite a few witty remarks, as well as parts that made me cry. Not going to lie, the speech Stoick gave young Hiccup about love and loss had me in tears. Also, it seems that these movies have just set the bar WAY up in the air in terms of visual effects, because this movie was just STUNNING! Honestly, Dreamworks outdid themselves with this movie in terms of the visuals. And the little love story going on between Toothless and the Light Fury is just TOO FREAKING ADORABLE!

By the end of the movie, I had laughed quite a bit, and I had tears in my eyes all over again, and I really don't cry often at movies. It really was a truly wonderful ending to this trilogy, and I hope they don't ruin it by trying to go even further. Honestly Dreamworks, do yourselves a favor with this and go out on top!


"Green Book" (directed by: Peter Farrelly)

I had wanted to see this when I first saw trailers for it, and never got a chance to until this weekend. I am lucky that it was still in theaters, and that's probably because both Vigo and Ali (sorry, cannot spell his first name for the LIFE of me) were up for Oscars. And honestly, after seeing the movie, I can see why!

The movie talks about the real-life relationship between Dr. Shirley, a pianist, and his driver, Tony, as they go on a tour in the Deep South during the 1960s. Let that sink in for a minute. Think about the time frame, think about everything that could go wrong. And it does. Honestly, the racism and stereotypes are very much in your face in this movie, and while some make you want to shudder, others do make you giggle a little, although afterwards, I did not feel good about the giggling. Regardless of those moments, watching the real friendship that forges between Shirley and Tony is beyond touching and it's one of those that you know lasts for a lifetime (and it did, with them dying within months of each other in 2013). 

The banter was great, and there were quite a few touching moments of friendship. There was even the moment when, in the downpour, Shirley questions his own identity to Tony, asking, "...then who am I?" There were times when I honestly thought I was watching like the male version of "Driving Ms. Daisy" and yes, I know that Morgan Freeman was in that one as the driver. But there were definitely some messages in this movie that should be felt even in today's day and age, that should be carried throughout life. "You never win with violence."

Dragons and Unicorns, SPS

Happy Self-Promotion Sunday, my fellow readers! I hope things are going well with everyone, as the countdown begins before I go on my hiatus for my graduate program. I hope everyone will wish me luck with that, as it's meant to take a whole month. Like I said, I will do my best to make sure I do a post every now and again, but my production will be much slower going. Plus, my Dremel tool, which helps me with sanding and refinement of my sculptures, has died. I need to get a new one. I guess it was time, I had that thing for 2 years. So sculptures will definitely be taking a bit of a hit for the time being, as anything sculpted is being halted while I wait to get a new one. This will probably be for the best as well, so I can focus solely on painting projects for the next few weeks, especially my charity project and finishing the design of that. I do want to make sure that that is ready in time for the last ever BronyCon.

But, in the meantime, I have a bunch of new pieces, especially up on RedBubble, and a few on my For Fans page, please make sure for the latter that you go vote for those. I'll post the link for that at the bottom.

Now, on Redbubble, I got a LOT of new stuff. Some really cute stuff too! I'm quite proud of the designs, to the point where even I want to buy them, and normally, I hate owning my own work (I'd be criticizing it all the time). Check out the latest designs below:

St. Patrick's Day Bear 

Ride This Rainbow 

No Evil Night Lights 

 Bob Ross Bear

I do have a few finished figurines, but not many and they probably will not be posted to Etsy until after my first convention of the year, if they don't sell at the con. But, I have finished my Gwenpool and a Moondancer mini figurine. Quite proud of how they both turned out. Hopefully, by next week, I will have the Shinex and the Furfrou done, as well as a few more figures for my advent calendar done.