I hope you have figured out now that I was picked as a winner in the BoingBoing contest. I really REALLY wanted to make a big deal out of the box opening - had alerted librarian bloggers to be on the ready, even talked to our PR department at the university. In the end, it is probably better that I didn't open the box on the Daily Show as I had hoped (it is on my Bucket list, after all, to meet Jon Stewart). We made the best of things by opening it up in the coolest place I know - the McGoogan Library of Medicine. I took photos and video of the event - photos will be on my Flickr account and in the BoingBoing pool, and I will post the url for the video as soon as I get it edited (thanks to Stuart Dayton, artist of most of the things in the photo on the right, for running the iPhone video production!)Things that the box contained included (of which I am sure there are GREAT stories): a Seagate Freeagent (with power supply only); a PowerPak by Technocel (minus the interchangeable tips), which also happens to be a 2010 CES Innovations Award Winner; a new in the package Dexim leather iPhone case (excellent - it is Husker red, but I bet Dexim has another name for it); a Dreamgear Elmo iPhone silicone case out of the package (this caused the most excitement in the crowd); and a beautiful black and green, though sadly empty, iPad case that has no evident brand (I consider this my 'hope case', and someday should have an iPad to fill it nicely.)
There were collectibles in there as well. A vintage Star Wars:Star Warriors board game (circa 1987, if I understood the date correctly, so it was released when we lived in Germany); a Fonas TRI-1 electronic handheld game (found a photo of it at the Handheld Museum - it came out the year I graduated high school, only a year after I had my first handheld calculator - we thought we were pretty cool back then...); a Star Wars figure (omg, searching for a photo of this is driving this librarian crazy with the limitations of the Internet - finally found this database, but still lost-let me know if you recognize it); a Budweiser leather cigarette and lighter holder (made to fit on a belt, but doesn't look as if it was ever used-nice to see since I am from Missouri too); Continental Airlines earphones (I doubt they are this pair) and a brass jack floating around in the box might have been intended for them, since they have the two-prong proprietary jack; a 189a Brenda Blender card (from the 5th series of the Garbage Pail Kids, actually stuck to the packing tape on the inside of the box). Three additional items that caused more puzzlement than wonderment in the crowd: an Energizer tea light with globe (must have been a promotional item - not on their site), a blue Mini Mag Lite, and a plain white envelope, with "1 of 3" written on it.
Feeling like this was the start of a teen movie, I opened the envelope to find a portion of a QR barcode. So, I am sorry - the mystery is not solved, it only goes deeper. If you are "2 of 3", or "3 of 3", can we get together and find out the QR code's landing spot? In the meantime, I am going to upload the photos and video, and smile about the good time I had over the past week. What a way to to end my 49th year and keep my mind off of daily reminders of cancer treatment side effects. I am starting my first year of certified antiquity by being a tad cooler than I have ever been before, maybe even to my kids (I know, that is a stretch). Thanks to my friends and coworkers and blog and Facebook readers for putting up with my sophomoric excitement at winning a box of cool stuff. And thanks for the memories, Boing Boing! Here's to many more years for the both of us.
11 comments:
Sorry, Whitney - no puppies were present at the box opening yesterday.
Teri--this sounds like tremendous fun, although--being in my 50s--I don't know what half of the cool stuff is either.
The Star Wars figure I get ...
Jeanne
Hi Theresa! I have 3 of 3, and i know who has the other. I'll email you.
The Star Wars figure is 2-1B (Too-Onebee), the medical robot from the One True Trilogy
That figure is a 2-1B surgical droid. One cares for Luke Skywalker after he's rescued from the icy wastes of Hoth.
I had that figure as a kid. It appears that the previous owner of this figure (like I did) messed with the detachable mouthpiece on hose until it fell off.
-James (Prufrock451 on BB)
This IS the droid you are looking for:
http://www.starwars.com/databank/droid/tooonebee/index.html
If memory serves, the Star Wars figure is a medical droid - the one that attached Luke Skywalker's artificial hand after it was cut off by Darth Vader near the end of The Empire Strikes Back (I believe).
Some quick googling (armed with the phrase "medical droid") provided information on the character, and a site that probably won't go away because it's not someone trying to sell one.
Good luck with that Seagate Drive, Teri. Mine failed after just a year of very light use.
Hi! My co-worker, Paul Andrews looked at the pic of the Star Wars figure and this is what he says:
It’s a Power of the Force (mid 90’s) Special Edition 2-1B Medical Droid. The normal one had a silver head, body and legs. If you look on the back of the right (I think) leg, it will give you the copyright info- including year.
PS. In an addendum, Paul says your figure might be from the 1980s, because it is the blue model. He says the other was from 1997. If your figure is lonely and wants friends, feel free to send him to me and I'll unite him with Paul's desktop Star Wars figures!
That droid is a 1980 Kenner Empire Strikes Back figure. It looks like it is missing it's mouth piece. More info here:
http://www.rebelscum.com/VINt21B.asp
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