A couple of weeks ago, while in St. George, I decided to unearth my original Optimus Prime and restore it. He had a lot of play from when I was a kid and is missing all of the add on pieces, but I thought it would be a fun project. The biggest flaw was one of the Smokestacks was broken and the other one was missing a lot of the chrome paint. I bought some replacements and installed them without any problems. A lot of the stickers on him are in pretty bad shape, but I found a cheap set from one of the reissues on ebay. Today my Knock Off Box and styrofoam insert came. Talk about flashbacks. Sure I’ve seen lots of pictures, but to see a prime now in the original style box really brought back some memories. I remember when I first brought prime home sometime in ’84 and my dad helping me apply all those stickers. He was obviously my favorite Transformer as with many of the kids who grew up in the 80′s. He looks great in the box, but I still have some repairs that I still need to finish and a few more parts. I was at one time considering fixing some of the paint on him that has come off from playwear, but have since decided to leave that alone as a reminder of all the fun I had growing up. Here is a pic of my original prime in the box and then another pic all 3 of my primes.

Okay as promised here is the story of getting the matte for my coin frame.

Last Saturday I went to Roberts to see how much a matte would cost and if it wasn’t too much I was going to order it. I took in the board that has the holes cut in it and one guy measured it. I explained that I wanted it to be the same size as the board have the boarder be 2 inches. He took the measurements and then another guy took over at the computer and rung me up. I even showed them a picture of what I wanted which can be seen here.

Monday I got the call that it was ready to pick up. I was going to be without the car in the evening and Sarah had a little bit of time that she could go, so I asked her to pick it up. I thought all was well. I got home and they cut the matte too big. It surrounded the board rather than being the same size. I was ticked because that was the perfect night without homework that I could have painted the red inside.

Next day Sarah and I went back and I explained the problem this time to an older lady that worked there. She asked the guys if they remembered taking my order and they wouldn’t fess up even though I recognized them. The lady apologized about the mix up and said that she would have one made for me the right size and it would be ready tomorrow morning. I said that was fine since it would be around noon before Sarah could pick it up for me again. Since it was a smaller size I even got about $6.00 of my money refunded.

Wednesday around noon Sarah goes by and asks if the matte is ready. One of those same guys is there and he acted confused. He couldn’t remember what had just happened yesterday. Sarah finally jogged his memory by mentioning a coin frame. He said that it wasn’t ready, but that they would get right on it. Sarah finally was able to pick it up and this time it was correct.

This ordeal doesn’t really make me want to trust them with my final project when I go to get it framed. I chose Roberts in the first place because they are just up the street from us. When I am ready for the Framing though I think I am going to get quotes from Michael’s and Provo Art and Frame, so I can get an idea of prices.

At least in the end I did get my matte and it turned out exactly how I wanted it, but way too much hassle.

Today I came across the Halo 3 Mountain Dew Ad. Halo 3 will be released next month and I can’t wait to give it a go. I didn’t think the drink itself was too bad, but Sarah didn’t really like it. Anyway the ad is kind of funny, but it in a way reminds me of the what’s up commercials.