Burger King has the best toys in their kids’ meals. Or maybe it’s just that they happen to partner with things that amuse me, such as Neopets or the Twilight franchise. However, sometimes I get toys that are repeats or simply ones I don’t want, and then I’m not sure what to do with them.
So I decided to paint them.
But the thing is, these toys tend to find their way into my office, as I have much more room on my desk for dust-catchers than at home. The first one was a few years ago, during the Neopets promotion. I was buying the kids’ meals strictly for the prize codes for use on the site – the toys didn’t interest me so much since there wasn’t a Xweetok toy. One day, after hitting up BK for lunch, I brought a Poogle back to my office. It sat there on top of my PC for weeks until one day, during a slow afternoon, my officemate and I were discussing The Dark Knight. (Comic book movies were one of our most common topics of conversation, actually.) My officemate was cleaning out his desk, as his last day was coming up (he left to go to graduate school full time), and I decided I wanted to give him something. So I painted the Poogle like Heath Ledger as The Joker. Needless to say, my coworker loved it.
Fast forward to a few days ago. BK was out of Twilight: Eclipse toys, so they stuck in a Marmaduke toy instead. (I guess they figured something random was better than nothing at all.) Before you chastise me, the Eclipse toys are hilarious. My Bella Bracelet looks like it was made by Duplo, and my coworkers really want me to get the Edward hologram ring. Anyway, back to Marmaduke. Or Giuseppe, rather. While the other toys had action-packed names like “Pouncin’ Marmaduke” and “Darting Lightning,” I got Loungin’ Giuseppe, whose special talent was described in the pamphlet thusly: “Giuseppe can sit on his pillow.” Whee.
In the film, Giuseppe is a hairless Chinese Crested dog. When cast in plastic, this means he has Ears of Doom. We decided he looked a big like Gizmo from Gremlins. And thus a new project began.
I thought about making this a tutorial, but there isn’t much to say. Take a plastic toy and recolor it using stuff around the office. And….that’s about it. So instead I’m just going to share the results with you.
Poogle as The Joker
Materials used: Liquid Paper (or generic equivalent), red and black Sharpies, green dry-erase marker
Giuseppe as Gizmo
Materials used: Liquid Paper, brown dry-erase marker
Yes, I only colored their heads. There’s only so much Liquid Paper I’m willing to waste on these things, after all.
My coworker, having seen my handiwork, was sad that I’d given away my first Joker Poogle. Luckily, I had another one (a green one, this time), so I brought it in and repainted it. Now he has it on his desk, and he loves it. He also suggested I start a blog dedicated to kids’ meal toys repainted with office supplies. Which I would totally do, except I have no more toys, and I don’t really like kids’ meals enough to go purchase them on my own.
by Anne Fortier: Though Romeo & Juliet is perhaps my least favorite Shakespeare play, I am quite familiar with it and was curious to see how it would work here. When her aunt and guardian passes away, Julie is given the key to a safe deposit box in Siena, Italy, belonging to her deceased mother. Once there she discovers a longstanding feud between the Tolomeis and the Salimbenis, legendary families that inspired the famous Shakespeare play. Intertwined are the tragic tale of the original Romeo and Giulietta with Julie’s adventures as she attempts to uncover her family’s secrets. I really enjoyed this one. Some of the twists and turns truly took me by surprise, and the descriptions of Siena were vivid and enticing. I didn’t want to put it down, always promising myself just one more chapter. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more Fortier novels.
by Stephenie Meyer (unabridged audiobook read by Kate Reading): A couple friends told me this was actually a pretty decent science fiction story, so as an 
by Alexa Albert: Though she originally visited the famous Mustang Ranch in Nevada to perform a study about condom use in legal brothels, Albert discovers a fascination with the life of a prostitute, and is in fact invited back to live at the Mustang several times over it last few years in operation. I admit I hadn’t given legal prostitution too much thought; after all, what consenting adults do behind closed doors is none of my business. This, however, provided an engrossing look into one of America’s last remaining taboos. Albert covers all aspects of the business – from legislation and lobbying, to pimps and boyfriends, to traveling salesmen who supply the prostitutes with clothing and makeup, to internet fans, forums, and conventions – and all with both sympathy and blunt honesty, regardless of her personal feelings. This is certainly a book to make one think.
by Sylvia Nasar: This is another book I picked up because I liked the movie. I liked the book, too, but was a little disappointed to learn how little resemblance there is between the two. For example, neither Nash’s college roommate nor his tendency to draw on windows were mentioned in the book, while Nash’s homosexuality and illegitimate son were left out of the movie. Once I realized that there was such a huge disparity, however, I was able to appreciate them as separate works. This biography of mathematician John Nash, Nobel Laureate and recovered schizophrenic, was simply fascinating. It manages a balance between the mathematics and the insanity without becoming either too dry or too sensationalist. I kind of wish there had been a cast of characters listing somewhere to keep all the names straight, but by and large I had no trouble following it. In short, I enjoyed it. However, if you’re just looking for a glimpse inside the mind of a schizophrenic, give this one a pass. Nash’s specific delusions are not described in depth, and most of the information is secondhand anyway. That said, I would recommend it to people who love a good biography, especially one that reads almost like a novel.
by Roscoe Watkins: This is the story of a feline golfer and his quest for the double slam: wins at the all the major golf tournaments, senior and regular, in one year. I’ll say up front that I neither know nor care a lick about golf, but I’ve found that you don’t always have to be a sports fan to enjoy a sports story. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s the case here. While the cat-related quips were somewhat entertaining, such as the importance of tail dynamics, the rest of the book consisted play-by-play descriptions of each golf tournament. I found it to be a somewhat exhausting laundry list of birdies, pars, eagles, and bogeys, occasionally punctuated by the crowd going “wild” and/or a “feeling of calm” settling over Roscoe. That said, I’m sure it would be very interesting to an avid golfer. However, between that and the cringe-inducing Japanese stereotype serving as Roscoe’s main adversary, it took me a very long time to finish this slim novel. If you’re a huge fan of both golf and cats, this may well be the book for you. It’s just not the book for me.
by Christopher Moore: Charlie Asher is a pretty regular guy until the birth of his daughter and death of his wife. Then strange things begin to happen. Suddenly his life revolves around sewer harpies, hellhounds, and soul vessels. I’ve found Moore to be hit or miss (mostly miss), but this was pretty consistently funny, especially considering it dealt so much with grief and loss. I liked several of the characters, such as Jane and Lily, but the whole thing started to fall apart near the end, when Audrey and the squirrel people started showing up. It felt more like a scramble to tie up loose ends than anything planned in advance, as if the whole thing had been written off the cuff in response to some sort of random prompt, which is a complaint I’ve had about Moore in the past. All in all, it was a decently funny story, just not a very polished novel.
by Carrie Fisher (unabridged audiobook read by the author): Man oh man, I never expected to fall in love with Carrie Fisher. Aside from Star Wars and a cameo appearance in one of the Austin Powers movies, I’m pretty much completely unfamiliar with her work. I’ve never read any of her 