Hi Lads

Its been a long time (half a decade in fact!) how is everyone doing these days?

Cheers Jay

Yeah It was great to have a quick catch up chat. A few familiar wrinkly faces still around here
For those newer members- Jay is the original founding father of TIG.

Cool. Welcome back!

Literally "Thank the maker!"


Glad to see you here pal! Like AJ said Jay is the the founder of both sites (to you new fellows). Everything we are started with Jay. Good to see you alive and kicking here sir!

Catch us up, what's shaking?

cheers ............

I have read your name in many old posts around. Good to have you here again. Pull up a chair and stick around a while. The board is probably bigger than you remember but the love of what we collect is also stronger than ever. Hang out on here a while and you may get warped but it will be in a good way.

Welcome back! Nice to meet you!

Welcome back Jay, has it really been that long?
I think I joined a bit before you left and John took over the crown and sceptre, still hope you stick around for a bit.

Welcome back!

Pull up a chair and stick around for a bit...

How's it going Jay? That's a nice blast from the past to see your post Did you enjoy TFA, have you got the collecting bug back?

Hi Jay!

Good to see you back. Hope everything is good.

Now don't stay away so long next time. Keep the posts coming!

Hi Jay, we're never spoken before but it's aways nice to see an old face pop up again.

Wow thanks guys its nice to see you old faces as well as new ones The hobby survives on fresh blood and new collectors coming through

Artoo_Detour wrote:

How's it going Jay? That's a nice blast from the past to see your post Did you enjoy TFA, have you got the collecting bug back?

Last time I was on here George Lucas still owned Star Wars! To answer your question Paul I loved TFA it was awesome yes a few niggles but on the whole its was great. I love the fact we get to see a villain in the making its fair to say Vader was a fully formed bad ass Sith in ANH (long before Luke stirred feelings softening him a bit )
The whole inversion on ROTJ was cool i.e the son saves the father the father cant save the son. Also I was glad Ren got fucked up a bit (Especially so his face matches the darkness inside now) I want to see where that goes. I've seen TFA 4 times at the cinema and a ton of times of my Samsung S5 from what I can see Kylo's Saber and Helmet are history burnt up with Star Killer Base so I wonder if they will develop his look in the next film? I really want to see the darkside version of Luke training on Degobah. Snoke training Kylo is what I want to see, I hope its not just skimmed over via the opening crawl.

In regards to the hobby after many years dedicating so much to bringing TIG and the Weapon Guide to life I started to get a bit burnt out. I remember back in 2010/11 (those of us around then will) the forum was super busy we had around 30 - 40 new posts every day sometimes double that and more. While that was great there was a lot of egos to contend with and its a very hard line running a forum & resource site whilst trying to keep so many folk happy everyone has different ideas about contributing and which way is best! It was a tightrope and I do not envy John and his tenure following mine. It can be a thankless task at times and having supportive members mean so much. What are the cause behind the slow down in posting / traffic these days? I hear snakebook (Facebook) is partly to blame?

Moving on to 2012 my parents had retired and weren't really well off my Dad and my mum gave up work to poor health before they planned to. The top and bottom of it was they were close to loosing their house and it need approx 15k to stop this from happening and to get them in a better place financially. No one apart from me was in a position to help so I made the difficult decision to sell my collection and loan them the money they needed. Fast forward to 2016 and both my Mum and Dad are doing well after surviving cancer, open heart surgery and a number of strokes. They have the house and are in a stable position in retirement. I know Ill get the money back plus some when they pass on and leave the house and stuff in their will. Ultimately having my parents happy still in the home i grew up in and part of my life means much more to me and long me that continue.

Star Wars will always be central to my life, its in my DNA! I still have a man cave dominated by Star Wars memorabilia. At the moment I have just got a Poe Black Squadron X Wing chasing down a FO Tie set up above my ceiling. I've also just received the Bluetooth Falcon and Tie Fighter Speakers for my Birthday the other week.

To answer your question Paul no whilst I have watch a couple of things from afar like the Toy Toni scandal I've not dipped my toe back into vintage. Ill say this prices seem to be wacked up from my day which obviously means getting back in would be tougher however coming on here and RS has stirred many memories for me. Those that know me knew I was a MOC (clear bubbles ) fanatic lol, I guess if I came back into it then it would be at a much slower pace. If It was one thing then i would like to build a nice minty complete loose collection. I had a lot of loose variants / focuses back in the day but I never came close to building a full loose collection.

It feels a bit like been a the top of a large hill after a snowstorm. If i did get that the one new vintage item i reckon it would be like grabbing a snowball and throwing it from the top of that hill!

Now you bastards I expect the same dedication in your replies and updates on this thread lol  


Cheers Jay

Awesome to see you again Jay it's been awhile .

Its alive , wtf you been jay , hope your doing great grts jimmy

jimmymindtricks wrote:

Its alive , wtf you been jay , hope your doing great grts jimmy

Jay you even managed to get Jimmy away from the sun & surf & Mrs long enough to post as well

Good hes back, i can maybe offload some Ledy

aussiejames wrote:

jimmymindtricks wrote:

Its alive , wtf you been jay , hope your doing great grts jimmy

Jay you even managed to get Jimmy away from the sun & surf & Mrs long enough to post as well

The Admiral wrote:

Good hes back, i can maybe offload some Ledy

..and Rob too   Nice to hear from you both Jimmy and Rob! More blasts from the past




@Jay, that's great you were there for your parents at a time they needed some help. Glad things all seemed to have settled on that front.

Forumwise, you're right, I can remember those days when it was really kicking here (and on RS too), you could hardly keep up with all the posts. Last 12 months have been tough and for sure 'snakebook' lol as you put it has helped that slowdown significantly. Hard to compete with ease and speed of communicating/connecting and members having the autonomy of starting and moderating their own groups (which feeds nicely some of the SW collectors egos I think). I like the idea of some of the niche groups but it all seems a bit fractured and splintered with so many different groups concentrating on specific elements. How does anyone keep up with all that if you want to join multiple groups? On the forums everything was, is, and will remain easily found all under one roof so to speak.

I can't really knock FB too much because I don't use it (I used to a long while back) - and I know I'm limiting my own SW collecting experience to a degree because of that. I won't bend to the intrusive corp monster that it is no matter how much I love my hobby or miss out on the odd few sales and likes. I don't think the forums are going to go extinct anytime soon because they house so much info. But for sure thay're suffering in interaction.

TFAwise, I hope you're right we get to see Kylo develop under Snoke and the next film doesn't jump all that in the opening crawl. I've seen it twice so far and can't wait to see it again    

I remember you were obsessed by those clear mocs but also had a pretty nifty Vader focus and a sideline for a few Daleks. My collection hasn't grown so much but I'm sure glad I picked up some nice pieces when I did at 2010/11/12 prices. Prices now are just insane  

The Admiral wrote:

Good hes back, i can maybe offload some Ledy

Talk about old farts reunion As always good to see you keeping a little eye out here

AHAR!!! - Rob I assumed you retired. Aren't you roughly 177 now? 

My nostalgia factor is at 10 right now with Jimmy, Rob and Jay. Someone get Tim off his bike!

Jay - I already respected you, but now I respect you even more. What a classy, selfless, stand-up thing to do. And before you say anyone would do it, no they wouldn't. 

Everyone's hit on it , but FB has impacted things. We still get the traffic and hits but not nearly the posts. I mean FB has a few gajillion pages to find everything from 12Bks to Custom Leia Nude MOCs. Between that and instantaneous replies it's a tough go. However we still have a great site and I think the team is a tight group you'd be proud of. 

Besides, guest stars get the post count up!!

Holy Shit Jimmy my brother from another mother! Remember this > Good Times




Rob how the hell are you doing old man?


John I didnt have a choice fella well thats how I saw it buddy. Im just glad my parents are still here as a few years ago they were both at deaths door so i feel blessed.

Also dam i do feel like the need to get something is getting stronger - What Ledy you got Robster lol

Guys only Paul so far has posted a nice long update post mine took ages correcting grammer etc lol so come on theres near half a decade each of you have to fill me in on

Cheers Jay

Ahar me hearties!!!

Old farts reunion lmao yeh what the hell, i check my spam box and end up here

My age hmmm dont feel any older really but you guys look balder n stuff now lol , does seem like ages when i was here mind, think i pop in every birthday or something currently. Im still modifying game code etc, do some Metal Detecting and fly my Quadcoper FPV style (with goggles), was made redundant in 2014, just chillin now haha, most of my time is involved in game stuff (old Medal of Honor game series - keeping it alive basically).

My Star Wars stuff - cant remember what i have haha its locked away in a metal cupboard, will have to get it out sometime and start selling it off really, may keep a couple of bits, ill make a post on here sometime, ill have forgotten which is from where now but theyre not mixed up.

Wow Jimmy where did you vanish to dude?

Heres my Metal Detecting and FPV Flying Channel ... for those interested (Treasure be here) ...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-PJhS_VzVKCCVAy1Iiz4Ow/videos

And some game modifying vids ...
https://www.youtube.com/user/CobraSFX/videos

Nice to pop in again, forgot about my lovely sig hehe - yes kneel before your monitor and worship that Ledy

FB = Big Spy Network - avoid

The Admiral / Rob / Cobra {sfx} / FPV Carlisle lol

Welcome back old timers.
Admiral them videos look great, my dads just got into metal detecting and it's something I've always wanted to get into.
When I get back from the US I'm going to watch them.

Anyone know how some of the following lads doing? Wolf, Marco, Shawnk, rebel Chris, tank Tim, Joe O, JoeY, javi, Christian etc I know there's many many more that I haven't listed! My excuse.....I'm typing on a mobile lol

Cheers Jay

Probably best to pm John. Some of the names I don't know. A couple have/had issues with TIG and don't contribute at all, a few moved on to start another forum, some are still around just post rarely. Perhaps seeing a familiar name around they will drop in and say something.