Round Robin Challenge:Piece de la resistance

     It seems we have two challenges this week, and I am doing both of them,

Thanks to Brother Midnight over at Green Plastic Squirt Gun for this compelling prompt for

I have thought on this before, and to me, the Piece de la Resistance has got to be an item that puts much of your other stuff in context. Somehow the one thing that seems to characterize my collection over and over is if I just let go and not go crazy, the item I want will fall into my hands. I experience lot of weird serendipity.

     To that end, I submit two pieces of my collections, one from books, one from toys.

      Way back in the day, my first Transformer was Windcharger. He was a cool little G1 minibot, and I have always had a soft spot for that relatively unpopular character from the cartoon. Fast forward to the waning waves of the 2011 Reveal the Shield figures, and Windcharger is (if memory serves) the only new figure in a case of repacks. Meanwhile, the pegs at Walmart, Target, K Mart and Toys'R' us are approaching Boiling temperature from the unwanted waves camped out on them, so these stores are not ordering cases. Lets call it the great Windcharger Famine of 2011 for the sake of drama. So at a time where these figures were going for 5X their MSRP or higher on Ebay, I walk into Ross one day and find him for $5. His rubsign was skewed and falling off, but I added a toyhax autobot emblem instead.

For the book, We set the wayback machine to 1990; Location: Tattered Cover Bookstore, Cherry Creek. One of my favorite authors is there, but not publicizing what I know him for. Douglas Adams is there not for Ford or Arthur, or even the weird and unsettling Dirk Gently. He is there for a Book about endangered species, called Last Chance to See. His read is compelling, but I didn't come there prepared to buy that book. Slightly embarrassed, I ask him to sign my Omnibus leather-bound More than complete Hitchhikers trilogy, and I move along. Time passes, in 2001, Douglas Adams does too. I don't remember what year it was that I found the hardback copy of Last Chance to See at the used book store, but the sticker on the dust jacket proclaiming it an autographed copy is from Tattered Cover, making it likely an extra copy he signed that night for the store to sell.It's mine now, just as if I had purchased it back in 1990. Not personalized, of course, but a little memento of my history anyway.  I'm also not sure where the "Autographed Copy" sticker went to,  Anyway, I go to signings prepared to buy the new book these days. 

• Green Plastic Squirt Gun Provided this prompt, and the mysterious Froggacuda!
• Alexis' Universe Elected to take both challenges, and her Dino-Riders are her Creme de la Creme
• Toy Break loves his 3 3/4 Marvel collection. It is in 3-d, while he is now in 2
• Green Plastic Squirt Gun rose to the second challenge and it struck a chord- he brings us the tale of "Nowhere Man"