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Avon Champion Spark Plug collectible bottle, issued around 1975. Milk glass bottle (empty) with plastic lid. In excellent condition, no chips, cracks, or discoloration, marked Avon. About 4 3/4" tall, 2" across widest, 1 3/8" across bottom. Three available, two with unreadable label remnants, one with no label. Great collector item.
Carrying luggage on the exterior of a car isn't a new idea.
The application of new materials and production processes has resulted in the sleek shapes as observed above.
Thule have expanded their product range over the years, it now includes bicycle luggage...
www.thule.com/en/gb/campaigns/thulepacknpedal/thule-pack-...
Romer Shoal Light is a sparkplug lighthouse in Lower New York Bay, on the north edge of the Swash Channel, south of Ambrose Channel and north of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, in the entrance to New York Harbor. It is in New Jersey, very close to the border with New York.
The shoal was named for the pilot boat William J. Romer which sank there in 1863. The light was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007 as Romer Shoal Light Station.
The Light was heavily damaged during Hurricane Sandy. The non-profit that has taken over stewardship of the Light is working with FEMA and private donors to preserve this national landmark.
5/8" of chrome-y goodness. I think everything on my car is metric... apart from the sparkplugs.
SOOC apart from desaturating to B&W (there was a reflection of my hand ruining the monochromacity)
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Large jet of gasoline being ejected by the cylinder out the sparkplug hole (picture provided by Miguel Ashby)
We liked the menu board above the bar. During the tour, you find out there is actually a Toledo connection to how and why Flying Dog wound up in Maryland. From their website:
Nobody had ever connected the words “flying” and “dog” together...until 1983, when George Stranahan* was itching for an adventure. (George Stranahan is part of the renowned Stranahan family of Toledo, of Champion Sparkplug fame; for more on their history and how he wound up in Colorado, see: www.aspenphys.org/aboutus/history/first35years/chp1.html)
This time it would be K2, also known as the “Savage Mountain,” the second highest mountain in the world and one of the most deadly. For every four people who have reached the summit, one has died trying. And it has never been climbed in the winter.
After traveling 8,000 miles from Woody Creek, Colorado, George and his band of 12 “Innocents” set off from Rawalpindi, Pakistan (or “Pindi” as everyone called it) for the summit of K2 with a Sherpa and a mule loaded with provisions.
Ignoring the fear, George and the Innocents trekked across the Baltoro Glacier and the Braldu Gorge. Reinhold Messner, the world’s greatest mountain climber, said the Braldu Gorge was the “most dangerous thing [he] had ever done in his life.” According to George, the largest disaster he and the Innocents faced was that “on day 17 of a 35-day trip, we totally ran out of booze.”
Back in Pindi at the Hotel Flashman, George and the Innocents were triumphant but in a dry state of mind. After getting on the “alcohol list” of this Muslim nation, they settled in to drink their quota. Then, their eyes caught sight of a large painting.
As George describes it, “It was a full-on oil painting of a dog. A beautiful oil painting, big, nice. And the dog was like…well, he had left the ground. Here we were, the March of the Innocents and this ‘Flying Dog,’ and the weirdness of it all. And the combination of the words ‘Flying Dog’ stuck with all of us, but particularly for me. They fit together in some way. I don’t know how it makes sense, but it makes sense.”
In 1990, George founded the Flying Dog Brewpub in Aspen, Colorado. From that brewpub to a full-fledged Denver brewery (co-founded by George and his longtime friend and partner, Richard McIntyre**) in 1994, and then to our current state-of-the-art brewing facility in Frederick, Maryland, Flying Dog continues to make sense.
* George Stranahan is an astrophysicist with a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and the founder of the Aspen Center for Physics. He is also a photographer, rancher, writer, philanthropist, and an educator who has founded three schools. For more information, visit www.georgestranahan.com.
** Richard McIntyre is a rancher at the Flying Dog Ranch, which also serves as a conference and retreat center, situated at the base of Mt. Sopris in Carbondale, Colorado. For more information, visit www.flyingdogranch.com.
Pictures of the Romer Shoal Light from on board the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas at the beginning of our week-long cruise. The Romer Shoal Light is a sparkplug lighthouse that dates from 1898 and is in the Lower New York Bay. It is 2 and a half nautical miles north of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. A few of the pictures also show the Sandy Hook Lighthouse in the background. I was able to see a number of lighthouses in New York Harbor this trip. On board the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas for the Seven Night Labadee & Puerto Plata Cruise (November 6th through 13th, 2022). The cruise embarks from Cape Liberty (Bayone, NJ) with stops at Labadee, Haiti and Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic before heading back to New York City. The itinerary changed after Hurricane Nicole canceled our planned stops.
Pictures of the Robbins Reef Light from on board the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas at the beginning of our week-long cruise. The Robbins Reef Light is a sparkplug lighthouse that dates from 1883 (replacing a light that was built in 1839). It is very close to Cape Liberty in Bayonne, New Jersey. I was able to see a number of lighthouses in New York Harbor this trip. On board the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas for the Seven Night Labadee & Puerto Plata Cruise (November 6th through 13th, 2022). The cruise embarks from Cape Liberty (Bayonne, NJ) with stops at Labadee, Haiti and Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic before heading back to New York City. The itinerary changed after Hurricane Nicole canceled our planned stops.
When Transformers Armada/Micro Dentetsu was released, the show was OK but they toys felt like such a giant ste backwards after the excellent offerings of the Car Robots 2000 lineup. But, there were a few gems in that pile, one of which Optimus Prime, which further refined the combining trailer concept by making them turn into a pair of pants.
The actual toy was fun, but engineering wise it was effectively a giant brick, especially the trailer part.
Now, as luck would have it, the most exciting part of the Legacy Evolution line we're currently living through is the upcoming Commander Class Armada Optimus Prime, which so far looks good, at the very least not being watered down class wise like other recent Primes are.
There was also, a few years ago, a third party Fans Hobby attempt at the Armada Prime toy. I'd never gotten any third party of this size, and was figuring that one day I'd get a nicely priced Power Baser (Powermaster Optimus Prime) at TFCon.
Well, turns out if you snag them at preorder from your friendly neighbourhood online toy store, they're actually not horrendously priced.
I didn't take my original out, but I think this Fans Hobby version (Naval Commander... for Amada, get it?!?!) is slightly bigger than the OG figure. Conceptually it's the same (core figure, trailer, mini-con) but with a few premium tricks and twists.
From a high level, visually things have changed, part due to modernization and partly due to desire not to get hassled by the lawyers. The truck mode seems a bit longer, proportionally, compared to the original figure.
The trailer is probably where you see the greatest difference. Gone is the motoorized transformation gimmick, which was expected and fine with me. Certainly more firepower this time around with the inclusion of two rocket launchers... spring loaded rockets I might add. Prime's hand cannon extends to a much larger size for mounting in trailer mode. The pontoon things on the side of the trailer are now removable and can be mounted on several spots, specifically in robot mode.
Trailer turns into nonsensical alt modes, which is par for the course. There's extended trailer mode, which is basically fancy trailer with ramps, and then there's base mode which is... fancy trailer with ramps AND platforms. Shout out to the Fans Hobby team for including semi functional knee cannons, which was a spring powered missile launcher on the original toy.
the transformation scheme has been drastically changed, which should be expected. The core robot probably has about the same amount of articulation, where as the combined mode certainly has more than before.
In some weird twist of fate, the combined mode actually has more articulation than the core robot, thanks to the ab crunch. However, as you can imagine, the sheer bulk of both modes does get in the way of movement, as does the general design, but with the exception of the tabs that keep combined mode together, joints are well designed, robust, and can take a beating.
Sparkplug is a big gangly looking, but sports some impressive engineering to result in a fairly articulated figure.
As with most third party figures (or at least the well designed ones) transformation involves some twists and turns that wouldn't make it to a mainline figure, and you'd be hard pressed to find them on a MP figure, though it could happen. The fascinating thing is that despite the sheer precision required to make all the tiny parts fit properly, Fans Hobby pulled it off. There's some engineering decisions I disagree with, but the QC on this thing is very impressive.
There's actually far less paint on this figure than I anticipated, but that could be them trying to be realistic on budget. Also, for those interested, the materials used feel like what we get on our modern mainline figures... or at least the Legacy stuff.
Also possible on this figure (which I didn't test) are swap out of the combined mode ears for larger, more OG design ears, the ability to swap out the eyes for clear eyes, and of course, LED lights but I didn't have the battery..
Robert Reynolds awards Eddie Davis with the Sparkplug for his humorous speech about having three moms, moderating great impromptu questions as table topics master, and for his great mentoring tip about how go give a great introduction Saturday, Dec. 27, 2014.
Orient Point (The Coffee Pot) Light is a sparkplug lighthouse in active use as an aid to navigation off Orient Point, New York. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. In June 2011, the General Services Administration made the Orient Point Light available at no cost to public organizations willing to preserve them. It can be found off Orient Point at the end of Oyster Point Reef on the western side of Plum Gut. It throws a flashing a white light every five seconds; its tower is 24 feet tall, 21 feet wide at base, 18 feet wide at top, brick lined, of cast iron plate construction and painted brown on top and white on bottom. At the top of the tower (below the lantern) is a watch deck; the foundation is a concrete-filled cast iron caisson 32 feet tall with a 25 foot diameter. 1899: Constructed; First Keeper, Ole N. A. Anderson; 1954: Automated; 1970: Coast Guard announced that the light will be extinguished and demolished; 1973, Work began to restore the light; 1978: Light was upgraded to compensate for the extinguishing of the Plum Island light; 1999: The light celebrated its 100th birthday.
Surpise Lake is wedged between Sparkplug Mt. and Thunder Mt. At the far end of the lake, Surprise Mt sits.
Robert Stranahan, along with Albert Champion, was a founder of Champion Spark Plugs.
The Champion business started in Boston around 1900 but left Boston when the company had troubles with its backers. Albert Champion went to Flint, Mi where he would restart the company and speacilize in ignitions while Stranahan went to Toledo, Oh and still speacilized in spark plugs. Being closer to Detroit, which became the motor capitol of the world, Champion would become a multi billion dollar company. It was Stranahan who designed the bow tie symbal that is still on Champion products today.
Robert Stranahan is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo, Oh.