This post is brought to you by my inner geek and my intense need to procrastinate:

Stikfas are some of the coolest toys ever. My brother got me the red dragon and warrior woman combo last year, and it's fantastic. And the other sets they have are also great. Beta Female Demoness? Very cool. Mechana Segmented Robot (in the yellow and blue, of course)? Adorable - the robot has a little bear friend! So cute! Explorer and jungle cat? Nifty. The phantom? So versatile! The scythe for the Grim Reaper, the pumpkin for the headless horseman, chains for the stereotypical ghost, see-through body for the Invisible Man, and a crown for a Stikfas recreation of the beginning of Hamlet! Because these toys call out the need to be used in stop animation videos, and people have done so - skateboarding, fight scenes, even a bit of Star Wars.

Which brings me to some other nifty toys, courtesy of =http://www.thinkgeek.com/">ThinkGeek. I had already come across Darth Tater, a Mr. Potatohead version of Vader, but there's apparently also a Spud Trooper and Artoo Patatoo (complete with a little Princess Tater 'hologram'!). And then there's the plush Yoda backpack, made to look like you're giving Yoda a piggyback ride, a la Luke's training in The Empire Strikes Back. So geeky, but so very neat.

Okay. Time to sleep. Shakespeare midterm in about 8 hours, whee!