Orlando Islands of Adventure : Super Hero Island : Marvel Meeting Spiderman, Captain America, Doctor Doom.

I haven't written about our holiday to Orlando, Florida  since we got back as so many amazing things  happened and there were so many photo's for me to go through, I could have posted hundreds.

 I've decided it would be easier if i broke it up into separate posts. 

From the moment we booked the holiday with Virgin Holidays it was all about Islands of adventure for me. I've wanted to go for such a long time, because I had read online, and googled it for so many years, meeting the characters, villains and superheroes, the rides, the character parade, the super hero themed resturants, I couldn't wait to go, and share it with our two super hero crazy boys! 

My youngest was far to young to understand (which means we'll definitely have to go again when he's older- already excited!) 

But our eldest like me, was in his element. There was so many great things to photograph which i loved as the one thing i really wanted from the holiday was a great collection of family photo's. The staff are so friendly, and will take photos for you, just about anywhere in the parks, and also in the stores where you meet Spiderman and the other characters.

Meeting the characters was definitely my favorite part, as I loved seeing the look on my sons face especially when he met Spider-man, and who could blame him? We asked him which super villains he had been fighting recently and he spent 10 minutes taking in depth and realistically about Dr Connors and his Neogenic Recombinator, I was actually genuinely  shocked that the chap knew so much about the character he was playing it really made the meet and greet experience and the little man was completely in awe!! ( Mrs M was to busy flirting with him asking about MJ and waving her red hair in front of his face.)

(This is one of the photos we bought from the meet and greet, the meet and greet runs at 10am, and is in the store opposite the Spiderman ride, next to the cash register. Photos are $10, which includes a really nice perspex photo frame, and a photocard so you can get any other pictures you have taken throughout the park at a massive discount. Very reasonably priced we thought, we also bought the key chains. )  

After meeting spidey we stepped outside and was greeted by a not so friendly villain from the world of Marvel.... the two of them showed off in true super hero style!

I was shocked our son wanted to go near him as we saw the Green Goblin before Dr Doom and he didn't want to go over to him as he was so realistic, and even adults looked alittle weary! Again, Dr Doom stood, posed and spoke to us like he had all the time in the world for us. 

We were excited about meeting Captain America, as Spiderman had told us to tell him that he was an old man and he sleeps all day! (which Seth being 6 thought was hilarious.) He also laughed as he told Cap that I like the Red Skull. He did not look impressed, and spoke to us for a couple of minutes explaining there was going to be a Marvel Super Hero parade at 11.00

It was great to see that Mrs M was really enjoying herself too but then she will always have a smile on her face if she knows her boys are happy.

 

The range of rides were really good too , they were well designed to suit all ages. Seth and I loved the Spiderman ride, but didn't realise you needed to grab 3D glasses at first, so be sure to pick a pair up at the entrance. If you want to get on all the rides without standing in line for a long time, as these rides are so popular, I'd suggest getting to the park when it opens, and heading straight to the Marvel land, which is found by walking straight through  the gates at the entrance and bearing left, (walking over the Hulk roller coaster goes over the top of that! ) and you're there! The Hulk coaster was amazing, and as it goes so quick, you don't have to stand in line too long to experience it. 

The only  thing I would change at Islands of Adventure would be the  shops. There was lots of things to buy but there wasn't a great choice of hard to find figures (i was hoping to be going back to the hotel with bags full). I didn't think there was much there that you couldn't go and purchase in the UK from Forbidden Planet or Nostelgia and Comics. We still ended up spending around $200 on really cool t-shirts, baby clothes, personalised mugs, some figures, and a really cool caps, postcards, stationary and books. The prices in the stores were so reasonable, and you get alot for your $ really.

The life size statues of the characters where amazing, I would love one for the house, it would definitely be a talking point. Sadly we wouldn't have the room and I'm sure Mrs M would have something to say about a life size Spiderman hanging from the ceiling.

In one of the shops there was a glass cabinet full of Marvel guitars which were amazing, sadly it was really difficult to get a decent photo because of the lights and glass. They were reasonably priced too, if I had been musical I probably would have bought one.

We all had an amazing time at Islands of Adventure, and can't wait to go back again although there is a possibility Mrs M spend a fortune as Opeie will be alot more knowing about Marvel, and want so many more things! It really was such a fun day, and we ended up going back 3 other times, using our FlexTickets which made the park hopping so inexpensive, compared to buying day tickets on the gate.  We also had breakfast with Spiderman, Thing 1 & Thing 2, and Cat in the Hat, which you can read about here.

Above: The VW Hulk car. It was so cool, and the boys would love to be driven around in this! 

"Holy mechanical marvel"

I spend so much time on eBay looking at toys and games, you would never think i was 32 this year. I say its because i like the boys having fun things to play with but Mrs M knows that its really for me more. This is an entry about recent items i have found and would love:

Creepy i know, and im quite sure that Mrs M wouldn't want this in the house but if she was ever stuck for a wedding present for me or there's a birthday very close she could make a super geek very happy.

 

A few months back i was talking to Mrs M about how amazing it would be to have action figures made of the 4 of us.Then i found Firebox where you can have your pop on head made for one of your existing action figures.

 They have a small choice of popular character bodies to choose from and although me and my eldest would be cool as Batman and The Joker and Mrs M of course as wonder woman im not sure superman is right for my youngest (never did like superman). i do quite fancy me as the Ventriloquist and my youngest as Scarface.

I used to love baking and should really get back into it (although my waistline may not agree). Maybe these would give me the motivation i need:

I love it when your looking for something on eBay and something interesting pops up that you've never seen before. Today this little beauty popped up on my search list...

I always think that if you find an interesting Joker toy and they make the Batman counterpart then you have to have them both because they always compliment each other, so i did a search and suprise suprise they do...

Ive been advised by Mrs M that that they were limited edition and made in Japan, now who's the geek! I'm so proud of her.

Well Father's day and my birthday are only a month apart so we'll have to see how much of a good boy Ive been this year.

'The time has come,' the walrus said, 'to talk of many things: of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings.'

This month Madam Tussaud's in New York opens its Marvel Exhibit which after reading i was gutted as New York isn't somewhere i can just pop to for a day out.

My disappointment has steadily increased since reading on and finding out that the Exhibit was actually on at the London Madam Tussaud's in 2010. How did i not know about this??? i'm pretty ashamed of myself and if i keep this up i think ill be losing my nerd status.

I guess i'm just going to have to wait patiently for a similar exhibit to come round again. I will make sure i'm on the ball next time. It would have been amazing to get some pictures with the boys here.

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I would have loved to get some pictures with the wolverine taxi which they had painted for a competition, if you spotted the taxi around London and went and spoke to the driver then you were in with a chance to win prizes.

"Magic Lasso To The rescue"

When you buy as many toys as i do online there is nothing like the excitement you get from hearing a knock on the door from the postie (he's been knocking a lot recently i'm thinking i should go eBay cold turkey for a few weeks).

Today's treat was for my youngest (and myself of course)

Its just ashame i couldn't get these in th UK it pains me to pay for postage  from the US (Not that i haven't already found some more things that i want but i wont be letting Mrs M know about that) Any how i'm off to play Batman with my boys.

"It's a pretty good zoo,"said young Gerald McGrew, "And the fellow that runs it seems proud of it to"

Since buying the DC Little People Batcave my boys gone Little People mad, in fairness a lot of the time is taken up by him using the Jokers head as a dummy but he does love playing with the Batmobile in fact he seems to love anything with wheels that spin round.

A friend of mine mentioned that she had a Little People farm for sale so i decided to take it off her hands, My son loved it. Once word got out that there was a new zoo in town it didn't take long for Batman and all his friends to load up the Batmobile and go for a day trip

Being the big kid that i am, after i had taken the photo's i seriously considered starting a blog that was just about Batman and Friends visiting a number of various prime Little People Destinations (i already have my eye on the Christmas village).

 

Im quite sure that if i started collecting anything else Mrs M would give me some jip but i like to think that things like this will be great to keep for if my son has kids of his own. 

 Well it seems that the DC Gang had a great outing, there was almost a bit of drama when Joker got inside the animal enclosure but he always was nothing but trouble. Watch this space for any of the Dark Knights future excursions.

"To the batcave"

While away in Florida i spotted this in Walmart and just had to get it for my sons 1st birthday, he loves it which makes his geeky daddy very happy. Its just ashame that you cant get a lot more characters for it.

Its such a cute and simple toy for young children, i really wish they had released a jokers play set to go with it like the imaginext Joker fun house.

 

I started to write about wanting the Little People DC Wheelies but i had to delete that part of the entry as i couldn't resist going out and buying it. I have absolutely no patience (i just cant resist fun toys for the boys and of course i have to start now with getting my youngest into what daddy likes).

Its ashame the set wasnt bigger though it would have been a lot better if it was more like the stand"n"play rampway (Would have been a lot more expensive but i'd have been happy to part with the money). Being the obsessive collector that i am ive had to order the other characters from the US as you cant get them here yet,so Batgirl,Superman,Green lantern and Wonder Woman are on their way.

"If music be the food of love, play on".

Me and Mrs M love music and both have a pretty eclectic taste, i love it when the boys hear music of ours and react to the songs. Here's a few of the songs that they love....

Intergalactic is definitely one of our eldest's favourite songs and has been for a while,we have to listen to it most mornings on the way to school. Its also inspired a fair few of our Lego builds.

Another of our top played journey to school songs is....

Apparently when we go away to the states this year we have to go and buy EVERY cereal mentioned in the song and try them, i'm totally up for that (who doesn't love cereal). 

There is something so cute about listening to my son mumble along to the words to 'shoot to thrill' he really loves this song. Weve recently been listening to this song in the car a lot too, I love listening to him chant the words "hey ho lets go".....

Our youngest doesn't enjoy being in the car much especially when he's tired or hungry, but 99% of the time we can get him relaxed or even sleep with this song....

But thankfully this isnt the only kind of music he seems to like (its more moma's taste). He's quite partial to a bit of Alkaline Trio,especially this track.....

Well we will continue to fill their heads with all the music that we love and hope that they don't end up becoming fans of speed garage!!!

we built this city.... we built this city from le....go bl....ocks.

One of mine and my sons favorite past times is Lego, when i was young i used to spend a huge chunk of my time building things out of Lego too (usually robots). I just love the way you can build a master piece then destroy it and build something completely different. Although we love building the kits....

......there's always so much more satisfaction from building something from scratch, Plus i always love the look on Mrs M's face when she see's our final creations. Last year we  brought 18kg of Lego for the boys (well i say for the boys but secretly...)

The day the Lego arrive we decided we should make something for mommy, as she loves giraffe's we thought that would be the best choice.

He now lives in the lounge and wont be taken apart (no matter how desperate we get for yellow and black bricks)

We tend to build quite a lot of random things

Each thing that is made,is made to my sons very specific idea's, (and trust me some of them take a lot of time to work out). I like to think of them as commissions. 

One of our recent builds came about when my son saw the Beastie Boys video Intergalactic. 

His specifications were:

moving eyes

moving cogs in the chest

chest should also have windows where you can see scientists working inside

360 degree body movement

claws for hands that move

arms that have 2 joints in each

jail cells in the legs to hold bad guys

A wind up cog on the back

And a detachable foot that is a ski car

Some times it shocks me that these sort of things come from out 5 year old

Any way here is the finished piece....

Well the little man was very happy with the outcome but now wants a girl robot to keep him company so watch this space.

I love the fact that Lego can keep you and most importantly the kids occupied for a long time,although there are times i should really be getting on with the house work! oops!

My youngest is desperate to join in with us and get in on the action but at 10 months and happy to stuff anything he can grab hold of into his mouth i don't think its a great idea (i will soon be stocking up on megabloks though).

It doesnt stop me making things that he likes though and it wouldn't be right unless i made some thing Yo Gabba Gabba.

This weeks 'commission' was of course super hero related,i was asked very nicely for a Captain America shield made of Lego.

Ta...Dar!!!

This year for Christmas the only thing that our son REALLY wanted was the Lego City police station, which he pretty much built himself. (i was very impressed)

Unfortunately since building the police station it has been taken over by the imperial forces..

It seems that the Lego city general public are more concerned with the drunken chef on the roof that is about to fall (during our Lego playing there always seems to be a drunken citizen causing trouble)

My son finds it really funny that when ever we play with his Lego city sets Darth Vader just rides a round happily clutching a diamond and a key to the jail cells, he never has any relevance to the story were playing, he just likes to have him riding around laughing (gotta love a child's imagination)

I'm quite sure there will be many other blog entries with our creations and Lego adventures,so until next time....

"A drawing is simply a line going for a walk".

As the weeks go by i am becoming more and more impressed by my son's drawings, i find the way children view things and the markings they use to express what their seeing so interesting. id love to be able to draw like him but im never going to be able to see things from his perspective.

Recently he has been drawing a lot of super hero's (surprise surprise). 

I love the fact that i don't even need to write who they are as you can clearly tell which hero he has drawn.

You can ask him to draw anything, at first he will say "i can't draw that" but once he gets going theres no stopping him. Me and Mrs M are both creative people and even met studying Art at university so we do everything we can to encourage the boys to be creative with many different mediums.

This is definitely my favorite of his super hero drawings (so far).

There's something really touching about your child coming to you clutching a piece of paper and saying "ive drawn a picture of you".

For example, this is me and my son having a food fight, he has chosen the classic tomato (im assuming over ripe for maximum effect on impact) i myself have chosen a slice of cucumber (im not sure what i was thinking that day but its quite clear who would win that battle).

This would be me again, cleverly on his part he has decided to draw this portrait showing both my front and rear. apparently i am naked and my bum crack goes all the way up my back?? more importantly i am anatomically incorrect (nothing beats being de-masculated buy a 5 year old). The pink spot on the back of my head is my brain!! (oh how i love my boys mind).

Both mine and Mrs M's favorite all time picture was the one he pulled out of his school book bag a couple of weeks ago. I love the thought of him sitting in school drawing pictures of us. Its clear he loves us as much as we love him.