kbobam

My huge Moonie collection (3 mibs! Small, medium, and large!) was crying out for updating, and I couldn't resist the 'dramatic simplicity' of this one. The shape of the pattern is reminding me of a 'one that got away' marble from long ago. I want to say that it was a Marble King Spiderman, and it had a similar small pattern of much better looking than this oxblood. I was guessing that it was an older model than the Spidermen I was familiar with, which are nice, but more 'cluttered' and not as 'precise'. If anyone is familiar with the historical progression of these marbles I'd like to hear about it. Thanks! Bob ( :

Not just the blue glass. The yellow bananas are great! Look how 'peeled' they look!

Naw! Ratzilla would have layed a more majestic marble than that! Hope I'm not deviating too quickly, but if you wouldn't mind I'd like to ask mintster what his avatar marble is. It's a real stand-out! ( :

Wow! That tree is killer! Great metal and wire work, and it's mind-blowing how well the classic look of the marbles complements the snazzy modern design of the tree! ( :

Here's my latest Akrocity, along with my all-time-favorite Cherry Vanilla. Also present are the smaller marble which I don't know what to call, but you probably do, ( : and another recent acquisition in the back which was listed as a 'Peaches and Cream', but not sure if that's legit. (For those who like stats, the Akrocity is 1 1/8" at its widest, and the two other larger marbles are the traditional 15/16 shooter size.)

Hi, Edna, I'll throw a couple broad FWIW ideas at you. The image resizing program suggested earlier sounds really good, but I haven't tried it and can't comment. Overall, image resizing is a more interesting and complicated topic than most people might think. Many variables. One particularly significant thing in most programs is to look for a checkbox that says something along the lines of "maintain proportions" and make sure it's checked. Although I think your son is probably right about the distortion happening in-camera. If this is true, don't even think about trying to 'correct' it later. It's not the type of distortion that even sophisticated photo programs were meant to correct. The only solution is to prevent it in the first place. If your camera has a zoom lens a good rule of thumb is to make sure that you're 'zoomed' to at least a normal perspective setting. This would be 50mm or so in traditional 35mm film camera measurements. Personally, I'd prefer to go to 80 or 90. (Mild tele-photo) Lenses in the 85-105mm vicinity were traditionally called 'portrait' lenses since you could shoot a head-shot of someone without their nose looking too big or any other exaggerated features. They give a slightly flattened perspective which is more pleasing to the eye and is less likely to distort shapes. This applies to both 'back to front' 3D style distortion and the 'stretched at the edges' type. So try zooming in and stepping back a little. But really overall the photos look great, and thanks for posting such terrific marbles with the important real deal background information.

I don't know you well, but you're two/thirds of the way to having a great name, so my best wishes as well. Bob ( :

Thanks to all for the nice replies! Catfish is being generous calling what I write 'commentary', instead of the more frequently heard 'drivel', but I'll take it! The large group looks great, Mike. Any chance those marbles are about 1 1/16 inches? They look very similar to my large one, which I haven't been able to identify. ( :

The Freedom of Information Act allowed me to recover this previously classified 1969 NASA photograph. Believe it or not!

The original thought process was "I wonder if candy canes melt." "Huh." "Well, one way to find out!" Turned out to be about fifteen minutes at 225 degrees. Put the canes on a piece of foil rubbed down with non-stick spray. I'm guessing there's a point in the melting process where the stuff is pretty much like sweet napalm, so: Kids! Don't try this at home!

Thanks for the instant gratification, Fel! (Hope you guys aren't buried under the snow)

In the middle of taking this shot I came up with a question. What exactly is the significance of the blue color in peppermint marbles? This one looks pretty minty (HA!) to me. ( :

The ketchup and mustard is great! Don't know if you saw the thread a while back where some of us were pleasantly surprised to find out that we were far from alone in our appreciation of larger, 'played with' marbles. Minty marbles have their own kind of beauty, of course, but the ones that look like they have a 'history' are a little easier to fall in love with for me.

Charles, Charles, Charles.... What are we going to do with you? "not a good picture, but...." Let's look at what we have here. A bunch of stunning marbles photographed to bring out their natural wet glassy goodness. (Achieving 'glassy' isn't easy.) An interesting but non-distracting background. Mind-blowing color reproduction that makes you think the marbles are actually in front of you. And a 'seemingly' random presentation that works perfectly. Yeah, you're right! That photo really stinks! P.S. You have some awesome brown colors, and the brown to yellow 'blood', if you will, is amazing. Also like the abrupt fat to thin seam pattern change on what I think is a Ruby (or Red, depending on where you're from) Bee. ( :

And Mike! What's the deal with the bodacious boulder?

Definitely also in favor of a happy 'to each his own' co-existence! But it seems to me that m!b$'s preferences aren't as different from Rich's as they might first appear. If you consider the entire range of Jabo designs, I'm thinking that Rich seems to tend toward marbles that you wouldn't call conservative, but aren't at the super-busy extreme end either. Glad to see my favorite clear base Ace in there! Hope m!b$ didn't mean to include that as far as not liking transparent marbles, since everyone knows that's one of the greatest marbles of all time!

Was that an order? I'm with gdp1 as far as picking a favorite. On my setup it looks like it might be a 'bloody baseball', which is a name I just made up but you know what I mean. Would be cool in itself, but the little bit of extra color shading makes it really nice.

I'm not sure whether to admit that I didn't know/remember they were Alleys. So I'll LOL along with you and put on a good front by stating (with certainty!) that any marbles referred to as 'horsehairs' absolutely require some genuine Seabiscuit strands to prove that they're equal or less in width than the real thing. Fact, Jack!

And yet the half-dozen times over the years when I've made references to how covetous I am of your Blue Bee you've never had the courtesy to say "Hey Bob! Tough luck!" I did pass on what looked like a pretty good deal one time, because it wasn't good enough having seen yours. So thanks for that. It's my ultimate wish-list marble and I guess it'll be worth the wait. And of course you're completely right about a courteous response being in order when effort has obviously been made in fulfilling a personal request.

It all started for me with a Pelt. Aren't they great? There're so many incredible variations, and they just seem to have a special look to them. And as I always say, "The Pelt-ier, the better!" You know what I mean. Some are just more Pelty than others. Here're some shots that will be reposts for some, but hope they'll be good as a collection for this thread. I'll stop talking now, and just say that included in no particular order are: Baseballs A nice Muddie A couple big battle-scarred shooter Muddies An incredible 7up Some 'pseudo' 7ups with a cool bottle A Pelt on a pickle (People are starting to wonder) Three Pelts on an anvil (Any doubts about my sanity are now confirmed) A group shot with a few repeats and some others in the front row

1000 posts! Let's bring out the bouncing guys! Nice marble!

Yeah! What they all said!

Wow. I've never heard proper names for this group before, other than the marble in question. I'd sure like to see a Blue Cobra! I don't think I have any of those or the Sub-Marines. My favorite run, and it never occurred to me to confirm whether I had examples of all the different 'models'. Kind of embarrassing, but exciting to know I have a few more marbles to find! As I understand it, there are 'Type 1' and 'Type 2' "Concentric Ring Powder Jars", and the Type 1's were known as Three Toed Nappies. Pretty certain that's what I have, although the pictures I've seen of both types don't show the distinctions well. It should have a lid. Think the Type 2's are a little bigger, have a smooth band around the rim, and didn't have lids. They're also much rarer. Happy 'Eve' to all! ( :