JoshB's blog http://www.collectiondx.com/blog/2 en Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:31:22 -0400 Drupal TotalFeeds Module JoshB's blog http://www.collectiondx.com/blog/2 http://www.collectiondx.com/Image-Lib/feedlogo.png 144 37 Let us give thanks.... http://www.collectiondx.com/node/2005 Today is Thanksgiving (in the US anyway), and I want to take a few minutes to give thanks to all of you.

I'm sitting here in my living room of our new house. I can smell the turkey cooking. The parade just ended on TV and my mind is still recovering. Once you have seen Xanadu lip-synced on rollerskates by second stringers in a parade, you just can't go back.

I have a small bit of time here before the relatives arrive and we get so stuffed full of food that we can't move. I wanted to take this opportunity to give thanks to you the readers, and the CollectionDX staff.

2007 has been a great year for CollectionDX. It still blows my mind that you all actually come here and read what we write, sometimes every day. Your feedback really makes it all worth while. This year we saw a few milestones for CDX. For one, we topped 1,000 members (1300 + as I write this) and we reached over 2,000 articles on the site. We dominated Google for Japanese toy searches, and our Youtube channel has had almost 700,000 videos watched.

Another milestone for 2007 was the publication of my book Tokyo Underground. As of November it is sold out from the distributor, and we expect another printing in early 2008. People are buying it, which is pretty cool.

The thing is though, CollectionDX is no longer a one-man deal. We actually have a staff now, and CDX would not be what it is without the help of these amazing and talented individuals. These people don't write for money, they write because they LOVE toys. Collectively they have added a flavor and vareity to the site that I never would have been able to do on my own. I want to talk about a few of these people, and I have also linked to their amazon wish lists. Like I said, they work for free, so if you appreciate what they do, why not give them a little love?

Russell Cox

Russell is the unsung hero of CDX. He took my vision and helped implement the system you see here today. When there is something going on with the server that I don't understand, Russell is the man. When the server crashes, and I start to panic, it is Russel to the rescue. Thank you Russell, CDX wouldn't exist in this form without you.

Russell's Wishlist

Atom

Atom is relatively new to CollectionDX, but we have been friends forever. Him and I were roommates in the 90's and he is partially to blame for my collecting habits today. Atom is a talented writer and he brings a fantastic wealth of knowledge to CDX, as well as being a great all around guy. Atom has recently been handling CollectionDX advertising, working hard to bring in the funds that keep this site alive. Thanks Atom!

Atom's Wishlist

Nekrodave

Dave is another great friend who i managed to bring over to CDX. He was resistant to write at first, but now the guy is unstoppable. I met Dave through ToyboxDX - i saw that he was local and we met up. Dave has become a really good friend that trancends toy collecting. He brings a great angle to CDX and his collecting focus is different enough from mine that he really brings something different to the table. It was Dave that enabled my second trip to Tokyo, resulting in the Tokyo Underground book. Thanks so much Dave.

Nekrodave's Wishlist

Sanjeev

Sanjeev is the man. His love of the glow and his high energy reviews really bring CDX to life. Sanjeev was our SDCC correspondent in 2007, and he also hosted the 2007 summit. I remember meeting Sanjeev for the first time at Bison County in Waltham and I knew right off the bat that he was a cool dude. Thanks for all your hard work Sanjeev.

Sanjeev's Wishlist

EVA Unit 4A

EVA is like a walking encyclopedia. One of CollectionDX's long time contributors, EVA was here from almost the beginning. His knowledge of Super Sentai is staggering, and his reviews are epic. EVA has no wishlist, but send him some love anyway. Thanks EVA!

Rob Braun

When he's not working on the farm, Rob is busy building gunpla (Gundam models) and writing insanely detailed reviews of them. He brings a much needed Gundam touch to the site, and is an all around swell guy to boot. Thanks Rob! I don't have a wishlist for Rob yet, but when I do I'll add it.

You

Once again, thank you for all of your support over the years. You make this site great. As long as you keep visiting, I'll keep writing. We have some cool stuff in store for 2008, so stay tuned!

Happy Holidays!

Josh
]]> Thu, 22 Nov 2007 13:09:48 -0500 JoshB http://www.collectiondx.com/node/2005 About Back from Vacation http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1763 I’m back from Vacation, did you miss me? Special thanks to Atom, Sanjeev, Nekrodave and Eva_Unit_4A for keeping the site up and running for the week. The family and I were vacationing down on the cape, and it seems no matter where I go for vacation, I always seem to be able to sniff out the toys. First off I met up with Tom V (host of the second chogokin summit in ‘99) to pick up some Jumbo Machinders I had bought from him (a third version Raideen and first version Dragun). It was a cool, but brief meeting. Thanks Tom! We found ourselves lost in the woods along 6a when we found this cool book store called the Parnassus Book Service. Taking shelter from the rain, the family and I explored this great used book store were we found some treasures. No toys here, but I found a mint copy of a Pop-Up book from Disney’s Black Hole! I’m back from Vacation, did you miss me?

Special thanks to Atom, Sanjeev, Nekrodave and Eva_Unit_4A for keeping the site up and running for the week.

The family and I were vacationing down on the cape, and it seems no matter where I go for vacation, I always seem to be able to sniff out the toys.

First off I met up with Tom V (host of the second chogokin summit in ‘99) to pick up some Jumbo Machinders I had bought from him (a third version Raideen and first version Dragun). It was a cool, but brief meeting. Thanks Tom!

We found ourselves lost in the woods along 6a when we found this cool book store called the Parnassus Book Service. Taking shelter from the rain, the family and I explored this great used book store were we found some treasures. No toys here, but I found a mint copy of a Pop-Up book from Disney’s Black Hole!

Another Journey took us Through West Yarmouth where we stopped in at the Antiques center at Yarmouth. Antique co-ops like this are great places to find hidden gems, and sure enough, I found an old Mego Black Hole Maximillian for only $10.

Also – while in Yarmouth – There is a plaza along 28 that has a Christmas Tree Shop store in it. While there, go into the T-Shirt outlet store. In the back there is an arcade that time has forgotten with some great games such as Cyber Sled and Out Run.

Lastly, if you are in the mood for new toys, be sure to check out Spinnaker CD in Hyannis – in addition to a wall of cheap $2.99 CD’s, they also have a pretty good selection of new Star Wars, Transformers, and other modern toys.

Thanks to all our readers for sticking in with us. We’ve got a lot of great reviews coming up, and I’ve got a lot of news to catch up on.

P8130165

Josh, Justin and Nathan, August 2007
]]> Mon, 20 Aug 2007 10:47:41 -0400 JoshB http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1763 About Experimenting with Ad Placements http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1333 I'm experimenting with ad placements with the google adsense ads.. Ads may move around a bit. If you find something really annoying, let us know. I'm experimenting with ad placements with the google adsense ads.. Ads may move around a bit. If you find something really annoying, let us know.


]]> Fri, 26 Jan 2007 11:27:00 -0500 JoshB http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1333 About A special thanks to you http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1306 I wanted to say thanks to all of our contributors and users for the great year we had. I was going to write something up, but I thought, why not tell you in person? Watch the video and take a peek inside CollectionDX HQ. I wanted to say thanks to all of our contributors and users for the great year we had. I was going to write something up, but I thought, why not tell you in person? Watch the video and take a peek inside CollectionDX HQ.



]]> Thu, 04 Jan 2007 13:34:42 -0500 JoshB http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1306 About Coming Soon - May 1978 Television Magazine http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1287 Check this out.... Scans of the magazine coming soon... Check this out....

Cover

Scans of the magazine coming soon...


]]> Tue, 26 Dec 2006 16:01:22 -0500 JoshB http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1287 Otaku Culture Our Biggest Month Yet http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1250 Just a quick note to let you know what things are going great at CDX, and this has been our best month yet. Our traffic has skyrocketed since we launched the new site back in February. In February we averaged 6,000 unique visitors a day. In November we averaged 11,000 visitors a day. In February we served about 43,000 pages (not hits or files) a day. We are now up to 84,000 pages a day. In fact, we served over 2.5 million pages in November to over 300,000 unique visitors! This is all because of you! Thank you so much for your support. I also wanted to let you know that we are bringing on some new advertisers. Please support CollectionDX by clicking on their ads and visiting their sites. Their advertising dollars helps keep CollectionDX a free service to you! Just a quick note to let you know what things are going great at CDX, and this has been our best month yet. Our traffic has skyrocketed since we launched the new site back in February.

In February we averaged 6,000 unique visitors a day. In November we averaged 11,000 visitors a day.

In February we served about 43,000 pages (not hits or files) a day. We are now up to 84,000 pages a day.

In fact, we served over 2.5 million pages in November to over 300,000 unique visitors!

This is all because of you! Thank you so much for your support.

I also wanted to let you know that we are bringing on some new advertisers. Please support CollectionDX by clicking on their ads and visiting their sites. Their advertising dollars helps keep CollectionDX a free service to you!


]]> Tue, 05 Dec 2006 11:47:59 -0500 JoshB http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1250 About Nike Sentai Advertisment http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1182 This is priceless.... Watch the whole thing for the payoff. This is priceless.... Watch the whole thing for the payoff.


]]> Tue, 31 Oct 2006 09:36:11 -0500 JoshB http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1182 Otaku Culture What’s with all the monsters? http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1176 What’s with all the monsters? Well, this being October, we thought it would be cool to do a lot of monster and horror reviews up until Halloween. Robots are cool, but you need to mix it up a little every now and then. We’ll return to our regular robot goodness on Wednesday, November 1. We’ve got a big stack of toys ready to review. What’s with all the monsters?

Well, this being October, we thought it would be cool to do a lot of monster and horror reviews up until Halloween. Robots are cool, but you need to mix it up a little every now and then.

We’ll return to our regular robot goodness on Wednesday, November 1. We’ve got a big stack of toys ready to review.


]]> Fri, 27 Oct 2006 10:54:53 -0400 JoshB http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1176 About Bugs Fixed, a few new features http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1167 Some minor updates to CDX functionality this week Fixed Newsfeeds so images from other sites display. Also removed links in newsfeed posts, because unless they were full url's, the gave you an error on CDX. Added a link to our YouTube Channel - now you can watch all our videos in one place. Added this blog right here! Now you can keep up with all the boring behind the scenes work we do. Updated the list of links on the front page to lead to better destinations. As always, if you have any comments or concerns, let us know. Some minor updates to CDX functionality this week

  • Fixed Newsfeeds so images from other sites display. Also removed links in newsfeed posts, because unless they were full url's, the gave you an error on CDX.
  • Added a link to our YouTube Channel - now you can watch all our videos in one place.
  • Added this blog right here! Now you can keep up with all the boring behind the scenes work we do.
  • Updated the list of links on the front page to lead to better destinations.

As always, if you have any comments or concerns, let us know.


]]> Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:17:37 -0400 JoshB http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1167 About We've upgraded! http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1141 We just did an upgrade on CDX, and there are a few cool new features to tell you about!
  • Improved search - Now, when you search for a term on CollectionDX, you can search both text AND images. Just click the "Gallery" tab on your search results to search for that term in our image gallery
  • Better thumbnails - Before, whenever you loaded thumbnails in reviews, they would load the full image and squish it down, making pages slow to load. No longer! Now thumbnails displayed are actual thumbnails, without watermarks.
  • Better Contact form - The contact form now has categories so your inquiry will get the the right person faster!
  • Improved Links Page - now you can suggest new links, and report dead links, right from our new and improved links page
  • Recent Articles and Recent Comments Blocks - now the top news articles are displayed on every page, as well as what our users are talking about, making it easier to join the discussion
  • Improved Newsfeeds - We can now accept a wider array of news feeds!
  • Improved review submission process - Users with permissions to add reviews now have a handy helper application to add images into their reviews.
  • YahooJapan Auction links - the alphabetical links across the top now work.
  • Myspace - CollectionDX has a MySpace page - check it out and add us as a friend!

As with any upgrade, there is bound to be a few things that don't work quite as expected. If you have any problems, comments or questions, leave a comment here or use our contact form.

Thanks,

JoshB


]]> Sat, 07 Oct 2006 22:44:28 -0400 JoshB http://www.collectiondx.com/node/1141 About