angry monkey

The mah jongg players are two goldfish, a koi and a lobster. The lobster is discarding the fateful tile -- 9 dots -- which the koi will pick up to win. The tile looks perfect in the lobster's claw! Best of all, his two big feelers sway back and forth constantly when the car is in motion. Watching it is almost like being in a real aquarium.

I got a couple of the jellyfish up there too. But I was disappointed to discover, on leaving the office parking garage this evening, that they hardly glowed at all. I tested them inside beforehand, and they glowed really nice. I wonder what the problem is? Not enough light in the garage, or too much on the road?

Added some of those little "sewer urchin" men. They don't look that bad when placed in nice patterns like synchronized swimmers. Which is a good thing because I've got a lot of them.

The best new toys are on the roof: first the little girl and monkey with the raft, which seem to be from a TV show. The monkey looked really angry, so I put him in the little boat being dragged, and made him brandish an oar like a club. Then I put a little monkey with a fez on the raft with the girl. Maybe the angry monkey is jealous of the fez monkey.

Also on the roof, but not pictured because I screwed up the photo, is a little Hindu bird god preparing to do battle with a crocodile. There's a snake coiled around the god, which is maybe the god's animal companion? It's kind of hard to describe, but believe it or not, it's actually cute. So I'll try to get a better photo in the morning.

Most of the new fish came from Toy Joy in Austin. But the bird god and the fez monkey came from a little store on South Congress, near my friend's house. I think it was called Lone Star Illusions? Well anyway it has a giant fez monkey on the roof, just like the little one I put in the raft.

That was a cool store. They had a whole room lit with black light, full of day-glow things and black-light posters. Wow, I felt like I was 12 years old & sneaking into the back of Spencer's Gifts in the mall! They were also selling this purse shaped like a Chinese food takeout box, which I've been admiring for months in the Archie McFee catalog. Turns out the purse is way too big for me, so it's a good thing I never ordered it. Who does McFee expect to carry a purse that big? You'd think they would have figured out by now that cute purses should be small. It's functional purses that are big.

Now that the hood and trunk look so good, I've got to put carpet on those last two panels on the right side. Then I can get photos of the car looking complete, & then get to work on the left side!