|
Hello,
 Wow, it's been five years since we first launched MillionairePlayboy.com at 9:00 am on 03.03.03. But first, let me go back two years. When I was working at Cimetric Commerce in Columbus OH, I came to be editor of the toy magazine Raving Toy Maniac. I had fun making original content (like shooting the 2000 year in review) and my share of public embarassment, I was just re-entering the toy community when I posted my much ballyhooed Optimus Prime (Black Convoy) article. I still hear about that one.
 But times were changing and my company sold RTM to Bobbi and Rob. I was just getting into my groove and didn't want to leave the toy reviewing world quite yet. So I grabbed some college buddies to start MillionairePlayboy.com, like, you know, Bruce Wayne. (I have to give that follow up every single time I introduce the site)
I remember tooling around for weeks trying to fill up our categories with at least one article each. Then after I spoke with Bobbi at about a plug in their news section, I was ready to share my baby with the world. Then at 9:03 someone who must have had some other application running got flooded with pr0n ads when they visited my site, and thought they must have come from me. So here I am, the culmination of months of work, looking to make a strong impression, and some guy is shouting on the Buzz Board DON'T GO TO MILLIONAIRE PLAYBOY - ITS ALL PORN ADS. What the hell?!
Eventually some generous, level-headed people came to my defense and pointed out that MPb didn't have any spam, and that if you have certain spyware on your computer, it looks at your URLs and tries to deliver matching ads. Anyway, things were smoothed over, and I've been shamelessly plugging our articles on the buzz board ever since.
 I never aimed to make a ton of money with MPb, just get free stuff and perhaps some opportunties afforded only to the press. Some of the most amazing stuff I've bared witness to are Toy Fair, being directed by the original stunt coordinator for Dukes of Hazzard (the SHOW) at Dukesfest, and getting smattered at Kaiju Big Battel. Oh, and then I got to interview Vince DiFiore from my favorite band, CAKE. Simply amazing.
 Speaking of events, we even created our own. The turn out and commardarie at our Ka-POW-BQ's has blown me away. The Ka-POW-Bq's successfully mixed beer, LEGO, free toys, beer, and wings, all in the perfect balance. And aside from creating that, I'm most proud of our professional printed deck of cards that we handed out at Toy Fair two years ago. They came out really sharp, and I wish I could have sold em online.
 I can't help but brag about some of the exposure we've gotten. Our second Ka-POW-Bq was written up in the Washington Post, I went on to write a few other articles for their Sunday Soure weekend section. I've written a few articles for ToyFare Magazine including a primer on playmobil (#113, page 107), my photography has been used on Vogue's Style.com. And early last year, our site has been featured on G4's Attack of the Show.
 We witnessed the rise and fall of Xevoz, Masters of the Universe, and DC Minimates (??) We bid good-bye to Palisades, and watched the rise of Sideshow. (I remember their booth at the 2001 Toy Fair, it was all Universal Monsters head-knockers).
Well thanks for paying attention to a toy collector ramble. Where does that leave us? The future! We're trying to incorporate more podcasts, and I've launched a spin-off site for New Dads, NonToxicReviews.com.
So to all the hours I've hopefully helped you waste, here are some of my favorite toys and articles from the last five years. Come join us in our message board to discuss yours.
Mr. Stinkhead
| 
