030 - #blogjune - All's Well That Ends Well

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies,
but the silence of our friends."  - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Song of the day:
"This is the end
Hold your breath and count to ten
Feel the earth move and then
Hear my heart burst again"
- Skyfall Sountrack, Adele



Well, I have done it! We have reached the end of #blogjune, a little experiment of daily blogging that rekindled my love for writing and creating blogs about things that I am passionate about. Some people say; "it doesn't really matter if you have a large number of people following your page or not", but it does make a difference in knowing at least some people have been reading my little daily scribbles.





Thirty times I sat down behind my desk, on these cold kiwi winter mornings, thinking about a topic. Some came easily, I just looked around my office at all my stuff and started typing away. Others were a bit deeper, dealing with memories from my past, using my old journals. I believe these blogs should have a personal value, but should also entertain the reader. If I can reach out to just a few people and put a smile on their face or make them think or remember something from their life, than I have done my duty and can go home and sleep well.

People really seem to like the Shortest Blog!

Will this be the end of my blogs? The end of #blogjune, YES. But, I still have enough to write about and showcase from my 50+ years of adventures from across the world. So stay tuned, subscribe, find me on twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube and see what comes out of my crazy Dutch Kiwi brain! 

029 - #blogjune - Let the chips fall where they may.

"Murder is like potato chips: you can't stop with just one." - Stephen King

Song of the day:
"Potato Chips, high crunchy, crunchy

Potato Chips, crunch, crunchy, crunchy
Crunch, crunch, crunch, I don't want no lunch
All I want is potato chips"
- Slim Gaillard and his Baker's Dozen

BAG to the future...

In my life I have collected many things, but my empty chip bag collection must be one of the weirdest. It really all started when we were doing some chip bag designs at the art academy. It all began as research. Back in 1997, the local Whakatane newspaper agreed it was an interesting collection and did an article about me and my bags. Since then I have added a large chunk of my over 100+ chippie bag collection on the Flickr website:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/14266475@N05/albums/72157612423263918



This site is easily found online and I have had several people contact me over the years, with questions about the bags. A fellow collector of packaging here in New Zealand contacted me several years ago. He wanted to buy my NZ section of the collection. I thought it was an interesting proposal and decided to go ahead with it. We met at a local cafe and I handed over the box of bags in exchange for money. It felt like some kinda drug deal.  I did however keep my Dutch bags and some other international ones. The site has had a reasonable amount of views, I kept them online because most people seem to enjoy the nostalgic side of finding the packaging of their favourite bag of chips.

Wether it's Crispy CHIPS or CRISPS opening a new bag is like "CHRISPMAS"!

In the English language people refer to them more as Crisps, probably because of the confusion with the classic English "Fish and Chips".  I have always been a fan of the paprika flavoured chips back in Holland - a taste I never really found here in NZ. Over the years, many of the chips I did like, disappeared out of the shops and to be honest, my overall consumption has gone down to an extreme low. I might get a bag if the the design appeals to me, but with online shopping these days that impulse buying is not the same anymore.

HAM CHEESE - two tastes in one snack!

This week I got an email from a Dutch radio station (VARA) - they had a question about a particular bag from 1989. They wanted to know about an ingredient change from the content. I emailed them back "the back of the bag" - but sadly back then they weren't as detailed as they are now. I do hope they get something out of my reply and maybe it will get me a bag of chips from Holland in return! More chip bag themed blogs in the future - stay tuned!

028 - #blogjune - Daddy Q

“A birth-date is a reminder to celebrate the life as well as to update the life.”
- Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

 Song of the day:
"They say it's your birthday, We're gonna have a good time,
I'm glad it's your birthday, Happy birthday to you"
- The Beatles

Happy Birthday, dad!
My father, Dirk Albertus Quaadgras, was born on the 28th June 1943. He was named after his grandfather, Albertus Roberti. I ended up inheriting the same middle name.
About my dad's younger years, I sadly don't really know that much. Other than some old photos in a few books and boxes. He was an only child, like me and I do know he was in the scouts, sick for a while and became a sailor at a very young age.

My grandfather (opa) Pieter Quaadgras, was born on the 4th of February, 1910 and died on June 5, 1978 (68 years old). My father never made it to HIS father's age, he passed away in 1999. It's weird to realise that in 4 years time I will have reached the age of his passing. There are certain things that I keep around in my office, reminders of my father. A photo on my desk, his ring, his bound copies of comics in my bookcase, along with some items created by my opa.  Downstairs I have a larger collection of some of the great wooden miniatures made by my grandfather. I have gathered them over the years, through family members. Awesome heirlooms that serve as reminders of the past.

My opa, Pieter Quaadgras was the 8th great grandson of Gilles Malherbe (born in 1639). Which makes me the 10th great grandson!  I love how I managed to track down my family back to 17th century!!! Gilles married Maria Pauls, who was born around 1622 in Belgium. They married in Rotterdam, Holland and had two children: Elisabeth and Johannes. Johannes translated the family name, Malherbe to Quaetgras. A few generations later this became Quaadgras.

As a writer, it is kinda interesting to know some of these facts. But really, as a person, as a soul in this universe, all that family history isn't that important. Some people get fanatic about tracing down their family name. Now they even have these popular DNA test that will tell you things about your history, that in all honestly don't mean much in the long run. In the end, I do have all these photos of family members but some of their stories are missing and I can't ask my dad to fill in some of the blanks. For me the photos and mementos do help with keeping people alive in my mind. But when I am gone, is there anyone that will keep all my momentos, my heirlooms, my photos, my drawings, my books, my collectables. 

Happy Birthday, dad - where ever your soul may be!

027 - #blogjune - Fifty shades of glaze

"Life is more than sunglasses and hit movies. Reality - that's the main event."

-  Sylvester Stallone

Song of the day:
"Things are going great, and they're only getting better
I'm doing all right, getting good grades
The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades"
- Timbuk3

The 27th of June is SUNGLASSES day -
Did you know the history of sunglasses stretches as far back as 14th century China, when judges used eye-wear made of smoke-coloured quartz to mask their emotions.  I can't even remember the first pair I had and I looked through a lot of pictures of young me. There was one, where I dressed up as the Fonz - back in the 70's. In the 80's it did become cool to wear sunnies. I am sure Top Gun was a major influence. Most of us go through several pairs throughout our life. Some get lost, some are broken - some are just totally out of style. I have been wearing my present pair since 1999. They are subscription glasses, mainly wearing them for when I drive. I do have another pair for when we go on walks, that I bought on our trip in Orlando, Florida back in 2017.





There have been some cool sunglasses in movies, like Eddie Murphy's character in the first (and best) Beverly Hills Cop. I had the poster on my wall for a long time. His Porsche Carrera sunglasses were typical 80's style.  If you were a really cool dude, you would have similar glasses like the Blue Brothers. But as I mentioned before, pilot Maverick (Tom Cruise) was probably the biggest influence on the sale of sunnies. And with a TOP GUN 2 on the horizon, I bet the Sunglass Hut is going to have a bright future.




Now, what about comic books. Surely there are characters out there that need to show kids (and adults) that wearing sunglasses isn't just really, really cool looking - but also important protection against the harmful rays of the sun. Superman shouldn't be worried, after all he gets his powers from our sun and Batman mostly seems to come out at night. The alter ego of Daredevil, Matt Murdock wears sunglasses - but than, he is blind. I don't think Tintin ever had any shades on in his adventures across the world either. There have been comic strips where sunglasses were part of a gag on the odd occasion, like Garfield. Even in his movie poster Garfield looks cool, but than - that IS one cool cat! Talking about cool cats ...

026 - #blogjune - If it ain't broke

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, 

life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

- Langston Hughes

Song of the day:
"Take these broken wings... And learn to fly again
And learn to live so free... When we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up... And let us in."
- Mr. Mister

1972 -  Watching a scary TV show, with a piles of comic books and magazine to keep me occupied recovering from my broken leg.

I have been "lucky" to have only had a broken leg, as a young boy at the age of five. Living in The Hague at the time, we had a playground across the road where all the local kids used to have a great time. Yet on that fatal day, a few hours before I was supposed to go to the pool to do my swimming exam and get a diploma, I crossed the road. BANG - Only to be hit by a car. Yes, I did look left and right. Honestly, it was the driver’s fault! CRASH! "Funnily" enough at first my parents didn't know at the time that my leg was broken. They took me to the hospital because I had a severe nose-bleed, that didn’t seem to stop. When the doctor checked me out, it was clear that it was my leg that had suffered the most. So, no swimming for me, for a while. Thus I got around with my leg in a cast covered in drawings and names. Somehow I think the accident resulted in me having a bit of a funny walk (according to some). The rest of my life I have been luckier, enduring a few broken hearts and some minor car crashes.

Ironically, I have designed a few billboards on the topic of safe driving. One “Wreck Creation” version, was one of the series of signs and posters I created for a BOP anti-drink/driving campaign called “Sober Drivers last longer” and the other one with my Possum cartoons was from a local Tauranga road safety campaign.

BROKEN ENGLISH

Some of my sentences or grammar might end up being a bit of Engrish (a slang term for the misuse or corruption of the English language). Most of  my writing is normally checked and proof read by my wife,  but none of these blogs are. So, some expressions might still slip through or might have been left in by intent. After all - English is my second language, being Dutch and all. It can be quite hard at times when you are using puns and jokes as sometimes the translation in my brain doesn’t quite translate to the pages of a story. Especially with animal sounds, a rooster might say “cock-a-doodle-doo” here in New Zealand - but in the Netherlands it goes: “kukeleku” -  I believe the international sound should really be: “Q, Q, le Q” There are even country-specific terms for different forms of broken English, such as Japlish or Janglish for Japan, Konglish for Korea, and Chinglish for China. These can be considered more derogatory, with the possible exception of Chinglish, which enjoys widespread use in China and is more often found in writing. An example is, saying “no q” as a response to “thank you” (often written in Mandarin Chinese as - san q). I guess Dutch/English would result in Dung-lish... which has a bit of a bad smell to it.

025 - #blogjune - Going to the movies

"Cinema is entertainment, and people go to the movies 

because they want to feel good and forget about everything." - Vincent Cassel

Song of the day:
"You say shark, I say hey man
Jaws was never my scene
And I don't like Star Wars"

- Queen 

From early on in life I really enjoyed going to the movies. At the start I would mostly go with my dad. He would even take me to films that were rated above my younger age, like "Fantastic Planet" - a 1973 animated science fiction film that made a huge impresion on me.  I found an old cinema list from 1979, with some of the main movies from that time. I clearly remember going to "Watership down" (Waterschapsheuvel) with my dad. I know HE went to see ALIEN (I was only 11). I did see it not long after - on TV (all alone in an empty house) and have been a fan of that franchise ever since. Some years going to the movies was special treat for a primary school birthday party. I remember going to see JAWS 2 (1978) and we all got a huge fright when a head popped out from the boat early on in the movie. Later I would see many films with cousins, friends or even sometimes by myself. With one of my cousins it would be a tradition to see any new Stephen King adaptation or other cool horror film (Poltergeist, Psycho II etc) . The more romantic movies would be the ones to see with girlfriends (Terms of Endearment, Officer and a Gentleman etc).




I also remember the awesome Science Fiction and Horror movie marathons, where you would spend the whole night at the cinema. In 1982  I went to a FIVE movie marathon at the Odeon cinema in The Hague. It was the first time I saw TRON. In the 90s I started reviewing movies for the Whakatane newspaper plus I designed the actual film list for the paper as well. "Air Force One" incidentally was the last movie I ever saw with my dad, visiting him in Holland after my son was born in 1997. My father died two years later. When watching movies these days, I catch my self saying: “My dad would have loved that movie!” I stayed back in Holland for a while in 1999 (when my dad passed away) and went to my last marathon together with a good friend of mine. I am not sure if I could sit through that many movies in one night again. All though, these days it isn't much different from people binge watching whole series on Netflix, Neon, Lightbox or any other On Demand service.

"Air force One" was the last movie I ever  saw with my dad.

I will always remember how it used to be a fun experience, to get together and see the latest blockbuster. In the 80’s I entered many competitions to win free tickets to see even more movies. Later in life, I was privileged to write more movie reviews again for the local Tauranga paper, seeing at least one movie a week. The frequency went down fast in the years to come. The size of TVs increasing combined with the quality of DVDs and later Blu-rays made staying at home more and more attractive. No more looking for parking spaces, having to face cold dark nights or noisy coughing, eating, people on mobile phones. These days if I see more than one movie at the cinema a year it is a rarity. The last movie I saw at the cinema, was Avengers:ENDGAME...

Cinema tickets have changed over the years. The newest print-outs are the worst!

024 - #blogjune - Now your see me... now you don't

"Have a vision. It is the ability to see the invisible.
If you can see the invisible, you can achieve the impossible." - Shiv Khera

Song of the day:
"I'm in your room
And I'm in your bed
And I'm in your life
And I'm in your head"
Queen - The Invisible Man

When people find out you are a cartoonist, or they just know you own a lot of comic books, they often ask: "Oh, what super-power would YOU like to have". Even though, in all honesty, I don't have a lot of superhero comics, nor do I draw any characters with extraordinary powers myself. I do indulge them and answer with: The power of invisibility. I recently read a 2016 UK survey online, that clearly shows I am not alone in wanting this particular power. What would yours be?

Top 10 most-wanted superpowers:

1. Invisibility (15.15%)
2. Healing (14.5%)
3. Time travel (13.8%)
4. Flying (11.9%)
5. Immortality (8.55%)
6. Teleportation (6.55%)
7. Communicating with animals (6.2%)
8. Mind control (5.15%)
9. Telepathy (2.45%)
10. Superhuman strength (2%)

As a kid I did always dreamed of being invisible. The possibility to get away with things and nobody knowing what has happened. Hmm... That sounds a bit like government cover-up. But, yeah... just the simple pleasure of being able to walk into a cinema and watch a movie for free. Something that apparently was important to me at an early age. Later on as a teenager, the power would be more desired due to the opportunity of listening in to conversations. Not so much to find out any secrets, but more to find out what people really said about me when I wasn't around. Sometimes as a teenager it would be nice to just be unseen in the wacky world around me.

Invisibility as a power goes back as far as to the ancient Greeks. Good old Plato mentioned the "ring of Gyges" in one of his books. A ring that gave the wearer the power to become invisible. This story then became a big influence for H.G. Wells inspiring him to create his well-known novel "The Invisible Man". It has even been speculated to have given Tolkien the idea for "his ring" with similar powers. We all know about that one. Invisibility in TV shows and movies has often been a difficult thing to show (or rather, not to show). The main character will conveniently  be wrapped in bandages and wearing sunglasses. So the audience isn't just watching a background. Chevy Chase did his weird version of the character back in 1992; in "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" (directed by John Carpenter!). I need to re-watch that one of these days, even just to see Sam Neill as the crazy CIA agent. Another classic version was Hollow Man (2000), by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven. It had Kevin "Footloose" Bacon, as the titular transparent character. This version was more of a horror movie, but has remained just as unseen to a larger audience. Other forms of invisibility in movies were, the cloak in Harry Potter, the crazy Aston Martin Vanquish from "Die Another Day (2002)" and The Invisible Woman from "Fantastic Four (2005)".

Which brings us to comics...
In comics you just draw the characters as if they are completely transparent (ghost-like) or dotted lines are used to outline the character. The reader CAN clearly see them, but we are reminded by these methods that the comic world around them can't. The invisible WOMAN (it used to be GIRL) is probably the most well known. But even "The Martian Manhunter" and "Doctor Strange" have been known to make themselves "unseen".  I guess, when Antman makes himself really small, he is also kinda invisible to the naked eye. We can't forget the invisible plane that Wonder Woman traveled around in for a while. I always wondered how she knew where she actually parked it.  Sometimes even I have trouble finding my car in a supermarket car park and I have a personalised plate.

In traffic I DO often wonder if our car is in fact invisible, the amount of times people just rushed out of side streets right in front of us... Hmm, maybe my childhood wish of invisibility did come true and it manifests itself mainly when in traffic AND on social media. It does feel at times that my posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. remain invisible to the world. Or may just the comment section is. My shortest blog actually had the most views... 64 and counting. Maybe I should keep these blogs smaller from now on. Maybe it has become transparent that people are telling me to stop the waffle-sessions. I did get some positive responses to my snow comic strip. So I will end with another one of my realistically drawn version that shows the Invisible man and the Invisible woman, fighting on Hyams Beach in New South Wales.

023 -#blogjune - There's no business like SNOW business

“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.” -  Carl Reiner

Song of the day:
"The snow glows white on the mountain tonight.
Not a footprint to be seen.."
- Frozen soundtrack

 

As I step into my personal Fortress of Solitude I am thankful for the heater that warmed it up on this cold winter morning. Looking outside through the window we have been able to see the peak of Mount Taranaki getting covered in more and more snow. It reminds me of the days when I was a boy, playing in the cold snow was actually fun back then. My mind continues to wander to the time when we took my son to the snow for the first time (also the first time my kiwi wife had actually been to the snow!). Now my son is growing up faster and faster. He now travels to the snow by himself. Making his own memories, where as mine are slowly melting away, like the mountain snow going forward to the spring. I am not a big fan of cold and have no desire to get back to the snow. I'm definitely not a "snow man" and will leave that white super cold substance to the super heroes.

--------     Snow BAT    ----------     Spider SNOW   ----   Captain Snow and the Snowmen ---

 Snow in comic books is as far as I will go these days...
There have been some great comics that use snow in their stories. The awesome comic panels of Calvin and Hobbes come to mind, his sleigh adventures plus of course the many comical ways of portraying snowmen. Tintin's adventure in Tibet has a great dump of snow through its pages, but my favourite snow related graphic novel has to be BLANKETS, by Craig Thompson (another famous person I share my birthday with). If you haven't read this book, get it from the library or order it online. It's an amazing story!

 

Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough.

If more people actually read my blog, I could be snowed under with comments about missing out their favourite snow related comic. Instead, I will just end this blog with my own personal comic strip about the adventures of a cute little polar bear who gets caught up in a snowstorm. There's a snowball's chance in hell someone will comment on that one!
 

022 - #blogjune - Book to the Future

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
 - Jorge Luis Borges

Song of the day:
"Everyday I write the book. Don't tell me you don't know the difference ... Between a lover and a fighter. With my pen and my electric typewriter"  -  Elvis Costello

From a young age I was surrounded by books, it followed me through life all the way to New Zealand.

Growing up my parental house was always filled with books. My dad's mother worked at a book depository and brought home a lot of books, that ended up in my father's impressive book case. I have ended up with a couple of them, but over the years build up my own personal library. My earliest memories are of my dad sitting in his comfortable chair with a STACK of books beside him. No wonder books and libraries always appealed to me. From the early days at primary school, getting books for projects, to the time when I first got my official youth library card. A new world opened up.

I remember my first books, devouring the complete blue hard cover series of Jules Verne amazing stories. My father was instrumental in convincing the librarians that I should be allowed to get an adult card in order to access the adult section (in those days, that part of the library was secluded from child entry). In my early teens I read A LOT of science fiction, Brian Aldiss, Greg Bear, Robert Heinlein and Jack Vance, to name a few.

The library often became my second home - with some of the issues that went on at in my life later on in the 80's. I would spend more and more time in this paradise of books.
In 1985, I would even get a summer job at the NBD (the Dutch Library Service) where all books came to be laminated and had their genre stickers added. I ended up with rolls of stickers that I personalised with my name! The money made went towards my Sweden trip.

 Later on in life the library was pushed back a bit - Life got in the way. I found a card from the time I lived in Amsterdam, but have to real memories of the actual library. Moving to New Zealand in 1992, I had to seriously cut back my book collection but still ended up getting about 65 boxes (mainly books) shipped over. In the new country, there were new libraries, new books - and now EVERYTHING was in English. As a designer/illustrator/cartoonist back then libraries were the place to go for research. If I didn't have pictures of something in my fast personal archive, I soon found what I needed on one of the shelves.

When I lived in Tauranga,  I was asked to come up with an illustration for the youth library card. Pretty cool to check out books with a card that has your own drawings on it, (adults were able to pick my design as well).
With the internet become a larger part of life and getting a tablet, research and reading became more and more digital. Traveling into town had also become a nuisance, with the population of Tauranga growing rapidly and the infrastructure not quite coping with the influx of people.

It wasn't till we moved to Taranaki, that a trip to the library was made and we signed up once again. We were SO impressed with all the services on offer, the extremely friendly staff, the fast variety of books (including comics!!), an online magazine reading service and they even have a 3D digital printer!!! Not to mention the amazing Comic Book day they organised  earlier this year!
My first four books are all great reads. I was very excited to find the latest novel by Thomas Harris (Cari Mora) still on the shelf. It's being read right now. I have found the library again - and look forward to more books in the future!

Check out the amazing Comic Book Day at the Library:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo-ZDewWaj4&t=11s

021 - #blogjune - LOVE and MOVIE making

“Read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read, read... 

if you don't read, you will never be a filmmaker.”  - Werner Herzog

Song of the day:
"Life's like a movie
Write your own ending
Keep believing,  Keep pretending
We done just what we set out to do"
- Kermit, Muppet Movie Soundtrack.



1986 - The year of the Halley's comet, not to be seen again untill 28 July 2061. Hmm... don't think I will be around for that one. The International Year of Peace, hmm... that worked out well, with both the Chernobyl and the Challenger disaster. For me it was a year of LOVE!

I can't really remember WHAT happened to the money we did collect...

I was deeply in love with several girls (Martine, Michelle, Susan, Monique, Wilma and Selma). I guess it was quite a turbulent time; most  of these "relationships" were often short but powerful in different ways. Every person shapes us as an individual in ways that the other might not ever realize.  Mean while, joining our love and passion for movies, my best friend Aiko and I had BIG plans to create our own movie. FLAUWOCCULT (the English title was to be Hanky Panky). I had written the script (under the name Richard Weed) and we had already found some of the locations in Leiden. Remember, this was in a time when video cameras were rare and camera phones were not even thought of. So, in order to fund the process of hiring a video camera, we started a campaign to collect $6.66 from friends and family to fund the project. This was way before KICKSTARTER or any other online variations, remember - there was no ONLINE. There were no computers available either, so we created our cards by hand.

 

Early movie poster design and one of the early storyboard /script pages.

Posters were all drawn and later painted by hand. The script started of hand-written, later typed. We actually had some test footage shot on an old video camera and someday I hope to digitize some of these fun scenes. Sadly, due to other things that happened in 1987 (to be continued) the movie was never made. Other than some photos, an early movie poster design and a few copies of the script not much is left over from that time. I have since been playing with the idea to resurrect the project as a comic book story!

In 1987, the script had been adapted with Rotterdam as its location and friends were cast into roles.

In the end Aiko and I did feature in an Oscar winning movie together, that came out in 1985. The Assault (De Aanslag), based on a wellknown Dutch novel by Harry Mulish. We were only extras, though! Never the less, you can see us in some of the end scenes. Great movie, btw - see if you can find it online!

Aiko, Saida, Edine, eRiQ -   THE ASSAULT movie poster - Aiko and eRiQ as extras, behind Derek the Lint

020 - #Blogjune - You're gonna see some serious shit.

"Time circuits on... Flux Capacitor... fluxing... Engine running... All right!" - Marty McFly

Song of the day:
"N-n-n-n-nineteen
N-n-n-n-nineteen
N-n-n-n-nineteen
N-n-n-n-nineteen"
- Paul Hardcastle





Even though there was a lot of drama in 1985 (see blog 018), there was also a lot of escapism watching movies. And, according to a slightly mangled sheet inside my end of year journal, I managed to see quite a few again. One movie in particular would have a major impact on my life: BACK TO THE FUTURE.



On the 7th of December 1985, after only 5 hours of sleep, I got up at 9am to get ready for the special pre-premiere of the latest movie directed by Robert Zemeckis. The cinema: Metropole. The company: My best friend, Aiko (who was late to arrive, as usual). The movie blew me away. Having seen most of the time-travel TV series and movies, this is still definitely my favourite, to be honest it is probably my favourite movie of all time (yes, better than Star Wars).



I have been on the BTTF ride in Universal Studios (before it got turned into the Simpsons Ride), I have selfies with several Deloreans and walked around the town square set on a VIP tour in 2014. I have a die-cast version of the Delorean car from all three movies in the trilogy, the dvd-set, books about the movie, a miniature Hoverboard, many posters and many, many T-shirts. 

I love the Back to the Future poster so much, back in Holland as a rebel teenager I liberated a HUGE BTTF poster (on carton) from the train station in The Hague and took it on my bicycle all the way to my home in Leiden. It has been on several walls before coming to NZ (it was too big to bring along) I still have some smaller ones framed and whenever I find a fun parody version I save it to my digital BTTF collection!  What time period would YOU want to travel back to? I think I would want to go back to the eighties, even though there was a lot of emotional drama it still was a magical decade!