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.
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!
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.
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.
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