iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I love Micromasters! Those and the Pretenders are my two weird obsessions from G1. I’m constantly amazed at the detail a lot of Micromasters have in their faces and arms. Sometimes I feel they’re better proportioned than some of their larger cousins

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I’ve taken to saying something along the lines of, “Ah yes, well played, a fine gambit” in an English accent when someone speeds by then gets stuck right next to me. Granted, I’m not saying it out the window or anything, just to myself and my non-existent passengers.

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Don’t have Bolt but I grew up with a great-condition second-hand Zero. Was VERY surprised to learn he was an actual Zero fighter as I know little about planes. Glad I didn’t show him to my grandpa or great-uncle, they definitely would have stormed out of the room seeing me playing with that

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Currently working on a sci-fi-themed planetarium show for work. Had this been about Star Trek I would have felt very personally attacked

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I was really hoping NECA would have made a Kenner homage Bishop with Lance Henriksen’s likeness just to double down on how weird it was. We even could have swapped the head onto a normal Bishop figure for trading card accuracy!

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

It takes talent to make Mr. Potato Head into Darth Vader. It takes even more talent to make him look like he’s in the throngs of an existential crisis. “Why didn’t Luke believe I was his father when I told him? Was it because I cut his hand off? Does he not like me now?…”

Closeup shot of a keychain featuring Mr. Potato Head as Darth Vader, some of the potato’s brown skin visible around Vader’s face mask. He holds his red lightsaber straight up in his right arm, and his white Mr. Potato Head eyes bulge through his mask as if he has seen horrors he can never unsee.

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

That sounds awesome! I’m more of a Mighty Max fun but I’d be interested to see anything Bluebird

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

The museum I work at holds annual games for the staff, this year’s being dinosaur themed. Not only did my team, The Thagomizers, win, but one of my teammates made me this crown for “carrying” the team. Pretty sure I was only useful 5% of the time, but I do know a lot of dino info 🦕 🦖

A bispectacled, clean-shaven white man with brown hair (me) sits in front of a wall of museum donor names taking a selfie while wearing a hand-made paper crown intended to be a Stegosaurus, wrapped horizontally around his head. In practice, said friend more closely resembles a white pope’s mitre, with multicolored construction paper squares representing Stegosaurus back plates affixed to the very top. The man’s countenance is a mixture of anxiety due to not taking very many selfies and the intimidating visage he images the King of Dinosaurs would rule with.

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I once worked in collections at a museum that had shelves like that. One day I tried to lift a particularly heavy specimen off a bottom shelf and the entire rack inched towards me. Given we were a staff of three I wondered for a few seconds who would have found me and when 😅

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

Took up coin collecting recently (read: tried to organize the coins we already had and got more dumped on me). Crazy to hold something from 1792 and wonder how many hands it passed through. Brunswick-Luneburg 1 1/2 pfennig, 1792. #coins

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

The Astronomical Society of the Pacific knows how to design a program cover, even if it ends up sounding a bit passive-aggressive

Cover of an astronomy program book from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, with the words “this is big” in gigantic print that covers around sixty percent of the page, followed by a much tinier “this is small” directly below it. Designed to illustrate a “Worlds in Comparison” program.

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

Behold my dog, Jack, in a rare appearance where he is not sound asleep on his back.

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

Nothing like celebrating #frankensteinday with Dell Comics’ superhero reimagining of Mary Shelley’s monster. Definitely one of the strangest Frankenstein re-imaginings I’ve ever seen, really has to be seen to be believed.

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

The old Crimson Warrior Action Man, plus several others, all have that same kanji. Must not have been too much Japanese fluency in Hasbro’s European offices at the time, as Crimson Warrior has the kanji for “ninja” upside down and backwards on the back of the box

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

The white and green Sentai-looking ones were released in North America as ZAP Power Force, but the figures come from tokusatsu show “Dennou Keisatsu Cybercop”, originally released in Japan by Takara, I believe

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Sorry, didn’t look that hard - one on far right is Magna Defender from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, so one legit Sentai!

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

All villains from VR Troopers by Kenner, originally all from the Metal Hero Series, so Super Sentai-adjacent

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

2/2 She was absolutely zero help in resolving the issue, but she did ask me how my day was going and complimented me for not going berserk with rage during our conversation. I can’t imagine why that happens with her…

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

Our cable has been out. So, I went down the rabbit hole with Comcast trying to report our outage. 20 minutes later, I was texting with my new friend “Anna,” whose mastery of capital letters, punctuation, and overall grammar varied from message to message. Just like a real person!

Screenshot of an iPhone text message on a black background. Top text, in dark gray with white text, reads “Is there anything else I can assist you with today?” iPhone owner replies, in light green text box, “I don’t think so. Thank you for your help and have a good day.” Recipient replies “Really glad that I am helping such a cooperative and kindhearted customer like you. I get very less customers like you over the chat so feeling really happy to be here with you (open smiley face emoji).” Recipient follows up, using no capitalization or punctuation, “you were so patient and calm while on chat”

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

On my way home today, I passed a gentleman in a Batman T-shirt, cape and cowl holding a sign saying “Honk for Goths” at a major intersection. Most heartbreakingly, as I waited for my left turn, no one honked.

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

As a native Michigander who never heard about this, I find it shameful our state would choose to bury its pizza-related history as deep as those pizzas.

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

When you live in a house filled with dog beds and nice, soft blankets, but you’d rather lay your head up against the hard wooden crossbar on a desk. That’s relaxation the Jack way.

Photo of 20-pound, long-haired Maltese mix dog Jack, with white fur and black nose, laying on his side in a red plaid dog bed under a wooden desk while laying his head up against the desk’s hard-looking crossbar with square edges.

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 23/02/2025

My aunt watching The Mummy Returns for the first time, coming over for dinner 3/4 through it: “Which one is the mummy?” Most complicated question I’ve had to answer in a while

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

As an Oxboxtra fan I want to watch this so badly, but as a museum professional I’m going to curl up in a fetal position if I see a small child climb atop a dinosaur skeleton like I saw in the trailer for the game

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

I get the same thing when I type Bryce in Messenger, it doesn’t autocomplete to Bruce, it goes to Brucellosis, a.k.a. Mediterranean fever, which is caused by consuming unpasteurized milk. On the plus side, now I see stories about that and think, “Hey! I know what that disease is!”

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Same with me studying Japanese - my class never learned what a gerund was, so our Japanese teacher had to give us an impromptu English lesson. I still get confused looks any time I mention “gerund” to most other English speakers, including my parents 😅

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

Picked up the new Marvel Legends Chameleon the other day. Great figure, but struggling to get a good pose with the J. Jonah Jameson mask that says “That’s right, it was me all along!” Best I can get right now says, “Did someone drop this mask? If no one claims it I’m putting it in the trash.”

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Josh Holderbaum @joshholderbaum.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

I’ve been doing more lurking here than posting, time to change that - I’m Josh, I collect action figures, work at a museum, and finally found time to wedge in a few new Captain America and Falcon figures today. #captainamerica #marvelcomics #actionfigures #captainamericabravenewworld

Shelf of 100+ Captain America figures, miniatures, and other assorted merchandise like a jack-in-the-box. Sorted roughly with classic Earth-616 cap on the left through center, with MCU Cap to his right and Ultimate Cap on the far right. A starkly anachronistic Madame Alexander Fan Girl Collection Captain America doll stands in the center rear.

Shelf of Falcon/Sam Wilson and other Captain America supporting cast, like Agent Carter, Union Jack, the Winter Soldier, U.S. Agent, the Serpent Society, The Patriot, and a lone Demolition Man lurking in a corner.

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