Search

This page could go on and on but I've just tried to include the more prominent and historically important names. If you think there's some who deserves to be here, just click on the old Contact Us link and give us the dirt.

ATaylor aka AT, Anthony Taylor

Long time contributor and poster. Co-editor with Steve CultTVMan Iverson on the Jupiter 2 book. Runs FabGearUSA - a web store dedicated to Gerry Anderson toys, models, etc.

ATaylor: The only remarkable statistics regarding the board are that I won a staggering 3 PL BB contests; Monster Christmas Carol, another song contest I can't remember without looking up, and I think a poetry contest.

Big Daddy Dave Aka Dave Horvath

Long time supporter of the PL BB and frequent visitor to Wonderfest. Father of 5 at last count, has kids who win medals at Wonderfest. For some unknown reason often ends up standing in line with Arronax. That's Dave on the left, by the way.

Chris W Aka Chris White, Cdub

Chris was responsible for much of the Polar Lights box art.

Chris W: I was acquiring Aurora kits when I saw PL's "The Mummy's Chariot" at a toy show and flipped - snarfed it right up. When I bought the repop of "The Bride of Frankenstein" I decided to contact the company to see if they were going to need art for new kits. Dave Metzner called me back, said they were indeed working on new designs and asked to me to send samples. I did, they commissioned me to do the Wolf Man, and it went on from there.

The first year at Wonderfest I was basically a fan but enjoyed jumping in to help. I did the "Big Frankie holding a model kit of Lisa being chased by the Creature on a forklift" print as a lark and passed them out to attending board members. The next year Lisa and Dave campaigned to have me there as an official member of the PL team, and it was an honor and a blast!

Dave Metzner Aka Dave M

Product Manager for PL (twice). Was with PL until the end. Still a PL board moderator.

Dreamer

Founding and current board member. Also did a tour as moderator for a short while.

Gwen Aka Spunky

PL employee and moderator in Lisa’s reign. Got married and moved down south somewhere.

Hankster Aka Hank, Top Dawg, Hank Hagquist

The administrator of Hobby Talk without whom, etc. etc.

Jerry Gustafson Aka JG/PD

Product Development manager but wasn't on the PL team when the board started up. Left on vacation in 2001 (?) and didn't return.

John P Aka John Payne

Frequent poster (he has nothing else to do with his time); acerbic wit; once dressed up as an Orion Slave Girl, they say.

Lisa Greco Aka DaQueen, The Queen of Styrene

The founder of the Polar Lights Bulletin Board. Left PL under less that agreeable circumstances (i.e. not her choice) and prohibited to moderate or post. She posted on several other boards outside Hobby Talk but rejoined the PL board after it’s sale to RC2. Currently works at Bethel College in South Bend (former home of PM) and is the Chief Cheese of "Special Events", one of which was a very recent visit of President George W.

Lori

Playing Mantis Public Relations Director and board moderator. Helped with the Make and Take event at Wonderfest.

Lucille

Superboy’s dragon

Chris W: Lucille – whenever discussions got out of hand or tempers flared, invariably someone would bring up “Lucille” to change the subject and defuse the situation.

Mark Dean

Dave Hussey: Mark Dean! One of the original members here! Mark was involved in LAPCO for sure. But I mostly remember him as the one guy who offered to drive to all the Toys R Us stores around Boulder Colorado in search of the long box monster kits that I couldn't get here in Canada at the time and , once he found them, send them up here to me. "Kits Across the Border" I think we called it. Considering that I was new to the board at the time, had never met Mark in person and was in a whole different country, I was truly impressed with the offer of help. Definitely one of this board's finest moments and I thank Mark once more for that.

I don't know what the actual extent of Mark Dean's involvement was with LAPCO , but I know that initially he sent me a few email notes on the topic and he was quite excited about it. There were other parties involved, folks related to some of the original Aurora principals. Supposedly, there were old but still usable Aurora molds from which new production could be made; some of these were of much sought after Aurora kits that still command megabucks on the e-place. At the beginning, Mark sounded like a guy who had just bought a dusty old, long-closed up corner store and found that it was full of unopened crates of classic Aurora kits. But as things progressed, the other parties began to disagree on how things should go and what molds existed were found to be quite unusable I think. I believe Mark's intentions were sincere at the outset and I believe that he was just as disappointed as the rest of us that LAPCO died and simply became a bad joke around here.

Markenstein

He was a fun guy, and an excellent modeler. At Wonderfest 2000, he earned gold with a beautiful PL Bride of Frankenstein build-up.

Mike Warshaw

Journalist and board member. Wrote the Inc Magazine article on Playing Mantis.

Nikki Fritz

Nikki Fritz is the star of a Skinemax softcore sex series. Back in the day, her manager/boyfriend Markenstein was a member here. She dropped by one or twice to say hi, and Mark was nice enough to post some (PG) pictures of Nikki posing with his Schwinn Krate bike collection. She was, perhaps, our most risqué member.

(You didn't really think I would post a full picture of Nikki, did you?)

Osgood Wickerwood

John P: Os definitely had some interesting threads/posts. The first one I read of his was about some rectal exam or hernia surgery for him or his mom??? I liked Os.

He sure knows how to hijack a thread, though. We’d be talking about a recent movie and all of a sudden there’d be Os saying “hey, btw, I have an ulcerated sore on my inner thigh. Have to go get it drained this afternoon....”

Prince of Styrene I

Lisa’s son.

Prince of Styrene II

Prince of Styrene II: The Cliff Notes version is that I’m Lisa’s son, who she gave up to adoption now more than 36 years ago when she knew she couldn’t care for me. In 2000, we’ve found each other and all is reunited! The fun part is the great model connection we have- she worked for PL and I’ve been building since I was 7!

Lisa: It’s part of the history of this community, Sweetie pie. Mike Warshaw helped engineer it and the whole gang got to look in that night. Ya know what? I can’t think of any other group of people I would rather have shared that special moment with. Sniff.

Steve CultTVMan Iverson

Founding member of Hobby Talk with his own BB. Supporter of Polar Lights and friend to the hobby. www.cultTVMan.com

Susi Klimek

Playing Mantis Public Relations Director and board moderator for a little time.

Tiny

Tay666: Tiny was either a troll, or a loon, or a combination of both. He came on the board one day claiming that he saw Big Frankie kits at TRU (and at some ridiculously low price). He had several excuses for not buying one, or not being able to find any information about it anywhere. I think this happened on a weekend also, because it took quite some time to get the thread shut down.

Tnke Wnke

John P: Tnke Wnke was a particularly annoying fella who got a rep for being ... um, a particularly annoying fella ... around here. Can’t recall if we chased him away or what. But he stopped being annoying eventually and is still hanging around under a different name, acting like a normal poster now. Tnke Wnke is now Babaganoosh.

Tom Lowe

Founder and former president of Playing Mantis, Polar Lights, Johnny Lightning, etc. Now founder and president of Round 2 slot cars.

Yamahog Aka Dave Potter

Yamahog: I would have never remembered the date, but my “Join Date” is listed as November, 1998. According to Lisa, that’s not too long a time from when the board first came into being. I found this forum through surfing. We had just gotten desk computers when I was working at UNC. The internet was a brand-new toy. eBay was brand-new for me and I was searching the web in an attempt to find some of the toys of my youth. I stumbled upon a website (whose name escapes me, but he was a member here). He showed his display of build-ups of the Aurora monster series, in addition to Weird-Os, Capt. America, etc. I think he mentioned that some of these kits had been re-popped by a company called “Polar Lights.” A search of their name took me to this board. There seemed to be about six members on the board at that time, and the conversations (of which there was later a take-off of) went something like this:

”What color did you use for your Creature of the Black Lagoon?” -- “I used green.” -- “Me too.”

”What kind of green was it?” -- “I think I used dark green.” -- “Not me. I used green.”

”So most of you guys used green?” -- “I did.” -- “So did I.”

Later, we had a thread that were take-offs on the posts of the early days of the clubhouse. (“So you really used green, huh?”)

The place seemed pretty lively (Zzzzzz) so I jumped right in. For reasons still unknown, Lisa seemed to take to me right away. Let’s just say that despite my “bull in a china shop” approach, Lisa was quite patient with me. My job at UNC allowed me to have my PC on all day, so, like a lot of folks, would check in periodically throughout the day.

Later on, as I had either two or three terms as a Moderator, I would keep a link logged in to The Clubhouse all day, to keep up with the latest.

Zorro

Founding and current board member. Wrote the “Small Screen” DVD review column for Modeler’s Resource magazine for roughly the last three years of it’s publication.

Arronax aka Jim James, Davey Happyfellow

[yes, I know this is out of alphabetical order but I didn't have the nerve to put myself at the top of the page]

Joined the board in April 1999 and attributes that fact to the elevation of his modeling skills to intermediate. Contributor to both CultTVMan books, to the CultTVMan and Starship Modeler sites. Has produced decal sheets for the PL Jupiter 2 and PL Spindrift (with board member Roho). Contributes questionable humor to CultTVMan each April as Davey Happyfellow. This is his first website.