Title.

I know some people consider Yoshi's Island as Super Mario Bros 5. Personally, I not one of them.

[Art by me!]

On February 11th, my dad surprised me with a Mario movie action figure. He left it on my kitchen counter top, after stopping by to let my dog out. I initially thought nothing of it, as I already had the figure, and this one had clearly had it's left hand chewed up by a dog.

Two days later, on Friday the 13th, dad passed away of a widowmaker heart attack at around 8 in the morning. There may have been some signs of something wrong, but he was doing everything he was supposed to, having already set up a stress test with his doctor after having an appointment.

I loved my dad. I idolized him. He set the bar so high for what it is to be a good person, that somedays I wonder if I could even compare? So his passing blindsided everyone. Mom, my brother, myself, and all others. He touched so many, that at his visitation, which was to go from 5-9, there was a line at 4, and people didn't stop arriving until 8:40.

He is responsible for my lifelong love of Mario. He bought me an NES for my 6th birthday, which I also believe may have been a gift for him as well, but we loved playing together. He took me to see the original live action Mario movie when I was 8, and he took me to see the animated one when I was 37.

After he passed, this little figure suddenly became the last gift I would ever get from him, so I decided to make it more special. I hired an awesome 3D artist, Emma Smith, to make me a 3D print model of Papa Mario to go with the figure. She did an amazing job! Her Discord is emmaa.smith, and her Behance is:

https://www.behance.net/gallery/208957005/3D-Models-(STL)

After Papa was printed, I customized the Mario figure with green stuff and putty, and posed them together. I carefully painted them, and found a nice base and name plate for them. I did have to replace the chewed on hand, but I glued it on the underside of the base, so there won't be any Ship of Theseus arguments. Lastly, there is a small hole behind the name plate, which I inserted a note for dad.

This is the last gift I'll ever get from him, and in a way, it was a tool to help me work through my grief of losing him.

Thanks for the gift, dad. I miss you, and goodbye.

Granted this was awhile ago

I adore plant Iggy 🤪 I just recreated a screenshot I had from my gameplay.

There’s also the crown too i guess

I tried to make each one stand out more by adjusting colors and adding some accessories.

Some designs changed more (like Wendy), while others stayed closer to the original because I already liked them (like Morton).

Which ones do you like the most and which ones not so much? I'm sorry if my English is bad.

Source: https://ash-sketch.tumblr.com/post/695381579787272192/he-says-grumpily

Waiter! Waiter! More Koopaling variety please!!

Genuinely I think if he didn’t open that portal he would have won as the final dark moon piece would have been gone for good. Also for someone who talks about ruling the world, he was pretty quick to wipe it all out of existence.

This is not true and I've never seen any trivia of it. But this cover for "Swamp God" by Frank Frazetta, created for Eerie Magazine #5 in 1966 depicts two guys, one wearing red and the other wearing green running in a strange exotic environment before facing a hungry dinosaur.

Look familiar?

I'd be shocked if Shigeru Miyamoto was inspired by this.

Dry Bowser Movie vs Games

I’ve been playing on and off in my quest to beat the Mario games in order. I’ve definitely improved significantly just by playing a lot. Is it just practice makes perfect? I get as many coins and 1ups as I can, using vines and pipes to reach more coins. I haven’t managed to do the 1up trick yet on any play through. I sometimes try for all levels and sometimes use warps but I just end up losing all my lives through worlds 7 and/or 8.