F For Fake

A couple of other new pieces arrived this week. This is the first new Transformers I've bought in quite a while, but I had to have Cybertron Wheeljack to finish out my Cybertron mode set! These are toys I wanted SO badly as a kid, only had to wait 40 years for Hasbro to make them! His robot form is chunky, but that's fine, because he'll be staying in vehicle mode. Satisfyingly chunky. The only other modern line I'm keeping up with is Marvel Legends, but only for classic X-Men and Avengers, so not many left that I'd want to own. This Angel is really nice. Alt hands are a little big on this body, but the wings are absolutely gorgeous. Bought and extra to display MISB with the Deluxe Archangel, which is one of my all time favorite Legends.

Grades in!

Ok, this makes me feel better, I had the Flash at a 6.0 as well. Let's see, one Bullseye (Cap), one just a grade off (Spidey), and the others...uh...not as close! I was really curious about the SW book, those rust stains are naaaaaasty. I knocked it down to a 7.0, no way I would call a book with a fugly defect like that VF. I had to hold my nose to give it the 7.0! The game is always fun and informative. Let's see how much worse I can do!

No specific name to add today (so far!) but it is becoming ever clearer that people are simply getting stupider. Reading comprehension is at an all time low. These people make me insane! Ok, venting over

Amazon really is a shoot. I haven't ordered any oversized books from them for years, but when I do, I only buy via Amazon themselves, and not the third party sellers, as I find their condition descriptions and packaging practices to be wildly inconsistent. I was burned way too many times on "new" books that arrived anything but. I will sometimes still grab standard sized hardcovers from Amazon, as they sometimes beat the prices of the comic sites, and they generally arrive in decent shape. The lighter the books, the less chance of them damaging themselves. They just aren't taking the time/precautions to package those enormous tomes correctly. So yeah, for me it's IST first (usually the best price, free shipping over $50, great packaging, and I usually have a 2% repeat customer discount running), CGN (good packaging, oftentimes still have stock on books that IST may have sold out of, but shipping is $7.99 so gotta factor that in), and on occasion have used OGN for books that are sold out at the other two. It's no knock on OGN, they pack VERY well, and are particular about the condition of their books to begin with, but the prices are usually a little bit higher than the other guys, so they're usually third choice for me. Oh, and MCS is actually a solid choice as well for collections, though their stock doesn't seem to be as deep as the other sellers who specialize in collected editions. But I've never been disappointed with price or packaging from MCS when they had what I wanted in stock. (For "regular" comics and slabs, MCS is still my top choice.) Amazon and Target, if they have a sale going (B2G1) will sometimes get my money, but I'm always holding my breath when the package arrives.

I don't buy a lot of new releases these days, and I've also been very critical of McFarlane's Multiverse line. However, his DC Super Powers line has just shut my mouth. I have been waiting for these since I was 12 years old. I would have done unspeakable things to have a Ted Kord Beetle with the Bug when I was a kid. Terrible things. And now, here we are. And it's hard to argue with the price. The Multiverse figures are ridiculously overpriced, but the Super Powers are much more reasonable, with the figures at $9.99 and the vehicle at $20. Can't beat that. And The Bug actually has pop-open wings, as well as a retractable line for Ted to descend from. It's deeply, incredibly cool. I am going to have to buy more of these suckers now. Booster and Guy are apparently on their way, so I will be all over that. In the meantime, the big Poozer himself will have to be Ted's pal.

All I know is that the best round I ever had, multiple bullseyes, Mike sent me the rocket emoji, and the guy with the cape, and I've been chasing that high ever since!

Awesome stuff, very fair prices, if I had the cash I'd be all over it. GLWTS!

Grades in, and may I be forgiven for what I have done.

I’ve always loved store promo stuff, particularly from the 80’s and 90’s, as that’s when I was a kid first going to comic shops. A lot of this stuff was thrown out, or didn’t survive, and can be genuinely tough to find. I love comics, but the thing about comics is, with the exception of genuinely scarce Golden Age books, you can find nearly any book you are looking for, at any time, if you have the money. This stuff though, not so much. Finding a poster or standee that I remember seeing at my LCS in my childhood is an instant nostalgia blast.

Yeah, it’s a great idea, that way kids could check it out in the store. I wish I had all of my old View Master stuff, I had a Muppets sst that I fondly recall.

Ok this makes me feel slightly better, because I gave it a 6.5 and was suddenly feeling like an insufficiently_thoughtful_person. Misery loves company. I usually feel like I do a respectable, middle-of-the-pack job on these contest, but I am really eating carp this time around.

Finally checked another piece off of my vintage Alien collection list. These aren't hard to find necessarily, but they can be expensive. Finally found a sealed example for what I felt was a reasonable price. Even sealed, the box is designed so that you can still look into the viewfinder and play the film. Of course, 45 years later, the film strip has long since red-shifted and degraded, but you can still make out a few images here and there.

Huzzah for garage sale season! There's a father and son who do a regular garage sale every Saturday from around Derby until October, and today was the first sale of the year. Nice guys and they always have interesting stuff. Picked up some great old store display pieces today. I've been looking for this Spider-Man sign for a bit, and this thing is cherry, even came in the original plastic sleeve (though opened). Also picked up the DKR display at a great price, and this X-Men Mutant Gear hanger which I've actually never seen before. Not sure where I'm going to put it!

Yeah, those are terrific, much better than most "custom" figures you see out there, they look like an authentic product.

I recall buying these as they were released. It seemed so odd at the time that a major license like Disney had gone with such a small publisher like Slave Labor Graphics. Didn't last long, but the books were pretty cool.

Sam and Max rule.

I've collected and sold off complete sets of Dave Stevens work a couple of times now. Used to stockpile them. The only book I never got was that Back Pages catalog, that thing is crazy rare. Of course it figures that there would be a CRAZY run up in prices during the time after I'd most recently sold my stock. It's nuts. I've been digging these out of dollar bins since the 90's, and while there has always been interest, there's never been interest like this. He was one of the best to ever pick up a brush, his work deserves all of the love in the world, but man I wish I'd kept another set for myself! Oh well, they're still out there, and prices will come back down.

Same, I knocked it down to an 8.0 because of that. Man, this was...not pretty.

Grades are in! Failure imminent!

Got my tickets for the 45th Anniversary screening of Alien this Friday! We're going to take our 16 year old niece, should be fun. She's seen Aliens, but has never watched the first film (which is my all time favorite movie.) Should be a lot of fun. My wife doesn't care much either way, but is a good sport. Alien is the focus of not just my comic collection, but my overall collecting, and prices seem to have been bumping up a bit here and there. I've been proactive in locking down a few pieces I'd been straggling on, just in case there's a bump in all Alien prices due to the movie and show. I've got most of the big stuff, but there are some odds and ends I need to squirrel away. FOMO is real. I don't think we're going to see any kind of CRAZY shift in demand and prices, but I also don't expect Alien stuff to get any cheaper in the next year or two, so may as well finish off those little collections while I still can. Luckily Alien/Aliens isn't Star Wars or Star Trek; there's plenty out there to collect, but it's not an impossible goal to "catch 'em all."

I'm looking forward to revisiting Micronauts, but I'm going to hold out for a sale price. With four covers, and I'd assume a similar audience appeal to the Rom omnibus, I'm hopeful that it'll hit 50-60% off at some point. I have so many other books on my wish list, I'm not in a hurry. The Golden art looks fantastic, of course.

I say this with love, but I can 100% picture this as being what you looked like, no problem! @the blob on the other hand, I dunno, I think we may have to petition to have his name changed. How does The Well Appointed Gentleman of Average Size hit everybody?

Same! I'm interpreting this as I should probably sell all of my comics, move far away, and never darken this doorstep again. Or maybe he just pulls totally random images! Who can say? I'm doomed!

Grades in! My philosophy this time was "First thought, best thought." I eagerly anticipate my Dead Last Place trophy!