F For Fake

Nice! I bought the Absolute Danger Girl when it came out, and eventually sold it, thinking "Eh, they'll eventually reprint it like everything else." This turns out to have been a dumb idea on my part.

Same. Classic version would be an instant buy, this one is a big maybe.

Oh, and to answer the disintegrating question, yes, it's true that the vintage o-rings have a habit of drying up or dry-rotting, but with their more recent o-ring offerings, Hasbro claim to have changed the material that the rings are made out of, so they are supposed to be much more durable. Of course, time will tell on that count.

1. I'm pretty sure it started in October, though someone else can verify. It's a pretty long run up, which I guess makes sense considering this is the holiday season and all, and Super 7 charges you up front for these crowdfund/preorders. Give people plenty of time to plan and budget. 2. O-Ring figures are the classic rubber-band styled GI Joe figures that Hasbro made for decades. "ReAction" is Super7's brand of figures that have only 5 points of articulation, in the classic Kenner Star Wars style. They've made countless different licenses under the ReAction banner, starting with Alien, but expanding to pretty much any pop-culture property you can think of, from real life music acts (Run DMC, Ghost, Slayer, and so many more) to classic brands like Transformers, Universal Monsters, Godzilla, etc. Similar to Funko Pops, ReAction takes all of these disparate brands and unifies them under one classic, simple retro style with very basic articulation. The problem is that they also have the GI Joe license, and while they do a tremendous job of capturing the classic Sunbow animation style with the ReAction figures, your typical GI Joe fan is used to a lot more articulation and a lower price point. Since Super 7 is a boutique brand, it's assumed that they're making much smaller runs of figures than Hasbro would, so Reaction figures generally cost about $17 a pop. Many Joe fans balked at that, as you're paying more for much less articulation and usually zero accessories. I didn't really mind, because I always looked at the ReAction figures as being more like an art object than a toy I would "play with". But I understand the complaints. At any rate, I don't know if it was ever established as fact, but the general assumption has always been that Super 7 probably didn't have the rights to make Joe figures with classic/o-ring articulation, as that has always been Hasbro's bailiwick. However, with Hasbro canceling their retro line, and no more o-ring or otherwise articulated 3 3/4" scale figures being offered by them in a year or more, the fact that Super 7 is now suddenly offering articulated O-ring figures with this newest project makes one wonder if perhaps Hasbro is really, truly done with anything other than Classified scale figures, and Super 7 may now be allowed to go forward with something other than the ReAction style 5poa. If they were able to blend their terrific animation acurate sculpt with better articulation, I'd buy everything release. Just speculation, but it's interesting for sure. So, it's not really an o-ring vs modern articulation situation, it's a five POA vs more articulated situation. I personally always preferred the o-ring figures because the modern Joe figures had weird long torsos and the articulation could be wonky. By the end of the retro line, Hasbro seemed to have finally gotten it more or less right with non-oring figures that had great articulation and sculpt in the 3 3/4" range. Particularly that last gasp wave with the Cobra Trooper and Grunt, those were beautifully done. If they'd made more figures like that, I'd have bought more, o-ring or not.

That's for the best! My wife doesn't actually care, but she's not really a "stuff" person, so she doesn't understand the impulse to accumulate things. Except money. She likes to accumulate money. So in her mind, why would I like to have this junk, when I could have money instead? Sometimes I think she may have a point, but I haven't fully come over to her side yet.

My wife used to just walk into my office/library, look around the room, and then say "Sell this." I didn't ,so I guess she's given up.

The struggle is real! I have a couple of small stacks of omnis that need to be filed into the collection, and I'm thinking I may have to let go of a few things to make room, or else they may just have to stay in stacks!

Oh for sure, it's every bit as addictive as collecting individual books, and also takes up a lot more space as well! Even though I really love looking at my library, I sometimes think "Am I seriously ever going to read that book again in my lifetime?" In these instances I choose to believe I'm going to live an unnaturally long time, so it's sane to hold onto them!

I still love comics and have a few boxes of them, but it eventually dawned on me that I was unlikely to ever return and reread all of those individual issues, which were stored away in boxes never to be looked upon again, in all likelihood. At least with a hardcover or trade, it's there sitting on the bookshelf where I can see it, and easily pull it down to leaf through if I want. There's no right or wrong way to collect, but these days I'm definitely a collected editions guy. And yes, the price was a big motivator as well. With Batman I was a completist, which meant grabbing every cover. There was a period where they were publishing the title twice a month, and each issue had (at least) two covers, so that was about $20 for two stories which would take me about 5 minutes to read, only to be stuck in a box and never looked at again. The math just didn't add up anymore. I still buy back issues here and there, some slabs, some raw, but the monthly floppy just isn't for me anymore. The one exception is my Alien collection, which I keep going even though I haven't cared for the Marvel books much at all.

(The secret is that I don't communicate clearly at any point of the day...and it's always morning somewhere. Probably?)

It's too early in the day for me to be expected to communicate clearly!

I was a hardcore Bat guy most of my life, and had a complete run of all of the titles, including one-shots and minis, from Year One through Rebirth. I eventually realized that I just didn't care anymore, and stopped buying new books, and sold the collection in favor of hardcovers, as most of that material has been collected, with a few notable exceptions. Still love the character and have great nostalgia for big chunks of the run, but there's just too much content to keep up with these days, and I no longer care to chase it all down.

Always loved that figure. My first two Super Powers were Flash and Darkseid, both a Xmas gift from an aunt. Loved that guy.

I am still on the fence. I had more or less stopped buying Joes, but this ship was my #1 single most wanted fantasy vehicle as a kid, so the fact that it is now going to be a reality may be too much to resist. But $500...oof. We'll see. I find it very interesting that they're offering a set of O-ring figures as well, makes one wonder if Hasbro isn't totally done with O-ring for the foreseeable future. I like the designs of the Reaction figures, as I'm a Sunbow cartoon Joe guy, and if they were to start making more o-ring figures in that style, I'd be totally onboard.

Last year I had good luck with Burlington, but this year all I found was a handful of Legends (luckily, they were figures I was looking for.) It can be boom or bust for sure, as the shipping/stocking seems at random. So you may get lucky and be there right after they received a shipment, however they may have only gotten one or two cases of the item in question. I feel like most of the big shipments came in October, but I’m hopeful that things will keep trickling in throughout the season. We have three Ross stores here, though none are super convenient. I have an Ollie’s and a Burlington that are sorta kinda on the way home from work, so I check there more often.

Yeah I hedged my bets on that one maybe getting discounted further, paid off this time, but it doesn’t always! At least you’ve got it in hand and don’t have to worry about it selling out!

IST doing some more stealth price drops on very recent omnis. Glad I held off on these: Avengers Vol 5 down to $40 https://www.instocktrades.com/products/mar230944/avengers-omnibus-hc-vol-05-dm-var What If Into the Multiverse down to $50 https://www.instocktrades.com/products/sep221109/what-if-into-the-multiverse-omnibus-hc-vol-01-dm-var Marvel Age down to $50 https://www.instocktrades.com/products/jan230994/marvel-age-omnibus-hc-vol-01 OHMU 89 Update back at $30 https://www.instocktrades.com/products/oct210974/official-handbook-marvel-89-omnibus-hc

It's gotten to the point where I'm hesitating to pay retail for TF stuff, because for at least the last three or four years, eventually everything has shown up at Ross/Ollies/Burlington/etc. You just never know what you might find.

I've had to do it several times. It comes and goes. There was a period a month or two ago, I believe there was some change to the board software, and suddenly I was having to plot the course for that stupid little captcha car every few minutes. I mean, literally after every single post. It was infuriating. Eventually it eased up, to the point where it surprised me when it popped up a couple of times last week, after having not happened for so long. I truly believe it's something to do with the firewall/security settings forced on us here at work, because it's not just the CGC boards. For instance, when I go to CLink, sometimes it will make me click a button to say I'm human before it will let me log in, and sometimes it simply says I'm blocked and won't let me log in at all. Meanwhile, if I use a computer at home, or my phone, I get no such challenges. So, yeah, I have seen the dumb little car many times, though not as often as I once did. But I think the problem is on my end, not on CGC's.

I have yet to dig up any GI Joe Classifieds or Transformers, but I did score some Marvel Legends this weekend. I know people have been finding crazy TF stuff at Ross/Ollies/Burlington, like all of the formerly impossible to find Walmart Velocitron stuff (Cosmos, Crasher, Shadow Strip) and Target Exclusives like Tonkanator, not to mention Titans like the Ark. Lots of great stuff floating around, but I haven't seen it here. This weekend we were at our place at the lake, and drove out to a nearby town and hit up all of their closeout stores. There's a strip mall in Owensboro that has Ross, Burlington, Gabe's, Bealls, all lined up in a row, and there's an Ollies not too terribly far away. Didn't turn up any Joes or TF's, but I did manage to grab most of the Legends Controller wave. I'm just short Thor, which I DID find at Burlington, but some jerk had removed the Controller pieces. I also passed on Iron Man because he never included a BAF piece, and I don't care about various Iron Man armors. Also grabbed this retro Falcon. Passed on retro Loki at Ross for $5.99, probably should have grabbed him. Happy hunting! Lots of good stuff floating around this time of year! Edit: for those wondering on Legends pricing while hunting, Ross was $5.99, Burlington $7.99, and Ollies $7.99 to $9.99 depending on the series. Ollies is still absolutely swimming in Eternals, Dr. Strange 2, X-Men AOA 2, and Black Panther 2 stuff that is never going to sell, been gathering dust for some time. But you can also find some newer things that have recently dropped like X-Men Bonebreaker Wave and Controller Wave.

I really loved that Marvel Retro line, they were exactly the toys I wanted when I was a kid. Wish they hadn't discontinued it, but I guess the market is small for such a thing.

That long stretch of stories in Batman, from the Moench/Jones run, into Legacy, Contagion, Cataclysm, etc and then No Man's Land, is absolutely one of my favorite eras. Just one great story after another, and NML was so sprawling and epic. Felt like real editorial cohesion between the various Bat-titles. Great stuff. I've got all of the recent omnis, but am holding off on my reread, as I am hoping they eventually collect all of the post-Crisis stuff that they published in the Caped Crusader/Dark Knight Detective tpbs, into a set of omnis. I'd like to reread the entire post-Crisis run, from Year One through Morrison, all in one go, like I did month to month over the years.

Wow, Omar announced that Marvel is finally doing a Godzilla Omni! This is pretty amazing. I thought the announcements of ROM and Micronauts were surprising, and it gave me some hope that this one may come to be, but it's still very exciting and unexpected.

That's all very interesting and concerning. These days CGC can't even "detect" that a book is upside down, so who knows what else may get past them?