F For Fake

Yeah, I saw that post on FB too. Gold Plastic Syndrome strikes again! These things weren't built to last, but the gold plastic accessories and figures are especially prone to disintegration. It affects a lot of Transformers as well. This is why I only collect loose figures. I like carded figures, and I'm not against them if they're cheap, but I'd never put a lot of money into them because it's just a matter of time before the o-ring snaps or the figure falls apart. As always, my philosophy is to collect what I like, and enjoy having them, but not put more money into them than I can afford to lose when the day comes that they all dissolve.

And I'm afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better. Prices had been steadily climbing for the last two or three years, but it seems like we saw the same COVID bump in Joes that most other collectibles have experienced, as things have REALLY ramped up the last few months. Add to that a new 6" line on shelves, a new "retro" line at Walmart, a Snake Eyes movie coming out at some point, and Joe hasn't been this visible in many, many years. The hardcores will buy in, lapsed collectors may return, and there may be a new generation coming along as well. It's all good news for the longevity of the line, more stuff being produced, and value of our collections being maintained. BUT, it's going to make everything more expensive for the foreseeable future. REALLY wish I'd been buying more aggressively a few years ago to complete the stuff I really wanted.

Ah, that's beautiful, thanks for sharing!

Nice! It's crazy what BATs are selling for these days.

Has Wolverine been reprinted again? If you missed the second print a couple of months ago, I believe it is scheduled for reprint in September. Also, if anyone missed Uncanny X-Force around that same time, it is once again available at IST!

@Ken Aldred I'd have to imagine you'll dig it, since you liked the Avengers stuff. It has all of the things that made that great: the time spanning scope, the graphs and charts, the world building etc. Some great high concept stuff in there.

Yeah, great read for sure! Nah, these are in the home library, not planning on turning them loose, especially the Kelley Jones stuff. He's my all time favorite Bat-artist, that stuff is part of the permanent library!

Nice, thanks for all the info Buzz! I'd planned on skipping this stuff, but for $25 that's pretty nice!

Yeah, I was never a HUGE fan of the DH Terminator stuff, but having the rest of these on the shelf now I feel the calling to complete the set!

My AvP book is on its way, hung up at USPS, but should be here before too long. See, this is what I was talking about: these are BEAUTIFUL books. So nicely done. I was really hoping we'd eventually get the entire Aliens run in these library edition hardcovers. But I guess that dream is dead.

I definitely would hesitate to call Bowie a sexual predator, and I understand that standards were perhaps more lax at the time. But lots of rock heroes are confirmed to have slept with underage groupies. It’s a far cry from drugging and raping a child (ala Polanski) but it’s still morally murky.

Love Bloom County, and this era, the "Billy and the Boingers" stuff, is the high point, I think!

Newest printing of UXM Omni 1 went up for sale at IST today at 3, if anyone still needs one. I grabbed the Watson variant on a whim. Looks like it was a good idea, it's already sold out. Market is nuts these days. These things are starting to be more like flash sales!

Thread is fail without Dave Stevens.

When this line started, I decided that I was going to get the whole line. That...didn't happen. I ended up focusing on the ones I really cared about since I was never going to complete the series, so as of today I only have about 16 or so. Funnily enough, one that I missed was the Mazzuccheli! And I kick myself because now it's a very pricey piece, and lovely as well. Here are mine. I've had fun taking these to shows over the years to get signed. The Mignola and Neal Adams are signed by the artist and the sculptor. The Kelley Jones, Jae Lee, Dave Johnson, Greg Capullo, and Eduardo Barretto are signed by the artist only. I guess my favorite of all of them is still the Mignola. At the time it came out, my jaw dropped, because they were able to capture his style so well in three dimensions.

That seems to be one of the biggest hurdles, getting over the "well, what he did was wrong, but I don't care because I love his stuff!" Companies will continue to hire predators as long as the audience tells them they want to keep buying it. Separation of art and artist can be difficult, and it's also difficult to say whether or not we have an obligation to do so as the end consumer. For instance, I felt good cutting Roman Polanski's work out of my life a long time ago (though I do love Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby) but I still enjoy the work of lots of problematic folks like, say, David Bowie. In fact, a dive into the behaviors of most of our "rock gods" with underage groupies is eye-opening and unsettling. With comic creators, I guess I have to try to take it on a case by case basis and decide for myself how I feel about specific allegations, the proof, and my relationship to the work.

I've never been a big McFarlane fan, and I haven't bought a B&W statue for a while, but I am seriously considering this one. Iconic cover, and it looks tremendous in three dimensions. Great pick up!

Man, that's great. So many great toy lines that got buried beneath Joes and Transformers. This is cool!

YES! One of my childhood faves for sure. I don't know why they aren't more popular, they sure were heavily used in the cartoon. Great vehicle.

Nope, not me. I admired the Barge but I don't collect SW at all, so I let it pass. These Sentinels are pretty awesome, but I think about what $350-$1k (if I bought three of them, which is really what I'd want) would buy me in vintage toys, and I think I'm going to pass. We'll see. The tier awards are pretty neat, I like the little Bastion figure it comes with too, and the master mold head...here I am talking myself into it! ha It may be worth picking up for spec, if I ever decided to sell it I can't imagine I'd take a loss on it.

I'm out of space too...but nature finds a way! Here's today's delivery. Happy to have the AF Omni back in the collection (haven't cracked it open to see if there are any improvements over the first printing), and keep the LoSH collection rolling. I'll have to check, but I think this closes out the silver age stuff. As for Bloom County v4, I recently realized that while I was sleeping, vol 4 & 5 had sold out at IDW and Amazon. Luckily IST still had 4 in stock. The hunt for the last volume at a sane price is on!

She Hulk by Byrne is also back up at IST if anyone still needs it. Not for me, but I know there are fans.

Hey bud, thanks so much! i sure am glad I never bit on that $90 Amazon price. Awesome! Order placed, much appreciated!

The Sentinels. Visually striking, and from a character perspective they represent the scariest parts of the "world that hates and fears them" aspect of the X-Men mythos. Plus they're the only characters that the X-Men can truly unleash their powers on, storywise. If you let Wolverine do his thing against every bad guy that showed up, they'd all be butchered in seconds, so there always has to be some lame reason why the X-Men aren't at their full strength, are taken out of the fight, etc. With the Sentinels you can let Colossus bash away, Wolvie slice things to shreds, etc without any concerns about the violence.

Yeah, I'm surprised that they're not doing pop culture trading cards, seems obvious. I realize most of the Marvel Universe cards are worthless, but hey, most modern comics are worthless too...until you put 'em in a slab! Seems like the same would hold true for MU cards. This is the sort of thing I'd like for them to grade. BTW, if anyone has one of these, please send it to me. I assure you it's worthless, and I will dispose of it properly.