F For Fake

Anybody else picking up the World's Smallest Figure stuff? For $18 I'll probably grab the Joes. I've certainly spent more on goofier stuff. https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/125768

Haven't met Billy Tan, but Mignola is indeed a mensch. The one time I met John Byrne, he wouldn't look at or acknowledge the fans, just took the books, signed and handed it back. Not that he owed anyone anything, but it was a bit off-putting. I only had one book, not a stack, and just wanted it signed as a fan, oh well. My favorite pros I've met are Dave Stevens, Sergio Aragones, Brian Stelfreeze, Darwyn Cooke, Evan Dorkin, Dave Cockrum, Jeff Smith, Keith Giffen, Dan Decarlo...really, most of em have been awesome! Some guys are polite but transactional, and I respect that. Some are very friendly and generous. Some don't have much to say but are still nice about it. But I'd say the overwhelming majority, like 95% or better, have been positive experiences. And even the less positive (Byrne, Peter David, Kurt Busiek, etc) weren't disasters. Just not super nice. As has been mentioned, it does help if you aren't a greedy, needy dweeb.

Oh, and if anyone needs them, the new printings of the Bendis DD omnis are up on IST now. Print runs being what they are these days, I wouldn't wait too long to pick them up if you're so inclined.

Some additions to the X-Men shelf arrived today. Looking forward to digging into the Hickman stuff, see what all the fuss is about. If I dig it, I'll pick up the rest of the Dawn of X trades, only $10 a pop with my discount at IST. Less excited to revisit the Wedding of Cyclops and Phoenix, but hey, needed it for the collection. With this one I think the only remaining currently in print X-Men OHC I need is The Twelve, which I've been putting off because it's not exactly great stuff, storywise. Keep hoping I'll find it cheap, but I'll likely have to just bite the bullet and pay the $72 or whatever.

That's fantastic, love the box art as well. I have an incomplete one, but it's still a super cool car!

I am hopeful that Arcee (along with the Rodimus) will open the door to the classic movie lineup of characters. They'd look pretty swell together.

Ooh, yes, Kup would be a must own for me as well, love that character and design. They're really making some beautiful pieces these days, but the budget and shelves only have so much room, so I'm trying to limit myself to vintage stuff. But every once in a while, one of these beauties is going to sneak through.

Also speaking of new toys, I finally added another to the only modern line I'm "really" collecting, DC Essentials. I'd been planning on picking this one up soon, just hadn't got around to it as they seemed plentiful. I keep a bunch of stuff in my BBTS cart and once a week or so I'll check the inventory levels to see if I need to move fast. As of a couple of weeks ago they still had plenty of these. Last night...they were all gone! And suddenly prices on eBay and Amazon (asking prices, at least) were hitting $40-$60. It's possible they'll do another run, but I'm not taking that chance. After searching all of the usual online suspects, I found they were sold out everywhere except for a local-ish Gamestop, about 20 mins away. So, I ordered him, and picked him up today. I'm not a big fan of this character (in any of his iterations) but this is a really lovely figure. And he's the rare Essentials fig that comes with accessories (two guns, a little small, but still nicely done) and alternate hands! The paint is great, the metallic helmet really pops, he has nice holsters, etc. I really love this line. I really, really hope they give us more new characters, not just more repaints. If they keep it going, this could be the best DC line ever. Of course, being DC Direct, they'll likely choke it with repaints and then cancel it due to poor sales.

I routinely remind myself that I'm "done" with new toys...but I preordered the Masterpiece Arcee because gotdang, that's gorgeous. I also ordered three War For Cybertron Quintessons, as I can't believe they're finally making them. These were my most wanted TF's as a kid. I never got around to picking up the third party Impossible Toys versions, so I had to have these. And I threw in the WFC Arcee as well. You see, I'm a weak, weak man.

Good luck and happy hunting! And yes, if you have Joe questions you should take some pics and throw them up here!

Thanks guys, appreciate the thoughtful responses. Yeah, looks like I'm stuck, appreciate the chance to vent!

So, let me run this one by you all: I sold an action figure lot via eBay auction. It was going gangbusters (much better than I expected, frankly) and finished up strong this morning. However, it was won by a zero feedback buyer who just registered YESTERDAY. This, of course, sets off all sorts of alarms. Now, it's only been a couple of hours, so that's not unusual that they haven't paid yet, but I obviously have my concerns. I guess at this point I just have to wait and see if they pay, and if not I have to go through the second offer process, etc. But my problem with second chance offer, or relisting, is that I feel like this auction is now tainted, because the fact that it was won by a potentially non-paying zero feedback bidder, frankly, looks shilly. Any thoughts about what course of action I should take? I guess i have to give the guy at least two days to at least attempt payment. But I'm...not hopeful.

Haven't done as much quarantine reading as I'd like, but what reading i have done has been in service of BIG DC EVENT NOSTALGIA! I finally finished up the Crisis Box Set. Some of it was fun, some of it was a chore. The secret of COIE is that it isn't a particularly good story, despite its significance to DC's culture and continuity. But the pretty Perez art and sheer number of characters, locations and action still make it a pretty fun read. As for the rest of the box set, there's some sweet nostalgia (the silver and bronze JLA/JSA crossovers) and a few fun stories here and there, but not much in the way of great comics. I enjoyed the Green Lantern volume, it hit that copper sweet spot with that Joe Staton art, and there were some bright spots for sure (always a sucker for copper LoSH stories, and there are a couple of Moore Swampy's in here as well. Plus some goodness like the surprisingly effective Losers Special, and random copper craziness like Blue Devil, Firestorm, and other childhood faves), but some of it was a real slog. For instance, any of the Roy Thomas stuff, like Infinity Inc and All Star Squardron...oof! I like the idea of all of those colorful golden age characters and their progeny starring in the books, but the writing was outdated even in the 80's. Some rough going, there. That being said, I was surprised that one of my favorite comics, The Last Days of the Justice Society, wasn't included in this enormous set. Seems like it would belong here. Next up I tackled the Zero Hour omnibus, which I only had vague recollections of from initial publication. This is definitely prime 90's superhero comix, with all of the visual horror that might imply. Some ugly, ugly art in here, but some serviceable stuff as well. Did they manage to fix Hawkman and Legion continuity with this? I can't even remember, and I just read this last week. Onto the shelf it goes, unlikely to be revisited any time soon. Finally, last night I finished up the massive Infinite Crisis omni, and I gotta say, I liked this just as much as I did when it was originally published. Say what you will about DC editorial, but at that time, in that span between Identity Crisis, through Infinite Crisis and 52, they really had things humming over there. This is the rare "big event" omni where I felt like all of the tie-ins and spin-offs not only truly tied into the main story, but they are also presented correctly in the collection. This doorstop includes all of the prelude to IC mini series (OMAC Project, Day of Vengeance, Rann Thanagar War, Villains United) as well as their one-shot specials, the Sacrifice Storyline that ran through Superman and Wonder Woman, the Identity Crisis fallout story that wrapped up the then current run of Justice League, and the IC Secret Files. Just a ton of stuff, but it all works together so wondefully. I really, really enjoyed this one. This is contemporary big event superhero shenanigans done right. Not saying it's a tremendous work of literature or anything, but as a huge multi-part continuity correction, it was pretty entertaining and thoroughly executed. Up next on my DC Doorstop Hit Parade: 52 and then Blackest Night! So, I believe previously my total was 66 books, this should bring it to around 241. I didn't count the final volume of the Crisis box, which was a collection of everything published about COIE, including internal memos, Amazing Heroes interviews, the COIE Indexes, all of the house ads, etc That was probably my favorite volume out of the whole box, as I'm a sucker for historical stuff like that. But I wasn't sure how to count it in the total, so I didn't.

Breaker is such a natural fit for that bike, looks great!

Thanks everyone, I'm stoked! And Patrick, yeah, I couldn't believe they had the box and it was so nice. I was trying to explain to the wife, I could get the tank for $300-$400 any day of the week, but with a box, much less a nice one? I had to take my shot. Very happy to have it home.

Which leads us to this bad boy. The rest were just appetizers, I had to have this thing. They're always pretty pricey, but I hadn't seen a nice box in a long time, maybe ever. Ended up paying through the nose for it, but it's cherry and it is in its permanent home now. Really love this. Probably going to need the rest of the Sears stuff eventually, but this one was the real prize for me.

Mail call! This stuff showed up today, part of a really nice original owner collection that hit eBay a couple of weeks ago. Everything is in very nice shape. I think it's all there except for the antenna for the checkpoint (if anyone has an extra, i'm looking for one!) The Wolverine was a classic eBay blunder. It's very clean and nice, but it's missing the tow cable (which is a pretty common issue.) However, they were also selling a huge parts lot, and I could see the tow cable was in there. So, I intended to win this (which ended first) and then the parts lot. Well, I got the Wolverine at a decent price, but the parts lot shot up to around $180, and I just couldn't do it. I asked my buddy what I was missing in the pics that made the lot go so high, and he pointed out some antennae for the Mauler and some other pricey bits. Oh well, I'll probably never find an original tow cable for less than an arm and a leg, guess I should have gone all in, but I didn't want to have to deal with selling off the stuff I didn't personally need. Love the box art on this stuff. I"m going to have to complete the set of battle stations, they're just too neat.

Ooooh yeah, LJN AD&D figs, that's the stuff! Never collected the line but it's very tempting.

Thanks bud! Yeah, the DIC series seems to be directed at younger kids, so there's a lot of goofiness, but I do enjoy seeing the wide rang of characters. Range Viper has always been a favorite, such a funky design. You can never go wrong with the Skyhawk, it's an all time classic, and that one looks super clean!

IST is the best option for ordering comic related trades, hc's etc. Their prices are generally among the best (and often times are the price to beat) and they package the books very well. I've never had an issue with them. I've only bought two "damaged" books from them. One had a very slight corner bump, and the other was flawless as far as I could tell, no idea why it was labeled damaged. But their normal stock is in terrific shape, and the condition and packaging far superior to the alternatives (particularly Amazon, who just throw the books in a box without any protection and wish you good luck.)

Thanks Patrick! Yes, you know I myself have unfairly maligned the later waves of Joes, but there are some really solid figures in those last couple of runs before the DEF, Eco Warriors and Sonic Warriors stuff shows up. I think this is a neat little batch myself!

Yeah, the funny thing is that this is my second time buying all of them except for Shattershot and JLI. I had the first printings, sold them when prices went high, came to regret it. So I'm trying to rebuild the X-library now that we have a little lull in publishing. Looks like most of the summer volumes have been pushed back to fall, so I get a breather before the reprints of UXM 1-3, Lee/Claremont, etc come out. Phew!

I've picked up a couple of "damaged" books from IST and they were as nice as any copy you'd find on a shelf. Some great deals! I myself have spent the last couple of weeks frantically trying to play catch up on some recently reprinted volumes which are pretty scarce at retail right now, and some other stuff which seems to be drying up. Won't be running out of reading material anytime soon!

Next up, a decent straight arm lot. Not gonna be easy to source the missing visors, but otherwise most of the stuff is there. I always love seeing these old guys. Zap has a broken thumb but these are otherwise pretty solid. After these appetizers, I ended up paying through the nose for something I REALLY wanted, and it arrives next week. Pics when it shows up!

Well, with no toy shops, garage sales, estate auctions or flea markets going on, I find myself turning to, horror of horrors, eBay auctions! Perhaps inspired by my recent watching of the DIC GI Joe series (oof, it's even worse than I remembered, but still somehow charming) I picked up these fellas. Gridiron is missing his wang, but the figure is easy enough to replace. I wanted all of his bits and pieces. Otherwise I've got these guys complete now (some parts not shown in the pic tho) except for Stretcher's radio. The Range Viper is super sharp.