F For Fake

Total Justice was a very fun and colorful line. I really loved that last wave of Huntress, Connor Hawke, Black Lightning, Parallax.

Tons of gorgeousness there, congrats! Sweet collection!

I finally got around to opening these up today, they've been sitting in my laundry room for a few months. I have more or less stopped buying new figures, but I have recently found myself getting into the DC Essentials line. This is odd, because I was really strongly against the line when it launched, because: 1. I was loving the Icons line, which, yeah, had numerous scale issues, but they also had a very diverse character lineup and TONS of accessories. This was the DC line I'd waited for most of my life, and they canceled it after soliciting a Booster Gold and Blue Beetle figure set that even came with flower leis. That cancellation may be my biggest toy disappointment of all time. 2. The Essentials figures cost the same (or more) than the Icons predecessors, but have ZERO accessories. No extra hands, no stands, no nothin'. 3. They're based on an artist I'm not familiar with (Jason Fabok? I don't keep up with moderns, I assume he's a popular contemporary artist) and the original solicitations looked fugly.) 4. There are some proportion issues, especially with the male buck. The arms are too long, giving a bit of a gorilla effect. Also, the ball joint ankles aren't great. That being said, I was finally lured in with the Knightfall Batman, which is the Batman figure I've waited all of my life for. It's gorgeous. And so with that, the floodgates were opened, and now I have a bunch of these dumb things. So, putting all of the cons aside, they do have this going for them: 1. They are made of such nice heavy plastic. They make Marvel Legends feel rubbery and weak! That being said they are also kinda stiff, that thicker plastic isn't very forgiving, so you want to go carefully when loosening up the joints. 2. In hand, these things are beautiful. Check out the sculpts on Hal and Sinestro. These are the best figure versions of those characters ever produced. They may be based on a specific artist, but the stylization isn't intrusive, so these serve well as a "generic DC figure". So, I'm really digging them, and I think they may be the best DC figures we've ever gotten. I'm planning on picking up Red Hood, Nightwing, Cyborg Superman and Supergirl soon. So, of coruse, now that I'm loving them, it seems like the line may be in danger. The last full wave was strong with new sculpts and characters (Catwoman, Sinestro, Hal, Blue Bats) but the new waves of figures are all repaints (Speedforce Flash, Black Suit Supes) and the only things they showed off at Toyfair were all basically repaints (they're releasing nearly every character as a DCeased Zombie Variant, and then there's a repaint boxed set of the big guns). So I'm afraid that now that this line is cooking, they're going to let it peter out. But until then, these are the only new action figures I'm buying.

Beauties! What is that Bazooka from, is it a custom? I've always loved the Night Landing. Love your tribute to the box art! I finally got the shovel I needed to complete mine a couple of weeks ago.

Congrats! No such thing as a bad Prime to own, even rough they're always cool! I actually prefer the early die-cast G1 Transformers with a little wear to the paint, for that "patina" effect.

Ran across these while tidying up my storage stuff today, forgot I'd picked them up, I don't think I ever shared them here! I don't buy MOC much or put too much money into them, as I fear they will slowly disintegrate on the card, BUT these were too sharp and clean to pass up at the price. Two of the three are unpunched. I think BF2000 has always been kinda looked down upon, but I know I dug them when I was a kid. Blaster with his little face mask thing went on pretty much all of my missions, as did Dodger (who I thought looked kinda like a Colonial Marine from Aliens).

I have a similar history with the Matt Trakker figure. Bought him new on the shelves, one of the few 25th figs I picked up at the time. Thought he was cool but when the price crept up a bit and I decided I wasn't going to pursue "new Joes", I sold him. Regretted it, as the price climbed. Was happy to get this one at a very fair price, and he's a keeper for sure. Wish they'd gone further down these rabbit holes, so many cool things they could have done! As for the 25th figures overall, I just never got over the o-rings. I know every reason why they can't and shouldn't use them anymore, but without them, the figures just look...off...to me. The torsos too long and skinny, something just not quite right. BUT, I have warmed to them in the last couple of years, particularly on these vintage style cards, they look swell. Of course, around the Pursuit of Cobra line, they started really nailing the sculpts, and those figures look super. Wish I'd bought more of those, prices have gotten ridiculous on that stuff.

Yeah, I love this figure! I particularly love details, like how they used the Condor vehicle as an inspiration for his helicopter pack, such a cool thing to do. Wish they'd gone further along these lines. This is the only one I have now, but if I run across another I'll keep you in mind!

OK, so, here's my pickup from yesterday. You can skip my usual longwinded story and just look at the pics if you like! One of my oldest and dearest friends (we've been best friends since we were 12, and we're in our 40's now) is what I would consider a major Joe collector. I'm a dabbler, he's the real deal. He has a complete loose collection of figures and vehicles from the first wave up to around 89/90, whenever the neon stuff started. He drops out when ECO Warriors and DEF and all of that starts. But he also has all of the foreign variants, and all of that weird hard to find stuff. Anyway, for a couple of years now, since he and his wife bought their house, he'd been planning on putting together his own GI Joe museum, more or less. He's having custom cabinets built, the whole 9 yards. It really should be something once it's finished, I'll post pics if he lets me once it's done and we're all allowed to congregate again. We did the deal yesterday from a 6 ft distance on his front porch! So, in preparation for putting his display together, he finally went through all of his crates of stuff, and decided to cut several things loose. He had a few vintage duplicates, and he's also letting go of the 1997 stuff, the 25th anniversary stuff, and anything post early 90's. This is the stuff he's planning on selling at the GI Joe fest this summer, which we've got a table for (should it still happen. FIgure that's pretty iffy right now with COVID). But before that, he told me I could buy anything I wanted. He had the stuff priced generally a hair below market value, and then he cut me a generous 30 Years of Friendship Discount. SO, this is what I got: * A couple of collectors cases - he has a couple dozen * A handful of loose figures - Had to have that Night Force Crazylegs, even though he doesn't have the chute * A bunch of pieces and accessories I needed to complete random figures - not pictured, but stuff like guns, knives, etc. Including a wiper blade for my second Snowcat! SO that is finally complete now. I have my OG complete Snowcat, and now I have a second complete Snowcat that I'm displaying with the green missiles from the accessory pack. I may get a mail away Frostbite to go with it, just to make it a little more unique. Here's a shot of both of them along with the Basilisk. Now I just need a Tiger Cat! * A few loose vehicles - MOBAT (it works!), Tiger Paw, Tiger Sting, Python Conquest, MMS * a couple of my favorite of the '97 TRU packs. I got the Navy Seal Mission because that's one i remember buying off of the shelf to play with in the pool...yeah, I was 20 years old. Also had to have the Oktober Guard! He has all of these TRU packs, I think I'm going to go back and get the rest at some point, I like these sets when they came out. * A handful of 25th carded figures. He has most of these as well, and I was surprised to see that prices on some of these have started to bump up. They used to all be in the $10-$20 range, but now there are several (like Snake and Matt Trakker here) that are bumping up to the $30-$50 range. I will probably go back for a few more of these as well. And that's that! Thanks for reading, if you did, and if you didn't, thanks all the same!

COngrats! Rattler was my first GI Joe vehicle and is still my favorite plane. Great pickup! I'm supposed to go pick up a box of Joe stuff from a friend this afternoon, if the rain holds off. Stay tuned!

Thanks for sharing! This is all very interesting. I'm curious if my LCS that have shuttered for the time being will reopen for curbside service to sell these titles. Interesting times, for sure.

Beautiful collection, love it. You can't beat the colors on the Super Powers toys, they make for such a brilliant display.

Thanks, I tried to make the best of a bad situation!

I have a couple of the 2006 guys working in the motor pit of my Terror Drome, I had the "real" Vipers in the Stun and Ferrets. Yeah, I'm a little antsy about replacing parts at all these days, these things get so brittle. I had a Storm Shadow crumble in my hands when I was replacing an o-ring a couple of years ago. There was cursing then too!

Also, while I'm here, I guess it couldn't hurt to ask: If any of you Joe collectors have a spare original Viper crotch for sale, hit me up. I haven't broken a Joe crotch since I was a kid, I am always SO careful. But a couple of weeks ago I was rearranging some shelves, and I guess I pushed down a little too hard putting a Viper into the seat of a Ferret, and suddenly SCHWING!, his wang popped off and went flying across to room. I cursed up a blue streak, I'll tell you what. Anyway, none of my usual sources have a spare, and I can't find one on eBay either, so I thought I'd try here. I'll probably end up having to part him out and just buy a whole new one figure, and it's not like I don't have a few other Vipers already, but man it burns me up to have a brokedick Joe sitting on the shelf!

I realize it's an old thread, but for the OP and anyone else: Block is your friend. If someone is too pushy, or I get a whiff that they are going to be a problem buyer, I decline the offer and block. It may seem rude, but it's worth saving myself the potential headache. There are always more buyers out there, if you have something worth buying and it's priced correctly. But then again, this is my HOBBY, not my business. I'm sure folks that deal for a living have to operate under entirely different circumstances, and god bless 'em. Good luck! But since this is my hobby, and hobbies are theoretically supposed to be fun, I try to nip problems in the bud before they have a chance to bother me.

Well look, yeah, there's no getting around the mouthbreathers on the bay. My wife knows my exasperated sigh very well: "What's wrong? Another insufficiently_thoughtful_person question on ebay?" It's pretty common. So yeah, I do agree and understand that the intelligence of your general eBayer isn't terribly high, but that said, for the number of eyes eBay gets on your items, it's worth the tradeoff. I have to answer a few dumb questions, sure, but stuff tends to sell quicker there than anywhere else, for me. And by using the methods outlined above, I tend to do ok. In fact, I can't even recall the last time I had a book returned due to a disagreement on grading.

LOVE IT, especially the colors. I do some vintage Duck stuff myself, but enjoy all old Disneyana. Edit: And now that I see Scrooge is on there, I probably need one of these for myself!

This was the only Snake Eyes I like other than the first two. I got this figure on Easter Sunday when it came out, great toy!

Love it. I remember buying that one right off of the shelves, either Zayre's or Target. It was the only Targetmaster I owned as a kid, I think. Such a great design.

Haven't really witnessed any vintage dumping, at least not locally or in the groups I travel in. I think most collectors are content to wait this thing out, at least for the time being. If it stretches into summer convention season, that may start to change. But no panic selling on this end. I haven't had much for sale vintage wise, but I'm still selling Marvel Legends at a very good clip. My comic sales have slowed a bit but toys are doing fine for me.

Agree with the majority here, should have been a full refund early on, but now it's far too late and too much has changed for a refund request to still be valid. The book was subbed to CGC, and now has a detached cover. It's not the same book anymore. You have no responsibility to refund anything at this point. Not saying you wont get a chargeback, but you're still in the right. I bought a book from a very Well Respected Boardie a few years ago. Received the book and put it away, didn't look at it very closely because I assumed that the Well Respected Boardie knew what they were selling. A couple of years later my collection shifted focus, so I sold the book. The new buyer received the book, and notified me that book had a coupon cut! I hadn't noticed it because I'd trusted the boardie I bought it from and had never taken the time to read the book. That was ON ME, because I should have looked closer at the book I was selling. I shouldn't have just taken the word of the Well Respected Boardie I'd bought it from, I should have done my due diligence, inspected the book when I'd initially received it, and sent it back to the boardie I'd bought it from at that time. But that transaction was long over, so there was no point in even bringing it up. This was 100% my fault at this point. So, I apologized profusely to my buyer and offered a full refund/return or a partial, whatever they were happy with. They kept the book, I refunded the difference in what we agreed the new grade/value was, and we were both happy (though I wasn't happy that I'd had to eat the most of what I'd spent on the book originally). At the end of the day, it's all really about honesty and intention. If a seller isn't intentionally misrepresenting what they're selling, it's generally easy to work something out when a genuine mistake happens. I never contacted the WRB I bought the book from because at that point it was water long under the bridge, but I don't think they intentionally mislead me, I think they just didn't notice the obvious issue that we both should have seen right away, likely because they themselves had bought the book from someone they trusted. But if we'd BOTH done our jobs well, the third buyer wouldn't have had to go through that hassle at all. Now, as for the issue of grading on eBay, that also falls under the honesty and intention banner. I do my best to be honest, but I don't guarantee anything, because who can? Grading is so subjective. But you at least have to make an effort. If you make an honest effort to grade and include descriptions of all defects and plenty of scans/pics, there shouldn't be any surprises for the buyer. And if the buyer buys the book and STILL complains, they're probably a troublemaker. But I've found that by listing the defects, adding scans/pics, and grading honestly but loosely (I'll usually say something like "VG+ to FN range" or "around NM- to NM", I never ever give an exact number grade because who knows?) I have very few complaints on either side of a transaction. Tl,dr: everyone just be honest and reasonable, k thx.

Hey bud! Hanging in there. Family is all healthy, that's all I'm really concerned about right now. "Working" from home, but there's not much work to be done, so I"m not spending much time on the computer, which means I haven't been popping in here very often. But I"m still kickin'! Hope you and yours and all of our boardies are doing ok!

Beauty!

You may be right, I have no idea, it's just the thought that occurred to me. Not sure if publishers are as litigious as the House of Mouse, but they could very well be! Or it may be a total non-issue.