F For Fake

Good eye! Indeed, that is a sweater for the Makers Mark bottle. A couple of years ago Maker's created little "ugly christmas sweaters" for their bottles, as a promotional item. I was picking some up some booze for our annual xmas party, and since the bottles with the sweaters cost the same as the non-sweatered bottles, i went ahead and picked it up. I held onto the sweater, and usually stick it on a bottle around the holidays. Which reminds me, the xmas party is this weekend and I need more booze! As for the foam finger, it was a promo at a game for my beloved Louisville Cardinals. The "L" is a common gesture around these parts. L's up, Go Cards! Allow the Ladybirds to demonstrate:

Awesome, congrats!

Love that Sentinel. I'm hoping that Santa is bringing me the recent Amazon exclusive "Days of Future Past" two pack, because I never got around to buying one (assuming they'd have tons of them) and now they're already sold out! Should have bit earlier, but couldn't justify paying $87-$99 for them. Maybe they'll get more in stock.

Oh cool, I didn't realize Target was carrying the stands in their NECA section too! I'll have to check that out. I never feel like waiting around to order one of these from BBTS or whatever, but if I can just grab one at Target, that'd be great!

Ok, keeping my niece away from the Knicks for sure. Thanks for the clarification on the Captain Marvel book, that is sorta the vibe I got, and I believe that would definitely be a little too much for her right now. She's a sharp kid, but she's also very innocent. She'll be 11 in a couple of months, but while most of her peers are all about clothes and cell phones, she still likes playing with little toys and stuff like that. Great imagination. Still believes in Santa Claus (though I expect this will be the last year we get to enjoy that.) So it sounds like the Ms Marvel books may be more her speed right now, and maybe she can get into Captain Marvel in a couple of years, if she's still interested at all. Thanks everyone for the input, much appreciated!

Congrats! 9.8 is very tough on this book. I need to get mine slabbed, but I doubt it's any better than a 9.4. One of my all time favorite books. Love Wagner's funky manga-esque art of this period, and still one of the all time great characters and series!

Thanks, I was actually giving that some thought, but now I think you've helped me make up my mind. Thanks again!

Agreed, I'd price them all as if they were loose/complete/mint figures. I mean, it's a curiosity, but no card is no card.

Hey all - With only a couple of exceptions, I haven't read a Marvel book in several years. My 10 year old niece is now excited about the Captain Marvel movie (or as she calls her, "Marvel Woman") and is interested in the comics. So, I thought I'd pick up a trade for her for Xmas. But I am instantly lost. There are so many Captain Marvel trades marked Volume 1, I have no idea which is which, and the biggest question: are any of them not appropriate for a 10 year old, in both the "age appropriate material" sense as well as the "not bogged down in continuity" sense? She's into the Justice League Unlimited comics and Archies, but that's all she has read. I've done some poking around on Google but am not finding anything very helpful. Thought about posting this in CG, but figured I'd start here. Thanks. TO ME, MY BOARDIES! ""

I like #4 & 25 because they have Death covers/appearances. But I probably still wouldn't pay more than a dollar for them.

Cool! I've got your your non-spinning cousin! At the time I bought it, I thought it was from the 80's. In the spinner rack thread, consensus seemed to be 90's. Seller on eBay claims 70's. Who knows?

That is just strange enough that I'd like to own one, but that's pretty pricey for such a bizarre toy with limited appeal...which as I say it makes me realize exactly why it was so pricey.

I'm sure there are price guides but I've never bought any. For vintage figures there are all sorts of guides for Joes and Transformers, but as for more modern figures like Marvel Legends, I'm really not aware of any. There are different sites that have checklists for various figure lines. I used to look at itsalltrue.net back when I was buying He-Man Classics and various Marvel Universe figures, but I'm not sure if they're still around.

Hell, we had to make do with ASCII pron. The struggle was real!

Eh, we weren't so ethical. I had two other friends with C64's, and one of them had the Ball Brothers game copying software (at least I think that was who made it) so if one of us bought a game, ALL of us got the game. Man, the time I wasted on those SSi Gold Box AD&D games! Pools of Radiance! Buck Rogers! I also adored the Alien and Aliens games, and several other weird ones like the Rocky Horror Show game. Good times growing up.

And MCS has it for $2.40 if VF. The "#14P" means "polybagged" and the "#14U" means unbagged. So, doesn't look to be rare, but 9.8s of the book MIGHT be tough since the bagging process and having a CD insert would lead to lots of opportunities for damage. Not sure that there's a market for 9.8's of this title though. I think stuff like this is cool, though! https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=472721

Here's one that sold for $5.50 shipped in September. https://www.ebay.com/itm/FALLEN-ANGEL-Vol-1-14-of-20-2003-05-DC-Comics-9-2-NM-Uncertified-PETER-DAVID-/163213253851?epid=85538070&hash=item2600449cdb%3Ag%3AdggAAOSw4GVYNzht&nma=true&si=V%2FXiii4UEYLsCTa3rkQOnshiuhY%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Gotta love The Dude! This is nice. The only print I have of his is this Talia piece, which I still need to get framed.

$999.25 This is my year, I can feel it! Thanks again @DR.X this is always a blast, and a very nice thing for you to do.

Well, unfortunately with the major franchises and characters, the toys are just going to keep coming, and they're always going to be improving things. The train doesn't slow down. You just have to pick a spot to jump on safely!

I think you'll be hard pressed to find any hard answers in your search because the answers you'd get are going to be totally subjective. What represents the "best" for one collector may not be the best for another. For instance, I tend to favor sculpt over articulation, but there are many folks who just want as much articulation as possible. To me, all of those cuts mess up the sculpt. To them, there's no point in having the figure if you can't pose it however you want. Neither of us are right or wrong. And of course, with characters like Batman, Spider-Man, and Wolverine, there are literally HUNDREDS of action figure versions of those characters, primarily because there are so many different costumes, art styles, etc, that the character has been portrayed in over several decades. So, I think your hopes of a "best" list might be hard to come by, but I'm certain there are lots of folks with lots of opinions that might be helpful, and as for checklists, surely somewhere out there in this obsessive nerd culture, SOMEONE is making master lists of very figure released. There HAS to be. Maybe for starters, rather than start a thread for each character, just start a thread along the lines of "What are the best versions of each character?" and let people add their own thoughts? You could mention that you're looking for the absolute best version of Batman, Magneto, etc, then mention the criteria that you're judging them by (articulation, sculpt, accessories, ruggedness, etc) and see what results come in. I'm sure you're going to get a lot of different answers, but it might help you steer your searches.

The HT Star Wars stuff sure is pretty, and I have been very tempted to get into the line, but I swore off Star Wars many years ago, and am trying to stick to my guns. There's just too much product to keep up with. Even if you only concentrate on one type of toy, like 4", or Black Series, or 1:6 scale, there's still an enormous amount of product. I just can't do it. So, I just look at the pics and think "Wow, that's really cool". Yes, the new MP Optimus is crazily priced, and I'm not really sure why.I haven't kept up with the MP stuff, but what's new about this one that justifies the price? The last model also came with the trailer, didn't it?

From your mouth to the movie gods ears. I'll be sitting on my stockpile until that day comes!

Sounds good! I'll let you know once I finish going through everything and get it sorted. At the moment I'm leaning towards selling off the broken stuff and keeping the complete stuff for my personal collection, but probably won't make up my mind until I get it all cataloged.

Yeah, definitely some rabbit hole potential on there, which is helpful when the work day is long and dull...