F For Fake

Good to see @the blobback posting again!

Beauties, all around! Just an FYI, you will want to censor the non-CGC labels, or else the post will probably get yanked. Still, great books!

Oh wow, I just assumed it was my flakey firewall here at work blocking me, out of the blue. Good to know!

It really was! I was expecting the worst, but they came through for once.

Yes, I'm usually lucky with the figures coming in robot form, so I never have to worry about transforming them ha But every once in a while there's an alt mode that I prefer. I think I'll keep Holiday Optimus in truck mode, he's pretty festive that way! I totally get the G2 thing now. I didn't for years. But I agree completely, what I used to find so ugly about them is not absolutely the reason to like them. I haven't ventured very far into collecting them, but I'm no longer opposed to it like I used to be.

While I agree with the sentiment, the fact is that a couple dozen people on a message board, even CGC's own message board, isn't a hill of beans compared to the business CGC pulls in these days. They've made it abundantly clear that they find the current rate of errors to be acceptable in the face of the volume of business they're doing. Their QC guy isn't going to come talk to us. Hell, I'm surprised he even talks to Mike. Boardies account for the tiniest fraction of subs to CGC, and they don't care. As long as they're doing big volume business, keep piling on the sig series events, etc, our concerns mean jack. The money keeps rolling in, they do not have to worry about what we are worried about. This is not the CGC we used to know, and people are just going to have to get used to that idea. This CGC is not about accountability. This CGC is about money, purely, and if a problem becomes large enough that they have to actually acknowledge it, they can throw money at it to make it go away, or ignore it altogether. I appreciate Mike doing what he does, trying to be an advocate in addition to his other duties, but I don't feel that the higher-ups really care.

The transformation IS interesting. I have to admit, I'm old, most transformations are way beyond me these days. I try to use the instructions, and always end up giving up and watching a Youtube tutorial on how to transform my damn toy! ha I made it MOST of the way through this one, but was having some difficulty with the legs, so, sure enough, Youtube to the rescue. Then, when I wanted him back in truck form, it took a lot longer than it should have, but I did eventually get him transformed back on my own. Huzzah! I generally prefer Prime to be a flat nose cab, as I am a geewunner for the most part. I see a lot of folks speculating that this mold will be used for a "G2 Hero Optimus", but I had to look that up, as G2 is largely a hole in my collecting. I was too old to be interested when they come out, and as an adult found them garish. So, I don't know much about the deco, but I can see how it would work with the mold.

Also, my Holiday Optimus Prime arrived from Pulse, and I am loving it. A lot of people are going crazy for the mold, which is all new, and I think it's fine. What I really love is the deco, the way the "snow fall" on the cab drifts away to form a candy cane pattern, and Prime himself is decked out like Santa, complete with a white faceplate in place of a beard. Gotta love that green matrix too! This thing will become a regular part of my xmas decorations, no doubt. I also like the packaging. It's small and narrow, but it reminds me of the Christmas trucks you could get as Hess...maybe you still can. I also like the simulated "torn wrapping paper" effect. All in all just a really nice presentation.

More black friday purchases rolling in. I really dig these Super Cyborgs from Super 7. Much more appealing at $40 than they were at the $75 price. If I can find more on sale, I wouldn't mind collecting the whole line. Also, I'm not ordinarily a Funko Pop guy, but this Jumbo 10" Soundwave was a cant-miss at $17. Love that he comes with 4 cassettes you can swap in and out.

This little xmas present to myself arrived yesterday, and I'm stoked. Man alive, this thing is heavy. Love and Rockets: The First 50 - The Classic 40th Anniversary Collection, reprinting the first 50 magazine-sized issues in their entirety, in beautiful hardcovers, with a nice slipcase. Plus, a bonus volume of interviews, reviews, and miscellania. Beautiful presentation of some of the best comics ever printed. Looking forward to the re-read. I've not read them in publication order in a long time, should be a blast. MSRP is $400. IST has it for $280. I got it through Amazon, it was a little pricier at $330-ish, but I had some gift cards that made it more attractive. Surprisingly they delivered it without any damage. Probably helps that it was triple boxed. This sucker is BIG.

Love it!

I'm not the market for this, no interest in owning one, but I'll say that at least this blue one is pretty. The pink one, or gold, or whatever other colors they've done, all looked kinda gross.

Sweeet! That is a real grail there. My best friend has a complete collection of figures and vehicles, from 82-89, and for years, the last piece he needed was the Viper Glider. He finally found one about two years ago, but it was a hunt, and it wasn't unpunched like this! This is something special for sure, congrats.

Hell yeah, and he looks sharp! I used to love playing with one of these at my aunt's house when I was a kid. She did a lot of babysitting, and she had this in her assortment of toys for the kids. I always wished he was mine. I was pricing them a couple of years ago, but haven't found one in nice shape with a decent box at a price I want to pay...at least not yet. Yours looks great!

And see, I'm a campaign-only kind of guy. I don't enjoy online gaming, it's way too competitive for me. I recall having a good time with Halo 2 and especially Halo 3 with a close group of friends, playing online. But playing with strangers? Ugh, makes me nervous ha No thanks. So, I'm sure I miss out on a lot of what people love about the Halo games, but I've always enjoyed the campaigns on their own.

Pickups from Hasbro and Amazon BF sales have started to trickle in. Going to wait until Xmas to open these up!

This was an actually relatively dirty comic secret: When I was in middle school, a friend gave me a small pron mag, like digest sized, but very thin. I think it was called Play Birds? I think it was from the UK, and was the first explicit, Hustler-style nudity I'd seen at that point. I was 12 or 13, I guess, and we didn't have the internet back then! Anyway, I needed someplace safe to stash it, so I hid it in a comic, between the comic and the backing board, all bagged up where Mom would never think to look. The issue I used to conceal my naughty treasure? Uncanny X-Men 137!

Take it from me, kids: Dakota North and Strikeforce Morituri #1 are both GUARANTEED* to make big jumps, and oh, it just so happens I might know where you could obtain several copies. :cough: *not a guarantee

This is a great one. I picked up a ton of Stormwatch books on the cheap at CLink last round, but this one blew past me, I think it closed around $250. I should have gone stronger on it, it's a great book. I have a few raw copies, but need a slab. Stormwatch V2 #4 (1st Midnighter and Apollo) has some degree of heat, but I think it could go much higher.

There are plenty of good reasons to mock Chuck, but this isn't one of them. Good for him for living his truth. And as has been said, if you don't want you or your family "exposed" to his lifestyle, don't go to his store. Simple, everyone wins! It's been at least 10-15 years, maybe more, since I bought anything from MHC. You used to be able to still find some good dollar books on the site, but even those are all gone now. So, I can't support his store, but still have fond memories of those catalogs as a kid, and I say more power to him for doing his thing.

Had this one up on my bedroom wall as a teen, so it's definitely seared into my brain. Need to pick up a nice one some day.

As for CLink, I can anecdotally say that the stuff I was interested in this round has been selling very strongly. I've been hoovering up cheap junk during the last several auction cycles, so I was hoping that would continue with the latest round. However, most of the books I was interested in jumped out to very strong bids right out of the gate. I'm still hanging in on a couple of books, but if I DO manage to grab them, they won't be steals like I've been finding recently. I'm wondering if this is because this is a "big" or "featured" auction, and those get more eyeballs than the smaller "focused" auctions do? Or if there are more sellers out there, uh, "protecting their investments" this time. Interesting for sure. Going to save my money (for the most part) and hopefully get some more cheap stuff during the winter doldrums, before tax refunds hit and the market presumably rebounds (to an extent.) It helps that I tend to stick with common books and stuff that most folks wouldn't care that much about. I'm not chasing any keys or anything.

Finally picked up a Porky Pine to finish my 1969 Pogo vinyl figure set. Not valuable or hard to find, I'd just never gotten around to it. Saw one on ebay last week for about $9 shipped, thought I may as well grab him and finish the gang. There's not much Pogo merch out there, as I suppose his heyday was before merchandising really became a big thing for cartoon strips (aside from Shmoo, obviously!) It's a shame more folks are familiar with Walt Kelly's work, as he's one of the best to ever pick up a brush, and the strips are timeless and charming.

Makes sense! It's not a book I have to have in my collection, but I've owned a few raws over the years, and feels like I should have a slab just for the heck of it. I'm not a big McFarlane guy, or a Venom guy, but this books is absolutely a big middle school nostalgia button for me. Can't see myself paying more than $500 for a nice copy, given how many are floating around out there, and a 9.4 is "good enough". Of course, that being said, I could also probably land a nice raw for that price at some point. Luckily I'm in no hurry!

I haven't owned one of these in a long time. Prices coming down make me think I'd pay $500 for a 9.4. Think we'll get there?