F For Fake

I 100% understand why some folks think that HoS is too harsh in this instance, given that this was a gift exchange thread and not a typical business deal. However, I think of HoS less as a punishment for the offender, and more as a warning to other boardies. In this instance, Hall of Shame, to me, doesn't mean "This is a bad person." It means "this guy dropped the ball and then disappeared off the face of the earth when dealing with a "fun" activity, so buyer beware if you were to enter into an actual business transaction with the guy." It's a heads up, and I think it's a reasonable one. My sincere hope is that he'll pop up with a reasonable explanation, and we can do away with the whole thing.

@lostboysdid you buy it? Looks like it sold two days ago. The listing says "unique cover was created with acrylic paints", so I'd say @wardevil0is correct about the cover for sure.

That is my understanding. Looks like the sixth Epic collection will be released this fall, and then Conan the Barbarian Omnibus 10, will be the last collections released by Marvel. Heroic Signatures (the rights holder to Conan) has indicated that they will pick up a publishing program next year, but at this point, no one knows what that will look like, including Heroic Signatures. Likely they'll partner up with another publisher to get the books out, but even so, will they start a whole new series of reprints from the top? Or will they just continue from where the Marvel collections left off? Will the formats match? No one knows. It should be interesting to see how it shakes out. HS did specifically mention the possibility of Conan showing up in Savage Avengers again at some point, so I'm not sure what sort of deal they'd have in place to make that happen. From all appearances this was totally Marvel's decision to let the license lapse. I guess it wasn't worth what they were paying for it, which seems odd, considering the metric ton of Conan material they've released in the last few years. There's a good thread over on the MMW forums that goes into greater speculation and detail.

I'm looking forward to getting into my Hickman FF omni's, will probably start those soon. As far as Conan, if there are any volumes you (or anyone else) want, be sure to grab them soon, as Marvel isn't renewing the license after this year. The company that holds the rights has mentioned something about continuing the line, but no one knows what that might look like, or if it'll come to pass. It's a shame because so many of the early Marvel Conan omni's are OOP and very pricey, and now they're only going to get more expensive. Meanwhile it looks like SSOC won't be completed, and King Conan will only get the one volume, before the contract ends. It's a bummer.

This is where I'm at. As a longtime fan, I'm cautiously optimistic. There was enough in the trailer to keep me hopeful. But will a non-fan care at all? The great test will be with my wife. She's never read a comic (as far as I know) and knows nothing about The Sandman. She enjoys all of the MCU stuff, and most of the movies we watch together. I'm curious to see how she reacts to it.

Man, I am sorry these didn't turn out better, but this is a PERFECT illustration of how we just never know how books are holding up in those sealed polybags. So many sellers sell them as "Mint" or "Near Mint", but until you crack the seal, you really have no idea what you're buying. This is a terrific set of books and I hope you find the minty fresh copy of your dreams very soon!

I sold my FF 5. I wish I hadn't. I have a Hulk 181, and I love it, but between the two, I wish I still had the FF5 more than I'm glad I have the 181, if that makes sense? If you had to choose, I'd sell the 181. But since you have an undercopy, I'd say hang onto both the Hulk 181 and FF5 for dear life, and let the undercopy go.

Finished up the Thor by Jason Aaron Omnibus this week, having just started it last Saturday. For me, that's a speedy read! I usually only have a little time to read, like an hour or so before bed, so an omnibus can last me weeks, or months. But I blew through this sucker! Thanks to @piperand the rest who recommended it, I really loved it. For me, with Thor, there's the Kirby stuff, and the Simonson stuff, and...that's where it ends. No other runs have really made an impact on me. But I'll happily add this one to the list! Great book. I love the span of time covered in that initial 25 issue run, as the stories jumps back and forth through different eras. Really big, epic storytelling. Terrific comics. The whole thing loses a bit of momentum in the middle, due to, from what I can understand, is a brief diversion into something called "Original Sin", and then some sort of "Battleworld" spin-off of Secret Wars (?) That kind of thing throws a monkey wrench into the proceedings, interrupting what had been, up until that point, a delightful self contained universe. I realize that crossovers are Marvel's bread and butter, but I haven't kept up with Marvel in many years, and have no desire to delve into those stories. Fortunately it doesn't last long, and the back half involves the Jane Foster Thor. I enjoyed this run as well, though not as much as the initial 25 issues. I have no problem with the Jane Foster Thor character, I just don't find the Dario Agger storyline as interesting as I found the Gorr arc, I guess. Regardless, it's still great, and I am eager to see what's next. What's odd is that, to my mind, these stories are "new", but looking at it, it seems like they started at least 10 years ago! Wow, am I out of touch. I'm eager to see where the story goes, and have considered picking up whatever trades/hc's I need to continue the story. However, it makes sense that a volume 2 omnibus would be coming soon, so I guess I'll wait it out. I certainly have enough reading to keep me occupied in the meantime. Anyway, that should bring my total to around 286. Slowly but surely!

The first run was 27 volumes, ending around 1994 f?). Then at some point later in the 90’s they issued four more volumes, and also reprinted some of the initial 27. The line relaunched in 2002 with the aforementioned Sub-Mariner 1/32, and the 31 preceding volumes were reprinted with the silver/black trade dress. Volume 33 Spider-Man began the new monthly run of MMW that we’ve enjoyed until today, with each volume getting the now standard silver/black dress (or gold dress for the golden age stuff, and I think red for the Atlas titles?) along with the marble/foil variant covers, which were limited edition and continued the original numbering. At least I think that’s all correct! I made the switch to Omnis a long time ago, and only pick up the occasional MMW these days (Howard the Duck, Dazzler, horror titles like Tomb of Dracula) etc

Oh and as for the limitations, it varies from book to book based on orders. Many are in the 600-700 range, some more popular titles closer to 900. There may be a few that are 500, but not many, I’d wager.

The original line of MMW all came with the marble/foil trade dress, and the volume # on the spine corresponded to the order it was released in the MMW line. These volumes were eventually reprinted with a plain black and silver trade dress, and the volume # to represent each individual title. So, X-Men 1,2,3 etc Eventually Marvel restarted the MMW line, and that’s when the limited edition variant covers began. So each volume was printed with the black/silver design and volume number for that series, as well as a limited variant cover for the direct market that replicated the marble/foil design and continued the volume numbering from the original MMW line. So, for example, Sub-Mariner v1 and MMW 32 are the same book with different jackets. The original run of MMW had large print runs and are fairly easy to find cheap. The big $$$ comes with later era releases from that initial run, and OOP releases from the modern era. I’m not able to navigate well on this phone to go more in depth, but I’d recommend the Marvelmasterworks.com forums, as well as the Wikipedia on MMW as a start. Good luck!

HoS, with the hope that at some point there is some explanation which would lead to his removal from said list. But in the meantime, it looks and smells like a scam, so onto the list he goes.

Those are essential volumes, and I love them, but it drives me absolutely bug batty the way the changed the spine dress halfway through the run. HOM V3 is coming, I so it'll make things look even more lopsided, assuming they keep the dress of the second volumes. Still, nitpick aside, yes, terrific and necessary books. When there's a new one I generally save it for the fall, for some spooky seasonal reading.

That's interesting, and a shame, because the McFarlane DC stuff is terrible. I don't really collect ML's except for a few random figures here and there, but I think they knock it out of the park on sculpts, and usually cool character choices. So if there is a Marvel character I'm interested in, it's an easy choice to pick it up. But McFarlane's DC stuff is a total pass based on both character selection and sculpt. They don't make characters I care about (or even recognize, for the most part), and the few that I would be interested in are terribly ugly. I was spoiled by the golden age of the early 00's, where we had DC Universe Classics, Infinite Heroes, and Justice League Unlimited cramming the shelves from Mattel, and DC Direct kicking in with more comic specific lines. Limitless character selection, beautiful sculpts, so many great figures. it was an age we'll never see again for DC action figure fans, I'm afraid. Oh well, I'm saving a lot of money!

I'm curious about the timing of the sale. Why now? Is there some significance to this random week in June that I'm unaware of, some sort of Hasbro anniversary? It seems odd, but I'm not complaining about the prices. I wonder if supply chain issues have them backed up on old products they can't move, meanwhile stuff that they solicited a year or more ago is still not here. Some waves have broken through (Transformers Legacy is on shelves around the country already) but there are a lot of pieces that are still on the boat somewhere (how far out are we on GI Joe solicits at this point?) In addition to the Premium membership kerfuffle that @fantastic_fourmentioned, I also wonder if there has been a bigger pushback on the recent price increases than they may have foreseen. Deluxe TF's, Marvel Legends, Classifieds etc that used to be $20, are now $23, Voyagers are now over $30, etc. It's been a slow death by many cuts. At $23 I start to think "Do I really need this Deluxe?" At $13-$15 I'm filling up that cart!

Yes, a lot of folks surprised by the price. I'm curious to see how it scales with other MP's. It SHOULD tower above most of them, but at that price I wonder if they've fudged the scale a bit. I really loved the Siege toy, I'll wait until this one releases to see if I think it's worth $200 more than that one cost. If not, I may go 3P with it.

Yup, sale knocks them down to $89.40. Hard to beat! https://hasbropulse.com/products/g-i-joe-storm-shadow-collectible-figure-1-6-scale-by-threezero edit: Snake Eyes is now sold out.

Pretty sure they had Snake and Stormy in the sale, unless my eyes deceived me...

It looks like a terrific set. I pre-ordered it from BBTS way back when it first went up for sale, so I should probably get it, oh, right around 2025 or so.

It's really pretty nuts! I blew through a couple hundred bucks really fast just catching up on Studio Series 86 stuff I need, and a couple of other odds and ends. Even the Three Zero GI Joe stuff is included, which is tempting! I've already got another cart filled with stuff, hopefully I can scare up a little extra cash before the sale ends on the 6th. If not, I feel like I did well, but I'd like to take a crack at finishing out a few Beast Wars figures I don't have.

Hasbro Pulse is having a BONKERS "Power Days Sale", started this morning. I missed a bunch of stuff (most of the masterpieces sold out) but there are still TONS of deals here, like BLACK FRIDAY level deals. 40% off when you spend over $75. Runs through June 6th, but I don't expect most of this stuff to last that long. Black Zarak for $107, the Ark for $102. Snake Eyes and Timber set for $25! Great, great deals. Go take a look and don't hate me for what you're about to spend! This link is directly to the TF stuff, but other brands are on sale as well. https://hasbropulse.com/collections/hasbro-pulse-power-days-sales-event?refinementList[vendor][0]=Transformers

Gah, how did I manage to totally miss this??? I was out of town for the holiday weekend, way behind. Hope it went well and if you start another thread, PM me! I'll get my want list together!

All the reports I've seen indicate that it's a straight reprint of the 2019 edition, right down to the fact that on the back there's still a blurb about the "first time" the foldout was included, which was true in 2019, but is now the SECOND time it's been included. There are only a couple of videos up at this point, but between those, and Omar's 2021 review which mentions the upcoming reprint, and postings at the MMW boards, it looks like this is the same book.

I like the MCS site just fine. Simple and utilitarian. I'm not going to sites like this on my phone, I don't care about "mobile optimization." Keep it clean and uncluttered on my desktop, and I'm a happy guy. My complaint is that the search can yield some...interesting results...but that bit of inaccuracy aside, I have zero problems with the MCS site.

This is a great point, and one that I'd honestly forgotten about. When Quesada came on board, Marvel was in the toilet. Quesada aggressively recruited big talent (Morrison, Brubakber, Bendis) and big names (Kevin Smith...not a fan, but he was a huge get for comics at the time) and righted the ship. Like I said before, I haven't really kept up with Marvel in many years, and am not even sure what his position was before he left, but he should get a huge share of the credit for saving Marvel when it needed it most.