F For Fake

This is dangerous. Now I'm going down a rabbit hole and trying to decide if I need a set of Fall Guy/Smokey and the Bandit/Wrangler figures. What have you done??

Found him! https://www.ebay.com/itm/224759043902?hash=item3454aed73e%3Ag%3AsOUAAOSw~JZhx3dZ&nma=true&si=z0E6oUCEQeNnTtshpJwuB1k1JDo%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 ERTL The Wrangler action figure. Looks like they did their own kitbash, using the Burt head and the Fall Guy body. https://www.toymania.com/334archives/wrangler/index.htm

Well maybe not, the jacket on the Fall guy figure looks black, but your Burt looks blue. That is odd. I wonder if it is some weird variant or something, using the same molds but different colors?

The more I look at the Bandit, the more I think someone kitbashed a new figure using the ERTL Bandit head and the Fall Guy/Lee Majors body. Not the Lee Majors from the "Super Star" line, but the Fall Guy action figure itself that came with the truck. Body looks like a match. See what you think. https://www.ebay.com/itm/324427518319?epid=23040427613&hash=item4b8963116f:g:eG8AAOSwe61f4d6l https://www.ebay.com/itm/353966292701?hash=item526a08fedd:g:6pwAAOSwUTliNMDV

The Bandit I would assume is from the ERTL Super Stars line, but I don't remember a blue one, just a red shirted figure. Let me poke around. The one next to him is a Mego Luke Duke from Dukes of Hazzard, right?

I have several things on my list, but the big ones are: Captain Britain Omnibus - I've been waiting for this reprint pretty much ever since I sold my 1st print, many, many years ago. Peak Alan Davis is hard to beat. Legion of Super Heroes Five Year Later Omni 2- I simply can't believe this exists. One of my favorite comic runs continues. It's a miracle this has been omni'd before even the bronze LoSH stuff. The Question omni - one of the great runs of the 80's finally getting the HC treatment. Not feeling so bad about selling the OOP trades now. Tomb of Dracula MMW V 2 and Werewolf By Night MMW V 1 - I'm not a big MMW guy, but I plan on getting all of the horror releases that they give us. There's more, but those are the ones I am most excited about. I'll probably continue to pick up any and all X-Men releases as well.

That's a great haul! And I'm sorry man, I did a lot of digging (YoJoe, the figure ID guide at Transformersland, Figure Realm, etc) and I could not ID those two figures, which seems nuts to me. The internet is supposed to know everything! I'll keep hunting. In the meantime, I just bought a couple of boxes of stuff from an old friend, I'll post pics soon. I've identified most of the various parts and pieces, but if anyone has any clue about these three circled in green, I'd appreciate it. I'm stumped. They're large, so I was thinking maybe Centurions or something? The white jet looking piece is stamped 1978, so I'm not sure. Microman? Star Wars? Any guesses are welcome!

Competition is a very real element, especially these last couple of years. Ten years or so ago, I may have been one of two or three guys showing up at all of the local estate sales and auctions. Nowadays, there are tons, and they tend to overpay and run prices up as well. The game has changed for sure.

Parbellum is the kind of crazy I admire! A man on a mission!

It's...not great. And to be clear, my enjoyment of Salvation is based strictly on the book itself. I don't think it is, nor should it be considered, a rare or valuable book. I'm not on any pump and dump train.

Different strokes, and all that. Like I said, this one was tailor made for me. If I have an alley, this book was ALL UP IN THAT ALLEY.

I love Salvation, it's long been one of my favorite Aliens books. It's Aliens, it's Mignola. I'm an easy mark for both. But I wouldn't pay more than $5-$10 for a nice copy, and used to find them all of the time for around cover price. However, unlike most of the DH Aliens books, I don't recall seeing this one in the dollar bins over the years (like Sacrifice, Newt's Tale, and the other Aliens PF books.) I'd credit the Mignola collectors for that saving grace. With the all black cover I'd say it's uncommon to find it in grade out in the wild, but it's nowhere near "hard to find" or "rare", eBay flippers be damned. It's a super book, though. Awesome cover. Gibbons, Mignola, Nowlan...if you were an "artist's artist" nerd back in the 90's, AND an Alien fan, this book was pure heaven.

Yeah, that was actually at the very first booth I went to. I always check the "A"'s for Alien stuff, and sure enough, it was sitting there for $5. I've got a couple already, but I scooped that sucker up. I can't turn 'em down! That was the only copy I saw at the show, oddly enough. Given the recent run up in price, I thought there might be a few for sale.

For sure, they're out there. Timing is everything. Since we're all fully absorbed in this world of comic collecting, wheeling and dealing, it's difficult sometimes to understand that some people just don't care, they just want the stuff GONE.

I had two subscriptions when I was a kid: Uncanny X-Men, and Daredevil. I loved Nocenti's run on DD, but even I, a particularly forgiving kid, couldn't quite approve of Bengal. Bengal...really sucked. I also stuck with DD until the McDaniel run, and then I left, as I thought it was hideous. I later softened on his artwork, but at the time I thought it was terrible. I eventually picked the book back up. I think the Karl Kesel run is one of the best the title ever had. Following Miller, DD became synonymous with "grim and gritty". It was endlessly dark. Kesel brought a lot of fun to the title. Loved it. When I later told him how much I'd enjoyed it, he told me I should read Waid's run, which I did enjoy as well.

Picked up some cheap DH books at the Lex Con this weekend. Most were $1-3, the second pic were all $5. @ParabellumI was thinking of you with that Terminator purchase, as it looked really sharp, and I was hoping it would have 9.8 potential. If so, I was going to surprise you with it. Unfortunately it has a couple of marks on the back, so I guess I'll keep it and read it! But I'm looking out for ya!

Yeah, there was some really nice stuff at the show this year. I had big plans to get a bunch of pics, but you know, best laid plans and all that...

Ok, now my cheap junk. With the exception of the last couple of scanned books, I didn't pay more than $10 for any of this stuff. The first couple of pics are $1-$3, then $5-10, then $10. I got a nice mix of the kind of cheap junk I like: newsstands of 90's drek, DCU variants, copper "keys", some Mignola, some Aliens, and other assorted goodies. I got the Dead Air and the Floyd Farland from First Aid, who always have a couple of random weird books that would appeal to me. Dead Air is a white whale for about 30 years for me. I was determined that one day I'd find one in a bin somewhere. I didn't want to buy one online, I wanted to hunt it down. $30 later, it's mine! Since I also picked up the Acme Novelty first print, he showed me the Floyd Farland, which is a Chris Ware book I've never owned before. It's not a book I'd normally care about having in a slab, but I figured it was unlikely I'd run across a nicer one anytime soon. So, a lot of cheap stuff, and I'm pleased. It was fun to dig into the bins again, though my back and feet were killing me by the time I got back home. Good times.

Hey all! Time for my Lexington Comic and Toy Con report. As always, I don't think I have enough to say to make it worthy of a thread unto itself, so I'll hijack this one for a couple of posts. Mike, if you need to move it, I understand. So, I haven't been to a "real" comic show since before the pandemic started, and I haven't been to this show in about four years. This is the tenth year, and it's amazing how it's grown. I used to go for the entire weekend, but once attendance crossed the 25k mark, I stopped going. Just too many people for my taste. However, they have added a four hour "Comics Only preview night" for comic shoppers on Thursday, and Friday afternoon is also easy enough to get around, so I had a good time. I had no real goals or anything on my list. My plan was to stick to the cheap stuff, which is what I like best anyway. I wasn't even looking at wall books, which is good, because prices are $$$. If there were deals on keys, I sure didn't see them. So, I stuck to the bargain bins. As for con chatter, I heard multiple people ask dealers for The Last Ronin. There were also a lot of turtle books in general. However, I chalk this up to the fact that Kevin Eastman was going to be at the show Sat/Sun. Otherwise, I heard requests for horror titles, Dave Stevens, and lots and lots of window shoppers for the big keys. I did personally observe someone pay $3600 cash for a CGC 8.5 Scooby Doo #1, so I guess that's something? There was a pretty decent selection of comic vendors this year. I felt like in the last couple of years I attended, the show was being overrun by Funko Pops and suchlike. So this was nice to see. I was going to take a lot of wall pics, but I was beat by Friday night, and quit after a couple. There were a lot of nice books there, but I think Buzzard Brothers and DT Comics had the best. So here are some wall pics. Buzzard apparently did an IG live thing on Thursday, someone told me they sold a book for $20k? I'm not sure, i didn't see that. But they had some sweet stuff. Anyway, wall pics, then I'll get to my haul.

Congrats on completing the set, that's great. Love the 30 centers.

I picked up the Maketoys “Rearend” (aka Tailgate) pack a few months ago. It came with an upgrade kit for “Hurricane” (Cyclonus) but the particular Cyclonus figure it was made to adapt was part of a two pack with Hot Rod that I never felt like paying $40+ to pick up. I finally found a loose set a week or two ago for $25, and decided to upgrade Cyclonus this weekend. First of all, this was much more of a pain in the butt than I’d expected, as some of these screws are TINY, and not easy to remove. I had to get a new mini screwdriver set, as my usual one was not a perfect fit. Anyway, a few days, an Amazon screwdriver order, and lots of cursing later, he’s complete. I dig the effect, but compared to the recent Kingdom Cyke mold, this guy seems tiny. Maybe a third party will make a similar upgrade for that one some day. Until then it’s fine. The Lost Light crew continues to slowly, but surely, expand!

Not sure if you’re interested in Marvel Masterworks, but Tomb of Dracula started up in MMW format with a new restoration last year, and it’s really lovely. Of course, at one MMW per year, it’ll take many years for the masterworks to catch up with what the Omnis collected. But they do look great. I would be surprised if the ToD omnis don’t get a reprint whenever the MCU Blade stuff gets rolling.

Since distribution is so jacked up these days, coming from so many sources, I’m not sure when the comic shops should have received their copies. But the Thor Vol 1 Omni has been out at the online retailers for a few weeks. IST still shows it as in stock, I’m not sure if CGN still has it, but they did at release week.

Cool. I am going to a show this weekend, my first since COVID, and I'm reaaaaaaaally curious about what pricing is going to look like. I'd already planned on ignoring the walls and sticking to the bargain bins, but maybe I'll find some deals. I guess we'll see!

Yes, it is. At least historically, this has been the case. I didn't realize that how the book was "centered" in the slab was even a concern. I mean, I guess if it was WAAAAAY off it might bug me, but otherwise, meh. The slab is there to protect the book. As long as it's doing that, I don't care much about the case.