F For Fake

Ha yeah, that is a pretty distinct outfit, the head swap alone probably isn't going to fool anyone! I think that the Stormshadow and Snake Eyes are full heads, but the others are masks? It's pretty cool, so he may get opened before too long. If I do, I'll definitely share!

Blueberry Flavored Head-Swapper Zartan showed up this weekend. Packaging is really fun. Kinda wanna break him out, kinda don't. Hrm...

Hmm, definitely interesting. I'll check it out, whoever gets it. Whether or not I stick around is another question entirely.

Patrick, what's the story on this one? It kinda reminds me of the Go-Bots power suits, but is not a model I'm familiar with. Looks groovy!

The Phase 2 TF books (More than Meets the Eye, Robots in Disguise, Lost Light etc) and the Cobra/Last Laugh/Coil GI Joe books are some of my favorite comics of all time. Ever. They were firing on all cylinders then. After that…yeah, not so good. But when they were great, they were really great, and yes I do love the Thrilling 30 TF stuff that Hasbro did with the IDW designs. Very cool stuff.

Boom would also make sense. If the Dark Horse/Star Wars thing hadn't already gone down, they'd be my #1 prediction. So I'd say they'd have to be in the mix, regardless.

Well, it's already announced that IDW has lost the juvenile Star Wars titles, which are returning to Dark Horse (Marvel will keep publishing the "mainstream" SW stuff). So, with that relationship already in place for licensed material, I'd say the top contenders would be Dark Horse or Marvel. If Marvel wants it, seems like they could have it. But if they don't, I'd think Dark Horse would get it, since the SW connection is already made. I'd expect Transformers will follow Joe to wherever it ultimately lands. IDW is about to be left with TMNT and...not much else.

I get it. The modern stuff gets much more of a "oh, coooool!" reaction out of me. But the vintage stuff is what tugs at the heartstrings/nostalgia. From a sculpt/design/playability standpoint, there are some amazing things going on with modern figures. But it's the older, simpler stuff that gives me that Christmas morning feeling. So, I'm torn.

The great truth of collecting is that there is always much more cool stuff than there is money, at least for me!

I get that, totally. I go back and forth. Several times I've sold off most of my modern stuff so I can pursue more vintage. But then I start seeing some new stuff that is too cool to turn away from, and suddenly I'm buying up new toys again. It's a vicious cycle. The Haslab was a chunk of change, and I wasn't super excited about it, but knowing how these things go, I thought it best to go ahead and grab it now. These Haslab things tend to explode in price on the secondary market, so I thought it better to spend the $250 now and not regret missing out later. Even if it's just so I can sell it.

This was literally me at Target the other night. Girl brings out the bags (I usually do drive up), and says "Oh, getting some Christmas shopping done?" "...Yes. Yes, that's what I'm doing." That is not what I was doing.

Woke up to find we got Ripcord too! Crazy, to have gone from "not gonna make it" to "blasting through the first two tiers" in the space of a day. We came within, what, 1500, of getting the flight crew (or as I've seen them called on FB, "Ketchup and Mustard") so I'm really hoping they're offered separately at some point, as they were the pieces I wanted most of all. I feel much better about backing it since we're now getting 7 figures with the set. It may just be mental gymnastics/justification, but it looks like Hasbro will be valuing o-rings at $20 a pop (based on the Snake/Stormy two pack) so it's sorta like we got $140 worth of figures, and $100 for the jet itself. Whatever helps me sleep at night, I guess.

This is absolutely true. I remember them being wall books in their heyday. But in recent years they were dollar bin fodder, if even that. But you're 100% right, I should have known better, because everything that even had a whiff of heat in the last 30 years seems to have rebounded somewhat. Except Fish Police. Damn it. I love Fish Police.

When a man and a woman, or a man and a man, or a woman and a woman, or really any combination of people, love each other VERY much, they go down to the local Joann's Fabrics stores with a fistful of fursuit patterns and a twinkle in their eye...

Yes, just checked the page and saw that. They've piled on the orders since this morning. We've gone from "will it fund" to "are tiers possible"? 13k still seems pretty far away, but I'd love to see it. If I'm buying this thing, I want as many extras as I can get!

As for my market report, someone sold some small keys to the LCS lately, including first Captain Marvel, first Carol Danvers, and first Guardians. The MSH 12 & 18 seemed priced right at a couple hundred bucks, but they're asking like $1100 for the MSH 13. It's a nice looking book, but I couldn't imagine paying even half of that. Were raws ever that high? Holy cats. I'll be curious to see if it moves at all, or comes down in price, as I've just learned from the CGC boards that Brie Larson is mean and apparently doesn't pretend to care about comic books enough for them to like her performance, and therefore the future of her films, and corresponding value of the Carol Danvers books, are doomed, DOOMED I say! I sincerely wish you all well if you should ever meet a real breathing woman in the future. Never give up!

The several times I met George were all at DragonCon, and he is just the best. Couldn't be more generous with his time, and seemed endlessly positive. I can't imagine what he's going through, but putting on this brave face, it's remarkable. Great talent and great guy.

Looks like the Sky Striker is going to squeak in, with nearly 10 hours left and only 76 backers needed. If it's going to fund I really wish a sudden avalanche of backers would emerge so we could get those tiers unlocked, but I guess I'll have to be satisfied with the five it's going to come with.

Love John Bolton. Still couldn't give away Lestat/Interview books until recently. Drek is something of a term of endearment around here.

I agree that the second arc is better, for sure. Not great, but better. The first arc was terrible, and the art, my god, my eyes. That Salvador Larroca photoshop art, so dull and lifeless, makes Greg Land look like a master illustrator. Yuck. To be fair, Dark Horse had gotten pretty lazy there at the end as well. For instance, the adaptations of the Gibson Alien 3, and "Alien the Original Screenplay" were just dull cash-grabs to me. But up to that point, I loved the books so much. Funky, r-rated, adult aimed sci-fi horror, with a host of comics' best illustrators. Some great talents worked on the license over the years. Marvel is just going to throw multiple covers and mediocrity at us until it sticks or goes away. I guess my only hope is for the new tv series, maybe it'll bring something interesting to the Aliens universe. I have also been enjoying most of the Titan novels, particularly the Alex White books. Good Alien stories that FEEL like Alien stories.

I worked at a comic shop about 25 years ago, and we had a guy that would call the shop, that we eventually dubbed "The Furry Guy". He'd ask if we had "any furry books" (and this was before I really knew what that meant). He'd ask us if we had Shanda the Panda or Gold Digger or whatever, which was fine, but then he'd ask us to describe the covers to him and then he'd...start breathing heavily. We eventually learned to recognize the voice so if he called we'd just cut him off and say "We have lots of books, come into the shop and take a look!" So, when I think of any of these books, or furry fans, I think of this guy. Anyway, yeah, there are some, uh, devoted fans out there. (And hey, no kink-shaming here. I just think it's funny.)

Aw geez, are the Innovation Vampire books actually selling? I got a stack of them in a collection I picked up last year. They were dead as a doornail, so I gave them to the wife, who is an Anne Rice fan. She doesn't read comics, but I couldn't sell them, so I thought she'd flip through them and then who knows. I think that Lestat book ended up under the couch. Ah, well. I guess we truly do live in a time when you can't get rid of even the drekkiest drek!

It would be wild to see SW leave Hasbro, but I guess we live in wild times. What other toy company would be able to shoulder the big of a license, do you think? Are there any rumored contenders? I'm still bitter about McFarlane getting DC. Really hate his ugly figures and character selection. Saves me a lot of money, but I wish someone was still making DC figures I'd actually buy. We had a golden age with DC Direct and Mattel, we'll never see those days again. I don't collect SW, so it doesn't really matter to me, but that would still be a huge changing of the guard, whoever gets the license.

That's all very interesting. I don't collect SW, so I wasn't aware of all of that drama. I do agree 100% that dumping all of these haslabs in December, AND at the same time, was a mistake. Perhaps a calculated one? 15 hours to go on the Sky Striker, and it's still a couple thousand short, plus change. If they really let the Rancor die and it was that close, the Sky Striker may be in danger after all. Won't hurt my feelings if it doesn't get funded, I only backed it due to FOMO.

Yeah, it's not a huge help, just about covers the tax, but hey, anything is better than nothing!