F For Fake

Cabinets used to be a lot cheaper, of course, EVERYTHING was a lot cheaper. I really wish I'd held onto it, but oh well. I DO still have my Pac-Man arcade cabinet. It was my uncle's, and I used to play it a lot when I was a kid. When he passed, my aunt asked me to help her sell it. We got a lot of lowball offers, nothing fair at all. So I told her that I'd match the offer, because I'd rather keep it in the family. She ended up just giving it to me, for my birthday. I spent a month or so working on it. It needed a deep cleaning. You wouldn't BELIEVE the thick layer of BLACK gunk I wiped off of the screen, as people used to just hover over these machines and smoke like chimneys. I paid about $200 to have the screen fixed up (needed to be re-capped) and did the touch-ups to the body myself. And I'll never let it go. I love the classic arcade cabinets, and I dig the One Ups too, but if I bring another cabinet into the house, my wife will almost certainly murder me.

Yes, totally awesome. It was so gratifying to play an Alien game where it felt like someone really "got it".

Aliens has had a very shaky history with video games. I know I've posted about it before, but the C64 "Alien" game was huge to me as a kid, and was really the thing that kicked off my Alien obsession. It was as rudimentary as you'd expect, but really was one of the first examples of "survival horror" games. I also spent a lot of time with, Aliens - The Computer Game, which was also kind of crummy, but charmingly so. I actually really liked Alien 3, which I used to play on Genesis. It was a fairly standard side-scrolling platformer, sure, but I liked the grungy design. I used to own an Aliens coin-op arcade cabinet. Bought it off the internet 25 years or so ago for $300. I was like 18 or 19 and still living at home. When I moved out, my folks definitely didn't have any use for it, so I sold it to a local guy for about what I'd paid for it. Really wish I'd just kept it in storage, as they certainly aren't any easier to find nowadays. Alien Trilogy was a decently themed shooter, Alien Resurrection was more of the same. I never got into the various AvP games, because I generally stay away from the AvP side of things. I'll say that in Alien:Isolation, we finally got a truly terrific, terrifying horror game. It's hard as hell (at least for me, I'm not great at games) but the atmosphere is perfect. Most recently we got Aliens Fireteam this summer, which is a very rote squad-based shooter for online multiplayer, which I'm not a fan of. Nothing special about it. Some day, somehow, someone will deliver unto us the PERFECT Aliens game. In my lifetime, hopefully!

Thanks! Yeah, it's one I've wanted for a while, can't believe I got it randomly like that. It's a lot of fun as long as you never actually play the game ha I think it was the death knell for point and click "adventure" games.

Somewhat related to @Parabellum's lovely Alien 2 discussed above, this guy showed up yesterday. I have been slowly picking away at my sealed Alien computer/video game collection over the last year (VERY slowly!) and this guy popped up on eBay a couple of days ago. I received an alert, I logged in, and saw this item I'd been looking for from a new seller with very low feedback, priced BIN at about 1/4 what they normally sell for. Rolled the dice, and two days later it was in my hands! It looked too good to be true, but it was all good. Now, if you're an Aliens fan who was playing games in the 90's, you're likely well aware of how much this game sucks. BUT, it's not like I bought it to play. I love the graphic and the big boxes of that era.

Posted these up in CG, thought they might get some love down here. Inks and colors on the GR2 are unreal. Frazetta goodness.

Happy to bring these home yesterday, from my regular shop. Westerns are a bit outside of my wheelhouse, but even I am smart enough to pick up nice Frazetta covers when I find them at a good price. I picked them up with the intention of reselling them, as they don't really fit my collection. But the longer I look at them, the more I love them. The ink reflectivity on the GR2 is crazy nice, difficult to pick up in a picture. These are really sweet.

Yes, absolutely so. I couldn't complain about it at all, and I appreciated the fast response as well. I've had nothing but great interactions with their customer service over the years. I know a lot of people in FB groups get their panties in a twist because BBTS can be slow/late to receive things, but I don't really mind, because I know that a preorder is practically a guarantee that I'll get it, eventually. In about 20 years of dealing with them, I've only ever had one item canceled. I can live with that.

Ah, I know this feeling well. Happened to me back in the summer with BBTS. I finally decided to ship my "pile", and within HOURS of having shipped, I got a notification that something else had hit my pile. I emailed and asked if there was ANY way possible to include that new item in the shipment. They were very fast to respond, and very polite, and told me that unfortunately they couldn't do that because, I dunno, reasons. BUT, they did give me a $4 credit, which was very nice and absolutely not something they had to do. My Pile of Loot is empty right now, it's odd, nothing has come in for me in quite some time. I know some folks got their Snake/Timber sets filled early, but I guess the rest are quite literally on a slow boat from China.

Well this is fair, for sure. You don't want some watery grits. I could definitely see someone getting some watery, runny grits and then swearing off of them for life.

A couple of things came in this weekend. Classified BBQ, really lovely figure. So happy they're going in the "classic" direction with the designs these days. Also, my Ravage set from Pulse.

Like Patrick said, post 'em here, or I also recommend the guide at Yojoe.com. Has been a huge help to me many times over the years. Database for figures by year https://www.yojoe.com/action/ Database for vehicles by year https://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/ WHOBIT guide for identifying weapons and accessories by color https://www.yojoe.com/action/whobit/ Seriously, those things are lifesavers.

(im)patiently waiting for mine to ship from BBTS. Some day...

Beauties!

Ok, just finished up the last 25 pages or so of this thread. Lots to digest. But the important thing is this: Grits are great and what the heck is wrong with people??? Some butter, some hot sauce, some salt and pepper, you got you some good grits. Some cheesy grits with peppers??? You got you some GREAT grits. I will not abide any grits slander, folks. (As for the people who do the "sweet grits" with sugar, yeah, I've seen it. I don't personally go that way, but I will not judge.)

I fell so far behind on my reading, and on my board activities, that it's impossible to catch up now. So I will just salute those of you who are sticking it out, I enjoy seeing the posts!

Good eye on the Barbie Fashion's. I guess those are finally catching on, I was trying to keep them quiet!

Have to agree. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Bronze horror from Marvel, particularly Tomb of Drac, Monster of Frankenstein, and Man-Thing if you wanna throw him in there; but they can't hold a candle to DC's bronze horror. House of Secrets/Mystery, Secrets of Sinister House, Ghosts, etc. Such great, great stuff in the EC mold, with those fantastic DC artists.

Glad to see the thread is still alive! I got behind on my HC's, but have picked some stuff up the last couple of weeks. My copy of the Tomb of Drac MMW should be here later today, pretty stoked about that one, as my omnis are long gone, and apparently these are getting a new remaster. Also used the Target B2G1 sale from a few weeks ago to get caught up on my Bat reading. Will post a few pics later if I remember. Lots of X-Men reprints coming up soon, gonna be a rough winter for the pocketbook!

I'm getting caught up on about a month's worth of reading in this thread, and just had to say wow, those are great. I really, really wish I'd held onto my BPRD HC's, but I couldn't resist the money, and assumed we'd eventually get a rerelease. Ah well. I've got the HB Libraries and the most recent BPRD HC's from a few months ago, and will keep holding onto hope. In the meantime, that is a BEAUTIFUL set of books!

Hey bud! Yeah, I used to be a huge Bowen freak. Was a member of the fan club, all of that good stuff. Used to have a ball back on the old message boards on his site. The truth is that without Randy Bowen, we wouldn't have any of the statues we have today. There were pieces here and there over the years, but he is the one that pioneered the format, created innovations like "the mini-bust" (which was a cottage industry unto itself for many years), and gave so much to the hobby. I eventually sold off my Bowen stuff as I downsized my collection, but the itch to get back into it is always there. In fact, I had bids in on two statues this morning that I just barely missed out on. I'd love to have the cases full of them again, but it ain't cheap!

I totally get it. The thing about selling stuff is that the more stuff you sell, the easier it is to keep selling. It is oddly liberating, as well as financially beneficial! I'm going to try to talk myself out of the Rancor since I really don't collect SW, but I do think a lot of that stuff is really neat.

I'm sure you're right. Especially given how well most of the Haslab stuff has done on the secondary market, there's no way retailers/dealers are going to leave money on the table if they can afford to pick up multiples, and frankly, why would Hasbro care? They want to sell a bunch of them, so I doubt they're monitoring the situation very closely. I'm going to stick with my two Sky Strikers, and try to be happy with those. I don't collect Star Wars at all, but I'm tempted by the Rancor, as I do love ginormous monsters.

I was working at a comic shop during the height of X-Files mania, like 95-97, and man alive, those X-Files comics sold like hot cakes. The #1 issue was like a $40-$50 wall book, and we couldn't even hang onto them. Insanity. I still pick them up when I find them in dollar binds because of those times, I just can't let go of it. (Same thing with Gen 13, former wall book that is dollar bin fodder.)

hahahaha "compostable fertilizer". That is a new one to me. I will have to remember that I'm back to posting on a pg-13 board, as opposed to the places I've spent most of my time the last few months.