F For Fake

I’ve sold several Cherry comics on the boards without issue. Just post a warning of adult content in the first post. I also censored any explicit covers, or put them in spoilers, just to be safe. Good luck!

If anyone is interested in the WFC Transformers stuff, Hasbro Shop is blowing out a handful of deluxes at $10, free shipping for orders of $14.99 or more. Got these four guys for $42 shipped, and they came fast!

It’s been a while since I sang the praises of hamiltonbook.com, but if they aren’t on your list of places to check for deals, you’ve gotta add them! Inventory fluctuates wildly based on what sort of closesouts and deals they can find, but I’ve found tons of bargains there over the years. Plus, shipping is safe, fast and cheap, and customer service is terrific. It’d been a while since I checked them out, but I was delighted to find these last week. $14.99 for this hardcover slipcase box set of Pete Bagge’s Neat Stuff, which has a $60 msrp, and $15 for the DC Mignola HC, which is a $40 book. Also picked up some cheap ($10 and less) Alien books! Over the years I’ve bought tons of Absolutes and Omnis for under $30, archives for under $10, etc. Comic selection is pretty thin right now, but it’s worth checking every week. And if anyone is interested in that Neat Stuff set, they still had three in stock last time I checked!

Love it. Always on the lookout for Scrooge stuff. There’s not a ton of it.

Yup, that’s everything I got today for $50. Like I said, there’s a lot of junk, but even junk will sell, and with this volume, it’s a win for sure. Can’t wait to dig in and see if there’s anything cool! This guy just wanted the stuff gone. He was selling totes full of stuff cheap. A lot of stuff I didn’t know about, but with Transformers it was a no brainer for me. Like I always say, the deals are still out there, you just have to keep digging!

Yay, junk season is upon us! There were more yard sales today than there have been in a looooong time. Definitely since before Covid hit. Seems like the combo of relaxed pandemic restrictions and a gorgeous spring morning were the key. Tons of sales going on today. Still, with all of the sales, I only saw one that caught my eye. Got there in time to snag all of the Transformers. $20 each on the big totes and $10 on the small. Gotta love it. To be fair, it looks like the majority of the stuff is well played with, missing parts, and some are broken. Also, the small tote seems to mostly be Rescue Bots type stuff. Still, for $50 all in, I can’t see myself losing money, and more importantly it will be a lot of fun to dig through. If I find anything cool I’ll report back, but I’m not expecting much. Still satisfied! Happy hunting!

That is, if I may be so bold, totally rad!

Yes, exactly! That’s me 100%. I loved the cartoon and comics, and I desperately wanted toys that looked like the characters! That’s what has sucked me into the Siege and Studio 86 figures, they look just like (or close enough) the characters I loved so much. I don’t even care about transforming them at all, I just want the cool looking robots. I’m enjoying the non-transforming RED line so far, I hope it continues for a while. But if not, the Siege and Studio stuff is keeping me plenty broke! I feel you on the streamlining as well. I had mostly stopped with new toys except for the occasional Marvel Legends X-Men figure, and now the Transformers stuff. Hardcovers continue to be a big expense as well. Those are my focus. And I am running out of room!

Frisky Dingo, so great. I was a huge Sealab fan, and it feels like Frisky Dingo got lost in the shuffle between Sealab and Archer.

Awesome! Man, I’m scared to start down the Masterpiece road, because that could get expensive really fast! Some really beautiful figures.

One of the main titles that got me back into reading and collecting after I lost interest in high school. I even had a letter printed in one of those books, can’t remember which one now!

Yeah, I may have overdone it! But it was just too good of a deal to pass up. The prices were comparable to IST and Amazon already, so B1G1 50% off was a great deal, plus free shipping and 5% off with red card. Thought I’d better take advantage of it. The Killing Joke Absolute is really nice, but I’d been slow to pick it up because at this point it’s like “How many times am I going to buy this same story???” But Bolland’s work deserves the oversized treatment for sure. Plus it was only $26, which made it about $13 after discount. Hard to turn down at that price! The IDW TF books are split into three “phases”. The Phase 1 stuff is...fine. Most of it takes place on earth, and a lot of it is written by Simon Furman, who was the longtime TF writer on the later Marvel stuff and the UK run. It’s fine. Enjoyable enough if you like the characters and universe, but sorta standard for a licensed toy title. Phase 2 is where it takes off, for me. These stories take place on Cybertron and beyond. There were two main titles: Robots in Disguise takes place on Cybertron, and is largely about the political machinations of life after the Great War has ended. Lots of backstabbing and subterfuge. More than Meets the Eye is about Rodimus leading a crew to find the Last Knights of Cybertron, sort of like a humorous Star Trek crewed by robots. Both titles were so imaginative and massive in their world building and in depth characterization. I really love them. So much better than a licensed comic based on a 40 year old toy line has any right to be. So, I’d say start with those Phase 2 books from a quality of story perspective, but Phase 1 provides all of the background for how things got to that point.

The recent WFC and Studio Series 86 has rekindled my interest in modern Transformers. I've decided to complete the main Transformers:The Movie cast, which will be close to done whenever BBTS finally gets their Hot Rod/Scourge shipments. I've also decided to assemble the main cast of More Than Meets the Eye/The Lost Light, as I really loved the comics. This has lead me to at long last dip my toe in the third party waters. This Swerve/Gears (ahem, "Trash Talk and Cogwheels") set was released a few years ago by Maketoys, and once I saw Swerve with his drink tray and mug, I had to have him. Had to wait a couple of months, but I finally won one on eBay. This is likely to become a dangerous road I'm heading down...

My haul from the Target sale showed up over the last couple of days. Really great opportunity to get caught up with a few different titles. I'm late to the IDW TF collections. I got most of their run in a humble bundle a few years ago, and really loved the stuff, particularly the Phase 2 books. Decided I'd like to have a physical copy and reread the whole thing. It'll take me a while to catch up, as a few volumes are OOP, but maybe I'll finish the set by the time I'm caught up with my other reading.

Agreed. They just released the most recent HC a week or two ago, so it'll be a little while. But the material certainly seems popular enough to eventually get the omni treatment.

That's great! The quality of the books can vary wildly, depending a lot on which printer the publisher used, and what options they go with as far as binding, paper etc. For a while there, DC seemed to have a lot of issues with gutter loss and glued binding, but anecdotally, it seems that has largely improved. Both companies are hit and miss with the paper quality, but it does seem like Marvel cuts corners on some volumes for sure. I agree, I'd love to see more of that material, particularly the old lettercols.

Yeah, I know. You see, the joke was that a newb was basically telling him to calm down, and I thought that was silly. Maybe you had to be there.

Ooh, good call on Man-Thing, that’s one I regret selling. I’ll need to grab that one, thanks for the heads up!

That can definitely be a good thing! The first few months of 2021 were expensive for me, I'm glad to have a reprieve. I've got the Alien omni coming next week (I think?) and then nothing else on the horizon for a while, and I'm glad! The Target sale surprised me, but it's a good opportunity to get caught up on some cheaper, non-priority stuff I'd been putting off. After that, I need a break!

Awesome! Glad you worked it out. That’s not one you’re going to see again anytime soon, for sure!

Yes, with 9.4's it's definitely a case by case basis, and the flaws tend to be more pronounced. Some flaws bother me more than others. I hate spine dings, but corners being a little soft is not a dealbreaker for me. Some books I'd pass on at 9.4, and others I'd be delighted to have, just because the nosebleed grades have gotten so far out of my comfort zone. 9.8s for many of the things I'm chasing have gotten prohibitively expensive, especially in the current market. I'm not buying ANY real "investment grade" 9.8's right now, at least not for a while. But I've managed to find a few things in 9.6 that were 1/2 or 1/3 of the price of the 9.8's, and to the naked eye, look pretty amazing. But, again, this is just stuff for my personal collection, and a lot of the stuff I like is pretty far off of the radar of what is hot these days.

Some seriously funny stuff in that thread, I'd forgotten all about it.

It all depends on the defect, but this particular instance, I seriously doubt I would have noticed at all. Particularly gnarly bindery tears, or pronounced roller marks, sure, I'd notice that. But this one, no, not an issue for me personally. But at the end of the day, you are collecting for yourself. If it bugs you now, it would likely bug you the entire time you had the book.

Also, I've had 9.6's that looked absolutely flawless, and 9.8s that had dings all down the spine. It's worth remembering that CGC grading has never been consistent, sometimes it is loose, sometimes it is tight, so the grade can also depend heavily on the date/timeframe it was graded within.