Cocomonkey

Ugh, you got them all with the same spine. So jealous.

I'm in!

Had a great RetroCon outside Philly this past weekend…picked up quite a haul! Found these Mexican bootleg X-Men toys…note the images in the packaging, heh! At least the figures appear to actually be X-Men, looks like Rogue and Pyro… I also discovered these, which I had no idea were even a thing—Japanese movie programs. Now I need the missing ones to complete the set up to date…

Ooh, never got around to posting my SDCC pickups…the two pages are a spread from UXM v2 #19. And the GSXM is from the July Clink auction.

I keep my 2 XXL 75 Years in my Storage/Stuff closet, mainly just because I don’t have a good place to display them yet. But to give a sense of size, here they are with a measuring tape on the spine…

I have no picture, and it's technically not a movie or TV show...but there was a comic book in Back to the Future: The Musical during the scene when Marty first meets his father in the diner (George is reading it). I was sitting waaay up in the mezz so no idea if it even approximated an actual period-accurate book, or which one it might have been. Marty also threw out the idea of using the time machine to grab a bunch of comics while in the 50s to bring back to the 80s, heh. Been a long while since I saw the movie, so not sure if those two references were there also.

Just want to emphasize this one, especially on one-way streets. Way, way too many bikers, scooter-riders, dashers, etc. completely ignore the driving laws they're supposed to also obey, and will go the wrong way down a one-way street (I've been hit by a biker doing this before when crossing). They'll plow through red lights, going against traffic, and ram right into you before you know it. They also love to ride down sidewalks, even though that's blatantly illegal, so keep some awareness even on sidewalks as well. Also second the Times Square thing. If it's your first time, sure, stop by and take a picture during the day...just be aware that it will be massively crowded, and mostly filled with people in poor costumes (you'll see 1000x better than all of them at NYCC anyway, lol) taking pictures for money, groups dancing for money/posting on socials, and other random stupid spoon. (Yeah, I'm jaded at TS...I'll literally walk blocks out of my way to go around it, no regrets!) If you're coming in from out of town, in order to get to Javits by subway, you're either getting out at Penn Station (if you took the A/C/E, the blue lines, or 1/2/3, the red lines...or LIRR/NJ Transit/Amtrak) or 34th St-Hudson Yards (if you took the 7 train). The 7 stop is the closest to Javits, and when you get out, you can't help but get easily funneled right to the convention either with the crowds or by volunteers holding signs. It's literally like two blocks away, and there's usually a large crowd and plenty of volunteers outside the station exits as early as like...7? So you can't get lost. If you come out at Penn Station...odds are, there will also be a crowd/stream of people, and you can likely follow them. If not, just remember that street numbers go up as you go north, avenues go up as you go west, and you're heading pretty much straight west from MSG/Penn Station, so just find a street (you'll be between 30th and 34th, pick any one) and start heading west. You can orient yourself quickly by looking down the block to the next street...if it's a higher number, you're facing north, so swing left (west) and start walking. As long as the next avenue you hit isn't 7th, you're going the right way. It's about a 10-15m walk from Penn Station if I remember correctly. It also helps to check the MTA's website for planned service changes on the subway (and LIRR), especially if you're leaving the convention later at night (10 or later) and also for both weekend days. The subway does...weird things on the weekends and overnight, and the train you took to get there in the morning may not be stopping at the same station to go back, or it may be running on a different line, or it might have decided it wanted to be a shuttle bus that day, or...who knows what sometimes.

Grimlox maybe? Or does that sound too much like an angry bagel?

Oh, absolutely kept the boxes, haha. Yeah, I either sat up in bed with it in my lap, or read it lying down (though that'd get to my back over time).

Laying in bed, haha. When I read these, I kept them on a shelf under my side table, and pulled it out to read a bit each night before switching to a tablet. They're large but somewhat quick reads--each chapter was like a third text and then the rest were images and captions.

Taschen books are amazing...I have both the XXL 75 Years of DC Comics and 75 Years of Marvel Comics, along with a small stack of Little Books (though not the main one I want, which is the X-Men one...). I used to pop by their store during this time (WH sale) every year when they still had their physical NYC location. Was hoping to see the new X-Men book on sale, but wasn't expecting it to be given that it just came out...hopefully next year. But if you're debating getting any of these...go for it. They're just great-looking books.

Wow...weird and sucks about Larry Hama. Given the general uncertainty/unlikelihood with other panels and guests due to the strikes, I'm surprised they bounced him. I'll be there as I usually am for the 12th(? I think) time, enjoying it in general and also trying to pick off some more of the last 46 UXM books I need for my run. Also taking my brother-in-law for one day for his first NYCC experience (and only second con of any kind, gonna be a big shock for him from the first one, which was a ~150 table-sized con). Might've also talked a co-worker into going on Sunday with his kids...gonna be fun. If there are any first-timers attending that have any general questions on going (and/or getting around NYC), this thread is always a good place to ask to get answers!

I don't yet, but once I finish (or as I approach the final stages) my UXM v1 full run, I was toying with the idea of either starting to collect Days of Future Past-homage covers, ape/monkey covers, or both.

Appreciate the advice, thanks! Will give that a try (and look into these star cases...).

Got a question for the thread here...I'm still a number of years away from having a space where I can display my figures, but in the meantime, I've still managed to accumulate a few dozen on-card X-Mens and related. Is there any kind of decent way to package and store these in boxes/tubs, without them getting crushed?

I was first introduced to comics shortly after I turned 5, with a copy of Marvel Masterworks #1 (AF15 and ASM 1-10). From then (1989) through probably around early HS (call it '99), I was buying from my LCS. Then I stopped buying for a few years, just picking up some random "speculation" books while in college ("Say, that Ultimate Spider-Man #1 is doing well...let me get 4 copies of Ultimate Fantastic Four #1, I'm sure it'll be valuable too!" ). Then I stopped for a bit again, largely due to lack of money while in law school, but also lack of space in my apartment in NY. Some regretted missed chances during that time (while working an internship down in the financial district area around 2007, I was out for lunch one day and saw someone with a table selling comics, including a nice looking NM98 for like $25...ah well). Finally started to attend NYCC starting in 2010, and decided first to finish my What If? v1 run, and then to take on the much larger and more personal goal of completing a full run of Uncanny X-Men v1 (down to my last 46 issues needed!). I still go to my LCS here in NY every so often, but I don't really buy off-the-shelf books these days (which, yeah, has caused me to miss out on flippable keys like Ultimate Fallout and Edge of Spiderverse, but whatever). I'll occasionally also take a day and do a circuit of some stores in a wider area around me, checking out what they have in their inventory...but for the most part, I've been buying from cons, some LCSes, some antique/flea/etc. stores, and very, very occasionally an auction. Just easier to find what I need there, and since I'm not getting giant keys at those events (because they're usually overpriced on the wall), I could easily pick up filler or rarities from the $1-5 boxes, and some older missing books for <$50 a pop. I try to avoid eBay (and for the same reason, the market on these forums) because I love the thrill of the hunt. I hit auctions to get my copies of X-Men 1 (4.0) and GSXM 1 (8.0) because I can get closer to the going GPA rate from the auction than a con, even though I see them often enough at conventions. But like...UXM 73? I'm not terribly worried about finding that, and it isn't likely something I'll face sticker shock on when I do find it on my own...so I'd much rather find it on my own than click a button and buy it off eBay. I know I'll be much happier buying it and crossing it off my list if I found it physically flipping through a longbox than if I found it flipping through listing pages.

That's me this year...given how SDCC doesn't empty any main rooms like NYCC, I wasn't planning on hitting most of the major panels that backed out anyway, but just making the most of it. Never planning to do it again, so just going to enjoy what there is to enjoy.

Sadly gonna have to sit this one out...going to be attending SDCC for the first time this year, and since this overlaps that, can't guarantee I'll be able to get grades in every round...looking forward to the next one, though!

Definitely agree. Plus they just look so clean and nice compared to some [most] of the ToyBiz sub-sets like X-Force and Gen X.

My nabs from over the weekend, along with a nice little stack of dollar comic run fillers…figured I’d nab the 2 Alpha Flights when I saw them at the same place. Pretty sure I know where I can get the third to complete the subset. The stopwatch is from 1994, and not sure if it works or not, it needs a new battery to test it (which I don’t have).

Argh, I forgot this was starting late Friday, and I don't usually check my computer over the weekend...ah well!

I'm in!

Couldn't agree more...mine is still in transit, but I hate the fact that my copies are different spines (mine are a 2-3 split).

I'm in!