This Week In Your Plastic Crack, Action Figures and Toy Collection 26 26

[D84]

On 9/18/2023 at 11:23 AM, Yorick said:

Looks like you'll need to add some "scallop" cuts to the bottom edge of his cape.  It's not Batman without that cape!

Those are there, it's just the cape is enormous.

[Jesse-Lee]

Got this in today - this set was short run for whatever reason, and it currently goes for around $80+ on eBay. I lucked out and Amazon had a few randomly in stock a couple of weeks ago, shipping from the Amazon UK site but free shipping to the US, so I got it for $26. It's currently the only way to get Orko, Whiplash and Wun-Dar for the MEGA line (plus the other 3 are exclusive colorways for this set). Amazon's overseas packing leaves a little to be desired, but I'll likely open this anyway, which will destroy the packaging anyway since it's a glued cardback.

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 9/18/2023 at 4:08 PM, Jesse-Lee said:

Got this in today - this set was short run for whatever reason, and it currently goes for around $80+ on eBay. I lucked out and Amazon had a few randomly in stock a couple of weeks ago, shipping from the Amazon UK site but free shipping to the US, so I got it for $26. It's currently the only way to get Orko, Whiplash and Wun-Dar for the MEGA line (plus the other 3 are exclusive colorways for this set). Amazon's overseas packing leaves a little to be desired, but I'll likely open this anyway, which will destroy the packaging anyway since it's a glued cardback.

Seems like I remember it being mentioned, "an only way to get orko" before, but good eye to find a deal. Free shipping in checkout from over seas, I think, is the real winner

Congrats.

 

[Jesse-Lee]

On 9/18/2023 at 4:11 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

Seems like I remember it being mentioned, "an only way to get orko" before, but good eye to find a deal. Free shipping in checkout from over seas, I think, is the real winner

Congrats.

 

Oh yeah, good call! I was saying back when I got the Snake Mountain that I couldn't bring myself to pay a huge fee for an Orko, and then a couple of months later, this deal poppoed up - good things come to those who wait!

[F For Fake]

Many Targets are having in-store clearance on Marvel Legends and some Transformers, as well as Indiana Jones, etc. The prices don't show up on line, nor does the proper stock, so you just have to take your chances. I ran out at lunch, went to one Target where I grabbed most of the Avenger's 60th 2-packs for half off. Got another Hawkeye w/ sky-cycle, Hulk/Banner, Thor/Destroyer, and Captain Marvel/Doom. Someone had already wiped out the single-carded figures.

Now I was on the hunt, so I ran to another Target who were much better stocked. Found the Skrull 2-pack that I needed, and they had plenty of the other sets. They had most of the Quantumania wave (pass, I don't do MCU figures), and I also grabbed the 60th Iron Man. They had about half of the retro-carded Spider-Man wave, so I grabbed the Lady Daredevil (or whatever she's called, I don't keep up with new books, I just thought the sculpt was neat) and the Jessica Drew. Passed on Miles and Ben Reilly.

So, yeah, if you have a Target nearby and are still looking for stuff released over the last couple of months, chances are they'll have it half off. Good luck and happy hunting, pics of my haul coming later!

[fantastic_four]

I'm mulling over a multi-Target run this morning.  I already have most of those on clearance, but they just put the damn things out a month and a half ago.  That's well within Target's 3-month normal return window, plus another month if you have their Red Card.  So if something goes on sale or clearance within 4 months of you buying it you can always buy the sale item and return the original.  I can save myself up to $150 by buying clearance items and returning them on the original receipt if I decide to today.  

Target has long been my go-to place for buying Legends, Black Series, and the Jurassic Park Amber Collection and Hammond Collection figures, but man, they've gotten TERRIBLE at inventory management over the past 9 to 18 months.  I could list a dozen ways they CONSTANTLY screw up inventory over, and over, and over.  It's utter chaos at that place right now, and they're REPEATEDLY shooting themselves in the foot in trying to sell these things.

They're also supposedly selling the best new figures on the market this year--the Jada Toys Street Fighter line.  But my local stores have never gotten any, and they've never even shown up on the Target web site despite them having listings that never show up in search results (just another iteration of their constant screw-ups).  If you haven't seen those they're $25 MSRP, but they have absolutely superb articulation and tooling, better than ALL other lines at the same price point.  Right now only Ryu and Fei Long are on the market with Chun-Li being found at West Coast Targets, but Jada Toys is planning to release the entire Street Fighter character library over the next few years.

Edited September 21, 2023 by fantastic_four

[F For Fake]

On 9/21/2023 at 7:24 AM, fantastic_four said:

I'm mulling over a multi-Target run this morning.  I already have most of those on clearance, but they just put the damn things out a month and a half ago.  That's well within Target's 3-month normal return window, plus another month if you have their Red Card.  So if something goes on sale or clearance within 4 months of you buying it you can always buy the sale item and return the original.  I can save myself up to $150 by buying clearance items and returning them on the original receipt if I decide to today.  

Target has long been my go-to place for buying Legends, Black Series, and the Jurassic Park Amber Collection and Hammond Collection figures, but man, they've gotten TERRIBLE at inventory management over the past 9 to 18 months.  I could list a dozen ways they CONSTANTLY screw up inventory over, and over, and over.  It's utter chaos at that place right now, and they're REPEATEDLY shooting themselves in the foot in trying to sell these things.

They're also supposedly selling the best new figures on the market this year--the Jada Toys Street Fighter line.  But my local stores have never gotten any, and they've never even shown up on the Target web site despite them having listings that never show up in search results (just another iteration of their constant screw-ups).  If you haven't seen those they're $25 MSRP, but they have absolutely superb articulation and tooling, better than ALL other lines at the same price point.  Right now only Ryu and Fei Long are on the market with Chun-Li being found at West Coast Targets, but Jada Toys is planning to release the entire Street Fighter character library over the next few years.

It is pretty strange, the way Target handles their toy inventory. It feels like some of these things are practically going straight to clearance, which seems like it wouldn't be good for anyone involved (aside from the consumer, obviously!) I do worry a bit about the ML line. There were several waves that went to close-out outlets and STILL won't sell (Eternals, Age of Apocalypse 2, Black Panther 2, etc) and meanwhile new waves like the X-Men Ch'od wave and now these Avengers sets seem to hit clearance a month or two after they hit shelves.

Here's my haul from yesterday. Haven't had time to open up much, it was a busy night. I'm surprised by how much I like the Secret Wars pack. The Doom looks very cool to me, and the Captain Marvel/Photon figure is just gorgeous. Simple but very nicely done paint deco and lovely sculpt.

[Dave2739]

On 9/21/2023 at 8:29 AM, F For Fake said:

It is pretty strange, the way Target handles their toy inventory. It feels like some of these things are practically going straight to clearance, which seems like it wouldn't be good for anyone involved (aside from the consumer, obviously!) I do worry a bit about the ML line. There were several waves that went to close-out outlets and STILL won't sell (Eternals, Age of Apocalypse 2, Black Panther 2, etc) and meanwhile new waves like the X-Men Ch'od wave and now these Avengers sets seem to hit clearance a month or two after they hit shelves.

Here's my haul from yesterday. Haven't had time to open up much, it was a busy night. I'm surprised by how much I like the Secret Wars pack. The Doom looks very cool to me, and the Captain Marvel/Photon figure is just gorgeous. Simple but very nicely done paint deco and lovely sculpt.

I would love to see them repackage that Doctor Doom like this. Recreate and upsize the shield and weapons and recolor his garter belt thing green to match the Mattel one.

[F For Fake]

On 9/21/2023 at 12:57 PM, Dave2739 said:

I would love to see them repackage that Doctor Doom like this. Recreate and upsize the shield and weapons and recolor his garter belt thing green to match the Mattel one.

yes! What they did was a nice start, but definitely could have finished it off. I'd love to see them do all of these on Secret Wars cards, like their other retro releases, it would be sweet.

[Dave2739]

On 9/21/2023 at 1:39 PM, F For Fake said:

yes! What they did was a nice start, but definitely could have finished it off. I'd love to see them do all of these on Secret Wars cards, like their other retro releases, it would be sweet.

Agreed. Hasbro has already made very nice versions of all of the characters from the original Mattel Secret Wars line but it would be fun to see them released on retro Secret Wars cards with nods to the original toys. I'm no longer an action figure collector but I would be hard-pressed to pass those up. 

[followtheleader]

Hola freaks

Picked up a couple 70s items.  

Definitely keeping the Jaws.  It looks great and the art is wonderful.  

Shazbot.  Stickers never applied.

Patrick

[Cat]

On 9/24/2023 at 7:07 AM, followtheleader said:

Hola freaks

Picked up a couple 70s items.  

Definitely keeping the Jaws.  It looks great and the art is wonderful.  

Shazbot.  Stickers never applied.

Patrick

You should be able to feed that Kintner kid to Bruce. 

[Dr. Balls]

Added the Cylon Centurian to my BSG collection from 1978 - I've got all the first series figures on card, not the greatest of shapes, but still sealed - so good enough for me! I don't think I'm going to delve into the second series from 1979 as they are priced more than I want to pay.

I'm not really a toy person, but BSG has a special place in my heart. One, I can remember - all these years later - my mom yelling at me to come inside, reminding me that Battlestar was on, so I'd watch the new episode and then "act" it out with my friend Jeff on the playground the next day (I was five). He was always Starbuck and I was Apollo, flying around on recess with our arms outstretched, making *whooshing* sounds like Vipers taking off.

Secondly, my dad's best friend was Jim Colla, who's brother - Richard Colla - directed the Battlestar Galactica movie, to which my dad (who owned a public relations firm) had a hand in doing some of the marketing materials, and Jim made sure that I was given the first round of toys that came out. Those toys are long gone (after I played the hell outta them), so this is my way of remembering my childhood. And on a side note, I still have my Battlestar Galactica sheet set that was on my childhood twin bed. 

 

[bentbryan]

On 9/24/2023 at 6:12 PM, Dr. Balls said:

Added the Cylon Centurian to my BSG collection from 1978 - I've got all the first series figures on card, not the greatest of shapes, but still sealed - so good enough for me! I don't think I'm going to delve into the second series from 1979 as they are priced more than I want to pay.

I'm not really a toy person, but BSG has a special place in my heart. One, I can remember - all these years later - my mom yelling at me to come inside, reminding me that Battlestar was on, so I'd watch the new episode and then "act" it out with my friend Jeff on the playground the next day (I was five). He was always Starbuck and I was Apollo, flying around on recess with our arms outstretched, making *whooshing* sounds like Vipers taking off.

Secondly, my dad's best friend was Jim Colla, who's brother - Richard Colla - directed the Battlestar Galactica movie, to which my dad (who owned a public relations firm) had a hand in doing some of the marketing materials, and Jim made sure that I was given the first round of toys that came out. Those toys are long gone (after I played the hell outta them), so this is my way of remembering my childhood. And on a side note, I still have my Battlestar Galactica sheet set that was on my childhood twin bed. 

 

That’s awesome!!! BSG was my favorite show when I was a kid! 

[F For Fake]

On 9/23/2023 at 5:07 PM, followtheleader said:

Hola freaks

Picked up a couple 70s items.  

Definitely keeping the Jaws.  It looks great and the art is wonderful.  

Shazbot.  Stickers never applied.

Patrick

Nice white box on that Jaws! I picked one up a few years ago, it was complete except for one thing, which was the hook, oddly enough. Eventually tracked one down to complete the set. I had that game as a kid, and loved it. Now that I have a nicer one I'm too scared to play with it, but it makes a nice display piece.

[Buzzetta]

On 8/25/2023 at 5:37 PM, comicwiz said:

Just to clarify, this has gone beyond the realm of genuine weapon/accessory identification. It is making bold assertions that a certain figure from a factory only came with a certain version of accessory or weapon. What it's causing is this movement to call into question a figures weapon or accessory based on a tiny sample size where someone went through MOC examples, likely within the last 3-5 years, to determine which accessory/weapon matches to which COO and factory. For those who weren't aware, later lines had letters on the footer showing which factory they came from. So essentially, they are using that sample size to determine that Smile, Unitoys or Kader ONLY paired these specific weapons with the figures. I have no issue with someone taking things to a different level, however it is wrong and potentially harmful to the hobby to approach this with a mindset of universality because there will be people monetizing this for their own self-serving benefit. It's already been going on for years. It's an imaginary "rarity" associated to a weapon/accessory ONLY matched to a COO of a character.

Earlier I described how the Kenner replacement policy nullifies this was by intent or design, however an extension of this is that not a single ex-Kenner engineer, designer, NOT ONE has ever corroborated or confirmed that this was a measure, process or policy of the company. To further complicate things, the Asian factories that were producing these were pairing these figures with whatever part bins they had available to them, so to suggest foreign licensees are not relevant to incorporate into the research proves a bias and flaw inherent in the methodology. I used the Trilogo example, but I feel it should be explained in a little more depth. So take for instance the Luke Stormtrooper. The V1 is the blaster this figure supposedly came with, and it needs to be "black." The European collectors will argue that there are examples of "blue" and I've seen them personally.

Because Trilogo's have had a history of having errors, the blue blasters are not seen as being correct. Despite sealed examples showing the contrary. As such, the only examples that have been used to push this V1 black blaster is the POTF, Trilogo Luke Storms don't count. Now, consider that a friend of mine just bought a collection with a US Kenner Stormtrooper with a Chewbacca bowcaster sealed inside of it. I didn't ask for which Asian factory, and this is far from being the only error MOC I've seen or heard of, so does that nullify all US Kenner, and all Asian factories subbed by Kenner as well, because they couldn't even put the right blaster, nevermind the right version, with the Stormtrooper?

If I suggest it's pointless, it's mainly because I see it creating more ambiguity and confusion, with the added downside that there will be people finding ways to market these as "rare" varieties. Down the road, they may claim that this level of granularity will help with identification as fakes become more accurate, but this is a red herring because counterfeiters will simply wait until profiteers drive the values up, and begin knocking off those exact COO weapons/accessory combinations as well.

It's definitely important to know whether your weapons/accessories are genuine, but this takes things to a whole different level, with a potential to be useful in one-off cases, but; i) sample sizes need to increase exponentially; ii) there needs to be more backers who were involved in the toy-making realm (and the silence thus far has been deafening); iii) time - and I mean, a reasonable ratio at bare minimum, where we are seeing graders getting lobbied by "special interests" pushing/advancing these a "true", a TPG caving, and essentially going back on over 15 years of grading something a certain way because 5 years of submissions shows a pattern to support it; iv) original documentation from Kenner would be nice too; and maybe only then, is there a possibility there may be some validity in some on a case-by-case situation. The notion of applying this methodology as a wholesale, one-size fits all approach to "more precisely" identify weapons or accessories to a certain factory has thus far demonstrated too far a deviation from the standard or norm, with the added downside of opportunists in-waiting forming lines to discover the next hobby ATM from which to withdraw copious amounts of cash.

All I did was mention in a thread that I did not believe in collecting this way as there were too many inconsistencies and a guy by the name, Wolff Lipinski (I assume from Variant Villains going by his FB profile) jumped in to let me know I am "wrong".  I don't think I will be getting any Christmas tidings this year from the Lipinski household.  

Edited September 25, 2023 by Buzzetta

[comicwiz]

On 9/25/2023 at 2:04 PM, Buzzetta said:

All I did was mention in a thread that I did not believe in collecting this way as there were too many inconsistencies and a guy by the name, Wolff Lipinski (I assume from Variant Villains going by his FB profile) jumped in to let me know I am "wrong".  I don't think I will be getting any Christmas tidings this year from the Lipinski household.  

Where was this?

[comicwiz]

On 9/24/2023 at 6:12 PM, Dr. Balls said:

Added the Cylon Centurian to my BSG collection from 1978 - I've got all the first series figures on card, not the greatest of shapes, but still sealed - so good enough for me! I don't think I'm going to delve into the second series from 1979 as they are priced more than I want to pay.

I'm not really a toy person, but BSG has a special place in my heart. One, I can remember - all these years later - my mom yelling at me to come inside, reminding me that Battlestar was on, so I'd watch the new episode and then "act" it out with my friend Jeff on the playground the next day (I was five). He was always Starbuck and I was Apollo, flying around on recess with our arms outstretched, making *whooshing* sounds like Vipers taking off.

Secondly, my dad's best friend was Jim Colla, who's brother - Richard Colla - directed the Battlestar Galactica movie, to which my dad (who owned a public relations firm) had a hand in doing some of the marketing materials, and Jim made sure that I was given the first round of toys that came out. Those toys are long gone (after I played the hell outta them), so this is my way of remembering my childhood. And on a side note, I still have my Battlestar Galactica sheet set that was on my childhood twin bed. 

 

The comic ads really ingrained this figure into my brain. I have not yet made the plunge, but came close a few times. The gold commander is the one that had me hooked from those ads. Nice one!

[Buzzetta]

On 9/25/2023 at 2:43 PM, comicwiz said:

Where was this?

Star Wars group on FB. 

After you wrote your last post I did more of my own research and the more I found, the more I agreed with you. 

[comicwiz]

On 9/25/2023 at 2:56 PM, Buzzetta said:

Star Wars group on FB. 

After you wrote your last post I did more of my own research and the more I found, the more I agreed with you. 

Consider yourself fortunate to have not had your life threatened.

I assume this happened on his failure of a VV page, which he's blocked me from. If it's in any other group, feel free to PM me which one.

He's hitched his narrative onto the bandwagon of some of the worst people I've ever seen in any hobby, whose only intent is to perpetuate a diabolical hate/divisiveness. He has no interest in educating, it's all about flexing and showing newcomers he's some "expert", and most have fallen for it. This guy not only doesn't know his head from his @ss, but he's also a scamming liar who is quick to anger and threaten, and should not be trusted.

The enlightened few of us know better.

Edited September 28, 2023 by comicwiz