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

[Buzzetta]

My Skystriker arrived today.  Just in case you are worried about porch pirates, you can manage the delivery on this one.   I had my package diverted to a Fed Ex drop site where it waited in the back of the local drug store until I claimed it. 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Buzzetta

[Cat]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:24 AM, Namtak said:

Followup on the alien project:leg finished(issue wise)still some glue and other touchup but going well...except the nails wich is a disaster but was informed way in advence by others,will put fake nail above it trim it acordingly and paint them,will do so with all -feet and hands at same time.sorry pics are dark for some reason,the details and paint is amazing except nails

Oh so it's a whole Alien? I thought it was just a head with a base. Neat! 

[Namtak]

On 1/31/2023 at 7:37 PM, Cat said:

Oh so it's a whole Alien? I thought it was just a head with a base. Neat! 

Final product looks like this 

 

[Cat]

On 2/1/2023 at 10:39 AM, Namtak said:

Final product looks like this 

 

That's very different from what I had in mind, but it looks great! That's going to be a standout piece. 

[Venomous72]

Sentinel and Mafex Spidey’s came in. Love ‘em. Hard to choose which one is my ‘definitive’ Spidey. 

[fantastic_four]

On 1/31/2023 at 8:17 PM, Venomous72 said:

Sentinel and Mafex Spidey’s came in. Love ‘em. Hard to choose which one is my ‘definitive’ Spidey. 

I don't have the Sentinel, but I've watched reviews of it and it's definitely awesome.  They're both so good that the definitive one is whichever style you like more, i.e. comic vs Spider-Verse versions.

[Namtak]

On 1/31/2023 at 7:45 PM, Cat said:

That's very different from what I had in mind, but it looks great! That's going to be a standout piece. 

Yes standout piece is what im going for ! Articulated some motor action like the tongue and head rotating to sound!1/2 size,(i cant afford à big full size statue.the point is to take a corner in the parlor  wiyh yhe alien and à frame behind with the autograph of the cast of the movies in a frame,so far got those i wanted most but not framed yet!might add some idk,cant wsit for that project to be finished lol,here is the autograph so far for the frame that will go behind the alien

[Cat]

On 2/1/2023 at 11:48 AM, Namtak said:

Yes standout piece is what im going for ! Articulated some motor action like the tongue and head rotating to sound!1/2 size,(i cant afford à big full size statue.the point is to take a corner in the parlor  wiyh yhe alien and à frame behind with the autograph of the cast of the movies in a frame,so far got those i wanted most but not framed yet!might add some idk,cant wsit for that project to be finished lol,here is the autograph so far for the frame that will go behind the alien

Oh that's going to look great. Can't wait to see the final setup. 

[F For Fake]

On 1/31/2023 at 7:05 PM, Buzzetta said:

My Skystriker arrived today.  Just in case you are worried about porch pirates, you can manage the delivery on this one.   I had my package diverted to a Fed Ex drop site where it waited in the back of the local drug store until I claimed it. 

Same, mine is waiting for me at Walgreens. The irony is that I assumed I wouldn't be home (as I never am when FedEx comes around) so I had it redirected to Walgreens, and then...we had a snow day, and I was allowed to telecommute, so I ended up being home after all. oh well. I should have time to go grab it tonight.

[F For Fake]

On 1/31/2023 at 8:48 PM, Namtak said:

Yes standout piece is what im going for ! Articulated some motor action like the tongue and head rotating to sound!1/2 size,(i cant afford à big full size statue.the point is to take a corner in the parlor  wiyh yhe alien and à frame behind with the autograph of the cast of the movies in a frame,so far got those i wanted most but not framed yet!might add some idk,cant wsit for that project to be finished lol,here is the autograph so far for the frame that will go behind the alien

A man after my own heart.

[fantastic_four]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:27 AM, F For Fake said:

On 1/31/2023 at 7:05 PM, Buzzetta said:

My Skystriker arrived today.  Just in case you are worried about porch pirates, you can manage the delivery on this one.   I had my package diverted to a Fed Ex drop site where it waited in the back of the local drug store until I claimed it. 

Same, mine is waiting for me at Walgreens. The irony is that I assumed I wouldn't be home (as I never am when FedEx comes around) so I had it redirected to Walgreens, and then...we had a snow day, and I was allowed to telecommute, so I ended up being home after all. oh well. I should have time to go grab it tonight.

I did the same thing with both of the Haslabs I bought.  I NEVER want to leave any package worth more than a few hundred bucks completely in the hands of a delivery driver if I don't have to.

There are risks at these drop sites--for example I've heard stories of Walgreens employees assuming a large customer box is one of their store stock boxes, opening it up, shoving it in an out-of-the-way place because they don't know what to do with it, and then it doesn't get re-discovered until later.  Someone on the Fwoosh had this happen with Galactus--they went to pick it up, and Walgreens just said they didn't have it when the FedEx tracking said they should.  The person raised hell and one of the employees ended up finding the opened box in their stock room.

But ultimately I fear that scenario far less than just dropping something expensive on my porch.  Last year I absolutely did not want UPS to deliver my PS5 to my door from Walmart, but Walmart wouldn't let me redirect the shipment for pickup--and I believe Walmart blanket disables that option for ALL of their shipments, which I hate and may not use them to buy expensive stuff for shipment in the future.  UPS dropped the damn thing at my address number but on the wrong street one block over, which is the exact mistake I've seen carriers make dozens of times that I never want to duplicate for anything expensive.  

[F For Fake]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:51 AM, fantastic_four said:

I did the same thing with both of the Haslabs I bought.  I NEVER want to leave any package worth more than a few hundred bucks completely in the hands of a delivery driver if I don't have to.

There are risks at these drop sites--for example I've heard stories of Walgreens employees assuming a large customer box is one of their store stock boxes, opening it up, shoving it in an out-of-the-way place because they don't know what to do with it, and then it doesn't get re-discovered until later.  Someone on the Fwoosh had this happen with Galactus--they went to pick it up, and Walgreens just said they didn't have it when the FedEx tracking said they should.  The person raised hell and one of the employees ended up finding the opened box in their stock room.

But ultimately I fear that scenario far less than just dropping something expensive on my porch.  Last year I absolutely did not want UPS to deliver my PS5 to my door from Walmart, but Walmart wouldn't let me redirect the shipment for pickup--and I believe Walmart blanket disables that option for ALL of their shipments, which I hate and may not use them to buy expensive stuff for shipment in the future.  UPS dropped the damn thing at my address number but on the wrong street one block over, which is the exact mistake I've seen carriers make dozens of times that I never want to duplicate for anything expensive.  

Knock on wood, in 10 years I've never had anything stolen from our porch at home, and I do quite a bit of shipping for eBay. I think it helps that we are on a dead end street with no through traffic and very little pedestrian traffic. That being said, like you, with an expensive item I'd rather not take a chance, so I figure Walgreens is at least one small layer of security. Although I'm sure it's true that anything COULD happen, I've known most of the folks at that specific Walgreens for some time, so I'm not overly concerned about an issue. Again, knock on wood!

[Cat]

On 2/1/2023 at 11:17 AM, Venomous72 said:

Sentinel and Mafex Spidey’s came in. Love ‘em. Hard to choose which one is my ‘definitive’ Spidey. 

I just saw this on Reddit! 

[fantastic_four]

On 2/1/2023 at 9:59 AM, F For Fake said:

Knock on wood, in 10 years I've never had anything stolen from our porch at home, and I do quite a bit of shipping for eBay. I think it helps that we are on a dead end street with no through traffic and very little pedestrian traffic. That being said, like you, with an expensive item I'd rather not take a chance, so I figure Walgreens is at least one small layer of security. Although I'm sure it's true that anything COULD happen, I've known most of the folks at that specific Walgreens for some time, so I'm not overly concerned about an issue. Again, knock on wood!

I live in a moderately crowded city (Richmond, Virginia with a metro size of 1.2 million people), and I have a public sidewalk about twenty feet from my front door.  On average I have probably two to five people an hour walking past my house.  For 15 years I was buying expensive comics in the 'burbs kind of like you with no real concerns of theft, so when I moved to the city I wondered if that would be an issue.  So far nothing stolen, but MANY mis-deliveries.  So unless you're in a super-dense city and particularly in an area with high levels of poverty the risk of mis-delivery is still greater than theft in most areas--and I suspect that's the main risk in 95% or more of areas.  In other words if your package was delivered but isn't on your porch, then my guess is that 95% of the time it's due to carrier error, not theft.

I say that because the carriers mis-deliver for me relatively frequently.  DHL has done it three times on about 30 deliveries (almost all of the Japanese import figures I buy come via DHL), FedEx seems to do it about once for every 25 to 50 packages, and UPS does it about as much as FedEx.  Amazon used to be great about not mis-delivering, but then a few months ago they mis-delivered four straight packages to the same next-door neighbor for who-knows-what-reason; my guess is some kind of GPS problem for four straight drivers to all mis-deliver packages to the exact same place.

[fantastic_four]

On 2/1/2023 at 10:12 AM, Cat said:

I just saw this on Reddit! 

I don't read that subreddit; I only read the Marvel Legends one.  But I'm buying more than just Legends these days so I should probably switch to that broader subreddit, although it has so many posts per hour with Reddit making it pretty difficult to read new posts that I'm not sure I can swing it.

[F For Fake]

On 2/1/2023 at 10:14 AM, fantastic_four said:

I live in a moderately crowded city (Richmond, Virginia with a metro size of 1.2 million people), and I have a public sidewalk about twenty feet from my front door.  On average I have probably two to five people an hour walking past my house.  For 15 years I was buying expensive comics in the 'burbs kind of like you with no real concerns of theft, so when I moved to the city I wondered if that would be an issue.  So far nothing stolen, but MANY mis-deliveries.  So unless you're in a super-dense city and particularly in an area with high levels of poverty the risk of mis-delivery is still greater than theft in most areas--and I suspect that's the main risk in 95% or more of areas.  In other words if your package was delivered but isn't on your porch, then my guess is that 95% of the time it's due to carrier error, not theft.

I say that because the carriers mis-deliver for me relatively frequently.  DHL has done it three times on about 30 deliveries (almost all of the Japanese import figures I buy come via DHL), FedEx seems to do it about once for every 25 to 50 packages, and UPS does it about as much as FedEx.  Amazon used to be great about not mis-delivering, but then a few months ago they mis-delivered four straight packages to the same next-door neighbor for who-knows-what-reason; my guess is some kind of GPS problem for four straight drivers to all mis-deliver packages to the exact same place.

We have fairly good luck with deliveries, with the exception of FedEx, who just don't want to do their job most of the time. I have caught them slacking before. Once I was waiting for a package, a third delivery attempt so I was waiting by the door all day. I had the FedEx app open on my phone. I watched the driver pull up to the house, open his door, sit in his truck for about 30 seconds, then close the door and take off, at which point the status changed to "No one at home/available". I ran out on the porch and flagged him down. I was livid. Who knows how many times they said they attempted delivery when in fact they didn't even get out of the truck. Drives me bats. UPS we have very good luck with, and most other carriers are fine. But FedEx always seems to be a nightmare.

[fantastic_four]

There's an incoming solution to carrier mis-deliveries--Amazon is running a pilot with a few auto manufacturers to build codes into trunk locks that people can share with delivery carriers so that they deliver packages directly into the trunk of your car.  I can't wait until this is a broadly-available service.  

[Cat]

On 2/2/2023 at 1:17 AM, fantastic_four said:

I don't read that subreddit; I only read the Marvel Legends one.  But I'm buying more than just Legends these days so I should probably switch to that broader subreddit, although it has so many posts per hour with Reddit making it pretty difficult to read new posts that I'm not sure I can swing it.

It has its moments, and it has shown me a few cool figures I'd never heard of before. 

[Gonzimodo]

On 2/1/2023 at 10:20 AM, F For Fake said:

We have fairly good luck with deliveries, with the exception of FedEx, who just don't want to do their job most of the time. I have caught them slacking before. Once I was waiting for a package, a third delivery attempt so I was waiting by the door all day. I had the FedEx app open on my phone. I watched the driver pull up to the house, open his door, sit in his truck for about 30 seconds, then close the door and take off, at which point the status changed to "No one at home/available". I ran out on the porch and flagged him down. I was livid. Who knows how many times they said they attempted delivery when in fact they didn't even get out of the truck. Drives me bats. UPS we have very good luck with, and most other carriers are fine. But FedEx always seems to be a nightmare.

This happened to me a couple times, too.  We have a camera doorbell, so it's really frustrating when you get the "no one at home/undeliverable" BS in the tracking just because the lazy driver didn't want to get out of the truck. 

[F For Fake]

Hey guys, germane to our earlier convo, Hasbro Pulse has Mindbender and Serpentor back in stock, so go go go!

https://hasbropulse.com/collections/back-in-stock

UPDATE: Looks like it's just for premium members at the moment, should open up to everyone at 1pm EST if there are any left.

Edited February 1, 2023 by F For Fake