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

[F For Fake]

On 2/24/2023 at 11:00 PM, srezvan said:

I had a booth at a local toy show last weekend. I didn't have a ton of time to look around, but I managed to pick up this Star Wars bootleg for my bootleg collection. Bubble is in rough shape, but it's still attached. Bonus points for being sold by "Pound City." 

Love it! There was a time when I was really into bootleg and KO toys, especially Marvel related. It's a fun and sometimes challenging road to go down, as the offerings are so random.

[F For Fake]

Man alive, don't know if any of you guys are feeling the crunch, but it is a brutal time for the toy budget this week! This weekend I got notice that my two Classified Serpentors were charged and shipping (set to arrive this Thursday), and BBTS must have had a ship come in, because I had FIVE "Arriving Soon" notifications for pre-ordered Transformers. Sky Lynx and Jetfire reissues, plus finally getting Wild Rider, Breakdown, and Dead End. Other folks are reporting getting notices for Metalhawk and Twincast as well. When it rains, it pours! Happy to have all of this stuff finally hitting, but man, all at once? Yikes! No hookers and blow for me this week, gotta tighten the belt!

[Gonzimodo]

On 2/28/2023 at 9:02 AM, F For Fake said:

Man alive, don't know if any of you guys are feeling the crunch, but it is a brutal time for the toy budget this week! This weekend I got notice that my two Classified Serpentors were charged and shipping (set to arrive this Thursday), and BBTS must have had a ship come in, because I had FIVE "Arriving Soon" notifications for pre-ordered Transformers. Sky Lynx and Jetfire reissues, plus finally getting Wild Rider, Breakdown, and Dead End. Other folks are reporting getting notices for Metalhawk and Twincast as well. When it rains, it pours! Happy to have all of this stuff finally hitting, but man, all at once? Yikes! No hookers and blow for me this week, gotta tighten the belt!

Hang in there, the hookers and blow will still be there next week. 

[F For Fake]

On 2/28/2023 at 9:51 AM, Gonzimodo said:

Hang in there, the hookers and blow will still be there next week. 

But I want them NOW! 

[Diamonddave]

Nice 1983 CC MOC added last week.

 

[Cat]

Got some Transformers in the mail yesterday. Most of them were free, thanks to a store voucher I got as a bonus for buying my new phone from there (Samsung S23 Ultra). I got Legacy Tarn, Hot Shot, Drag Strip, Wildrider, and Starscream (Armada). 

I also received a loose complete Siege Soundwave with Laserbeak and Ravage I bought from someone off an Aussie collector forum. Nice mint figures, cheap price as he was trying to just get rid of them. Win win. 

So a very Transformery day, a good day. 

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 3/1/2023 at 7:27 PM, Cat said:

Got some Transformers in the mail yesterday. Most of them were free, thanks to a store voucher I got as a bonus for buying my new phone from there (Samsung S23 Ultra). I got Legacy Tarn, Hot Shot, Drag Strip, Wildrider, and Starscream (Armada). 

I also received a loose complete Siege Soundwave with Laserbeak and Ravage I bought from someone off an Aussie collector forum. Nice mint figures, cheap price as he was trying to just get rid of them. Win win. 

So a very Transformery day, a good day. 

No disguise for the Transformers?  They brought joy apparent and fulfilling! Kudos.

 

[Cat]

On 3/2/2023 at 1:10 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

No disguise for the Transformers?  They brought joy apparent and fulfilling! Kudos.

 

They're Transformers. They bring their own disguise.

[F For Fake]

On 3/1/2023 at 8:27 PM, Cat said:

Got some Transformers in the mail yesterday. Most of them were free, thanks to a store voucher I got as a bonus for buying my new phone from there (Samsung S23 Ultra). I got Legacy Tarn, Hot Shot, Drag Strip, Wildrider, and Starscream (Armada). 

I also received a loose complete Siege Soundwave with Laserbeak and Ravage I bought from someone off an Aussie collector forum. Nice mint figures, cheap price as he was trying to just get rid of them. Win win. 

So a very Transformery day, a good day. 

Cool! Distribution is still so screwed up, most of these haven't hit shelves over here in any appreciable number. I've seen a few reports of folks finding Tarn, Hot Shot etc at random, but all of the stores around me still seem to be drowning in Coronation Starscreams and Blitzwings. I finally saw Ironhide a few weeks ago, and apparently he's common as dirt! I'm stoked about Tarn, I'll take all of the IDW characters they want to make. I'm really not familiar with the Unicron Trilogy stuff, so unless a design is just totally awesome, I'll probably skip most of those, which is fine. The wallet can use a rest!

[Cat]

On 3/3/2023 at 12:22 AM, F For Fake said:

Cool! Distribution is still so screwed up, most of these haven't hit shelves over here in any appreciable number. I've seen a few reports of folks finding Tarn, Hot Shot etc at random, but all of the stores around me still seem to be drowning in Coronation Starscreams and Blitzwings. I finally saw Ironhide a few weeks ago, and apparently he's common as dirt! I'm stoked about Tarn, I'll take all of the IDW characters they want to make. I'm really not familiar with the Unicron Trilogy stuff, so unless a design is just totally awesome, I'll probably skip most of those, which is fine. The wallet can use a rest!

Well this was online shopping, if I was comparing in-person buys, that would only be Wildrider and Armada Starscream. That's how bad our shelves are around here. Online the Tarn wave literally came out around 2 weeks ago. I was expecting him to sell out on me while they were getting my voucher organised. 

[comicwiz]

I did the out of the ordinary (for me anyway). With the exception of buying toys for our boys, I haven't bought a new toy off the shelf since the 80's for myself. Yesterday, someone had posted that the Retro Marvel Legends line began popping-up in one of our stores here, and I couldn't resist. I visited 6 different locations to land these. I figured I'd grab a few doubles for trade bait (I need a Spidey). To me, these have a What If vibe to them, as in, if Kenner had made a Super Powers-esque toy line for the Marvel universe. But a much better version than they produced for DC. I love everything about them, esp the price! Only downside is these seem to have been like an overstock buy for the dollar store, so there's not as wide a selection. And very little product on the shelf. I feel like if I don't go check a few more stores later today, they will be gone by the end of week.

I've got a few other posts coming... just need to take some pics. If anyone has been on the fence about these, I highly recommend them. The Hulk is an instant winner in my eyes, and I only wish there was one more I could get, but stoked to have gotten the 6 characters I did.

[Buzzetta]

Funko to scale back, lay off workers and pull an Atari ET Landfill move and destroy $30-36 million in Funko Pops to write them off.  

https://www.cbr.com/funko-destroy-inventory-2022-profit-loss/

Actual Press release form Funko you can read for yourself: 

https://investor.funko.com/news-and-events/press-releases/Press-Releases/2023/Funko-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-2022-and-Fiscal-Year-2022-Financial-Results-and-Introduces-Outlook-for-Fiscal-Year-2023/default.aspx

Despite what Hasbro is saying, I am sure they are experiencing some type of similar situation which would give cause for them to shift away from presales and make it so that whatever you find on the shelves, you find on the shelves. 

Oh... I mentioned they were doing that with the next few waves of Indy and SW right? 

[comicwiz]

I'm something of a Peanuts nerd. I've always loved everything about them. My first hand drawing in kindergarten was Snoopy. Over time, I've accumulated a pretty decent sized collection of stuff. And I can be ridiculously fond of the simplest things - like when my wife popped into a McDonald's some years back to get something for our boys, and found out they had some Peanuts promotion, and eventually got the display with all the food premiums, and some really slick displays that the store didn't have room to hang. A lot of the collection building is infrequent though, so I might add one item every few years, if that.

In my high school days, I used to love to go thrifting. We had a Goodwill in one of the neighbourhoods where we lived that was very near one of the most affluent pockets of the city. The stuff that used to come through that store (I would later discover) was incredible. I always had a thing for art history, used to spend a lot of time carrying and curling up to these massive art books both in my early grade school days right up through University. The art I used to pull out of that place was pretty unreal, and sadly, my love for it also meant that I gave a lot of it away to friends and girlfriends at the time who used to be similarly surprised by my finds. Some of those I wish I'd hung onto.

So in recent time, I began to do this thrifting ritual again, and have pulled some pretty cool art, but the other day, I stumble onto this. Now, I'm usually pretty good with ID'ing stuff, I've been metal detecting for long enough to know how to do it with fragments of a relic or artifact to work with. But this thing has me really stumped. It appears to be cast in resin, has some decent weight to it. It shows the Peanuts gang wearing kimono's on what appears to be a treasure vessel or ship. Some are holding "golden" painted artifacts that are seen strewn across the floor, bed and overfilling the ships hull. And there's a chest in the back that is buried and overfilled with the treasure too. I ran the symbols on the sail through a translator and it said "Good Luck", but I also ran it through an Asian friend, and he said it means "Open to Fortune." Either way, I absolutely love it. I tried to even contact UFS license dept in hopes they might have some information on the maker and year it was made. I ran this through one of the biggest Peanuts collectors out there and they had zero information on it, but the person said someone they knew had this in one of their displays. I did find something on WorthPoint from a few years back (I'll post those pics further down), but it is vastly different from this one - almost looks like a knock-off of this one for how crude that one is. Figured I'd post this here in case any Asian based collectors have seen or know anything of it:

Here's the other ship for comparison I saw on Worthpoint. Aside from this, I found nothing that even comes close. As you'll notice, the Peanuts gang is wearing different attire, some are wearing hats, the arrangement of the characters is different as well. The sail looks similar, except the symbols are different, and running it through the translator, it said "Treasure Recruits" or something of this sort. The weird thing is that it looks like they are standing on soap suds. The differences are enough to think this was a different mold altogether, but perhaps it wasn't finished (as the supposed treasure is not painted gold like mine). The mystery continues...

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by comicwiz

[Gonzimodo]

Hasbro Pulse is having a "warehouse sale" now through March 19th.  30% off certain items (35% for premium members), and the selection is surprisingly good.  Of course, I've already bought the stuff I actually want at full price... 

[bentbryan]

On 3/3/2023 at 7:58 AM, comicwiz said:

I did the out of the ordinary (for me anyway). With the exception of buying toys for our boys, I haven't bought a new toy off the shelf since the 80's for myself. Yesterday, someone had posted that the Retro Marvel Legends line began popping-up in one of our stores here, and I couldn't resist. I visited 6 different locations to land these. I figured I'd grab a few doubles for trade bait (I need a Spidey). To me, these have a What If vibe to them, as in, if Kenner had made a Super Powers-esque toy line for the Marvel universe. But a much better version than they produced for DC. I love everything about them, esp the price! Only downside is these seem to have been like an overstock buy for the dollar store, so there's not as wide a selection. And very little product on the shelf. I feel like if I don't go check a few more stores later today, they will be gone by the end of week.

I've got a few other posts coming... just need to take some pics. If anyone has been on the fence about these, I highly recommend them. The Hulk is an instant winner in my eyes, and I only wish there was one more I could get, but stoked to have gotten the 6 characters I did.

I haven’t grabbed any of these but the card art is very nice. 

[Dave2739]

On 3/3/2023 at 7:58 AM, comicwiz said:

I did the out of the ordinary (for me anyway). With the exception of buying toys for our boys, I haven't bought a new toy off the shelf since the 80's for myself. Yesterday, someone had posted that the Retro Marvel Legends line began popping-up in one of our stores here, and I couldn't resist. I visited 6 different locations to land these. I figured I'd grab a few doubles for trade bait (I need a Spidey). To me, these have a What If vibe to them, as in, if Kenner had made a Super Powers-esque toy line for the Marvel universe. But a much better version than they produced for DC. I love everything about them, esp the price! Only downside is these seem to have been like an overstock buy for the dollar store, so there's not as wide a selection. And very little product on the shelf. I feel like if I don't go check a few more stores later today, they will be gone by the end of week.

I've got a few other posts coming... just need to take some pics. If anyone has been on the fence about these, I highly recommend them. The Hulk is an instant winner in my eyes, and I only wish there was one more I could get, but stoked to have gotten the 6 characters I did.

Sorry to be a buzzkill. Just saw this:
https://marvelousnews.com/252-32681

[comicwiz]

On 3/6/2023 at 10:39 PM, Dave2739 said:

Sorry to be a buzzkill. Just saw this:
https://marvelousnews.com/252-32681

Not in the least bit bothered by it. I actually had a feeling finding these at the dollar store was the lines death knell. But here are my thoughts. This line is without question one of the best Marvel licensed figure line I've seen. It makes any vintage line like Secret Wars look fourth rate. And as much as there's a nostalgic thing going on for a lot of collectors with the ToyBiz stuff, the sculpting and packaging here is superior. This is a fan made checklist, and I'd recommend if anyone can find any of these from any wave, to get them.

Whoever thought of doing the Ghost Rider tribute to the Fleetwood Toys GR is a genius. The final three (Doom, Cage and Spider-Woman) are all really strong figural sculpts, so it's finishing off with a bang.

Now, I am biased with the five-point articulation, but the quality of these is just something I feel any collector should really experience for themselves to see what I mean. Granted, I'm getting these at a reduced retail price, but the inventory is VERY thin, and that's a pretty big trade-off, because there's a tonne of characters I will need to hunt down now, and that will require me to work with remaining inventory because these aren't being made anymore. I've been lucky to find three boxes which come with an 8 figure count - of which 6 are different, and at least two of the characters have doubles. If I can get more, I will. This line has hands down the best Green Goblin sculpt for an action figure (a close second to the ToyBiz figure factory) ever! Honestly, I haven't seen a lousy sculpt yet, and I'm the first to point that out. Everytime I look at that checklist, I see another figure I need to have.

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by comicwiz

[comicwiz]

This piece has a pretty phenomenal follow-up. It began when I found a Honolulu Museum website article on the Lunar "treasure ship" (takarabune) - that single term opened up a doorway to research and figuring out what this piece was using Google China's search (translated in simplified Chinese).

It turns out this piece was made in the founding year (2000) of the Snoopy World theme park in Hong Kong. This piece is known as the Peanuts Seven Lucky Gods Treasure Ship. It was made for a brief period, timed to the Lunar NY, and only sold through the Snoopy World specialty shop on the theme park grounds. The piece appears to have been made in several different sizes - mine is the large, and one of the ads I found showed it sell for 200,000 yen, which is roughly USD $1500. I also found a photo of the box, which shows the maker, and I've since been in contact with the toy manufacturer to better understand how many were made.

Presently, this is the only "large" sized one I've seen, and I couldn't be happier about finally figuring out the maker, age and historical connection to the Snoopy World in Hong Kong.

It currently sits atop my display table of metal detecting finds, which is the spot I envisioned it belonged when I spotted it at the thrift store

 

Edited March 8, 2023 by comicwiz

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 3/7/2023 at 7:31 PM, comicwiz said:

Not in the least bit bothered by it. I actually had a feeling finding these at the dollar store was the lines death knell. But here are my thoughts. This line is without question one of the best Marvel licensed figure line I've seen. It makes any vintage line like Secret Wars look fourth rate. And as much as there's a nostalgic thing going on for a lot of collectors with the ToyBiz stuff, the sculpting and packaging here is superior. This is a fan made checklist, and I'd recommend if anyone can find any of these from any wave, to get them.

Whoever thought of doing the Ghost Rider tribute to the Fleetwood Toys GR is a genius. The final three (Doom, Cage and Spider-Woman) are all really strong figural sculpts, so it's finishing off with a bang.

Now, I am biased with the five-point articulation, but the quality of these is just something I feel any collector should really experience for themselves to see what I mean. Granted, I'm getting these at a reduced retail price, but the inventory is VERY thin, and that's a pretty big trade-off, because there's a tonne of characters I will need to hunt down now, and that will require me to work with remaining inventory because these aren't being made anymore. I've been lucky to find three boxes which come with an 8 figure count - of which 6 are different, and at least two of the characters have doubles. If I can get more, I will. This line has hands down the best Green Goblin sculpt for an action figure (a close second to the ToyBiz figure factory) ever! Honestly, I haven't seen a lousy sculpt yet, and I'm the first to point that out. Everytime I look at that checklist, I see another figure I need to have.

 

It constantly amazes me how people can keep things in such nice shape. I have a José consecutive starting line up that I bought in like 1987, and snap if I didn't look at it the other day to compare to what's posted. I admire the effort!

[Gonzimodo]

The new GI Joe Classified figures just came up for preorder on Hasbro Pulse, and they all look really good!  My wallet just took a beating...