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This Week In Your Plastic Crack, Action Figures and Toy Collection
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9,261 posts in this topic

On 5/29/2018 at 10:55 AM, F For Fake said:

I would hesitate to drop a lot of money on carded figs, unless, as was mentioned above, you can get them locally and not have to worry about them getting violently jostled. I have two carded Joes that I had AFA graded, and while they made it home safe and sound, I don't think I'd put myself through the anxiety again!

This is the main reason I have never even mentally entertained the idea of buying carded figures.  They seem so much more fragile and susceptible to damage or decay of the weaker parts than comics.

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1 hour ago, fantastic_four said:

This is the main reason I have never even mentally entertained the idea of buying carded figures.  They seem so much more fragile and susceptible to damage or decay of the weaker parts than comics.

Yeah, it's a crapshoot. These particular Joes were just soooo pretty when I saw them, I had to have them. I have a lot of nostalgia for the carded figures for sure, fond memories of seeing them on the pegs, digging them out of bins, etc. But yeah, the potential downfall means that they're not something I actively pursue. If I run across a good deal on a carded figure, I won't turn it down, but I am primarily a collector of loose/mint/complete figures. Plus, as was noted above, they're just so much fun to play with and pose!

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14 minutes ago, F For Fake said:
2 hours ago, fantastic_four said:

This is the main reason I have never even mentally entertained the idea of buying carded figures.  They seem so much more fragile and susceptible to damage or decay of the weaker parts than comics.

Yeah, it's a crapshoot. These particular Joes were just soooo pretty when I saw them, I had to have them. I have a lot of nostalgia for the carded figures for sure, fond memories of seeing them on the pegs, digging them out of bins, etc. But yeah, the potential downfall means that they're not something I actively pursue. If I run across a good deal on a carded figure, I won't turn it down, but I am primarily a collector of loose/mint/complete figures. Plus, as was noted above, they're just so much fun to play with and pose!

Could just be ignorance on my part though.  If I approached comics from a simplistic perspective like I'm approaching figure boxes then I'd probably assume the cheap pulp comics are printed on wouldn't last more than 30-40 years and stay away from comics too, but obviously we know that under many if not most storage conditions even the 1939 Detective 1 or Action 1 issues have copies whose pages are still as white as the day they came out.  And unless they were stored in attics or outdoors none of them are brittle and falling apart.

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1 hour ago, fantastic_four said:

Could just be ignorance on my part though.  If I approached comics from a simplistic perspective like I'm approaching figure boxes then I'd probably assume the cheap pulp comics are printed on wouldn't last more than 30-40 years and stay away from comics too, but obviously we know that under many if not most storage conditions even the 1939 Detective 1 or Action 1 issues have copies whose pages are still as white as the day they came out.  And unless they were stored in attics or outdoors none of them are brittle and falling apart.

I'm sure that environment plays a huge role in the condition of carded figures, just like with comics. There are reasons why some have yellowed or brittle bubbles, dried out o-rings that snap, etc. And some of the issues may be inevitable. So, that's why I'm comfortable buying some carded figures at a good price. I just wouldn't sink a ton of money into them, personally. 

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12 hours ago, F For Fake said:

I'm sure that environment plays a huge role in the condition of carded figures, just like with comics. There are reasons why some have yellowed or brittle bubbles, dried out o-rings that snap, etc. And some of the issues may be inevitable. So, that's why I'm comfortable buying some carded figures at a good price. I just wouldn't sink a ton of money into them, personally. 

With O-rings, it feels inevitable.  

It's a piece of rubber under strain (which kept the legs/waist tight to the torso).  

The O-ring is actually the best case scenario if something has to give.  I've actually seen personally, on multiple occasions, that the hook breaks off.  The hook can be replaced, but definitely tougher.

Patrick

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The essence of my particular fascination with sealed/slabbed toys from the 70s/80s is that it literally sling shots you back in time. I am exploring this with more depth in my journal. But in my own personal opinion as I recall these glorious days; very often the anticipation or build up to a birthday or holiday was better than the actual opening and playing with the toy itself.

For me a slabbed or sealed toy is similar to capturing a moment in time for the ages. It appeals to all of our senses..... that moment two or three or more decades ago when you had it in your hands as a kid. You can vividly recall the day, maybe the weather, what you did, who you were with. I will from time to time share some of my pick ups as I am always buying.

 

Gimlock.jpg

grimlockseal1.jpg

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wheeljack.jpg

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Don't want to hijack, but wanted to ask if any of you guys would be interested in a This Week In Your Gaming Collection thread, so as not to clog up this one?

This week in my collection (relevance = plastic case, plastic "crack")

IMAG0404.thumb.jpg.963ae6f85583831adae1903fb4a2b7da.jpg

 

 

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On 5/29/2018 at 10:03 PM, Yorick said:

I got a question: when does a customizer graduate to bootlegger?

This is usually not a good graduation step, because all roads seem to inevitably lead to hobby paraiah.

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On 5/31/2018 at 7:48 AM, F For Fake said:

I'm sure that environment plays a huge role in the condition of carded figures, just like with comics. There are reasons why some have yellowed or brittle bubbles, dried out o-rings that snap, etc. And some of the issues may be inevitable. So, that's why I'm comfortable buying some carded figures at a good price. I just wouldn't sink a ton of money into them, personally. 

I absolutely love the 8” Mego Star Trek figures from the ‘70s. They were hands down my favorite childhood toys. Not just the figures themselves but the packaging as well. I loved every bit of it. 

Just this last year I had reach my goal of getting on the basic crew and the first 4 aliens MOC.  A couple of them probably could have been upgraded but all were minty unpunched. Can’t describe the sense of accomplishment and completion when I got the last one. 

So it really tore me up when I started selling them off a couple of months ago. I still get the nagging feeling of wanting to buy them all back - as much as of hassel as that would be. 

But as much as I love them I just got tired of stressing about having all that money tied up in carded figures and worrying that one day the knee joint(s) would spontaneously break. 

Like the 3 3/4” Joes, 8” Megos have the potential for the internal rubber band to snap. But popped knee joints are the much more common occurrence. 

And it doesn’t even take any jostling, they can be sitting perfectly still and one day the joint just gives out. 

I think the other thing is that I always had them tucked away out of sight to preserve condition. Would have been nice to enjoy them on display but then I’d have to worry about the light exposure a) turning the blue phasers green and/or b) causing the coloring in the body to react with and discolor the shirts. 

Thing is, with comics, with just a little effort paper can be preserved pretty well over a long time. 

I probably have the strongest nostalgic attachment to the Trek figures, but it seems like with so many carded action figures they’re just so much more volitile and unpredictable. 

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5 hours ago, Jimbo749 said:

Don't want to hijack, but wanted to ask if any of you guys would be interested in a This Week In Your Gaming Collection thread, so as not to clog up this one?

This week in my collection (relevance = plastic case, plastic "crack")

IMAG0404.thumb.jpg.963ae6f85583831adae1903fb4a2b7da.jpg

 

 

There's a thread for this in the movie/TV forum. Just search for it. :foryou:

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17 hours ago, DC|Marvel said:

The essence of my particular fascination with sealed/slabbed toys from the 70s/80s is that it literally sling shots you back in time. I am exploring this with more depth in my journal. But in my own personal opinion as I recall these glorious days; very often the anticipation or build up to a birthday or holiday was better than the actual opening and playing with the toy itself.

For me a slabbed or sealed toy is similar to capturing a moment in time for the ages. It appeals to all of our senses..... that moment two or three or more decades ago when you had it in your hands as a kid. You can vividly recall the day, maybe the weather, what you did, who you were with. I will from time to time share some of my pick ups as I am always buying.

 

Gimlock.jpg

grimlockseal1.jpg

grimlockseal2.jpg

wheeljack.jpg

Those are beautiful!:cloud9:

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On 5/29/2018 at 10:37 AM, comicwiz said:

Not that I'm aware of, but I don't collect anything new. By the late 80's, figures started becoming more articulated, so they began using metal pins on knees, elbows, and the socket format joining the arms and legs to the torso became pretty much a standard after the successful application and use in the late 70's and 80's.

The O-rings were mostly in use with large action figure formats, so it's use in the 4" format was a bit unusual. Mego 8" and larger figures unfortunately run into this issue as well, but so too do the vintage large Star Wars action figures. You can start to see it with limbs that aren't seating properly in their socket, they almost look to be dangling. I have a Mego Hulk MOC where this is happening.

There's quite a few video's showing how to fix them when they are loose, but unfortunately when they are sealed, it can cause a significant value impact.

On a mass market scale, Hasbro phased out the O-Ring on Joes back in 2006 when they shifted from the DTC releases to the 25th Anniversary line.  However, a few O-Rings figures were released by the GI Joe Collector club from 2007 through 2010.  These have been considered official Hasbro figures since the club is licensed to reuse previous Hasbro tooling and has the budget to sculpt a few new pieces.  However, except for lower end discount bootleg figures, no toy manufacturer has utilized the O-Ring for mass market products since 2006.  

 

As far as buying MOC GI Joe figures, Joe, myself and a few others have discussed it in length and shown disaster examples of broken figures sealed on mint cards.  I would not recommend it. 

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3 hours ago, Buzzetta said:

On a mass market scale, Hasbro phased out the O-Ring on Joes back in 2006 when they shifted from the DTC releases to the 25th Anniversary line.  However, a few O-Rings figures were released by the GI Joe Collector club from 2007 through 2010.  These have been considered official Hasbro figures since the club is licensed to reuse previous Hasbro tooling and has the budget to sculpt a few new pieces.  However, except for lower end discount bootleg figures, no toy manufacturer has utilized the O-Ring for mass market products since 2006.  

 

As far as buying MOC GI Joe figures, Joe, myself and a few others have discussed it in length and shown disaster examples of broken figures sealed on mint cards.  I would not recommend it. 

I'll post one of my Sky Patrol carded figures in the next couple days.  Totally jacked. 

Bummer too because I really like those figures.  And that was a later release (1990).

Patrick

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On 5/31/2018 at 11:00 PM, DC|Marvel said:

The essence of my particular fascination with sealed/slabbed toys from the 70s/80s is that it literally sling shots you back in time. I am exploring this with more depth in my journal. But in my own personal opinion as I recall these glorious days; very often the anticipation or build up to a birthday or holiday was better than the actual opening and playing with the toy itself.

For me a slabbed or sealed toy is similar to capturing a moment in time for the ages. It appeals to all of our senses..... that moment two or three or more decades ago when you had it in your hands as a kid. You can vividly recall the day, maybe the weather, what you did, who you were with. I will from time to time share some of my pick ups as I am always buying.

 

Gimlock.jpg

grimlockseal1.jpg

grimlockseal2.jpg

wheeljack.jpg

I owned those two Transformers when I was a kid. I saved an image of a Masterpiece Optimus Prime and I want to find the best modern transforming version of him. I still haven't fully seen the animated movie after all this time. I think I was spoiled about it and didn't want to see it when I was a kid. But that Transformers Masterpiece line looks really nice from what I've seen. I thought about getting the two Lamborghini brothers as I think the yellow one was my first transformer. I saw a good setup where a person purchased two of their favorite Transformers so they could have them in both forms.

 

You are probably right about sealed or complete toys bringing you back in time. I'm after a few complete vintage figures. There was something to watching the cartoon and getting the figure. Or expecting to see the new characters in the cartoon. And that anticipation was something back then compared to today as there aren't any good cartoons that I've seen. And I only get what I call adult toys, mostly statues and high end figures like Hot Toys. But as a kid you were getting the new toy and that was the item to own. Whether it was Transformers, G.I. Joe, Voltron, or other popular series. Today what I look forward to is the final display. I'm getting Hot Toys Jedi Luke soon. He looks really good.

 

 

 

But even after I get him the wait is already for a Hot Toys R2 as I know that one should be better than the Sideshow version.

 

 

 

 

Edited by GeneticNinja
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Very nice ROTJ Luke figure by HT right there.  I just got in two figures by Hot Toys this past month:  DX15 Jack Sparrow and DX09 Michael Keaton Batman.  The new Jack Sparrow figure is amazing and would recommend it to anyone who is on the fence about it, you wont be disappointed.

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2 minutes ago, halbert said:

Very nice ROTJ Luke figure by HT right there.  I just got in two figures by Hot Toys this past month:  DX15 Jack Sparrow and DX09 Michael Keaton Batman.  The new Jack Sparrow figure is amazing and would recommend it to anyone who is on the fence about it, you wont be disappointed.

It’s the Blob !!!!

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18 hours ago, halbert said:

Very nice ROTJ Luke figure by HT right there.  I just got in two figures by Hot Toys this past month:  DX15 Jack Sparrow and DX09 Michael Keaton Batman.  The new Jack Sparrow figure is amazing and would recommend it to anyone who is on the fence about it, you wont be disappointed.

I still haven't seen the more recent Pirates movies. I stopped at the third one. I'm looking forward to it though as I like the Jack Sparrow character. I remember the previous Hot Toys version was pretty good. I was going to compare that one to the new version. I think I like the base on the original a bit more.

 

13 hours ago, BoBe-Patt said:

This damn plastic crack addiction is preventing me from buying more expensive keys!

 

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I'm watching those Mospeada / Robotech New Generation bikes. I was severely disappointed like many others that we didn't get Rook from the other company that ended up going out of business I believe.

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But they are teasing Lancer / Yellow Dancer and his bike was always cool with the daggers even though they were never shown in action during the anime. So I'll get him when they put him up for pre-order. I never got into those Hi-Metal toys. I wish they would show some love to the Robotech Masters / Southern Cross mechs. Those hovertanks and helicopters would make good toys.

 

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