Comic Book Men - Inker's Auction

In true Comic Book Men fashion, again this week started with making fun of Ming. Mike Z. also took a little ragging based on one of his favorite pop culture robots.

Comic inker, Mike Esposito's nephew brought in some original artwork by Mike. Walt called in "pop culture expert" Rob Bruce to take a look at the art. They decided the best thing to do with the art, which was reproductions of work he had previously inked for comics, is to take it to an auction house. Walt and Ming agreed to help Mike Esposito's wife auction the art.

The next main segment showed off the Loki Hot Toys figure based off his modern movie appearance.I have to admit that the Hot Toys look incredible, but they just aren't what I'm into. Like the 12" GI Joes, I can appreciate all the details in their uniforms, but I don't really need all those cloth clothing on my action figures.

I though it was interesting that Kevin Smith mentioned his favorite villain is Darkseid. I just would have expected it to be a Batman villain. Although Kev did mention a Batman connection with the character. Smith likes Harley Quinn so much he named his daughter after her.

The main segment of the episode focused on the Mike Esposito auction. The art work looked great. Some of them were based on some really classic pieces. I really liked the recreation of the panel in which Peter Parker meets Mary Jane Watson. At the end of the episode Walt called Mrs. Espositio to tell her that the art sold for over $21,800. I loved the fact that Kevin Smith made fun of the fact that Rob Bruce estimated that the stuff might sell for around three grand. Some "expert".

New Jersey Collector's Con 3/9/14

Today I traveled with my friend Mike to Cherry Hill, New Jersey for NJCC. We meet up with Rose and Tony from Retro Con as well as a bunch of other collector friends. As usual the show was extremely well attended. Out of my group of friends I think I was the person who bought the most stuff. Tony and Mike both didn't really find much.

I saw quite a lot of vintage Masters of the Universe toys. Lot of figures, vehicles, and play sets. I even saw a few dealers selling loose weapons.

I thought about buying several vintage MOTU figures while at the show. One of the guys was even selling two loose Laser Power He-Man figures. They both had some play wear and only came with the sword. He was asking $100 a piece. I just couldn't pull the trigger.

 Another item I saw for $100 was the very rare Missile Command Headquarters. This cardboard playset was released with three Cobra figures as a Sears Exclusive for the GI Joe line in 1982.

Like a lot of the old Star Wars playsets, most of these were destroyed by kids back in the day.

As usual NJCC had a large selection of door prize raffles. Along with some of the prizes pictured here they also gave away some cool custom figures.







Boss Fight Studies who sculpts parts for Hasbro and the GI Joe Collectors Club were at the show again this year. They were showing off a lot of stuff from the current GI Joe CC Subscription service. If you look closely you can see the sculpts to some of the Eco-Warrior and Zombie figures from the upcoming GI Joe CC Con Exclusive set. I think the prototype of the zombie dog looked better than the painted (or photoshopped) image released by the club.

We had quite an adventure at lunch time. Twelve of us ate at the restaurant at the hotel. It was our waitress's 2nd day on the job and it turned into a disaster. Before all the drama I snapped this photo of Rose in her Baroness costume along with one of the other collectors I just met.

Later during the meal, Cobra Commander joined us as well. It's had to eat while wearing a shiny metal faceplate.




Here is a photo of Unemployed Skeletor along with Scarlett from the GI Joe Costume group "The Finest".  There were a lot of other costumers at the con. Mostly GI Joe characters, but I did see a Transformer and a little kid dressed as Dr. Who. I also snapped this photo of three Dreadnoks. Road Pig's costume is amazing.

I'll be posting about my purchases later in the week.

Little Plastic Star Wars

A few years back Hasbro included little plastic mini-figures with their carded 3 3/4" figures. At first they came molded in a translucent blue. Later the figures were released in red translucent plastic. This is not a complete set, but a collection of duplicates figures that I keep in my barrel of plastic men.

Here we have Darth Maul, Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) , Darth Vader, 

and Darth Sidious (the Emperor) all armed with their lightsabers. 

I had a few of these on a shelf at school. One of my favorite students was building a model Acropolis for a Social Studies class. We glued an Emperor figure to a dowel rod for the statue inside the structure and painted it gray like the rest of the building.

The second photo shows of an Episode One era Princess Amidala, Yoda, Boba Fett, and a Rebel Fleet Trooper. These were a pretty cool pack in item. I preferred the blue figures because they looked like the little hologram projections seen in the Star Wars films.

Little Plastic Astronauts - MPC

  Back to my series on little plastic men from my big old barrel. Today I'm posting out the MPC Astronauts, which I did actually post about here on Action Figure Adventures a while ago.

I've had these figure for years. I think they came from a neighbor kid, but I'm not really sure. I used to have some missiles, rocket pieces, and command center pods that went with them. I don't know what happened to that stuff over the years.


 As a kid I had at least one of every figure in all three colors. The Astronauts come in white, blue, and red.

There are guys with tool kids and grabber sticks. One astronaut has a space sniffer, as well as one with a camera. There is an astronaut with a walkie-talkie and yet another with a rope and measurement tool.

There were supposedly some  MCP astronauts with space weapons, but I never had any.

There are also two other figures who don't have bases to help them stand. One looks like he's doing a space walk (EVA) while the other almost seems to be seated like a pilot.

These old figures make me want to watch The Right Stuff again. They also make me really wish we still had a shuttle program. Space exploration really is one of the most exciting things mankind has ever done in my opinion



 Here I have the two figures without stands straddling a ballpoint pen to help them stand up. These figures were my least favorite as a kid. They fell over all the time and just didn't seem that interesting to me. The pilot figure also seems to be smaller than all the other figures.

The old Mercury space suits look so old fashioned and simplistic by today's standards, but I really enjoyed playing with these MPC Astronauts as a kid.

Toy Hunter featuring Taboo

So this week Comic Book Men went without a celebrity guest, but Toy Hunter had Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas. He and Jordan walked around a giant toy show looking for LJN Wrestlers. Taboo looked at a lot of toys based on real people or actors. Rock and Apollo, OJ Simpson, and Hulk Hogan.

Jordan picked up a Shogun warrior figure, but then he was off to meet up with his buddy Steve to look for more Wrestlers.

The first person they visited was a woman whose husband had worked for Hasbro. They dug in her attic where they found My Little Pony, and an Oscar Mayer peddle car. Next Jordan found a Japanese Beast Wars Megatron. This was a chromed version of the T-Rex Megatron. A "Lucky Draw" figure, which was given away as a promotion. The home owner was a tough negotiator, but I'm got she got some real cash for her late Husband's toys.

They moved on to another collector's house. This place was Wrestle Mania (ha ha). They home owner had a huge toy collection, and it was all Wrestlers.Jordan was trying to find some carded LJN Wrestlers for Taboo. He picked up a Macho Man Randy Savage.

Finally they headed off to meet up with Hulk Hogan. At the Hogan Beach Shop they found a Hulk Hogan Workout Set. Hulk showed up and reviled an even better toy. He had a rarer final year of the LJN WWF Super Stars Hulk Hogan figure, which was actually released by Grand Toys.

Taboo had an amazing collection including carded GI Joe Night Force and Street Fighter figures. He bought Macho Man and Hulk Hogan from Jordan.

Of all the celebrity guests they've had on Toy Hunter, Taboo was the best. Since he was a true toy collector the episode didn't seem forced like many of  them do.

Little Plastic Cowboys & Indians

Continuing with my series on my Barrel of Plastic Figures, today I'm highlighting some Cowboys and Indians.

Most of these figures came in one set I bought as a kid. They came with a vinyl play mat.. The set included a stage coach with horses, two horse to ride on, and several figures.

Here are the two rider figures included in the set. The set came with this horse and another one in a bucking bronco type pose. I painted that one black with a fiery mane like the Magic the Gathering card, Nightmare.

These two horses that share a base were originally attached to a toy stage coach, They are much smaller and out of scale from the ride-able horses. The coach had opening doors and little parcels on the roof. It was way to small to be in scale with any of the figures.

The coach was very uncharacteristic of the rest of the set of plastic figures. The coach and horse used various different colors of plastic and have very fine details. At some point in middle school I broke apart the stage coach and used pieces of it as details for models I was making.

All of these Cowboys and Indians were included in that set. From what I can find online they seem to be made by Tim Mee. I'm not sure if this is accurate or if the molds may have been used by someone else. I got these in the very late 80's.

I remember pretending the cowboys were pilgrims. I played out a Thanksgiving adventure with these figures. I always really like the green cowboy with the rifle. The Indian pulling back his bow was my favorite Indian from the set.

 I always thought these crawling Indian figures were a little odd. I have three identical Indians carrying rifles. The other two crawling Indians are carrying tomahawks. I sometimes used to hold the tomahawk wielding Indians as if they were standing on their tippy-toes doing a rain dance. There may have been one of two more figures in the set originally.

The remainder of the figures in this post came into my collection through means other than that set purchase in one shot.

These two cowboys are molded in brown. One is unarmed while the other has drawn both his six-shooters.

My buddy Derek game (or traded) both of these Indian figure to me when we were kids. The green figure is holding a spear and wearing a large head-dress. The blue figure is pulling back his bow in an action-packed stance. He's been hit with a splash of gray primer. I was going to paint him one time in middle school, but ran out of spray primer.

This final Native American (Indian) figures is one of the coolest ones I've ever seen. Again I got this figure from my childhood best friend, Derek. He is wearing a wolf's skin on his head and dancing while holding a knife and tomahawk.

Such a dynamic pose and lots of cool details. I like that he seems to be wearing buck skin pants as well as a loin cloth.

The final cowboy to be included in this post is another "quick draw". I really like all the details in his sculpt. There are buttons on his shirt and straps around his legs from his holsters.

I'm not sure if this figure is really a cowboy or possible one of Custer's Cavalry soldiers.

Again, I have no idea who made some of these random figures from my collection.

Comic Book Men after the Oscars

As usual this episode starts with all the Comic Book Men making fun of Ming. Tonight's topic had to do with costumes in the bedroom.

The first customer to come into the Secret Stash for this episode wanted to buy the first appearance of the Hobgoblin. The girl didn't want to pay full price so she worked out a deal to pay $60 and two mystery boxes. One was a yellow Batman box and the other was a purple Batman box. After Walt agreed to the sale he opened the boxes up to find a Christian Bale Batman figure, and a Catwoman figure inside. He wasn't impressed.

The next bit of comic shop banter came in the form of why can't they build a prison to hold the super villains ? Of course if the villains stayed in prison there would be no new adventures for the heroes or the writers would have to continue to design new villains.

The next customer brought in some vintage 1982 Game and Watch Nintendo hand held games. These early games which are similar to Gameboy or the old Tiger Handheld games are pretty rare now. Walt had to turn the guy down. They are a comic store, not a video game shop.

Kevin Smith shared a funny story about how his family acquired an Atari 2600. Basically his Dad bought a console from an ad in the paper. The Dad selling  the Atari was doing it to punish his own children.

Instead of having a guest on this episode, the boys from the Secret Stash went up against each other in a trivia contest. Mike and Ming were given decent questions, but Bryan was handed all softball questions. Mike did well, but Ming was buried by the competition. I watch Comic Book Men because I like comics. I had more fun listening to these guy try to answer trivia questions than seeing a C or D-List star come to the shop.

The final customer on the episode brought in a prop replica of Hellboy's gun, The Samaritan. The guys discussed other famous movie guns, but I think because they are comic fans they were biased to place the Samaritan high on the list. The Hellboy movies were good, but I don't know if people really remember them close to 10 years later.

Little Plastic... Guts - Mattel

Guts was a line of little plastic army men made by Mattel in the mid 80's. The best thing about Guts was the fact that they had painted details. This set them above most army men. Instead of having different color schemes, Guts actually had different style armies. Below you can see examples of four of the armies. Aikidoe Force, Jungle Fighters, Green Berets, and Laser Fighters are all represented in the photo below. I don't own any Ground Troops, which are basically standard  green army men or Underwater Demolition Team, a force of SCUBA divers in navy blue wet suits. It's amazing that just a little bit of bulk and a splash of paint made these Guts figures seemed a million times cooler than the standard plastic army men.

I really liked the ninja figures from the line. They just seemed so unique. I remember as a kid my buddy Britt had one who wasn't wearing a mask and we always called the figure Larry because we thought it looked like his dad, Larry.

 I do have to mention that the Green Beret in the first photo I traded off a kid in Elementary school and he had painted The gun and boots with White-Out. I scratched most of it off years ago, but some remains.




  This photo shows off a few of the Jungle Fighters. I always liked the fact that the first figure in this photo has a purple mohawk. The center solder seems like he'll be rather unarmed after he throws his grenades. The final figure from the photo always made me thing of Arnold Schwarzenegger from Commando. I always loved that scene with the missile launcher.


Laser Fighters were supposed to be a team of space soldiers. My buddy Britt and I always used them as SCUBA divers in his pool. They kind of looked like Cobra Eels from GI Joe to us.

All the Guts figures had unique character names listed on their card backs. Other than the Jungle Fighters and maybe the Aikidoe figures their designs aren't unique enough to bother learning all their names. They were a very cool piece of my childhood. These are some of my favorite figures from my Barrel of Little Plastic Men.

More Little Plastic Army Men

Well, I posted about my green Plastic Army Men, but I also have other colors. I have a small platoon of gray troopers pictured here. The first picture doesn't have very true colors. These troops match the color of the second photo. We have a Commanding Officer, a Riflemen and a Grenade throwing solder.

 Here were have three different poses for Riflemen. One has a bayonet while the other two are aiming their weapons. The middle Army Man has a pretty interesting pose. He seems to be shooting at someone who's taken the high ground.




Here is the Rifleman with the bayonet along with a crouching Rifleman. The crouching solder is the most common pose of Gray Army Men I own.


Below you can see my complete collection of gray Army Men. As mentioned at the top of this post, they are all the same color.

 The next two figures I want to talk about are unique figures in my collection. The first one is an odd shade of green and seems to be a paratrooper. He is made out of a much  harder plastic. He feels like he'd shatter rather than bend like most Army Men. I think a kid at school gave him to me in 3rd grade.












The second Solder is made of a very light plastic. As a kid I thought he was a Confederate Soldier from the Civil War. Now that I'm older, I'm pretty sure he's a German Soldier. I've always found his base to be very strange. I'm not sure if it is supposed to have the hole and rough edge on it or if this is a defect.

The last little batch of Army Men are a strange group. These figures have a limited about of detail and a lip on the bottom of their base. I have 4 yellow soldiers and one green figure that seem to have come from the same set. I don't even remember owning these guys. I'm not sure if I had them as kids or if they came in a lot of stuff from a yard sale and I just chucked them in the Big Barrel of Little Plastic Men. I have two solders standing with sub-machine guns, one laying down with a machine gun on bi-pod, and two men with their rifles slung over their shoulders talking on the radio.

Little Plastic Fantasy & SciFi

As a kid I had lots of cool little monsters and knights to play with. From Lego to Monsters in My Pocket... I also had some great little plastic creatures, like Army Men but better. I think my buddy Derek showed me a lot of these crazy little figures. I don't know where he used to find them all.

Recently I have been reading about Dimensions for Children's (DFC) line of fantasy figures. These monsters, knights, and dragons were released in different adventure sets over the years. My buddy and I had lots of these figures in different colors, and some had district sculpting variations. I'm not really sure what happened to all of them, but today I'm going to highlight the toys that still live in my Big Barrel of Plastic Men.  First up is this green giant. He's wielding two maces and looks pretty angry. He almost looks like he is going to club himself in the head.

 Next up is a brighter green serpent like monster. Sometimes listed as a Snake Demon, it looks like a Naga from Dungeons and Dragons.

This figure is well known among little plastic monster collectors because there are two very different versions. One with a evil face and pointy ears. The other, this blank face.

There is a lot of speculation about this version being a bootleg. It seems like someone sanded off the face to make it easier to make a mold for a reissue. Very strange, and creepy.






This space knight comes from a cool line of toys called Galaxy Laser Team. Just like the DFC toys, my buddy introduced me to these figures. We played with them a lot, but I see some styles of figures online that we never had.

This SciFi knight is armed with a sword. He wears a helmet and cape. He has nice details including sculpted musculature.





Below is a photo of these figures along with some other DFC toys I previously posted about here on Action Figure Adventures. As mentioned in those posts, after we grew out of playing with toys, we often times painted the figures like the lead miniatures from the various fantasy lines. Previous posts about the Wizard, Knight, Demons, and Giant can be found my clicking on their names.

The last two figures in today's post are game pieces from Crossbows and Catapults. I never had the game, but I bought these figures on separate occasions a couple years apart at yard sales. You can see I learned to use washes when painting by the time I painted the viking. The first figure in the armor just has a single tone to his skin.