It’s been a very long time since I’ve gone through a whole box of something and tore into randomized packs of stuff, but it’s a good feeling. It was one of my favorite aspects of collecting Heroclix – the lottery of trying to score a rare or powerful piece for your collection. As far as boxes of Star Wars cards go, each box of 24 packs is guaranteed to have one original sketch card – which is what everyone buying these packs is after. In terms of buying this set for its secondary market value, none of the many varieties of chase cards are nearly as valuable as these original artworks that are slipped into the regular packs of cards, and they come in three varieties : sketch cards, manga sketch cards, and shaped sketch cards. Some of these are sold for around $300, with many hovering around $50, and the occasional card not selling at all.

The basic set contains 120 cards in a huge variety of styles, from comic book, to beautifully painted, to propaganda-poster styled works which would look even more amazing if they were done up in actual poster size. Of course, you look at these images much more closely after you tear through the packs searching for chase cards.

Nearly every pack that I opened contained a chase card of some kind. While most were foil cards, depicting a character on a shiny background, one was a much rarer ‘gold foil parallel’ card of Darth Maul, only 770 of which were made. This accompanies the regular and bronze versions of the same card, which have backgrounds in slightly different colors. There were also 4 etched foil cards, which use an aesthetic that was once very, very rare when searching through packs of Marvel trading cards in the 1990s. It’s almost strange to see these types of cards as commonplace, but I don’t object to the new variety of chase cards featuring original art at all.

Finally, as I was nearing the end of my box, I found my chase card – a picture of Greeata (one of Jabba’s dancers) done by a mysterious artist whose signature was a scribble. If there is an element of disappointment in this, it’s that certain artists approached their sketch cards by producing the same image many, many times, instead of using each card as a new canvas for a new character, a new visual problem to solve. I had seen this card before, as someone else on the Scoundrel Publishing boards (where Star Wars card collectors gather and trade) had pulled a nearly identical card. Regardless, it was still an original artwork, and the art is expertly done, so I’m pleased to have a little part of someone else who participated in this set.

A full box yielded enough cards to complete a base card set as well, and enough to stick in the spokes of your bicycle, or whatever one does with extra trading cards now. Cut them up into little Tie Fighter replicas?

While I have said before that I’m not a fan of what US television has done to anime, the films of Studio Ghibli feel like a beacon of intelligence among the horrible battling-trading-card-and-monster-shows-that-sell-merchandise which we’re now drowning in, or those cartoons that show just a few too many shots of schoolgirl underwear. While many of Miyazaki’s films focus around innocence, children, and the mystical circumstances they stumble into, rest assured that there are no underpants to contend with.

Disney has recently re-released some Miyazaki classics which you may have seen on the shelves a few years back : My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. So, let’s dissect the differences of the US releases. It goes without saying that these are all excellent films – you can find detailed criticism elsewhere.

My Neighbor Totoro was released in 2002 by Fox, though this edition of the DVD was missing the original Japanese language track, and was presented in awkward fullscreen. It was again released in 2004 by Disney with an entirely new English voice cast, and again in 2010 – both of which are 2-disc sets which differ in special features.

The 2004 release, which features a colorful fishing scene over a river on the cover, includes a featurette with US voice actors Elle and Dakota Fanning, as well as the original trailer in Japanese and the complete film in storyboard form. The 2010 release, which uses a dark blue, rainy scene on the cover and a gold slipcase spine, features an extensive exploration of Studio Ghibli as they were making Totoro, previews for a few other films, and the same storyboard version of the film as the 2004 edition – as well as a beautiful little lithograph of the cover scene.

As a completist, do you want both? My favorite part of any animated DVD is the voice acting stuff, but the choice is yours. This film is so iconic that Ghibli uses Totoro as their logo. The earlier editions are currently out of print.

Castle in the Sky, which is also sometimes called Laputa, or a combination of the two, (and not to be confused with Howl’s Moving Castle, also by Studio Ghibli), was first released by Disney on DVD within the US in 2003. This version has a light blue cover with a tress in the center, and includes an introduction by Disney’s John Lasseter, the option to view the film as the original storyboards, the original Japanese trailers, and a behind-the-scenes feature with the voice talent.

The 2010 release, which has a floating girl and a gold slipcase spine, also includes the introduction from Lasseter, the original storyboards, and a new featurette about the awesome steampunk worlds of the film – but leaves out the voice actor features again, while including a small print of the cover. Both versions are still available at the time of this writing.

Kiki’s Delivery Service was also released in 2003, featuring a cover which uses a large portrait of the protagonist. This includes the same four types of features as ‘Castle’, while the 2010 release (depicting a girl on a broomstick flying over a cityscape), mimics the three features of the 2010 edition of ‘Castle’ also. All three of these films are being re-released now to accompany the release of Ponyo, which is the newest Miyazaki release.

One thing worth noting is that all of these are, and have been, available from other publishers which are not US-based. I’ve had a few experiences with attempting to purchase anime DVDs from discount distributors before, and the results have been completely disastrous. Unless it’s a producer that you trust and has a solid reputation for releasing films in the US, buying cheap anime DVDs is a colossal waste of money – unless you speak Japanese. Most often, the subtitles are completely unreadable, having undergone translation into Korean or Chinese, and then to English. Try doing this with any sentence in Babelfish and you’ll see what I mean. So, the only sure way to get your hands on these Ghibli releases and to enjoy them is to buy the real, Disney versions of them.

It was a joy to see it, touch the wood and wish that we could afford to buy it and give it a good home. But alas, the price tag was $1,500. This equated to a year’s rent back then.  We did return about a year later, and it was sold.

Fast Forward to February, 2010. We stopped to shop at one of our favorite antique malls, Roscoe Antiques, in South Beloit, Illinois. Directly in front of us stood a magnificent desk, even more fantastic than the one we’d viewed years back. This is a multi-dealer mall, but as luck would have it, the owner was on the premises, working in his booth. He came forward and asked if we had any questions.  And we did! He shared with us that this was called a Wooton Desk, from the 1880s or thereabouts.  He had purchased it in central Illinois but was not able to learn anything about the desk’s history.  It is an astounding piece of furniture and had all the “bells and whistles” you could want in an office in that time-frame. Lots of cubbies, sliding drawers, various sized openings, probably secret compartments for special treasures (wish we had the time to check them out!)  We asked if we could take some pictures and he was glad to allow that.  He told us he would love to keep it and agreed it was truly special. But he had paid a hefty price for it and his intention was to sell it.

When we returned home, I “Googled” Wooton and found out that the design patents were granted to William S. Wooton in 1870. He was an Indianapolis, Indiana entrepreneur and his production ran from 1870 to 1884.  It was called a “secretary desk” and was intended to organize all records and keep documents in pigeon holes. While there was a certain amount of “snob appeal” in owning such a grand and complex piece of furniture, it was obsolete after only a short time. File cabinets, typewriter desks and stands and the like took over.

I know the ad for “apps for this and apps for that” are what people are looking for, but who wouldn’t love to have a grand piece of furniture like this in their home or office?

The translation of Japanese animation to a US audience is usually a very dicey procedure when it’s cheaply done. You get subtitles that read like drunken haikus, enormous spans of plot inconveniently cut for brevity and clarity, and subtlety drained from the very core of what makes some Japanese animation stand apart from what US kids are usually given. So, even when Disney loads the American voice cast with celebrity names, and a few names pulled directly from their own teenybopper talent farms, they do a great job, such as with Ponyo, which was just recently released on DVD & Blu-Ray for the first time.

Subtlety is the key. Instead of fairytale princes in this retelling of ‘The Little Mermaid’, we have a regular kid. We have quiet magic interwoven so intimately with everyday life that all of the regular folks approach it calmly and with a sense of wonder, instead of suspicion and distrust. Instead of computer-heavy graphics, we have a film that was drawn by hand in the most tedious, organic way possible – but revealing none of the tedium in the final product. It’s the kind of quiet, real beauty that we don’t get enough of, so I’m thrilled that we’re getting this treat over here – and on Blu-Ray no less.

There are two versions of Ponyo out there – a simple DVD version, and a DVD / Blu-Ray combo pack that’s only very slightly more expensive. Let me just note that, as a collector who is new to Blu-Ray, the only things I have in this format so far are Disney and Pixar films. Both preserve the original soundtrack in Japanese and present the option of subtitles, if you’re a purist – but the English voice acting is really very good and completely undistracting.

The DVD includes a 5 minute featurette about the making of Ponyo, though it doesn’t really explore it in any depth. All of the real details are on the Blu-Ray disc, which explores these things from multiple angles, and adds even more neatness to the behind-the-scenes stuff that’s been accumulating on all of Disney’s Ghibli releases. No Ghibli or Miyazaki collection is remotely complete without this exceptional, inspiring animation.

[DVD graciously provided by BVHE]

The lady next to us introduced herself as Mabel and told me it was her 2^nd time there.  She was quite old, perhaps in her late 70s, and came with a friend who had shared the rental costs with her. Her items were few and far between – I don’t think she had more than 15 items on her table.  And they were most likely from the low-end or discounted stores, for example, a ceramic lighthouse, 2 green bowls that were not from the Depression Era, and a cow figurine that had a chip. Mabel was a nice lady and I enjoyed chatting with her, but she was a little down because she had only sold one $5 item and it was nearly time to close up shop.  I gently suggested that next time she should bring more items, giving better offerings to the shoppers.  She smiled and said she had numerous collections and had her late husband’s things to go through, but hated to drag more than a boxful to the sale. I said I could understand that. And I did, at least until I saw her grandson come in to pack her up. He was about 6 foot 3 inches tall, a solid young man, and could readily have carried in as many boxes as she wanted.  Before she left, I asked her how she did and it turns out it was only the $5 she had mentioned earlier.  She told me she had sold $15 worth the last year and hoped she would top that.  I smiled and said “maybe next year” and she agreed.  I wonder if she’ll catch on and bring a nice assortment next year!

I shopped at a booth with a young man who shared with me that he had sold on an Internet site for over 3 years.  He told me that everything he brought had been tested on the site and not sold.  Gee, why would you tell that to buyers who may have intended to sell them that way. Now they know these were ‘rejects.’ While I was in the booth, he told me of a lady who just  bought a rather nice glass vase from him. They evidently haggled a bit and she walked out with the prize for $35 instead of the $50 he had originally wanted. He relayed the story and then he exclaimed to me (and anyone else in the area) that he had found it in a dumpster so it was ALL profit! Now, we all know that the intention of sellers it to make some money on their sales, but we did not need to know that it was free and the buyer was a “sucker” in his mind!

Among the many people through the booths was a former co-worker and his wife.  Through the years she has asked me to save any “sewing items” for her. Items such as darners, needle cases, unique buttons, etc.  Well, I had found the coolest item – a combination egg darner, needle case (the handle turned off), and it even had advertising on the ‘egg’ part! I held it for a few sales, waiting for her to show up and she did!  I proudly displayed the piece and expected her to be happy and ready to buy the treasure.  I offered it to her for a little over what I paid for it. She picked it up, turned it around, and said “Uhhh, I’m just not sure.” I said that it was OK, I’d put it in the display case and see if someone else liked it.  As luck would have it, the next person through was so thrilled with it they did not even quibble over the price (quite a bit more than I had quoted the friend.)  About 10 minutes later the friend returned, and said she’d take it. I had to tell her it had just sold and she pouted.  (You snooze, you lose is a famous motto in antique buying and boy, was this appropriate.)

You may recall my nemesis “NEWMAN” from earlier blogs.  This is a red-headed lady who has tortured me in searches for my treasures.  Some of our run-ins have been written about. Well, here she was at our booth.  She was, as usual, all smiles and trying to be a charmer (it does not work.) She asked how we were doing and we embellished a bit on our profits, and smiled back sweetly. She picked up a figurine and asked what our “best price” was.  We gave her a discount but she wanted more.  We came down a tad and she bought it.  She then proceeded to tell the story of a super vase she “stole” from a young man at the sale. She knew it was an expensive vase and she was able to get him to lower the price to $35! She was so proud.  I smiled even more sweetly after that and said it sounded like a great deal.  I was glad that the lad had shared the story with me.  I knew that he had gotten one up on my Newman and that made my day.

Any stories of the road you’d like to share or collections you are proud of?  CQ would love to hear about them.

I recently had the opportunity to see Dead Snow, which one particular friend regards as the best zombie movie ever made, and turned into something of a nightly viewing for a while. After seeing it myself, I think she’s on to something.

Dead Snow combines a few interesting premises into one eerie, scary, funny, nauseating experience. You have an isolated, snowy landscape, you have zombies, and you have Nazis. Despite being a zombie movie, it rarely dips into the realm of the hokey or too obvious. All of this is amplified by the fact that I live in New York and was just hit by the worst, most destructive blizzard that I have ever witnessed and sat in the dark for two days without any power as creepy noises broke the night outside. Needless to say, I’m pretty primed for some crazy snow terror.

While the DVD has been out for a while, IFC has only recently released the 2-disc edition, complete with a whole extra disc full of fan-friendly awesomeness. Spoiler alert : it’s all made worthwhile by behind-the-scenes zombie Nazi dancing.

Every good horror DVD includes a whole lot of details about how the special effects were done, and these are included her as well. Production troubles, the experience of Sundance, trailers, some fight outtakes, and you have just about everything you could possibly want to see about the guts of this movie. It definitely places as a film that I’d want to share with friends, if only for the sheer ridiculousness and the fact that despite this, it is actually chilling. Sure, we never find out why these Nazis became zombies as we might in more pseudo-science oriented zombie flicks, but there are so many body parts flying around that you barely notice.

The cover bills this film as one of the best 25 zombie films of all time, but I’d have to elevate that to the top ten, at the very least – if only to leave some room to be even more deeply creeped out.

[DVD graciously provided by IFC Films]

On our antiquing treks, we found a collectibles store on the western part of our state that sells casino discards in ten packs, at a very reasonable price. But the jaunt is a day trip with very few antiquing opportunities along the way. So it was a natural to start searching at all of our regular haunts, antique stores, flea markets, garage sales and estate sales for new or slightly used decks of cards.

What we found were loads of cards, and a surprising number still in their cellophane wrappers with older decks identifiable by a tax stamp affixed to the plastic wrap. What started as a need to be filled strictly for own use, turned into “Oh, this deck is so neat, it has a picture of Butch the dog.” “Look, this one has a City Service gas station ad.” “I remember these Art Studio cards from when I was a kid.” “These were the style of trading cards we had when I was young”

So the collection grew and duplications were inevitable, and many decks were really not suitable for playing at breakfast. At some point in time an overwhelming number of garage and estate sales had casino cards for sale, with an average price of fifty cents. Still we continued to collect, because Wifey began to list and sell the duplicates on her on-line collectibles store, with some surprising results.

Now, I can understand some of the decks have value to collectors. Especially the advertising cards where a classic car enthusiast would spend wildly for a deck with his or her ‘57 Chevy pictured, or if the cafe advertising on the cards was where you first met one of your wives. I also see the desire if the dog pictured is a likeness of your beloved pooch, or you are a member of the fraternal organization named on the deck. Of course the Art Studio cards will always be popular, and you are sure one of the lovely ladies now lives next door. But many with a psychedelic sixties look? What could possibly be the attraction?

OH WAIT, someone thought they were neat. Like the original designer, the person that approved their production, the store owner that stocked his shelves with the decks, the customer that bought them, and then Wifey. So what is my surprise if another person is added to the chain, and has put down hard earned cash for a slightly used, one joker missing deck of poker size playing cards, that I think are ugly.

So collect cards if you must. Add a deck with advertising from your favorite funeral home or insurance agent to your home town collectible display and ENJOY! ENJOY!

Anyone who has played World Class Track Meet knows the futility of awkwardly pounding the accompanying floor mat with your feet, and then giving up and punching it rapidly with your hands, and then having your mom yell at you for making so much noise. It’s a game that asks you to perform a bizarre, Herculean feat that doesn’t match what the human body can actually do, much less when it is eight years old, and you can play it once or twice before the novelty completely wears off.

And still, that game sold for over $40,000 last week.

While “Stadium Events” was later re-named and re-released as World Class Track Meet (accompanying the NES Power Pad accessory), the original US release by Bandai is one of the rarest retail Nintendo games out there.

Popular legend has it that 2000 copies were produced by Bandai in 1986 and sent to a limited number of retail chains, designed to work with Bandai’s FFF (Family Fun Fitness) accessory – a large mat that could be manipulated with the hands and feet in lieu of a controller. Almost immediately after this release, Nintendo decided that they liked this accessory so much that they were going to buy the exclusive rights to it and rename it the Power Pad.

This created a recall of every available copy of the game so that it could be rebranded with Nintendo’s seal. These same popular legends maintain that only 200 copies of the game were already sold and un-recallable, and furthermore, only two still remain in their shrinkwrap. Of course, these numbers are completely unofficial, as no surveyor has really delved into every dusty nerd basement across America just yet, but people like to throw them around.

Divide 200 copies of a game among millions of Nintendo collectors, and you have a hot item. While one sealed copy sold for just over $13,000 a few months back, this most recent discovery sold for almost $41,000 – but collectors be warned! More than one version of this game exists, and one isn’t that rare at all.

Because Nintendo released games across the world, they had to adjust their programming to accommodate TVs that used both NTSC and PAL technology. NTSC tech dominated America, and PAL was used in the UK.

The rare edition of Stadium Events is the NTSC, or American, version. This is differentiated by a circular ‘Nintendo Seal’ on the cover of the game cart and box in gold and grey. The more common PAL version features a Nintendo seal which is oval shaped, and uses grey and white. This Pal version of the cart itself also includes a small photo of a few people enjoying the FFF Pad in front of the TV (which is featured on both boxes). Of course, the more manuals, boxes and ephemera included, the better off you are. Those who do not understand this difference and are eager to hop into the current Stadium Events frenzy have dropped almost $10,000 per cartridge on one that simply isn’t nearly as rare.

I still regret the day I tossed out all of my old Nintendo stuff in an effort to become more mature, only to realize later that maturity was actually embracing who you were enthusiastically. Just pop in World Class Track Meet if you’re not a purist who strives to play every NES game – you’ll save yourself $40,000.

My first real collection was old cameras. At one time I had accumulated over 300 cameras, and all sorts of peripheral accessories and darkroom equipment. Most of the cameras were interesting but not expensive and at one time I had them all on display in our rec room. Most have been sold by now and my photography collecting is limited to glass negatives, and cabinet photos. They take up a lot less room. I have printed some of the glass negatives and have discussed the collection before here at Collectors’ Quest.

Lots of memories come floating back as I view my own old photos and slides. I am now trying to get them transferred to a digital format, but with 1000s of slides and hundreds of photos, it’s a long term project. There is some real pleasure in the process as I look back at a treasure trove of places and people in my life, and wonder if some future collector will discover my work and ponder the tales the pictures are trying to tell. That’s what I find so intriguing about the old photos, they often tell a story as we look deeply at the people and background of old photos. A sickly looking child in a school class photo, a 1918 photo of the female factory work force running belt driven lathes, or an almost all female graduating class at the University of Wisconsin in 1945.

The great advantages of the digital format are quite evident. Cost of each shot is only one huge advantage, the other is view ability. Both of our screen savers are displays of family, friends and sights we’ve seen. Our recent addition of a digital frame, cleverly disguised as a 1949 Crosley TV set, is now running family and friends photos from the last ten years of digital photography.

I recently found a site that’s having fun with photo images. Life’s Highway is an on-line game to see who can collect the oddest, wildest and most outrageous photos of yard art, with points scored over a year’s time.

I’m also starting a neon sign photo collection, inspired by the old TV show HOT L Baltimore, (Hotel Baltimore). This sign was shot recently at the EVERBRITE sign factory. Now how many times have you passed a sign partly unlit that leaves letters spelling an unintentional word or phrase? So another collection begins, still tied to my old love of photography.

In the grand scheme of things, the Mad Hatter is a minor, but highly memorable, character that appears near the end of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The reason that he’s plastered all over the posters for the upcoming Tim Burton candy-colored, hollow monstrosity is to appeal to a cross section of the lowest common denominator : people who like to look at Johnny Depp, people who satisfy themselves at knowing the barest parts of classic literature and can pick out a character, and people who get all excited when they see shiny things. But I digress.

There have been many different film interpretations of Alice in Wonderland over the years. It naturally lends itself to amazing visual and intellectual landscapes. It is, after all, full of anthropomorphized animals, talismans, characters who are mentally ill, and general whimsy – and it presents itself in a manner that can be filmed as a sequential narrative.

Throw all of that away. In 1966, the BBC made their own version of the story. And it’s freaking weird. Which is saying a lot for Alice in Wonderland.

Filmed entirely in black and white, BBC’s Alice presents a deeply atmospheric take on Alice, never letting the viewer forget that the entire thing is a dream. While a knowledge of the book helps to string things together, watching the entire thing without the help of foreknowledge is even more confusing and disturbing. Our sleepy Alice never expresses a single emotion, and rarely looks at the people she’s talking to, instead opting to stare right at the audience in many cases and delivering her monologues in a whisper. Film is double exposed, speeches are run backwards, and you can’t help but feel like you’re watching something that stumbled out of the mind of the most intense surrealist.

All of the fascinating animals – the amphibian doormen, the drugged-out insects, the translucent cats – are now all people. Boring, stuffy, middle-class English people who speak in riddles that are far, far less endearing when they’re not coming out of a mouth that also catches flies. While this is definitely a commentary on society, I have to wonder if these comments are misplaced a little. Maybe I’m just a philistine for expecting a character called ‘March Hare’ to be a rabbit instead of a political cartoon that looks like an old dude.

That aside, the appearance of the film is absorbing, and just a little dark. Taxidermied dogs seem to appear everywhere, and overgrown weeds threaten to take over the entire screen. In place of all of the usual fantasy is a very heightened delivery of the hyper-real, which serves surprisingly wall in its place. The whole thing feels like falling asleep in the middle of a summer afternoon and waking up very disoriented – which is precisely what Alice does anyhow. On this larger scale, it works excellently, even if the narrative is impossible to follow.

This DVD, distributed by Warner Bros., includes a whole lot of great, insightful extras which are even more interesting then the film itself. First, there is a 1903 version of Alice in Wonderland, as well as a 1965 documentary about Lewis Carroll and his relationship with Alice, which becomes creepy very quickly and effectively. Best of all, there’s a full-length commentary provided by the director, which gives a lot of depth to the strange way that this film was interpreted. It’s actually surprising that so much exists around the making of this film, including behind the scenes photographs, given that it was made well before the era of DVD extras, so the experience is rewarding.

The world is going to lose sight of what Alice in Wonderland is about very soon, so this is a sobering look at the exact opposite of what the bombastic, gimmicky Burton is pulling. This title will be available on March 2, 2010, so have a look!

[DVD graciously provided by Warner Home Video Inc.]

One day we were in a garage and hanging on a rusty nail was a picture of a farmer with his ‘herd’ of pigs.  They were near a little shed and were facing away from him.  Allie laughed at the picture and asked me “how many pig butts are there?”  I chuckled too and said I did not know but we’d count them. Eleven! That’s how many there were.  Well, after that I just HAD to have that picture and was surprised that it was only $4.00. I’d have paid a lot more for it. After all, it had such character and was a lot of fun.

We went back to my house and proudly displayed it in a back hallway, right where you’d see it when entering. When we moved to our current home, it had a special place as well.  Since then, I have added a few more pig items. My daughter got me a print block with a cute pig. Amazingly enough, she even found me a bar of soap with a pig butt! That has got to be a hard item to find!

I have increased my lot to become a full collection (anything more than three, per hubby.) At one of my favorite shopping venues, the Elkhorn Antique Market, held at the Walworth County Fairgrounds, I came across a cast iron piggie.

He has wording on his side that reads “A Birmingham Pig” on one side and “Compliment Birmingham Realtors.” I just thought it was so cool, and definitely desirable to advertising collectors. Originally costing more than 6 times the cost of my charming pig picture, I persisted and took him home for a more reasonable price. I also found a teeny-tiny pink metal pig that was from hubby’s train set years back.

My most current find was at an antique store. It is a pottery planter featuring three pigs. The neatest part is that the back has a lot of detailing. And you guessed, it they all have curly little tails! I use this to hold some ice picks and shavers that rested on our old ice box in the back hall.

So, while my collection is quite small, I feel the items are pretty darn unique and definitely conversation pieces.  I’d appreciate if other collectors don’t make “pigs” of themselves and leave some more for me to find!

Sure, they complain vociferously about how hard some of these toys are to find, but that takes nothing away from the excellent quality that Mattel has presented to a generation or two of disillusioned collecting geeks. I usually just avoid the more difficult and disappointing aspects of hunting through my local stores by ordering sets of figures online, but to each their own. I recommend Alter Ego Comics and Corner Store Comics.

I’m always happy to see a set of figures power through twelve waves – especially with the rising costs of plastic and an economy hesitant to spend money on luxury items. Many excellent figure lines have folded in recent years for these reasons, so when we can last long enough to get weird figures like Copperhead and the Metal Men, I can’t help but be excited that my little part of the economy is holding up.

After one hundred or so figures, Mattel continues to listen to the adult collectors and delivers a perfect mix of obscure and popular characters alike – even if this particular set leans more towards the ‘who the heck is that?’ end of the scale. If you collect all seven figures, you can assemble an eighth figure for free. There are also two variants to collect, which is standard for each mass retail set. Every fifth set or so has been a ‘retailer exclusive’, which means that you’ll have to leave the house and drag your feet through the dregs of either Wal-Mart or Target to find the newest figures – or wait for inflated prices on eBay. If you saw my local Wal-Mart, you’d wait for eBay too. I don’t think they’ve named all of the disorders that you see crawling through there.

I’ve written about aspects of these before, but I return today to relay a complete surprise that arrived with these figures in the mail : each figure includes a pin. As a pin collector (with an unconscious focus on DC Comics), this fulfills more than one collection at once – and it’s neat.

See if you recognize any of these DC Universe characters :

- Eclipso (1963). In true Mattel style, we’re given Eclipso’s most classic look – not any of the updated, renovated costumes or characters that he became. This is classic Eclipso.

- The Spectre (1940). Also a classic version of the character, who is one of the ultimate powers in the DC Universe. This figure comes in a common white version, as well as a less common glow-in-the-dark version to reflect his spectral powers. I really love glowing toys. The previous set included a rare glowing Deadman which I hunted down.

- Copperhead (1968). I admit it – I had no idea who this was. Not to be confused with the similarly attired Kobra. There were a lot of snake-themed bad guys.

- Dr. Mid-Nite (1941). Possibly one of the more well-known within this group, as he’s a long-running member of the Justice Society (which is where a bunch of Golden Age comic characters continue to fight crime). Plus, he comes with his owl – Hooty. He was not known for his creativity.

- Desaad (1971). I’m a fan of Desaad just because I love anything that Jack Kirby created – most of which involved huge eyebrows, cumbersome robo-hats or monsters strapped to Aztec-lookin’ machines – though I do question the mid-coitus look on Desaad’s face here.

- Mary Batson (1942) – or as you may know her, Mary Marvel. Because of the possible confusion between the DC Marvel family and the various Marvel Comics characters that have the ‘Marvel’ name, all branding of the Marvel family requires use of their real names, or ‘Shazam!’ Mary comes in two equally common forms – the original red costume, and the later white costume. There was a black costume even later on, but let’s not talk about that one. She matches the already released Shazam! figure.

- Iron (1962). This is probably the figure that I’m most excited about, as it marks the start of the Metal Men, a group of heroic robot-creatures based on the elements. I’m a sucker for teams, and with four more main members inevitably on the way, I’m looking forward to them all. He also includes die-cast parts, which is just fancy.

- Darkseid (1971). All seven figures come together to for a colossal Darkseid figure, complete with scary death-glove. As Desaad is his lackey, they go together perfectly. Also a Jack Kirby creation. While there was a Darkseid figure in Mattel’s early DC Superheroes line, this one is larger and more complex than the original.

So, that’s DC Universe Classics 12 – a weird selection of characters, but one that hardcore collectors and comic fans are sure to be pleased with. Until next time, check out everything that Mattel has released under this banner!

I did not see the one show where they purchased a saddle for a low amount and “valued it” in the thousands of dollars. But “valuing” and “getting” are often two different things. They do an accounting at the end of a “buy” and often use the “valued at” or “sold for” terms. Now, “sold for” means just that. They were able to find a buyer for the item and you see the profit on the screen. They do not state where it was sold, so perhaps there were additional fees, such as charged  on ebay or other internet auctions. Or maybe it was sold at a live auction where the house takes a percentage (30-35%.) Perhaps they ran an ad for it in a newspaper or antiques paper. This can be expensive as well. So the “sold for” amount could be seriously skewed.

Another consideration is the fact that much that they buy is in-the-rough. We do not know if they spend time and money in refurbishing items, or have to store them until they find the parts.  And what about their other costs of doing business? They have an expensive building to store things and a workshop, a large van that can hold a variety of items, their assistant who does research and handles phones, gas and meals while on the road. It also sounds like this is their only income, so they need to make a profit to even exist.

Having been antique dealers for over 25 years, we only tell tales about the “great ones!” We are a lot like gamblers and you only hear about the times we made a big hit, not mentioning all the unsold items in our basement or shed.

I have chatted with a few folks that are not in the business and they say it looks like a great deal of fun. You hop in your car, stop by an old farmhouse, pick through the barns and load up the treasures.  Uh-huh. Boy, give me some of that action!

It is a fun show and I for one enjoy the ups and downs of the episodes and the camaraderie of the co-pickers.  I guess the bottom line is that if the potential customers do not want to sell, they should keep their barn-doors closed.

The very first series of Playmates Star Trek figures consisted of ten characters, including a Borg soldier, a Ferengi, a Romulan, and a Klingon dignitary. Of course, there was also the obligatory Captain Picard, Lt. Commander Data, and Lt. Worf, as well as a Geordi LaForge (with a very rare variant that included a removable visor that didn’t really interest me at the time), and a Commander William Riker with very odd rips in his clothing, as if he were just engaged in a very precise, bloodless battle. A later Riker figure would be released in more suitable attire, but closer inspection revealed that this was the exact same figure as before – with the lumpy, sculpted rips painted over. I lovingly called this Riker ‘Tumor Riker’. Last, but not least, there was Deanna Troi.

So, with ten dollars in hand, I’d hunt down the two most interesting remaining figures from the pegs and return home with them, carefully removing the accessories from the blister packs and keeping everything in pristine condition – and then, I ran out of figures. Deanna Troi was packed only one per case, and I never seemed to strike at the right time, leaving me with an incomplete collection.

Forget the fact that Deanna Troi was probably the most useless character from the show, somewhere after Data’s cat and Captain Picard’s offscreen bunion. She was essential in her own weird way, just so I could have everything from the back of the card. Back in 1992, she was selling for $25 at the local comic hole-in-the-wall, which was a sum of money that I could not reasonably spend on one figure at the age of 11. After a few months of searching, I finally received her as a gift.

This was my first lesson in shortpacking action figures, as well as the cruel nature of the secondary market, and the fact that adult males were taking my action figures. Instinctively, I kept Deanna in her package, forever keeping her apart from the rest of her crew. Somehow, I didn’t think they’d mind the distinct lack of whining that only she could uniquely provide. While many more iterations of Deanna were later released and joined the staff on the hideous, boring Bridge Playset, ‘purple’ Deanna was hot for a while among the nerdfolk, and I was happy to have one.

Today, the same figure, mint in package, isn’t worth a whole dollar.  Playmates would hold onto the Star Trek license for a very long time, releasing a huge variety of characters and one-off aliens from both the TV show and subsequent films, and countless variations of each crew member, and even created the notorious ‘1701′ debacle by releasing ultra-limited figures that were limited to only 1701 pieces each, in reference to the call number of the Starship Enterprise. While these 1701 figures were only subtle variations on existing figures, completist collectors freaked the hell out and the line never really recovered enough to survive. Playmates recently got a second chance to do right by the Star Trek franchise by handling the release of figures from the most recent Trek movie. The legendary, infamous 1701 figures sell for around $500 each and were later re-released in a three-pack.

My own Deanna is still mint in package, despite a lot of moving around my room. A nostalgic part of me wants to keep her in the package to remind me of days when collecting was simpler, but the practical part of my brain wants to rip the thing open and toss her into the box with the rest of the aliens to save space. I feel like the latter will soon win. So, my first ‘holy grail’ collectible never earned me a healthy return, it provided more education than I could have hoped for elsewhere. Of course, I never had any interest in buying things just to sell them for more, but this whole situation confirms the core of my collecting philosophies : collect what you love, and be happy about it.

Our buying time is constant with different seasons giving us different venues to shop, all of them discussed in previous blogs on Collectors’ Quest. And I have discussed some of our selling activities also. We’re getting ready for a full calendar of flea markets this year, with several already paid for to ensure we get favorable locations. Our first was last month and while successful, it was a small show and we had a small booth. Our next show will be new to us and the booth space is larger. The challenge is finding the right mix of items to attract a wide audience to your booth.

I’m a believer in the philosphy that shoppers attract shoppers, and to that end we select some items that attract buyers but take time to look over, keeping people in our booth longer. These are mostly inexpensive collectibles, post cards, records, photos, costume jewelry, and we sprinkle in salt and pepper shakers, and little figurines of animals. Every one loves little animals.

With an indoor setting, wind, cold and rain are not an issue so paper, magazines, photos, books and framed prints can be used to fill the tables and the booth space with customers. The rest will be the antiques that have value and will attract the serious collectors. Then comes the fun of the outdoor markets and we are signed up for five shows already. Plus I’m looking into about nine other dates from early May thru October. Naturally, the opportunity to purchase antiques at all these shows are part of the attraction.

Spring also brings out the yard sale signs. I know that mid February is a poor time to start thinking about garages filled with great treasures, but with the long winter’s end coming nearer, my March Madness is the first orange sign at the end of a driveway. So let’s hope your buying season starts soon and maybe we will cross paths at the end of a driveway.

And if a vendor at a flea market is wearing an outlandish neck tie to attraction attention to his booth, say HI, it’s me.

]]> http://www.collectorsquest.com/blog/2010/02/19/febu-weary-getting-ready-for-the-flea-market-season/feed/ 0 http://www.collectorsquest.com/blog/2010/02/19/febu-weary-getting-ready-for-the-flea-market-season/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/collectorsquest/HXHf/~3/uOu3I7ub05E/ http://www.collectorsquest.com/blog/2010/02/17/collecting-video-games-dantes-inferno-ps3/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:00:19 +0000 Collin David http://www.collectorsquest.com/blog/?p=11066 “Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.”

You can count the number of video games that are based on 14th century epic poems on one hand – even if that hand was horribly mangled in a thresher and only has one finger left. This is exactly why I needed to go out and get it. I am an unrepentant fan of the eclectic. And human deformity.

When I first heard about Dante’s Inferno, I was told that it was a ‘game that looks like it was made by a crazy person’. I’m not an avid gamer when it comes to any game that was created after 1995 and isn’t called Punch-Out!! or Rock Band, but when a game promises to let you battle through nine levels of Hell, you know it’s going to be amazingly intense. I could not possibly resist such a premise. It was enough to get me to plug in the Playstation 3 for the first time, as another game that I could only really play after everyone had gone to sleep. I don’t know what’s with me and ‘M’ rated video games, because I certainly don’t believe in Grand Theft Auto. This is the past of me that’s still 12 years old and feels a certain amount of glee when mashing buttons after dark.

There are hundreds of reviews of this game that have been published in the few days that this title has been out, and I’ve barely made it past the boat ride into Hell, but I’m having fun. With a whole slew of buttons to press in certain combinations, upgradeable attacks, and enough creepy weirdness to make you sleep uneasily, Dante’s Inferno is a complex game. Not only do you slay the countless demons that attack you, but you also have the option of damning them to eternal suffering, or absolving them of their sins. Either way, you collect their souls, but these are some heavy choices for a video game. You know you’re in for something when the very first battle you fight is against Death and you rip his scythe out of his hands.

Even if this is never regarded as a great game, it will undoubtedly be regarded as one of the weirdest. With armies of monsters based on gluttony, lust, violence, and all of the other big sins, and plenty of gory nudity for everyone (of both male and female varieties), I don’t think it will be long before this game is on a bunch of delightful watch lists – which only makes it that much more desirable.

Playstation 3 video games also add a whole new layer of collectability, as you are able to earn trophies as you play through the game, which are displayed in a completely separate section of your PS3 system. The more games you purchase and play, and the more you play them, the more trophies you earn. It’s a more visceral accumulation of accomplishments than excitedly telling your friends that you beat Dr. Wily as you’re hanging on the jungle gym, and a powerful aspect of virtual collecting – and gives any game a huge replay value.

There are plenty of forgettable video games. This one is almost assured to maintain a significant presence, out of sheer weirdness. I mean, there’s gotta be some value to a game that you can pop in and say to your friends, ‘Hey, you wanna see a level where these naked chicks try to kill you with their reproductive organs?’

I rest my case.

But a few weeks back hubby and I took off on another “day trip” where we head in one direction, aiming to find a new antique shop or mall.  We were in central Wisconsin when we walked into an antique store we’d never been to (getting harder and harder to find!) Anyway, there it stood.  I ran up to it. As an experienced antiquer I realize that this is something you should not do since it shows you are anxious and it may be harder to negotiate. But I lucked out because the owner was nowhere to be found. I asked hubby if he had ever seen anything cuter.  Being such a good guy, he smiled and said, well, YOU!  I smiled back and once again turned my attention to the item. I was not 100% sure what it was, but the tag cleared it up for me. “Cobbler’s Bench”, it read, “circa 1900.” Ahhh, I could envision the old gent resting on the leather part and working on a shoe form which may have been in the center. His nails and tools resting in the little ‘cubbies’, making for easy retrieval.

By now, hubby had moved on to another room, but I continued to check it out. I loved the partial leather strap, the legs that were still solid and the roughness of it. The door opened and in walked the proprietor.  She greeted me and then asked if I was “into primitives.” I was taken back, as they say, not really considering what it was that was so appealing to me. “No”, I said slowly, “this just looked so charming.”  She told me that her husband had just brought it in,  and she thought he got it an auction the week before.  Sometimes it is great to

learn that things were just brought into an establishment. That could mean that not many others have seen it and it is indeed a bargain. But it can also mean that the price is more firm than when it has been languishing there for months.

Hubby came back for me and asked to show me something in a case.  The lady and I moved in his direction.  I was a bit reluctant, what if someone walked in and saw “my” bench and wanted it right then.  But I did pull away, proud of myself.

We discovered other items, found a few to purchase and then I asked hubby to re-examine the bench.  He walked over to it and checked it out, verifying that it was very old and although it was more than likely that the leather seat was not original, all else seemed to be in order and “of the period” stated on the tag.

He was ready to move on to the next place but kindly questioned me as to my intentions with the piece.  I asked him to negotiate with the lady, just in case there was some wiggle room, then I’d make my determination. Wouldn’t you know it, she came down nearly 1/3 on the price, stating that business has been rather slow over the winter months.  It was decision time. I pulled out the check book, handed my payment to the lady and hubby and I each grabbed an end to place it into the van.

It now sits in my formal “art deco room” with a white chaise lounge, and naughty lady pictures,  a sad misfit for sure. I am sure that I will be selling it. I just cannot find the place for it. (I did hint for a larger house, but was quickly rebuked.) But it has been fun just seeing it when I walk in. A new owner will more than likely put glass over the top, maybe some collection underneath that, and use it as a display or coffee table.  I wish them well.  For a moment I have envied all those lovers of primitives, raw items from the past that are revered and proudly  displayed. If you are one of them, I hope you find the “rough treasures” you desire.

While I love the large figures that are produced by Medicom and Hot Toys, one company that’s consistently my favorite is Revoltech, which manages to combine all of these things in a relatively tiny scale. When it comes to small action figures, there’s always the risk of snapping joints, but Revoltech manages to completely eliminate these issues by making solid figures of pliable plastic, and allowing the joints to pop out before they suffer any damage. These same removable joints allow for switching out parts and clothing. It’s a small stroke of engineering genius which I don’t believe is possible within the US due to bizarre sets of laws that govern small parts and toys, no matter what age they are intended for – and some of these are definitely intended for an adult audience.

There is no consistency in scale between figures and properties, and robots (which are presumably gigantic) appear to be the same size as your average anime hero – something that normally gets a lot of purist figure collectors in the US in a tizzy. In this way, each figure also establishes itself as a kind of iconic mini-monument to figuredom, and the cultural aspects of just what an action figure is. They make a statement, whether they intend to or not.

So, while much of Revoltech’s repertoire consists of warrior robots from both good and evil alignments, they have also incorporated a collection of anime heroines into the larger lineup under sub-series of figures, as well more cartoonish, animated characters.

I’m not a huge anime devotee, but I enjoyed Evangelion. This is what attracted me to the ‘Fraulein Revoltech’ line of figures, which is an ongoing line of female anime characters. Toy enthusiasts are aware that capturing female characters as action figures is usually a lot more difficult than depicting their male counterparts, simply due to body structure. Four words, my action figure friends : Marvel Legends Scarlet Witch. You remember. Revoltech captures everything perfectly, with plenty of interchangeable parts and accessories, and has even chosen a few characters with a great ‘future art nouveau’ aesthetic, such as Pocco.

And while the tiny robots are pretty incredible, the strangest release from Revoltech has been their ‘Queen’s Blade’ line of figures, which will essentially cause you to question all that is good and holy. A quick Google search will reveal a cavalcade of ‘NSFW’ images, which the anime community would call ‘fan service’ – a glimpse at a sexualized version of a female cartoon character. The anime itself follows a plotline that involves lots of women fighting each other in tiny costumes that have a tendency to get torn off. While not explicitly pornographic, it is definitely not for children. Or really very interesting.

While ‘cast-off’ figures, or figures with removable clothing elements and detailed bodies, are nothing new from Japan, Revoltech’s Queen’s Blade line brings it to a whole new level – as if it weren’t enough to have a character whose clothing consists of a translucent, semi-gelatinous mass and uses morphing hands for a bra. These figures are advertised as having both ‘S’ and ‘M’ configurations, with ‘S’ being some kind of ‘fighting mode, and ‘M’ being presumably standing for ‘mature’. These incorporate a whole bunch of variant pieces that can be swapped out to create a more sexualized version of the same figure, sometimes even including bodily fluids and alternate ‘pleasure’ faces. Six have been released, with at least three more revealed by Revoltech.

While many might see this as perverse, it’s been said that every new invention and every new technology will almost immediately be used for something sexual. And don’t blame Japan – we had US-based ‘Adult Superstars’ figures years ago which depicted porn stars in great detail. Subject matter aside, Revoltech is one of the best small-scale action figure makers out there, so it’s hard to go wrong.

I recall sitting at an auction, next to a young girl and we had been bidding against each other on a few items. It was a friendly, not combative situation, each of us chiding the other for being “too cheap to raise their paddle again.”  When a lovely sterling silver serving fork was held up by the auctioneer, he mentioned the pattern, its age (approximately 1920) and that it had a monogram of an “M” on the handle.  I smiled and raised my paddle. I won it for only $20 and gladly received the treasure from the “runner.” My neighbor then asked me if that “M” was special to me, perhaps my name? I laughed and said “no, I was going to use it as a MEAT fork, so the “M” worked for me. She stared at first, sort of digesting my meaning, and then she chuckled. She felt that it was pretty darn clever.

I have owned a set of small compotes for a long time, used when serving cocktails. They are little silver dishes that holds olives, limes, lemons or such. They have a letter “B” on them and I always say that that initial stands for “Barware.” And who can disagree? I also have a few condiment forks with an “O” and I proudly use those to serve…you guessed it – Olives!

Many of my silver mirrors have initials, some with two or three of them.  I am especially gleeful when I find one with a family member’s initial. For example, my mother’s name was Ruth and the “Rs” are a real treasure. Or a letter from my last name, either from my maiden name or current one.

I also like to “gift” presents that have an initial, perhaps to my daughter or a grandchild. I love to introduce or encourage “provenance” or history to children.  Let them appreciate that once another child looked into this silver mirror, or ate their cereal with a spoon with their initial. Maybe that spoon came from THEIR grandma!

I do not see it as a decrease in value to have it monogrammed, although I suppose if it were a full set of silverware, it would be nice to have it adorned with your family’s initial.

Perhaps I should not be writing about this because now all you treasure-hunters will think of creative ways to buy items with an initial and raise the prices.  But it’s OK, there are enough pieces out there and I wish you happy hunting!

There’s no doubt that once you see a warrior chick or crazy beast on the cover of a sci-fi book, it’s the image that’s planted firmly in your head from introduction to final chapter, whether or not these descriptions fit what the author actually describes. Much of the time, the illustrator is given a brief synopsis of what the story entails, and a quick outline of what the main character may look like. There’s little nuance, and an illustrator on a deadline usually won’t have time to sit down and read through the entire book to seek all of the vital details out.

While Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Food of the Gods‘ (1964 Popular Library Eagle Books edition) isn’t an ‘abstraction’ as much as a non-literal interpretation of a human head, it doesn’t ruin the form of what might be inside of the book itself. This particular painting, ‘Head’ by Pavel Tchelitchew, was not created specifically for this book, but the publishers thought that it fit. Tchelitchew was actually a well-known Surrealist painter who died seven years before this edition of ‘Gods’ was even published.

‘Earthblood‘ by Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown uses another abstracted humanoid figure on its 1966 Berkeley Medallion edition. A little bit of digging reveals that the artist of this cover is Richard Powers, who dabbled equally in Surrealist designs and the obligatory ‘hot alien’ chick cover. He’s considered revolutionary enough, and justifiably so, to have warranted a book completely about his artwork.

‘Odd John’ by Olaf Stapledon is regarded as a fairly important work of science fiction, and if the blurred signature in the corner of the image says what I think it does, this is another beautiful work by Powers. There aren’t many reliable web resources about Powers.

This is also a title that saw a few more interpretations which aren’t quite as creative. We have the alien-faced cover…

… and the sensationalist, sexy cover. The fact that one book can be interpreted so many different ways is either a really great, or really terrifying, thing.

Early Penguin paperbacks also explored a more abstracted view of science fiction also, with beautiful results. Forget about the starships – I want the vague implication of a human head and my imagination.

And for no really good reason, except that it’s my new favorite paperback cover, I present to you ‘Who?‘