Amazing Auction Score!

Yesterday my friend Dean and I went to an auction he was alerted to a few days earlier.  He was told that there would be items of interest at said auction(toys).  He told me about it on Saturday, and I immediately agreed to go.

The TMNT Sewer Playset went with Dean, as that was the highlight of the whole auction for him.  It’s missing 3 small pieces, which I do not think will be too much trouble to find second-hand.  And the real kicker??  The playset(which looked great when it was assembled correctly, and we snapped a few things in place), which also included the Party Wagon, the G.I. Joe vehicle, the TMNT Foot skier(not sure of the exact name at the moment), as well as other odds and ends was sold to us at the final price of $25!!!  Most of the other stuff in the photo below(click on it to see everything bigger) came in a huge action figure lot, and a small Game Boy lot.

We divvied up the loot, and both sides are happy.  There were some things that I would have liked to have, but there was so much, that I just don’t have the room for everything I want for the collection, so I had to temporarily pass on them.  My pile is to the left, and it includes the Party Wagon.  Expect to see what’s in the pile in the comings weeks(lots of stuff).  Some great additions, and definitely a few surprises.

Triple Play #1

The title of this post refers to the 3 items that will be showcased tonight.  As you may have guessed judging by the number in the title, this will be an ongoing feature here.  The items that will be featured will be random, and will cover recent acquisitions as well as other items that I may not have much commentary for.

We’ll start off with the newest addition.

I found this gem at Richie Rich’s(I definitley know I’ve mentioned this place recently).  Myself and two friends found ourselves there because one of the said friends was looking for something in particular(as portable range, like a stove-top).  There were a few things that caught my interest(Upwords, which is a pretty cool boardgame, and a Joe Camel ashtray, to name a few), but I did’nt have much in spending cash.  I’ve been going to this place for years, and I get along with the people who run the place, so I usually get pretty good deals .  This tape would normally cost 2 dollars, but they sold it to me for half price.  I not only like it because it’s an old-school TMNT tape, but because it’s an old rental.  I can never say no to tapes like this because you never know what kind of advertisements or commercials may proceed the actual content.  And you just don’t see that with today’s advancements in technology(most notably, DVDs.

I have had this Blanka figure for about 5 years now.  This was one of the first five purchases that I ever made on Ebay.  Ken and Ryu are the characters I tend to gravitate towards when it comes to Street Fighter.  But there is no denying that Blanka is by far, the coolest looking character from the franchise.  This was released in 2005 by Sota Toys.  On the left side of the package it says Round 2.  I believe this means this is from the second wave.  I assume this because on the back of the package it shows the figure assortment.  The figures shown are Blanka, Ken, T. Hawk, Cammy and Vega(which all look great).  I would think Ryu and Chun-Li would be among the first figures released, due to the popularity of the characters.  The regular variation of this figure is a flat green and orange(I don’t know if they did alternate color schemes or not), while this one is transluscent green and orange.  There is also a variation of this figure which glows in the dark.  The figure comes with an alternate head, as well as alternate hands.  There also appears to be something else, but I can’t make out what it is, as it’s obstructed by label on the front.

I ended up getting this Pee-Wee’s Playhouse children’s cup from my step brother.  He had it with the rest of his glasses and cups, and, one day I happened to notice it.  I think I traded him a few cigarettes for it(he wasn’t attached to it).  There is also a matching plate and bowl, which my step brother didn’t have.  I’ve seen the complete sets on Ebay a few times over the years, and they don’t come cheap!  Even though the handle is broken off on this one, I love it just the same.  I love the show and the character, so this uncommon piece is right at home with me.

3 Most Welcome Additions

Today, 2 of the 3 Ebay purchases I’ve made arrived in my mailbox(the third purchase is a box of hockey cards, so I’m sure you don’t care).  These were not impulse buys.  Rather, they were on my mental list, and the prices were fair enough.

First, here’s a character, who is more of an accessory.

This is Joe Eyeball.  Muckman’s sidekick(TMNT).  He’s one of only a few mini-sidekicks I had during TMNT’s domination of the world, which, of course, means I have a special place in my heart for this little guy.  He looks like he’d be a pretty cool guy to chill with.  Now all I need is Muckman’s garbage can backpack for Joe to be displayed perfectly.

But the next two figures are the ones I’ve been looking forward to most.

On the left, we have Six-Gill.  And on the right, we have Hammerhead(not very original on this one).  For those of you wondering, these figures are from Dino-Riders.  I had one or two of the dinosaurs, but I had 5 times as many of the figures.  You see, not only did these figures come with the dinosaur sets, they were also available in by themselves in 2 figure packs.  Six-Gill is the one I had most as a child.  I only remember this because he was paired with Orion(a good human), and Orion was my brother’s figure of choice whenever we came across the line(although my brother pronounced Orion as “Oar-ee-on”).  That was okay, because I thought shark people were far cooler than a generic looking human.

For so long I would always be outbid for just a single figure.  But I got lucky and found a by Buy it Now for this lot of 2 for the nice price of $6.00 + $1.75 shipping.  I’m going to try and get the other hammerhead shark figures(there are a few).

Thank You Pancuco!

The package you see above was sent to me from Pancuco, over at Action Figs & Things.  Anyone care to fathom a guess??

Up first…

It’s Wingnut.  If you know your classic toys, you’ll know this guy is from the extensive line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  He’s some sort of super hero bat.  He originally came with a little mosquito, who is his sidekick, Screwloose(I would love to find him, as well as Muckman’s sidekick, Joe Eyeball).  He is also missing his wings, but still looks pretty nice.

Up next is Groundchuck.  I don’t know much about him, other than the obvious…He’s a cyborg bull.  I think he looks pretty bad ass!

We have one more to go.  But I just want to say, that I never owned any of these figures before.  And that’s a good thing.  There’s also another plus…None of these figures are variations of the Turtles themselves.  While I would never turn down a Turtle I don’t have, my focus on this collection is the all of the other characters(and no variations of April or Splinter either, although I do need the O.G. Splinter for my collection).  Anyway, here’s the last one, and my personal favorite of the 3 Pancuco sent me.

This is Walkabout.   Like Wingnut, he also came with a mini sidekick(Kid Kanga).  The one difference I noticed with Walkabout from the other figures in this line are the legs.  If you look, you’ll see that his legs aren’t on ball joints like every other figure in the line.  His hips are sockets, and he has hinged knees.  I don’t know why this was done, but he is able to stand really well.

Again, thank you Pancuco!  You’ve given these guys a great home, and you’re welcome to come see them whenever you want.  🙂

TMNT Days #4, The Finale

I saved the best for last.  Not only is it my favorite character, but it’s my favorite representation of that character as well.

My wife bought this for me(at my request), for my birthday back in 2008.  I believe it cost around $14.99 at the time, which is a bargain compared to what some people are now asking for them.

TMNT is one of my favorite toylines as well as my favorite comic series(the early Mirage stuff is the best).  And these figures are the nicest representations of the Turtles I have ever seen.  Don’t get me wrong…I got into TMNT the same way most of you did.  I was about 9 years old when the cartoon and subsequent toyline came about.  It was when I started to get heavily into comics(when I was around 11 or 12), that I was introduced to the real Turtles.  And these figures are spot on from how they looked in those old comics.  Each Turtle came with their trademark weapons, a few accessories(like extra hands etc.) and a piece of a base that, when all connected together, made a nice diorama of a city street.  I’d like to get the other 3 and open all of them.  But as of right now, I don’t see any reason to open it.  It looks nice in the package(NECA did a great job on this as well), and I really don’t have any more room to display stuff(I may have to start swapping out figures every now and then).

TMNT Days #3

First we saw a 25th Anniversary TMNT figure.  Then we saw a figure from the original series.  And today we’ll be checking out a figure from one of the live action movies.

Princess Mitsu was a character from the third live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.  While it’s the weakest of the first three movies, I still like it!  Even though it’s a movie figure, it’s still on par with the cartoon figures.  It still has a file card for the character inside, and still has the Pizza Points as well!

The princess comes with various weapons and the sceptor that sent the Turtles back in time.  On the back we also get to seee a still of the Turtles from the movie.  And the only figures advertised on the back, are ones that are tied to the movie(with the Turtles looking the best).  You should be able to find this relatively cheap, as it’s not anywhere near rare or popular figure.

The next(and last) carded TMNT figure will also have a difference from the other three(I didn’t orginally notice this).

TMNT Days #2

Who’s next?

This is an April O’Neil from 1990.  I won this in a lot of TMNT stuff on Ebay, about a year or so ago.

As you can see from the figure assortment on the back, TMNT was huge at this time.  Unlike the 25th anniversary figures, the artwork on the front of this card features only April.  With the newer cards, there are a few different characters on the front, and every card is the same.  There were a few variations of this figure with no stripes on the pants, or different color stripes on the pants.  The one I have is the most common variation.  It’s not one of the Turtles, but I’m happy to have it in my collection.

Look at that!  2 days in a row!!  🙂

TMNT Days #1

For the next few posts(four to be exact), I will be spotlighting some TMNT figures from my collection.  The figures that will be featured share 2 things in common.

1.)- They are all from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe.

2.)- They are all still(and will remain), in their packages.

I remember finding one peg of these 25th anniversary figures at Toys R Us in the summer of 2009.  My choices were Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Rocksteady.  I originally chose Raphael, because I never had him as a kid, and, at the time, he was absent from my collection.  On my way to the registers, I decided to go with Donatello, as he always been my favorite(for a short time, at the beginning, Mikey was my favorite).

The only differences that I’ve noticed(without opening the figure), is the included dvd(these only came with the 4 Turtles, and each featured one of the first four episodes), and slightly different artwork.

I also find it funny that Playmates went with the “naked” Shredder for this release.  You can bet, that if I see any more of these, I’ll be sure to snatch them up(no extreme mark-ups), as the only time I saw these was at the time I bought this figure.

While Christmas Shopping…

I was out and about doing some Christmas shopping, and I saw this at the comic shop, sitting on the shelf for cover price.

I had to get it.  There were many different covers for this issue, and even though this is the second printing, this is a pretty awesome cover.  As you can see, this particular cover was done by Kevin Eastman(co-creator of the Turtles).  There was an “incentive”(I don’t have the specifics) cover that was done by Sam Kieth that I want(because he’s my all-time favorite artist, if you didn’t already know that), but since it was short-printed, it’s commanding no less than $20.

All of the different covers are awesome, and it’s kind of pointless to own 10+ of the same comic with different covers(although if I had the disposable income, I would own one of each).  I haven’t read it yet, but from what I’ve peaked at, it should be as entertaining as any of the older Turtle books that I’ve read in the past.  I’ll keep you posted.

Another Package From Jboypacman, and Wilykat

A few days ago, I received another care package from Jboypacman.  And if you have ever gotten a package from Jboy, you know that it’s going to be awesome!

I was only expecting the Double Dragon figures, but Jboy always sends some extras.  I seem to be getting a lot of toys these days, and sometimes I get stuff that doesn’t fit my collecting habits.  So I will be contacting some of you guys, to share the wealth.

Besides the Garbage Pail Kids cards and the MOTU mini-comic, here’s what else I will be keeping for my personal collection.

First up, we have Snake Eyes, from the 25th Anniversary line of G.I. Joe.  He is the first loose figure from this line fro me.  I have Storm Shadow(v1), and Cobra Commander(helmet), from this line, but they’re still MOC.  Next to him, we have Billy Lee and Jimmy Lee of Double Dragon fame.  I know there was a horrible movie based on Double Dragon, but I think these figures tied into a short lived animated series.  Anything based on video games from my childhood(especially toys), is a win in my book!  If past failures are any indication, I bet the cartoon sucked.  And rounding out the group of keepers is Dirtbag from the old-school Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line.  It sucks that I have to type that out.  But in my mind, TMNT refers to the Turtles post-2000.  He is the latest addition to my ever-growing collection of the original line.  This is a most welcome addition, as I’m trying to avoid getting all the variations of the Turtles themselves.  Dirtbag is in the category of my current focus for this collection.  I have a few ideas of who I want to send the extras to, and I’ll get ahold of you guys soon.

Today my wife and I celebrated our1 year wedding anniversary.  But we wanted to go out for our anniversary.  So we went out Friday night, because a Friday is a lot more fun than a Sunday.  We went to Red Lobster, and guess what?  A Toys R Us was on the way.

In my last post, I raved about the new Thundercats line.  Well, on Friday night, I picked a few more up.

Here’s the first of them.

In my last post I told you that these 4 inch figures retailed for $7.99.  And while that’s true, you will notice a $8.99 price tag on the Wilykay above.  This is because I bought this from a Toys R Us Express in the mall.  If you are familiar withTRU Express, you know that these stores usually occupy the space that KB Toys used to.  Now, my guess would be that the prices are a little higher in the Express stores, because they have smaller amounts of inventory, and most people hit the stand alone stores.

I first saw this toy at The Toy Museum, and knew I had to add it to the collection.  I do plan on getting the complete set, but I’ll have to get one or two at a time, whenever I have a little extra cash.  But after reading Dan’s review, and checking out the photos, I knew he would be one of the first figures that I would purchase.

The only articulation is in his neck and shoulders.  Which isn’t too bad, considering that the originals had no articulation(the ones that came with Tyrga and Cheetarah).  I know that there were versions of Wilykat and Wilykit that were sold individually, that had more posability, but I never saw or knew of them in my youth.

Again, the likeness to the cartoon is great, and the accessories, while limited, are sufficient.  His board has hidden guns and, what looks to be a scissor-like apperatus in the front.  Also included, are two claw-type weapons.  I have to say that I am quite pleased with the line thus far.  I can say with certainty, that we will be seeing more of these guys in the future.

And here’s the team so far.