Happy Independence Day From The House Of Swag!

OK, so this image is from a calendar that is 33 years old, but it's the closest I can find that celebrates our nation's birthday, geeky style.

Of course, when I think of patriotic superhero images, this is the image that always comes to mind.

The cover of Superman #14 from January 1942. This is one of those images that even if your not a Superman fan, your going to want this in your collection is someway shape or fashion. For me, I want the DC Direct statue from 2002.

So I would like to wish you all a Happy Independence Day. I hope you spend it with your families, eat a lot of BBQ, down a few adult beverages and kick back and relax with your favorite comics.

Excelsior!

For Those Days When All You Want Is A Relaxing Game Of Chess

As a kid, I used to love playing Chess. I remember learning the game in elementary school at about 8 years old from one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Chappy. Funny enough, it didn't take me long to learn the game and whenever I wasn't playing sports, reading comics or watching TV, I was playing chess. I loved playing it and beating my friends and cousin on a regular basis.

Nowadays, I'm not the good chess player I was as a lad. I haven't really played a game in several years except for the time I played with my young nephew. I know your supposed to let the kids win, but that's not how I learned to play and I wanted to pass that along to my then 6 year old nephew. Unfortunately, that did not go according to plan. One arm swipe and the game was over. I haven't played a game since.

I never really considered collecting chess pieces at all, but that was before I started watching my good friend, Stew Murray's Superman videos on his YouTube channel. He has some very nice Superman Eaglemoss Superman related chess pieces in his collection. I liked them so much that I decided if Eaglemoss ever made a Spider-Man piece, it would be in my collection at some point.

Look what I found today:

I happened to find this at a comic book shop I shop at in Scarsdale, NY called Alternate Realities. There was a table with a ton of nice stuff and this beauty just happened to have been front and center. Of course, resistance was futile and I snatched this piece up to add to my collection.

The chess piece came with a magazine and a pamphlet, which is shown in the picture above. It pretty much gives you a run down of what pieces Marvel will have to offer at some point as well as gives you a description of what you can expect to see in the magazine.

Although I'm only interested in just the Spider-Man related pieces, there are some nice pieces in the Marvel collection. I'm really digging that Red Skull piece. I bet the detail in that sculpt is incredible.

Here are the pieces that will be released. First, the White Team (The Heroes).

And The Black Team (The Villains)

On the villain side, I will be picking up Venom, Lizard, Electro, Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus for the collection. Those Mandarin and Loki chess pieces look great though.

I am looking forward to reading the magazine. The magazine has a profile about Spidey as well as a poster of the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #40. It also has a section to teach you the game of chess as well as gives you some key phrases used in the game and the meaning behind them. The magazine even lists three key Spider-Man stories as well as strategy on beating Doc Ock.

The fact that the magazine uses the actual art from the comic books is a huge bonus for me. I could look at Spidey drawn by John Romita Sr., Steve Ditko and Todd McFarlane all day long, every day.

And here is the chess piece. I have to say I am quite impressed with it. These pieces are hand sculpted and painted so there is very little room for error when creating these pieces. I have seen some videos where there were some paint issues on them, but I can honestly say there wasn't any flaws on my piece. I was actually pretty worried about that, but was able to breathe a sigh of relief when I opened the package and saw that there was none to be found.

Take a look at that sculpting. I really think Eaglemoss and it's sculptors and painters did a fantastic job with this piece. Maybe they could have painted in the web-lines on his suit, but it's not that much of a big deal to me. Not big enough to detract how awesome a piece this is. The spider symbol on his chest s sculpted on. It's not painted on and I think that's awesome. It shows how much effort was made to make this a pretty quality chess piece.

The piece is made of metallic resin, so there is a bit of weight to him. He's not too heavy, you can easily feel that the weight is on the base of the piece. Still, I would try my best not to drop this piece as I don't know how sturdy it really is.

Here is a back view of Spider-Man. I love the black wash that's in the blue. Little things like that are what I am really digging on with this piece. The spider symbol on the back is not sculpted on. It seems to me that it was painted around, creating the symbol on his back. Am I making sense? Spidey Sense? No? Perhaps?

The base of each piece gives you the symbol of the chess piece it's representing on the chess board. In this case, Spidey will be one of the Knights on the chess board. The other Knight will be Wolverine.

Under, the base is lined with a felt material. This is to give the piece a better grip on whatever surface it's on. Or so I'm guessing. There also a number assigned to each piece. Not sure if the numbering means anything other what number piece you have off the production line. I really have to find out if these pieces are numbered to a certain amount and will cease being in production once it reaches that number.

Once again, I am thrilled to add a new and unique piece to my Spider-Man collection. Maybe if I start playing again, I will get a set just for play. Even if I don't, this piece is going to look insane on my shelf with my other Spider-Man items. I can't wait to hunt down the villains to add as well. Again, I never thought I would want to pick this up, but I'm glad I did. Having an open mind to certain things can really diversify a collection and really make it stand out.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I just downloaded a chess game to play on my tablet and I'm going to kick some computer tail. What, checkmate? Already? Damn!

I Don't Only Collect Sports Bobbleheads

Over the past few years, Funko has become one my favorite companies. It's well documented on this blog my love for the Pop Vinyl line. In my opinion, they are one of the funnest lines to collect. But that is not the only line that Funko produces that I have become a huge fan of.

Before there was Pop, there was Wacky Wobblers. These are bobbleheads that, much like POP, are made of just about any character or famous person you can think of. I was introduced to them when my buddy gave me a set of Monkees Wacky Wobblers for my birthday one year. I was floored by the set and I have them on display in my bobblehead 3 shelf bookcase. Although I cherished them and was impressed by the likeness on the bobbles, those were the only Wacky Wobblers I owned for quite a while.

Then a couple of years ago, My buddy, George and I went into a Big Lots store up in Poughkeepsie that we go to every now and then. We went into the toy aisle and I found these bad boys.

I was ecstatic, to say the least. I had wanted to grab some of these when they were first released, but held off on picking any up. Now, I see a whole shelf of them and they were only 5 bucks a piece. I had a hard time deciding and had to leave Wolverine and Vision behind, but I am happy with the ones I did pick up.

Of the four, I definitely would say that Captain America is my favorite. I love that this bobble is sculpted to look like he just came out of the comics. Captain America is in my top 5 favorite heroes, so picking this up was a no brainer for me.

This one is also going to be the one that I may actually keep in it's box. I love the Jack Kirby style art that is all over the box as well as the iconic lettering.  I doubt I will be getting rid of this box anytime soon.

I loved the Incredible Hulk. I loved that Edward Norton tried to capture the style of the 1970's T.V. series, right down to the equipment that Banner used when he was exposed to the gamma rays. It's a shame he and Marvel had a falling out and he didn't do the Avengers. Then again, if Norton is in it then we get no Ruffalo and Ruffalo was awesome as Banner/The Hulk.

The only thing I would have done differently was make The Hulk a lighter shade of green, like in the comic books. He has that Philadelphia Eagles green going and I'm not sure I'm a fan of it.

Of course, I had to get Iron Man when I saw him. These two Wacky Wobblers are from the first movie, so I was pleased that I could get them at such a good price.

I love this Mark I Wacky Wobbler. I snatched this as soon as I saw it on the shelf.

And let's take a look at them out of their boxes.

These maybe made of plastic, but I would say that they are pretty bad ass nonetheless. I think I actually like the Mark I Wobbler a little better than his Mark IV brother. I'm almost sure this is the Mark IV suit.

Nice detailing on the back.

Wow, Cap looks even better out of the box than I thought. I do wish Hulk was a bit bigger, but what are you going to do?

I actually forgot that Cap had a star on his back as well. It almost looks like Cap has got the height advantage over Hulk. Just slightly though.

I had them in their boxes ever since I bought them and they look even better out of the box than I thought. These maybe made of plastic, but Funko didn't skimp on the attention to detail when they made these Wobblers. From the chain mail on Captain America's costume to the screws in the back of the Mark I Iron Man, I think Funko did a heck of a job on these. The paint, which has been an issue with the more recent Funko releases, is flawless on these figures. If I was in charge, I would put these in front of the painters as an example of how to produce a great paint job on Wobblers.

There are a few more Wacky Wobblers I need to pick up. The Spider-Man Wacky Wobbler has been on my must have list for quite a while and I think I will be crossing it off my list sooner than later. What I love about Funko is they give you options of other cool items to add to your collection. Be it bobbleheads or Pop Vinyls or even blind box Mystery Minis, you really can't go wrong when you add a Funko product into your collection.

Visit To The Thrift Store

Today was the first day I was able to go out and about in and around my area in the Bronx. I had some errands to run and wanted to head over toward the Riverdale section of the Bronx. There is a thrift store I like going into and I wanted to take the trip over and see if there was anything intresting there.

Yes. I'd say I found some intresting stuff. For 8 bucks I got some nice toys to add to my various collections.

For .99 cents, I scored a vintage Two Bad from The Masters Of The Universe toy line. I don't normally collect Masters Of The Universe, but to score a vintage toy at that price, I wasn't passing it up. He didn't come with his shield, but I will probably not keep it anyway and trade him instead.

 

In this bag, I got 2 of the same Smurf (I hate Smurfs), an Iron Man for my Iron Man PC, a small Ninja Turtle, a Buzz Lightyear that's missing his helmet, 2 Darth Vader figures, another Darth Vader that is missing his light up lightsaber (sad face), a Anakin Skywalker with a broken arm and a Sponge Bob figure. I bought the baggie for the Iron Man and Darth Vaders. Everything else is either trash or for trade.

 

 

This was an intresting lot. I was initially drawn to Spidey but I also scored another Iron Man, a wind up Iron Monger and what I think to be a Halo figure, which will also be for trade. Everything else is mine, mine, mine!

 

 

This was a nice sized lot. I got a few pieces here for my various PC's. I got a Super Friends Batman, a Hulk, 2 figures I really have no earthly idea what they are, an Electro, a Super Nova, a Camo Batman with what looks to be one of the ears chewed off, an Avatar figue, a Jedi Luke Skywalker with the light up lightsaber missing (That one hurts) and a Captain America. I had seen the Capt. America and the Hulk in the baggie and bought it for those two. Everything, but the Avatar and the Double Mint Twins are PC.

 

 

 

This lot was the steal of the day. For 1.99 I scored a construction worker, a small Lego guy, an army guy AND some original Star Wars figures. A Hoth Outfit Han Solo, a C3PO, a Bespin Outfit Luke Skywalker and a Bespin Security Guard. I know the Solo, Skywalker and the Security Guard are from the Empire Strikes Back line. Not sure about C3PO though. I can guess he is. There was a Threepeo released in that line, so I'm guessing he is. The Solo and Skywalker were missing their blasters, but I can pick those up on ebay rather easily. It's always a great day when you can find some vintage swag at a dirt cheap price. Those are going into the Star Wars/Luke Skywalker PC.

 

Tomorrow, I plan to hit a flea market I saw a sign for. I am hoping for much of the same as today. I usually hit thrift stores and come out empty handed. Today I learned that if your patient, you will be rewarded and was I ever.

Package From The Relm Of Coolness

Very rarely has my geekiness been touched by coolness, but that's what happened when I made a deal on some figures with Brian from Cool And Collected. He's become a mentor and a friend so I was super happy to pick up some figures from him. If your not reading his blog, shame on you. Here's the link in case you need it: http://coolandcollected.com/

A nice sized box was waiting for me at the post office today. After the gym, I bought it home and opened it up. Here's what was inside:

Oooooooh, look at all the goodies I got today. That group shot was a you know what to take.

Some new Batman stuff for the Batman PC. Would you believe that's my first Christian Bale Batman figure? Heck, I'm shocked myself. That vinyl Batman piece is awesome in person.

Gotta have some Jokers for Batman to tangle with. I love that Brave And Bold Joker. The art on that show was awesome. I'm just sorry it's off the air now. I'll just have to pick up the seasons on DVD.

A new add to the Spidey collection. Not sure if this is a Lego Spidey as it's a bit too large for Lego, yet it has the holes in the back and under the feet to put him on the blocks. Still, a cool figure to add to the collection.

Grabbed this Captain America as well. Will go into the small Avengers PC I will have. I have a Marvel Legends Cap that this will go very nicely with.

I saw these 2 Iron Man Super Hero Squadron figures and I just had to have them. Love the Mark I figure and the classic Iron Man taking off. My favorite Iron Man outfit is, I think, the Mark III, which was the horned like helmet he wore for a spell just before this one. But I have love for this armor as it's the suit Tony Stark wore as I was growing up. Iron Man has quickly become my third favorite hero and I am starting a PC for him as well. These 2 figures wll go great in the collection.

Grabbed this Allen Scott Green Lantern before one one my other fellow Leaguers did. This is one sweet looking figure and will go nice on the shelf with the Green Lantern and Sinestro movie figure I picked up at Super Mega Show. The Super Powers Flash is well loved, but I couldn't pass up a Barry Allen figure to go into my small JLA collection.

Brian also threw in some freebies. I've never had Pogs before. I'm sure I can figure out something to do with these.

He also threw in some Garbage Pail Kids cards, an unopened pack of Dinosaurs Attack and his business card. Very cool freebies.

I want to thank Brian for an awesome deal, one that was not a drain on the wallet, yet enabled me to add some awesome swag to the collections. I can't wait for the next deal. I have my eye on a certain piece in his ecrater for a PC I'm working on. I'm also waiting for him to open a few more boxes. I'm sure I will have another unboxing soon. Can't wait.