Mail Day From Cool And Collected.

It would have been so cool if Spidey had delivered my package. Cool and appropriate.

Ever since I've been out of work, I had to pick and choose what I really wanted to collect. When I was working, I was picking up Batman, Iron Man, Luke Skywalker, KISS, Beatles and anything else I was into. But not having that much spending money has caused me to step back and figure out what I really want to collect. Out went KISS. Bye bye, Iron Man. I still pick up Batman and Luke Skywalker, but that too has slowed down considerably. I've really been concentrating on Spider-Man related items and I haven't looked back. I may have added more Spider-Man stuff to my collection than when I was working.

Brian over at coolandcollected.com was looking to clear out some of his collection. I picked out some affordable Spider-Man related items and we made the deal. The package arrived the other day and when I opened it I was astonished at what was inside.

Wow. The deal was originally for the black suited Spider-Man, Electro, Doc Ock and the Spidey mask, but Brian, generously, added a bunch of Spider-Man related goodies to the package.

Brian added these Venom and Hobgoblin vehicles that were part of the McDonald's Spider-Man Happy Meals in the 90's that coincided with the T.V. show. I think I had Venom at one point, but never Hobgoblin. I am very glad to have both in the collection.

Brian also added a Spider-Man Pez dispenser that I didn't have already, as well as two items I've never really seen before. I'm guessing the disc might have been part of a game. Venom is awesome. He maybe tiny, but I wouldn't mess with him too much. He is going to go great in my Venom part of the Spider-Man collection.

The Electro and Doc Ock figures were part of the deal with Brian, but he also threw in the Spider-Man Green Goblin figure. Electro has holes in his hands for bolts of electricity, I'm guessing. Doc Ock is from the fantastic Spectacular Spider-Man TV show. That show should have had a longer run, but Sony pulled it for the current Ultimate Spider-Man show. I enjoy it, but not as much as I did Spectacular.

Not familiar with these two Spider-Man figures. I do know that the figure on the left was on a motorcycle at some point. The one one the right, no clue, but I like it a lot.

I grabbed the mask because I wanted to pair it with my vintage Ben Cooper Spider-Man mask. At some point, I'd like to have a collection of different Spider-Man masks.

I even got a copy of the Cool and Collected magazine. This was a treat as I really wanted to read this. I had issues with my downloaded copy and was unable to read it. Now I have the magazine and I cannot wait to open this up and enjoy the articles inside.

I really hope there will be a second issue. A magazine like this one is something the hobby sorely needs.

Finally, there's this guy. I actually thought this was a 6 inch figure and I was afraid I had it already. Then I took it out the package and realized I did not have this. This is the 12 inch black suit Spider-Man from te Spider-Man Classics line. I have been looking for this figure for a long time for a decent price and now, thanks to Brian, I can add it to my Spider-Man collection. Now, I need to find the red and blue suit Spidey.

I love the sculpt and paint job on this figure. A wonderful pick up, if I do say so myself.

Now that I am starting a new job and I'll have some disposable income, I don't think I will be changing things. I think I will continue to build my Spider-Man collection. Sure, I will still pick up a Batman item here (especially 1966 Batman), a Luke Skywalker there, but it's just mainly going Spider-Man for me going forward.

What will I do with some of the non Spider-Man items I have? I'm not sure just yet. I may post pictures up here and sell them or trade them for more Spider-Man related stuff. I'll post pictures if I decide to to that. Either way, Spider-Man will be front and center in my collecting universe from here on end. I can't wait to hunt for more pieces.

Thank you Brian. Go and check out coolandcollected.com if you haven't already done so. Go, go now!

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!

Funko Pop Comikaze Exclusive Peter Parker Vinyl

I remember seeing this cover as kid and ever since then I have been fascinated by Peter Parker unmasked as Spider-Man. Some of my favorite Spider-Man stories have Spidey unmasked for one reason or another. Like when Parker caught a 24 hour flu in Amazing Spider-Man #12 and lost all his strength. He went to fight Dr. Octopus anyway because he had kidnapped Betty Brant and Peter felt like he had to save her. Because of the flu, Parker was over whelmed and unmasked. Luckily, Doc Ock thought that Parker was masquerading as Spider-Man and threw him aside.

Or probably the most famous Spider-Man unmasking, which occured in issue #39. That is the issue when the Green Goblin discovers Spider-man's true identity, with the help of a gas that dulled Spider-Man's spider sense. He didn't know he was being followed after a fight with some crooks on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, where one of the crooks, who was hired by the Goblin, threw the gas at Spider-Man. Afterward, Goblin followed Spidey and saw him change back into Peter Parker and followed him to his house. After a fight on Parker's lawn, he was subdued, roped up and dragged away by the Goblin. Also in this issue, we discover that the Goblin is Norman Osborne. (SPOILER ALERT!)

Now, ever since I found out that Funko was releasing a Unmasked Spider-Man POP Vinyl, I knew I had to have one. The fact that it was a Comikaze exclusive and that Comikaze was taking place in Los Angeles and I'm a New Yorker was irrelevant to me.I was either going to get this on eBay or I would fly out to the con and get one myself, which is just what I did.

Only the Hot Topic booth was selling this figure, a fact that I didn't know until I was at the con for about an hour and after going to booth after booth looking for one. Lucky for me, one of the dealers told me where to find one.

The first thing is the packaging. One of the things I love about the boxes is the drawing of the figure you're getting on the bottom left. The drawing on this one is very well done as usual. The coloring pops off the package. We also have the usual clear cellophane that shows off the figure as well as the number on the top and the name of the figure on the bottom.

There's the sticker that proclaims this as a Comikaze exclusive. I've said it once and I'll say it again, management needs to think of a better logo than that octopus.

As usual, the back of the box shows off the other POP's in this line. Now, if I wasn't just strictly collecting Batman and Spider-Man, I might grab that Ghost Rider POP because it looks awesome. I also like the Dr. Doom and Silver Surfer. I know that Deadpool POP is going to be a popular one as well.

Now, as much as I like the sculpting on this figure, what jumps at me right away is the paint job. The black on his boots are all over the place. I love that he is looks like he is about to spin a web and Parker has been de-masked,  but that paint job on the boots just irritates me.

The back of the figure doesn't get any better. There are white spots galore on his left hip and left shoulder area. And the boots are pretty funk-a-fied on the back as well. Unlike myself, there is not a spot of white on Parker's hair. As if being Spider-Man isn't enough for me to be jealous of Parker.

One thing I remember, there was a dispute if POP made any bobbleheads and sure enough, this one is a bobblehead. I also see that Parker has been branded. I need to find out what that marking on the bottom of his foot his. I am not sure if any of my other POP's have a number on the bottom of their feet. Again, the boots are a complete mess. It looks like Spidey has been hanging out in the mud pits over at Lallapalooza instead of fighting crime.

Overall, this is could have been a fantastic figure had it not been for the paint job on it. Somewhere, a painter is getting destroyed by his boss so bad that he is shrinking into his beret and rightfully so. There is no excuse for a company to have released a figure so badly painted as this one was. I just hope that anyone else who managed to pick one of these up has a better painted figure than the one I got. I'm still going to display this next to my regular Spider-Man POP, but man, it should have been painted better.

I'm pretty sure you guys are getting tired of reading POP reviews and I promise this one will be the last review for a bit. I can't promise you how long because I am addicted to these little guys. They're inexpensive and look great displayed. Plus, there are others I will be picking up, but in the meantime, I will be reviewing other stuff and discussing other topics for the foreseeable future. But, I dare you to try walking past these at Barnes N Noble, Toys R Us or any other of your fine retail stores. They are like Lays potato chips. Once you get one, you just can't stop. I dare you to try.