Spidey, You Can Drive My Car...

Yes, I threw in some Beatles for the title of this blog, with a bit of a change of the lyrics to "Drive My Car", which was off the magnificent album, "Rubber Soul". Maybe I should have added the Beep Beep, Beep Beep, Yeah to it.

Yes, even Spider-Man had a car. It was the idea of Corona Motors who had built a non polluting car engine. They hired an advertising firm to convince Spider-Man to build a Spider-Mobile. At first, Spidey turned down the idea, but needing money for rent and food, agreed to driving it around, even though he doesn't have a drivers license. So, Spider-Man and Johnny Storm built the Spider-Mobile and Spider-Man used it to capture Hammerhead's thugs with it. But soon after, he was tricked into driving it into the river by Mysterio. But Corona Motors wanted the car back, but Spider-Man couldn't find the car in the river. It resurfaced soon after, modified by the Tinkerer, going after Spider-Man. Spidey was able to subdue the car and return it to the advertising firm, in less than perfect shape.

Now, I am not a car person. I do have my drivers license, but I have never owned a vehicle. I don't know a muffler from a transmission or a Ford from a Chrysler. I never actively collected Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars. As a kid, I had a few, but they became contestants in my daily smash em' up derby. I do have a few Batmobiles, a couple of Monkeemobiles and Deloreans but that's about the extent of my car collecting.

Yesterday, my buddy George and I were hanging out in Fishkill, NY and wandered in to the Walmart. I was looking for a Spider-Man tank top that I had seen earlier in the year and cannot find in my size anymore (Note to self: When you see something you like, BUY IT!). Well, I couldn't find the tank top in my size, but I did find these.

Again, I really don't buy cars, but when I saw these, I knew I had to have them. Why? For starters, the art on the cards are fantastic and the 97 cents price point was the deal maker for me. There were six different cars on the pegs, but I chose these four for my Spider-Man collection.

Cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 is a must pick up.

One of my all time favorite Amazing Spider-Man covers, the John Romita drawn Amazing Spider-Man #39.

I may be in the minority, but I love the Iron Spider costume. I think that is a bad ass look for Spider-Man.

Who doesn't love Venom? I do.

I bought these more for the art on the cards than the for the cars themselves, so I want to try to keep the cards in as mint condition as I can. Then, when I finally have my Spider-Man display up, I will have to figure out how to display them on the shelf. Maybe I will buy those cases that car enthusiasts put their on card Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars in.

This set has 8 cars in it, so the next time I am in Walmart or Target, I will be looking to pick up the other 4 cars. I never thought I would be wanting to add cars to my Spider-Man collection, but here I am. Now, if someone could only make a comic accurate Spider-Mobile, that would be appreciated. I think.

Mighty Muggs Adds

With New York Comic Con 2011 a few days away, I am trying my best not to spend any money so I can blow it all at the convention. That said, A week ago, I was on shopgoodwill.com, browsing. I wasn't planning on buying anything until I saw a post that had these three Mighty Muggs. A Black Suit Spidey, a Venom and a Human Torch. I wanted to try and put together the Spidey set of Mighty Muggs as I already have the red suited one, still in the box. The auction was starting at 5.00, with 5.00 shipping. I placed a bid for 5.50, not really expecting to win. Heck, on ebay, Venom is usually a 25.00 figure. I thought what the heck.

I got an email from Goodwill a couple of days later informing me of the win. I expected to pay only 10.50, but to my surprise the total was 19.95. Apparently, there are taxes and fees placed on the winning bid. Never having bought anything from Goodwill before, I was a bit stunned. I just chalked it up to my money going to help the less fortunate, paid my bill and waited for the package which arrived today. I gotta tell you, the figures, not coming in their original boxes, were packaged great and look great in person.

Of all the Spidey villians, Venom shares the top spot with the Green Goblin. Hated the incarnation we saw in Spiderman 3, I perfer to think fondly of the Todd McFarlane version who tormented Peter Parker, wanting to eat Spider-Man's brains. As much as I like Venom, I don't have any Venon collectables...until now. I really try not to collect the villians due to space, but this Venom figure is awesome. Love that the tounge is not painted on this figure, which gives this Mugg a more demonic look.

Had to have this Spidey figure. This will look great on my Spidey shelf next to the red suit Spidey I bought a couple years ago from Toys R Us. All I need to complete the Spidey collection is the half Parker/half Spider-Man and the 2011 San Diego Comic Con Exclusive with the removeable mask. I'm hoping I can grab those at New York Comic Con. If not, there's always ebay.

Johnny Storm may be dead, but he looks pretty cool in Mugg form. This was the "throw-in" of the bunch. Not collecting anyone but Spider-Man and Batman, I'm probably going to trade this guy, although I am tempted to keep him. Again, love that the flames on his head are actually molded plastic and painted to look like he just Flamed On! Might have to think about holding on to this one...

Dispite the added costs, I'm very pleased with this purchase and would probably order through shopgoodwill.com again. I'm sorry they stopped producing these. Would have loved to have had a DC Line with a Batman made. I might actually put together the Avengers Set later on and might have done a Justice League had DC given up a licence to have them made.

Oh well, I will just enjoy the ones I have and continue on my search for the other 2 Spider-Men Mighty Muggs.

See you at New York Comic Con!