Wish List Part 3-Star Wars

Like most of you out there, I am a Star Wars nut. I love the movies and will love nothing more than to throw on the movies over a tub of popcorn and just morph into geek mode. I'm old enough to have seen the original trilogy in the theathers on their first runs. My first memory of Star Wars was walking into the Lowes Paradise on the Grand Concourse in the middle of the movie (you were allowed to walk to see the movie whenever you got there). I remember just standing in the aisle, looking at the huge screen and seeing the Millenium Falcon being dragged into the Death Star. My poor mom, I made her sit through 3 viewing of the movie. My younger sister? She fell asleep before the end of the first showing?? I mean, how the hell do you fall asleep during a piece of cinematic genuis like Star Wars. I still bug her to this day over it. Star Wars was da bomb, Christmas Special aside.

Like most kids, I went all ga ga over the toys Kenner put out. I wanted to have everything. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, it was not to be. I had some things, but not everything like my bratty cousin did. I wish I still had my Star Wars stuff, but alas, my sis made sure of that. I used to play Barbie skydive, which pretty much was me throwing her Barbies, Strawberry Shortcake and Raggedy Ann stuff out of our 6th floor window. Once she got wind of it, I never saw my beloved figures ever again.

Now, my Star Wars collection is currently non exsistant, save for a few things. I am starting to get back into collecting Star Wars only now. I always thought there was too much merchandise, why bother to collect. Then I figured that I would only collect the main characters from the original trilogy. No Episodes 1-3 for me, thank you very much. Give me Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, Vader, Fett and the 2 droids any day. So, once I started thinking, I narrowed my must have five items to these choice items:

1-Escape From Death Star Game

Had this game as a kid and loved it. The object of the game was to escape from the trash compactor and make it back to the rebel base first by picking up good force/bad force cards. This was a cool game to have and I would love to be able to get it again

2-Darth Vader Action Figure Carrying Case

I had this:

Then my mom smartened up and got me this:

Loved it. I kept all my figures inside this huge chunk of plastic with Darth Vader staring right back at me. Now, as a Jets fan, I see him and I see an obnoxious Oakland Raiders fan staring back at me, but I can deal with having this back in my collection. I would also love to add the C3pO Carrying Case from Return Of The Jedi as well

3-Kenner 12 inch figures

I had both the Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader 12 inch figures. I was having them square off long before they actually did in Empire Strikes Back. Both came with lightsabers and Luke had the grappling hook as well. I would have still had these if it wasnt for a bully at school beating the crap out of me and taking them away. I wish I can say I got him back, but I never did.

I do have the Luke re-issue 12 inch and I love it. Would love to get these, but I think they're a pretty penny. I might look into the Collector's Editions. That Boba Fett is kick ass.

4-Vehicles

I currently have a Tie Fighter, thanks to my buddy, who gave it to me as a gift. The original box is falling apart, but all the pieces are intact. Once I get a place to display, I will be taking it out of the box. Would love to add the following

X-Wing Fighter At-At

This thing was ginormous! I remember my cousin having this and never letting near it.


Landspeeder

And the ship that needs to me in every Star Wars collection, the Millenum Falcon

These toys were awesome. Big, but awesome.

5-Death Star Playset

Remember yesterday when I said that I had one other holy grail? Well, this is it. This piece of awesomeness is the Death Star Playset. 4 levels of plastic/cardboard goodness. A working trash compactor, a working elevator, a missle launcher at the top and a retractable bridge to enact that famous scene when Luke and Leia swing accross the bridge. (We won't talk about the kiss either). As a kid, this was the thing I wanted most in the world, but never got. I think I would put this as my number one holy grail item. I mean, this thing is freaken sweet!

Before I wrap up, I want to take this opportunity to wish the Vets out there a Happy Veteran's Day. Thank you for protecting us and helping keeping it free so us geeks can create blogs to write about toys we have/had/wish we had. May the force be with you all.

Wish List Part 2-The Batman

After Spidey, the character I collect the most of is The Batman. As much as I love the Adam West Batman or the Batman of today, the one I grew up with is the Neil Adams/Superfriends Batman. 4 of the 5 items I will prestent from my wish list are from the 70's and 3 were made by Mego. Again, these are in no particular order.

1-Remco Bat CSF Copter

As a kid, I spent hours playing with this awesome toy. It was a helicopter with Batman stickers on it, attached to a pole, which was attached to a base. It came with cardboard cut outs of villians like Joker and Riddler as well as a small building. All of which got destroyed in no time. I then used it with my Megos and other toys. I do remember trying to lift my plastic General Lee car with it, which resulted in an epic failure.

2-Mego Bat Lab

Honestly, to me, nothing screams Mego than Batman. Mego made so many things for the Caped Crusader to use in his adventures against crime. One of my favorite pieces was this Bat Lab. I remember seeing the commercials for it and begged my mom for one. Of course, I got something else instead. Not sure what it was, but I'm sure I had just as much fun with it. The van also came with a basket attached to a pole for catching crooks and bringing veggies or laundry back to Wayne Manor.

3-Mego Batman Command Console Probably the single coolest looking toy I ever owned as a kid. Look at this thing. A mini bat computer that flashed lights and picked up CB Radio signals. Of course, you couldnt talk back to anyone, but still, this thing was awesome looking and would look great in any Batman collection.

4-Batman Hand Puppet

So nice, I showed it twice. Well, it was an accident and I didnt know how to remove the 2nd pic. But it's still cool nonetheless. Other than the Soaky bottle, this is the one piece I will go out of my way to acquire for my Batman collection. Ideal came out with it in 1966, after the success of the Adam West show. Real nice piece.

5-Mego Wayne Foundation

Theres Something about this cardboard/plastic monstrosity that makes me drool. Aside from one other toy that I will mention in another blog, this would be my holy grail. Another piece of Mego goodness that I never owned, but am dying to have in my collection. Not quite sure how I would display it, but rest assured, I would figure something out. One of the more expensive Batman pieces, I rarely see this on ebay for anything less than 300.00.

I really believe Batman had some of the more cooler looking toys. Batmobiles, walkie talkies, costumes, etc. Whatever your budget is, there is something Bat-related you can find. Happy hunting.

Spider-Man Wish List

As the holidays are almost upon us, I always look back on toys I either owned as a kid or always wanted to. Now that I am an adult (will never say grown up, cause we all know otherwise), I can always rebuy or finally add the items to my growing collection.

Over the course of the next several days, I will reveal some of the items on my wish list, by character, sport or whatever else I collect. Today, I will start by showing of the top 5 items on the character I collect the most: Spider-Man. These will be in no particular order.

1-12 Inch Mego Spider-Man

I'm a huge fan of the Mego "World's Greatest Superheroes" line, having had them as a kid and re-collecting them to this day. I own an 8 inch Spidey as well as the mini, plastic Spidey. I have never owned the 12 inch, either as a kid or adult, and I want one. This piece would look great on the Spidey shelf. The figure came with either a solid arm, or one that squirted "webbing", which was just water, I believe.

2-1966 Ideal Spider-Man Hand Puppet

I have never seen one of these in person, yet I want one really, really bad. I have seen the Batman at a flea market earlier this year and came so close to buying it. It was real cool, but the head was held to the vinyl with a safety pin and that made me walk away. I will own it one day as well as this beauty. I'd probably rank it up their as a Holy Grail of mine. I do know it came either boxed or in a plastic bag. I have seen both in packaging on ebay for well over 100.00. If I saw a loose one, for a reasonable price, I'd be on it.

3-1970's Spider-Man Bank

One of my very favorite things I had as a kid was this humongoid plastic bank of Spidey's head and torso. This was one of those pieces, and still is, that looks great on any shelf. As far as I know, only Spidey and Hulk were made, but I could be wrong about that. I had placed a bid on one on ebay, only to lose. Then I check my messages on ebay a few days later, only to find that I had a second chance offer that expired already. Gahhh! I will own this piece again. Oh, and good luck finding one without a hole in the bottom. These banks never had a spot to remove the change you put into it. D'Oh!

4-1970's Spidey Webshooters

These babys are something I wanted sooooooo bad, but never got. I mean, what self respecting Spidey nut wouldnt want these to add to their collection.? But, alas, I never did get them. I even went as far as making my own out of construction paper. I was the only kid in Riverdale, NY running around with paper webshooters. Well, they went well with my homemade Spidey mask, so that's a good thing. The not so good thing? I never, ever see these on ebay.


5-Mego Stretch Action Spider-Man

I hated my cousin. He had EVERYTHING I wanted as a kid. All the megos, all the Kenner Star Wars stuff, Sho-Gun Warriors, Godzilla, etc. He was very smug about who he allowed to play with them and always put a time limit on the play time. I always wished I had his toy box because included in there was all three Mego Stretch Arena superhero dolls, which were a jump on the Stretch Armstrong fad of the 70's. But then again, Batman and Spider-Man are so much cooler than some blonde dude who was made of jelly. Again, I never see these on ebay either.

Of all the Spidey stuff I want, and there are others. Like the Spidey Mobile Crime Lab and the Helicopter and the Mego car and the Energizer Figure that I want. Then again, if it has Spider-Man on it and it's affordable, I want it anyway.

Excelcior!

Its Finally Happened.

Right now, I'm in the laundromat, watching my clothes wrestle each other in the dryer, bored out of my mind. I decided to try to post a picture-less blog to give you all a quick update to what I've been up to the past few weeks. Plus, I get to test this Blogger Android app that I downloaded off the Android Market.

I finally decided that I've had enough of binders. I currently have close to 30 binders that house my Yankees, Jets, Devils, Knicks and Islander cards. I am running out of space to put more binder. Plus, to be honest, I'm thrilled with having to shell out 3-7 bucks a pop for binders, then 15 dollars for 9 pocket pages. With all the cards I pick up during a calender year, I will have to buy a home that has a massive library just to house the binders. Plus, I have close to 15 boxes of cards I have yet to organize. Sheesh!

So, I finally have joined the many masses that are puting their card collections into monster boxes, top loaders and penny sleeves. Not exactly what I wanted when I started collecting again, but with room at a premium, I have no choice.

So, I have started with Topps. I have made dividers from index cards and been moving the base into the box. I plan to keep the inserts in the binders as well as the player collections I have of Mark Teixeira, Martin Brodeur, Mike Bossy, Mark Teixeira and Patrick Ewing.

I'm hoping this works out for me. I'm tired of having to decide how I am storing my cards, especially between my Team Collectors group, trades, box breaks and ebay, I get a lot each month.

I also have been looking to build up my Knicks collection. Of all the teams I collect, they are the team I have the fewest of. So, I've been picking up a few cards as well as some Ewings. Its been coming along nicely and pretty soon, I should have a nice Knicks collection.

Spidey Shelves

Kinda behind schedule on my blogs. My internet went down for a while and I am behind on my work. So today, I thought I would let the pictures tell the story. Here are shots of my Spider-Man collection. It's not the full collection. I have some figures I haven't put up on the shelf yet, but this is most of it.

Enjoy.

New York Knicks Player Apperances Sat 10/22/2011

Tomorrow, from 2-4pm, former New York Knicks stars Charles Oakley and Allan Houston, along with former NBA player Kevin Willis, will be apperaing at the new Men's Wherehouse in Manhattan. The address is 730 Third Ave off 45th st.

I'll be there and will try to get Houston and Oakley to sign 2 mini basketballs I have, but will bring some basketball cards just in case.

Hope to see you there.

IP: Carmello Anthony

I was at NY Comic Con last Friday (I promise you, there will be a blog post about that in the upcomimg days) and I get a text from my buddy that Carmello Anthony would be doing a free signing at a Modells Sporting Goods store in Manhattan that day. At first, I wasn't going to leave my first NYCC, but the more I thought about it, I knew 'Mello was a hard autograph and the chances of him doing a free signing anytime soon was not good, so I left the convention after lunch and headed over.

I got to Modell's an hour early. I spoke to some of the employees about the rules. Anthony was signing one item with the purchase of a "shooting" gel he was promoting. The gel was 10.00. I'll never use it, but hey, if it got me a free autograph, I was buying one. I also bought a basketball for him to sign, got my ticket and waited on the line outside. The line was pretty short, which amazed me. I thought for sure there would be a lot more people. Oh well, makes it eaiser for me since he was only signing for an hour anyway.

During my wait, a Modells manager came up to me and told me Carmello was only signing pictures that was provided by the company. It made me a little angry because I did speak with a few employees. Why wouldn't they tell me this before I spent 25.00 on a ball? No matter, I would return it after I got my picture.

Carmello arrived early and started signing right away, so I got to meet him really quick. When I got there, I shook his hand and he reached for the ball and signed it. I was surprised, but elated that there were no problems for Carmello's "people" about him signing the ball.

Here is my very first signed basketball:

I heard that Charles Oakley and Allan Houston will be doing a signing this weekend as well. I hope to make that and get a couple of mini basketballs signed.

New Yankee Card pick up

Just to remind you all that I do still collect my Yankees, I just got this beauty in the mail. An ebay purchase, it is a 1998 Circa Boss Insert I needed for the Yankees PC.

This card is everything I love about inserts. The graphics, the colors and it's a Yankee.

Jeter has become even more expensive (If you can believe that!) since he joined the 3,000 hit club, but I was able to grab this one for a steal at 1.99, plus free shipping.

Now, I just have to put this bad boy with the rest of the 1998 Circa cards I have. That will be a task and a half. I still have piles of cards to put into binders. Anyone have any tricks of how you organize your cards?

One more day till New York Comic Con

The first day of New York Comic Con is today. Although I did not go inside, I did stop by to pick up my press pass. I felt so very excited as I walked into Jacobs Javitz Center in Manhattan and saw all the people walking around. Some were in costume, others were not. It was not very crowded today. Tomorrow, when the con is open to the general public, I expect it to be a madhouse, Saturday worse.

Having never been to NYCC, I have done my reasearch by constantly looking at the official NY Comic Con web site and planned my time there. I picked out what I want to see, what I want to buy, which pannels and viewings I want to attend. I will mostly wander around, look at all the dealer tables and ogle the scantly clad women dressed as their favorite characters (I keed, I keed).

If you are attending, I suggest you show up early. Doors open at 10Am. Hope to see you there.

New York Comic Con Exclusive:Maximum Carnage Mini Muggs

When I read about these yesterday, I knew I had to have them for the Spidey Mighy Mugg collection. Now, after seeing the picture, I might have to contain myself from being first in line for these buggers.

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!

Finally, Some Haulage..

This Past weekend, I was able to attend a flea market over in Wayne, NJ. I had'nt been to one in such a long time, but I was looking forward to attending. Especially after reading some other blogs and seeing the scores some people made, I wanted to try my luck.

I met up with my buddy in Yonkers at 9am. The flea market opened at 8 and since it takes almost 45 minutes to get there, we would be about close to 2 hours behind the ball. Didn't make a diffrence to me. I need sleep, since I don't get enough of it as it is. Before we left, my buddy had 2 gifts for me


Finally! After looking for these guys for months, I have my Batman Legacy Kmart Exclusive. I love the old style Batman and wanted this for the collection. Dig Batmite being in the package as well. I may keep this in the package. I did see a regular old school Batman figure without Batmite, so I might pick that up and open it up for display.

One of my all time favorite movies is Back To The Future. I'm trying to get a small collection of stuff from the movie. I already have a movie poster that was given away last year at the release of the remastered movie at theathers, a Delorean from Johnny Lightning and some stuff from the release of Back To The Future Part II. Hot Wheels released this Delorean recently that was hard to find, but my buddy managed to track it down and grab one for me.

We drove out to Wayne and once we parked I saw this van

I knew we were in the right place, although I never seen something like that at just a flea market. Usually, fun cars like that are reserved for conventions.

Once we paid our dollar admission, we walked inside to a nice sized flea market

There were some pretty good tables at this market. The dealers had some nice stuff. The prices varied from great to insane convention prices.
There was a lot of stuff collectors could have added to their collections. For me, I seen Yankees, Jets and Devils items I could have nabbed. I was very intregued by a table that had signed Devils pucks for 10.00 from players like Petr Sykora, Bill Guerin and Scott Neidemyer. The Neidemyer was the one I was torn about grabbing, but ultimately left it behind because I was questioning the authenticity of the autograph.

I seen a lot of Beatles items I drooled over like books, lunch boxes and figures. All that this Beatle-maniac wanted for the collection. But the prices were insane so I walked away.

The one item that I wanted was a 1966 Batman hand puppet I seen. The puppet's head had some paint rub, but the plastic costume looked clean. The dealer was asking 20.00 for it. I walked away thinking long and hard about picking it up. It's one of the items on my "must own" list. Why not add it today? I went back and asked to see the puppet before making a final decsion on it. I looked it over and found a large rip from the neck down to the shoulder that was held together by a safety pin. I could have still bought it cause it looked decent on display, but I didn't want to have to spend more money on an upgrade, so I left it behind.

I did manage to grab this 12 inch Spidey figure from the first movie for only 5 bucks. Haven't seen one of these on ebay for that low a price.

My buddy grabbed a few vintage halloween masks and gave this one to me

Vintage 1970's Spidey mask. A bit beat up, yes, but as my favorite saying goes, if it's for free, it's for me. This can display nicely until I find a suitable upgrade. The masks I have seen on ebay for pretty cheap.

I also snagged this Lando Calrissian figure for a cool 50 cents for my Star Wars collection

Been wanting to collect the vintage Star Wars stuff. Hate the new movies and will not collect from that era. I did pass by a Darth Vader action figure carry case that the dealer was selling for 30.00. Passed it by, but hopefully I can grab it next time. The flea market will return in November, so I'm hoping I can go back. I did enjoy it as it wasn't too crowded and I was able to add some nice pieces without causing my wallet to yell uncle.

After, we hit Nanuet, NY and the Target up there. My buddy needed to grab some stuff so I went along for the ride. I found the first season of the Spectaular Spider-Man on dvd for 14.99. I had never seen it before and was willing to pass it by until my friend saw me looking it over and mentioned he had a 50% off coupon for Target he was using for his stuff

Needless to say, it came home with me along with a box for Count Chocula cereal. Spent under 10.00 for both. I watched most of the first disk and have to admit, it's a very good show. The animation is better than the 90's Spider-Man show, although the storyline's on that show was better. Neither will take the place of the original '67 show in my heart though. Still, I do recomend the dvd.

All in all, I'd say it was a productive day. Even got to see Star Trek on Imax. I'm ready for my next flea market. Bring it on!

Recent Spider-Man Hauls

One of the things I want to do is to start a collection of Spider-Man comics. Spider-Man is my all time favorite superhero, with Batman consider 1A. I want to collect as many vintage comics as my wallet can afford. So far, I have been able to get some nice books without putting me into the poor house.

I realize these might not be considered vintage, but for under 20.00, I couldn't pass them up

The 90's was a great time to be a Spidey fan. The cartoon was a hit on FOX, there was some great toys out and the comics were pretty cool.

Remember these oversized comics from the 70's?

I used to have a ton of them. I remember having the Superman vs Ali, Batman vs Spider-Man and some of the DC reprints. A friend of mine came by the other night and dropped it off. An awesome add to the collection.

I bought these off someone on spidermancollector.net

I'd say my Spidey collection is off to a great start.

I'm going to a toy show in Wayne, NJ this weekend. Hopefully I can find something to bring home with me.