I May Be Biased, But This Is An Awesome Bobblehead.

Yeah, I may be a bit Spider-Man crazy these days. Everything I've bought has been Spider-Man related. From figures to comics to statues to cups, I have been on the hunt for anything that has the Web Head's face plastered all over it. Must have something to do with the movie that was just released. Yes, I did see it and yes, I loved it. I won't say anything in case anyone who's reading this hasn't seen it. I will say that I strongly feel that this is the best Spider-Man movie period. Was it perfect? No, but the positives far out weigh the negatives. I will be seeing it again.

So, I'm sure by now you guys are wondering what bobblehead I bought. If you guessed it is Spider-Man related, your a winner of a No Prize.

A few months back I showed a preview picture of a Spider-Man bobblehead that NECA was releasing in April. I had seen it in the stores, but always left it behind. This past Friday, I couldn't resist it any longer. Plus, the price was better than I had seen in other stores and finally picked it up.

I love the box the bobblehead comes in. You have a classic John Romita-ish Spider-Man drawing in the upper left hand corner with a huge picture of the bobblehead your getting. This box is not in the greatest shape. Stupid me for not noticing it until I got home. I guess I was just too giddy about picking this up.

Look at how cool this bobblehead is. Classic Spidey pose, low to the ground. His left hand looks like it's getting ready to spin a web. I love how the sculpting looks vintage 1970's Spider-Man. This is just a great looking bobblehead.

The back looks great in the classic red and blue colors of the Wall Crawler. Love that big red spider on the back of his costume. I almost bought a t-shirt in this color blue with the red spider in front on the chest. Very cool shirt. I will pick it up eventually. The base may look dusty, but I'm guessing its from the packaging. This bobblehead is packaged inside styrofoam that covers the bobblehead from both sides. That was one snug bug.

Nothing great on the bottom of the base. Just the Marvel and NECA logos as well as their website addresses. Also, Spidey was made in China.

I think this bobblehead might be one of the best Spider-Man bobbles produced. NECA did a fantastic job with this one. This was not the only one in this line. I have seen Iron Man and Thor on the shelves of my local comic book shops and they also look fantastic. But for my money, and again maybe I am biased, but the Spider-Man bobble is the best of the three and it may be the best looking Spider-Man bobblehead ever made. This one is going to look great on the shelf.

Sometimes, Awesome Comes In Small Packages

Alex Ross is one of my all time favorite artists. I'm sure I am not the only one who says that. Alex Ross's work is amazing. I have loved his work on such classics such as Justice League Justice, Marvels and Kingdom Come. Plus, I love his takes on Battle Of The Planets, Batman, Superman, Captain America and of course, Spider-Man.

Alex Ross is one of my top 5 favorite Spider-Man artists. I have always wanted to own a piece of Alex Ross Spider-Man art, but at the prices his work commands, I doubt I will be able to own one, unless I go for a lithograph at some point. Marvel has yet to make a Alex Ross inspired Spider-Man figure, so I'm shut out there as well.

A few years ago, Marvel and Dynamic Forces released a life sized Spider-Man bust. It is the coolest thing I may have ever seen. The bust captures Ross's work perfectly and I wanted one. Still do in fact. The lowest I have seen this bust go for is $400.00 and I don't have that kind of cheddar lying around right now. But, there was the next best thing and I got it off eBay for a steal.

Lucky for me, a mini version of the bust was released and it now has a proud place in my Spider-Man collection. When I received the package and opened it, I was blown away by how cool this thing really is, despite the smaller size. Through the cellophane on the front of the package, you can see Spidey staring right back at you.

On either side of the box you get the same Alex Ross drawing of Spider-Man, without my flashes glare.

On the back of the box, you get a picture of the bust plus a write up about the statue. I'm actually not too crazy about the Spider-Man lettering they chose for this. Being that this was inspired by John Romita Sr's art, couldn't they have used the classic Amazing Spider-Man lettering? Maybe I'm nitpicking just a bit, but the new, modern Spider-Man lettering seems out of place on the packaging.

Here's the bust out of the package and what else can I say but this bust is awesome. It measures about 4 3/4" tall and is limited to 5,000 pieces. The statue was sculpted by Mike Hill. I'm not a statue collector, so I am unfamiliar with Hill's work, but he did a fantastic job on this piece. The bust looks like it jumped out of an Alex Ross piece. I love the eyes on it. It's not painted white like a lot of other Spider-Man busts and statues, but has that mirror like lens. Makes me wonder why the producer's of the 1970's TV series couldn't have done something similar.

Here's both profiles of the statue. I love how it looks like a mask. You can see the wrinkles on the neck and Peter's ears, nose and chin underneath the mask. Hill's attention to detail makes this bust even better than I could have dreamed.

Here's the back of the bust. It always freaks me out how the bust just ends into nothing like what you see where. Creepy.

An here is the certificate of authenticity that came with the bust. Mine is numbered 2059. I wonder if that is an actual John Romita Sr signature. I am leaning towards not, but it's still cool to have.

This actually might be my favorite Spider-Man piece in my Spidey collection. Owning this piece may actually get me to start picking up more statues and busts if I can find them at decent prices like at what I found this one for. I still want the full sized version and I will own one at some point. But for now, I am more than content to own this awesome bust and I'm really in no rush to grab the full sized version. It's funny how you can get attached to something so small, yet so awesome.

From The Spider-Man Collection:Spider-Man Yahtzee

One of my goals this year is to show off pieces of my various collections that I haven't shown off before. Before, my pick ups would get in the way of showing off pieces, but now that my pick ups are going to be slowed down a bit, I fell now is the time to show some off.

One of my favorite collections I own is my Spider-Man collection. He's my favorite hero and the largest I own. It's also the most unique. I have different Spider-Man pieces from comic books to action figures to cups to cards to sketches. Today's piece is one that I think is very cool.

I had my eye on this game for a while and, lucky for me, I got it for Christmas from my buddy, George.

Right away, I loved this as soon as I set my eyes on it. The container that is shaped like Spider-Man's head looks like it jumped out of a comic book page drawn by the legendary John Romita. I also loved that Parker Brothers used the vintage Spider-Man lettering right over the Spidey's head.

On either side of the box your getting pretty much the picture of Spider-Man, although they are turned around. Still, love the vintage sweetness that was used on the box.

Top of the box has another classic Spidey drawing. Looks like he has his clothes webbed up on his back as his Spidey Sense is going off. He probably senses how much I love this box.

As soon as you open the box, you see this on top. You get some score sheets, instructions and a pencil. I definitely need those instructions as I have never played Yahtzee in my life.

As you can see, the Spidey container is protected within the plastic bubble that is sealed into the cardboard backing. With the container, you also get a set of 5 dice (or is it die?). On the dice, we get pictures of the Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Venom, Carnage and the Kingpin.

Unfortunately, the only way to get to the container and dice is to break open the plastic and cardboard and I do not know how to play, I opted to keep this intact. It just looks too cool to break open. Plus, I know that this will look awesome on the shelf among the other Spidey goodies I own.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to be showcasing different pieces of my Spidey collection. I am very proud of how many different pieces I have in it and I am always looking to add to the collection. Spider-Man was the first super hero that I noticed and became a fan of, so I will always collect Spider-man merchandise. Hopefully, I can soon display all my Spidey stuff and really show off how cool it is. Until then, I will just show off the collection, piece by piece.

Comic Book Marketplace Haul Part 3-Yes, More Spidey Books!

Now, I probably should have used a John Romita Spidey or a Todd McFarlane Spider-Man picture considering the 2 trade paperbacks I bought feature their work, but damn, I love Steve Ditko's Spider-Man so much that I had to use a pic of it for today's blog.

I had decided to concentrate on buying more trade paperbacks and graphic novels than picking up single issues. My reasoning for that was for because my comics always seem to get harmed in some way. You can imagine my anger when I discovered a leak in my apt during a recent rain storm and that leak spilled rain water all over my comic collection. Luckily, my Spider-Man and what few Batman books I had were away from the leak but the damage had been done. Now, whatever titles I read are usually in trade form. Going to the comic book marketplace, I wanted to keep an eye out for any trades that caught my attention. I found these two books and took them home with me.

I did say I loved Steve Ditko's Spider-Man. I have to tip my cap off to the man who co-created Spidey and drew him for 38 issues of Amazing Spider-Man and one issue of Amazing Fantasy, but to me, the greatest artist to ever work on the Amazing Spider-Man is John Romita. Romita drew so many great Spider-Man stories and some of them are in this book: John Romita Spider-Man Visionaries. Romita drew my very favorite Spider-Man story. The 2 part story, titles 'How Green Was My Goblin" and "Spidey Saves The Day!" has the Green Goblin finding out Spider-Man's true identity as well as revealing himself to be Norman Osborne. The Goblin's origin is also revealed and there is an epic battle at the end of the story. Another great Spider-Man story, "Spider-Man, No More", which would be part of the basis of Spider-Man 2 as well as others stories are included in this trade. As soon as I saw it and flipped through it, I knew it would be mine. the 4.00 price tag helped.

I also picked up one of the great stories in the Spider-Man mythos. Torment was written and drawn by Todd McFarlane in 1990 to kick off the new Spider-Man title. It's the story of Spider-Man hunting the Lizard as the Lizard has gone off on a killing spree. The first issue alone would sell 2.5 million copies, solidifying McFarlane's popularity. It's a story, surprisingly, I never had a chance to read in it's entirety. Now I will be able to. Then, I can sleep peacefully at night without muttering "Torment, Torment". Another four bucks bought back my soul.

I cannot wait to be able to open up these books and lose myself in the world of Spider-Man. I look forward to seeing Spider-Man battle the likes of The Green Goblin, Kingpin and The Rhino. Then, I can go into the sewers and watch Spidey battle the Lizard in one of the great Spider-Man stories of the 90's. For the next few months, I will be overloaded on Spidey stories. I can't think of a better way to spend my quiet evenings.

Comic Book Marketplace Haul Part 2: More Spidey

When I went to the comic book marketplace yesterday, I really wasn't planning on picking up a lot of Spider-Man books. Batman had become the flavor of the month for me and I wanted to add some Batman literature to my comic book collection. In fact, I was determined to do so. I did pick up a couple of Batman books, but the bulk of my purchases were Spider-Man titles.

Lets be honest, I love Spider-Man just as much as I love Batman. I plan to get a Batman tattoo in the near future, but Spidey is the hero that is gracing my right bicep right now. In fact, as I am writting this blog, I am rocking a very sweet John Romita Spider-Man t shirt. So, I guess it's really no shock that I would pick up so much Spider-Man goodies.

Yes, as I was going through the boxes, my I was pretty much saying to myself, "Batman, Batman, I want Batman, Batma...ohh, here's a cool Spidey comic. MINE!" In fact, I had so many Spider-man books at one table put aside I had to put most away and just take the books I really liked.

Yesterday, I showed the Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man books I picked up for my collection, so today, I will show off the Amazing Spider-Man books I selfishly grabbed for my collection. Again, the condition is not the greatest,  but for a buck a book or in some cases, 4 for $1.00, I'm really not complaining about the condition of these books. Besides, I think the condition adds some character to the books.

Here's the Amazing Spider-Man haul:

This one is not an Amazing Spider-Man book, but the cover is so cool, I just had to pick it up for my collection.

Well, I guess I did start a Web Of Spider-Man collection with this issue.

That's all of the Spider-Man books I picked up. I do have a good news, bad news for my next blog. The Good news is, I don't have any Spider-Man issues that I bought at the comic book marketplace to show. I will be showing off 2 graphic novels I grabbed. The bad news? They're Spider-Man books. Ohhhhh, The Humanity!