The Action Figure and Toy Collecting and Discussion Thread!

Which site is that...I got to a whole lot of them. Maybe I've seen it in all my travels across the Web looking for collecting sites. Do you remember anything about the site's name?

 

I'll Google that and go check it out. Maybe I've seen the site before and just completely forgotten. Thanks.

If you're into STAR WARS collectibles two of the greatest sites out there are Galactichunter.com and JediTempleArchives.com. I actually post on JTA as Darth Eddie as part of the collector community and just yesterday we made note of the tenth anniversary of the release of the 2002 Saga / Attack of the Clones toy and collectible lines. JTA has what are probably the best and most comprehensive figure, ship and vehicle reviews of any site on the Internet hands down. Galactichunter is also an incredible site with a terrific photo archive and daily reviews of random figures dating from the launch of the modern STAR WARS era in 1995 up to the present. Check 'em out if you're not already aware of them. There's also Rebelscum.com, Yakface.com, BanthaSkull.com...the list goes on forever.

 

Gah, as if Evezan wasn't going to be hard enough to find as it is, now there's a paint variant?

 

I noticed. The one I have doesn't have the painted scar on his face. I mean...what's the point?! In the actual movie Dr. Evazan doesn't have red, bloody-looking facial scars. Sometimes I think they make these variants completely on purpose to make more money off the collectors who absolutely have to have one of everything. It's happened too often over the years for it to always be factory errors or other mistakes. They know a running paint change will lead to more figures being sold.

Crafty, those bastards.

 

I don't need one with the red, bloody scar. Which of course means it will be the one I find.

 

There's more.

Now there are two variants of the brand new Kithaba Skiff Guard from JEDI. One has a brown headband. The other has a red one that more closely matches the original movie headgear.

Greaaaaaaat.

 

So, I know there's not a whole lot of people here that collect high end, but man, I just have to show these Hot Toys Avengers figures. They've confirmed that they're making the whole team, and have shown a few already. Be sure to click the Gallery tab to see all of the pics.

Nick Fury
Hawkeye
Captain America

I'm suspending pretty much all of the rest of my collecting right now in order to afford these guys. I can't even imagine how much Hulk is gonna cost. That's the price for this ridiculous kind of quality though.

 

^
That Captain America sucked my eyeballs out of their sockets, spun them around my head and then smacked me in the face with its sheer awesomeness. Wow...just...

Wow.

 

Just released on one of the collecting websites I frequent and post on: Reams of the entire Deleted Scenes, Darth Malgus and Dr. Evazan Waves hit Spanish stores like an avalanche!

Check out these pics taken in the past day or two over in the fine Kingdom of Spain, then compare them to what you've seen in our own vaunted and legendary American stores and feel your tummy gurgle and churn with nausea:





And I might add...these overflowing pegs full of plastic gold are in a country with close to 25% unemployment and a national economy in the tank. Walmart? Target? Toys 'R' Us? You should feel completely ashamed of yourselves right now. The current state of your pegs in the Land of the Free is nothing short of pathetic.

I think I need a stiff drink.

 

Screw it! Invade Spain!

LOOT EVERYTHING! This travesty shall not go unanswered!

 

Those pictures send me into a violent rage!

I checked my Wal-Mart today. Still just a bunch of Episode 1 figures.

 

What's even more frustrating is that these are on American packaging, not the less attractive and desirable European cardbacks with a dozen different languages cluttering them up and huge stickers blotting out all the good artwork and pictures. These are the U.S. versions of the figures showing up in massive numbers in a country where a lot of the local people can't even afford to buy any of them because of the awful Spanish economy as well as markedly higher prices for toys and collectibles within the European Union. This is just...sad.

 

When a nation with 25% unemployment that can't even afford that stuff gets boatloads of it, desperate measures come into play. Give me a Seal Team, some Green Berets and the Delta Force and I'll be the darling of the collecting community for generations to come. They'll build statues to me.

Statues with 14 points of articulation.

 

Substitute Japan for Spain.

And now you know what Transfans feel like.

Even worse their plastic crack has better quality and better paint apps.

 

I don't collect Transformers...haven't since I was a kid in the '80s and the original toys and cartoon were out...but I've heard plenty of horror stories about the state of Transformer collecting. I don't know how some of you guys do it. It must take the patience of a saint to not strangle somebody to death when you've waited months or even longer for new Transformers to show up at retail. I don't know what's going on with Hasbro and the stores in this country anymore. A country with an economy sicker than the Bubble Boy on SEINFELD gets an oil tanker's worth of brand new, hard to find STAR WARS figures that a lot of their people can't even afford to purchase, but here we get stuck coast to coast with row after row of half-full or empty pegs containing pegwarmers from several months or even a year ago. Like I told someone else this evening, if the retail situation isn't resolved and things don't get better for collectors soon then this hobby is going to be headed straight to hell on a bullet train. People of all collecting stripes---SW, Transformers, Marvel, D.C., G.I. Joe---are fed up with the stores and the manufacturers. I realize this is a bad economy...but come on. This is just pathetic.

 

Well it arrived and within minutes of posing it with Qui-Gon, the little nubbin snapped inside leaving me a hilt that won't accept a new blade.