Poe’s Point > Vintage toys, eBay, and trading

August 19, 2009 | Poe

Recently I’ve been interested in tracking down the four original Ghostbusters from the 1980s Kenner Real Ghostbusters line. Of course, the first place I checked was eBay, the same place everyone else goes–including people of much greater means than I–thus ensuring that any and all auctions go for a price at the very high end of the market.

But my only other option is to scour yard sales, flea markets, and vintage collectible stores to try and find them at a reasonable price.

I’ve got plenty of old vintage stuff myself, and I’d much prefer to trade with some other collector without using eBay as a middleman, selling my vintage stuff online and then bidding top dollar on an auction on eBay, paying PayPal fees every step of the way.

How about a website that’s a sort of toy-focused, trading-based version of eBay, where collectors can put up all the items they have for trade and then look at other people’s wants and haves and make offers. It’s similar to what any toy board’s trade forum does, but a bit broader and with a way to search for specific items.

Of course, for all I know something like that already exists. Anyone know?

Show and Tell > The Official Ghostbusters Training Manual

July 27, 2009 | Poe

gb_cover

While not a toy, The Official Ghostbusters Training Manual was one of my prized possessions as a wee tyke. Published in conjunction with the movie in 1984, I probably got it only a couple years after I’d learned to read, which explains why there are lines from it that were so deeply embedded in my psyche that I never forgot them.

What I did forget, it seems, is just how much Ghostbusters was a part of my childhood. I’ve gone through nostalgic revivals of interest in He-Man, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and paid tribute to smaller fads like Robocop, but I’ve more or less neglected Ghostbusters–despite the fact that, as a kid, my Kenner Green Ghost and Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man were two of my most beloved toys. With the imminent arrival of Mattel’s Ghostbusters line, I expect that to change soon. In fact, the entire Ghostbusters franchise seems to be in the midst of a cultural revival (with rumors of a new sequel a la Rocky Balboa, Rambo, Live Free or Die Hard and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). (more…)

Show and Tell > Paul’s Batmania

July 8, 2009 | Paul

After doing my Robocop Show and Tell the discussion seemed to focus more on Batman than Robocop. Well, here’s my Batman collection Show and Tell inspired by that conversation. For my Show and Tell, I’m going to do something a bit different. I’m going to show and tell as usual, but there’s a little bit more to the story than what I’ve got here. For the rest of the story, head on over to my blog Toy Bender to get the rest of the scoop. Think of it as the director’s commentary over there. (more…)

Show and Tell > Kenner’s Robocop by Paul

July 2, 2009 | Paul

Poe and I have many things in common. We’re both incredibly sexy, we both can bench 300 pounds, and we both love the old Kenner Robocop line from the late ’80s. For today’s show and tell I pulled my beloved Robocop line out of storage to both share and educate. First up is the regular old Robocop:

RobocopActionFigureKenner1

Good old Peter Weller here has the classic five points of articulation, features a removable helmet, and a stupid cap firing mechanism on his back. He’s also supposed to have a gun that plugs into the side of his leg. It’s one of my favorite features and unfortunately I lost the gun. It was one of my biggest toy accessory losses I had as a kid. (more…)

Show and Tell > DC Direct Cyborg Superman by Fengschwing

June 26, 2009 | Poe

When I decided to do Show and Tell, I immediately decided on the figure I’m going to review.

Subsequently I thought that it wasn’t interesting enough to write some kind of article about–the standard of the other articles was really good. I started to hunt through my collection for ever more obscure collectibles, but at the end of the day, if the house goes up in flames, I’m grabbing my DC Direct Cyborg Superman.

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5 Questions With > Rustin Parr

June 18, 2009 | Poe

Today we have an interview with a good friend of mine, Rustin Parr of OAFE. Rustin and I first met through OAFE in the early 1990s, and despite living on separate coasts, we’ve met in person many times since then. An passionate if idiosyncratic movie buff, Haunted Mansion enthusiast, and King Leonidas look-alike (well, maybe not the abs, but the face, anyway), Rustin has agreed to bare just a bit of his soul to us here at PGPoA.

338381890_lCode name: Scott McEachen, alias Rustin Parr, alias Gunstas von Artlefuasdensein, D.D.S.
Specialty: Dreaming Big and Accomplishing Small
Base of Operations: Monterey, CA
History: Began the adventure in gorgeous Hermosa Beach, California, whence an egregious lust for action figuring took hold. A lack of sculpting ability and painting prowess propelled him into the world of Motion Picture production whose frivolities spat the man into the cutting edge of Neuro Marketing during which a healthy imbibing of toys and movies keeps the life juices flowing. It was a hot and sunny day when a close personal friend, the self-titled Lord of the Nazgul, brought together Rustin with Yo Go Re and Poe Ghostal, all posters at the formerly awesome and important/relevant spawn.com message boards, the latter two being founding members of oafe.net. After one particularly long and laugh-riddled evening in which Rustin performed his then-constant desperate rage upon the unprepared Yo’n’Poe towards falsely accused inept waitresses and rightfully, if not righteously accused George Lucas and his modern films, Poe’n’Yo dragged the Froce’o’da’nature into the fold at OAFE where on Rustin continues to this day to be less entertaining than that first eve and less consistent in producing reviews than his editor would prefer. Rustin is survived by his collection projected to consist of over 2,000 individual action figures, 500 hundred vehicle and location replicas 9in varying scales) and hundreds of plus-sized and resin collectibles, not to mention a DVD collection of some 1200 discs.

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Paul’s Peg > “A Brief Retrospective on Lightsaber Toting Figures” or “Kids Have it Too Easy”

June 2, 2009 | Paul

While going through my collection of open Star Wars figures, it suddenly came to me that kids have it really great when it comes to having figures to clash lightsabers. Back in my day there were only three official Star Wars figures that had lightsabers: Obi-Wan, Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader. You may have had multiple versions of Luke, but if you wanted to reenact a lightsaber scene that didn’t involve coloring a toothpick and putting it in the hands of a Stormtrooper, then you had to go with those three choices. These days, there’s a virtual cornucopia of lightsaber wielding figures to choose from.

vintageforceusers

Before we proceed let me pause for a moment. I’m not saying that kids couldn’t make other figures into evil or good lightsaber battlers. Kids have tons of imagination and can include other figures into their play worlds. Hell, I literally had Steelheart of the Silver Hawks marry Green Lantern at one point in my childhood for one of my “plots” and I also managed to use Encyclopedias to fill in for the Death Star trash compactor. What I’m getting at here is that there’s one thing between having fun as a kid by mixing all your figures and another where you’re trying to fit the stories you make up into the same world of the movies you’ve seen roughly a billion times. (more…)

Toy review roundup (via Fanmode)

May 7, 2009 | Poe

fanmode-copy Michael Crawford reviews the Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Iron Man Mark II 1/6-scale figure. Excerpt: “Recognizing that certain aspects of this figure cost less because of the re-use, they added in more stuff to give you that additional value.”

Jeff Parker reviews the Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Iron Man Mark II Sideshow exclusive 1/6-scale figure. Excerpt: “As near to perfection as it is possible to get in this scale …”

yo go re reviews the Jakks Pacific WWE Deluxe Build N’ Brawl Sgt. Slaughter figure. Excerpt: “… the toy would be a bit small if he were a Joe release. Other than that, however, the figure blends perfectly.” (more…)