“Ebon-Isz and Ivor-Isz / Live together in perfect harmon-Isz”

§ January 27th, 2014 § Filed under misfit toys, retailing § 9 Comments

So let’s gaze long into this abyss:


…which is just one of the boxes recently donated to our shop last week…the remnants of what was once another comic book store’s stock. The previous owners tired of these multiple boxes of comics and toys occupying space in their storage, and thus they now occupy space in our storage.

Well, okay, not all of the boxes. The acquisition of any large collection usually results in a small percentage of the received items being desirable, usable items, and the greater portion mostly being stuff like this. The jury is still out on how much of this collection will be of use to us, since we’re still going through it. My first pass through resulted in about half of the comics going straight to the bargain bins — so long, Brigade! — while we’re still going through the other half which is just on the threshold of possibly being sellable items. It’s mostly late ’80s – mid ’90s material, but there are plenty of Valiant titles, Amazing Spider-Man issues, some Deadpool, and other goodies that are in enough demand to warrant some double-checking prior to consigning them to bargain-box purgatory.

That’s just the comics. The toys, on the other hand, were packed haphazardly into a handful of beaten-up cardboard boxes, and if they were intended for sale before, the condition they’re in now make most of them pretty much useless. I half-suspect some rough playing with the toys occurred after the removal from the store, because there sure are a lot of limbless and otherwise busted figures in there.

But then again, that particular box pictured above was marked “ACTION FIGURE ACCESSORIES – $0.25 EACH” so maybe they just had a bunch of used toys they were trying to unload for anything, and now I guess it’s my turn. I briefly though about trying to match up some of the bits ‘n’ pieces in that cardboard box with the action figures in the other boxes, but I’m too close to death to use up my precious remaining minutes doing that.

The box did contain a few of these fellas:


…the Iszs or Iszes or Iszeseses or whatever from The Maxx, presented here in 1 1/4-inch tall bendable-arms form. These had originally been packaged with Maxx action figures, but I didn’t see any of those in the boxes. Apparently there was a bag of Isz figurines once available from the McFarlane Toys fan club, so maybe that’s where they all came from.

Also in the box was a canister of this stuff:


…and since the picture is a bit blurry, thanks to my fantastic camera skills, I shall read the label to you, which says “ALIENS OOZE PLAY GEL – slimy ooze traps unsuspecting prey!” Sadly, this item dates from 1994, and a perusal of the gel within:


…shows us that its slimy days of trapping unsuspecting prey are long behind it. Maybe you can bean your prey upside the head by tossing that hard-rubbery lump at it.

As long as I’ve got your attention, it occurs to me that it’s been a long time since I’ve trolled any of you. So…


…there you go.

Like I said, we’re still digging through these boxes, so I may yet find more goodies of interest to show you. Like this Image Comics editorial preview package from 1995:


…which should prove to be equal parts nostalgic, hilarious, and depressing, so let’s all look forward (or backward!) to that.

9 Responses to ““Ebon-Isz and Ivor-Isz / Live together in perfect harmon-Isz””

  • Mike Zeidler says:

    I would gladly take those Isz off your hand if the price is right.

  • Snark Shark says:

    ohhhhhhhh I want to go through all those toy weapons! there’s bound to be some Star Wars or GI Joe stuff in there!

    “that it’s been a long time since I’ve trolled any of you”

    NYUK NYUK NYUK! Look, it’s Wolverine without the personality!

    ” I briefly though about trying to match up some of the bits ‘n’ pieces in that cardboard box with the action figures in the other boxes, but I’m too close to death to use up my precious remaining minutes doing that. ”

    yeah, it’s hard to do if you’re not already familiar with the stuff.

  • philfromgermany says:

    Ahh, Troll.
    The perfect marriage of Puck and Wolverine. I remember his big one-shot comic not being so bad at all, but now I have the suspicion it was more or less a total rip-off of an Alpha Flight Puck story by John Byrne…

  • Mike: do you have to inventory each toy (or have Employee Aaron do it)? I don’t necessarily buy action figures, but if there are weird, random, spaceships in there,I might be interested.

    Maybe once you go through everything, you can post something like A/ xxx amount of action figures and B/ xxx amount of other crap.

  • googum says:

    Darnit, I already get “Ebony and Ivory” stuck in my head when I see my girlfriend’s cat’s white fur lumped up with my dog’s black fur–this isn’t helping!

    And I would love to dig through that weapons box myself!

  • Casey says:

    It’s like some kind of secreted resin.

  • Jack says:

    Nearly spit out my drink at that one, Casey. Well done.

  • kid nicky says:

    I really want that Troll figure.

  • Rich says:

    Who the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks is Troll?

    Oh, Youngblood character. Never read it, don’t care. Nevermind. I’ll leave it at that.