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So of late I’ve been trying to get my comic collection at home reorganized and put away properly, part of which is clearing out some material and bringing it to the store for sale. As such, I’m trying to keep the intake of new stuff down to a dull roar, both comics and other related goodies. But there comes a time in every person’s life when one must acquire a full set of high-end fully articulated and accessorized Popeye figures.
Just released from Boss Fight Studio, this figures are “1/12th scale” (or between 4 and 6 inches tall, depending) and come in these nicely designed packages and are accompanied by a selection of accessories (extra hands, hats, that sort of thing).
Castor Oyl, pictured above, needed some extra special accessories to attract the “Castor who?” crowd and thus gets Eugene the Jeep and the Whiffle Hen.
Olive comes with Swee’Pea, as well as an extra head with an angry face:
…which sadly does not quite live up to the swell expression drawn on the packaging.
The most massive figure of the bunch, and rightly so, is Bluto:
…who comes with a few extra hands and his little cap.
The package opens up at the side, where a flap is held in place by a couple of inserted tabs (one covered with a clear sticker to keep it shut). I had trouble opening it up, putting a few tears into the slots in which the tabs go, but I don’t know if that’s a design flaw or just my clumsy, clumsy mitts. If only I had swappable hands like Bluto.
Anyway, this is what it looks like inside:
And here’s Bluto in all his ornery glory:
He doesn’t need an extra swappable head…THIS ONE IS PLENTY:
There was an additional item in this series I passed on, which was a “Popeye Vs. Bluto” set featuring basically the same designs as above but with “battle damage” (bruised knuckles, black eyes) that I passed on.
These are some beautiful figures that I absolutely didn’t need but picked up anyway. The second series should be here in a few months (with the Sea Hag, Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, and Popeye in his white sailor suit) and after seeing these, I can’t wait.
If there’s a third series, I’m hoping for Alice the Goon, and wouldn’t it be great to get a Brutus to go with Bluto? Or a Ham Gravy to go with Castor? Or even King Blozo!
I mean, after that we’d really be entering real Deep Cut territory, getting into Olive’s parents and Rough House and the like. More likely we’d see more design variations on the main characters (such as one based on Bluto’s appearance in Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor).
But what I really want is a 4-pack of the nephews Pupeye, Peepeye, Poopeye and Pipeye:
Just don’t do a “Popeye Whistling Through His Missing Eye variant, I’m begging you:
So I had a fella bring in a few Spider-Man comics to sell the other day, and he had them stowed away in a small cardboard carrier. That that carrier looked a little something…like this:
I bought the comics, as it turned out I needed them all, and the seller left behind this box when he departed. At first clance, I thought it was a homebad box, as I’ve certainly seen a lot of personally-decorated comic boxes over the decade.
But no, the lettering appears to be printed directiy on the cardboard, which doesn’t preclude someone making one of these for himself, but more likely it’s some kind of mass-produced item. And it’s not official Marvel merchandise, given the lack of copyright notices. Not sure if this really counts as a copyright violation, despite the phrase “Amazing Fantasy” appaering, and having a spider dropping from the name “Peter,” which must be some kind of look ‘n’ feel thing.
Anyway, no idea where this comes from. I’d be very surprised if this was an Official Spider-Man Item™, but if you know where this came from, let me know!
So the other day I had a gentlemen bring in this item to see if I’d like to sell it on consignment. I was kinda busy at that moment but I said I’d do some research and see what they were selling for online.
As it turns out, they weren’t selling at high enough prices for his liking (around $60 to $80) so he passed, but I still have these photos I took for reference:
This is one of the Super Heroes watches you used to see advertised all the time in 1970s comic books. This particular example, a Superman watch, is dated 1977.
Here’s a better look at the watch face:
This is actually the first one of these I’d ever seen in person…well, okay, maybe I saw someone wearing one at some point and didn’t realize it, but this is definitely the first time I’d seen one in the original packaging. Kind of a strange feeling to see the actual physical object that I’d seen advertised countless times in all the comics I’ve read. Nice to know there’s still weird stuff I’ve not seen yet even after 31 years in the business.
So please let me know if you’d like me to put in orders to Pacific Coast Distributors for you on any of these items from their August 1984 catalog (click to expand):
“Any room,” you say? I say every room! Redecorate the interior of your house solely with mighty Marvel banners!
I remember seeing these banners around the old shop back when I was but a mere customr, and then eventually selling the last two or three still languishing about the backroom when I was doing the eBay thing for that same shop a couple of decades later. The one I remember specifically is that Alpha Flight pennant. I bet that Spider-Man one will still sell great today.
Now these things:
…Sure, it’s a little more common knowledge nowadays who the “X-Men” are* but I can only imagine how the mundanes reacted to the whole “Mutant Maniac” thing. …By the way, do people still refer to non-nerdy folk as “mundanes” or is everybody too infected with nerdiness now to be separated out? Gobble gobble one of us, and all that.
When discussing these on the Twitters pal Andrew noted that his younger brother still had a “Follow Me to the Secret Wars” bumper sticker on this car. As I said to Andrew, given its current non-awareness by the general public, I can imagine the uninitiated seeing that and thinking it’s some kind of political statement or somesuch. Or, like, some conspiracy-minded talk radio thing. It can serve multiple purposes!
And I was serious about the subject line. That Doctor Doom sticker needs to make its comeback, especially if this image of ol’ Vic were used on it:
* A story I’ve told before, but worth repeating: one of my earliest experiences in comics retail was, sometime in the late 1980s, someone calling the shop alarmed that these X-Men books she just heard about were “X-rated,” hence the name. “No, lady,” I replied, “the 1990s aren’t here yet.”
I am told I should have no reason to worry.
…in one of my “End of Civilization” posts, but this here is a gen-you-eene Walking Dead Axe replica offered through Previews:
“Go after the zombies with this axe replica from the hit television series, The Walking Dead!”
“Zombies,” nuthin’. At $6.99 a pop, these are cheap enough to arm every kid in the neighborhood with one, and watch as passerby realize that oh good gravy, all the children are chasing each other around with bloody axes! Let’s get out here, Mabel!
Anyway, it’s a bit nutty, but not nearly as crazy as this, if only because there’s a greater chance of getting nearly seven bucks’ worth of entertainment out of a fake axe.
You’re welcome.
I know which I’m choosing!
I have this package here that showed up in some collection or ‘nother of Marvel Stamps (as seen here):
…that contains several uncut sheets of said stamps. Since each package is supposed to only contain 10 stamps, plus one “special stamp,” obviously this package was only kept to store the stamps. Why the original owner didn’t go out “get [his] own Marvel Stamp Album,” as is blurbed on the back, I do not know.
Below are the five “special stamps” that this person had…they are normally sort of a shiny gold-ish color, but they didn’t scan all that well. Or rather, I didn’t scan them all that well. Should probably look at the scanner’s instruction book one of these days.
I like how the Hulk stamp looks as if they just threw that “Bruce Banner” above the Hulk’s head to fill space. “You know what would complete this design? If someone would hastily scrawl ‘Bruce Banner’ in this blank space here. …
Perfect!”
Your Spider Sense is telling you…what? There’s a spider above your head?
The FF stamp is a little scuffed-up, and required some brightness/contrast adjusting, but hopefully you can make it out just fine. I guess…the Thing is hitting giant baseballs emblazoned with the faces of the other Fantastic Four members? “What If…Marvel Published
Strange Sports Stories?”
I’ve got nothing snarky to say here. That’s actually not a bad pic. Well,
none of these are really bad pics, but I thought this Cap stamp was quite nice, even with “AVENGER” scribbled in there at the side.
Now I know “The Invincible Shellhead” is just combining two of Iron Man’s most common descriptors, but man, that just doesn’t look right to me.
Anyway, the package says there are six “special stamps,” but I have only five here. And yeah, I know what the sixth stamp really is…
…but a boy can dream, can’t he?
§ April 2nd, 2008 § Filed under merchandise Comments Off on Found in the back room.
This is an ersatz animation cel featuring Rob Liefeld’s character of Chapel, dated 1997, that we received for, I don’t know, ordering a certain number of comics (i.e. “any”) published by Awesome, or something like that. It’s just an image, with logos, printed directly on a clear plastic sheet.
I don’t think there ever was a Youngblood cartoon released…there’s no IMDB entry, though there are several references to a Youngblood cartoon being planned, here and there on the ‘net. This site [link dead] has images of what look like actual production cels, not (apparently) mass-produced like our Chapel “cel.”
While I was looking around for more info, I came across the Wikipedia entry for the Youngblood comic book, which included this note at the top of the page:
Sometimes, the jokes just write themselves.
EDIT 4/1/2017: Okay, it doesn’t say that anymore…now it’s “needs verification” or whatever, which isn’t nearly as amusing.
(post updated 4/2018)
“Hi! I’m the
Life-Sized Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite statue…some of you longtime readers of this site may recall Mike, the proprietor of this site, referring to me as the Nerdiest Object Ever.
“However, Mike, while perusing the fine Bedazzled weblog, was introduced to a possible competitor for my hard-earned title…
“…life-sized replicas of the Robot from Lost in Space.
“There is one very important difference between the Robot replica and myself — a difference that allows me to keep the Nerdiest Object Ever crown — and that difference is features.
“The Robot can actually do stuff. Parts of the robot are animated, and it comes with a built-in sound library, with soundbites from Richard Tufeld, the Robot’s original voice. And, apparently, for an additional fee, you can get custom recordings from Tufeld as well.
“There is also a stereo input, so you can connect an external sound source and use the Robot as the world’s most elaborate speaker system.
“What can I do? I can lean against a wall. Or be hung on a wall. I also come with a plaque that reads ‘HAN SOLO IN CARBONITE’ in case there’s any question about what I am. I also come with one of those Certificates of Authenticity that don’t really mean anything. I mean, what, someone’s gonna forge a copy of me? C’mon.
“So, if you buy me, you get…me. A life-sized replica of Han Solo. Frozen in carbonite. I have no animated parts, no audio jacks. I just sit there and look at you. Well, grimace in pain at you, anyway. I only exist so that a Star Wars fan can own me, look at me, and think ‘hey, I own something that looks like something from Star Wars!’
“And there you have it…the Lost in Space Robot replica is still not the Nerdiest Object Ever, since it has a function, however limited, beyond just being a fetishistic reminder of a piece of popular entertainment.
“Many try to take the title, but none ever surpass me. Such is my blessing — and my curse — as the Nerdiest Object Ever.”
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