Hake's Shopping Spree Auction Results....

So a few weeks ago the assignment from the League was to take an imaginary shopping spree at the online auction site Hake's. We were to imagine we had VERY deep pockets and "buy" as much as we wanted. Well being a huge Super Powers fan I wasn't greedy....I just wanted a few little items.

Here is a link to the original post for the League.

Item 1 - Tower of Darkness Prototype

At the time of the original League post, this item had only one bid and was $550.00 dollars. It closed for a whopping $3,858.25 receiving 20 bids! I figured this would go high and was not surprised. It's very rare and from a playset that never made it to production. Whoever was lucky enough to end up with it sure has quite an item to add to their collection.

Item 2 - Kalibak Prototype

At the time of the original post this item was at $200.00 with no bids. It closed for an astounding $2,163.15 receiving 14 bids. This one totally blew me away in terms of closing price. Kalibak isn't a very popular character and still reached that price. Makes me wonder what a Superman or Batman would go for!

Item 3 - My final choice was a wax prototype of Parademon

At the time of the original post this was $150.00 with 1 bid. It closed at $3,700.13 with 21 bids! I was the most surprised by this item. I guess it went so high due to it being a wax model. I'm not positive, but I believe the wax model represents one of the earliest stages of development for a new figure. This certainly drove the demand and interest in my opinion.

So that's that for my imaginary shopping spree. At those prices, my dreams are the only place I could own these items!

Total for all three: $9,721.53

Congratulations to whoever scored these amazing pieces of Super Powers history!

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers - Young Love!

This week's assignment from the League finds me in a great mood and excited for this awesome topic. I'm off all week for Spring Break and love that I have essentially no plans and can spend my days as I so desire (you may or may not remember days like that were mentioned in my "Loves" blog for that assignment!). 

This week's assignment is:

"When I was a kid, my favorite_______were________"

Here goes....When I was a kid, my favorite toys were action figures especially.....Super Powers!

Anyone who reads this blog probably knows that I am an avid collector of action figures, especially the Super Powers Collection. They were my favorite toys as a kid and have some my favorite childhood memories attached to them! I figured a fun way to show my love for these toys would be a quick walk down memory lane with some old school 80s photos of yours truly!

 Here I am with my Castle Grayskull and a heap of Masters of the Universe Toys. I love the old school Phillies hat I'm rockin!

My big brother and I playing Masters of the Universe. I, of course, am Skeletor. I guess Big Brothers always get to be the good guy....but by the looks of the photo, I didn't seem to mind much =)

Me and my brother (left and right) with two friends. In this picture you can spot a Lion-O, Skeletor, an unidentified figure on the couch, and a Super Powers Batman on the floor on the right in the background. Some 80s heavy hitters right there!

He-Man toothbrush set. I actually remember posing for this picture.

This is one of my all time favorite photos of my brother and I. Our outfits are ridiculous (Easter 1987) and we have Super Hero shades on. In those plastic cases are Muscle Men like the ones Brian used in his banner for the week's assignment. Loved those things!

I couldn't find any photos of me with my Voltron toys, but I did find this! Halloween (probably 1986). I'm in blue. I love my friend Josh's G.I. Joe outfit, awesome!

Here I am holding one of those old school rubber wrestlers. We had a bunch of those and the ring to play with them in!

My brother had some sort of career day thing at his school which explains the construction worker outfit. On the bottom right you can see our Hall of Justice playset from the Super Powers collection!

Finally, here I am with my Super Powers Joker. My mom arranged for us to pose for our Christmas card 1985, and I refused to put this guy down. Mom was none too pleased. Now, years later, it's a funny story and a great picture!

 This picture represents the four surviving toys from my childhood. I moved a lot as a kid and unfortunately most of my toys were lost. I could say it's a shame that I don't have more, but instead, I'll approach it from a "glass half full" point of view and simply say I'm thrilled to have these.

I love action figures! It's been a life long love affair for me that I suspect will continue for the long haul.....So that's it for me.  I hope you enjoyed seeing some old school 80s pictures. I know I do.

Posting all these photos reminds me how awesome it was growing up with a big brother so close in age. Man we had fun!  

For more Childhood loves check out these posts from around the League.....
This thing is sweet
Crooked Ninja Turtle Gang loved the X-Men
Pop Rewind loved Ren and Stimpy among other things...
Achievements in Gaming loved his bike


For more info on the League scope out Cool and Collected

New 52 Flash by Kotobukiya

Here we have Kotobukiya's New 52 Flash statue. This is number 3/7 from the Justice League collection. The remaining four figures will be released monthly until the set is complete. I personally can't wait for Batman in June....but this one is pretty awesome too!

 

The metallic paint looks incredible on these statues.

Decent packaging if you'd prefer to keep yours mint in box.

For me, however, I'll be displaying mine opened. They look great together. The characters and their colors really compliment the others so well.

They already look beautiful together. I'm looking forward to completing the set. If you're a fan of these characters I'd highly recommend adding these to your collection!

League of Extraordinary Bloggers - Guilty Pleasures....

The League has spoken, this week it's "Guilty Pleasures"

Upon reading this week's assignment the first thing that popped into my mind was Xbox. Now don't get me wrong...it's not the Xbox I'm guilty about, it's the achievements....all 7,328 of em!

So, yeah, above is a screen grab of my gamer card on Xbox 360. Yes, I have over 170,000 gamerscore, and yes, I have a Bengay gamer pic. 

I can remember very vividly the game that started my achievement obsession. It was LEGO Indiana Jones:The Original Adventures. I was all finished the game and really enjoyed it. This music was, of course, awesome and the game play was fun. I decided to try to get a few more of those achievements.....the rest, as they say, is history.

This basically set off a chain of events that lead to my playing and completing(obtaining all achievements) 171 full retail games and 55 arcade games. I did, however, make some cool friends on Xbox who also shared my love of completing games and unlocking achievements. The friendships would be the positive to come from all my gamerscore chasing. The hours wasted would explain the "guilty" part.

Above are just a few of the more difficult completions on my gamercard. Especially Gears of War 3 with the achievement Seriously 3.0. Which took months to attain and is sort of what snapped me out of my obsession for achievments.

I've also completed some of the hardest games (including Halo 4) on the hardest settings.

Being relatively newly wed this guilty pleasure has tapered off over the last few months. I do still enjoy playing Xbox but have toned down my gaming time considerably. I stick to only the games that interest me the most and no longer obsess over completing them all!

"My name is Rich....and I'm a recovering gamerscore addict!"

As far as any other guilty pleasure here's a quick list:
1. Ewok Adventure : Caravan of Courage

2. Vanilla Sky and its amazing soundtrack (love the below scene! So poignant)

3. Muppet Songs....especially this one....

....and this one.....(this video is so powerful)

4. Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile

5. Harrison Ford movies (Especially Regarding Henry)

So those are all the beans I'm willing to spill today.....for more guilty pleasures check out these posts from around the league......

Underscoopfire watches Joey

Calvin plays with dolls =)

ShezCrafti loves her some Ace of Base

The Goodwill Geek has many guilty pleasures

For the rest of the League's guilty pleasures head on over to Cool and Collected

Toy Spotlight - TMNT Battle Shells

Came across these while browsing at my local collectible shop. Battle Shell Ninja Turtles. These are roughly twice the size of the regular actions figures and very neat. They come with many weapons which can be stored in or on their shells. Hence the name "Battle Shells". I managed to resist the temptation to slap down $80 bucks for the set and instead snapped this picture =)

Holy Batmobile Batman!!!

Iconic Picture Spotlight - Raiders of the Lost Ark

Been a few weeks since I added one of these. Couldn't think of a better way to get them going again......

Make Up Assignment - "Show Me the Green"

So the current week's assignment is "Seeing Red", in months past one of the assignments was "Show Me the Green". Since I missed that one by several months I figured, in the spirit of this week's color themed assignment, I'd throw together a quick grouping of some of my favorite "green themed" items.

From the left: Super Powers 3rd series Green Arrow, Yoda statue, Canadian Slim Card Green Lantern, Kotobukiya ArtFx New 52 Green Lantern, Super Amigos Riddler (El Ocertijo), Happy Meal Frankenstein Toy, Slimer exclusive figure.

League of Extraordinary Bloggers - Seeing Red!

It's Monday and that means another assignment for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers! 

This week "We're seeing red!"

Upon returning home from work I cleared a shelf and got to work creating a display that I felt fit the bill!

Starting on the left: Kotobukiya's ArtFx New 52 Superman, Jim Lee's Iconic Superman 204 cover, and a Superman statue modeled after Jim Lee's art.

You didn't think I'd leave out the Super Powers didya? 1st Series 12 Back Flash (Scarlet Speedster),  Canadian slim carded Red Tornado and Superman, Captain Marvel (Shazam)

From the left: Vintage Lion-O and Snarf, Bowen Spiderman bust, LEGO Judge, Mini Clown, Santa, and Pirate mini figures from various series, Burger King Darth Maul toy, Gentle Giant Royal Guard, and Vintage B-Wing pilot. In the back is a copy of Superman vs. Spiderman based on this comic's cover.

I really enjoyed the photo assignment. Upon first reading this I was worried I wouldn't have much "red" to be seen, but once in the man cave the items started piling up!

Here's a link to "make up" assignment that I missed. "Show me the green!"

More crimson coolness from the League to come.....

Flashlights are Something to Eat's post here

Toy Spotlight - Super Powers Batmobile

This awesome toy was released in the first wave of the Super Powers Collection by Kenner in 1984.

It was a great looking toy that certainly took some inspiration from the 1966 Batmobile. I especially like how they made the car itself resemble Batman. 

Like all the figures in the line, this toy had power actions. As seen in the photo above it had a battering ram in the front and villain catcher in the back that could be engaged using a switches in the cockpit. 

This is most certainly one of my favorite toys from childhood. Excited to finally have it in my collection!

"He took the car........the OTHER car.......!"

League of Extraordinary Bloggers - Shopping Spree

So the League has spoken. This week it's:

"You have very deep pockets but your shelves are bare. Go on a shopping spree at Hake’s to make your place a little more awesome."

Normally this would be great, carefree fun. Going on an imaginary shopping spree, adding cool vintage items with loads of money to spend....except for one thing....Hake's currently has one of the Super Powers line's HOLIEST of  Holy Grails up for auction. A prototype of Darkseid's head from the unproduced Tower of Darkness play-set. This represents one of the rarest and coolest pieces for most Super Powers collectors.

This is one of the few Towers out there. A truly incredible playset that most Super Powers fans wish made it to production.

This is the prototype mold of Darkseid's head up for auction at Hake's. Totally amazing and unique. I would absolutely love to have this in my collection. Needless to say this would be one of my purchases from the recent auctions if I had loads of cash to sling around!

Hake's didn't stop there with the Super Powers pre-production goodness. Above is a prototype of the second series villain Kaibak. He isn't a very well known character.Kalibak is often overlooked in the line. That being said, pre production stuff is rare and unique and I'd love it in my collection.

For the final purchase with my deep pockets, I'd add (you guessed it) another Super Powers item. This is a wax master sculpt of another second series villain, the Parademon. Another rare and certainly unique piece of Super Power's history.

I'm gonna go ahead and cut my shopping spree off there. I don't think I can torture myself any more with these awesome pieces that I know will never grace my shelves. I do really love my collection though and appreciate how many cool and rare pieces I do have. In this hobby you have to learn to be satisfied with what you have or you'll be flat broke, FAST!

On the subject of being happy with what I have, I do have some pre production Super Powers stuff...

Superman and Batman unpainted first shot heads in non production colors.

First series "Free Poster Offer" back of the card cromalin. These were used to make changes to the card before they were produced. Anyway, I'm thrilled to have these in my collection.

For more League drooling be sure to scope out these other posts.....

Reis is eying an interesting item over at The Lair of the Dork Horde

Shawn over at Branded in the 80s is also after some neat pre-production stuff.

The Robot's Pajamas picked one of my grails from childhood that I never had.....the Dino Riders T'Rex (so freakin awesome!)

For the rest of the posts to come head to Cool and Collected