Toy Spotlight - LEGO

No surprise here, another LEGO toy spotlight. I am officially hooked on these blind bagged minifigures. They are releasing some really neat characters and this big kid is having fun collecting and displaying them. The best part is they are pretty cheap so I'm having fun without breaking the bank.

 Some series 9 favorites....

Series 9 was great. It saw the release of some really cool characters. Well series 10 looks like it won't disappoint either. They have released a list of characters and pictures of each. What's extra cool about wave ten is the addition of a 17th character (all previous waves had 16). I supposes it's a way to commemorate the tenth wave....who knows.....but there will be a limited GOLD minifigure included with series 10 that, according to sources, will be limited to 5,000. I will most certainly need to get my hands on one of those!

Iconic Picture Spotlight - Casablanca

Having just watched this the other night with my grandmom (one of my favorite things to do going on 3 decades now) I figured this would be a great scene to spotlight. "Casablanca" is for sure a classic and a great movie. I think I'll start going by Rick from here on out :)

"Louie, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship"

The League Has Spoken - Collectibles of Tomorrow

"What do you think will be a hot “collectible of tomorrow?” "

This is a really tough questions in my opinion. It's tough to know what will be collectible and why. Take for example the "Django Unchained" toys. In a weeks time they went from 40 bucks to 400 and more depending on the character!

I wish I bought like 10 cases of these!

Anyway, like I was saying, predicting what will be collectible and valuable is extremely difficult. The stuff these days that attracts big money were things that most people didn't think were collectible. Now everything that comes out is "collectible". Much of it is sold on websites to "adult collectors". Name me one 80s toy marketed to adult collectors!

With that all said I'm going to do my best to predict the hottest eBay listings of 2033!

Most people in the collecting hobby are familiar with these toys. "Hot Toys" make 12 inch figures. Big deal you say, lots of companies make 12 inch figures....well they don't make em like Hot Toys.

When I first saw this figure, having not known much about Hot Toys at the time, I thought it was actually Reeves himself!

As you can see in the picture above, Hot Toys makes some of the most detailed and lifelike figures I have ever seen. They have an uncanny ability of capturing the appearance of the character they are creating.

Just amazing!

These figures already go for $250-400 and more. I'm willing to guess that these will remain highly collectible, and will stand the test of time. Especially examples that remain mint in box and unopened. I could easily imagine these going well into the 1000s of dollars in the future.

Hot Toys has tons of licenses as well. So expect them to continue to crank out many of your favorite characters, ones that will be popular and desirable to years to come.

As far as other stuff that I think will be collectible. I have to say the Lego minifigures that are currently being released in blind bags one series at a time. Some of the earlier series are already going for close to double. And Lego is another company I suspect will be around for years to come. Especially with all the licenses they have and their popular video games.

Series 1 Blind Bag Figures. That zombie one already goes for upwards of 20 bucks!

I suppose Harry Potter stuff will probably have some value at some point. Kids totally love those movies and I'm sure they will be a huge part of their nostalgia when they are older and want to recapture their youth!  I don't know what those items will be though. Perhaps toys, the books themselves....who knows!

I also think items relating to some popular characters like the Assassins from Assassin's Creed and Master Chief will some day be sought after as well.

So that's it for me. I could probably sit here all day adding stuff to this list. I guess only time will tell!

"The flux capacitor....it's what makes time travel possible".......can I haz?

Toy Spotlight - Man of Steel

As you can imagine the Man of Steel merchandise is slowly but surely beginning to roll out in anticipation of the movie's release this spring. This weekend these images were released of some pretty incredible looking action figures, a Lego playset, and some pretty lolzy Funko figures.

This figure looks pretty sweet. I personally dig the new costume and they absolutely nailed Henry Cavill's features in this face sculpt. 

They did Russell Crowe proud with this amazing likeness of him portraying Jor-El, Superman's Kryptonian father.

A pretty sweet looking General Zod figure. I'm stoked that they chose him as the first villain to launch this new franchise. Superman needs a formidable foe, one who can match his great powers. Don't get me wrong, I love Lex Luthor....but this will definitely freshen things up a bit! So psyched for this movie!

These Funkos are really fun takes on so many iconic characters. They once again nailed it with these two.

Finally, they have also released this picture showing an upcoming Man of Steel Lego set.

Anyone who has been reading my blog lately knows that I really enjoy Lego, especially the minifigures. This set looks like it will be a cost friendly way to score the two main minfigures from this movie!

 

For now that's it. But I'm sure as the movie's release gets closer more and more Man of Steel  merchandise will continue to pop up. I really like those action figures but probably won't end up with any. With all the awesome stuff set to come out it is tough to decide what to collect and what to pass on. I'm still on the fence with the Star Wars Black Series. All this stuff just looks so awesome......I digress.

"Not God......Zod!!!"

Nerd Nook Newbies

Hey all, welcome to another edition of Nerd Nook Newbies!

This week was a big one for my Super Powers collection. I kind of strayed off for a while grabbing items that were nostalgic or stuff I loved as a kid. I have decided I need to streamline the collection and have begun to once again focus on my favorite collection, Super Powers!

 

Before I start showing my new additions I want to provide a quick bit of inofrmation. Super Powers were made and sold by Kenner. The company responsible for such beloved lines as Star Wars and Real Ghostbusters. Kenner produced 3 series of figures from 1984-1986. Later in the 80s and early 90s other foreign companies also produced Super Powers/Amigos/Poderes/Heroes figures. Many collectors of the Super Powers line (myself included) enjoy adding these foreign items to their collections. Some are rarer than others but, in my opinion, they all add some spice and diversity to an already awesome line of figures!

Newbie #1 - El Guason (The Joker)

Here we have the Super Amigos version of The Joker. This figure was made by the Playful toy company from Argentina. Notable differences between their US counterparts would be the Playful brand, Spanish super power bubble, Amigos in place of Powers, Guason in place of Joker, no free comic. Unfortunately the postal service decided to bounce this package around like a basketball causing some damage to the bubble. Still a very cool and rare item. Hopefully the insurance takes some of the sting out the damage done....

On the right is a 1985, Kenner series 2, 23 back Joker

Newbie #2 - Joker Cromalin

I'll be sticking with Joker related items for the next two newbies. The above image is of a Joker cromalin from the first series. This is basically a super high quality picture of the cardback. It was used to make changes and corrections before the carbacks were produced. These are pretty rare and I'm thrilled to have scored a pre production piece relating to my favorite Batman villan!

Newbie #3 - Super Amigos Green Lantern/Joker Miscard

This is another foreign Super Amigos figure by Playful. This is a Green Lantern figure on a Joker cardback. This is my second miscard. These add an interesting spin to the collection.

Here's a comparison of the Super Powers Green Lantern (left) and Super Amigos (right). The US Green Lantern was a much lighter/brighter shade of green. The materials on a whole used by many of the foreign companies were quite inferior when compared to the Kenner figures and packaging.

Newbie #4 - Super Amigos Aquaman

Yet another Super Amigos figure by Playful. Like I said, big week for my foreign collection!

The figure on the right is a 1985 Kenner, 23 back Aquaman

Newbie #5 - Pacipa Lex Luthor

Pacipa was another toy company out of Argentina that produced Super Amigos figures. This is a rather rough example condition wise. But for my own collection, I put aside condition when it comes to many foreign figures due to rarity. Often the condition is worse in foreign figures due to the poor quality of the materials used for the bubbles and figures themselves.

That does it for my Super Powers/Amigos additions. I'm pretty excited about these new foreign figures. I really do enjoy adding them whenever I can.

Newbie #6 - Knickerbocker Lord of the Rings Gollum

I did manage to add one non Super Powers item this week. Gollum represents the third figure for me from the Knickerbocker collection.

So that wraps up a very Argentinian Nerd Nook Newbies. Hopefully over the course of this year I'll be able to add some more foreign items to my Super Powers collections.

"My precious!" - Me gazing on my updated Super Powers display...lol

 

80s Spotlight - Denver the Last Dinosaur

I totally loved this show when I was a kid. I grew up reading dinosaur books, watching dinosaur shows, building dinosaur skeletons, drawing dinosaurs, playing dinosaurs....you get the point. So needless to say when this show aired I was hooked!

"He's my friend and a whole lot more!"

It's Groundhog Day!

One of Bill Murray's finest in my opinion!

"Phil.....Phil Connors!?!"