My latest obsessions...

I thought I would do a top 10 list of the things I am actively trying to collect lately..

1. SUPER POWERS- I have Superman restored so he is checked off.  Now I gotta get the others.  I prefer incompletes as I can restore them myself and are usually cheaper.

2. SECRET WARS FIGURES- the two go hand in hand right?  I already have Hobgoblin so he is crossed off the list.  I would love Dr. Doom and Magneto because I am imagining putting capes on them and making them my version of complete.

3.STAR WARS AND REACTION- I am more focused on Star Wars than reaction right now for sure.  I feel I must collect the old stuff before I even start on the new.  I have a few figures but it is only 15 or so thanks to BuzzChuck!  I am not even interested in ROTJ stuff.  Only the first two movies will do for me.  God would I love an Alien and a Wampa...

4. BATMAN ANIMATED- I have Croc, Phantasm, Joker, and Mad Hatter but that is only scratching the surface.  They released alot that I didn't know about back in the day.

5. THESE 3 MEGOS-  I never had many but I had these three in the past.  There was a blurb on the Mego Museum forums that soon figsinc. will be persuing the Marvel License.  I can only hope for reissues of these!  I would almost want naked Megos to restore them.  It is so much more fun.

6. HALLOWEEN GURLEY CANDLE SKULL- the one on the left.  THAT WAS halloween to me as a kid.  I gotta have it for the Monster Cafe one day.

7. IMAGINEERING VAMPIRE BLOOD BOTTLE-  This was another favorite of mine in my warped childhood.  All I want is the bottle.  It can be empty for all I care.  But at $75 on Ebay I will be in for a long wait.

8. GI JOE PLAYSETS- from 1982-1986.  I for some reason do not even want the figures. I just thought the playsets were cooler.  I have the APC but that is it.  Gotta get my joes back.  Especially this one the Outpost Defender.  This was SO cool!

9. AMAZING SPIDERMAN 200-250- Those were my Spidey issues.  I have 224 and 232 so they are out....But the others scream my childhood to me.

10. WINNIE THE POOH LAMP- This lamp was by my bedside to keep the monsters away when I was a kid.  I will always look on it fondly and will own one one day.  Besides the lamp I currently have SUCKS!  I have to use pliers to turn it off.

REMCO MUMMY PART ONE!

YES!  Finally found a Remco 8 inch Mummy!

 Look at him.  Like he is singing Al Jolson's Mammy!

Yup...He is naked as the day as he was born.  Looks like I will have to restore him as I already did Franky and Drac... But so glad I have one now!  Only the Remco Wolfman eludes me.

Part 2 will be the restoration one day!

I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF!

Yup.  I have four Madea movies and NOW I have 5!  Finally!  Wifey and I loved this movie and even cried in it.  Tyler Perry is one mean film maker.  So good!  I think all people should see his stuff to learn how to treat others and live well.  We ordered Madea's Big Happy Family next.  Cannot wait to see what transpires!

RESTORED GABRIEL LONE RANGER!

So I got this guy for a good buy.  SO happy he had his boots and hat.  But I still was not happy because his outfit was torn.  He had no guns either..or mask....

So I put my two artists to work and....

Giddy up!  Rose sewed the outfit and Raymundo did the mask and guns out of resin.  So awesome!  To me he is complete now.  I have no desire for the other characters just this one.  This satisfies my Lone Ranger fix now.

ESSENTIAL AMAZING SPIDERMAN 8

This was right before I started reading comics so I suppose they still count.

I really want volumes 9, 10, and 11 more than this one...But this is the only one available at the time.

PULGAS PICKUPS!

I was pretty excited to have these.  I found these at the pulgas or flea market some weeks ago.

A lanard wetsuit soldier guy, Egyptian Catwoman, and a frickin Fisher Price guy!  My first in over 30 years.  I never owned the other two.  I think I will rename Egyptian Catwoman to....What is the name of that hairless Egyption cat?

FANGORIA FROM COVER TO COVER!

I have been emailing Fangoria to release a book kind of like Marvel Essentials for around a decade now.  I really wanted all of that good material in volumes.  They have ignored me....Till now!

Well not exactly...But it is in the right direction for sure!  I think every Fangoria cover will be featured here in all it's glory!  My friend Eric Hershberg got me into Fangoria around 1982 or so.  My first issue was this one...

And since I was already Friday the 13th part 2 crazy it worked out well.  I am dying to get this.  But as usual since I am so cheap I will probably wait a year or so for the price to come down.

Pretty cool huh for those Fangoria peeps out there!

RESTORED AHI BATMAN AND ROBIN

Remember when I got some OLD 1974 AHI Batman, Robin and Joker figures?  No?  Well I do.  I had my artist restore them properly.  They were both missing their capes and symbols.

I enjoyed doing this.  I hope to find some naked Super Powers and redo their capes as well.  I love restoring toys that no one wants but me.  These AHI's are exactly what I had as a kid and now they look brand new.

YOU HAVE 20 SECONDS TO COMPLY!

When I was in college my friend Stephen Johnson grabbed a few of us students and introduced us to the TSR Marvel Superheroes role playing game.  Similar to Dungeons and Dragons but BETTER because hell it had Marvel Superheroes!

Clayton, myself, Stephen, and Chris loved playing it.  Stephen was dungeon master or Marvel master whatever and he didn't beat us up too badly.  He did however introduce a new villain which I always loved.  He called them Hunter/Killers.  I know he was ripping off the Terminator flying robot vehicles but I didn't care.  He also ripped off Robocop's Ed-209.

He called them Hunter Killers!  Robots that looked exactly like ED-209's but could fly AND project a ray that eliminated mutant powers!  Sentinels were pansy asses compared to these things.  How do you fight them when you have no powers and they have those powerful guns like in Robocop?  You don't.  You die.

So I found TWO ED-260's!  Weird they both have different colors but man...They will be used with a new name...to combat my Marvel Universe figures.  I cannot wait to get playing.  BUT after my artist reapplies the decals to them.  Aren't they cool?  And I have TWO!  WHOOOO!

1996 MARVEL UNIVERSE THE BOOK!

Oxford book store before it closed had this puppy in it's book section.  Well thanks to Amazon, it is apart of my collection once again.

 It is an amazingly thick book chocked full of information.  From Marvel's early days to right up to 1996.  This book used to cost $50 when it first came out.  I got it for $7!

Look at all that Marvel goodness inside!
"Marvel Universe" is the companion volume to "Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics," but I did not read that volume so I am looking at the volume introducing the superheroes and supervillains of Marvel Comics. Unlike the other volume, which looked at the history of Marvel Comics decade by decade, author Peter Sanderson takes a more thematic approach, although there is a semblance of chronology involved in the order, beginning with the Fantastic Four, the comic book that effectively created Marvel Comics, and ending with the X-Men, the most popular series of today (comics like "Conan the Barbarian" therefore fall outside the scope of the "Mravel Universe"). Specifically the eight chapters divide the Marvel Universe as follows:
1. The Fantastic Four: Marvel's First Family, begins with the working relationship of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, relates the origin of the FF, focuses on the compelling character drama of the Thing, and the group's main villain Dr. Doom. After covering some of the FF's epic adventures, including the first confrontation with Galactus and the Silver Surfer, the chapter looks at some of the heroes that were created in the comic such as the Black Panther and the Inhumans.
2. The Antiheroes: Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, and Hulk looks at how two Silver Age heroes were updated for the modern era but focuses primarily on old Greenskin, including the pivotal issue #140 written by Harlan Ellison.
3. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man looks at Marvel's most popular superhero, drawn originally by Steve Ditko. This chapter covers the problems of a teenage superhero, his remorse over Uncle Ben's death, and the supporting cast, as well as the darker vision of Spider-Man brought to the comic by Todd McFarlane. Special consideration is given to the "Kraven's Last Hunt" storyline and "The Death of Aunt May" issue.
4. Avengers Assemble! covers not only Marvel's answer to the Justice League of America as a group, but the individual comic books of Captain America, Henry Pym and the Wasp, Iron Man, Hawkeye and the Black Widow, the Mighty Thor, the Vision, Wonder Man, and even the Black Knight (so you know they have covered pretty much everybody).
5. Strange Tales: Heroes of the Supernatural covers a lot of ground as well with Doctor Strange, Dracula, The Man-Thing, Howard the Duck, Ghost Rider, and other Marvel monsters.
6. Protectors of the Universe is mostly about aliens such as Captain Mar-vel, the Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock, and Nova. Also covered are such diverse comics as "Power Pack," Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell's "Killraven," and Jack Kirby's last comic creations.
7. Vigilantes and Lawmen starts with Daredevil and the Electra Saga, continues with Nick Fury (both with his Holwing Commandos and as an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and ends with the Punisher.
8. Mutantis Mutandis: The X-Men begins with the original X-Men and Magneto, through the Second Genesis and the Dark Phoenix saga, the ascendancy of Wolverine, to the proliferation of mutants in Alpha Flight, Excalibur, X-Force, and Generation X. Artists Neal Adams, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Rob Liefeld are featured in this section.
My test case for evaluating this volume was the section of Tomb of Dracula (146-48) a minor cult hit all things considered but one of the best comic books I have ever read. Sanderson agrees with the verdict, praising writer Marv Wolfman, penciller Gene Colan, and inker Tom Palmer for their skilled delineation of character. After a concise description of the cast of characters and their complex relationships, there is a description of the choice story line where a character (purporting to be) Dracula, removed his vampire powers. I would have liked to have seen a reference of Dr. Sun, and the comics wonderful sense of pacing, but this was a decent synopsis.
The key thing to remember her is that Sanderson is juggling a lot of balls. He needs to not only describe the history of each comic book along with the key characters and villains, but also try to work in an appreciation of great artists from Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko to John Byrne and Todd McFarlane, along with some of the key issues and storylines. So I was quite impressed when Sanderson worked in Days of Future Past from X-Men #141 and the Silver Dagger story line in Doctor Strange.
For that matter, I was also impressed that Sanderson worked in some of the most memorable PANELS from these comics: Jack Kirby showing Doctor Doom stripping the Silver Surfer's powers from FF#57, Steve Ditko's Spider-Man struggling free in ASM#33, and John Byrne's shot of Mangeto from X-Men #111. Yes, you can quibble over the details in terms of what was included and omitted, and certainly there is a better way to reproduce comic art than photocopying it or whatever, but Sanderson gets credit for covering a lot of ground and for showing a clear sense of appreciation and affection for these comic books. That is what tips the scales for me in the end.
The bottom line would be that Marvel Universe constitutes a nice walk down memory lane for those who remember buying 10 cent copies of these comic books when they were called Marvel Pop Art as well as a nice history lesson for those who have come to the game when Marvel launched Volume 2 for all of its major titles.

MU MYSTERIO!

I became an Amazing Spiderman comic fan back in December 1981 or so.  It was from my friend Robbie Trott who I wish I could find today to thank him.  My first comic was 224 though so my first real Spidey villain reading off the rack was the Vulture.  I continued to read Amazing Spiderman throughout the years but NEVER read a Mysterio story.  He was never in any of the Amazing Spiderman issues from 81 to 1989!

So I really have no fondness for him but he DOES look cool as heck.  I found him down here in ole Saltillo!

Pulled down some green cotton for his effect and WHAMMO!  Great pic if I do say so myself.  I have read past issues mind you and I have watched many episodes featuring him in the original Spiderman cartoon which I have on DVD.