MacrossMania

Fruit bowls were 5.99 at the grocery store today.  But the toy crack?  Priceless.

On 7/18/2023 at 4:14 PM, Mommar said:

Did you buy the HMR orguss?  How is it?

On 7/12/2023 at 11:37 PM, Spark-O-Matic said:

That's a high grade and nice!  I hope mine comes back that good, I sent a factory case of them to CAS a few months ago and waiting I'm on them to come back ,  so far I've had mixed thoughts in dealing with grading companies in this hobby & others.  I personally think for me going forward I'll only have things graded in the future if the value is four figures or its really rare.   I've found companies that make custom protectors really inexpensive.

I've also come to the understanding I only need to have one copy of something and I should pass buying duplicates so others can have an opportunities for the having same toy as me. those getting graded I've sent in once back I'm going to just sell them at cost and move on. 

Well I hope you get good grades on those.  I'm glad to see other people taking more steps to grade these.  At the end of the day, that's what I'm really after when it comes to grading.  Preserving the best possible specimens out there - hence, the obsession with grades.  

As far as my 90 is concerned, it will inevitably be eclipsed.  But it's fun game to turn over and over in my mind in the meantime.  Good luck with the grades.

On 9/17/2020 at 7:10 PM, sqidd said:

This makes me miss not getting more of the modern Bandai remakes.  Love that Chunky Monkey goodness and this looks like a great display.  Still to this day, nothing beats the profile of the Chunky Monkey in fighter mode.  What a great toy.

On 4/25/2022 at 6:33 PM, Lolicon said:

Most of my modest valk collection gathered in one spot. 

I need to place an order.  Do you have a web portal???

3 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Lol yeah… I’m all about f rules that are not directly related to general safety. I don’t doubt they are fair about grading. I just don’t care about their grades. More power to people who do though. It’s all good. 

Agree with you on the safety issue.  The comparison to laws and regulations is a little awkward given the rampant abuse over the last several years - all in the name of safety - but all else being equal, its  valid one.

7 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Even if I open, I keep the box for everything. If there was another unique shipping box that it came in, I keep that. I keep boxes for boxes that hold boxes so that I can keep more boxes, lol.

😂I've been laughing so hard at these posts.  First time in a while.  And yea, I have this impulse too.  But that's where the madness has to end for me.  It's also probably why my collection of G1 toys is only good and not great.  I know guys who literally go to the ends of the earth to get items so pristine you wouldn't believe they were even real.  And they are not just a few, but literally hundreds.  I couldn't grasp that level of commitment.  My collection is nice, but definitely not on that level.  So with the box within a box etc.

As far as MOTU, you're just proving my point.  Pretty much anything G1 has that basic awestruck wonder about the boxes.  And again, that's why grading in general has been so important to the industry.  But I understand your gripe about putting your faith in some third party you've never heard of to judge a toy what your own eyes are perfectly capable of doing.  I look at it this way.  Grading is like any other institutional setting, traffic laws, criminal laws, federal regulations.  We all have to at some point agree that those laws are necessary to get by in life, because without them, society begins to buckle and collapse.  Grading isn't necessary in this respect, but it does conjure up the same faith-putting that makes those rules and protocols work for all of us as a society.  In other words (and this isn't a political point), we all have to believe that the laws are applied fairly, judiciously, and objectively.  Otherwise they don't work.  Same with grading.  I choose to believe that AFA is fair, judicious and objective when it comes to its grading criteria and how they are applied.  And all things considered, they've managed to achieve that.  Their integrity in this regard explains why they have become so popular and such a stalwart industry presence.  At the end of the day I put my faith in the process.

Plus, it's also like hearing your favorite song on the radio.  When it comes on, you're excited that there's someone out there in the ether who feels the same way you do about it.  So with grading.  When a spectacular piece comes back with a high grade, it's nice to feel vindicated about your suspicions.  And especially from an important industry actor.  But it takes a certain institutional mindset, and I totally get the impulse to buck the trend and say f*** all that.  Collectors are rebels in general, I think.

11 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Yeah, see I didn’t know about that Kawamori one but that’s an example of why grading doesn’t matter to me. I know what condition my toys are in because I take care of them. I’d take that Kawamori one over your graded one any day, lol! Obviously no offense. 

None taken.  If you ever manage to lay your hands on it then by all means.  And be sure to post some pics of that bad boy when you do.  I'd love to see some detail up close.  But until that happens, I'm going to just continue enjoying the world's highest grade

And as far as the grading goes, I don't think the collecting world is going to feel necessarily bowed by your opinion.  Grading has long since been settled in the collecting world as the signal source of value, quality and durability.  AFA is at the very top of the heap, with secondary players like CAS coming along nicely.  Toys are no different than comic books or coins in that respect.  The only real difference is that the way toys were marketed to the public back in the 80's was with the box itself, which featured innovative and highly inspiring box art.  GI Joe and TFormers are leaders here.  That was probably the first time that the box art played such a pivotal role in the marketing of the toys (aside from the cartoons, which the box art evoked).  And it's a big reason why grading has played such a crucial role in collecting G1 toys.  Make fun of us box collectors if you will, but the presentation of these pieces with the box art front and center is second to none.  You can see why grading has become so important, and why it wasn't for toys past, like tin toy robots, for example, which came in simple boxes.  I'm not worried about the grading aspect.

3 hours ago, Slave IV said:

That is the ultimate of all ultimates. Congrats. I mean it, even though I don’t care about the grade, that right there is the epitome of any collection, imo. The best version of the best toy ever made in the best condition possible. Outstanding!

On paper that's true.  But someone bought a super VF-1S from an old collection of the man himself - Shoji Kawamori.  I believe it was on this website actually.  It was absolutely dead mint, and I mean dead mint.  If AFA was honest with themselves it would easily grade higher than the one I have.  Kawamori knew how to keep his own collection lol

And that is definitely one I'd like to have.  The pedigree alone makes it worth a mint.

The reality is I'll keep this a very long time.  It's a prize piece in my collection and an early example of the stuff I went after.  In all likelihood I'll end up donating it to a Japanese toy museum if I don't sell it.

On 6/30/2023 at 1:35 AM, Slave IV said:

Lol, you know yourself and the collector’s mind well. I have two main regrets in my collecting. One is blowing up my original Millennium Falcon toy with firecrackers when I was in elementary school and the other was passing up on the Unifive Gatchaman God Phoenix set when it first came out and I had it in my fingertips. 

I don’t care too much about graded toys or comics and kinda think those services are silly but if you do have that piece, that’s pretty impressive and you would think it would be good enough for any collector but as you said, it never is. Luckily for me, there is some stuff I really just don’t care enough about to collect and I have been budgeting better since you mentioned that part of it. Right now (and since I saw the first Chunky as a kid), Macross, Marvel and Star Wars are my main weaknesses and those are plenty enough to break my budget without other distractions. 

And yes, I have that piece.  I haven't removed it from the polybag since the day it was shipped to me from Japan.  Years ago now.  But the polybag doesn't really do it justice.

7 hours ago, Slave IV said:

Dude, did we live by and play with each other, lol! Perfect descriptions haha! It was good times back then when kids could easily buy M80s, Bottle Rockets and other ordinance with ease! And yes, you are absolutely right that it took M80s or stronger to actually destroy toys like that. There were some more powerful small firecrackers that could do some damage but when you wanted to be sure the job was done, M80+. That’s what I used to take out the MF. Not to mention the model space shuttle I launched into the air and exploded with a bottle rocket after seeing the Challenger on TV. 

And those poor ants…I waged war on them. Usually they would keep coming but after a bunch of firecrackers in the anthills and they were done. At least not coming back that way again. Flamethrower them with cans of WD-40…some sick stuff when thinking back to it. 

My way of redeeming the MF was getting a few bigger and better MFs over the years and most are still in original shipping boxes. So some of those things I did as a kid definitely led to me thinking I need extras of stuff I really like “just in case”. 

100%  LOL  All of this brings back memories.  I definitely did the WD-40 flamethrower.  Can't tell you how many times we had to take an extra trip to the hardware store because we were mysteriously out of the stuff.  Of course nobody ever notices when WD-40 is gone because it was one of those obscure household items that just kinda hangs out under the kitchen sink with nothing to do.  But rest assured I was tugging at my parents' arms diligently reminding them that they needed another replenishment.

But this, this right here is pure gold: "Not to mention the model space shuttle I launched into the air and exploded with a bottle rocket after seeing the Challenger on TV. "  I can't even begin to match that.  That's awesome. 

On 6/30/2023 at 1:35 AM, Slave IV said:

Lol, you know yourself and the collector’s mind well. I have two main regrets in my collecting. One is blowing up my original Millennium Falcon toy with firecrackers when I was in elementary school and the other was passing up on the Unifive Gatchaman God Phoenix set when it first came out and I had it in my fingertips. 

I don’t care too much about graded toys or comics and kinda think those services are silly but if you do have that piece, that’s pretty impressive and you would think it would be good enough for any collector but as you said, it never is. Luckily for me, there is some stuff I really just don’t care enough about to collect and I have been budgeting better since you mentioned that part of it. Right now (and since I saw the first Chunky as a kid), Macross, Marvel and Star Wars are my main weaknesses and those are plenty enough to break my budget without other distractions. 

"One is blowing up my original Millennium Falcon toy with firecrackers when I was in elementary school" ~ LOL I had a Dreadnock Thunder Machine as a kid and blew it up with an M80 once.  Let me just say that was opened.  Cracked it in half like an egg.  Actually what I did was graduate to an M80 from progressively bigger and bigger firecrackers.  None of them worked.  Just blew off the doors, which on that model was fairly easy to do without breaking anything.  But the M80?  Whew boy.  Tore it right apart. 

Still remember it to this day.  I was whiling away the days on a secluded beach in Baja California.  Went down there with a friend and his mom who invited me to a little hut they owned.  At night you could hear the footsteps of wild coyotes stalking the place.  The footfalls of their padded feet could be heard just outside the windows, and I wondered what wild dog lay just beyond.  The nights were still.  The occasional rustling of grasses.  The moonlight filled the sky with ribbons of light that seemed to flow into eternity, spreading all of Christendom with hope.  And the days, when they came, were endless.  Time generously lapped against you like the gentle waves of the sunlit waters just beyond.  Sitting days on end at the water's edge trying to imagine a time when you actually cared about the real world.  Eons stretched before you.  The unfolding of time.  The shimmering of tender moments ... Something about that place.  The memories of those impressions linger on all these years later.

But as a kid, it was just fun to blow up anthills and GI Joes on the beach with the cheap M80s they were selling.  Just a lick of something to do.

Only thing is I don't regret it because I bought an AFA graded Thunder Machine (high grade, yes I care) about 9 years ago, and still have it to this day.  I must have been staring down at the toy gods or something and they gave me a second chance to redeem myself.

Pretty much agree with everything you said.  With Macross, Marvel and Star Wars, you have your hands full.  With all of mine, same.  I won't be buying those decks anytime soon.

41 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

If you’re really interested and just want to collect one special one, I’d say go for it. To put it into perspective that we can all relate to, I like to price things in Valk. That one I was looking at is only one or two Valks worth, which is nothing in the Macross collection world since I can and often do easily get two or three of the exact same Valks for no reason other than just “because” without blinking. 

lol talking like a collector again.  Nothing but excuses.  That dirty collector math always helps too.  "I always price things in Valk."  LMAO

For me the issue is not so much how much money to spend.  I have a set budget that I never break.  But where to spend it.  Of course in the grand scheme of today's crazy prices those decks are not all that pricey.  Reasonably priced in today's market.  The question for me is am I going to go down yet another branch of the collecting tree that sees me getting all tangled up in a thorny thicket I can't extricate myself out of?  If I had the discipline to stay at one or two, I would.  But collectors are like tragic figures.  The very thing that drives me to collect and amass great collections is our undoing in the end.  I just won't stop.  And having one will just drive me mad, because the collector in me is just going to pine for "the one that got away."  And another.  And another. 

I'll end up being more miserable than happy in the end.  I know because I have a decent collection of old school Tformers, Joes, MASK figures, go bots, machine robo, Takatoku, Bandai, ... And the list goes on and on.  But you know what?  Rather than enjoy what I have - the highest graded G1 VF-1S Bandai Super Valkyrie in the world, for example - I think about the ones that got away.  The pre-rub Soundwave that I could have bought along with both cassettes.  The dirt cheap Optimus Prime that I passed on.  The Megatron I didn't buy.  Or that one time this guy offered me a dead mint Big O (I've only amassed much lesser versions to fill the void, but they doesn't do that any justice).  The madness has to stop somewhere.

On 6/28/2023 at 2:05 AM, Slave IV said:

Lol, tell me about it. I was just looking at some original decks earlier today just to see and no way I’m going down that road, lol! This was another of my favorites and it’s not even a “real” original but I think it was a “FU” run made right after the original got C&D orders for obvious reasons. https://www.ebay.com/itm/166176835482?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=B7QGLl3XQM-&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=bxjG5I2cRPu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Plus, I was talking to a friend of mine who said he didn’t want to be that guy with a bunch of skateboards that he doesn’t skate and my wife assuming I bought those last two to actually skate and that brought me back to my senses a bit. I really never collected skateboards and don’t really have much desire to. I’d much rather skate them and collect the remains of the used decks I have, which is already plenty. 

lol you're already doing the research.  Told ya.  It's only a matter of time.

I thought they would be worth something like that.  I don't think I would go down that road either, but it would be nice to own one or two vintage ones.  Of course, the one's I'm thinking are probably priceless at this point.  Couldn't get them then and can't get them now.  Some things never change, only the price.  Plus, I don't have the reservations you do.  I never considered myself a serious skater.  I had friends who were, but I never was.  So collecting one is all good for me.  

On 6/12/2023 at 6:51 PM, Slave IV said:

Got some more skateboards! The original X-2 Lucero (same graphics as the one on the left) was one of my favorite decks from back in the day. Really happy to have these and they might be the first (hopefully only) skateboards I ever bought just to collect and look at. I might still end up setting up the X2 just to try it out but will see how that goes.

Good luck with that lol.  That's the biggest lie every collector tells themselves.  It usually starts out with, "hopefully, I'll..." or "I'm sure it's just..."  and then you're in neck deep.

Hopefully that conversation we had didn't start you down this road.  I actually thought about it too, but too difficult to find originals and didn't want remakes.

3 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

It was release under the Megahouse brand, which is owned by Bandai....so, from a certain point of view....

https://shop.bandai.com/megahouse

interesting, ok.  I didn't care at the time because to me it's one of those seminal, must have "masterpiece" figures that represents the apotheosis of the character.  Much like MP-1 and MP-10 did for Optimus Prime.  Some pieces you just can't pass up, and this was always one of them.  But of course the completest in me is going to get the little "mini me" HMR figure anyway.

4 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

Bandai seems to reserve much of their retro love for the Orguss for whatever reason...they copied the retro fonts and other touches on the H-Spec release a few years ago...

is this Bandai?  I actually have this one.  And never got the blue and fodder one, damn!  lol

But I thought it was a different company.

29 minutes ago, jenius said:

Hi-Metal Retro

lol

3 hours ago, jvmacross said:

They should have given at least one SDFM release the retro box look during the 40th too....missed opportunity....maybe Bandai did not want to be accused of copying Toynami...lol

They should have a whole retro line

I mean this one lol

Better pic

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159541140110509&set=gm.1681742792239013&idorvanity=240282426385064

Here's to hoping the toy is as good as the box looks.

26 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Agreed on the 80’s. The 1/55 Chunky still can’t be beat to this day as the greatest TOY (not just Valk) ever made. 

That Mcgill is my favorite all time Powell graphic. But these were my favorite overall boards from back in the day. 

yea it was the perfect confluence of different cultural influences/phenomena - the skating scene coming to its peak, graffiti art finally being understood as real, high-borne art (i.e. Basquiat), and the magazine scene exploding with all of those great action shots that helped propel the skating scene.  I think all of it started to die in the nineties - over the top, carnivalesque colors, and lack of inspiration.  Much like the 90's redux of 80's properties like Tformers and GI Joe.

Did you ever see Dogtown and Z Boys?  Best skateboard documentary I've ever seen.   Really captures that time period.  Highly recommend it.  I think if you showed it to your son he would have a really good idea of where you're coming from. 

7 minutes ago, Slave IV said:

Oh, haha gotcha! That's all good as long as you enjoyed it. 

Here's my old school style deck that I put together recently using a combination of old and new parts:

h 

very cool.  I can't remember the deck I used.  Some of the ones I loved from the 80's below

I don't care what anybody says.  80's had the best designs ever.  Doesn't matter if it was toys or skateboards.

19 hours ago, Slave IV said:

You used to skate? It’s never too late to pick it up again. I took about 20 years off but then my son started getting interested and we went to some skateparks and just like that, I got back into it. It’s been tough trying to get some tricks back but I’ve also learned new things I was never able to do before.

saying that I skated is being dramatically generous.  I wouldn't go that far.  I bought a few boards and put them together old school 80's style, but left the real skating to my friends in West Hollywood (I'm an LA kid).  So yea, being from the West Coast I was definitely exposed to the culture (and loved it), but I would hardly call it skating.