Entertainment Earth has just launched a new bust sale. Dozens of in-stock busts qualify for a buy one, get a second for 40% off deal. I considered titling this post “Busty Sale” just to see how that would affect AFP’s search engine results.
Bust Sale – Save Big on In-Stock Busts!
If you want to add a couple of awesome busts to your collection, today is the day! Buy any in-stock bust, and get a second one for 40% off. Choose from dozens of styles, including the swell Incredible Hulk Mini-Bust. We have busts of Superman, zombies, Sith Lords, and various Green Lanterns. Order yours today, because the best ones are sure to go fast!
The figures in this quick pic of two of Marvel’s top super spies have both had a little work done. Nick Fury is an old custom back from the Hasbro Marvel Legends 2-pack days. Those came out around the same time as Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men, so I added the costume details to the stock figure to match him up to that look. Amazingly, Hasbro didn’t add the gray hair on his temples, and Nick’s trademark cigar was missing – with the anti-smoking sentiment in recent years I guess I understand that part.
Madame Hydra features a replacement head by Ibentmyman-thing. When I asked him to rework the Madame Hydra head for a prettier Emma Frost, we realized there was so much you could do with the head once it wasn’t so pinched. I asked him if he wouldn’t mind making a short-haired version based on her classic appearances, which was before everyone at Marvel forgot she was horribly disfigured around her right eye and covered it with her hair. I think she turned out great!
As I was admiring Benty’s work, I found it amusing that the heads of the two top Marvel spy organizations both had eye problems and both liked the same weaponry. So I snapped this shot.
If you have interest in the Madame Hydra head or others, you can send Ibentmyman-thing a PM on the Fwoosh or email him at penguinparanoia at yahoo dot com. Thanks for looking!
In just a few months, you’ll have your chance to achieve what Skeletor never could – Castle Grayskull will be yours! At nearly 10 inches tall, this won’t be a playset for your Masters figures, but on the flip side, this collectible statue will feature the portions of the castle you’ve probably never seen before.
You will be able to pre-order for about $125 from the usual suspects, including Action Figure Xpress, Amazon.com, BBCW Distributors, Big Bad Toy Store, Entertainment Earth, and your local comic book shops.
As disfigured as she is, she still proved to be a hard figure to come by (I resorted to eBay eventually) – and as I lamented over her once beautiful head sculpt, I thought that it wasn’t really that far off. Maybe, just maybe, it could be saved. So I sent the head to Ibentmyman-thing to see if it could be prettied up. Sure, I also did some stuff to the original Hasbro Emma Frost body, but the real credit goes to Benty.
Mark Nagata of Max Toy Co was kind enough to speak with Jedd-the-Jedi at STGCC. If you missed it, click here to check out the first part of the Mark Nagata interview. In the conclusion to the interview, Mark tells Jedd about finding his toy Holy Grail, his top five toys, and more!
Do you have a special story of a collectible toy of any kind that you obtained through extraordinary circumstances? Have you gotten a hold of something you never dreamed you’d be able to own in a million years, something so extremely special?
(Laughs) Yes, I do! Yes, I do have a story about that. So, there’s a Bullmark figure, which is a Japanese company from the 1960s and 70s, and they issued, in very small numbers, a standard size Ultraman figure in red vinyl. Now the reason why they released it in red vinyl is they were hoping the colour red would appeal to girls, instead of the grey or like silver colour of what Ultraman is supposed to be. But Ultraman never was red in the series, and then the girls hated the figure anyways, so it never sold, it was a flop for them.
So going forward when I started collecting the figures in the late 80s-early 90s, and I’m doing research about all the different types of figures I had to find, when I found out about the red Ultraman that was always at the top of my list, like if I go back to Japan I’ve gotta look for this, or if I’m looking at eBay or Yahoo Japan or something I gotta find this. So on one trip to Japan, we were in the Nakano mall, which is a very famous mall with like different shops, like Mendorake and toy stores.
One of my friends said “Hey, go look over in the case; I think that’s something you’re looking for!” So I walk over there and there’s a red Ultraman sitting there right, so I was like “oh my God”, and I had to find out, I had to go over and ask how much, right? So I went over and in my very, very poor Japanese asked “Ikura desuka?” – you know, “How much?” And the guy goes “$5,000” – USD $5,000. I just thought… ”I can’t, I can’t. My wife’s gonna kill me!” And I only had $2,000, that’s all I had – for the whole trip, so no way, and I don’t wanna use credit card or anything. So all my friends said “Oh, you know, I’ll loan you a couple of hundred dollars, maybe you’ll get enough to make a big pool or something,” and I said “No no no, I don’t want to have to owe you guys!” So, I left.