Category: Collecting

Star Wars Man

  • November 22, 2021

I used to buy loads of Star Wars figures then stopped for well over a decade. The last few years though, my eye has occasionally been caught by a random figure. Here’s every one I’ve bought in the last 3 years:

For some reason, I have always associated Gamorrean Guards (and Bib Fortuna) with my brother! I’m not saying I think they look alike, but when we were kids he got certain figures and I got others, and I think it’s possible that he got the guard in those days! These are of course the big pig dudes at Jabba’s palace from Jedi, and have always been a striking alien design.

This is a fantastic figure; quite possibly one of the very best Hasbro has made. It was not widely distributed either, and I think I got lucky finding one. I’ve got nothing but praise for this one.

This guy was discounted at a local grocery store, and if you’re wondering who Quay Tolsite is then join the club! I knew he was in (the film) Solo, but had to look him up to find he was a Pyke (his alien species) who ran the Kessel spice mines. That’s pretty much all that’s ‘known’ about him, which means he’s such a z-rank Star Wars character that even the expanded universe has ignored him 🙂

This is a good figure of a visually interesting character, but I wouldn’t have bought it if it wasn’t discounted. Like the film, most people could care less this guy exists!

Ewok figures – when we were kids – were very exotic! They were humanoid, but short and fat and their silhouettes were quite different from most of the range. I liked them but only ever had one since most of them came out at the very end of the original line and were poorly distributed (especially in Oz).

I bought Paploo here because he wasn’t another Darth Vader or Rey or Luke! It’s a decent figure with surprising articulation (says the dude who won’t open it!) although the paint could be better. But… it’s still just a slightly above average figure of a forgettable character, which once again raises the question of why they bothered making it!

IG-11 was the assassin droid with an amazing role in the first two episodes of The Mandalorian. This guy in no small way helped sell the show at least as much as Din Djarin himself, at least until Grogu showed up.

As a kid I loved my IG-88 figure and droid figures in general, and this one was a no-brainer buy when I saw it for sale yesterday. It’s a fantastically designed and painted figure especially for it’s small size. I almost wish I could open it…

Ah good old Sheev Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious, aka The Emperor. This was the dude that almost every single Star Wars film is actually about: he was behind the scenes in every film, pulling the strings of just about everyone. I’m a big fan of the character, and think some of the best scenes in the entire Star Wars series feature him.

This is a magnificent Emperor figure, showing him in the middle of his ‘zappy zap’ lightning attack against Luke in Jedi. He even comes with replaceable hands with lightning blasting from them! The face sculpt is amazing (his face is only about 6 mm high) and the paint application equally impressive. The only thing that could have made this better was if they made it an ascendant emperor version (from his fight against Reylo in Skywalker). Of the five figures here, this is probably my favourite.

I’ll end this with a wish. As I said I like droid figures, and there’s a few particular aliens that always catch my eye. But if Kenner makes a Jedi Luke in his black outfit from RoTJ with as good a face sculpt as Sheev here I’ll buy it as fast as that final scene in the last season of The Mandalorian brought a tear to my eye 😉

500 Postcards!

  • November 11, 2021

Yesterday I received my 500th Postcrossing card from Anastajia in Russia:

Reminds you of a certain film doesn’t it?

It was six months ago I passed 150 cards so I’ve been receiving them at the rate of about 25 a month. Since the last update I’ve received cards from 7 additional countries, to a total to 49:

There’s still a long way to go though: there’s users from 206 countries on Postcrossing! Looking at the above chart the average travel times have gone up by a few days compared to six months ago, no doubt due to the pandemic. And as usual it takes about a week longer for me to receive cards than for those I sent them to to get them.

The cards are as weird and varied as ever, helped no doubt by me saying in my profile that I like weird cards! Here’s a couple of notables from this last six months:

That’s a card from Belarus and as you can see the sender matched the stamp to the card. This is the third time this has happened and I’m always impressed since it couldn’t be easy!

That’s an old advertising card I received from Germany. The card is clearly very old (it’s heavily yellowed on the reverse) and a quick google search showed the program it advertises screened in the early 1950s. Could this be a 70 year old card?!?

As always I love the stamps, and the majority of users seem to as well since most put effort into using pretty or unusual examples.

I received a card from Guernsey (a small not-country in the English Channel) which is one of the smallest regions in the world to have its own postal service. While the queens portrait gives a hint as to the connection with Royal Mail, I’ve always been intrigued by these small independent island that have their own mail and it was a treat to get this card.

Look at this gigantic Indonesian stamp! I’ve got some massive stamps from Russia but I think this must be the new record for big stamps!

And then there’s this from a sender in Austria. The stamp and surround perfectly fit into the envelope into which he put the postcard. He mentioned he was an avid stamp collector but he is now aging and is giving away his collection. Amazingly he also included a United Nations first day cover in the envelope:

I’ve never sent a card back to a sender (that’s not how Postcrossing works) but I made an exception in this case and sent him one plastered with a variety of retro stamps.

At 500 received (and 502 sent) I’m now well above the average for US users (which is about 100 cards) but well, well below the top ranks, which is over 14,000 cards for a US user and more than an absurd 33,000 cards for any user (in this case, a German). In fact this German guy has sent an average of 7 cards a day since he signed up about 13 years ago. Imagine the time and cost!

So my next target would be 1000 cards, which at this rate should be in about July 2023. I’ll update when it happens and we’ll see how close my prediction was 🙂

Pokeos

  • November 6, 2021

There’s recently been stories popping up on social media about Pokemon biscuits/cookies selling for thousands. Naturally, it was time to strike it rich.

We bought two bags of them. The Oreos feature 16 different Pokémon designs but are otherwise unremarkable (no different colour or flavours). They look cute though.

There’s sixteen different designs, one of which is ‘super rare’ (according to a press release put out by the manufacturer). In our first pack we got thirteen of the varieties, not including the rare one.

They were tasty though, and we bought a second pack. We got one Pokemon we hadn’t seen in the first, but still no rare version.

The rare one is ‘Mew’, which was a cute choice since Mew was the rarest Pokémon in the original game. About a month ago word spread on social media that Mew Oreos were selling for ‘thousands’ on eBay, and before you knew it there were hundreds of listings, made by people hoping to strike it rich. Still today, you’ll find fools people hoping for a payout:

Of course they aren’t selling for these prices at all, and likely never did. Surprise, surprise, but the stories that initially claimed as much didn’t have a lot of facts to back them up, and (as usual) the internet was happy to spread the story without bothering to verify it. Mews were selling on eBay, but for only a few dollars. And apparently 99% of the listings never sell.

The truth is that the Mew Oreo isn’t that rare at all. I’ve read maybe one in four packs, so for about $15 (the cost of 4 packs) you’d have about a 70% chance of getting your own. Think about that before bidding $1,000,000 on that eBay auction!

Madness aside these are decent Oreos, but don’t hold a candle to the Trolls ones from last year that included pop rocks in the cream! Let’s hope they bring them back at some point 🙂

  • Posted in Collecting
  • Robert