I usually spend my Sundays trying to be productive, but I always end up sitting on Ebay looking for deals. Most of the time they are hard to find so I end up just randomly looking at things that I don’t need, can’t afford, or just catch my eye in the thumbnail pictures. I have this same problem with YouTube. Fwoosh, YouTube, and Ebay: My procrastination enablers. But, I can’t help it, so I figured I’d share and help you waste your time too.
Masters of the Universe Test Shots
I don’t know exactly what it is about test shots and the like that trips my trigger but I love them. The solid colors allow a better look at the sculpt itself. The oddball colored plastics used most of the time gives me a sense of what other colors work well on a base. I mean, who knew I’d like pink on Castle Grayskullman? It’s not a perfect color but it looks nice. And really, when does pink actually work on an action figure? Plus, sometimes, you can actually get the test shot cheaper than the actual figure. If you’re that hard up for a hard to find figure, test shot, paint, boom.
You can see more pictures of each in the links below:
Castle Grayskullman
King He-Man
Strobo
Fang Man
Mekaneck
Snake Face
Customs
Seguing perfectly from Masters of the Universe into Customs, here’s a custom Classics scale Road Ripper.
There is some nice detail packed into this vehicle. The auction states it is solid resin and has working tires but is meant as a display piece. I’m totally okay with that. I wonder if it could be offered cheaper as just an unpainted cast? Hmm, third party MOTUC vehicles…
Here’s how I would have preferred the Captain America Legends Infinite Red Skull to look.
Now THAT’S a great looking Red Skull. Plus, if he had originally been offered this way, I’d be doubling up on that base body for fodder. So many possibilities. You can check out more pictures in the auction.
Coming off the disappointment of the All-New X-Men Toys R Us Boxset, here’s a pretty nice Uncanny X-Men Angel custom.
All he seems to be missing is an ab crunch but I’m guessing the wings had something to do with that decision? But there is some fantastic, subtle shading going on in the white parts of the costume. Again, more pictures in the auction.
A couple for the “Why don’t we have these figures in our collections??” file is Chameleon and Rictor.
Chameleon is just a no brainer. How we still don’t have a figure of him is mind-boggling. But Rictor…
Okay, I know that costume for Rictor is insanely outdated, but what other costumes has he had that just scream Rictor? Of course, he’d have to come with Shatterstar from that era too. Hell, as much as I’d rather not revisit this time in the comics, I can’t say I wouldn’t buy each and every one of these.
Boxset?
Oddness
This isn’t meant as a slight to any of the auctions or sellers. I just find something weird about the auctions or pictures, but in a funny and eye catching way. I mean, yeah, I may point out the oddness of them but the pictures worked well enough to get me to click the auction links, so they performed as expected. Right?
Here’s a seller that has most of his figures posed in front of cars for no reason.
Again, nothing wrong with having a car behind the figures. It caught my eye and I clicked the link. But mostly because I thought “Is that a scale car for sale with the figure?” because most of the titles say “LOT” which to me means “more than one item.” Oh Ebay, you love to crush my dreams.
He says that Tommy is his “picture signature” and I get that. You want to provide proof that the picture is actually yours in case ownership of either the picture or figure comes into question. But isn’t there better ways to do this? Watermark, a business card in the picture, a slip of paper with your username? And why Tommy Pickles? But again, you made me click your links. Mission accomplished!
At first I had no idea what was going on with Zabu, then I realized he was sitting down. That on top of the figure’s somewhat cartoony sculpt made me crack up. I couldn’t help myself.
This one struck me as odd but in more of a “Do people actually buy these?” kind of way.
The shipping box? Just an empty box? I usually stick to the action figure listing in my feed but this popped up. Upon further investigation that involved some Batman/Sherlock Holmes level sleuthing (I typed “Hot Toys Joker box” into the Ebay search bar) I found out that is indeed a thing. There are three actual packaging boxes listed for $80!
The Joker 2.0 Box listed shows that there are two for sale….and two sold! But just because I don’t get it doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. Different strokes for different folks. I live in an area where 4X4 rock crawling is popular and all the bars are country while little ol’ metalhead me collects toys and tries to stay out of the way. Far be it from me to make fun of someone else’s hobby.
Finally, I ran across this and want to kick my 2005 self in the nads.
Not because I can’t afford it now, or because it’s going for outrageous prices and I missed my chance at a jackpot. But because I can remember myself seeing this at the time and thinking “Oh, how droll, v-hips.” When now I look at it and realize it’s a very cool Venom! Yeah, v-hips, but look at him! Of course, thinking harder, I was unemployed and finances weren’t so hot for me in 2005 so that may have been another determining factor.