Was drawing this when the phone rang.
WET EARS: “ Saw your post. Im interested in swapping my DOCTOR DOOM POSTER VARIANT with your INCREDIBLE HULK.”
FLIM: “ SOUNDS good! “
WET EARS: “ Wait is it the fully articulated fingers? Cause if its not then the deal is off.”
FLIM: “ Wait a sec.”
I hold the Box up to the fluorescent light and examined the joints.
FLIM: “ It has a break in the palm that covers the first finger before the thumb and the last finger so I guess you can move those but not each finger.”
WET EARS: “ Then its not fully articulated.”
FLIM: “ Why what’s your Hulk?”
WET EARS: “ It’s hand is just one giant rubber.hand! “
FLIM: “ Well then I guess mine is the fully articulated one.”
WETEARS: “ Is it mint in the box? “
FLIM: “ Well I don’t open my toys. “
WET EARS: “ So where do we meet? “
FLIM: “ I don’t know you tell me. “
WET EARS: “ Uhm how about he gas station a few blocks away from the mall.”
FLIM: “ OK. What time? “
WET EARS: “ 2:00.”
FLIM: “ How would I know if it’s you? “
WET EARS: “ I’ll raise the DOCTOR DOOM on high.”
FLIM: “ THE HELL YOU WILL! Im very particular about the surface of the Blister pack. I don’t want your greasy fingers all over the place. WAIT A MINUTE YOU’RE NOT A HOARDER ARE YOU? “
WET EARS: “ NO Im not. I just bought two sets for my collection.”
FLIM: “ Wait I bought my HULK for 350 because it’s with the comic book. Yours is just the poster variant so that means you got it for …hm 299. Well you still owe me money. The difference of the cost! “
WET EARS: “Ahhhh but if you check BIDSHOT my DOOM is now worth 375 pesos in the open bid so that means…YOU OWE ME MONEY.”
FLIM: “ FUCK IT! I’m not going to give you a single cent! Are you going to pin me every time your item goes up in price???”
WETEASR: “ Let’s just trade without any money involve. “
FLIM:” I’ll meet you at two.”
Sleazy bastard! Could tell from his voice that he was twenty or something. Never met a collector who wasn’t sleazy. (Me included.) I guess we all have to be. Hustling and dealing over Internet café’s, comic shops, toyshops, now in public gas stations! We’d do almost everything to keep and increase our collections. To what end?
So that we would be the envy of our peers. So we can see visitors eyes pop out and their mouths hanging.
‘ IS THAT A PLANET OF THE APES URKO MEGO TOY? “
Yep!
‘ ITS NOT A REISSUE? “
"REISSUES ARE FOR SISSIES!"
Who cares if they gather dust most of the time. That I don’t even have the pleasure of opening them and playing with them. That I’m always checking for the cardboard boxes for any sign of degradation. (Which can be seen as a discoloration of the original colors.)
Most of the time the collection would be the death of a collector. Like the time when I saw my five-year-old niece ripping open My JOHNNY HERO BOX!
“ NOT THE BOX! NOT THE BOX! “
In some cases the box is more precious than the toy itself.
You’d be surprised that there are collectors who collect just the toy boxes and not the toys!
I collect everything I like.
I have a 300 piece ,long playing album collection (I still detest cds) I started buying them when I was 13 . Got the complete albums of KISS, LED ZEPPELIN, BLACK SABBATH, THE WHO, DEEP PURPLE. Most of them disbanded during the time except for KISS who seems to go on forever. Got my first taste of rock and roll when my older cousins would go to my uncle’s place and play their records full blast! Rock music was the only type of music at the time that can shut down the sermons hurtling towards you at light speed!
I have a 150-piece LASER DISC COLLECTION and even with the advent of DVDs I still play most of my lasers
At the last count I have 200 DVDs , which is composed of r1’s and r3’s and 30 pirated DVDs, which I keep as conversation pieces
I have my TRUE VIEW SLIDER with slides of BATMAN and VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, SUPERMAN, TREASURE ISLAND, SCOBBY DOO, ISLAND ON TOP OF THE WORLD; this isn’t the view master where you have a trigger that propels the pictures sequentially for you to view. This is the ancient "slide with your fingers" technique.
I also have the View master( which is the one with the trigger ) and forty packs of film reels with it . All in excellent condition.
I have my TOPPS BUBBLE CARDS OF STAR WARS AND THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK AND SUPERMAN. Some of them still have the chewing gum in it. I guess cause I haven’t opened them. But I can still hear some rustling sound when I shake the packs.
I HAVE MY JAPANESE MONSTER COLLECTION. All pieced together from my various trips to JAPAN. But the main bulk was given to me by MR. TAKAHASI the FUKOOKA PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR HEAD when I won IN THE GRAND PRIZE for THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN FILM COMPETITION IN 93. During the victory celebration he handed me this big brown burlap bag and when I saw it, my eyes glinted. Inside was a trophy that I actually felt happy to get. (The SOUTHEAST ASIAN AWARD was a long scroll written in Japanese characters, which I can’t even read. I have to go to the Japanese embassy and ask someone there to read it for me, so that I can feel good! )
The burlap bag contained, GAMERA the giant turtle, GIGAN with his BUZZ SAW stomach, MOTHRA in larvae stage, RODAN the flying bird!
I also have my action figure 12-INCH Collection. (Dom used to say, “ IF ITS NOT 12 INCHES, ITS NOT WORTH PLAYING WITH!), JOHNNY HERO, SUPERMAN mego edition, MASKATRON, ULTRA MAN
Then there’s my Comic book collection. 1,500 all in all. Composed of Complete runs of SWAMP THING BY ALAN MOORE. These are the actual comic books not the sissy Trade paperback re-issues. MIRACLE MAN, DOOM PATROL (THE GRANT MORRISON RUN) PREACHER, HELL BLAZER & HIT MAN, by GARTH ENNIS,
84 issues of HEAVY METAL from the late seventies to the early nineties
22 issues of CINEFEX, the special effects digest
Some collectors dispose off a particular collection once they tire of it and then substitute it for something else. I know many toy collectors who dumped their treasures and sold it and reinvested it into comic books and vice versa. But I never sell my collections. I just move from one thing to another. I carefully store my record collection into a box and keep it inside the room. And then take out the 12-inch action figures that I once harvested during the early 80’s and when the fancy strikes me I buy 12inchers again.
The other day I was surfing the net and found a Superman 6 inch Mego toy. Mego was a toy company that was very popular during the seventies and early eighties but they closed down. Now anything that MEGO made is considered a collectors item. So I called up my brother.
FLIM: “ Do you still have that superman doll you used to play with?”
ANTON: “ I don’t know…have to find it why? “
FLIM: “ It now costs 2,800 bucks.”
ANTON: “ I’ll try to find it but chances are it might be in pieces.”
FLIM: “ What about the STAR SCREAM toy that you had? “
ANTON: “ I threw it away seven years ago.”
FLIM: “ You know how much it costs now? “
ANTON: “ I don’t even want to ask. I didn’t know that these toys would appreciate during the years. So I threw them out! “
FLIM: “ Yep that’s the problem with throwing things out. Most of the time you’re throwing away something valuable and you don’t even know it yet! “
ANTON: “ Well I’m not like you! YOU HOARD stuff that you accumulated thru the years. Your room is a virtual stock house. You can’t even sleep on your own bed because of stuff. You even keep your ex-girlfriends letters to you! “
Opps forgot to list that in my list of collections!
FLIM: “ Well just look for the Superman toy if you can!”
Never told him that throwing your toys away is like throwing your childhood away. Toys are your best buddies and confidants modeled in plastic and metal. They listened to you pour your heart out when parents scolded you. They’re the playmates that never grew up. They are YOU!
And every toy is different from the next. Each scratch and paint scarped away is a signature of your passing. A battle wound of your youth!
Most of the collectors I know collect the stuff that they used to have when they were kids and lost it somewhere along the way. Some buy the stuff that they weren’t able to get when they were young and has haunted them ever since.
There was this one guy who always wanted a G.I JOE when he was ten or more. He begged and pleaded to his parents but they didn’t give him one. Now that he is in his late 30’s his mission in life is to amass as many GI JOES that are out there. To date he has 345 or more. I don’t know what he’s going to do with them. Probably he’s storing it all so that there would be hundreds of children like him that would grow up, deprived of the
same toy.
Never thought that growing up without a particular toy would lead to a serious neurosis.But then again a person’s psychological profile is pretty complicated.
I’m planning a massive hunt for the CAPTAIN AMERICA Marvel legends action figure because he was the first superhero I discovered when I was a kid. Then I watched him again and again in that fantastic animated series that was drawn by JACK KIRBY.The ones that were shown on TV and was shot with minimal movement. I believe it was an episode with that cool French criminal, BATLOC THE LEAPER! GREAT STUFF!Should have gotten that MARVEL LEGENDS ACTION FIGURE when I saw it everywhere…but I didn’t for one reason or another.CEST LA VIE. I will find one, damnit! I WILL!
There was a time when PLATINUM COMICS was still open in GALLERIA and I saw several DOOM PATROL and SWAMP THING COMIC BOOKS that were on display on a glass case. I asked DAVE the owner where I can get those.
DAVE: “ Heheheheh, That’s impossible to find. Even if you start looking this year it’ll take you like three and it wont be complete. These are very hard to find issues. You can’t even get it in comic book conventions in the states.”
FLIM: “ I will get them.”
DAVE: “ Tell you what, if you do get the DOOM PATROL issues from 26-45. I’ll give you comic books on this shop worth a thousand pesos. HEHEHEHEH”
<
b>FLIM: “ DEAL! “
And we shook hands.
Took me a year to complete the collection.
Bought some from Spencer’s COSMIC COLLECTIBLES . The other issues I was able to acquire by trading them with other comicbooks. But most of them came from friends and relatives who went to Canada and the states.They went thru comicshops and back issue bins.
Met up again with Dave and showed him my collection. He just stared at them and asked how I was able to get it.
FLIM: “ OBSESSION! 100 percent OBSESSION! “
But he didn’t give me the 1,000 peso free comic books.
WELCHER!
I was once asked what will I do with all the stuff that I accumulated. That’s a very good question. My reply was that I’d pass it on to my kid. A different kind of heirloom. Who knows how much these stuff would be down the road.
