Showing love for Sunbow
Back in January, I decided my 2015 collecting goal would be GI Joe. I set myself some rules (characters previously owned or always wanted), calculated a budget (no more than $100 per figure), cleared some space on the comic room shelves (next to the Super Powers Collection, 80s with 80s) and went a-hunting. I was really looking forward to it and expecting to have a lot of fun.
What I didn't expect was how quickly I'd meet with success.
Ta-da! I'm ridiculously happy with the finished result. That little set-up covers everything that's important to me about GI Joe. Like my Transformers shelves, it automatically calls to mind my favourite stories from the Larry Hama comics, the (few) cartoon episodes I love and a healthy dose of the adventures I concocted as a kid in my backyard (screw Fred VII - it's the real Cobra Commander in that battle armour, and no one can tell me otherwise!). It's an odd mix of 82-83 and 86-87 figures, but that's how my collection was always structured.
I owe a great deal of thanks to stareyednight for helping me come up with the tiered display (my original design underestimated how much room the figures would need, and how visible they'd be), and to the two-headed scraptracker entity. The Joe and Cobra insignias were unexpected, extremely welcome birthday gifts from them and they make the entire display sing. Quite literally: each insignia plays that faction's respective cartoon anthem! It's deliriously hokey and delightfully kitch - perfect for a franchise as jingoistic as GI Joe.
Collecting never stops, of course, thanks to the mania that drives it. And so it transpires I have another story to share. Years back, a third-party toy manufacturer produced unofficial toys of the Quintessons, one of the supporting character races from Transformers. Neat idea but the finished product didn't float my boat - and, to be honest, I've never been the biggest Quintesson fan (the idea, put forward by the original cartoon, that they created the 'bots and 'cons shits me no end; I'm a UK comics reader and an unapologetic believer in Primus).
But that was years ago. While waiting for my birthday and the last few Joes to arrive, I caught sight of something amusing on eBay: the unofficial figure had spawned a Hong Kong knock-off! My curiosity was piqued and, for $15 with free shipping, I wasn't going to complain. Thus did the loathsome Quintessons invade our comic room!
I was really impressed with the ugly little bastard. He came fully painted but unassembled, meaning you could snap his five faces onto his body in any order you like (I took that as an invitation to watch Transformers: The Movie again and attach them in the order seen on screen). The paint job is really clean, the detailing is good, the "energy beam" stand looks good and, scale wise, he's bang-on perfect.
See? He looks perfect next to a Sharkticon and even better alongside Trypticon (purely for IDW in-joke purposes). Not to mention the way he adds to the display overall. Like Spike, the pile of Energon cubes, Daniel in his exo-suit, Kremzeek and Death's Head before him, the Quintesson enriches my Transformers collection by embodying the characters' expanded universe. I'd never planned on purchasing a Quintesson but, now he's on the shelf, I can't imagine the display without him.
So... what's left? Good question. I have a couple of ideas for new collection targets but, as of right now, I'm in no rush. There's a chunk of spare change in the bank account, a comic convention at the end of the month and the annual toy fair a month after that. Given the Australian dollar's current weakness (and the rising cost of international shipping), now is a good time to take a step back from online trawling and wait for some more local opportunities to present themselves. Like I said, the mania never stops...
Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF
What I didn't expect was how quickly I'd meet with success.
Ta-da! I'm ridiculously happy with the finished result. That little set-up covers everything that's important to me about GI Joe. Like my Transformers shelves, it automatically calls to mind my favourite stories from the Larry Hama comics, the (few) cartoon episodes I love and a healthy dose of the adventures I concocted as a kid in my backyard (screw Fred VII - it's the real Cobra Commander in that battle armour, and no one can tell me otherwise!). It's an odd mix of 82-83 and 86-87 figures, but that's how my collection was always structured.
I owe a great deal of thanks to stareyednight for helping me come up with the tiered display (my original design underestimated how much room the figures would need, and how visible they'd be), and to the two-headed scraptracker entity. The Joe and Cobra insignias were unexpected, extremely welcome birthday gifts from them and they make the entire display sing. Quite literally: each insignia plays that faction's respective cartoon anthem! It's deliriously hokey and delightfully kitch - perfect for a franchise as jingoistic as GI Joe.
Collecting never stops, of course, thanks to the mania that drives it. And so it transpires I have another story to share. Years back, a third-party toy manufacturer produced unofficial toys of the Quintessons, one of the supporting character races from Transformers. Neat idea but the finished product didn't float my boat - and, to be honest, I've never been the biggest Quintesson fan (the idea, put forward by the original cartoon, that they created the 'bots and 'cons shits me no end; I'm a UK comics reader and an unapologetic believer in Primus).
But that was years ago. While waiting for my birthday and the last few Joes to arrive, I caught sight of something amusing on eBay: the unofficial figure had spawned a Hong Kong knock-off! My curiosity was piqued and, for $15 with free shipping, I wasn't going to complain. Thus did the loathsome Quintessons invade our comic room!
I was really impressed with the ugly little bastard. He came fully painted but unassembled, meaning you could snap his five faces onto his body in any order you like (I took that as an invitation to watch Transformers: The Movie again and attach them in the order seen on screen). The paint job is really clean, the detailing is good, the "energy beam" stand looks good and, scale wise, he's bang-on perfect.
See? He looks perfect next to a Sharkticon and even better alongside Trypticon (purely for IDW in-joke purposes). Not to mention the way he adds to the display overall. Like Spike, the pile of Energon cubes, Daniel in his exo-suit, Kremzeek and Death's Head before him, the Quintesson enriches my Transformers collection by embodying the characters' expanded universe. I'd never planned on purchasing a Quintesson but, now he's on the shelf, I can't imagine the display without him.
So... what's left? Good question. I have a couple of ideas for new collection targets but, as of right now, I'm in no rush. There's a chunk of spare change in the bank account, a comic convention at the end of the month and the annual toy fair a month after that. Given the Australian dollar's current weakness (and the rising cost of international shipping), now is a good time to take a step back from online trawling and wait for some more local opportunities to present themselves. Like I said, the mania never stops...
Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF