Diecast Carshow: Heroes

Here's the hero cars of the collection.

This is the set and some friends.

I remembered these HeroClix figures and decided to put them in the shot.  I should have posted these with the other Superhero figures.  Spider-Man and Batman were giveaways from Free Comic Book days.  Mirage and Brightwing I bought for fun because I like the character.  What happened to all these figures?  I remembered the shop I went to had a couple of bins of commons.   

Here we go.  Look at this beauty.  It's the '66 Batmobile, of course.  What I find interesting about it is that it's a Hot Wheels car and that I found it on the rack with all the other regular Hot Wheels.  Yeah, I couldn't believe it either.  I walked by it, noticed it, and snatched it up immediately.  I think it was produced as a classic car reproduction, rather than a Batman licensed product.  

The car itself is well-detailed and rolls well, but seems fragile.  I used to have a plastic Bat-Boat from the 70's that I'd gotten at a garage sale as a kid.  I don't remember what happened to it.  It was of a larger scale and I found out later it was part of a set with a trailer and a Batmobile.     

Here's the '89 Batmobile.  This is just a plastic car.  There was a plug in the bottom and the hollow car was filled with little candy.  It doesn't roll well, but it looks good.  The main problem is that its too long to fit into a standard display case cell.  This is the dumb reason that I never bought any NHRA cars back when they sold them everywhere along with the NASCARs.  (So much for those days.)

 

This is another Hot Wheels car called The Guvner.  It seems to have an obvious inspiration from the  Batman Animated Series, so I'm grouping it here.  I think I just found this one outside one day.    

Here's another beauty.  It's the Mach 5 from Speed Racer.  This came out with that live-action movie.  How I would have loved this to death if I'd gotten it as a kid.  (Likewise the 66 Batmobile.)  It likely wouldn't have lasted long, since it's actually  mostly hard plastic.  Still, it rolls well and looks great.      

It came with this Rotary Saw attachment.  That's the C Button on steering wheel.  No Booster Jacks or Drone attachments, though.

This is Racer X's car.  This one came from a cereal box.  It's all plastic.  It didn't remember until I put it out to take the picture, but it's a pull-back racer.  Roll the thing backward, let go, and away it goes.  

Corgi made this fanciful Spider-Copter.  There are plenty of super-hero themed cars and vehicles that have little to do with the characters.  It doesn't entirely make sense that Spider-Man would have a helicopter.  I doubt the air-worthiness of this vehicle as well, but I appreciate that they went all the way with the theme.  

This is the second one of these that I've owned.  The first one lost a leg.  (Those spider legs are fragile.)  I do not remember how I got another one.  

It's a lot better-looking than this Spider-Copter.  I did not own one of these as a kid.  The figure is doll-sized and non-posable.  Yeah.  Weird.  

I used to have a Hot Wheels Spider-Man car.  It was black with an arachnid appearance.  I sold it off in a garage sale.  Mine was in better condition than this one.  The front wheels were oddly tilted in on the car.  It never rolled well.  

       

This is the actual canonical vehicle that Spidey had in the comics: the Spider-Buggy.  Yeah.    

Toy Soldiers 7: Godzilla and Superheroes

Yes, here he is, the big guy.  Shrunk down a bit.  Also looks a bit off model.  But, it is Godzilla.  He came with a playset that included a mat with a cardboard cityscape, some small-sized (H/O scale) green soldiers (that were like the guys from the Marine set), a group of panicked civilians in the same scale, some military vehicles, and a Ghidorah figure.  I don’t have him anymore.  My Ghidorah didn’t have wings.  He was more like a three-headed sea monster.  Needless to say, this was a pretty cool Christmas present.  For some reason though, I don’t remember playing with it much.  I couldn’t say why.

What happened to Heroclix?  They just disappeared like they’d never existed, but they were huge at the time.  I was never into the hobby or the game.  What I saw of the little figures were cool, but I didn’t need any more collectibles.  I didn’t really look at the prices on them, so I don’t know if I could have bought some reasonably cheaply, but where would I have put them anyway? 

 

One thing that put me off was at my comic book store at the time (owned by the dad of a guy I currently work with by odd coincidence), they had bins of common figures.  Forget collecting.  Some of the better figures were under glass under the counter.  I don’t remember why I was looking to buy one, but I liked that Mirage and Brightwind figure and bought it.  I’m a fan of the character.  The base on this figure is actually for the Black Knight, so it can’t be used in play.  So, it’s kind of useless, but I like it.  I also have Free Comic Book Day giveaway figures of Batman and Spiderman, which I should have brought for picture taking.   

These guys are just begging to be painted, aren’t they?  Too bad I don’t have any skill in that.  I wish I had some scale for this, but these are significantly larger than your standard green plastic soldier.  These figures, Submariner, Doctor Doom, Iron Man, and Captain America, were part of a set that included a squad of not-in-scale green plastic solders and a white pickup truck with some superhero stickers on it.  The truck wasn’t exactly in scale either, but there it was.  So, it was a toy set that was sort of tossed together, but I loved it.  For whatever reason, it was fun.

Pictured with the figures are a string and hook.  The little holes in the figures’ hands are so you can slide the figures down the string.  Next to it is the “Activator.”  There are slots on the back of the feet of the figures that you can attach the Activator to and use it to have your figure punch things. 

 

When brought these figures to work (and showed Taylor, the son of the comic shop owner), I got comments on Namor’s condition.  You can see his left arm is a bit messed up.  I explained that I didn’t like the original pose, so I’d cut off the arm and reattached it using a woodburning pen.  Yeah, that’s kid engineering at its finest.  Considering the tools and my skills, I don’t think I did a bad job.  My co-workers were actually more horrified by my explanation than the condition of the figure.   

Toy Soldiers 6: Romans and Celts

I also got this set of Roman Legion at the Estate Sale with the Greeks.  (I missed out on a good-looking set of Celts that I forgot to pick up when I went to go pay.  I’m still kicking myself.)  Unfortunately, these guys are too much like the Zulus that I mentioned before, as they were made by the same company, Ertl/ESCI.  The horror show of attaching little bitty spears and shields to figures had a return engagement.  I’m not sure if I exactly knew what I was buying when I got it, otherwise I might have reconsidered or egotistically thought that I could apply my Zulu experience and easily put them together.  Or, I found myself again using a soldering tool on these little figures and occasionally ruining them.  

Ancient Britons was the title on the box.  I usually called them Celts.  Maybe they could pass as Vikings (real Norse didn’t have helmets with horns on them, but who cares?).  Definitely, they work as Dungeons & Dragons figures and I used them as such.  I bought these at around the same time as the WWII figures, which was before I played D&D.  I don’t know how I exactly used them when I was setting them up for battles with rifle-armed troops, but I’m sure I did.  The set came with two chariots.  Unfortunately, they were less exciting than you’d think and were pretty fragile like some of the figures (the staff bearer/D&D wizard guy, had to be repaired early on).  I’d rather that they had more figures in the set instead.  

 

Also out of historical context, I had a box of Confederate Civil War figures for some reason.  (I must have eventually run out of WWII armies to buy.)  They were grey, boring, and poorly detailed.  However, most of the figures were shooting, so they got used a lot in battle.  Later, I got another set of Confederates from the toy store in the mall.  (Did they not have any Union troops?)  I think they were made by Ertl/ESCI.  Not one figure in the set was shooting.  I kid you not.  A bunch of toy soldiers in battle, but none of them were in a shooting pose.  Needless to say, I didn’t know that when I bought them.

 

And here they are fighting it out over Britain.  Since Boudica isn’t leading the Britons and the Roman figures suck, I’d wager on the Brits.  

Toy Soldiers 5: Greeks

I got these Ancient Greek Warriors at the Estate Sale a couple of years ago.  I always thought they looked great, but didn’t try taking them off the plastic frames for quite a while after I bought them.  Maybe I had second thoughts about buying any more toys, but I thought they’d be great as Dungeons & Dragons figurines.  Eventually, I decided to liberate the figures and have a little fun with them. 

 

I should explain that all of these toy soldiers sets I got came in little boxes with all the figures attached to plastic frames to keep them all together in the package.  Usually, you’d just have to twist the figure a little to pull them loose.  There might be a little excess on the bottom that you’d have to cut off.

Judging by the box, these appear to be of Russian manufacture.  I can vouch that they were built to a communist industrial ethic.  I could not get the damn things off the frames.  They wouldn’t twist off.  Graphite scissors didn’t make a mark on them.  I tried a small, sharp knife, which didn’t penetrate the plastic.  I had to put them back in the box and stew in frustration.  Finally, a desperate plan came to me in a dream later (like a year later).  I took a pair of wire cutters to the frames.  That was a risky, dangerous maneuver, because it would have been very easy to accidently chop the figures up.

 

As you can see, it worked.  It was a nervous operation.  However, the post-surgery was even worse.  There were knobs left on the bottom of the figures.  I had to meticulously file them down to get the figures to stand evenly.  That took a long time given the number of figures.  Attaching the spears and shields was pretty easy and have held up well.  (Unlike those traumatizing Zulu figures I had.)  I can thank the industrial toughness of the figures for that. 

 

More than any other army of figures I have, these actually tempt me into wanting to paint them.  These would look good in color.  Judging by the box cover, you could go nuts individualizing them.  (I still have no clue how you’d paint something this small.)  As is, they’re cool.  You’ve got swords, spears, archers, slingers, Alexander, and a flute player.  I’ve got to use these guys in a game someday.       

Toy Soldiers 4: WWII Germans

For whatever reason, while Airfix is a British company, their German soldiers were the class of their WWII soldiers that I saw.  These are extremely well-designed and detailed.    

These WWII German Mountain Troops were one of the first two boxes I got.  The other was a box of WWII British commandos.  I had a lot of fun with just these two sets of troops.  The picture on the box (which I unfortunately no longer have) showed these Germans with “Frozen Meat” medals on their hats, indicating they were Russian front survivors . . . err . . . veterans.  (Don’t invade Russia in the winter.)  Some of these figures appear to be on holiday as they were skiing and biking. 

  

These WWII German Infantry are magnificent in sculpting and details.  For some reason, they’re also just a little bigger than most of the other armies.  Perhaps over the years, Airfix went up and down in scale for figures.  They’re close enough to the others.  The officer figure is really dynamic and with this set and you get guys with flamethrowers.

 

A friend of mine had some WWI German Infantry.  Yep, they had spikes on their helmets.  They seemed to have some good detailing and had good poses (and a flamethrower trooper), but were technically terrible.  They had excess plastic coming off of most them from on their castings.  I don’t know if it was a manufacturing issue or the poses were too ambitious and created the problem. 

 

What’s surprising is that the WWII British Infantry were one of the worst of the Airfix sets, especially for a British company.  They were a smaller scale, had terrible poses, were badly detailed, and weren’t even well-trimmed either with bad excess plastic.  I think they rebranded this set as WWI British Infantry, so they were even lazy with them.  Needless to say, I didn’t keep any of these guys.  I also had WWII Russian Infantry.  They were molded in grey and were so uninteresting, I can only remember one of them.  The set came with a large mortar.  There was some dude with his arm out and hand empty having just fed a shell into it.    

 

 

These WWII German Afrika Korps troops are my easy favorites amongst the modern armies.  The details are great and the poses are inspired.  You’ve even got variations in their uniforms and how they’re wearing them.  There’s something like a Rommel figure with them.  If you were putting up in a static battle diorama, these guys would be the stars.  I did have set of WWII British Eighth Army that would be their appropriate opponents.  They weren’t bad in details, but were boring by comparison.       

  

I also had a set of WWII German Paratroopers.  I did not keep one of them.  They seemed a little smaller in scale.  They were badly detailed and strictly functional in posing, no creativity at all.    

Toy Soldiers 3: WWII Gurkhas and Brit Aircrew

The WWII Gurkhas were British allied troops from Nepal.  They’re well-known for their ferocity.  That’s about all I know about them.  These guys were also one of my favorite armies to play with.  They’re well-detailed, though not terribly imaginative their poses.  They are of the slightly larger scale. 

Don’t they look fierce?  Who wouldn’t want these guys on their side?  They were always on my preferred side in toy solider battle, though the outcome was never predetermined.  Their machine gunner was holding the largest weapon of any of my armies.  Speaking of details, these dudes all carry the Gurkhas’ signature weapon, kukri, the big angled knife (except for their commander).    

 

And we go from the warriors to the mechanics.  (There was no good way of breaking up these armies for posts.)  The WWII British Aircrew was the largest army set I had.  I traded for them from a “friend” up the street from where I lived.  I don’t remember what I traded.  I also don’t remember why on earth I got these.  They’re great if you have an airfield with some H/O scaled Spitfires.  They’re not so great for pitched toy soldier battles. 

 

What’s truly puzzling is that this was the second time I’d gotten an aircrew set.  Before this, I’d bought a WWII German Luftwaffe Crew.  I don’t know why.  We all make questionable decisions at times.  After I had traded my “friend” for the Brits, I noticed later my Luftwaffe guys had suddenly disappeared.  I did not lose troops.  No man left behind; I counted my troops after every battle.  I can’t officially blame this person for what might have been a coincidence, but it was real suspicious.  (I was also missing a couple of my favorite Afrika Korps troops, as well.  I’m suddenly getting angry again.)      

All I had left of the Luftwaffe was the box and a couple of figures.  Those are the blue figures in the picture.  Quality-wise, the RAF figures are generally very imaginative and dynamic.  Technically, they’re messy, not to mention they’re kind of weak in places and easily broken.  The Luftwaffe guys were mostly better quality from what I remember.     

 

Thankfully, the bicyclists have stayed together.  There’s a porter with a cart, which is kind of cool.  The red thing in the bomb cart, I think, is a Lite Brite piece.  I don’t remember how I got that, since I didn’t have a Lite Brite set.     

Here’s a view of the pilots, a nurse, a security guard, a bicyclist, and a guy checking a camera.  If you’ve got an airfield, it would be well populated with all of these aircrew figures.  I seem to recall that the guy I got these from was using his with a train set.  And that’s the reason I still have these.  I’ve just about given up on my long-standing desire to have a train set (because I don’t have a house), but I’m keeping them just in case.      

 

The guy did sort of teach me how to play D&D.  If he did steal my figures, I can maybe spot him them for services rendered in giving me a new hobby.  I guess it was worth it.  

Toy Soldiers 2: WWII Brits and Friends

I started off with small scale encounters when I just had a couple of different armies.  Eventually, I had hundreds of troops and set up giant battle scenes in my bedroom.  I used my Navarone playset (which worked really well with the small scale figures) as a fortress.  Later, I added Castle Greyskull (which didn’t work as well with them) as part of the battle scenes.  I even made some Imperial Walkers out of some little boxes.  (These were later destroyed with fireworks.) 

 

At one point, I took over the spare bedroom with a giant creation called Imperium.  I used a bunch of boxes to make something of a series of connected islands with structures on them.  My favorite was large warehouse building with lots of places for ambushes.  Later, I turned one of the islands (large boot box) into a giant spaceship.  I called it Nostromo.  Trust me it was impressive.  (I wish I had pictures of any of this stuff.)  I had a weird little dinosaur creature that became the Alien hunting soldiers in the ship.  (Calling the thing a Xenomorph would be stretching it.)    

 

Okay, enough nostalgia, back to the review.

 

Those are WWII Australian Infantry on the left wearing the natty hats.  They’re figures with good sculpts and very dynamic.  There’s lots of personality in them.  To the right are WWII British Paratroopers.  You can see that they’re slightly larger in scale.  The detailing is good, but the poses are fairly generic.  They came with a mortar crew, a couple of landing parachutists, and a supply canister.

 

    

Here’s a mixed shot with the Paratroopers along with the WWII British Commandos (wearing the caps).  The Commandos (along a set of Germans) were the first armies I got and I enjoyed them immensely.  They have quite a bit of personality (and a kayak), however they are technically kind of sloppy with extra plastic fringes sticking out on them.        

I never saw any WWII US Army Infantry, or if I did, I passed them over.  I’m pretty sure I would have gotten some.  Here’s a mixed group of Aussies and WWII US Marines.  The Marines are also mixed in terms of quality.  Some of the troops are from a generic mold (the shooting rifleman, the bazooka man, and the submachine gunner).  I know this because I had a set of these kind of miniature troops when I was younger. 

 

The others are from a different mold (the two grenade men and the crouching rifleman).  They are more detailed (though the others are pretty good) and more dynamic in poses.  Both types are also well-made.       

Here’s another shot of just the more detailed Marines and the Commandos and a Paratrooper.  The Marines came with a little inflatable raft.  I bought them from the Kaybee toy store in the mall rather than the hobby store.  I mention this mostly because these figures were once more ubiquitous.  

Toy Soldiers 1: Waterloo Troops

(Part 2 of my comic review will come maybe next week.  I didn't want to reschedule seven posts.  I'm being lazy here, I admit.  I shouldn't have scheduled so far out when I've probably got more weekend sports reports to post.)

I love Toy Soldiers.  I had a bunch in several different sizes, including the large scale ones.  I had the standard green troops and some others in that size.  My best Christmas present ever was receiving the Guns of Navarone playset in 1975.  I still have it and even still have some of the soldiers with it.  At some point, I’ll take some pictures of it.  It is magnificent. 

 

And I had these small scale soldiers, of which I’ve kept a bag full.  When I was a kid, I had a friend who had these and introduced me to this scale.  There was a bit of a toy soldier arms race amongst myself and a couple of other kids in the neighborhood.  That was why I had some of the large soldiers, because I was in competition with another kid.  I couldn’t compete with him though.  After seeing my Navarone, he had his dad make him soldier mountain out of blocks.  Neither of us could compete with another kid, who had piles of Star Wars figures.  He could reenact the Battle of Hoth with several Walkers.        

 

These small troops are H/O scale, that is to say they’re roughly toy railroad scale.  They were sold in my area at a local hobby shop.  They came in little boxes with maybe 48 soldiers or less, if there special pieces inside.  They were displayed on a spinner rack and produced by the model company Airfix.  Most of the ones I bought were WWII era.  There were others available that I remember, such as Indians and even astronauts.  They must not have been terribly expensive, since I got a bunch of them.

 

I kept them in their boxes and kept careful track of them.  Over the years, the boxes came apart.  I kept the front covers with the army paintings for a while, but eventually dispensed with them.  I’m sorry.  This would have been a cooler series with pictures of the boxes with the action painting on the front and the painting guide on the back.  I never thought about painting them.  (A Warhammer modeler might balk at trying to paint these troops.)  It seemed like an impossible task as a child and still as an adult.  I sold off most of the soldiers later and only kept the ones I liked or had plans for.  

 

   

I haven’t seen any of these toy soldiers at retail for a while.  Airfix still makes them.  I’d love some modern troops like Desert Storm US Army or Vietnam-era US Marines.  I look over the model section at Hobby Lobby whenever I’m there.  All they’ve got are the larger-sized figures in plastic bags, like cowboys and Indians or knights.  They’re kid’s toys, though not really at kid prices.  I did get some larger scale Lead soldiers at an Estate sale, but that’s the most I’ve been tempted to buy.

 

This intro has run overly long.  I’ve got more pictures, I swear.  First up, are my favorites: Napoleonic French Cavalry and Russian Grenadiers.  I’m sorry I didn’t set out all of the troops and carefully arrange them.  I literally did all of the pictures in a rush at work.  I don’t have any historical information on these armies, but I can tell you how I got them.  These troops were produced by Ertl/ESCI.  I haven’t entirely had success with this companies’ figures, but these are excellent.

 

I’ve always wanted a set of Napoleonic troops since reading a biography of Winston Churchill, where he played with them as a child.  I referred to them as “Wooden Soldiers.”    My parents probably would have obliged, just to keep me from continuing to ask for them every year at Christmas, but there was nothing like them to be had at retail. 

 

A decade or so later, I was at a toy store in El Paso with my best friend, Kyle, and we came upon piles of the toy soldier boxes, like the ones I’d bought as a kid.  (Him and his brother and sister collected piles of action figures, so he wasn’t interested.)  I had no money to purchase any and it would have been childish.  However, when Kyle petitioned for my help with his college accounting class in doing a practice set, I offered to do it in return for a set of Zulus and Zulu War British Infantry.  I should explain that we were fans of the TV mini-series, Shaka Zulu, at the time.  (This was in the 80’s.)

 

I did the set and Kyle bought me the figures.  I’m not sure if he said that that practice set was either the best grade he got in that class or the worst, but he dropped the class in any case.  I was slightly disappointed that the British troops were actually from another set, the Kyber Pass, as there were Sikh troops mixed in with them.  (No offense to the Sikhs.  I just wanted troops that were setting appropriate.  These guys are like from the movie, Gunga Din.  Boy, there’s a movie I’ll never get to see again.)  They were close enough. 

 

However, the Zulus turned out to be a titanic disappointment.  The figures were fine, but totally unassembled.  I don’t know what possessed the model company to make these things with the little bitty spears and shields all unattached.  With slightly different poses, surely most of these could have been molded in one piece.  It was a nightmare of nitpicking.  They wouldn’t stay together.  I had to glue them together, which didn’t work well.  Later, I used a little hot pen to weld them together, which still didn’t work well and I ruined a few in the process.  (If I still had them and wanted to paint them, I got a couple of Osprey books on the subject at the Estate sale.  They provide detailed army painting guides.)             

 

 

This is a long way to go to talk about troops from Waterloo.  I told Kyle about my travails with the Zulus and he must have felt bad.  For Christmas, I handed him Rush Limbaugh’s new book.  He handed me these Napoleonic troops.  My eyes lit up and I immediately embraced him to his shock.  He’d had no idea I’d been pining away for something like this since I was a child.  I must not have noticed them when we were at the toy store.  In any case, it was a great gift.  I set them up around the Christmas tree to mom’s disapproval.  “They’re like toy soldiers from the Nutcracker,” I said.

These are quite lovely in sculpt and details.  The poses are great.  Unfortunately, I missed getting the French cavalry commander in the pictures.  He’s standing beside his horse with his helmet off, so he’s not in an action pose.  These guys are all I ever wanted in toy soldiers.  Of course, I had gotten a bunch of other toy soldiers before I got to this point.  I’ll go over those next.  

Toy Soldiers

Excuse me, actually the boxes clearly state that these are NOT toys.  What they are is extremely high-priced miniatures . . . that produce childlike glee in everyone who sees them.  These were on sale at the estate sale that I went to last year,  but I didn't actually buy these until this last weekend.  I was trying to give my former co-worker an opportunity to sell them to others and save me from making an absurd purchase.  I don't even have anywhere to put them on display!

I went over to her house to buy two specific figures, but I knew I was in trouble when I took one out of the box and held it.  These figures are extraordinarily detailed.  They're also made of lead and have density and weight to them.  In short, they are a joy to behold.  I had to buy a few more.  Thank God I stopped myself at seven.  She had hundreds of figures there and they're all awesome.

These were the two figures I'd originally come for.  They weren't part of a set, so I could buy them without breaking up anything.

Here's Soldato Carlo Terrinoni.  He was sent to New France to help defend the colony from the Iroquois raids.   

Here's Robert Rogers' Servant from the Battle on Snowshoes, which occurred during the French and Indian War.  

And then I picked out a few other select figures.  Here's the indomitable Sherlock Holmes and his stalwart companion Dr. John Watson.  They are on the trail the nefarious Jack the Ripper.  Look out behind you!

And here's a couple of figures from the Napoleon in Egypt set, namely Napoleon himself.  The camel figure is absolutely magnificent in detail.  

 I was offered the whole Egypt set, but I couldn't justify the cost and would have had no where to put them.  Right now, the whole $70,000+ collection is in several storage bins in her garage.  As it was, I purchased these figures at a 75% discount.  And I'm still not going to say how much they cost.  But I have to say, if you're rich and have got the space, what a hobby!

2017 Las Cruces Comic Con Report and Geek Estate Sale

I went to two interesting places Saturday morning (8-26-17).  The first was an estate sale put on by a former co-worker of her deceased brother’s possessions.  This guy was a serious collector of comics, memorabilia, and toy soldiers.  The house was filled with comic book trades, models, and hundreds of painted soldiers (packed in individual slipcases).  I’d been there before, but hadn’t seen the items on display for sale, so I wanted to go back to get a better look.

The comics trades featured a lot of Conan books and pulp heroes, like The Shadow.  There were a few X-Men trades, which were the most conventional superhero fare.  The rest was stuff like The Authority and various comics from the late 90’s and 2000’s.  Most of the trades were new, like they may not have been read at all.  I suspect even the older comics I saw, like some old Gold Key Man from UNCLE comics, had probably been bought recently.  Unfortunately, his tastes were pretty specific and not in tune with mine.  

The figures were mostly Zulu and 1800’s British troops.  There were also WWI Palestine theater troops: Turks, Arabs, and British, including a TE Lawrence figure.  Unfortunately, none of them were on display, which might have helped sales.  I’d gotten a look at them during the previous visit.  They were gorgeous, hand-painted, about two-inch high, lead figures.  A model kit that caught my eye was a large Gundam support vehicle kit, still in the box.  I also liked a GI Joe doll in sniper gear.  I’d seen a Batman cowl before there.  The crowning piece was a signed Franzetta Conan print.  Affording any of this stuff wasn’t so the issue as not desperately needing them or having anywhere to put them.

The whole collection had to be worth tens of thousands.  On the one hand, this was very cool and impressive.  On the other, it was all left to his relatives to get rid of.  It was kind of sad and awesome at the same time.  You could almost see it as a warning.  I picked up a three Osprey military history books, some WWII history magazines, and a couple of toy soldier catalogs.  (If the figures had been Napoleonic, I wouldn’t have been able to resist getting some.)

There was a sign on the figures at the sale estimating the value of the collection that I could not have possibly read right.  [Monday edit: The sign was right, $70,000.  The individual figures were $30 to $40 a piece.]   I wouldn’t be surprised if a representative of the company, based in Hong Kong, didn’t come to the funeral if the number was right.  There weren’t any prices in the catalog.  If you have to ask, you can’t afford it, I guess.

Just up the road from the sale, the Las Cruces Comic Con was this weekend.  A very nice co-worker left me two tickets to the event.  That was very sweet of her.  Unfortunately, coming into work at 5:00, I was only able to ask a couple of people if they wanted to go with me, which didn’t work out.  Since I was going past the Con anyway on the way back from the estate sale, I stopped in for a while.  If I’d been with somebody, I’d probably have stayed longer. 

For $30 for a day pass, I’d pass on the event.  For free, I’m there.  Other people were not deterred, a whole lot of other people.  The convention center parking lot was full.  I didn’t know it was this big a deal here.  The main hallway and dealer room had to be near capacity.  This might be the convention center’s main event of the year.   

Many of the people were in costume.  This accounted for a lot of young women being there.  There was a vendor stall featuring some professional female cosplayers.  Wonder Woman was popular, especially the movie version.  One young woman working at a vendor stall in the main hall probably had the best one.  With her good looks, she didn’t need a costume to attract attention.  I noticed news crews making a bee-line towards her for interviews about the Con.  There was another large industrial vendor booth that was making costume props.  A beautiful young woman, not in costume since she was working at crafting, was sitting out front and getting attention from guys there (which might have been the intention). 

There were any number of different characters represented in costume from superheroes to anime to probably original creations.  I saw three really good ones.  There was a Batman/Robin pair.  They were fully up-armored versions of the characters.  There was a great Star-Lord costume, right out of the movie.  But the best was a Tony Stark impersonator.  He was a double-take vision of Robert Downey Jr. with the hair, goatee, and sunglasses.  He just had on a t-shirt, but with the glowing core underneath it.  (Yes, I know.  I don’t have any pictures.) 

As for me, though I have two Star Trek t-shirts and a great dragon t-shirt, I went with my Aggie Empire shirt with the Stormtrooper on it.  As usual, I got a compliment on it.  I did have the coolest t-shirt there.  The Star Wars cosplayers had a booth, but I didn’t see any Stormtroopers, who would have certainly stopped me to compliment me on my shirt.  There was a full size Chewbacca suit on display.  Did you know Ghostbusters apparently has a national cosplaying organization?  They had a booth too.

The main hallway was filled with a line of vendors and there was a ballroom filled them as well.  For a comic book convention, it was kind of sad that there were only three comic book sellers there and they all had small stalls.  So much for finding stuff on my long-term wish list, which I carry with me for just such contingencies.  I decided I was going to buy something while there to support the vendors.  I picked up three old Gladstone Disney comics.  (One has Donald and the boys dressed as Batman-like characters going out to fight crime.  This should be good.)  I got an issue of Guardians of the Galaxy, but annoying I already had it, just with a different cover.  Grrr.  At least it has a nice cover.

Other vendors had all sorts of crafts.  The Estate Sale was there with a booth.  They had some older Conan comics and some large superhero figures.  There was some kind of snake and reptile handling area.  Dave & Busters had a ball toss game area.  (I don’t think there’s a D&B anywhere in the area.)  The Girl Scouts had a recruitment booth.  I’m not sure how it worked for them, but I think most of the kids there were actually little girls, so it wasn’t a bad idea. 

Then there were the groups that were there that I couldn’t figure out why.  The public library had a display with a strange collection of magazines and books.  I think they have comics trades there to borrow, but they had old teen magazines featuring Justin Bieber sitting out on their table (for the little girls at the convention?).  A hip hop dance troop had a booth, maybe to coach cosplayer groups for a routine for the costume contest?  A local radio station had a table.  They weren’t doing a remote broadcast.  It was a guy with a table and a sign.  I hadn’t even heard of the station.         

I also decided I’d buy something from one of the writers or artists that were there.  There were a couple of authors selling novels.  I think they were aimed at young women.  The protagonists were probably having affairs with sexy, but sensitive vampires in a dystopian future.  (GD it!  As sure as I publish this, somebody will start writing it.)  Then there was a small comics publisher, Vault Comics, that looked kind of interesting, but I wasn’t sure what their main title was about.  Ah, there’s a small sign summing it up: “Lesbian Vikings.”  It’s from one extreme to another.  On the one hand, given the number of little girls present, this didn’t seem entirely appropriate.  On the other, the high female population made me feel a bit out of place and alienated AT A FREAKING COMIC BOOK CONVENTION!

I finally decided on patronizing writer Meredith Finch.  She was a pleasant looking lady that was nice to the fans she was talking to.  I wasn’t familiar with her work, so I asked.  She’s best known for working on the New 52 Wonder Woman.  In a more quiet setting, I might have had some questions, but even then, I haven’t even seen the Wonder Woman movie, much less read any new 52 comics.  She was pleasant and nice; I’m just too awkward with strangers.  

I picked up her new comic, Rose, without even asking what it was about.  (I think its aimed at young women since it features a young woman in a medieval dystopian future with a sexy vampire boyfriend.  Sigh.  Just kidding, sort of, maybe.  Haven’t read it yet.)  I got the comic and a print, both signed, for $5.  The comic has a parchment-like cover and the print is really nice.  I may need to get a frame for it.  I felt slightly bad about not buying more (like a few more issues of Rose or something from another small comic publisher that was there that might have been local).  I just didn’t want to feel dumb later, like I did when I found out I’d bought same Guardians comic again.   

I don’t feel bad about not visiting the cafeteria.  $2.50 for a soda?  I waited to get a couple of pizza slices from a local place on my way home.  The panels didn’t interest me, so I didn’t go into that ballroom.  I wasn’t around long enough anyway.  The one I might have wanted to attend would have been Meredith’s, which ended right after I got there. 

The PA announced that Gary Busey, the Con’s main guest, was available for photographs, though I noticed later that his panel was canceled.  No, I’m not sure what the Sci-Fi/Horror/Fantasy relation angle was with him either.  I understood last years’ guests, the guy from Starship Troopers and another guy from Walking Dead.  (They got introduced on field at halftime during the Aggie football game that weekend.  Football hasn’t started yet this year.)  I think the lady that got me the tickets was going to see an actress there from Walking Dead, one of her favorite shows.   

I strolled around the large game room before leaving.  This was one area that wasn’t crowded.  At the tables there were demos of a bunch of different miniatures games, all of which are insanely expensive and I wouldn’t want to be getting into.  There was a table playing Settlers of Catan.  A Magic: The Gathering tournament was scheduled earlier in the morning, but I would have thought it would have been still running.  I might have had some interest in the D&D Adventurer’s League, but I would have had to have stuck around for another couple of hours waiting for it.  The room was also listed as the video room, but I didn’t see any videos.  What is a comic book convention without an anime room?  Answer: not geeky enough at all. 

Overall, it was an interesting morning.  It wasn’t very expensive either.  I think I spent $30 if you include the pizza.  I got plenty of stuff to read now.  Would the convention have been worth $30 to get in?  Only if you were going with some other people (or are a very friendly sort of person) or taking kids (ouch, that would get expensive quick) and planning on staying awhile, if not all day.  You should definitely know in advance what panels and games you’re going for, so you show up on time for them.  (I didn’t even have a watch with me.)  I didn’t even know this event was going on until Friday, the day it started, and only because a couple of other people told me.  I wouldn’t mind going again under the right conditions, so I’ll keep an eye out for it next year.