MY COMICS /BOOKS /TOYS & COOL STUFF

Welcome to my blog, I am based in Nottingham UK & I love toys, comics, science fiction, horror ect. This blog is dedicated to my trips around the flea markets, toy shops & charity shops, toy fairs & E bay in pursuit of that elusive bargain and holy grail toy.
All the toys & comics reviewed are mine.
I shall be regulary updating my finds and trips out to various car boots & toy fairs.
Hope you find it of interest!

Wednesday 28 September 2011

VILLAINOUS RAT GANG

I recently got this superb finger monster box from the States, complete with 9 Finger monsters, all different to some of the others i have in fact a new generation of finger monsters or Finger Frights if you prefer.
They tend to live outside of their box some lurking about the far corners of the toy room others attempting to terrify Jon Pertwees Third Doctor, so the empty box is gradually being filled with the Villain Rat from the great 'Fantastic Mr Fox' movie, I've found 3 of these at Car Boot sales so far, you can usually pick them up for around 20p each i really like them and i get friends to look out for them for me too ( thanks Gav) i've no idea what i intend to do with them once the box is full, stage some kind of Villainous Ratty Invasion on the world perhaps.

The Villanous Rat Army making Plans
Pertwee being terrified obviously

CUSTOM DR WHO HEADER CARDS





My friend Steve , who resides in sunny Northampton, creates these cool custom header cards, useful if you think the original packaging the toys came in is a bit rubbish, case in point being the recent Dr Who 70's figures, and the Dapol Dr Who toys, both of which have pretty rubbish packaging, I like something that represents the era of the show, and Steve's headers conjure up visions of Hong Kong rack toys & 70's Esq artwork which i love, the Silurian dinosaur is a great header, there is at the moment, no such toy, but i have a 70's Dino that looks a little like the one in the show ( a small T Rex that lives in a cave) add a card, and there you have it! a cheap nasty but brilliant rack toy, had this came out in the 70's, it would fetch a fortune on E bay.


Great header for the Dapol Pertwee
I staple the card to the bag, to give it that authentic rack look, although the bags need to be a bit more crinkly for that ultra real Hong Kong look.


the cheap & nasty Silurian Dinosaur!

He also does a cool line in retro 50's monsters, using original rubber spiders & creatures,  here's one he did for me for my old 1960's rubber spider.
Tarantula!

Here's the latest custom headers, a great Time Warrior figure Lynx without his helmet this is the old Dapol version i like the Dapol figures they are not as detailed as the new ones coming out, but they look more toy-Esq..if you see what i mean anyways they suit a header card more than a blister pack methinks
Pertwee grapples with Lynx..The sontaran,not the deodorant
B side of the Header
Next is the custom header for the 'Day of the Daleks' Dalek, this is my fave its really funky looking and i love the colourful comic book artwork.
Custom TV Action Art Header..Groovy!
B side



Sunday 25 September 2011

TODAYS CAR BOOT FINDS

Most Sunday's me and my girlfriend head off for Colwick Car Boot located in a not picturesque suburb of Nottingham, the boot sale is held on the site of a Race Course not i must add, while the race is running.
This Sunday the weather was rubbish and it was a bit quieter than usual but we still came back with the following bits.
This great X files 2 figure pack, we were really happy finding this as our original figures had been lost, we still have the moulder & the alien autopsy type figure  but Scully was long gone so getting this was well worth the trip and at the bargain price of £1.00! cheap & wonderful
X Files 2 Pack.Mulder seems a bit off colour

2 Pack Back

The same seller also had a huge box of X files Vids the complete series, which he said i could have for nothing! if i could carry the box i passed up on this generous offer as we have them all on DVD and we don't have the room anyway, it seems at most car boot sales people are desperate to get rid of their Vids you can usually pick up 10 at a time  for a quid or less.

Next i found this Superman figure from the recent Bryan Singer film its pretty cool i haven't put battery's in it yet so I'm not sure what sounds it makes or even if it works but it'll look good on display, I'm not a great fan of the Singer movie but i like the toys & figures from it i like Superman in general really, a good Superman figure can help brighten up a display.

must get some battery's


My final finds after a 2 hour wonder around a muddy field were this gang of marvel characters, Lizard is one of my faves and I'm always on the lookout for figures & toys of this great character,apparently he's appearing as one of the villains in the upcoming Spiderman Movie, i'm looking forward to that.
Not sure what the hulk figure is? maybe from a game of some kind the Spiderman figure is OK  he's got some kind of web cage attached and seems to be from a Playset maybe.
I got these figures for 10p each..Bargain!

Car Boot Gang Of Marvels!





Finally here's our original Mulder figure sorting out a bunch of wild Alien types up to some Nasty abduction scenario no less..
Aliens really exist!  Mulder was right all along.



BATMAN BOARD GAMES

I Have 3 Batman board games, all from different eras of the show, the first one is a lovely old Hasbro game entitled, 'Help Batman & Robin capture the joker', the box lid is fab i love the artwork especially of the Joker zooming towards Batman in his bright red car, not sure what Robins doing, as he appears to be flying!


The game board is also pretty fantastic, the artwork again is brilliant with Batman & Robin both swooping down towards the Joker, who is once again out cruising in his bright red car, the board makes a great backdrop for figures it seems a shame to keep such a great bit of artwork tucked away in the box.

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I got this incomplete off of the E bay, i wasn't too concerned about that, as i mainly loved the box, and thought it would look great on display regardless of some of the contents missing.

 The Second of my Bat games is the great Denys Fisher version as a child growing up in the 70"s Denys Fisher was a name you"d be very familiar with, The company made some great games, my ultimate fave being the "War Of The Daleks"..more on that later..The Batman game, once again has a great box very displayable with no less than 3 Batmen in action! and one lone robin to dispatch the villains.

Once again a Bat spinner is featured  instead of a dice  but what a great spinner it is, this time the Joker & Penguin seem to have appeared wonder why they were not included  on the box art?.
The board, is once again rather Fantastic, in fact i like this one better than the 1960"s one.
theres loads going on here with 2 face, The  Penguin, the Batmobile and a rather old Bat logo in the centre.
A lovely old game and a great display piece, well worth the £15.00 I paid And not too difficult to find on E Bay, or toy fairs.
The third game from my collection is the Parker Brothers 3D Batman Returns game, obviously from the Tim Burton movie of the same name


once again great box art  featuring the stars of the movie, Batman , Cat woman & Penguin, pretty good likeness of Keaton Too I love the cats & penguins coming towards you, very dynamic and once again this makes a great backdrop for figures & toys.



I put a part  of the game together to show the 3-D ness of it, and as you can see its pretty cool as are the stand up  figure counters of the main characters, its completely different to the other 2 games i have but still a really nice item and very cheap to pick up, i paid 99p for this! no one else bid so it was a fantastic bargain i thought

Here's my 70"s game on display, with my incomplete MEGO Robin & Batman figures, 3 great McDonald Cars ( I love these) some badges, and a game counter from the Parker game which makes a nice little display item with a few other Cat woman bits next to it.




Thursday 22 September 2011

GANG OF HULKS

A random pic of some of my hulks, a neca headknocker from a car boot sale very cool, also just behind that, a hulk pen,also a car boot buy, a toothbrush set from TRU, around the time of the Ang Lee hulk movie, A larger Hulk toy from the Ang Lee movie, and some candy stick boxes ( sweet cigarettes), and an old Walls ice cream card of a transforming hulk.
Oh and a couple of tiny marvel Minnimates, Leader( my fave Villain) and tiny hulk.

Sunday 18 September 2011

MY BEST COMIC BUYS THIS WEEK


On a recent trip to Birmingham city centre, I nipped in to the mighty Nostalgia & Comics. There I found 3 boxes of classic silver & bronze age for sale. After deciding how much I could actually afford to spend, I came away with a variety of great silver age DC..

The first was this great Justice League 'all sorcery' issue, featuring the full length Gardner Fox  story 'The Fantastic Fingers of Felix Faust' - this is a minor classic and has the Justice League pitted against 3 demons under the control of the aforementioned Mr Faust, a great cover and excellent artwork by Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs, see the excellent splash pages above and below.
I love the DC 80 page giants, its a great way to read old stories that would be unaffordable usually and its also really neat to have them contained in one themed issue, this is my fave so far, the fantastic 'Things & Creatures' 80 page Superman
A pretty fantastic issue. I've just finished the 'Creature of a Thousand Disguises' story featuring a monster called Gollo which can change its shape, foxing Superman with its various changes from skyscraper, to steamboat etc.. There is a veritable cavalcade of great monsters to be found in this special, I got it pretty cheap £2.00, as you can see, its not in the best condition, but I love it! The cover is wonderful, give me any silver age comic, full of great artwork and monsters and I'm sold!
Also amongst my buys from Nostalgia were a stash of 'Doom Patrol' comics, not a title I'm familiar with, but I was sold on the great covers, especially the art by Bruno Premiani, and the madness & diversity of the stories, unlike Marvel, DC don't let a lot of soap style worries & problems drag their heroes down, its pretty much straight on with the action.
Another classic I picked up was 'Detective Comics 412'  with a striking Neil Adams cover, this is an issue I've been looking for for a while now, only to be constantly outbid on E bay whenever one turned up.


There's a little corner damage to the bottom left, but overall, a great looking issue and a pretty good bargain at £4.00.
'Challengers of the Unknown'  is another title I wasn't that familar with, being a total Marvel fanatic for years, I missed out on a lot of DC comics, thinking they were never that great, how wrong I was. Doom patrol is excellent, especially this recently aquired issue, not in the greatest of condition, this has never bothered me, as I like to read them and show them to people. This issue features the artwork of the great Jack Kirby who, along with Steve Ditko & Neal Adams, is one of the giants of the comic book industry.

Great Kirby Monster!


Splash Page.
I love the Kirby villian 'Karnak' pictured below, in part 3 of the story, he duplicates himself using an ancient vial, the panels are bigger than the usual Marvel size so you get to see more detail.
Demon From the Depths -  part 2 of  the story.

I love seeing the great ads for stuff we could never get in the UK, these ads for ghosts & monsters always fascinated me as a child..

Another great issue below, featuring the Sea Devils, this time with art by Bob Brown.

The Fantastic Sponge Man




MAN FROM UNCLE GAME IDEAL 1965





This has got to be one of my most favourite recent items from E Bay, the fantastic Ideal " Man from Uncle" game.
As you can see the box is fantastic, I love the pic of the ultra cool Napoleon Solo with silencer pistol, and the fight scene on the left of the box lid, sadly missing Illya, allthough the guy in the centre looks a little bit like him, creeping up armed with a knife! There's a glamourous woman, standing in front of a control panel, beneath her is a missile of some kind, obviously part of a deadly Thrush plan for world domination.
This is the kind of box picture/artwork that you would never see on any of today's toys, I'm sure there would be a huge outcry from shocked parents everywhere.
The inside isn't that great, the board is ok, but lacks anymore Uncle inspired pics or artwork, the playing pieces are  generic plastic figures of spy-ish/espionage looking men, the cloak and dagger look I guess you'd call it, and the 1960's idea of what spys looked like!
I got the game from a seller in the States, as you never see it in the UK, expensive to ship, actually the shipping cost more than the game! Often the case when buying items from the States.
I haven't played it yet, but I guess you do not  buy these TV tie in games to play them, and most of the ones I have attempted to play have been a bit naff, but they look fantastic on display, the plastic figures are also very like the ones used in Parker Brothers 'Microdot' game, another spy espionage classic and one I have played very often, using cunning and double cross, you have to steal your enemy spy's briefcase from their embassy and return safely to your embassy, using wire cutters, ladders ect, there's walls to breach, codes to crack..ect, it really is a fantastic game for the budding Harry Palmer and with a couple of bottles of wine, passes an evening nicely, great fun!
I originally purchased mine from an old toy warehouse in the 1970's called ' Preedys', which was also a chain of newsagents, most 1970's shopping precints had one.


I recommend 'Microdot' to play and 'Uncle' to display!..over & out..