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Written by James Tomlinson
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Tuesday, 28 October 2008 |
Greetings Pards,
Well, winter's coming on. You can feel it in the way the wind blows, and in the temperature drop, and in the earlier than usual gloaming; darkness comes on early now. In the fall is when a gardener plants bulbs, in order to have their flowers in the spring. Seems like an odd time to plant something, with winter coming on, but that's how bulbs work; they're different from seeds that get planted in early spring. This website then, is more of a bulb than a seed, because we've "planted" it on the Internet in the Fall of 2008. It's already showing promise.
More than seventy of you have registered with the site to this writing. It's likely that number will swell exponentially by the Spring of 2009. You seventy will tell a friend, and that seventy will tell a friend, and so on down the line, until this web site is a veritable city of fellow toy collectors.
Some of you will be here for Star Wars news and price updates. Some for Transformers, some for G.I. Joe, some for DC Universe or Marvel Superheroes news and price updates, and many of you for Hot Wheels and Greenlight Collectibles news and price updates. If your passions run along those lines, rest assured that ours do to, and they have for a long, long time.
We started the magazine in the Fall of 1990, the first of its kind on the scene, followed shortly by Tomart's Action Figure Digest, and half a decade later by ToyFare. We've been at this for 18 years. Maybe some of you finding us on the web now have been with us the whole time. Some of you are just discovering Lee's Toy Review for the first time. In any case, it's a new era; a Brave New World, where the Internet holds sway, and print is on the wane. Both information formats have their appeal. Print is something that you can hold in your hand, that you can take with you anywhere. Until more recently you couldn't do that with your computer. Then came laptops. Then came Blackberries, and iPhones. The next thing, likely, will be some sort of Dick Tracy wrist-phone thing, where you can look at Lee's Toy Review on something that looks like a wrist watch. Who knows what's next?
What we do know is, our love of toys and collectibles hasn't changed. We still geek out at the toy store. We love the stuff; you'd have to to be at this for as many years as we have. The future of print seems dim, but the future of toy collecting is as bright as ever, if not brighter. If you compare what you're seeing in toy stores now to what we were seeing 18 years ago, you'd have to agree. As much as we love the old stuff, the toys of the '60s, '70s, and '80s, you have to admit, most of what's available to figure collectors nowadays is pretty freakin' sharp. Compare any of the major collectable brands and you can see it, from Star Wars, to G.I. Joe, to DC and Marvel. Compare the Lex Luthor of Toy Biz (the one that punches itself in the head) to the Lex Luthor of Mattel's DC Universe line. Compare any of the G.I. Joes from the '80s to what we see in stores now. Star Wars? There's a no-brainer. Everything's better. Everything's slicker. Now is the time to collect toys. There's never been a better time. Well, that's all for today. Good to see you all here. Keep on keepin' on. Collect 'em all.
J.T.
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Written by James Tomlinson
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Monday, 29 September 2008 |
Two heads are better than one
Dear editor of Lee's,
I recently ran across a Star Wars EP3 Greatest Battles 501st Legion Trooper variant with a solid white unpainted helmet. I have looked all over the internet and on ebay for information on this piece any information you can give me on it would be much appreciated.
Thanks for your time,
Andy McDonald
According to the Hasbro Star Wars team that was a random production line spray-op glitch. Rare? Yes. Conversation piece? Definitely. Substitute for Social Security? No.
Great things come in wrong packages
Dear Lee’s,
I have two Deluxe Classic Superstar figures from Series 2, one of which is Brett Hart packaged in a Kevin Nash package and the other is Shawn Michaels packaged in a Kevin Nash package as well. Aparently my local
Toys ‘R’ Us recieved a whole case that were like this and after they realized this they sent the remainder of the case back. I was just
wondering if there were alot like this that actually made it to the public and what if anything might they be worth?
Jason M.
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
That was a bit of a SNAFU for Jakks Pacific as we recall, but it doesn’t really add to the secondary market value of the mispackaged figures you have there, unless you hook up somehow with someone who collects Jakks WWE packaging errors. Even if you do, don’t look for much above the average secondary market price on those two figures. Most WWE collectors would like to have the figures in their correct packaging. Of course, this differs from one collectible brand to another. For instance, if it happened with Star Wars, there’d be a stampede to your door to get an Obi-wan figure on a Yoda card or some such.
Warrior Princess
Dear Lee’s,
I have a number of the Toy Biz Xena 12-inch dolls. I was wondering if you knew anything about them with respect to secondary market value. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of the old TV series, and I adore the dolls. They did a beautiful job on them. I just like to know how much my dolls are worth out of curiosity. Plus, if they’re worth a lot, I get to brag about them a little to my friends. Thanks for everything.
Suzy L.
Santa Ynez, CA
That was a great series of dolls. The the product manager at the time, the late Sophia Salazar (a dearly missed friend), did a fantastic job with them. She had one of the best eyes for detail in the business,
an artist in her own right. As beautiful as the Xena and Gabrielle dolls are, it’s interesting that the Ares “God of War” figure averages $35 at auction to any of the female figures’s $7. The reason for that being, of course, that in a female-skewed line he was the short pack as well as a series tail-ender. A lot of attention went into the outfits on the females, and they’re some of the best character dolls ever produced.
The fact that the television series has been off air for so long, and isn’t in syndication anywhere right now so far as we know, accounts to some extent for lackluster secondary market value averages. One day it’ll come back into syndication, and when it does, watch for values on the dolls to rise. The managing editor used to have a complete set of dolls, and was holding onto them for sentimental value, but gave a couple away to two little girls who likely never had a new doll in their lives. When they saw them they smiled smiles they likely hadn’t in quite a long time. His friend Sophia would have wanted them to have them, for sure.
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Written by James Tomlinson
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Wednesday, 23 July 2008 |
Dear Lee's,
I don't know how open you are to reader suggestions, but I thought it might be a good idea for you to have a regular column where collectors could write in and talk about "why I collect" action figures, or Hot Wheels, or whatever. I think other collectors would like to read about that. This can be a lonely and kind of nerdy hobby. Most people don't understand why it is we do what we do or why we love it so much. Only another collector would understand what it means to skip lunch because he only had enough money in his wallet to buy an action figure to complete a set and not lunch too.
Anyway, just a suggestion. Maybe you could let me know your thoughts on that, or maybe even some other collectors could write in to your letters column after reading my letter and get the ball rolling. Thanks for listening.
Terry H.
Hartland, VT
Actually, that's something we've been considering doing. Great minds think alike Terry! With that said, if any of you guys and gals that are reading this right now want to undertake writing to us along those lines, we'd be glad to know "why you collect."
Dear Lee's,
I recently picked up a cool vinyl figure of a comic character from the 1960's, called Albert Alligator, a character from the old Walt Kelly comic strip called "Pogo." It's the only one I've ever found. It stands about five inches tall, is very simply painted, and has the Walt Kelly name and the year "1969" engraved in the bottom, along with the figure's name. It also says "Made in Japan." Can you tell me if there were other figures done based on that comic strip? I have to believe that if they made Albert Alligator that they at least did a Pogo. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Also, would it be more valuable being made in Japan back then? Is that "Occupied Japan?"
Yours truly,
Steven K.
Bridgewater, MA
In fact, there were six figures produce all told, for a Procter & Gamble product promotion. The figures were shrink wrapped to boxes and bottles of various of P&G's soap and cleaning products.
The figures were released as part of this promotion in 1969. If you're a big Walt Kelly fan, you'll be interested to know that he carved the original figures himself out of wood. Those original carvings were used by a Japanese vendor to create the molds for roto-cast vinyl figure production. All of the figures except for two (Porky Pine and Pogo) have articulation at the head and shoulders. Some at both shoulders, some at only one. The complete set includes Albert Alligator, Pogo, Howland Owl, Porky Pine, Churchy LaFemme (the turtle), and Beauregard Hound. Any fan of the Pogo comic strip would be thrilled to own a set of these.
Some collectibles made in Japan during the post-WWII U.S. occupation period are quite valuable. However, the year 1969 falls well outside that period, and does not add any value to your treasure. In future, if you're interested in those sorts of collectibles, you'll be looking for the words "Occupied Japan," or "Made in Occupied Japan," somewhere on your collectible, which designates that it was in fact produced in that country between the years of 1945 and 1952. Thanks for a trip down memory lane!
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