I am so tired.
Sunday was exhausting and
I’m not over it yet, we spent the daylight hours at the final day of the winter
MCM London Comic Con – or getting there –
and then after returning I hosted our group’s annual Halloween get together
which ended at quarter to 12. That may sound early but after five hours of
convention, three hours of travelling and then 4 and a half hours of
socializing midnight seems pretty late, and then I still had to clear up. The
Halloween do was a great success – no egotism there it wasn’t a success because
of me, it was just success in my domicile – MCM meanwhile was probably the best
MCM ever, spread over two halls it had more dealers than ever before, a slew of
impressive names signing, a large artist alley and stalls from a host of big
guns from CEX to Bandai, in terms of balance between the various things to do
it was easily the best MCM I can remember and in terms of the amount of each
thing to do it was the best MCM I can remember – I only wish I’d got to see
more of it.
The fact that I didn’t
wasn’t the fault of MCM – it was the fault of TFL Rail, the current private
company who own the trains in London (thanks Maggie, privatisation still giving
us all issues decades on) – they closed a whole segment of the overground rail
but put on no replacement bus service, stranding us in Ilford. I’m assuming the
thinking behind not bothering to put a bus service on was because there were
buses that run from Ilford to Stratford – the part of the railway line closed –
anyway. HOWEVER have you ever been to Ilford or been to Ilford and tried to get
a bus? I’m guessing not as most of the readers of this blog are imaginary –
Ilford is a place where joy goes to die and half of it is a confusing ring
road, it’s a horrible place and a horrible place to navigate if you don’t go
there a lot, and I don’t because I avoid Ilford like the fucking plague. So instead
of a replacement bus service that stops outside the station (or nearabouts) we
had to walk around a bad area looking for an 86 bus going the right way. It
took us over 2 hours to do a 50 minute journey, I was exhausted before I got to
the convention, which closed at 5, we got there at 20 to 1.
I feel better now. Anyway
of course I still bought a load of crap and spent over £100, wanna see?
With one exception (to
come) I’m pretty damn satisfied, I worry about buying too much of one type of
item at conventions because I have a shitload of baggage and one of them is
that I worry I’m becoming obsessed. I was particularly concerned I was buying
too many action figures, especially as three of them cost £15 or more – but seeing
it all together, well mostly (to come), sure it’s nearly all toys but not all the same type and
that’s enough to calm the nagging little voices in my head – well the ones that
nag me about being obsessed anyway. Now to go into specifics the way I do with
these – so are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll (finally) begin:
Cruncher!
£15 ($19.71)
Achievement unlocked! This
is my last Thundercats figure! The only figure I was missing for a complete
set. I still want to replace a few so I’m not done with the line as a whole but
this is the only character I was short and woo-hoo! That said he’s really a
case of ‘Only Missing X Left Syndrome’, something that I made up but I think
should be relatable: It’s the willingness to pay more for something when that
something is the only one missing from your set regardless of how comparatively
rare it is: £15 for Cruncher at a convention isn’t extortionate by any means,
especially as the Berzekers are generally priced higher because of their bulk
(I’ve never bought a Thundercats figure new so I can’t tell you if the
Bezerkers cost more at retail but they were packaged the same as a regular
carded figure) but the Berzerkers aren’t especially rare (unlike the Rampagers)
and I’m sure I could get him cheaper, even at a con, if I tried but because
he’s the last one, because he’s there and because he’s affordable enough I had
to buy him right there and then. I’m not displeased, the Berzekers (Hammerhand,
Cruncher, Top Spinner and Ram-Bam) are my some of the nicest figures the 80’s put
out and finally having a complete set is satisfying - as is this Cruncher, he
has a little bit of paint ware of one hand (and appears to be laying down some
sick beats, we’ll forgive him for that too) but I’m sure he’d be in a worse
state if I’d had him since childhood like poor Ram-Bam and Top Spinner.
Random Little
Guys!
£4 ($5.26) for
the lot
One seller – the one I
bought the Golden Girl figure from – had a tray on his table filled with
mini-figures, lots of people have these chess board looking buggers and they’re
usually filled only with 3 year old Pokémon and bootleg anime gashapon –
neither of which I’m averse to owning but nothing too amazing. Not with this
geezer though, check it out: two Kombattini, a Trash Bag Bunch, a Bone Age figure and a vintage E.T. Figurine – all for less than a pound each, by
convention standards that’s not free, that’s him paying me. I’m especially
pleased with the Kombattini (which are the Spanish version of Army Ants) - it’s
hard enough to find them in the wild and find them with their abdomens but to
find them at a convention and find them at a convention for an affordable price
on the last day of the con, that my
imaginary chums is a reason to feel smug. Not a very big reason and arguably a bit
of a sad reason but fuck it; I’ll take my little victories where I can find
them, even if they’re little victories about rubber ants.
Lil’
Mechagodzilla!
£3 ($3.94)
This is probably my
favourite buy from the show – simply because I’m not sure it was actually the
stallholder’s to sell and nor was he. When asking for a price for it the seller
didn’t seem to recognise it at all and obviously and openly pulled a price out
of his arse on the spot. I’m sure it WAS his but the way the whole thing went
down made it feel it’s equally likely that I’d just paid him £3 to buy
something someone had left on the edge of his table. It left me with a smile on
my face and a small rubber robot in my bag.
Screamin’
Meemie!
£20 ($26.28)
I fucked up on this one.
The seller – who I also bought other stuff from that was all fine – had three
Head Poppin’ Madballs, one I owned (Wolf Breath) and two I didn’t (this guy and
Bruise Brother). I got a bit excited at seeing a Screamin’ Meemie at less than
eBay prices (I’ve been very keen to replace the one I lost) that I didn’t pay
proper attention to the figure itself, the seller popped it straight into a bag
and I didn’t notice until later that he has an obvious chunk out of his nose,
now I have to get him a new head which’ll jack up the price to eBay prices or
thereabouts - I should have bought Bruiser Brother. Now I don’t think the seller was out to fuck
me as such – though he didn’t bring up the damage – he just did what he always
does ‘do you want a bag? You do, ‘k’ *puts it in bag* and I did get a working
Screamin’ Meemie body out of it (Head Poppin’ figures with busted mechanisms
are common, for those who don’t follow eBay auctions on Madballs figures – you
weirdos), I just should have had a closer look at the figure before I blew the
price of a decent meal out on a toy. Shit, fuck, arse.
Jason Vorhees
Mr Potato Head!
£11.99
($15.75)
I honestly don’t have much
to say about this beyond ITS A MR POTATO HEAD DRESSED AS JASON VORHEES AND IT
WAS CHEEEAAP!! I just realised when taking the photos that I had a Mr Potato
Head dressed as Jason Vorhees and I really wanted a picture of that on my blog,
ever so sorry.
Cheap Care
Bears Stuff!
£7 ($9.20) for
all of it
I often think people think
I’m joking when I refer to my borderline obsession with vintage Care Bears
merchandise and my compulsion to buy it - I’m not. I genuinely love the
vintage-era of Care Bears (roughly 1982-1990) and even though my focus is the 13-inch
plush and poseable figures pretty much any merch that isn’t badges, jewellery
or clothes (they all make me feel sick) is fair game if I come across it.
Here’s proof, a carded figurine and a stack of Panini Sticker Album stickers. I
generally don’t keep my stuff boxed or carded because I think that toys should
be played with but I’m keeping that figurine carded because I’m a hypocrite but
more so because I just love the art and colours of the cards for the figurines
and poseable figures and I’ve not had the chance so far to get any carded at an
affordable prices. The stickers were in a huge box of shit trading cards, I was
so genuinely overjoyed to find ancient Care Bears stickers at five for a pound,
people stared.
This Tim
Burton book!
£17 ($22.33)
This got left out of the
haul photo because I forgot, I’m just-run-a-marathon level tired remember? This book is very shiny and I will admit that
I looked at it because I wanted to see what the shiny thing was but I bought it
because I’m actually a big follower of Tim Burton - I’m almost certain that
I’ve never brought it up on here but I am. I don’t think he’s perfect; I have
films of his that I don’t much care for and I have this thing where I regularly
get sick of A Nightmare Before Christmas
and won’t watch it for a year or so to allow it to regain its ‘specialness’, a
thing that no-one around me seems to understand – which is fairly common with
my quirks really - but I’ve been following his stuff since Batman Returns and I’ve seen everything he’s done before and since
(I missed Dark Shadows at the cinema though, I fail), I’m a big fan. And this
book looks lovely; I’ve only flicked through it since stalls get pissed off if
you stand and read their books cover-to-cover (unfair i know) and I’ve been
busy since but it’s laid out lovely, it’s got a nice amount of text, it goes
film-by-film up to Ms. Peregrine’s and has a complete filmography time-line
that folds out, it’s also really shiny.
And now I’m done, I’m going
back to bed, you can’t stop me and I refuse to feel lazy: I got to bed at 3am
yesterday after being up at half five the morning before (I just woke up, no
reason) and doing loads of shit. I have today spare and I’m gonna use it to try
and sleep myself back to life , thanks for reading my crap, I appreciate it – a
lot.
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