Xuthl’s Wilderness Comics and Collectibles Comic Reviews


Fake Mego Figures
June 10, 2008, 6:51 pm
Filed under: Collectable Toys | Tags: , , , , , ,

Ok I gotta add another post for this week. I just came across something that blew my mind!

 

When I was a kid in the early 70’s, Mego action figures were all the rage. We had a pretty decent collection which included the Star Trek figures, as well as quite a few of the superhero collection. Recently I noticed some of these figures at our local comic show and it made me curious.

 

I did some checking and found out that these are readily available on E-Bay. I immediately decided that I needed to buy some! But before I put out my hard earned money to buy these memories from my childhood, I wanted to see what they are actually worth. I started doing some research and got a good ball park idea of what I would be willing to pay.

 

But that is the boring part of the story. There is a company called EMCE that is making reproductions of the old Mego figures. They are not pretending to be anything other than what they are. Reproductions. The packaging is a pretty close replica of the original. If you did not do your research you could be fooled. Some vendors on E-Bay have taken to selling the EMCE version of the figures. This is not a bad thing if they just list them as EMCE figures, but some of the sellers are calling them “Mego Like” figures. The seller is not technically doing anything wrong. They are just preying on the buyers ignorance, and doing a fine job of it. The listing, in my opinion is deliberately misleading, but buyer beware.

 

Now here is the real point I am trying to make. I have been watching several auctions this last week. One was for a genuine Mego Klingon figure. One was for a genuine Captain Kirk Mego figure, and one was for a lot of two EMCE figures featuring Captain Kirk and the Klingon. Captain Kirk is currently at $20 with 4 days left in the auction. The Klingon is currently at $11 with 4 days left. If you bought these two figures you would pay $31. The total will likely climb higher before the auction ends, but that is where they are at now.

 

The EMCE lot of the Captain and the Klingon closed this afternoon. The poor moron who bought them paid… drum roll puhlease!… $45!!! For fakes! This poor schlub, doubtless believes he is getting 1970’s action figures, mint in the original packaging, and instead he will be receiving EMCE figures from 2008!

 

So I guess my point is this. If you are thinking of buying vintage toys, or vintage anything for that matter, online, do your research first. Protect yourself from crap deals like this one!

 

Have a great day!

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Tales of Suspense #42
June 10, 2008, 6:44 pm
Filed under: Comic Book Reviews | Tags: , , , , , ,

Welcome to Xuthl’s weekly comic review. This is my first post, so I guess I will throw down with how this is going to work. Every week I plan to post reviews of comic books I am reading. I will do my best to post every Sunday. I will rate the books on a scale from 1 to 20, awarding 1-5 points for cover art, story, and art, and relevance. These are just my opinions, but hopefully you will find my reviews entertaining, and helpful when you are deciding what titles to add to your reading list. So let’s get down to it.

 

This week I will be offering just one read, Marvel Tales of Suspense from 1961. A strange book to start with I suppose, but it just happens to be what I read today.

 

Now I gotta tell you that Tales of Suspense is not a title I generally enjoy reading. The storylines are mediocre at best, and the art is pretty substandard. This particular issue kind of grabs your attention though. Don Heck provides a really nice cover with crisp art and great use of colors. If you were a comic buyer in 1961 I think you would have a tough time passing on this title as you were flipping through the carousel at your local drug store. The Red Barbarian is drawn as a really neanderthal looking fellow, but that seems to be the style of the 60’s. The bad guys look really evil and the good guys look really strong and heroic. I give the cover 5 out of 5.

 

The story, plotted by Stan the man Lee and written by R. Berns, is as good as any I have read in this title. Spoilers follow. The Red Barbarian is an espionage agent for the Red Army whose plans are continally thwarted by Iron Man. He is unsure how to steal the plans for Tony Stark’s latest inventions when he is approached by a superpowered villain named the Actor (yes the names of the bad guys were a little weak back in the early 60’s!) who is able to reshape his face to imitate anyone. Soon he travels to America and impersonates Tony Stark to gain access to his labs. He finds the plans for a disintegration ray, AND figures out that Tony Stark is Iron Man! Taking his newfound secrets he flees back to Russia with Iron Man in fast pursuit. Iron Man captures the Actor and confronts the Red Barbarian himself, telling him that he will share the plans with him in four hours. After that he lets the Actor loose. Of course the Red Barbarian will not believe that it was not the Actor who visited him earlier and promptly has him executed. This is my problem with all the Tales of Suspense stories I have been reading. The story wraps up a little too conveniently. Still I enjoyed this comic up until the ending and I will give it 4 out of 5.

 

The art throughout this book is really good. It certainly exceeded by expectations for this time in comics history. The frames are not filled up with background clutter, and the images are really well drawn. I give this issue 4 out of 5 for art work.

 

When it comes to significance I have to give this issue a big 1 out of 5. It is a good read, but to the best of my knowledge the Actor is killed in the last frames of the story and the Red Barbarian is never seen again in comics as far as I know. We see nothing new from Iron Man, and no new ongoing characters are introduced.

So I give this issue a score of 14 out of 20.  This is just a fun read which has absolutely no impact on the makeup of the Marvel Universe.

 

I hope you enjoyed my first blog. If you could take a moment to post a comment this would be really helpful for me.

 

See you all next week!

 

Xuthl

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