Batman: The Lost Bet

I had a little bet going with Brian A and Brian B that the winner (or loser) had to write a guest post for the other's blogs. I really do not want to got into the whole thing, but I won and or lost! 

So, first up I have a guest post over at Under the Giant Penny featuring the Mike Mignola Variant Batman Black and White Statue sent to me by my friends at Tate's. They redesigned their website recently, it's really cool, you should check it out.

Make sure you check out my guest post, and then come back for more Eclectorama fun... oh and I have two more guest post I have to write, so stay tuned for those announcements.

Pay Day

Sorry it's been a while since I have posted. This time of year always seems like my most hectic at work and that carries over to home life as well as we are always trying to finish up house projects. I am almost done with some major ones (well what I consider major, I'm sure they are minor). Anyhoos, this is something I have been meaning to post for some time, actually it's been several weeks.

This is what I like to call Pay Day. See I have this arrangement with Tate's I do a bunch of stickers and stuff and instead of paying me freelance they send me the occasional care package. This is actually the second one this year, the first contained Galactus and a ton of other goodies that have popped up on the blog. Tate's are always good to me and they really keep up with what I am into, they make sure I have a Batman, Stormtrooper (or other Star Wars thing), some Marvel and as in this case some Hellboy. This is also when they send me a ton of the stickers I helped in creating. I can't say it enough I love Tate's and all the people there and I always look forward to doing more drawing for them. To be honest I did purchase one item in this box, but the rest was earned with blood, sweat, and digital ink. Hope you enjoy.

An over view of all the cool swag!

The stickers and cool Tate's Spiderman cover.

Lil' Marvel Dudes! My son already claimed the Iron Man.

This is the one I bought, sweet vinyl cape Jawa!

The Jabba Dark Horse Comic Bag (I helped with the illustration ; ) and a sweet Batman and Robin Pennant from the Sixties.

This was a total surprise for my son and I to share... I knew Mike Mignola signed a sticker for me, but...

...this was above and beyond my expectations!

That's it! I received this package about three weeks back and still amazed at how well they know me and all the cool stuff in there. Big thanks again to Tate and his Family,the staff and all! I received another package from a fellow blogger this past weekend, that one you have to tune in later in the week to see.

Hopefully I will get back on some sort of schedule and as soon as my wife clears out her shoes from the closet, ha ha, I will be putting some more stuff up for sale on eBay (have to make room for that Jawa).

Free Comic Book Day 2011!

It's here, and even though our LCS (Local Comic Shop) in town is rather greedy and limits the comics to one per customer, I have been taken care of very well by my friends at Tate's. I still may venture into the "big city" and see what one of the shops there is doing.

In the mean time as promised here are the first set of stickers I did for Tate's Comic Shop...



I think these turned out great! Tate's does a really great job promoting their shop, they also sent another item they used the artwork on that I will be posting soon!

Next up are the submitted artwork, as with all projects the artwork may need some tweaks and type changes, the Galactus went through a few before the finished version and since the Flash was the first sticker attempt I had left off some key elements like the website url... so, these will be a little different being the first submissions and all. Enjoy!

Flash! He'll save everyone of us...

Oh wait wrong flash. Little known fact, next to Batman, the Flash is one of my favorite super heroes. Okay, maybe it is known. This illustration was done for Tate's Comics in Florida for their Free Comic Book Day stickers they pass out (a different version, this one was an "airbrush" version I did for the fun of it).

If I lived in Florida this shop would get a good portion of my pay check. If you live in Florida you should check them out, tell them Charles sent you and what the hey pick me up something nice from their shop for giving you the tip... worth a try.

click image to see larger... if you can, the Flash is pretty quick!

Speaking of being worth a try, do you my dear, dear readers think that people might be interested in me doing commissions of their favorite pop culture heroes? I have been approached and have turned away a lot of offers, but I think if I do it as a commission it might be okay. Leave a comment and let me know.

Tune in tomorrow as I will be posting the stickers and images of the submitted graphics I did for the shop! Hope you all have a great Free Comic Book Day!

Da Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Batman! BATMAN!

No sooner than I leave a comment on one of Super Duper Toy Box's post do I pick up a Justice League Unlimited three pack... okay for the record I am not collecting these like I used too, but this set has a few things going for it and I had to get it, but the price, Ugh don't get me started... Mattel you bastards! I can't quit you!

First, up it's a new Batman I do not have, or a re paint I do not have.
Second, it's a freaking Batman The Animated Series Set! No Brainer.
Third, Who doesn't love a repainted Joker?
Fourth, holy freaking cow, it's the Gray Ghost, I would have never thought I would see this set ever.

Look how Happy Batman is, it's like when Bubbashelby picks up one of his all plastic dollies at a swap meet! I kid, I kid Bubba.



Oh Batman you will be number.... let's see, oh yeah 116! Seems like it was just yesterday I was thinking I would not get any higher than say 115...



Why is Batman so Happy? Oh, it's the Gray Ghost his childhood hero, punching Joker right in the kisser! Yea Bats, yea Gray Ghost! Boo Joker.



Oh what the hell, for old times sake... Viva JLU Club!

Candid Toy Pic - 04.12.2011

Finally! I found one that wasn't too bad (paint has been terrible on these) in the Target Easter section, Batman number 111, the Funko POP Heroes Batman... Awwwwwh, who's a lil' Batman... you are, you're a lil' Batman!

Weekend Toy Haul

Not often I have one of these, but I had pretty good luck this weekend and found some cool things.

First up I found myself near a Toys R Us that we do not often find ourselves near, this one is located in the big city, anyway on the pegs were about 20 Captain Colds and one lone Flash figure. The thing is his card was destroyed, the bubble was being held on by two pieces of scotch tape on one side, what was left of the original heat seal on the other and the top of the bubble was open to the world. I figured he was either A) a return from a child's birthday party, it was opened and then decided upon it was lame and returned or B) someone really wanted to see what it was all about and ripped it open in the store. Either way since Flash doesn't have any accessories and the rest of him seemed in tack, I bought him. That is how bad it is around here folks, you buy them when you see them, no matter the cindition. Now I will admit I was going to open him anyway and I did feel a little cheated, but at least I found one in the wild... The Action League set was from a trip to Wally World, I was in a Flash sort of mood and wanted to round out the Flash collection a bit.



This next set of toys is from a trip (or two) to the local Grocery Store, well let me back up. The Lego TIE Fighter was from the same trip to Wally World as the Flash Action League. It looked like it was meant to be an Easter thing like Target does, they had the X-Wing (which I already had) and the TIE. These were all tucked away in the very back of the Lego aisle. I had to have a small Lego TIE. Okay now, the two figures were from the grocery store trips, I picked up the Stormtrooper because I have this sickness that compels me to pick up two of certain figures, like Stormtroopers, Jawas, etc. Sort of a mini army builder I guess. I just had to have two of these to put next to one of all those Darth Vaders I have laying around. R5-D4, might live on the card I haven't decide, I sort of dig those Star Wars cards. Now, I'm a little ashamed here as I had already picked up the Luke from this set earlier in the week and I also picked up another "big head" Han Solo, I don't know why besides I wanted another one of these Han Solos for something. I couldn't help myself. STAR WARS!



This last one is from the Toys R Us trip as the Mego-Like Flash, which I should call the "Mr. Miracle Flash" as he was trying to escape that plastic tomb all those Captain Colds put him in (for the record I passed on Captain Cold this round). Anyhoo, check this out, they make a freaking Red Porsche 914! I found out that there was a red one and a mustard yellow one a week or so back. I told myself that Toys R Us is the only place I will ever see the red one and if I am near one I was going to check and they had one on the peg. Again the package is in not so hot shape, but I plan on opening it up anyway. I just wanted to shoot a package pic for all my die cast readers. The mustard yellow one comes in one of those multi packs. I have a plan for that one since I am only interested in the 914, that will be revealed later. It's not illegal, I am not going to swap out a car. Gesh people, my nephew loves die cast cars so he will get all the extras, see now you made me spoil the surprise...



I think that about covers it, plus I think I have pretty much used up my toy karma for the next month... plus maybe my budget : ) I do have some Spockcation pictures to post this week, an awesome box of toys Jboypacman sent last week I need to post (sorry Jboy I'm getting to it) and wasn't there something else? Oh yeah the Cantina Crawl! I still need to shoot my entry! Have you shot your's yet? Oh, and welcome to the new followers... er I mean eclectomaniacs! I woke up Sunday morning and had 67! Sweet!

Sorting it all out

I debated posting these, I shot some really crappy phone pictures so I could show a friend what my latest action figure project is, then I thought might as well, you will get the idea of what I am trying to do here.



Here's an overview so far. I have about 6 to 8 totes packed with loose toys, they take up quite a bit of space in a spare closet, along with some totes of stuff I plan on opening and stuff I plan to keep packaged. Anyway, it is a pain to dig out a tote, especially if it is on the bottom of a stack of four and then get it situated so I have room to dig through it to find the figure I want to snap a picture of. I would love to have the room to display my entire collection at arms reach, but that is just not possible, so I end up rotating stuff out (not as often as I would like).

I broke down and passed on a Lego set I had been wanting and purchased a few of these pretty standard drawer units. I started with two and then two more... wait what? You say you only see two in the photos, oh that being pretty modular I have taken the first two apart, re arranged the order of the drawer units and snapped them all back together, I know nothing special, but it does give you a pretty decent height for the whole unit. So, these started out as five drawer units, with four shallow drawers and on larger drawer at the bottom. They make these things in all sorts of configurations and sizes, I found these to be the best for what I want to do. My goal is to maybe have 4 to 6 of these towers, I am really hoping for only 4, I think at some point I need to grow up a little and let some toys go... did I just say that?



Here's a peek into one of the drawers of the unit I am calling the DC Tower, okay I will admit at the bottom I might throw a few of my Marvels in there, it's a work in progress. For the most part this is all my DC figures except for any Batman figures. Batman may need his own set of storage drawers. I have decided on some figures, ones with tiny accessories I need to bag them. Instead of dropping a ton of money on action figure baggies I went with the local store brand sandwich bags. To me they are pretty much the same, maybe a little lighter mill. I also decided it might be wise to use a hole punch and make a little vent hole in the back, small enough to keep accessories from falling out, large enough to vent. My thinking here is to try and keep the figures and their accessories together and hopefully keep some of the plastics from cooking in their own juices. This may or may not work.

The shallow drawers will have very limited stacking and the larger drawers will have the most, but still far less digging than say a tote and hopefully in the case of the JLU figures that seem so easily damaged by storing together they will not be under the weight of fifty or more figures stacked on top of each other.



Finally, organization! I figured why not make it a little easier to find the toys I am looking for. This is the part of the project that is taking the time. I borrowed my wife's label maker and got to labeling drawers. I tried to keep the line name and the manufacturer all in the titles, but as you can see with the open drawer picture I do have drawers that contain mixes. I tried to label these with a few different descriptions or labels. I also found that I have more multiples on certain figures and figures I no longer really want from doing this, so I will be compiling them to send to friends, blogger buddies and post a few on eBay. Remember I am trying to cull the collection to a more focused collection. So with the DC Tower near completion, the empty one should be large enough to house my GI Joe 25th Anniversary figures plus Indiana Jones and maybe a few of the minor lines I want to keep. I think Star Wars may fill two of these by itself. Plus I do not know how I want to organize the loose Star Wars collection. Decisions, decisions...

Well, I know it's not the latest greatest toy or a crazy shot with a vintage Chewbacca, but it's what I have been up to lately. I will show more of this project as well as the others I always seem to have going as I get further along.

Mattel WGSH: Green Arrow

I just realized I haven't posted this guy yet, man am I behind!

Matty Collector offered up Green Arrow here last December as a way to kick things off for the new Mattel "Megos".



There is actually a funny story that goes with this guy, the night I received him in the mail I was checking out the Mego Forums and noted that one of the members had received one with two right feet. I laughed, then it bugged me so much I had to check. Sure enough mine had two left feet. Arrrrrrrrgh! Okay it didn't bug me that much, but I wasn't about to go to Mattel with this problem, I might never see my Green Arrow again. I did offer up a foot trade though with the member that had two rights. about a week or so latter we had made our exchange and both parties were happy that Green Arrow could now stand on correct footings.



Before Bubbashelby can rib me, which I know is coming, yes you have to take the entire costume off to fix his feet. But you know what? Try to fix just the feet on a non dolly figure. Huh, huh? That's what I thought.



All that aside I'm really digging this line and cannot wait to pick up the other two from the first series and then this summer get Batman and Two Face! If you missed the Green Arrow though I think Matty may be getting ready to release some more into the market. You can check here.

Gone! Gone! -- the form of man...

... Wrise, the Lil' Demon Etrigan! This is the two pack from series two of the Brave and The Bold Action League that I had been waiting for. I never really followed The Demon Etrigan, but having seen him in action on the JLU and BATB cartoons I have grown to like this character.

These Action League sets are pretty cool, I tend to like the exaggerated style of all these type of little figures whether its Star Wars, Batman, GI Joe and so on, I just dig this type of treatment for a toy.



This set is pretty episode specific, it includes the Batman in his Dark Knight getup and the Demon from the episode Day of the Knight!, I think in this case the Demon was on the side of right as Batman was under control of Morgan Le Fey. The episode takes place in Camelot, where Merlin has transported Batman and Green Arrow back through time to help over through Morgan Le Fey and return the throne to King Arthur. You know your standard Batman stuff.



Besides the Demon, the Batman in this set is pretty cool, I mean armor and a sword, plus its Batman. What else could you ask for? When I picked this up and opened it I didn't notice, but my Demon seems to have a little problem under his pits. I'm not sure if this was a paint overspray error or if the plastic is having some sort of freaky reaction to air. Or he could be changing back into his mortal form Jason Blood.

"Look out Bats! or should I say get him Etrigan!"

Beautiful Day!

It's 80º here in Texas with a slight breeze, the sun is out and the birds are singing, its pay day... oh, and Retro Heroes are in stock at Toys R Us. I took a little trip at lunch and picked me up a Mattel World's Greatest Super Heroes Superman (I've decided I don't like the "Retro-Action DC Super Heroes" title they call them) and a Minimates set with the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! How cool is that?

I then decided to do my heart some good and eat a Vegi Burrito Bowl and an Unsweet Tea, you see Sweet Tea is the norm for Texas and some places like it sweeeeeet, then I hopped back into the Jeep and back to work.

If I have any family reading this and wondering "what the heck does Charles want for his birthday?" I will take a SINESTRO or a LEX LUTHOR, they are packaged just like Superman here, hint, hint...

High Prices are Public Enemies!

If you follow all the toy blogs you know already that Target was clearing this set out at $4.48 this past weekend. Matter of fact Reis at Geek Orthodox has posted his set online and I'm sure several others will follow. Like Reis I was only interested in the Batman figure in this set and at that price, less expensive than a single figure from the same DCUIH line including tax, how could I pass him up.



A while back I was jazzed about the Gotham Knight three pack and how that was going to be the only Batman from this line, unless I ever found the Blue and Gray Bats with yellow bat target on his chest, and it was pointed out in the comments that this one would be a far superior set, meaning more articulation for the Batman figure. But the price when these were released were crazy. Not now! True I was in Target hunting up some JLU figures from my list, see I'm looking for Firestorm and Classic Aquaman, but I was happy getting this deal.

"Hmm, Chicken Pop Pie or cold Pizza..."

The first thing I do when I pop open a toy is put it through it's paces and see which poses will look the best before putting them on the shelf, I was less concerned with Captain Atom and Black Lightning, more about the Batman. I settled on this, what I like to call "The Batman Thinker" looks like he's sorting things out. I just thought this was a funny pose.



A little story about my mad toy driven mind. This Target looked like it hadn't fully reset its toy aisle and someone had found a case of DC Universe Classics (DCUC) figures from the back room, looked like series seven, there was one of each of Aquaman (in his camo), Kid Flash, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold (I think it was the Modern version), Big Barda (both with and without helmet), Captain Cold and the Flash. I sat there thinking about picking up the Helmetless Big Barda.

I knew she was a variant, and it's not that I don't like the character but I actually prefer her with the helmet like in the comics, but since I'm not that into expanding on a line I do not necessarily collect with the exception of the heroes or villains I really like, and I no longer pick up figure because they are "rare", I couldn't see spending the fifteen dollars for the one figure.

Then I noticed they had the Public Enemies figures that are the same scale as the DCUC line. They had a couple of the Batman, I had been thinking about getting a Batman from this line if I ever saw one and they had two. Both blue, for a minute that threw me off, but I realized these were supposed to be the variants from that line. Then I thought, has a scalper or speculator returned a bunch of stuff? These were only a couple dollars less than the regular DCUC, but I let them set as well. I had to save my pennies for the other things on the list (shaking fist in the air). I thought about going back this weekend, though I'm sure they are all gone by now, maybe I just need to see. See how this stuff drives me crazy. Hopefully I'll be too busy this weekend to even think about them. Plus I want s to get a retro WGSH Superman, and he's on the list.

"What!? Are you crazy, you left Big Barda behind?"

Still made out with a great priced Batman and a couple of others at a great price.

Mattel WGSH: Green Lantern

Worlds Greatest Super Heroes are in the stores! This weekend I picked up one from the first series, Green Lantern!

I took a little trip to the local Toys R Us with hopes of finding this guy, what are the chances they ever have what you are looking for, right? Not only did they have Green Lantern , but they had one of each of the rest of the figures in the set; Superman, Lex Luthor and Sinestro.

Green Lantern Power Battery Included!

I couldn't make up my mind which one I wanted to get first, being on a budget it was out of the question to pick up the whole set in one shot, that would have been sweet though. So, it came down to Superman and Green Lantern. I figured Green Lantern would be the hard to come by figure in the coming weeks so I took a chance and left Sups behind, I might go back on pay day and see if the Man of Steel is still hanging out.

Those Boots are made for walking...

This is actually the second in the line that I have, the first is the Matty Collector Green Arrow, which I was planing on posting today, but I am moving him to later now. Here's a nice little grouping with my Flea Market Batman!

I hope Bats changes into something green before St. Patrick's Day

And now everyone repeat after me:

"In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!"

Look out! It's the Joker!

These were part of my score for January and I must say I loves these little Batman the Brave and the Bold figurines. I have a few sets and am really surprised I have not placed them up on the blog before. The price for these at retail is about the 7 to 8 dollar range. Kinda steep, but you do get two pretty cool little dudes for that. So I don't feel all too bad for picking up a set here and there. I wish they were less expensive and that probably has kept me from buying them all.


The Joker part of my collection increased in size a little with this set. I love the homage to Kenner's Superpowers Collection with the green mallet.

"Not so fast Joker!"


"It's the Batman!"

POW! "Take that you vile fiend!"

"Victorious!"

Like there was any doubt that Batman wouldn't win. I have a few more of these I need to put up here, so stay tuned for some more tiny, funky Bat goodness.

The List: February Report

I did a little better with my list in the month of February, though 99 % of my purchases were not on the list so I guess I should say my budget was a little better the list was not.

Here's what I picked up:

1) I started with a Star Wars Legends Sandtrooper, the clean version. I love Sandtroopers and I really, really needed this one. My wife had to ask "How many Sandtroopers do you need?", to which I reply ALL OF THEM!

2) Firestorm, another moment of weakness, but come on it's Firestorm, 3-3/4" scale.

3) The Mighty Mugs Wampa is on the list, check it. Plus I found this one online on sale, though shipping ruined it for me.

4) Okay I don't consider these next two little guys toys, I used to have a 914 Porsche, so anytime they make a die cast representation of that car I'm going to buy one, this case I picked up two, they were like 97 cents.

5) I did get this guy on eBay...

Okay I needed him, I really did, besides I used it in a post for another blog. That's right I finally did a post on the Batman The Animated Toys Blog. I usually do not try and buy stuff just to post, but I made and exception cause I got this one at such a low, low price something like 6 or 7 bucks with shipping, that was less than when they were sold in 1992.

6) This one I do not know if I should count, I found this figure for Mario at A Year of Toys, so I thought I would help a fellow collector and pick it up, I'm not counting it on my list.

So, okay I went off the list some, but I didn't spend at all what I spent last month and so far March is starting out to be a good month, plus I'll celebrate a birthday so with luck I will not have to buy my own toys this month!