Blog

This last week I was able to secure one of my grail items for my Phantom collection; the Phantom 2040 "whistle lite"(not sure why it's spelt like that).

The whistle is one of several toys released by American company Ja-Ru with the Phantom 2040 licence, but none of the items ever actually appear in the series. As I say on the collection page, Ja-Ru's 2040 items look like they were trying to shift excess stock so just shoved the 2040 logo on it to give it more selling power.

I love items like this; weird and kind of out there, they really make me laugh. Also, 2040 is one of the best Phantom spin-offs in the character's almost 100-year history.

Outside of the Ja-Ru toys I already have, there is also a crossbow and "lite sword." Unfortunately, these items can be quite expensive for those of us outside the US given shipping costs. The price of the whistle itself was actually less than what I paid in shipping to get it from America to the UK. Hopefully, if I'm patient, I'll be able to find the last two items for a cost that won't break the bank.

TTFN

Recently I re-organised my comic collection, or the part of it that's in the UK anyway. I'm rather quickly running out of space and with a few thousand other issues in Australia I'm hoping to one day bring over I think I need to pair things back.

The question is how to do this. As the years have gone on I'm a lot less precious about having full runs (for the most part), mostly thanks to Frew making their re-print Phantom books part of their main series (a move I, to this day, boggle at). Given this, I could go through the collection, remove the issues that I did not enjoy, and just keep those I did. In theory it's a pretty simple process. In practice, it's much more difficult.

It's not just a monetary issue either, in that I've spent money on them. Removing books from the collection that feature characters I enjoy is quite hard, even when the issues aren't great. There is a kind of nostalgic pull to keep everything, regardless of quality, because it represents the larger whole of the character and their history. The opposite of that, of course, is what is the point of holding on to something if it doesn't bring you joy (and yes, that half-acknowledgement of the Kondo Method did hurt)?

I recently raised this very topic on Reddit and someone posted a reply which I thought was quite interesting. Basically, they got a few storage boxes and put the issues they were unsure of keeping in those. After a while (I think it was six months or so) they went back through the box and anything they didn't think "oh yeah, this was cool" when seeing it they sold. I've done something similar thing when I've stripped back my other collections and it's mostly worked with very few regrets, so I might give it a try for my comics as well.

In regards to the site, I've finished adding my Mighty Max collection. I think I mentioned previously that it's not particularly big as there isn't a tone of Max merch out there, especially seeing as the line ended in 1996. My collection is almost complete, but the sets/ toys I still need are, sadly, the rarest ones and thus demand quite high prices so I'm not sure if I'll ever 100% complete it.

Next to be added will be my Sonic the Hedgehog collection. This is by far the biggest as there is much more Sonic merch available than either Max or The Phantom. I've actually had to cut back on the Sonic stuff I buy as the collection is just so big. There are people out there who buy every Sonic item available; I don't know how they fit it all in their house.

I've also started work on the site's first shrine, and have quite a few ideas for others, although they may be a way off yet. I plan to keep adding things apart from just the collection galleries, so I hope folks return to check that all out.

TTFN.

I've just added the last item to the Phantom collection page. It's been quite the learning experiance getting the gallery up and running, but I've rather enjoyed it.

This doesn't mean I've completed the listing exactly, as there are quite a few items that I do not have images of. There are even a few I probably won't be able to get photos of for a while as they are in storage. Still, it's nice to have what's there up.

I'm not sure if I'll add my Sonic or Mighty Max collection next. Sonic is my largest collection in terms of number of items, while Max is the smallest. I might add Max as it will be a relatively quick job while I can see Sonic taking quite a while. Either way, expect to see something new soon.

TTFN.

It was my birthday a week ago, so I decided to treat myself a little bit and grab a few comic back issues.

I really enjoyed the recent One World Under Doom event from Marvel, so I picked up a few of the tie-ins to that event to help flesh out the events that occurred within the wider 616 universe during it. Otherwise, I bought a few books that I'd been after for a while. These included some Ghost Rider and Morbius issues that tie into Midnight Sons, one of two issues of Strange Tales, Vol. 2 I need to complete the collection and, because I do enjoy some good pin-up are, swimsuit specials from DC and Udon's Street Fighter. While these didn't make much of a dent in my back issue wish list, it's always fun to cross off books from it.

Given the ticket price and that it's really not about comics anymore, I'm not going to my local comic con this year. Instead, I think I'll be sourcing most of my back issues online now. As long as they aren't shipped by Evri, it should be a much more chill experience than trying to wade through back issue boxes at cons.

TTFN.

I finally had the oportunity to do something I'd been excited to do since my daughter was born six months ago - take her to the toy store!

We went to the biggest toy store in our area and she seemed to really enjoy the experience. The colours and lights really caught her fancy and she was, like her dad, enamoured with all the toys. Of course I bought her gift, but I was able to nab myself some new figures for my Sonic collection.

For some reason it's proven to be quite hard to find Jakks' Sonic figures in the England, or at least in my area (although on-line hasn't been much better), so there are a few I'm still after. At any rate, this trip I was able to pick up Tikal from Sonic Adventure and then two of the new DC x Sonic figures, Rouge as Catwoman and Eggman in Lex Luthor's armour. As you'll notice, the two DC x Sonic figures are the 2.5-inch side (or 6.35cm in proper measurements ^_- ). I've not seen if they'll be releasing larger versions or if Funko will be doing Pops of these as they did with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Amy and Silver. If Funk do, I'll probably have to grab those to go with the others.

As for the website, I've added the art, prints and posters to the Phantom collections page, as well as an About page which still needs a little bit of work.

As always, please leave a comment in the Guestbook if you so wish (it's at the bottom of the sidebar). I'd be great to hear from some of you.

TTFN.