Posts: 726 Location: The Shadow Of St Albans Abbey Joined: 28.07.06
OK.
I had to think long and hard about this - but in the end I decided to stop phaffing about and just do it.
I've needed him to complete this particular (Star Wars Freeze Frame) collection for a few years (I've got 55 of the 56). I've always said that when I get one, it'll be an absolutely mint graded one. Basically I wanted it AFA gold standard.
The problem with that is I knew it was going to cost! It did.
I've considered the fact that Brain's Toys are well known in the Star Wars world as being expensive, I've considered the weak $$$ against the ££££, and I've considered that the level of grading seems to have doubled it's value. I've only seen a couple of these figures at this grade before, and they've gone for roughly what I paid (there's an AFA 75 on Ebay at the moment - which is Bronze standard - it's about half what I paid for this).
I've also had to consider that I'm simply not made of money!
I told my girlfriend last night what I was planning on buying and she just said I was mad. She knew of this figure already, simply because I've always harped on about it - so it wasn't a massive surprise. She pointed out that I don't smoke, I seldom drink, I don't buy CDs anymore and I don't travel all over Europe anymore supporting Chelsea and England; comics and toys are my "vice". I kinda laughed at that. She still thought I was bloody stupid....
real-dark-knight wrote:
She pointed out that I don't smoke, I seldom drink, I don't buy CDs anymore and I don't travel all over Europe anymore supporting Chelsea and England; comics and toys are my "vice". I kinda laughed at that.
I've had that exact same conversation (well, execpt I never travelled all over Europe).
Well, cool. It is awesome that you managed to get your collection finished out. I won't lie though. I didn't breathe for a couple of minutes after looking at the listing. I don't remember seeing that figure in stores during the freeze frame series, so it must have been pretty rare. That and I wasn't really in the market for that character.
Posts: 1631 Location: Rockville, IA Joined: 24.06.05
Jesus... Jesus Christ.
Congratulations, RDK. I had a feeling you were talking about POTF "Prune Face"; you've mentioned him before. My brother and I bought plenty of those figures back then too. We got some with freeze frames, but not my Weequay. Strange to think that simple little framed piece of transparent plastic makes yours about $696 more valuable than mine. Is there anything unusual about the figure's card or something special other than its absolute rarity?
And if you were willing to shell out that much for Prune Face, I'm curious how complete your entire Star Wars figure collection is, '77 to present.
Posts: 726 Location: The Shadow Of St Albans Abbey Joined: 28.07.06
To answer youre question (Cale), of how much my entire Star Wars collection is worth, I don't know! By some distance, this is the most expensive figure I've got. I can't think of any other individual piece that would come close to it.
Of the 56 Freeze Frames, 50 of them can be bought for between approx $4 to $12 now. Only a few are expensive;
A Sandtrooper will probably cost you about $100. Boba Fett will most likely set you back $40, as will an AT-ST driver. I don't know how up to date those are exactly, the only one I've still needed for at the last couple of years is Weequay.
You can get a Canadian tri-logo Weequay for about 1/3rd of the price as a US one. The American cards are the ones that generally carry the value.
Of my Freeze Frames, maybe 6 or 7 were in poor condition, and it's bloody typical that 2 of these were the Sandtrooper and AT-ST driver! After I got Weequay this was bugging me even more, so I've since acquired replacements for these. I paid $60 for
the Sandtrooper and having got him, the condition is so good that I might even get that AFA'd. I honestly think it’s good enough for gold. I've a spent a small fortune on toys recently but I'm absolutely delighted with what I've picked up. The missing Weequay has been bugging me for a few years, and as soon as I had him, I knew I needed to re-acquire a couple of others in decent condition too. I don’t remember ever mentioning PruneFace, for all it’s worth, that’s amongst the cheapest ones of all, and you can probably get a carded one for $5 (in very good condition). Although I don't recall it, it's possible that my Prune Face is on a less than perfect card, maybe it was that. I can't remember the exact condition of them all, but 50 or so would be good to very good.
If being an absolute completist - I don't actually have the folder that was released that the slides go in. I've got the Hoth viewer, and the additional slides that came with it, but not the folder. I'll sort that out at some point.
As well as Freeze Frames, I've got a complete set of regular green cards figures, but these are largely loose. I'm going for a carded collection and I've bought a couple of bargain bundles on that front recently too. I’ll probably sell the loose ones after I’ve got a full carded collection.
Aside from the Freeze Frames, my personal BIG favourite (and very reasonably priced) are the smaller 1/32 scale Unleashed Battle Packs. I absolutely love them. I remember chatting about them on one of Flabat's posts. As a child, before I played with Action Figure sized figures, I was a toy soldier boy. And these are of that size. There are probably about 300 of them in total (they come in 4 packs) and I've gone to great lengths to complete that collection (they're difficult to always get in the UK). I can't speak favourably enough of those. The only complaint I could have of that range, is there are a couple of notable-ish characters that haven’t made it out yet.
I've got a small, central character collection of loose vintage figures, but I don't think they're worth too much. They're nice, but nothing a very serious SW collector would consider essential. Indeed, serious SW buyers often seem to actually arrogantly sneer at the non-vintage stuff. Unfortunately we don't all have the bank balances of Steven Sansweet, and the individual figure prices are just off the scale on a regular basis (at least if you want to build a sizeable collection). It would cost you literally $1000s to have a nice carded vintage collection. If you had the money, you could easily spend tens of $1000s if you on SW if you wanted to. Your average vintage SW collector isn't interested in anything EU or post 1985.
ALthough I don't own them, I'm a big fan of the Episode One figures. Possibly when I'm not all purchased out I might invest in a complete set of those - but not for a while!
How much is the whole lot worth? I don't know. Not millions, not at all - but it's nice.
I'm gonna sell my house at some and point buy a flat - or an apartment as you'll no doubt call it (the house I live in belongs to me and my brother - he lives with his family though - in Borehamwood, right next to the studios where Star Wars was made). When I do that, I don't where on earth everything will go (Batman, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Hellboy take SPACE!). I don't know when that will be - and the whole credit crunch stuff may delay that for a bit - but it'll happen at some point.
I'd love to be able to build a diorama Mos Eisley scene for the Unleashed Battlepacks, but I'm not Spencer when it comes to modelling! I think I'll just end up investing in a nice big shelf for them. One of the things that I've noticed (re modelling), a couple of the Star Wars Revell Easy Kits go perfectly (size wise) with this range. They're about my modelling limit - no glue! They've been knocking around fairly cheaply in the right shops for a couple of years. I've yet to build all of them - I can't see much point in doing at the moment as they'll be a much harder to pack (they're delicate) when I finally move.
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