I recently informed by my wife that the child and I had to stop going to Ebay to purchase more imported Japanese toys, or else I would be sleeping on the loveseat forever. This made me sad for two reasons: First off, by buying the Ranger Keys in a bulk set of 20, I’m saving approximately 12 cents per item! And secondly, when I was a kid, I never had the U.S.S. Flagg aircraft carrier, the possession of which would have put a capstone on my G.I. Joe collection, and put the stake in its heart to keep me from buying any more toys. If course, by now she should know that they’re COLLECTOR’S ITEMS! We’ve been married for the better part of two decades, after all!) Still, even I couldn’t bring myself to consider shelling out the better than $500 dollars for half a dozen six-inch action figures, proving that there’s still a tiny sliver of adult trapped in my gray matter somewhere, albeit one slowly drowning in cholesterol and contradictory stories about Tenzil Kem.
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) really kind of wants to find a GPS device with the voice of KITT, asking: What’s the most ridiculously extravagant collector’s item/toy/prop/what-have-you that you’ve ever considered buying? Sub-question: Could you really ever go through with it?
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When I was in 3rd year university I got an unreasonable amount of money for the semester for my student loans. One of those life-sized replica Han Solo in carbonite statues came up on craigslist here in Vancouver for just over $1,000 and thankfully my much more responsible roommate talked me out of it. I still maintain a semester of eating nothing but ramen noodles would have been totally worth it, but now I also get to pay back my loans faster.
I don’t know the price to buy an authentic replica of Captain America’s shield from The Avengers but, whatever it is, I’d pay it.
A set of boxed Dinobots from Transformers Gen 1. I ALMOST pulled the trigger on it at Botcon a few years ago…..
Transformers #80 from the original Marvel series. And I did pull the trigger to the tune of $60. For me, that’s a lot of scratch to spend on one book. I know I was probably taken for a ride, but it was worth it to me and as we all know, a comic is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
Hey, that cover art alone is worth that much !
Two things: The full sized working replica of the Lost in Space Robot, and the full sized working replica of the TV show Batmobile. Before I bought my house, I actually had the money for one of these extravaganzas. Now I don’t. Would I have gone through with it? Well, no. But I can dream…
At one point, I was well on my way to having a fairly close replica of Ecto-1. Had the car (not the same model exactly but fairly close) and spent a few years working on building it up from a pile of junk to something that worked with the help of various friends (including a few Ghostbusters fans I met online, two who had also built an Ecto-1 replica together). However, I had to sell it before it was finished when I became homeless for a while.
I’ve also been fairly tempted at times to splurge on one of those replicas of Power Ranger/Super Sentai helmets (the show quality style, not the cheap halloween ones), but they are just so expensive (over $200 usually even for the cheapest).
As for actually licensed items, one of my dreams is to have each style of the “main” Green Lanterns full-size power battery replicas (Alan Scott’s, Hal Jordan’s and Kyle Rayner’s), but so far I still need a first one.
Like you I love GI Joes, but I also loved the original series 12″ versions. I had the chance to buy one of the 1st generation ones but decided against it because it was too nice, with box, etc. Had it been a bit more worn w/o packaging, so that I could actually handle it, I’d have pulled the trigger.
There have been a few times I’ve looked at those DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack special editions of Madoka Magica with the artbooks & soundtracks, but they’re (a) only four episodes per disc and (b) over $100 a set. Every time I feel tempted to buy it, a credit bill comes in & reminds me why I shouldn’t no matter how much I really, really want it.
I’ve always wanted one the of the movie replica proton packs with the led lights and sound effects. You can find them online but they typically run 1500-2000 dollars. Whenever It gets close to Halloween I consider it, but then I think what would i do for the other 11 months of the year. Essentially I am dropping two grand on some pretty lights and plastic.
There used to be blueprints on Ghostbusters fan sites to making a really great (and considerably cheaper) movie replica. I ended up making one by replacing most suggested items with something else (even cheaper materials mostly) so it doesn’t quite fit movie specifications, but it is still instantly recognizable for what it is supposed to be.
But if you follow most of the blueprints I’ve seen, you could easily make one with little to no prior knowledge of tools and for under $100 if you really wanted to, $250 at most if you wanted to splurge on the best stuff (Mine was only about $30 but like I said, I substituted most parts for something else).
I would like to spend the money necessary to buy and build up a brand new Delorian AMC into the BTTF II awesomeness it needs to be. And if I had the cash… I probably would do it.
My girlfriend has far outdone me on this one, as she wants a sword owned by Napoleon Bonaparte for 6 million dollars. And she has every intention of owning it someday.