Cool and Collected

Collecting pop culture toys, comics, and collectibles collections

Shows & Events

Report from Minefaire DC – A Minecraft Fan Experience

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If you have kids, there’s a pretty good chance they spend a good deal of their free time building, exploring, and fighting in the unending world of Minecraft. My kids are uber-uber-fans of the game, so when we heard that there was a Minecraft convention coming to our area, I pounced on the tickets, knowing that this would be make me the “dad of the year” to my sons. I splurged on the (very expensive) VIP passes, which allowed us to enter an hour earlier than the riff raff slackers who didn’t pop for the “VIP experience.” The VIP pass also would get us an exclusive lanyard and special, up-front seating for the stage events. I patiently waited for the Facebook announcement for early bird access and, BAM!, three tickets were soon in my digital hands.

I was feeling pretty good about myself until strange emails started to arrive in my inbox, stating that VIP tickets were “now available,” and that only a limited number were left. When this happened several times, I got the sinking feeling that I had been duped. Having been told that all the VIP passes had sold out on day one, how were there thousands more tickets available a few weeks later, and then again a few weeks after that. Throughout the day,  emails would arrive stating that only X number of VIP tickets were left, counting down to a “Sold Out” message at the end of the day. It sure felt like something shady was going on.

When real life meets virtual life

On Saturday, we arrived to an enormous line that snaked inside and outside the building — there sure were a heck of a lot of VIPs. We were funneled in at 9:00am, and when 10:00am rolled around, I expected the place to be flooded with even more people, but there wasn’t any noticeable difference. Everyone in attendance seemed to be wearing the VIP lanyard.

Mineplex, one of the top Minecraft gaming servers, took an entire room to themselves with 70 laptops connected to their servers. Attendees could play against their neighbors, but my kids were too smart for this, stating, “this is the same thing we do at home.” Fair enough, let’s try the virtual reality Minecraft exhibit — no dice, that line was easily the longest in the building and the slowest moving. We’ll just keep playing in regular old reality.

YouTube Stars: The Main Attraction

The idea of “YouTube stars” is confounding to me — anyone with a webcam can take a video of him or herself playing a video game, upload it to YouTube, and gain millions of viewers and fans. My kids are huge YouTube viewers and the chance to meet Minecraft YouTubers that they watch every day was the main reason they wanted to go to Minefaire. JeromeASF was the biggest name at the DC event. It would have been nice if there were a larger number of “big name” youTubers signing autographs, but not many seemed to want to come to DC — it is pretty hot here. There were almost a dozen “YouTube rising stars” holding meet and greets with the attendees, and not one of them looked old enough to have a driver’s license.

Activities

There was a Lego area that allowed you to free-build anything, but Minecraft creations were expected. There was also a giant mosaic on the floor that had 1’x1′ square tiles that were created by attendees. The tiles were pieced together to form a massive creeper (or, at least that’s what I figure it was, since we didn’t stay long enough to see the finished result). This is the kind of activity that i wish there was more of at the event.

Surprisingly, there probably weren’t more than a half dozen places where the kids could actually do something (unless you consider spending money an active pursuit). The Lego areas were fun, and a few vendors had little distractions, but it would have been nice to see more activity stations, to help spread out the masses. My kids’ favorite table ended up being the “Real-life Minecraft” exhibit that the U.S. Geologic Society was running.  Minecraft players might assume that rocks and minerals only come in perfectly shaped cubes, but the USGS crew set them straight with mineral specimens they could touch and see up close.

There were three stages with programming, but the open floorpan of the Dulles Expo Center turned all the audio into an illegible echoey mess. The kids enjoyed watching a couple of build battles, until they realized that they could just do that at home too. Oh, and what ever happened to the “exclusive VIP seating?” There was no need and no indication for any special seating areas that I could see.

Conclusion

Minefaire is in its infancy, and with only a few shows under its belt, it has some room to improve. Ticket prices in the $20 range would have made this experience much easier to enjoy, but having paid $60+ per ticket, I left a little disappointed. Despite my high hopes that this would be an epic event that the boys would remember for a good long time, it ended up being a fairly ho-hum morning. We were home by noon and the kids were happy to log onto the Minecraft servers and get back to exploring, building, and battling.

Some Eye-popping Results at Hakes Auction #220

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Some wallets were emptied at the recent Hake’s auction. Hake’s does a great job of only listing the rarest and the best pop culture collectibles, and the prices their auctions realize is a testament to that. Here are a few of the results that caught my eye.

This Adventures of Superman syndication promotional kit sold for $4,283.30, well over the $400-700 estimate. This was the first one of these kits that Hake’s has ever seen, so you know it’s a rare item!

Speaking of the Man of Steel, this 1967 Superman lunchbox with thermos soared to $2,596.00 — certainly better than the $1.99 price sticker still attached to the front!

Oh man, I spent hours staring at this one — a Justice League of America Wonder Woman board game still sealed. I honestly don’t know what the record is for the most expensive board game ever sold, but this one sold for $2,153.38. Worth. Every. Penny.

I go crazy for Crazy Foam, and this lot had bidders going crazy. You can typically find these cans individually for $30-50, which is why the ending bid of $475.46 was so surprising. Granted, these cans are in great condition, and it’s always nice when you can get all three at once, but wow, I’m glad I own a set!

Carded Secret Wars figures don’t typically break the bank, but this Brazilian Gulliver Spider-Man figure sure did, shattering the $400-700 estimate by raking in $2,950.00!

The original production art for the SilverHawks Rub ‘n Play kit sold for $1,835.55. This is surprising to me because it’s for the SilverHawks, a fairly short-lived 80’s property. True story: I once bought the similar art files for Hulk Rub n’ Play kit, clearly a more collectible character, on eBay uncontested for just $39.99. This SilverHawks auction is making my head hurt, knowing that I traded the Hulk art away last year because I could never figure out a good way to display it.

Here’s a great example of how crazy we collectors can be — this plastic Palmer King Kong with Fay Wray sold for $390.11. If it didn’t have the Fay Wray figure, it probably would go for $35. Yep, that 1.25″ piece of plastic crudely molded to look like a woman is worth hundreds of dollars to collectors. I have three of these Kongs in my collection, but I don’t think I’ll be adding a Fay Wray anytime soon.

Once you’ve collected all the action figures and vehicles, your interests move to the more esoteric items, and eventually to the items that were never even meant to be sold. This header card for Star Wars die cast metal toys is a great example. Not many of these things can possibly exist, which means big bucks for the collector — $1,534.00 in this case!

Once again, Hake’s put on an amazing show and delivered some rare and incredible items to us collectors, and also made some tidy sums for the consigners. One day, I hope to be on the side making the money!

Note: All of the prices shown on this page include the buyer’s premium.

Vintage Heroes found at the Timonium Toy Show

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Yesterday, I made the trek up to Timonium, MD for the bi-annual toy show put on by Dave Hart Shows. This is really the only real “toy show” in the DC-metro area, even though this is more a Baltimore show than DC, but we’ll take what we can get. This show had over 80 vendors with well-stocked tables and wide aisles that made for easy browsing. The prices were great and everyone I talked with seemed genuinely happy to be there — no surly sellers here! Most of the items were low- to mid-dollar range, but the Shogun Warriors Rodan was pretty exciting to see.

Despite all the great toys from the 80’s and 90’s on display, i managed to stick to my vintage super hero focus and came home with a pretty good haul. I have avoided collecting those super hero Pepsi glasses so far, but the prices on these was so low, I could not leave them behind. I could almost flip that Green Lantern glass for the amount I paid for the whole lot, including the two records. Like I said, there were deals to be found at this show! The Superman puzzle is a tough one to find and the radio was the last one I needed to complete the super hero set.

Okay, i didn’t stick entirely to Super Heroes, but plastic spacemen are always on my radar when I’m out in the wild, and I was happy to add this batch to my collection.

I snatched up these mini cereal premium spacemen as soon as I saw them, since they are modeled after the larger Archer figures that make up the bulk of my collection. These things made the trip worthwhile all by themselves, and the rest was gravy.

Anyone else make it to the show? What’d you find?

Aliens spotted at the DC Big Flea

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The Big Flea rolls through town every two or three months, and after my last experience, I didn’t think I would be going again for a while, but I’m glad it was a slow weekend, and I decided to visit the show again on Saturday. There weren’t a lot of vintage pop culture toys to be found, but I was able to scrounge up a few fun items.

I already have a few of those Batman puppets but if I come across a nice one in the wild, I’m not going to pass it up. And I was pretty happy to add that Space 1999 puzzle to my canister puzzle collection. This box of “junk” was my favorite find of the day…

The seller knew that the toys in this box were from a Marx play set, but that’s as far as his knowledge went. The box was tucked under a table and many of the contents were in grocery bags that had been tied shut, so I didn’t even know what I was buying. I used that fact to get the price way down — the seller was obviously happy to see someone take it off his hands. Here’s what I found when I got home…

Most of these toys came from the Marx Operation Moon Base play set, but there are lots of other random figures and pieces included as well.

If you know me, you know that I love a good vintage plastic spaceman!

I love the aliens and astronauts in this set. Their designs are based on a Tom Corbett toy line that was produced earlier.

These two blue astronauts have me stumped — if anyone can help me identify them, I’d appreciate it! They have a raised rectangular base, which looks like they may have been hooked onto a vehicle or building.

Any day that I get to add a vintage spacemen to my collection is a good one, so this was definitely a great day!

DC Big Flea — slim pickings

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I went to the Big Flea antique show this past weekend and left wondering if it was worth the $10 entry fee, because there were almost no toys to be found. In the past, I have been able to find things tucked away in vendor booths, but it was incredibly slim pickings this time around. I picked up the Mego Joker because it was five bucks, and the Ertl Batmobile Wrist Racer came home with me because, well, Batman.

One thing about the show left a bad taste in my mouth that is still on my tongue five days later. There is a toy vendor that appears at this show regularly and he always has a very nice selection of very nice items. I should be his perfect customer, but I have only bought one item from him in almost ten years of going to the show, because his prices are just laughable. This weekend, I saw a Batman pencil sharpener from 1981 in one of his cases and asked how much it was. He takes it out, starts to tell me how great the condition is and how rare it is to find in such perfect shape. He even ropes his partner into the conversation so they can both point out the fine features. Then he tells me the price: $95. Let me just say that it took a great deal of effort to not unload a string of profanity in his general direction.

Honestly, I don’t know why I even attempt to buy from this guy, because I always feel like he doesn’t WANT to sell anything to me. To be fair, he doesn’t know me. He does not know that I am fairly knowledgable about such things and know exactly how much many of the items he is selling are worth. On a good day, that pencil sharpener would bring in $12 on eBay. This same vendor had a 1977 Alien figure in his booth, so if my calculations are correct, he was probably asking a minimum of $2k for it. sheesh.

Here’s the bigger problem I have. There are hundreds of vendors at this show, and many of them sell items that I know NOTHING about — vintage jewelry, militaria, etc. How do I know that those vendors aren’t pricing their items out of the stratosphere if I were to buy a gift for my wife? I’m fine with sellers making a profit — go ahead and charge more than eBay to cover your travel and booth costs, but come on. In this day and age, every single person in that exhibit hall is looking up prices on their smart phones, so what makes you think you can get away with this?

Who knows, maybe I offended the guy at some point in the past, and he only offers me the “special” rate, but I really doubt that’s the case. So, at future shows, I will continue to visit his booth as I would a museum gallery, where everything is wonderful to look at, but sadly, nothing is for sale.