Why do you collect MISB?

[Slave IV]

4 hours ago, seti88 said:

if HMR gets into non-SDFM/DYRL valks...wow cant even dare to thk of that for my wallet...

They already started. The VF-2SS is out. 

[seti88]

M2 is not exactly macross canon so kinda forgot abt it  
There are so many other valks which bandai can technically fulfill via HMRs, that the tot of that makes me giddy...
 

[Slave IV]

21 minutes ago, seti88 said:

M2 is not exactly macross canon so kinda forgot abt it  
There are so many other valks which bandai can technically fulfill via HMRs, that the tot of that makes me giddy...
 

Yep, a collection of all the various valks in HMR form will be much more manageable and affordable but still wallet busting, lol. They did M7 valks in the previous line so I think the possibilities are there. 

[seti88]

In a strange way collecting HMR's can be more expensive than DX's.
Cheaper price points which mean you don't give as much tot to it compared to a DX, and then you end up with a cupboard full of HMR MISB's..

I know that's happening to my HMRs, lying in the cupboard ... I didn't open em as fast as i would a DX, but still cant stop getting em.

Edited January 27, 2018 by seti88

[Slave IV]

4 minutes ago, seti88 said:

In a strange way collecting HMR's can be more expensive than DX's.
Cheaper price points which mean you don't give as much tot to it compared to a DX, and then you end up with a cupboard full of HMR MISB's..

I know that's happening to my HMRs, lying in the cupboard ... I didn't open em as fast as i would a DX, but still cant stop getting em.

I open at least one right away when I can. But yeah, HMR has broke me pretty badly.

[Sanity is Optional]

The Elintseeker was only like ¥7000, so I bought 2 instead of 1... Yeah, one's staying in the box, probably.

Edited January 27, 2018 by Sanity is Optional

[TrickyCustomer]

Excellent question! I'll admit as a collector I'm guilty of keeping some items i have in boxes and stored away. Just depends on what it is and how rare. Sometimes i'll buy two items just so i can have one stored and another to mess with or display.  I have two vf-31a kairos valks pre ordered but i want one to display in battroid and one in fighter. Or i may very well keep one locked away. It's nice to have the choice. it's not the case for everything though. I recently got my bandai hi metal r vf-2ss valk yesterday and couldn't wait to get it out the box (Carefully) and transform it (Also carefully) and now it sits in my detolf looking boss with all the sap parts on. Obviously I'll keep the box in it's shipper and mint because...collector.

[Shukenzero]

On 1/26/2018 at 10:08 AM, MacrossMania said:

And did you notice that people absolutely love the HMR line?  People are going crazy over them and I don't think that's any coincidence.  Of course they're great examples of modern toy engineering, but the box art is great and contributes to the fun of it all.  It seems to me that the box art is half of the fun all rolled into the toys themselves.  It is that grand unboxing - that moment when you can't wait to get your hands on the physical equivalent of the magnificent picture on the box.  Bandai is having a lot of fun with them, and the box art is part of that.  The same was true of the old vintage toys.

 

Totally agree with this and your previous post. It's the magic you get from walking into a toy store and seeing that magic box, multiplied in a row.

I have my figures MIB, others on display as I don't have enough room to put everything out, so I am saving them for later when I can move to a bigger place. Also, as others have said, I keep some spare in case the transforming figures get scratched and/or have engineering problems. 

[no3Ljm]

The truth is. I used to throw away all my Robot Damashii and Figuarts boxes just to have space. Now I can't do it on my few Hi-Metal R Macross figures because of the box art. Coz they're too good looking. It's crazy.

 

[Shukenzero]

2 hours ago, no3Ljm said:

The truth is. I used to throw away all my Robot Damashii and Figuarts boxes just to have space. Now I can't do it on my few Hi-Metal R Macross figures because of the box art. Coz they're too good looking. It's crazy.

 

It feels great seeing packaging as it sells the figures, gives them that little extra.

[Blue Meanie]

I just collect G1 transformers MISB. 2 reasons, I believe they re the best toy packaging ever, and I have loved them since a kid. I saved all the box art, tech specs and even whole boxes back in the day. Love the art, love the designs. 84-86 and the 88+ Japanese packaging.

Now they are out of this world in cost. So I just make my own replicas.

Edited March 2, 2018 by Blue Meanie

[no3Ljm]

^ Wow!

 

[davidwhangchoi]

i need triple changer

[anubis20]

Holy crap, how do you make your own blister packaging? 

[Blue Meanie]

I fiddled around with Vaccuforming. I would buy original blisters and make plaster molds of them. Mine sucked because my Vaccuform sucked, but then I met the guy that ran bubbleformer. He had the process down so I bought a bunch of original bubbles he replicated and sent to me for free like Whirl and Roadbuster and I bought the rest that he made. I basically have digital files for every 84-86 box, some customs and all the bubbles ready to go. the silver/grey backers and the printable chipboard for the boxes is the hardest thing to come by. I made a custom box tutorial a while ago on TFW2005. Since then some people have started making repro boxes and selling them. I bought a few but none of them pass quality check for me. my boxes have to be as good or better than the originals. It helps me get over all the case fresh originals I sold for peanuts.

[yman1437]

22 minutes ago, Blue Meanie said:

I fiddled around with Vaccuforming. I would buy original blisters and make plaster molds of them. Mine sucked because my Vaccuform sucked, but then I met the guy that ran bubbleformer. He had the process down so I bought a bunch of original bubbles he replicated and sent to me for free like Whirl and Roadbuster and I bought the rest that he made. I basically have digital files for every 84-86 box, some customs and all the bubbles ready to go. the silver/grey backers and the printable chipboard for the boxes is the hardest thing to come by. I made a custom box tutorial a while ago on TFW2005. Since then some people have started making repro boxes and selling them. I bought a few but none of them pass quality check for me. my boxes have to be as good or better than the originals. It helps me get over all the case fresh originals I sold for peanuts.

 Learn something new, thanks! Who needs PBS when you have MW 

[davidwhangchoi]

i never sell my original TF's from 80's...

but my mom throws them away.

[Slave IV]

11 minutes ago, davidwhangchoi said:

i never sell my original TF's from 80's...

but my mom throws them away.

Oh man...Luckily, my mom boxed all mine up for me after I moved out.

[ScrambledValkyrie]

That's an incredible TF collection, @Blue Meanie! Definitely takes me back. The sad thing is that I used to own at least a third of those, but not any more. I sold off my TFs waaaay back when, probably after I had moved on to Nintendo games. I used to store the toy back in the original box when I was done playing with it, and most the boxes lived in a row under my bed.

[derex3592]

That's an awesome collection there!  Wow...just for the sake of discussion...what's an MISB G1 Optimus Prime or Megatron go for these days??? I sold all mine years ago from childhood, should have kept Prime...but he'd seen a LOT of battles back in the day! I actually remember, I went through 2 Megatrons when I was a kid! Maybe 2 Soundwave's as well..

[sh9000]

Cool collection @Blue Meanie.  G1 Transformers are one of the first toys I started collecting MISB.  The lovely box art with a pristine condition toy sealed inside makes them nice.  I had many all out battles with my loose Transformers before I upgraded to MISB.  I never transitioned to AFA though.  I still continue to buy more than 1 of a toy like the Hi-Metal R line to open some and keep one extra of each MISB.

[Blue Meanie]

On 3/2/2018 at 9:22 PM, ScrambledValkyrie said:

That's an incredible TF collection, @Blue Meanie! Definitely takes me back. The sad thing is that I used to own at least a third of those, but not any more. I sold off my TFs waaaay back when, probably after I had moved on to Nintendo games. I used to store the toy back in the original box when I was done playing with it, and most the boxes lived in a row under my bed.

As did I. I had so many case fresh transformers that I sold before the boom. Case fresh, cherry picked MISB G1 toys. Several of the items I sold went on to be graded AFA 90's (including Liokaiser....whyyyyyy, what was I thinking!?!). I had flawless G1 cars, Japanese exclusives, Targetmasters and Headmasters in some of the best boxes ever. I have a large batch of those still, only ever graded the Browning because he was a grail. He got a 90, but my Overlord, Grand maximus, Star Convoy, Ulta Magnus, Batch of cars, Soundwave and the remainder are all case fresh and the best boxes I have ever seen online or for sale.

On 3/2/2018 at 10:07 PM, derex3592 said:

That's an awesome collection there!  Wow...just for the sake of discussion...what's an MISB G1 Optimus Prime or Megatron go for these days??? I sold all mine years ago from childhood, should have kept Prime...but he'd seen a LOT of battles back in the day! I actually remember, I went through 2 Megatrons when I was a kid! Maybe 2 Soundwave's as well..

This brings me to why I make my own now. Being a case fresh collector is impossible now. Even if I had the money I don't think I could bring myself to spend current value money on them. An AFA 90 Prime or Megs would be $10K-20K. I have been offered nearly that for a few not as wanted items years ago. The days of people opening storage units full of G1 Transformers is over, that ship has sailed and I did not take full advantage at the time. I bought a bunch of shitty new releases instead. Hindsight. But, I have the skills to still have my perfect mint display, so I am slowly working on it.

 

Thanks for the compliments everyone.

Edited March 5, 2018 by Blue Meanie

[eXis10z]

Wow that Victory Saber box set.

[MacrossMania]

On 3/2/2018 at 3:59 PM, Blue Meanie said:

I just collect G1 transformers MISB. 2 reasons, I believe they re the best toy packaging ever, and I have loved them since a kid. I saved all the box art, tech specs and even whole boxes back in the day. Love the art, love the designs. 84-86 and the 88+ Japanese packaging.

Now they are out of this world in cost. So I just make my own replicas.

Love this to death.  I'm a Transformers collector myself and I have to say the high prices are a barrier to entry for most collectors, understandably, and frankly even for obsessive folks like me who are willing to plunk down the money, they keep me from expanding into other beloved lines like the HMRs (I've only dabbled in them) and Macross Frontier/Delta (I've missed some key pieces over the years).  The other thing though - as a Transformers collector, I marvel at your ingenuity in recreating these boxes.  While I have the utmost faith in the sellers who have sold to me over the years, it makes me wonder whether counterfeiting will reach such a level that I may be duped at some point - even in the past.  I can tell now, but will I be able to always?  (And yet I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll always be able to suss out that beloved patina that marks the years - something that no one can truly reproduce, and only the staunchest collectors know about.)  Just a thought.  Great collection though.  Mine - for all of my trouble - barely holds a candle.

[Blue Meanie]

10 hours ago, MacrossMania said:

Love this to death.  I'm a Transformers collector myself and I have to say the high prices are a barrier to entry for most collectors, understandably, and frankly even for obsessive folks like me who are willing to plunk down the money, they keep me from expanding into other beloved lines like the HMRs (I've only dabbled in them) and Macross Frontier/Delta (I've missed some key pieces over the years).  The other thing though - as a Transformers collector, I marvel at your ingenuity in recreating these boxes.  While I have the utmost faith in the sellers who have sold to me over the years, it makes me wonder whether counterfeiting will reach such a level that I may be duped at some point - even in the past.  I can tell now, but will I be able to always?  (And yet I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll always be able to suss out that beloved patina that marks the years - something that no one can truly reproduce, and only the staunchest collectors know about.)  Just a thought.  Great collection though.  Mine - for all of my trouble - barely holds a candle.

The good thing is it isn't that easy. For a while I looked into mass producing the boxes on an offset press. This would allow me to print them on chipboard with a rosette pattern like the originals. Then they would be perfect. That idea met with furious feedback though from a lot of vintage collectors, got some NASTY pm's, so I walked away. I have seen a lot of fake boxes, purchased a few, never seen one outside of the high end KO boxes be up to snuff so far. Mine are actually too nice to be the originals, for a few reasons (I color corrected starscreams green tinted box for instance). First is I do this for a living and I am darn good at it, lol . I print them on a gloss instead of semi gloss stock (88+ Japanese boxes seem to be on Gloss) and on large format ink jet. Ink jet sits on top of the paper instead of soaking in, and the rosette pattern is replicated instead of actually there from the print. So you could see the difference in the print with a magnifying glass. Another reason, is I am a major collector of G1 Box Art transparencies and toys clips. I have a ton of them drum scanned high res, and ones I was missing I acquired scans of from other collectors and cleaned a lot up for Botch's Box Art Archive. For instance my G1 Megatron Box art is 9 feet tall by 2000 DPi. I could blow up megatron on the side of an 10 story building and keep resolution. I also have a flattened box for every G1 figure from 84-87 for reference. Every single piece lines up identically to the originals. I have resources that a lot of people and even KO makers don't. The hardest part is aquiring the mint loose toy to put in the bubble. You can fake a patina BTW, but it isn't easy and I am not sure about mass quantities. 

[no3Ljm]

No offense meant @Blue Meanie. I appreciate your post and can relate on all the materials and hardwares and specs that you mentioned since I'm in the graphic production design line of work. I just like this specific part of your post.

 

[Blue Meanie]

LOFL, none taken. Now that I think of it, all those transparencies have been sitting in a folder for like 10 years. I have already scanned them, I should sell em.... 

[MacrossMania]

On 3/7/2018 at 10:54 AM, Blue Meanie said:

The good thing is it isn't that easy. For a while I looked into mass producing the boxes on an offset press. This would allow me to print them on chipboard with a rosette pattern like the originals. Then they would be perfect. That idea met with furious feedback though from a lot of vintage collectors, got some NASTY pm's, so I walked away. I have seen a lot of fake boxes, purchased a few, never seen one outside of the high end KO boxes be up to snuff so far. Mine are actually too nice to be the originals, for a few reasons (I color corrected starscreams green tinted box for instance). First is I do this for a living and I am darn good at it, lol . I print them on a gloss instead of semi gloss stock (88+ Japanese boxes seem to be on Gloss) and on large format ink jet. Ink jet sits on top of the paper instead of soaking in, and the rosette pattern is replicated instead of actually there from the print. So you could see the difference in the print with a magnifying glass. Another reason, is I am a major collector of G1 Box Art transparencies and toys clips. I have a ton of them drum scanned high res, and ones I was missing I acquired scans of from other collectors and cleaned a lot up for Botch's Box Art Archive. For instance my G1 Megatron Box art is 9 feet tall by 2000 DPi. I could blow up megatron on the side of an 10 story building and keep resolution. I also have a flattened box for every G1 figure from 84-87 for reference. Every single piece lines up identically to the originals. I have resources that a lot of people and even KO makers don't. The hardest part is aquiring the mint loose toy to put in the bubble. You can fake a patina BTW, but it isn't easy and I am not sure about mass quantities.