Odds Ends Plus Other Things May 2017 we have number of items to take care of. First a request on figures from Mike Poko. Also we have a collector from Australia looking for an item. Next we will some items from collectors showing the items and an interesting link on comic book investing. Erwin has a short article on the MPC Green Berets.
Odds Ends Plus Other Things May 2017 Readers Wants
First up we have Mike Poko. He is looking for Crescent Spacemen. Here is what he is looking for. I am trying to find three of the Crescent Spaceman. They were cereal premiums for Kellogg Rice Krispies in the the UK around 1962.
I need the following pose kneeling welding and spaceman with metal detector. Also I have the pose with pickaxe and rope, but mine is damaged. I would like to get an unbroken pose. I don’t have any of the helmets, so I need them as well. Here is a link to the Spaceman poses.
The other request is from Trevor a collector from Australia. He is looking for Aquacraft Kings Ransom Pirate ship. It does not have to be in working condition. as he wants it for display only.
Odds Ends Plus Other Things May 2017 Readers Contributions
We have a Peco Davy Crockett mint on the card. Ed Borris scored this one Ebay. Good find Ed.
Brian Johnson saw this toy on Ebay. He had this toy as a child in green and you used it as his Trojan Horse.
Brian also sent this on comic book investing. I think you will find it interesting.
Odds Ends Plus Other Things May 2017 MPC Green Berets
Very interesting in Pecos mint card ,but I can not increase the picture, it open very tinny.
best…
Just skimmed the comic book article. It reminded me of when the Spawn movie came out many years ago. I thought, I should sell all my Spawn comics while the market is hot, but then I couldn’t bring myself to part with them. Now, I’ve got an attic full of Batman, DC army comics and a bunch of other miscellaneous books. Don’t look at them anymore, but every time I think about selling, I start to drag my feet. Probably rooted in the fact that my mother threw out all my Sergeant Rock comics when I was a kid. Loved my mother to death, but never forgave her for that transgression. Anybody else have the same problem parting with their comics?
Apart from my Toy Soldiers, Comics were also a massive part of my childhood and young adulthood, During the 70s 80s and 90s I was given and when I got older I brought many comics of different characters, A few DC, Quite a few Darkhorse and Many Marvel comics. I loved my comics and ive still got most of them which is about 1500 comics in some boxes. I dont think I have any Rare or Expensive comics, But I might consider selling some as I dont read them nearly as much as I used to. As I say I liked many Super-Heroes and have many Avengers, Thor, Hulk, Defenders, Nova, Predator, Aliens comics amongst others, But I guess my favourite comic was Conan of which I have about, 450 of this Great Fantasy warrior.
I was a huge comic book fan too. I started with the Gold Key Disney comics, worked my way up to Turok & Andar, then Planet of the Apes magazine and Sgt. Rock, Jonah Hex, Scalphunter, Conan, Warlord and one of my favorites, Weird War Tales.
I was never much of a superhero fan. I preferred the “more realistic” (ha ha) heroes like Conan and Sgt. Rock. I would always reenact the battles from Sgt. Rock with my Marx GIs as Easy Company. The grenade guy was the Sarge.
As a teenager I got into more adult comics like Heavy Metal and Marvel’s Epic Magazine.
My strangest and most disturbing comic memory was the time when, as an innocent 6 year old, I got into my teenaged sister’s boyfriend’s cache of underground “Head Comics”. Robert Crumb’s Fritz the Cat was a very far cry from Donald Duck and his adventures in Duckburg. My sister never babysat me anymore after I asked my mom a few questions about what Fritz had been up to.
Moving around a lot as a kid, the “constants” of my life were my toy soldiers, comic books, and baseball cards. I had a pretty extensive comic book collection. I started out with old Charlton war comics, read some DC (SGT Rock, Our Army at War and others), but really loved the old SGT Fury and His Howling Commandos – after that I preferred Marvel comics. I had probably a thousand comic books in my collection and who knows how many baseball cards (I know I had the entire line up of the 1968 and 1969 St Louis Cardinals plus some of the all-time greats).
My folks bought a house where we could “homestead” in between tours of duty overseas and when Dad was sent to places we couldn’t follow – like Vietnam. My collections found a permanent home in the closet in my bedroom.
My dad came home on leave the summer after I joined the Army – the rest of the family had been staying at the house and he had come to bring them back overseas with him. Sometime during his stay he decided to clean out my old closet and burned my entire comics and baseball collection. To this day I believe the only thing that saved my toy soldiers is the fact I left them in the care of my younger brothers. My books and cards were in pretty good condition and there have been some I had that have sold for pretty prices (“Fantastic Four #1 & 2) – I don’t know if they would have fetched a mint price but…
Every so often there would be a story on the news about this or that comic selling for several hundred or a thousand dollars and Mom would remind my dad he had burned my copy of the same issue (I think a couple of times she’d needle him over a book I DIDN’T have). I think Dad was sorry he burned my comics and cards – if only for the grief Mom gave him over it.
As for me, I guess nothing lasts forever.
I remember these Green Berets from the local department store I was very young , so it was the late 60’s probably 1968 or so. Probably put out to capitalize on the John Wayne movie.
I used to like Sgt. Rock and Wierd War Tales, also, but never had a lot of them. I don’t remember the Green Berets toy soldiers; the only MPC Soldiers I remember were the Japanese/Russian/German WWII which fought against my green army men.
The blister card I picture at my news & review page is dated 1967. The MPC card contains the seldom seen Green Beret figures in what I assume are all ten poses. The card is dated 1967 and Multiple Products Corporation (MPC) is now known as Multiple Toymakers a division of Loreal. Loreal founded in 1948 was a defense contractor involved in radar and sonar products. They bought MPC in 1965 in order to diversify what they did. They quickly realized they bit off more than they could chew and in the 1967/68 period sold off both the Canadian and US MPC operations to Miner Industries.
My brother had a huge comic book collection that I was allowed to read IF he was present. I did get some of my own SGT Rock and some other war comics. Oddly enough, coming back from Afghanistan from tour number 5 of 6 in GWoT , I found a complete bound volume of SGT Rock from issue one up to who knows where. It was laying on the ground inside one of the waiting areas in the terminal at Bagram Air Base. I don’t know if it went right up to the very end of the series, but it was a huge book. I gave it to my son after I read it and I think he still has it.
I see the good ol’ MPC foreign soldiers were mentioned! I was so glad to get them as a kid. Not all that accurate, but decent and I love them to this day. My MPC guys are mixed in with my Marx guys providing extra poses. Seems like they were almost planned to compliment each other. The Marx Japs have no standing or kneeling firing, but MPC does. No officer, but MPC does. The MPC guys have no radio operator, but Marx does. The MPC Germans have no standing or kneeling firing, but Marx does. The Marx guys have no radio operator, but MPC does. For both Japs and Germans, Marx MG men are standing and the MPC ones are prone and firing. Now, with the Russians you don’t get this kind of fit. The poses are kind of ‘eh’ all the way around, but with so few choices they were very welcome. I have Marx Russians cast in metallic blue added in with my MPC Commies. Anyhow, I’m just blabbing about my toys.