Hi All,

At this year's Motor City Comic-Con, I had the opportunity to interview Star Wars artist Matt Busch for my buddy's website. Matt's a talented artist and a really cool guy. I thought I'd share the interview with everyone, so if you're curious as to how Matt got his start illustrating our favorite franchise, check out our conversation at JohngysBeat.com.

Cheers!

I used to keep all the cardbacks too but then over the past few months realized it was wasteful since I had no real purpose to keeping them. Why was I keeping all of those cards and inserts if they were just going to sit in a box in a closet out of reach? So what I've done is keep a sample of each series cardback (commonly a Jedi Luke or some other character I find interesting) and then recycled the rest. The cardbacks I've saved I'll be putting into a binder for reference.

For the vintage style cardbacks (VOTC, VTAC, VTSC, and TVC), I've kept each cardback (dupes have been recycled) as I intend one day to use them to make a mural or some sort of interesting background display in my next collection room. They harken back to the Kenner days and I can't seem to let that slip away. 

Looks like it might be time to update this. The TVC Deleted Scene Jedi Luke is now the perfect fit as a counterpart for the Vintage Jedi Luke. The hair sculpt could use a little work, but overall it's the best Jedi Luke we've gotten in the modern line. Can't wait to get a few more of those.

For those asking about the variations for the vintage Jedi Luke, there's a ton...
* Lightsaber color - blue vs green
* Blaster color - tan vs gray
* Cape - sewn vs snap
* Head - painted face vs molded face
* Various COO's
* and I believe mould changes for the saber and blaster

I've been trying to work out what all of the combinations are as this is my favorite figure of all time. Lots of research has already been done on the interwebs, just have to take time to go through it all.

yeah it's been hit and miss here. one store had a handful of cloud car pilots and endor hans for $4 but the Deleted Scene wave figures for $7.97. other stores have no TVC and then there was the one I went to tonight that had one lone Super Battle Droid on the peg for $4. either the pegs were already cleared up at wal-mart, or the news about these drove everyone out to get deals.

Geeze, all they needed to do was make some sort of a 2-pk of them, even reference art concepts if they have to... nearly the same sculpt for both chicks, and it would have been easy money for Hasbro... if we ever see them, I bet it's an exclusive at SDCC or something of that nature.

When I talked to Derryl Depriest at the C5 Yak/SWAN party, I brought up a similar point to him - that they could just use reference art or mock up a new likeness for the characters. His response was something along the lines of that they could not even do that to get the figures made. So assuming the whole thing revolves around likenesses, apparently Hasbro couldn't even change the Tonnika's facial features to get around the issue. If that's the case, hopefully things have changed with this new commercial coming out. In either case, I'm looking forward to the commercial and what Hasbro's next response will be.

Though my Summer of Vintage ended, the Fall brought its own surprises and acquisitions. So as everyone prepares to receive Vintage for the Holidays, I'd thought I share my latest pickups to get everyone in the mood...

This past October was the annual Kane County Toy Show here in Illinois. It was my first time at the show and besides selling some items, I made some big scores...



This was the starting point, a number of miscellaneous items including a minty Snaggletooth all for next to nothing.




Walking through the various sections of the show, I found a number of quality looking pieces and in the end after some wheelin' & dealin' they were had for a very good price. Of note, the Cantina Adventure set while missing the figures still includes the original inserts and baggies! The X-Wing is supremely pure white, it will make for a great displayed piece someday. All of the cardboard parts from these sets are in near perfect shape, I was really thrilled with all of these scores.



One of the things I need to do as part of my vintage collecting hobby is to go back and pick up boxes for loose vehicles/playsets I've bought over the years. One of those items was a Landspeeder I picked up at The Earth in Cincy about a decade ago. Well recently I was able to get the box off of eBay to finally complete this item.




Earlier this year I got my holy grail, the Imperial Shuttle. After that, the next big thing to get was a Sandcrawler and surprisingly eBay was the place to be again! This is a complete and working set and in great shape, it was also the most I've ever paid for any single vintage piece. So anything else I buy from here on out will be gravy, haha. Next to the Shuttle this is now a key display piece in my collection.



And finally, a set of books my buddy gave me recently. The comic book is in black & white, while the Star Wars novel is an 8th edition print.

So that ends my year for vintage collecting, it was a helluva year. Hopefully 2012 will bring as much excitement for all of you as 2011 did for me.

Cheers!

Darby, that's an amazing score. Congratulations on such a wonderful looking display piece - now you have to get the rest of the figures to fill it up properly. 

Bump with a HUGE update.