I love car boot sales. There is so much unwanted crap in the world, and it seems to all appear on Sunday morning around England - being peddled out of the back of someones car.
When I was a kid, I used to go with my Grandma to car boots- and always find some amazing toy treasures. Superhero figures, wrestling merch, Transformers, Starcom - all sorts. It was like a treasure trove of finding things you could not get in shops anymore -long before the days of EBay. People only wanted 20p or something for a bag of riches too.
Now days the car boot is still going, but owing to the rise of things like EBay - amazing finds are becoming rarer and rarer. Now anything valuable is shoved to EBay and the price hiked up, and everything else no one wants gets dumped at the car boot.
That's not to say you cant still find some awesome bits, but its a lot harder and you really have to be at the front of the queue come opening time.
I see lots of people who go down with massive bags, so I can only assume that at least some people are finding lots of use for old radio controlled cars, old computer parts, and Notts County football programmes from the mid 90's.
The summer is true car boot season, and crazily I have not yet been to one this year - well till this morning.
To see my spoils, hit the button below
The stand out figure from this sort of cheapo A-Team of unwanted toys - is clearly The Ultimate Warrior. I have no idea where this guy came from, but it was the first thing that caught my eye at the stall. As a kid, The Ultimate Warrior was my favourite wrestler. He wasn't a particularly good wrestling technician, but he was flashy and crazy. His promos were often nonsensical, but still somehow cool - and he had all of 3 wrestling moves. But still he was awesome.
He is a large figure, coming in at about 7 inches in height, and is highly poseable - at least with the upper half of his body.
The arms are good, he even has wrist swivel AND a separate hinge to move the hands up and down. Legs are weird in that they only move forward and back at the hips.
He has some string bits dangling from his arms and knees. On the the knees they originate from the knee pads (complete with awesome little warrior faces) but from the arms they just come out of a joint?
Not sure if they are meant to doe that, but they kind of look like he has string flowing out of his shoulders - though knowing the Warrior he would probably put that in a promo
This figure perfectly captures the mentalness of the Ultimate Warrior, from the deranged face sculpt, to the pants and cowboy boots combo, to the random bits of string emenating from inside his arms.
Ultimately I cant complain. I have always wanted an updated Warrior figure - though I have no idea why. The one I had in the 80's is still knocking around at my mother's somewhere. He can just stand near my computer looking angry at all times.
I think I had this figure in the past. Its Teen Titans Robin, and I am sure it came with a massive cape with a sound effects box in it. Its odd as I was looking at this figure on EBay only last night.
This updated version of the original Robin costume, I have always been a fan of. It just looks cool and reminds me of the early 90's when I was buying Robin comics (Tim Drake!)
He will go alright with Batman - just needs a home made cape.
Speaking of Robin's....
Batman and Robin was a terrible movie, but spawned a massive toy line (feeling more like an advert for toy's, than the other way around) . The film is bad for all sorts of reasons, not least the over the top sculpted body parts on the suits (Bat-Nipples!) - which is recreated perfectly here in this small figure.
It's Robin, in the film, but the costume is very much based on his Nightwing design which he still wears now.
I cant resist these old 90's figures, for nostalgic purposes. I had lots of them, and looking at them now, in full action pose - I still like them. Despite knowing they are not very good by modern standards, theres a certain Kenner charm to the,. I loved these sorts of figures as a kid, and there's something amusing about having Chris O'Donnell in toy form - now if only I can find an Arnie Mr Freeze.
Hes sort of designed to look like he is always dancing - at least thats my take from it.
However, the figure I am most pleased with is...
...Lex Luthor!
More specifically, Justice League Unlimited Lex Luthor. I love the Bruce Timm designs from Batman the Animated Series, through the whole DCAU.
These figures only have very basic articulation, but they look very much like they do in the show. Lex Luthor is one of my favourite villain characters of all time, so its nice to have a little, adorable plastic version of him.
He has a nice belt, and a shoulder holster with a non removable pistol - all nicely sculpted.
Look at him, he even looks like he is plotting an evil toy based master plan.
Everybody should have a Lex Luthor action figure somewhere in their home.
Overall, pleased with my score - though those pennies could have bought me some Sushi from Sainsburys.
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