Another month, and time again for a new update on this project, where I started out with 5 euro and going to grab myself a StarMax Bomber for the collection.

Right, let`s kick in the door as an opener...


Yup, that`s right, I got him!  Well, mostly at least...  He still needs a fresh right body gun as that one got broken off in transportation, but heck, that`s peanuts.  I know a Dash coming my way in the not so far future once I got that little piece sorted out.

In the end, I managed to exchange it for a Super Sentai toy I scored at the auctioneer house again.  the benefit I have there, as you can see by most of my hauls, is that I am about the only person there intrested in old toys.  As such, like recently, I can take along 2 or 3 full boxes of toys for a few euro and use those as great trade values.

I started out last month with this in the pool, but as I already have the ship now in my closet, you can imagine how hectic I have been e-mailing, group trolling and Facebook PM`ing around to get to this point.

1 Lion King Game
1 Kre-O Bumblebee kit
a set of 4 small toy cars
4 Dino Rider characters
a Dino Rider Protoceratops
4 GI Joe Backpacks
A remaining budget of 2.85 euro

As expected, it was mostly the Dino Riders that pushed the budget upwards.  With that, I managed to grab no less then 3 lots, including as unexpected budget generators the 1973 Faller racetrack which I managed to trade around with the track parts, and a heap of old Barbie Shelly dolls.  Add to that a box which had a LOT of old toy parts, and it was a full bomb...

I actually never expected parts to go that easily, apparently a LOT of people are out there trying to (re)complete old toys, and the counter kept going upwards as I managed to exchange those for some nice pieces, including but not limited to:







Of all of the above stuff in the pool, I only have Bumblebee and the Lion King game left, and now a whole heap of other little nifty toys and elements.


But the bottomline is, I managed to exchange some big size playfigures of *I dunno which japanese live action sentai series* for a StarMax, which had a value of about 115 Canadian dollars... which is ubercheap to begin with.

So what have we learned so far?

1. Wait long enough for whatever toy you`re looking for and eventually it`ll come along

2. If you put in a lot of effort, you can generate a big toy from a measly 5 euro bill lol.

There will be one last update in this series, detailing the ship in all it`s glory as soon as I have exchanged some loose parts for the missing one, and then Dash will be here as well, but until then, hunt on!

This is a pretty cool gift that I got from the GF back in april, at the anniversary of the relationship.

Back in the 80s, the main villain of the StarCom series, a scientist that names himself Emperor Dark, was only available through a mail-in action within the United States and Canada.

But even though not really cheap, the leader of the Shadow Force now graces my collection shelves, and he is in a fantastic condition to boot woop woop.

The latest toy in my collection to get completed (I needed to eBay for a captain Mace and for a purple visor), the Shadow Force has gotten reinforcements in my cabinets with a Shadow Vampire.

A smaller vessel, that was seen in the cartoon in one of the earlier episodes, it odes not have any `power deploy` action, but instead has a cool wind up feature.

You see, when you wind it all up, and then hold down the `trigger` at the bottom of the model, the two large guns next to the cockpit move in a firing action.  The wing engines are then also folded backwards to change the model from VTOL landed state to flight modus.

A nice little ship, though not by far a favorite in the collection, I still needed it of course for completionist sake ;-)

In the 80s, there where a lot of cartoons, and a lot of pretty awesome toylines.  Because back then, these series where created purely for the marketing of those lines.

One of the latest to arrive in this format, was my beloved toyline of StarCom and it`s to short cartoon series.

Because by then, the `engine` was dwindling down, and while the series was actually pretty realistic compared to other space shows, the toyline wasn`t a big succes over in the States.

Heck, StarCom toys where far more popular, but far more difficult to get, in Europe, with Germany and Italy being it`s biggest market, so this makes it a highly collectable toy line.

The series itself focusses on the US Space Force having expanded into our solar system, and being opposed by the power hungry scientist calling himself `Emperor Dark`, lord of the Shadow Empire.

While both the StarCom base and the Shadow Force main bases are located in the Saturn rings, the adventures take place in the known universe.

A stranded mission on heat baking Mercury, a story about the fabled `ruins on Mars`, a hijacked training cruise... those are just some of the adventures the leading trio of hero`s face.  StarCom is divided into three divisions, and their respective col. are the centre points of the adventures. 

Slim is from StarBase Command, Crowbar is from the Astro Marines and Dash from the Star Wing divisions, each force having their own colours and structures.

The series was developped with the help of NASA itself, and was apart from marketing the toyline also a way to inspire more young people to go and pursue careers in the space orientated sciences and engineerings.

All in all, even though it lasted only for 13 episoded, and had an open ending as it wasn`t renewed, StarCom was a pretty fantastic show, but a sequence of effects like it`s time slot changing, the toyline lack of succes overseas and the general loss of intrest in `yet another saturday morning cartoon` led to it`s to soonish ending...

The latest model to be added to my StarCom collection, is this evil forces character, Sgt Von Rodd.

Now while the Shadow Empire figures are easilier found then the good guys, it was thanks to a Facebook connection I could get my hands on this one.

This lovely bloke traded it for one of the Masters of the Universe Meteorbs I possess, the purple Dinoorb, and brought it along for me at the Antwerp Convention last week.  Thanks matey!

Okay, I have been (forced to) slacking on this the past month.

Holidays, medical issues, a lot of other things have made it so that I had a lot to do outside of being able to trade around a lot, but where back on track this month.

There have been some shifting around though, and all in all, though not really where I wanted to be by now, it is going in the right direction and I *hope* May will see a nice bump upwards towards this.

From the situation half of March, I have mamaged to get the Scuderia Truck traded away for 9 euro, which by then gave me a total open budget of 12.41 euro.

This has been `re-invested` in the following toys and tools for the working out of the bet further:

* a set of small micro cars, one of which is an actual Galoob, for 0.25 euro



* a G1 Takara Cosmos Transformer for 3.51 euro


* a Dino Rider Protoceratops with Kanon figure, nearly complete, for 4.50 euro

* 6 Dino Rider figures for 4 euro, of which two are already gone again for 3.70 euro, leaving me with Antor, Sky, Sting and Turret figures left.




* a set of 4 still working GI Joe backpacks with sound effects for 1.00 euro

All this moving around now gets me at this point in the bet:

1 Lion King Game
1 Kre-O Bumblebee kit
a set of 4 small toy cars
4 Dino Rider characters
a Dino Rider Protoceratops
4 GI Joe Backpacks
A remaining budget of 2.85 euro

Now, I *hope* to score some relative big steps with the backpacks and the Protoceratops in particular, and build upwards on those then to get in a good pace and still pull this off, but getting to an average trade value of 300 USD is still a long way off, meaning with the 8 months remaining I should be going upwards of around 35 euro A MONTH with these items as a starting point...

It`s going to be a hard challenge for sure!

Okay, sorry for the tongue in cheeck Star Wars reference, because Star Wars is that one thing I`m actually not looking for.

No, this list is all about the two vintage toy lines I`m trying to collect again to relive my childhood, MASK and StarCom.

While MASK is a bit easier (and more then a bit cheaper) then my favorite space guys, the first goals are the little magna-lock power deployed toys from Coleco.

The top of the list is of course, the mighty StarMax Bomber.  The main vessel of the good guys, and the one I`m trying to get together in my `bet`.

Because completing the bet succesfully, would also yield me number two on this list, Col. Dash Derringer.

Another neat little vehicle from the line is the M-6 Rail Gunner, the `sister vehicle` to the LaserRAT.  Piloted by Rick Ruffing, this is a high rising little car.

Talking little, the Mini Tank for the Shadow forces always had a certain cuteness to it.

But of course, the counterpart to the StarMax, the ShadowBat, is one other vessel I cannot stand to be missing out in the collection.

You might wonder why the exclusive mail away figure of Emperor Dark is missing here, but I *have* him, sort off.  I got my hands on a mint copy a few weeks ago, but I`m getting it as the anniversary gift from the GF next week normally...

The other line I`m so wild about, and always have been, is MASK.  A license on the rise lately (yeah, just my timing luck), they are far easier to find then StarCom as the line was more popular and well known over here, not to mention 25 years ago easier to get hold off in your run of the mill toy store.

The first one on this list is the Razorback from wave 3.  I`m rather certain I might get one before the end of the week, but as long as I don`t have him actually in my hands...

The other big one to get is the Stiletto from the final wave, where the vehicles split in two and they came with transparent clone projections to comand the second vehicle.  But this is the vehicle that includes Gloria Baker, the Shark will forever remain a missed model in the line...

The Jackhammer is another classic of the series.  The Ford Bronco piloted by Cliff had a rising back that contained a large turret, and was really sinister in the gleaming black colourscheme.

Volcano was a motorised vehicle, a monster truck rising and splitting to reveal a rotating turret.

The final vehicle of this `wanted` top 10 is the Wolf Beast, the main VENOM vehicle from wave 4 piloted by Miles Mayhem.  While I`m not that wild of it`s combat mode, the car looks awesome in it`s muscle mode...


So, those are the hunts, amongst others, that are at the front of my convention list for the year, but first, I`m going to make work of completing my Lego Tolkien sets though, as they are starting to become available in limited quantities as they will be retiring in all probability by the end of the year...

Another trip to Vinnie, another set of vessels for the collection...

They both where already `under negotiation` the first time, but he parted with them in the end.  I`ll give him my CW Powerglide as a gift and a token of appreciation for these, so he will be one step closer to his completed Superion.

The F1400 Starwolf and it`s Shadow Empire counterpart, the Parasite, are the two mainstay one man fighters of the series.

The Starwolf folds up to cargo pod size, to be carried for example in the back of a StarMax or on top using his magnalock.  It then folds open the nose and wings using power deploy.



The Parasite can sit on the wings of a Shadowbat, while the power deploy opens it`s guns, extends it`s engines and folds open his wingtips.


They are just so awesome, and another big step towards the fully completed range!

The one benefit perhaps you have as a collector of 80s toys it seems, is that time is actually your best friend.

Things you want to add, and which are not uber rare prototypes and the likes, are bound to be showing up sooner or later and there seems to always be a deal to be struck.

The most recent example?  I was allowed by the GF to order my own gift for our anniversary soon.  I had been looking around on the internet auction sites and the likes for an Emperor Dark from Starcom, one of the rarest figures to get overhere in Europe.

He was a mail away exclusive in Canada, and back then there was no internet, and those mail offers where usually native residents only.  I found them online for between 60 to 100 USD, but it was even rare to have him with cloak AND staff, and you would not only be paying a hefty amount of shipping, but also import taxes, making it really expensive for another time just expensive exclusive.

But now I found one in Spain, and he knocked me (well, technically her) back for 65 euro incl recorded shipping, and he is even on the way as we speak already.

This is going to be such an awesome gift!

And it is also the perfect example that unless you get offered pristine MIB boxes, you actually have time to wait.  Most of these toys are 30 years old, and due to shows like the Toy Hunter, the market is having a bit of an uplift at the moment, as people think they have found the newest goldmine. 

So if you can bring it up to wait just a few more years, the market is going to be settling down again in all probability and prices will lower again by about a quarter, especially for not so popular ranges like StarCom and even MASK. 

GI Joe, Masters of the Universe (with it`s upcoming movie) and Transformers is a whole other matter though and have markets of their own...

Nearly a fortnight after the first update on this project, some things have been shifting for the better.  Now, I realise more and more every day that this is going to be one tough cookie to crack, but we keep our chin up and haggle around.

I am so going to pull this off... I hope.

The good thing is, I traded the Thunderbirds puzzle away.  While I did get it for 3.00 euro, I managed to get it going out again for 5.66, netting me 2.66 euro profit for the, well, errrrm, about 300 euro I`ll be needing for the Stamax.

Not the speediest of advances then... and I still have the Lion King game, which I`d hoped would have flipped around by now.

So time to re-invest some of the small change then, and I shelved out 3.50 in total for the following two sets at the local recycling store.

The first is still sealed inside Kre-O Transformers Bumblebee.  Putting me back only 1.50, this can turn out to yield a small profit again and raking up the pot.


The second one is more intresting on the quick flip goal: A Lego Ferrari licensed polybag of the Scuderia Truck.  Lego is almost always a quick trade around, so this little 30191 should be gone swiftly considering it is franchise and out of production.  I paid 2 for it, but I guess I can easily double my value on it.

So this leaves me at the moment with the following:

1 Lion King Game
1 Kre-o Bumblebee kit
1 Lego 30191 polybag set
3.41 euro of remaining budget

Today I had something of a mixed plan.  My mate Vincent, with whom I go back since my pen and paper role playing days, had asked me to come and look at the toys he had still stored over at his mom`s place.

The thing is, he wants to sell a lot of them to make room and funds to add some more Takara Masterpieces to his already mightily impressive Transformers collection, but he lacks time, knowledge and motivation to do so.

So I volunteered to help him out and search through his stuff, check prices, the whole shabang.  He also wants to part with a lot of used, complete Lego, including the old pirate ships from the 1991 line, but that is a story for another day as we`re going to make sure they are all complete and such, before he puts them out for sale, something I`ll be helping him with as well when the time comes.

The bonus is, he also has a LOT of Starcom, so my goal today was to 1. get the StarCom for my collection and 2. see if we can help him make a dollar left or right.

Now, his toys are mostly still in great shape, and though some have issues left or right, the overal condition is just darn awesome.

So where to start?  Well, let`s start with the StarCom, and even though he didn`t want to part (yet) with the Shadow Parasite and the Star Wolf, I did manage to get myself a very lovely lot for my own collection.

The first one is the Shadow Vampire, which I basically got for free.  It misses his pilot, and one of the guns, but heck, those I can hopefully come by some day on eBay or the likes.

The Battle Crane is complete, and fully operational.  These little pod lifting vehicles are basically the work force of StarCom, and it is always nice to have one of those.

He also had 4 of the Pod bays, namely the Command Post, Medical Bay and Vehicle repair in very good condition, and the Laser Artillery whom unfortunatly has it`s front flap bended, but if I place it `locking` behind another vehicle, I can position it deployed and just fine.




The Skyroller was one of the later vehicles, that raises itself into the heights to make place for Pods and troops placement.

But of course, I did get some of the uberclassics from the series.  The first is the HARV7, an armoured transport truck.

But the second was one I was willing to go far on for obtaining it, having always been one of the favorite toys of the line in my youth: the LaserRAT.  I just love this little assault buggy, and it`s mechanics are still excellent.

The final vehicle I obtained was the Shadow Raider, a nifty little truck, but sans driver though.

I also got some characters from the line, though I doubt I have every weapon.  Pfc John `Cowboy` Jefferson, Pfc Rusty Caldwell, Cpl Slash, General Von Dar, Agon-6 and Cpl Storn now adore my ranks.






But the real cool stuff?  This old catalogue, in nearly mint condition.  I love it so much, I even put it in a frame and hung it up, adoring it.  Really appreciated mate...



I also picked up these two Transformer Micromasters, Tote and Mudslinger, because, well, like I said I love the smaller action figure sizes and I think they are pretty cool little robots.


The final thing I picked up for my own collection is this Go-Bot, Tux.  Pure out of nostalgia, I loved this limo turning into stove hat wearing robot.


So that was the haul for my personal collection, and it put me down for about 130 euros, BUT it did help sweeten the next part:

The Dig Haul

See all those bags at the beginning?  That is what I managed to pick up, amongst other things, to try and trade around to compensate for the StarCom in large.

Now, I still have a LOT to check, but as you can see it has no less then 5 boxes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles amongst them.  A first quick headcount gave me around 20 of them, so even though I hope I could get 5 USD each for them... there is a lot more.  A dozen or so GI Joe`s, another dozen Go-Bots, both together should also bring in about 30 USD.

Then there are the BIG things, like the GI Joe `watergun plane`, a Turtle Copter, but also the still with box Turtle bike.  Considering the box is the UK version, this should add a bit of value, and I think I can make around 20 USD for that one, and about 10 to 15 for the other vehicles.

But the final gem I saved for last: 3 mint condition, still prefectly transforming, stiff jointed Meteorbs, whom should be making me about 10 dollars each.

What did I pay for all this?  Well, he asked 50 euro as an example for the Turtles, so I did him an offer of 200 together with all the StarCom, and got all the rest included for the 20 euro.

So all in all, this lot should be able to get me around 200 USD for this lot, making me get back the investment for the StarCom to boot and break even in the end.

So now, I need to get to puzzle and sort it all out hehe!  And now, I just need to talk to his GF for just something other `small` ;-)