Figurine Collections..

[The Curmudgeon]

Thought I would just share with you (and I'm surprised I've never done it before) one of my favourite income drainers, the Marvel Figurine Collection.

Basically, it's a series of lead figurines of characters from the Marvel Universe, from the obvious (Spidey, Cap, Hulk) to the more niche characters (Impossible Man, Super Skrull). Each figurine comes with a magazine that gives a detailed history of the character, a list of villains and allies, a chin-stroking oversight into why the character was created and what they "say" about society, as well as a poster of an iconic comic book cover they feature in.

Oh, and the magazines get stored in official binders, and the figurines get placed on official Marvel stands. The whole package really is a thing of beauty.

Anyway, feast your eyes on the figurines released so far (they've been commissioned to go as far as 120). This is the main page, just click "more" to see the rest.

www.marvel-figurines.co.uk/index1.html

Recently, DC tried to get a slice of the action and created their own range of figurines. And while I was extremely tempted to subscribe to that too, I realised I don't know, or indeed care, enough about the DC Universe to justify it. Still, look at these beauties..

www.eaglemoss.com/dc/figurines.html

What's not to love?

[trashcanman]

Seriously. I love those things, but I'll be damned if I get sucked into collecting them. That, my friend, is a financial black hole. Once you start, you can't ever stop.

[The Curmudgeon]

Oh hey, I know it, and I knew it when I first decided to start buying them.

It's when you start trying to buy the rare varient figurines is when the wallet starts to get seriously hurt. But.. gasp, a GREY hulk varient?! Niiiiiiice.

[marcus]

LOL. Fucking LOL!

Watching films based around comics is one thing, reading comics is sad but collecting little STATUES for them all?!! ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Ooooh, Curmudgeon you're sooooooooooo scary!!!! I don't think I've laughed so much in my entire life. You sad bastard!!

[The Curmudgeon]

Oh NO! Oh God NOOOO! Some easily-upset dick has came on my website and challenged my appreciation for comic books! And even worse, he's put not one, not two, but SIX "smiley faces" to show how amused he is by it all! How on earth will I ever come back from that?

Simple - by not giving a single grade a FUCK what you think. I've given up trying to explain to every idiot who think "reading comics is sad", because people who can't see beyond the "biff pow" stereotype simply aren't worth bothering with. So you'll happily go to see the likes of Iron Man or Batman but reading the material these multi-million dollar franchises are based on is somehow "sad." Riiiight. OK.

And I've never tried to hide my more "nerdy" pursuits, even through those Amazon reviews that bothered you so much that you joined my website. I mean, I list my hometown as Latveria, for fucks sake. Look it up if you don't understand that reference, I'll wait. One of my rare 5 star positive reviews was dedicated to the Marvel Universe. My character profile pic on Amazon is Godzilla! I mean, good God, my website is called The Fortress of Solitude............ you don't know what that means either, do you?

Will buying figurines dedicated to comic book characters get me laid? No - but I'm not buying them to "impress" anyone - I'm buying them because they're fucking awesome, and if I were to actually take any notice of some random, boring stranger on the internet I would just go and hang myself tomorrow.

[InvisibleWolfMan]

Honestly, this begins to feel like either a huge windup OR something personal that someone wants to play out because they can't let some stupid statment go. Collecting figurines is no different than collecting coins, stamps, shoes, CDs, DVDs, colthes, cars, a plethora of toy varieties (take your pick...really). It might not get him loads of admirers, friends or chicks but hey...two years ago some dude who had the tenacity to purchase EVERY G1 Transformer toy in sets of two and left the one set unopened got over a million dollars in the process. Shit, I have a Spiderman comic around somewhere that I paid less than $2 that is worth over $100.

And The Curmudgeon is right; people just don't grasp what comics are all about. They are a form of artistic expression that reflects social issues through extraordinary viewpoints of the fantastic. It's sad that the quality of the writing has dwindled over time compared to some of the silver and golden age comics but that again reflects another social issue as the digital age becomes more dominant now than it ever has been before.

Marcus, doubtful you'll admit to it but as I said at the start this is either a windup or you're really out for some kind of personal vendetta over something you can't let go of. For someone sickened by the likes of the loyal Dwellers here, you sure can't break away clean now can you? Perhaps mummy and daddy didn't love you enough. Perhaps you were the type to smile at them and the moment their backs were turned you would beat down your own sister just for her allowance so you could stuff all the sweets you wanted into your stomach.....but who cares? The point boils down to that you are taking pot shots at everything because neither The Curmudgeon nor the rest of us have really sunk down to your level of pathetic yet.

Oh, and don't worry because we won't. So with that in mind.....

[marcus]

Let's just have a little chat about someone taking "pot-shots", shall we Wolfman? This is a guy whos fucking HOBBY is making deliberatly offensive, insulting, hateful comments and aiming them at anyone who happens to disagree with him. I've done my research bud, and the more I read the less I like this guy.

Here's a guy that says if you buy a certain album, you should have been aborted. That only teenage single mothers watch X-Factor. That a 14 year old boy who was bullied at school should have hung himself instead of releasing an album. That anyone who listens to hardcore dance music is a heroin addict.

And on. And on. And on.

And yet when someone dares question HIS tastes its suddenly a capital offense? Let's wake up and smell the coffee shall we?

I have taken a good look around this place, and the more I think about it, the more it makes sense; there seems to be a number of pretty decent people on this website, but all the trailers for movies, cute Youtube videos and discussions about comics can't hide one thing - the worst thing about The Curmudgeon's Fortress of Solitude is The Curmudgeon himself. And something needs to be done about it.

[The Curmudgeon]

Something needs to be done? What the hell does that even mean? Who ya gonna call, Marcus? And whatcha gonna do, brother?

You know, for someone as relatively well spoken as yourself, you're not half dumb.

Do you honestly think I want a 14 year old boy to hang himself?

Do you honestly think I believe that its only teenage single mothers (and let's not forget "thick housewives", you left them out) who buy X-Factor records?

Do you honestly think I believe that everyone who listens to hard techno music is a drug addict? Come on, Marcus..

OF COURSE I DO.


(Swerve!)

[InvisibleWolfMan]

Marcus,

In my life I've met by far WORSE people than The Curmudgeon's off-the-cuff remarks make him out to be (I've even got cigarette burns on both of my hands to prove it). There's a thread on here somewhere in the hot topics section where I endured a few months of torment from my "fellow" workmates just because they could torture me:

thecurmudgeon.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=60

I survived, and now maybe only 5 people have been there longer than me, and most of those are the people in the head office. I learned a huge lesson from that as well as my constant cruising around the net forums I visit:

If I concentrate on the words rather than the emotion, I can focus on what is being said.

You can't tell me that you don't feel that someone should take a long walk off a short pier because their opinion on a matter doesn't match up with yours....or at least it seems to you that they are a born idiot. It's obvious that you do since you are laying pretty thick into The Curmudgeon over his opinions.

In the end, that's all they are; opinions.

There's another thread here where we discuss urban legends and I brought up the idiots who still insist to this day that "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" really happened....despite the fact that both the original and the remake contain plenty of interviews and documentaries which bring to light the "real" story behind the development of the story via the horrific acts of Ed Gein. You can't deny for a second that the fool idiots who you could spend countless hours arguing with in a heated but rational manner aren't stark raving idiots who deserve to get hit by the broad side of a north bound bus. These people are "fanatics." They can't let go though the truth stares them in the face. They rant, rave, scream, and even turn violent.

In my humble opinion, people spend WAY TOO MUCH TIME worrying about offending. Life offends. I see it everyday. People think they can set their kids in front of the TV and they'll instantly be Donald Trump one day thanks to THE APPRENTICE marathon on their local station. This ignorance is blinding them outright and leads to such an acceptance of sub-par things that I can't buy into it like I used to in my youth. I can't stand to listen to techno music myself...there's shit that's regurgitated so much it becomes a blurry pig vomit mess in my opinion. I have no patience for it, but 95% of the radio I hear plays it. I can only stand to listen to two stations here; one which plays lots of R&B groove music that is actually good, classic stuff and not R.Kelly's latest remix while the other one is a rock station that has the motto "We play whatever the fuck we want" (yep...Finland has a bit different approach to swears).

And that's how it is here at the Fortress:

We say whatever the fuck we want.

Come on, The Curmudgeon isn't your dad, mum or even distantly removed relative. He's a guy with an opinion and an attitude to back it up. Same as any of the other members here. I still flip him shit for liking Britney Spears and there's several things he flips me shit over that I'm not thinking of at the moment because well...I'm getting nagged by the wife to start watching the movie we rented before she falls asleep. We're grown adults here, capable of handling our own feelings.

You're better than you're letting on Marcus. And the fact you have the balls to stand up for what you feel is right proves that. Still, you need to grow and change and the best thing for you to do is stick around and challenge us all.

In other words:



JOIN US!

[trashcanman]

Hey, you know what? Maybe Marcus is right. Let's run the Curmudgeon out of here so he doesn't offend any more people with comically over-the-top insults that nobody in their right mind would take literally. I think you see these (almost) entirely humorous rants the Curmudgeon goes on and think he sits around at home yelling at his wife in the third person and calling her awful names for liking this or that show/album. Fat chance. Dicking around people who take frivolous things way too seriously is one of the joys of the internet. The Curmudgeon has made a hobby out of it and his results entertain us all. Now why don't you just come clean and tell us what specific comment had you spending DAYS researching his online doings, huh? My money is on a bad techno CD because "hardcore dance music" is the single most oxymoronic phrase I've ever heard and it's doubtful anybody who isn't obsessed with hearing the same mind-numbing beats and unoriginal samples and synthesizer riffs for hours on end would ever use such a combination of words. Am I right?

Thanks for being a sport and sticking around, btw.

[The Curmudgeon]

See, at first, I thought it would be the Heroes review, but after his bashing of all things comic book, I can't imagine him having a major hard-on for that show.

So, tell us, Marcus - what got your panties in a bunch?