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Can you still get the TF backup strips online?

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2018 10:30 am
by Auntie Slag
I was looking for Machine Man 2020 the other day on Comixology, but I didn't have any luck. Is it possible to get it digitally anywhere? Maybe it was called 'The Iron Man of 2020'.

Also mildly interested in the Rocket Racoon backup strip, definitely not Planet Terry. I just loved the artwork of that particular Machine Man/Iron Man arc.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2018 10:04 am
by Denyer
Doubt there's anything official. If you can't find, shoot me a PM.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2018 11:39 am
by Tetsuro
I got several different scans but they all omit the non-TF content, and while the better ones I found are scanned from higher quality materials and actually use the UK printings of the US material with the changes made to the relevant content, they still switch to older, lower quality scans around mid-200s with the lower quality paper on the US pages and the lower res scans of the UK material.

It's kind of a shame because I really enjoyed seeing all the content I hadn't previously seen, like the editorials and letter pages. And all the Lew Stringer material!

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2018 6:09 pm
by Cliffjumper
The Machine Man series was from Machine Man Vol. 2. It was recently reprinted as part of the Iron Man 2020 trade, no idea how Comixology works. The Rocket Racoon one's probably back in print now he's part of Guardians of the Bantz too. I mean he has been for ages but we've at peak selling unrelated stuff to spackers at the moment - there are actual trades of ****ing Infinity War in HMV right now. Which presumably people are buying, though it might be a sex offender tracking system, like Funko Pops.

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2018 10:40 pm
by inflatable dalek
Rocket Racoon was in one of the red cover Marvel partwork issues, so you should be able to get it cheap.

The Iron Man issues are in the Stark Wars Epic Collection trade.

I think there was a big hardback of the original Herculese and its Non-TF reprinted sequel at one point.

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:50 pm
by Skyquake87
Rocket Racoon's strip should also still be available as a Panini Pocketbook for about a fiver (mine was. until I sold it).

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2018 9:58 pm
by Auntie Slag
Infinity War... that sounds like that Simpsons skit when Lionel Hutz tried to sue the makers of The Neverending Story.

It'll go well with my bracelet though.

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 8:30 pm
by Skyquake87
Is Infinity War the one with the terrible eeevil clones?

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:53 pm
by Cliffjumper
Skyquake87 wrote:Is Infinity War the one with the terrible eeevil clones?
Yup, and the car crash hilarity of Jim ****ing Starlin the grand cosmic twat trying to write funny dialogue for Strong Guy. The crowning glory being that Infinity War the film seems to be more closely based on Infinity Gauntlet the comic than Infinity War the comic. Top hipster bait.

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 6:35 pm
by Warcry
Cliffjumper wrote:HMV
You've still got those? I thought yours closed ages ago. I remember reading about how the ones in Canada (which shuttered a couple years back) had been a zombie brand that outlived its UK parent.

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:18 pm
by Skyquake87
Yes we do! They managed to survive by behaving like a record shop again. They're not as massive as they once were, but now seemed to have settled back into being a dedicated high street music retailer (there was a period in the last decade where they didn't seem to know what to do - stripping out A LOT of physical music products , vinyl, CDs and replacing it with BOSE speakers and Skull Candy headphones and not much else) I shop at my local one all the time, staff are great and it has the thing I always liked about HMV - staff that are interested in the stuff they sell.

...they still suffer with a metric tonne of horrible Funko Pops. Who is buying these? I was in Forbidden Planet in Manchester and about a third of the shelf space is given over to these dead eyed ghouls.

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:47 pm
by Warcry
I don't get how Pops are popular, either. They're not toys, really, they're not cute enough to be good for display and I just generally don't see the attraction.

Our HMVs got snapped up by a competitor called Sunrise Records, who proceeded to hang a new sign over the front door but change absolutely nothing about what was inside the store (including the same insufferable "unique" staff). They barely even sell music anymore, aside from hipster-bait record albums. Half of the store seems to be DVDs and Blu-Ray, with a bunch more with shirts, books, random knickknacks, etc.

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 9:14 pm
by inflatable dalek
I'm not big on Pops either, but I recently picked up my first, a Sir Roger Moore, for a tenner when the recent Live and Let Die large action figure sets you back over £200. They're just a cheap fun way of having favourite characters on your desk.

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 9:50 pm
by Warcry
I guess? Most of them don't really resemble the characters they're supposed to be, though. At least not to me.

But if they make folks happy there's nothing wrong with that.

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:32 pm
by Cliffjumper
They're toys for people who don't like toys but want a cheap way of showing hey, they're zany and different because they've got a figure of Jack Sparrow or Doctor Who or Deadpool or Harley Quinn sat on a shelf next to a Stranger Things box set. You can buy little plastic sleeves for the boxes, for ****'s sake, because the 'toys' have zero play value. You might as well slap a photo in a frame for all the good they are.

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 3:38 am
by Tetsuro
Cliffjumper wrote:They're toys for people who don't like toys but want a cheap way of showing hey, they're zany and different because they've got a figure of Jack Sparrow or Doctor Who or Deadpool or Harley Quinn sat on a shelf next to a Stranger Things box set. You can buy little plastic sleeves for the boxes, for ****'s sake, because the 'toys' have zero play value. You might as well slap a photo in a frame for all the good they are.
Well at least we agree on something.

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 4:46 am
by Tantrum
Funko Pop figures look like they wanted to do Hello Kitty versions of pop culture characters, but couldn't secure the rights to Hello Kitty, so they made the heads squarish to avoid legal trouble.
Cliffjumper wrote:You can buy little plastic sleeves for the boxes, for ****'s sake, because the 'toys' have zero play value.
TFs have non-zero play value, but people still pay good money to have AFA seal them forever in plastic boxes. Maybe someone will hate their money enough to send their sleeved Pop figure to be AFA graded.

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 12:47 pm
by Cliffjumper
Tantrum wrote:people
They aren't people and calling them that just normalises them. AFA is just a tracking system to gather information on likely incel spree shooters.

Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 11:12 pm
by Tantrum
Now, Cliff, that's an unfair generalization. You know perfectly well that some incels kill people by running them over in cars.

You might get some schadenfreude out of this AFA story. Guy gets his unopened MP G1 Bee box autographed by Bee's voice actor. Ships it to AFA for grading/enclosing via UPS. He thought he told UPS to put the TF box in a shipping box and send it. UPS thought he told them to ship the TF box. So, UPS shipped the TF box as-is, putting address labels partially over the autograph.