What I Bought With My Hake's Americana Prize Money

As many of you may know, I won the Cool and Collected and Hake's Americana contest for League of Extraordinary Bloggers members. Hake's selected my post as the winner from the many posts entered by my fellow Leaguers. I am humbled to have won with so many great posts of pop culture collectible dreams hoping to come true.

A Shopping Spree We Will Go At Hake's Americana and Collectibles

If money were no object I would have one hell of good time shopping over at Hake's Americana and Collectibles . However, if money were no object where would the challenge be?

I already have many of the items up for grabs this go around, but there is still plenty of toys and pop culture collectibles up for sale that I would love to get my hands on and fill the gaps in my collection, but since I didn't win the Powerball last night let's take a look at a few items that might be in my price range.

Having a Geek Related Site Has It's Privleges

Media Badge for Amazing LV Comic-Con. Photo: Batcave Toy Room

I have wrapped up my 31 Days to a Better Toy Collection Challenge and still have two more posts to post completing the challenge. The Toy Room is finally in order, but this Father's Day Weekend I am taking the time to have an ultimate Geekfest. First, by seeing Man of Steel and secondly, enjoying the Amazing Las Vegas Comic-Con.

Bring Back Star Wars Action Figures

This weeks assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers asks:

Bring it back! What product or media property would you like to see revived, and how would you imagine it being different today?

There was a time I wanted Battlestar Galactica to be brought back totally re-imagined and I wrote a story treatment and a first draft to a script and then just dropped the idea. Ironically, twenty some odd years later it happened for real and was redone amazingly by Ronald Moore with many of the same ideas I had for a reboot.

Completing A Death Star Space Station Playset On Schedule

Restoration Vintage Death Star Space Station Project. Photo: Batcave Toy Room

It only took about five and a half years to complete, but at least it's done.

The Vintage Kenner Death Star Space Station, an armored space station playset with enough playability to last for hours or several decades for that matter. This playset rocks.

My Vintage X-Wing Fighter Looks Like It Just Rolled Off The Showroom Floor

Vintage Kenner X-Wing Fighter restoration project. Photo: Batcave Toy Room

Lock S-Foils in attack position!

Day 22 inspired another toy clean up and restoration on Day 23 of My 31 Days to a Better Toy Collection Challenge. This time with my vintage Kenner X-Wing Fighter vehicle.

The First Vintage Rebel Transport Is Away

Vintage Kenner Rebel Transport in need of a cleaning from the Batcave Toy Room

My vintage Kenner Rebel Transport is filthy as a Bantha.

My Mego Shelf Is Feeling Kind Of Bare

Mego Shelves with a focus on the Holy Grail Batman's Wayne Foundation

Collect them all! Yes, I am working on it.

It's day 20 of my 31 Days to a Better Toy Collection Challenge and I've done just about all I can do with the Mego section of the toy room. This the surviving remnants out of all the Mego WGSH toys that I have had in my lifetime and this part of my collection needs some beefing up.

Maximizing My Shelf Space For More Toys

It's been a hard days night and I've been working like a Wookie.

Day 19 of my 31 Days to a Better Toy Collection Challenge ended with an overall very productive weekend. I continued to maximize my shelf space, which in turn is allowing me to display as many of my vintage toys as possible.

Combining The Old With The Newer

Vintage Star Wars Toy Collection from the Batcave Toy Room

 It was the best of plans. It was a plan that just never made it completely into production.

Well, for the most part it did. Day 18 of my 31 Days to a Better Toy Collection Challenge reveals that the very tippy top of the walls in the Batcave Toy Room are lined with action figures.

An End to a Good Thing with My Micro Collection Contact

Vintage Star Wars Micro Collection Action Playset from the Batcave Toy Room

Day 14 of my 31 Days to a Better Toy Collection Challenge brings the last round of recently received Star Wars Micro Collection action figures.

This last set of four figures completes the set of action figures for my Bespin Control Room action playset and the last set I will probably get from my former Kenner employee contact as he doesn't have the other die cast figures that I need.

I Sense a Disturbance in the Toy Room

A diamond in the rough for the Batcave Toy Room, a vintage Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine

Not really a disturbance, but something more like an oddity.

I guess not really an oddity either, but something you don't see everyday in my collection of toys. A vintage toy yes, but not the standard Star Wars, World Greatest Super Heroes, Batman or Super Powers Collection you normally would see.

31 Days to a Better Toy Collection Challenge: Day 11

Vintage Kenner Death Star World action playsets from the Batcave Toy Room

 Open the blast doors! Open the blast doors!

I had a request from toy collector JBoypacman to see more of my Death Star Playsets. So, here's a lesson in ask and thy shall receive.

31 Days to a Better Toy Collection Challenge: Handling Toy Restoration Projects - Day 8

Most followers of the Batcave Toy Room know that I am into restoring vintage toys. This can be as simple as cleaning up a dirty toy to doing a complete rebuild, which can very inexpensive or not worth your time and money as you would be better off to buy a specimen in better condition.

31 Days to a Better Toy Collection Challenge: Remembering My Toy Collection - Day 7

 

Let's get re-acquainted, Shall we?

It's hard to believe that the Batcave Toy Room will be four years old this Summer. Time flies when you're having fun. It has been an awesome ride and I can't believe how many great toy collectors I have met over the years. It has definitely been a learning experience.

31 Days to a Better Toy Collection Challange: How a Star Wars Micro Collection Comes Along - Day 5

 

Progress is mine.

I decided to stick to working on the curio cabinets in the Batcave Toy Room's auxiliary room, actually my home office, next to the toy room.

I gave the cabinets a thorough cleaning and worked on arranging my vintage Star Wars Micro Collection playsets.

5 Iron Clad Rules of Toy Collecting

Do toy collectors suffer from multiple personalities? Some people consider toy collectors to be fanatics. They can seem to show no limit to what they will do to collect that one item they have been looking for. They are persistent and scrutinizing. They attend conventions like Comic-Con or toy shows wearing costumes or T-shirts of there favorite characters. Who are these people?

February State of the Site: 2013 is Going to Fangasmic

I did a State of the Batcave Toy Room Site post last month as part of a way over due assignment for The League of Extraordinary Bloggers and I am now planning on continuing to do a site update on a regular basis. Interestingly, last months post had one of the highest number of links then any other post posted to the site. These links could be due to links from the League assignment or readers just want to remember what I am up too. We'll have to see how continued posts fare, but maybe there is something to this.

Giving Negative or Postive Feedback When Buying Vintage Toys on eBay

Buying vintage toys on eBay can be a great way to build your toy collection. I've picked up specimens that I wanted to add to my toy collection and found pieces to replace broken or missing parts for vehicles, playsets, and action figures. However, buying online can have it's drawbacks.

The online auction site, eBay, has helped me restore countless toys and always with pleasant experiences. However, while working on my Kenner Imperial Cruiser toy restoration project I had won a bid for an original box for this Sears Christmas exclusive that was not quite what I had hoped for. Here's look at the pics that were posted for the sale.

State of the Batcave Toy Room Site

More on toy collecting and vintage toys is coming soon. However, for now, I originally started to write this post as part of an assignment for the Extraordinary League of Bloggers, but didn't complete it until now.

I've always wanted to jump into the fray and join the Extraordinary League of Bloggers, but time just never seems to be on my side. Hence, why it took so long for me to get this posted. I constantly attempt to make it a point and read a couple a posts a day from my fellow toy bloggers with Sunday being my biggest reading day. I really wanted to jump on the bandwagon after I happened to catch a post from Brian over at Cool and Collected on one of the Leagues latest assignment and I thought I'd throw my own two cents in.