Limited to 500 Units

The set itself was released back in 2006 for around $99 and was based on the 1979 episode “Experiment in Terra”.

With only 500 ever produced what makes this particular sale special is that of the 500 the first 79 (this one was number 31) were exclusivley reserved for release at the Wizard World Philadelphia show where both actors Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) signed the sets.

Sets 80 to 500 only carried a single signature by Richard Hatch (Apollo).

Great Buy

To pick up this set which was signed by both actors and limited to just 79 is not only rare but extremely lucky, especially since most of the original 79 were handed out to the actors and staff at the show itself.

Goes to show you can still pick up some awesome bargains on eBay if you know what you’re after.

The buildable sets are awesome but for many space and budget restrictions mean there’s only so much you can invest in at any one point in time.

On top of that the ability to use these in combination with your existing sets means both the metal and plastic ranges will compliment each other perfectly.

Early Sets

News on the street is that the first batch of sets will include the UNSC Scorpion, UNSC Falcon, UNSC Warthog, Covenant Banshee and the Covenant Wraith. In addition to the vehicle sets there will also be battle unit sets containing 6 diecast figures in each pack.

Official Review

Not being officially released in the UK until later this summer means I haven’t personally been able to feel or hold these, however early pictures and reviews such as this very detailed one on the Mega Bloks blog continue to confirm my original thoughts about the quality of this range.

Get Them Early On eBay

As always a couple of sellers have jumped the release date and are selling in limited quantities some of the basic sets such as the warthog and banshee on eBay.

Priced at around £12-£15 I’m hoping these prices will eventually come down to more affordable levels once officially released across the UK.

The accuracy and look of the figures is game accurate and relatively speaking the quality isn’t too shabby either (probably on par with Mcfarlane Halo figures).

Anyway I’ve taken some pictures of the packaging (front and rear) as well as two of Sub-Zero kicking a Kingdom Hearts box (one with head forward, one slightly turned).

Only 4 Figures

From what I’ve seen they’ve only released 4 characters in the 6 inch range (Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Raiden and Johnny Cage) and whether they plan to release any more is probably unlikely. However if they do I’d love to see the rest of the ninjas such as Reptile, Noob Saibot, Smoke and the gang (Yup I’m a big fan of ninjas).

Prices

Unfortunately availability of these figures is pretty limited in the UK, so prices do vary from character to character. In terms of popularity as anticipated the MK9 Scorpion and Sub-Zero seem to be the most popular and prices on Amazon and Ebay reflect that with figures selling from anywhere between £15-£40.

Buy or Not ?

If you’re a Mortal Kombat fan, definitely grab a few of these for your collection because there’s nothing like seeing Sub Zero and Scorpion battling it out on your desk.

Note: I’ll be watching this range over the coming months and will post updates and new pics as soon as I grab some more figures. Next in line Raiden Vs Johnny Cage!

As a collector of pre-order bonus game editions I was firmly watching the Deus Ex Human Revolution Collectors edition which was released on August 26th 2011 with an RRP of £99.99. Limited to I believe 200,000 units world wide and coming with an Adam Jensen figurine (produced by Play Arts Kai, so guaranteed to be a quality piece) amongst other bits and bobs I decided correctly to hold off my purchase until after the game was released.

Why ?

Now in terms of pedigree Deus Ex is a defining game and most hardcore gamers that played the original back in 2000 know it’s got pedigree. However at the same time 200,000 units is quite abit and more so it’s not a mainstream title. Sure they’ve tried to make it mainstream but the franchise it self doesn’t have a following of millions worldwide looking to get there hands on all and everything deus ex.

Obviously in saying the above I’m not saying it’s not a great game or not worth collecting only that with certain types of collectables you’re better off going in afterwards. Oh and the other thing that kind of turned me off on top of the 200,000 units was that the figurine is also available separately so not exclusive to the game edition.

Prices & Deals Now

You can now pick up sealed and shrink sealed copies of the collectors edition for around £50-£60 from eBay, Amazon and specialist game stores like shopTo.net. That’s pretty good considering the Adam Jensen figure on it’s own sells for around £40-£50 in most places.

ShopTo.net as of this moment has a few copies available at just £49.99 which I think is close to the best price but Zavvi and play.com also have a decent collection of sellers getting rid of their stock.

Final Words

Be sensible as a collector and do your research as sometimes going in after launch and giving the game some time to settle pays handsomely!

To celebrate Rockstar have put together a cool video commemorating the game (embedded below) and more importantly for us collectors a bunch of awesome limited edition collectables including a Claude action figure (1500 pieces) and 6 inidividual lithographs (500 pieces).

For full details of the whole 10th Anniversary annoucement you can check out the newswire section on the rockstar website here.

For the details on the collectables read on!

Claude Action Figure – Limited To 1500 Pieces

Priced at what I feel is an extremely affordable $149.99 and to be released in November of this year this in my eyes is a top tier collectable and from the pictures looks extremely well produced too.

Shipping for international customers (e.g. us brits) is via DHL at $49.99. It sounds a little expensive at first but on further enquiry is inclusive of all custom duties and other fees.

So you’ll get it delivered with no surprise costs and if you’re like me and ordered 2 then shipping is still fixed at $49.99 bringing down the cost per figure to just $174.99.

Limited to just 1500 pieces, pre-orders opened on saturday so if you’re looking to get one of these I’d pre-order now otherwise you’ll be bidding on eBay and paying a premium later on. The official pre-order page is here.

Lithographs & Posters

For me the main collectable is the figure but for those with a tighter budget Rockstar have also released a collection of 6 limited edition lithographs. Each lithograph is limited to just 500 pieces and priced at $24.99 each.

There’s also 2 posters of the original box art (US & EU versions available) which from what I can see are not limited in anyway but still might be a cool purchase at just $14.99.

The Video

Was doing my weekly shopping at Tescos and a quick wander down the Toy aisle brought to my attention something very strange and funny at the same time. There was a buzz about the place and I instantly noticed an almost overly keen interest in the Transformer KRE-O’s.

First a mum, then a dad and then another mum discussing their childs christmas list and from what I could make out Kre-o’s seemed to be right up there at the top.

In fact as I slowly reached over towards the last Jazz set on the shelf one of the fathers nervously looked over at me as though it concerned him that I would take it.

After this very strange interaction my thoughts on these sets became clear, these are going to be flying off the shelves all across the UK leading up to christmas. So if you’re considering getting them, you had better get buying otherwise you might be dissapointed.

In fact that’s exactly what I did when I got home and thanks to the 25% off all Transformer KRE-O’s offer (valid until the 18th October 2011) I saved a cool £75 on my total purchase with free shipping too.

Total cost was £220.40 for all 10 of the large sets, which I should hopefully be getting Tuesday or Wednesday next week. I’ll take a picture of my stash once it arrives!

Now normally I’d probably ignore Hasbro’s attempts at breaking into this already competitive niche but whilst strolling around my local Toys’R'Us I have to say up close and personal the new Transformers Kreo-O sets look pretty darn good.

Kreons

The mini figures (also known as Kreon’s) looked extremely well made and the bricks also had a very blockable look to them, but more than that it’s the transformers franchise that got me excited. There’s been loads of transformers spin offs over the years and quite a few doing the classic original series but this attempt looks some what different, and very polished.

To Collect Or Not ?

It’s done enough for me to consider collecting them, and a quick look on eBay for the search term “Kreon Kre-o” shows auctions going well into £100 territory for complete sets of the sealed mini figures with individual kreons going for around £5-£10.

The generation 1 Kreon figures number at total of 28 with 16 transformers and 12 humans and I can already see a craze developing for collecting these figures which right now are only available with full sets.

No mystery packs or smaller mini figure sets at the moment but if things go well we’ll probably be seeing these in the next round of production.

28 Kreons At Launch

I’ll probably hang about on eBay trying to nab myself a full set of the generation 1 Kreon’s and see how it goes. I think being as new as they are, if things do take off, very few people will grab the full series due to the extreme cost associated with buying the sets which right now aren’t cheap.

The optimus prime set is around £60 in Toys’R'Us and despite coming with 5 mini figures it’s still not enough to justify jumping in with such a new product line.

Anyone who’s into these or is getting into these, drop me a line with what you think or just leave a comment. I’ll be eagerly awaiting your thoughts.

Full sale offers page is here

You can check the original eBay link here and the offer is also valid in store and on their site here.

Unfortunately I never really got my hands on one when they first came out (RRP was £150) but now that things have calmed down I’ve decided to pick up one of these from eBay and I don’t think it will cost me any where near the original £150 people coughed up.

In fact I’m not even after the whole set just a boxed and sealed set of goggles which I believe you can probably snap up for just under £80.

I’ll let you all know how much I finally get one for! Oh and by the way the last set of night vision goggles I paid for were ex military from Vietnam, I paid £350 for them back in 2006 and they didn’t work. Thankfully the ebayer that sold them to me, took them back for a full refund. Let’s hope these ones actually work!