...And a Happy Bar Mitzvah to you!

OK, quick quiz, what do you think the coolest Bar Mitzvah gift ever would be? Well, you’re wrong, it is this:

This 1988 custom comic is considered among the rarest Superman comics ever produced -- so much so that many fans mistakenly believe it’s an urban legend. But it does exist -- a comic book commissioned by a British billionaire as a gift for his Superman fan son, in which the boy and some of his friends were written and drawn into a Superman adventure! It is believed that this book had a print run of LESS THAN 150 COPIES, because it was produced as a BAR MITZVAH PARTY FAVOR (and far fewer than that number are believed to remain in existence)!

According to the ebay posting about this recently sold comic ($1,677.00 U.S.).

Much about this book is unusual and unique. It was the first, and one of the few, comics writing jobs by DAVID LEVIN, who went on to a distinguished career in television, and both cover and interior pages feature one of the last Superman pencil jobs by the legendary CURT SWAN -- this one done three years after leaving the feature to John Byrne. It marks the only time Swan was inked by MAD magazine caricaturist ANGELO TORRES, hired by editor Joe Orlando to “plus” the likeness of the Bradman boy. You can find more details about the content and provenance -- AS WELL AS IMAGES OF INTERIOR PAGES -- since I’ve elected not to scan the interiors because I didn’t want to remove the book from the bag -- at David Levin’s blog, here.

Yep, this is a very cool comic!

Spidey in the morning

As I noted in an earlier post Around the time of Spider-Man 2 Kellogg’s issued a bunch of in-package toys with their Spidey-related tie-ins. A couple of these items were Spidey wrist-lasers or somesuch (I think that there were a total of four of them). Well, I have recently acquired two of the four. The first one appeared in that post I mention at the beginning of this entry, and this is the second one here.

Both of these items have mercury batteries inside the toys, so CT Attorney General Dick Blumenthal had them pulled at the time (some nonsense about the mercury being potentially hazardous to the health of small children). Well thankfully Mr. Blumenthal(who is an otherwise most excellent Attorney General for the Great Nutmeg State of Connecticut), only was able to pull the toys from, well, CT, and now — through the magic of ebay — I am able to acquire some of th3e Spidey toys that were denied to me back in 2004.

As stated, there very well might be two more of these “wrist lasers” out there, but for now I am (somewhat) mollified.

On a side note, I also did acquire a Superhero Squad “Iron Spider” figure, but it (unfortunately) arrived broken (one of the spider legs was lose and snapped off in my hand as I was removing it from the package). Needless to say, I contacted the seller who has very graciously has offered to replace the item for me.

Nice to know that there are still honorable merchants out there. When the good figure arrives, I'll share pics of that as well.

Spidey goes to Burger King!

Hey! I just learned that there are Spidey toys at Burger King this month (Feb). Not sure what the real-world media tie-in is for these (the last time Spidey appeared at a fast food place it was Micky D’s and it was tied to the new animated TV show).


Here is what the toys look like. I’m going to run out later today to grab up as many as I can, and then give you pics of the toys themselves (this image came from an ebay auction, which is already offering the toys for sale).

* * * UPDATE! * * * UPDATE! * * * UPDATE! * * *

I just learned that the Spidey toys apparently won’t be available until the weekend ( believe that Friday is the day where the toy is changed at BK). More as it develops.

Time for a Cup o' Iron Mead

As you all know, I’ve been stalking a whole passel of Marvel-related 7-eleven stuff, well, this Saturday, I acquired the four Iron Man cups and two of the Hulk Straws. I was aided and abetted in this endeavor by a pair of friends and fellow CAGers (Liz and Chris — take a bow). Liz purchased the items for me, brought them into the City on her visit to last week’s Big Apple show (which I was supposed to attend, but missed). She then passed the items over to Chris, and I acquired them from Chris when I went to the CAG-NY meeting yesterday.

Actually, now that I see the cool Hulk figures on these straws, I’m looking to see if I can find the third figure-straw. Whelp, Back to ebay, I guess.

Still out on the Horizon (which I purchased on ebay but haven’t yet arrived) are the missing Iron Man Burger King toys, and a set of Iron Man 7-eleven straws. I purchased both recently online, and am simply awaiting them to arrive into my hot little hands. I’m thinking that at the end of the summer when I have all the Summer Superhero food-related toys (those mentioned, plus (hopefully) Batman: Dark Knight, Hellboy, Punisher, Hancock, what-ever), that I’ll pen an article about them that I’ll post to my regularly-schedule fast food toy column on American Antiquities

Well, that's it for now, Perhaps I’ll be back later with some other cool Bon Motts.

BK Hulk Watch Begins!

That’s right kids, it is official, after Burger King winds up its Indiana Jones run of toys, it is going to be restocking its toy chest with Hulk toys. The Ed Norton-helmed Incredible Hulk debuts on June 16, so I’m thinking that the Hulk toys will appear the week before. Hopefully I won’t miss out on scooping these toys up as I did with the Iron Man stuff.

Yeah, I know that I can get the toys I’m missing on ebay, but it just galls me to have to pay five bucks plus shipping for a toy that I could have acquired for under a buck (without the artery-chocking meal that accompanies it).