Post by ozz on Nov 28, 2021 22:16:09 GMT -5
I'd love to hear more about this -- and ozz !
It was around 1998 for me. I was just starting to get on AOL boards and websites to find old LJNs. Previously (1996-1997) it was through Sports Collectors Digest or catalog dealers like John Diccico. The AOL wrestling board was dying mid 1998 with spam which seems odd since wrestling was at such a hot point but luckily I found Mansonozz's website. It was the first time I ever found out about the 1989 series of black card guys who were slated to be produced like Bad News and the Bushwhackers. It was also the first time I saw live pictures of LJNs like Haku or Rick Rude and saw they weren't exactly like the prototype. Additionally, he sold LJN toys that I wasn't able to find, or accessories. I was able to get a Freddie Blassie and Mr. Fuji cane and I bought a few others as well. It was fun getting toys at the flea markets for a few years but with the internet now starting to boom, it was Mansonozz who was really a legend in the early days for me.
Oh that's so nice to hear! Crazy how stuff from the past like that lives on, and especially great to know what it meant to some people because I sure have the same feelings for others who I knew back in the day and remember our collaborations & such very vividly. I have an idea who tagteamcollectibles may be, if he was local to me.
As the attitude era was getting larger and larger, while the internet grew, and things started getting more out there. I was good friends with Brian from Big Brothers Toy Museum, who had the at-the-time largest museum/figure info list available. I recall that we, and some other "notables" seemed to be at the forefront of finding and sharing so many of the LJN variants that we'd known or come to find from buying countless collections and going through them to see what we could fine. Many of my photos are still available on Google images, and are used A LOT in collector sharing with my old AOL website URL still emblazened on them. With the common-knowledge of all of these figures amongst the most well-educated collectors, it amazes me that better photos haven't completely erased them from internet use. I scanned those in a photo scanner from my old magazines probably between 1998-00. I even used to scan the FIGURES I had on a photo scanner w/white paper behind it to serve as a background, and even used to just take photos of the figures and then scan the photos.
That whole variant-hunting thing doesn't sound like much now, but realize this was at a time when mint black card figures were selling loose for $50 (Warrior upwards of $100 and Bossman w/nightstick somewhere in the middle), and you could probably find any of them within a day or two if you had to. Hasbro Mail-a-ways (MIB) were the same price, and Hulk was probably $10-20 less than the others. LJN Slaughter, $50-75. Nighsticks, Frankie, and 2x4s selling loose for $50 tops w/o the figures.
I recall getting a black chain JYD and purple skirt Liz MOC for less than $50 each, most likely on ebay. No one knew what these were, or if they did they definitely weren't seeking them much or scouring ebay every second like the situation is these days. I still have real-film photos of them hanging on the wall of my room as a teenager at the time, along w/all my other figures surrounding them on shelves. I sold it all long ago when prices at least doubled what I had into it, and I'd long-since had my buying/selling efforts pay for everything I had multiple times over, but WOW do I wish I'd kept 'em all the past 20 years.
I do have most of the LJNs now, which I've been collecting for my son to play with since he was 2 (now 7), and in my office I have what I believe to the be the foremost collection of Winston Toys erasers. Those are actually the reason I un-retired from collecting; when I randomly found this website one day and saw that that set included newly-"unearthed" JYD & Richter figures, I had to have them. I'd known of Piper from seeing it quietly in a random non-descript lot on ebay, which I think I let go for "Gartwo" to win in the end for basically chump change. Had I known the significance I wouldn't have let that happen at the time, but...ah well.