Blue Monday

Guess who!

It's blue!

About a month ago Darius Whiteplume of Adventures in Nerdliness held an online scavenger hunt. The prize? His original Sears Cantina Playset exclusive Blue Snaggletooth! I'll cut to the chase real quick and point out the obvious...I WON!

It wasn't an easy scavenger hunt, a big component of it felt like the challenge was reading Darius' mind to figure out what he was looking for. But the chance to win a Blue Snaggletooth, one of the holy grails of original Kenner Star Wars figures, was impossible to pass up.

Or was it?

Unbelievably, only two people even entered the contest; myself and Reis of Geek Orthodox. Sadly for Reis, he lost. Even sadder, he lost to me. Because I've been sure to remind him on several occasions.

Like now ;)

The Blue Snaggletooth was released immediately following the movie, and is terribly off-model. Yes, even moreso than all the other Kenner figures that immediately followed the release of Star Wars. Therefore this Snaggletooth never saw release outside the initial Sears exclusive Cantina set release. For a toy series that has seen about 438 different releases of even the most obscure background character in the last 30 years, that is no small feat and makes this guy a rather tough find. In fact, until now I had never seen one in person before. That too is no small feat, as I am obsessed with toys to the point of it being a bona-fide affliction.

My "main stream" Snaggletooth has appeared on Toyriffic once before but is currently stored away. I'll have to dig him out for the side-to-side reunion soon. But as you can see, Blue Snaggletooth is unnaturally tall for an...um...Snaggletooth.

He is also shod. By Ace Frehley*

I can't thank Darius enough for this epic add to my collection. Rest assured, good sir Whiteplume, he is in good hands.

"Hi Reis!"




*thanks Brian A. for the spell-check!

Playart Police Van

I posted earlier about my Playart Batmobile. When I saw that car, it was a double-first for me. The first time I knew Playart made a Batmobile, and the first I had ever heard of Playart to begin with!

I'm sure my friends and I had some of these toys as kids - they were prolific in the seventies and eighties - but I was not aware of them beyond being a non-Hotwheels or non-Matchbox "also ran." They are of a lower, but undeniably charming, quality level than the "big two."

So when I acquired the Batmobile, I did some research. This Site is the most informative info I was able to find on Playarts.

A couple months later I was in an antique store that is a favorite of my dad's, due to it having a whole room of toy cars of all shapes and sizes. I looked all through the room with my newly acquired knowledge of an obscure "new" die-cast brand worth hunting for...but not a single Playart was to be seen.

As we were leaving and paying for a couple finds, I walked away from the register and peeked into a cabinet full of general antique store fare. On the bottom, in the back, and in the corner, sat this van! Mint on an unpunched card! A whole room full of toy cars, and the "gem" sat near carnival glass and old doilies!

So I bought it...for $3.75.

UPDATE: I traded this off to a friend of mine who is a big Playart fan/collector. It's in good hands!