GID Bagman with a surprise Madball head underneath. I'll have to check the glow color later. EDIT: Completely forgot this was a normal release from May 2009. It's orange glow.
@hellopike It really is! First time I saw it was in the Secret Base shop in Harajuku. It was behind the fenced case with a ton of other amazing fighters and Obake Dogs. I thought it was some kind of long, lost Secreter. Turns out it’s not, but could easily slip on covertly. So happy to finally have this one locked down!
“Unreleased” Dog. Blue glow head on the teal “shop only” body, with an awesome keychain. This is Dog 76 in the collection.
Whiz76 Obake Dogs, issue numbers 08, 29 and 14, respectively. However, they are now 77, 78 and 79 in the collection. I have 79, different Obake Dogs. That is the dumbest, coolest shit, ever. Spoiler: Back
@gatiio I’ve been tryin’ to think of a way and space to get ‘em all set up. They take up a whole detolf, easily, so the real estate to set ‘em all out would be pretty damn massive. Someday!!!
A question for the longtime SB collectors: Today in the mail I received an “Ocha” Skullbee from the 2004 “Gimme Culture” event. It’s number BE-24 in the Mook, listed as “translucent green vinyl with green splatter” and comes with a laminated tag from the event. Well, when I opened my Mook to compare the splatter I realized mine isn't green vinyl at all. It’s yellow. Were there two versions of the Ocha Skullbee? Does anyone have one in their collection currently that can say what color vinyl the figure was done? I don’t think it’s a white balance issue on the photo from the Mook, and I can’t imagine it’s sun leaching/yellowing over time (but maybe it is). Maybe it is just an elaborate counterfeit? Anyone got one that they can share pics? Here’s mine with the shot from the Mook.
I've been through 3 of these over the years, ranging from a darker, almost 'bottle green' to an olive green/yellow like the one you have. Consensus from the elders was that it is probably UV fading that lightens the color over time. I have a photo of the 3 together, and will try to dig it up. Congrats on finding one with the tag, btw. Those aren't easy to come by.
huh. I don’t think I would have pegged uv damage as the culprit… I guess it is just yellowing over time; but boy is it a uniform change in color… I’ll have to take a closer look at the vinyl under the paint and see if the hue is different. and the tag is the first thing to go, eh? I’ll consider this a deal then! I got it for a song, which is the best and worst thing about collecting SB fighters these days. Great that I can find these old gems so cheaply, but they deserve to be more highly regarded. But I’ll keep buying them whenever I can!
Coming back to this guy for a moment- is there any tampo on his back? I’ve got a similar orange glow bagman with a madball head, but it has a brown bag I believe and if I’ll bring be honest, The black looks better.
ahh. I knew I should have used the search function sooner; but I’m also glad to maybe spark some discussion in this thread.
Well someone on eBay thinks these things are still worth what they were in the mid-aughts! Unfortunately the one figure I need to complete my collection has a price tag many multiples of what I'd actually buy it for. Congrats on the Ocha!
I have both these guys (2 x different Madball heads, both with black bags), and other than the usual Balzac bones on the ass, neither have any back print. Brown bag on the Madball sounds like someone got clumsy swapping shit around. There have been a few on YJA over the last 18 months suffering from the same mash-up madness.
Thanks to @hellopike for helping me finish off the Secreters! Mine is a pretty small collection, but that's by design. Secret Base is what cracked this world open to me. Early on I was collecting any and all Skullbrains and Obake that caught my eye. But after a while I realized that I needed to be much more focused in my collecting, otherwise it'd be a slippery slope to completism (and financial ruin!). Having previously collected the World of Springfield Simpson's toys I learned that being a completist can suck the fun out of collecting, so I decided to drastically limit my scope - the Secreters would be where I drew the line. As you can see I have a few others that are personal favorites or haven't been picked up during sale/trade attempts. The Project 1/6 being my favorite SB figure of them all takes center spot along with Forest. With the Secreters done I may slightly broaden my scope to finish off the Astrobrains. I think they are tangentially related to the Secreters? I could be making up a false memory, but something tells me the header tied them to the Secreters.
The Astro Brains are more directly inspired by the Astro Mu toy that was used for the Employee Secreter's colors. Believe the name is Devil Bado, but I'm no expert.
That's where the Secreters spawn from, too! I just did a image search and Astrobrain has the same Secreter 5 logo on the header (which is a riff on the Astro-mu 5 logo):
So . . . I picked up the guy on the left mid brain-fart, not recognising it or reading the description. A buddy flagged up that the description stated it was discoloured and it looked like the old Monochrome Bee from way back when, but I followed through on the deal as it seemed too even to be discolouration, and the teeth too white for it to be a dye job. I was anticipating (optimistically) it might be a test-shot on a khaki base vinyl, but it showed up this morning, I popped the head off and it's not (same grey vinyl as the monochrome). But I'm 99% sure that it's not just discoloured with age (soles of feet are the same colour as the top of the head), and to my uninformed eye, appears to have been factory sprayed prior to the white accents being applied. It makes no difference (I dig the 'same but different' contrast between the two), but curious is anyone has any intel or thoughts?
@Anti Social Andy No idea where it came from, but that’s definitely a factory paint over the base vinyl that I don’t think anyone could achieve without the masks. I met SB’s factory painter in 2015 and there were samples and uncut fighters all over the place, so this could’ve easily slipped out. Might’ve even come from Hiddy’s Osaka sales he held at auction. It’s how I came about my Obake Dog with the Kaws head painted by him.
I have 2 thoughts to add. 1. I once purchased an extremely smoke-stained Skull Bee. It was the blood-splattered one with a white vinyl (unpainted) gi and head painted black. The gi had discolored to the point where it was a similar khaki color. The discoloration was also amazingly even. The only giveaway was the fact that the Bee smelled like an ashtray. 2. Your Bee also reminds me of this weird one that I found a few years ago.