The Razorcrest – The Climb #624

Saturday 7^th November 2020

I’ve been a bit naughty.

As many of you know, I used to run a site called Action-Figure. We were the premier news site for collectible toys. It was a ridiculous amount of work for little to no profit but it sent me around the world. I partied and worked with major celebrities. It was a good time.

But I walked away from it over a decade ago to focus on my writing. The golden age had passed and after so much work I was ready to work on something new.

I do sometimes wonder where it would have been today if I had carried on, I do miss it sometimes, especially as what I gave it up for was what I knew would be a very long and lonely journey.

I had stopped collecting, mainly due to space considerations. Heck, I had to put my collection into storage for a few years and it needed a 60 foot container.

As a result, when I bought my house I tried not to add to the collection too much. Money aside, I would have happily continued to collect Marvel Legends and Star Wars. Oh and G I Joe.

The app I use for general planning and notes has the ability to give each page a picture as a header image. I use the feature heavily in planning, if only to give me a visual identifier amongst a bunch of data so I can pick a month or week.

My weekly planner uses landscape pictures. These are taken when I go and take pictures for The Climb and it’s kinda cool to see the seasons change as you look at a gallery layout week by week.

But for the months, I want something a little different. And so I’ve taken to using pictures of action figures as my visual headers.

And it’s made me realise over Lockdown how much I love the 1:18^th scale action figures – Star Wars, GI Joe, etc. They are small enough not to take up too much space, and there’s a wide range of properties available.

A number of years back, Hasbro decided to cut costs and reduce the articulation in their Star Wars figures. It was a bad move and was a major factor that stopped me collecting. I’ve often wanted to get back into it, but cost and space has meant I haven’t.

But as I’ve picked up the occasional Fortnite figure or ones from other properties in the 1:18th scale, I’ve found myself drawn to Hasbro’s Star Wars Vintage Collection figures.

Because it was hard to get, I picked up a Mandalorian figure. I love the series, and feel it’s some of the best Star Wars ever made. And then this past week I managed to pick up another hard-to-find figure cheap.

Hasbro started a crowd-funding venture to bring rare and expensive toys to life. They made Jabba’s Sail Barge and I wish I’d bought one. I see them on ebay for £1200 and vow that this along with a USS Flagg from GI Joe is going on my list of “Things to treat myself to if I ever get a big advance”. Some people buy LEGO, I’ll buy rare and expensive 1:18^th stuff.

But they’ve been doing a new crowdfunder. And this one, it’s the Razorcrest.

One of the problem with a lot of Star Wars vehicles is that they are scaled down for play value. The Millennium Falcon toy, most of you know, isn’t to scale. There’s one that is but that’s another one I missed (adds to list)

The Razorcrest funding window ends early next week and it looks great. It’s huge and unlike the sail barge there’s a way to get it in the UK. But it is £350.

But this has been a shit week and I’m not going out, and … well… things…

So I’ve preordered it.

I figure that at worst, I’ll be able to sell it for double the price when it gets here in a year’s time.

I have no idea where I’m going to put it… but there’s a year to figure that out.