The End Is Near...

... because I got a bargain at a toy show. Seriously. This never happens.

Here's how things usually go:

A) I buy something at a premium (before it hits stores) because I'm so excited that it's been released. Later on, I find it remaindered for half as much because it turns out that I was the only one who wanted it.

B) I buy a lot of movie merchandise at a premium because I'm so excited that its film is finally coming out. It premieres six weeks later, and I don't like it at all. The toys immediately becomes a monument to my impatient stupidity, and I give them all to Goodwill because none of my collector friends want them either.

C) I buy a vintage toy at a decent price, but wind up buying it again when I find one in better condition - I rationalize it by promising myself that I'll sell the other one. Of course, the object of a once-hotly-contested auction now sits on eBay like it's infected with the plague.

D) I see something that vaguely interests me, but don't buy it. Six months later, I change my mind completely, and wind up paying ten times retail for it.

But not this time. This time I waited, and it paid off.

I'd always liked the Kotobukiya Star Wars vinyl kits - the sculpts and paint jobs are really nice, and - compared to the quarter-scale Sideshow figures - more affordable and easier to display. But I picked the Sideshow line to pursue, so I decided not to go down two expensive paths at once.

Until I found out that Kotobukiya was going to produce a kit of Ralph McQuarrie's concept painting of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker dueling with lightsabers. It's one of my favorite concept paintings, so I was kind of screwed. It was going to cost two hundred dollars, but I had to have it!

It came out last summer for Comic-Con, but I'd bought a lot of other stuff already, and it was big and expensive to ship, so I held off. I kept checking on it, but it was always the same. Two hundred dollars. Two hundred dollars. Two hundred dollars. Plus shipping. So I kept waiting, firmly believing that I was setting myself up for another category D.

Like many times when great things happen, I wasn't even thinking about it any more. I missed WonderCon, so I was really ready for a toy show, and The San Jose show was right there to fill the bill. I got there as close to the opening of the show as I could, paid my early bird admission price, and started to wander. And there it was, at a booth.

For one hundred and twenty dollars.

I couldn't believe it. I walked on, past the staggering bargain, hanging on to my rule of "make one complete sweep before you buy". I'm not sure, but I do think I finished going over all the the tables before I went back.

The cheapskate Vermonter is chanting too good to be true, too good to be true, too good... in an attempt to be practical, I asked the dealer, "Is it in good shape?"

"It's unopened," he said.

"But that's... a really good price." I said, probing for a loophole. What the hell is the catch here? Will I be drafted into the Army if I buy it?

"I know," he said.

"Okay," I said, no resistance left. "I'll take it."

I lugged it about for a while, which did start some conversations (It's a big box). I bought a McFarlane Yogi Bear figure for ten bucks, a couple of Justice League Unlimited figures for another tenner, and four Dudley Spare toys from Cars that amounted to another sixteen dollars. Neat stuff, but most of it was utterly eclipsed by The Bargain.

I know eventually I'll open and display the Star Wars kit (otherwise, what's the point?), but for the first time, I'm wondering if it can really make any happier anyway. What if it's broken, or warped from sitting in the sun or something? Maybe it's better to leave The Bargain as just that.

Naaah.

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PS - I almost bought a category B, but it's for sale online - you can pre-order it for a couple of bucks less than it cost at the show, or wait even longer and get one at Toys 'R' Us for a few bucks less than that.