I have a feeling the auctions are going to go pretty high. I put a bid on three items and was outbid almost instantly. While I'd love to have some of his collection, I don't have deep enough pockets to make it happen.

Actually epic steve d said he had something like 13,500 of the 1986 Vipers

Let's be careful and not dig into this guy too much. He obviously wasn't part of the community and didn't want to be for whatever reason. Let's just appreciate what is coming out about his collection and leave it at that.

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On one hand, I agree. On the other, I think it's completely legit, from the unique perspectives of our community, to want to know more. Obviously, if the artist is himself gone, we won't be able to pry into anything that wasn't already in the public realm to begin with.

Also, in other forms of art, discovering the talent posthumously is not all that rare, or at least it didn't use to be. And that never stopped peers or art scholars from examining the motivations of the artist.

Sounds like this guy truly was an artist, and a customizer, and a collector, and probably more. And I'd love to kow more. I agree for sure though about trying to reign in unsupported speculation.

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I've been flipping through the listing for an hour or so, there is just an amazing volume and dedication here. i wish i had the cash to jump into at least one lot, but I can't. Just to dig through the boxes and see his different combinations and customs would be so awesome. There was a story about a guy like this back in the late 90's, from a collection that Plastic Dreams got somewhere in the tri-state PA area. I got my hands into a lot of that stuff on the tail end as far as the volumes of accessories he got, but i didn't see any volume of figures. It was similar to this in theme, where the more military looking figures were heavily army built, including 30th marines and Troopers, Slaughter's marauders footloose, tons of trooper figures, and a lot of odd corps figures.

This isn't the first time I have heard about large volumes of Python Patrol either. A local guy here, an older collector, has been offering me his cache of Python Vipers, troopers and CGs that he says he bought in the early 90's from Woolworth on closeout for like $1 per figure, and he is sitting on a couple hundred. Not the volume seen here, but certainly sizable.

I have said it many times when people would say my collection was big- there is always a bigger fish out there. I worked pretty hard to build up about 250 1986 Vipers, and right there are 300 in these listings that are just waiting to be won.

i bid on the vipers, and held the winning bid for about 2 hours.

its since doubled.

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I don't see anything newer than 1998-1999. So either this guy stopped actively collecting after then or this stuff has been in storage for a decade.

Blue Thunders are neat, wondering what the other copter was.

There's some CBS toys rover that I've no idea what is. http://www.ebay.com/itm/L828-LOT-20-PLUS-PIECES-HASBRO-COBRA-GI-JOE-MATTEL-PLANES-BOATS-PARTS-PIECES-/300798313783?pt=US_Action_Figures&hash=item4608fa0537

The Night Raven has red stars on it. Hmmm....

I get what you're saying and kind of agree, but the reason I was digging is because it just strikes me as sad to see this guy's life reduced to a series of anonymous ebay auctions. I just wanted to know a bit more about him, which I found on the auction house's site. You're right though, the guy was not known in the community, and whether by choice or lack of knowledge of the community, we can't know, so it's best to just let him rest in peace and anonymity.

I think the issue is that it really hits close to the mark for many here - 'is that really all that's left when we're gone?'

In isolation it might seem sad, but in its proper context it might not be. I think the context is what people are searching for.

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Yeah, I can see that, too. I think since it's being done by an auction house on ebay instead of by family or friends, that makes it seem sadder than it may be. Of course, he may have had tons of family and friends, and the auction house was the only way to deal with this. It's just that the only snippet if information about him is 'Vietnam vet, collected toys' makes it seem such a lonely story.

Some of these buyers may have a time trying to recoup their costs. They seem to be selling for between 4 and 5 dollars per figure, some may have paint wear, missing or wrong accessories, and in some cases the wrong parts.

Oh, TONS of these figures ave mismatched parts, and accessories. Guarantee it.

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Yup, mismatched, missing stuff. All the viper rifles are in one lot that is going for way more than it should, even if the winning bid gets it and the viper lots.

I'm bidding on a couple of things, but I have sane bids (which means I'll soon be outbid) and I want them for parts, not as-is, so condition doesn't matter.

I know some of this is cool stuff but this situation validates my reasoning for my recent collection reduction. No one in my family would know what to do with it anyway and after awhile, these things starts to own you. I think you have to have purpose in your collecting desires. I never understood amassing random loose/incomplete figures or stock piling broken or partial vehicles.

Completely agree. Also I have a feeling that there are lots of subtle added paint details on some of them as well.

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