Welcome Back, Barricade

I took about 10 years off from toy collecting as mentioned in my first No Duh post.  When I decided to come back to the Dark Side, I made a decision to only collect high quality stuff.  Not necessarily the rarest or most valuable, but toys that were in good condition both inside and out.  No torn cardbacks for the most part.  Pictured below is the first toy I collected since returning to the hobby, GI Joe's Barricade MOC from 1992.  

It's a dandy.  No scuffs on the card.  Crisp corners.  Clear plastic bubble.  The card is flat as a pancake.  It's about as mint as mint can be.  I think it would definitely grade as AFA 85.  Maybe even AFA 90.

Of course I'm not a professional grader or anything.  But I'm super pleased with it.  And obliviously, since my re-introduction to toy collecting went smoothly, I took it as an encouraging sign to continue.  On a related note, my bank account cries itself to sleep at night.

Also encouraging was the fact that standard MOC GI Joes from 82-94 can use the Protech Star Case 1.  There are a lot of Star Cases on ebay and its pretty affordable.  They go for about $2.50 each (used, not new). Vintage Kenner Star Wars will also fit in the Star Case so you can get a bunch of cases and protect away. 

So yeah, I'm pleased with my return to the Dark Side.  I actually used to have Barricade when I was a kid.  I remember getting him new from the store and thought he looked like a cool version of Iron Man.  And since he was the same scale as my Star Wars figures and vehicles (the Millenium Falcon had a new pilot, baby!), he was one of my favorites.



Title inspired by the theme song to Welcome Back, Kotter, the show that introduced John Travolta to the world.  I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing.  On that note, have a good Monday!