Universal Movie Monsters-Marx

[Monster Bob]

This thing looks like it was made by the guys that were selling Marx playset Mexican recasts like 10-15 years ago. I have a boxed set of Untouchables figures somewhere, that came in a box that has similarities to this one. But I believe I paid $10 or less, and it had like 40 figures in the box (many dupes). About the same time as the Uncle Miltie stuff.

[Monster Bob]

Somehow I don't think the crooks are sitting on their hands, waiting for me to make repros for them. Vitually anyone can do it!

Certainly they can do it, once a scan of a real one is published on the internet.

It has been proven in the past (at least 2 or 3 times by me, here) that there are sellers who conveniently forget whether something is real or not, and then put a vague description and fuzzy picture up on ebay. Then they claim, ' I bought this 20 years ago' or some such, to give credibility to something they know full well is a color xerox. It just further blurs the line between  real and fake when it comes to buying stuff off of ebay, and especially from sellers that have no idea what they are selling in the first place..

[Mike Scott]

Certainly they can do it, once a scan of a real one is published on the internet.

And if they didn't have that, they could just buy a real one and make their own scans. The guy who made the Horrorscope, Frank Speaker, etc. wasn't using UMA scans.

[Monster Bob]

And this just makes it easy...

[fmofmpls]

Certainly they can do it, once a scan of a real one is published on the internet.

Let's remember that the soaky tag was first published on the internet via eBay and not UMA. That's where we grabbed the pic from. We just cleaned it up some and shared the love here with one another. 

Bob, I hear what your saying.

I also own a car. This doesn't mean that I'm going to stop driving just because somebody might steal my car, hold up a bank, and use my car as a getaway vehicle.

I also have several credit cards. Just because a waiter or waitress might steal the number off my credit card at a restaurant, doesn't mean I'm not going to continue to eat out or even use the card at all. There's risk around every corner.

This community is a giving one and for the better part a very trustworthy one. Not sharing the love with another just because some dickhead wants to do wrong is not going to win out over the betterment of the army.

We're an army of one. And yes, we do need to serve and protect that which we have been given, but to put it all in a box and bury it in the backyard because the bogey man might get it is not only neurotic  ... it's giving all the power back to the crooks.

[Monster Bob]

It's all well and good until somebody gets burned.

Granted, most people that are regulars here wouldn't go out and deceive someone with this, but the internet is the wild wild west and cannot be controlled, and as I said, it has been proven here before on more than one occasion that this is being done. Really, how hard is it to email the scans privately to members that want one?

[Mike Scott]

Let's remember that the soaky tag was first published on the internet via eBay

Guess that makes the whole discussion moot, then. The crooks already had it long before it ever showed up here.

[Monster Bob]

I'd rather pass out clean needles to drug addicts...

[Mike Scott]

So now the discussion becomes, should people selling rare items on ebay put a photo of the item in their auction?

[Mike Scott]

Really, how hard is it to email the scans privately to members that want one?

Which members? Does that include the crooks who join just so they can be mailed these pics so they can sell fakes? (Assuming they didn't already get them from  ebay, perhaps from one of your auctions!)

[fmofmpls]

I'd rather pass out clean needles to drug addicts...

Not me. I'd rather they kick heroin and start collecting monster toys. It's still addictive, but much healthier. Clean needles vs. soaky tag? Soaky tag wins everytime. If your going to enable somebody, it might as well be over a piece of cardboard and not lethal drugs. 

[fmofmpls]

Staying consistent with the topic here at this thread, I feel with the talent here at this group that we could make a much better faux Marx Monsters box than the one pictured here. A wonderful fantasy piece for members to enjoy. Would this mean that we shouldn't forgo such a project? Just because some scumbag might misrepresent the box somewhere down the road?

[fmofmpls]

And finally, before I call it a night. I would respectfully ask Bob if I may reproduce him? I would like to have my own Bob Morris so that I may have an instant drinking buddy always within close reach. We could then crank up the sounds of Reverend Horton Heat and burn rubber in my '57 Chevy. And oh yeah .. the girls! We can't forget the girls too. Bring it on baby! 

[Monster Bob]

I wouldn't bid on a rare item on ebay without a photo. And even so, if there is the slightest doubt and I am interested in an item, I request more pics, or contact the seller directly and drill 'em.

To the 'casual monster fan' who doesn't bid or very rarely bids on any higher-end vintage stuff anyway, this isn't an issue, as they aren't players 99.9% of the time anyway. But to the hardcore collector, the danger is very real. And again I repeat, I have caught plenty of boarder-line Monster collectors who conveniently "forget" they are selling a copy, although they know full well what it is and would never 'spring' for an original anyway, even 20 years ago. I try to bring up questionable auctions (here) that I catch them, esp. when a higher dollar scam surfaces.

The guy that was auctioning the Samjo bike buddies a few months back (that he claimed were originals) swore to me up and down that he absolutely knew his BBs were originals. I knew before I contacted him they were not, as the fake/samjo shrunken head is absolutely nothing like a real one- it is a new sculpt based on the box illustration and completely off). Eventually and after several attempts at selling them as originals, he rethought the thing, and sold them for what they were. But not before he tried and tried to sell them as authentic.   

[Monster Bob]

Terry, and while we're driving around partying, we can toast fake Bike Buddies on the exhaust manifold!