Prime video game

Here’s another recent score. I won this for $12 on eBay, and the only reason I paid that much is because the auction description said it was the Prime Sega CD game without the Microcosm disc, and that it came with a booklet. I was hoping the booklet was the Prime ashcan, since that thing is brutally difficult to find.

 

Alas, the booklet was just the instruction booklet (still pretty cool, but not what I was hoping for). And the package was mismatched; the front was the Prime game I wanted, but the back cover was the Prime/Microcosm package. And there were some rental stickers on the disc and jewel case.

As far as I can figure, this must have been a rental copy from back in the day, and the two boxes somehow became combined when they dumped their inventory. I  already had a copy of the Prime/Microcosm game; this would have been my first copy of the Prime game by itself. I guess I’ll keep looking.

Hardcase 1 cover for sale

I have to admit this is pretty sweet, but since I don’t have $1,250 laying around (actually I do, but I have to pay the usual bills) I will take a pass … the original art for the cover of Hardcase 1 is up for sale.

You can occasionally find some decent Dead Universe covers for a couple of hundred bucks, but this cover by Dave Gibbons is iconic and symbolic of the launch-day possibilities of the Ultraverse.

You can see the scan right here. I would run a picture here but I’m not sure how the guy would feel about it.

Ultraverse spinner rack

I own a few oddball Ultraverse things, but this might be near the top of the list. A local comic shop (since closed) was using this to display trade paperbacks. I asked the owner how much he wanted for it and he said $70. I tried to talk him down but he wouldn’t budge. Bah!

I thought about it for a bit, but figured I would never be able to buy something like that on eBay. It’s pretty heavy due to all the particle board, and shipping alone would be expensive. And nobody else in town had one so I buckled and paid his price.

And now I don’t even have a place in the house to display it. I stuck it up in the attic. It’s still pretty cool, though.

Night Man and Gambit variant

Honestly, I’m starting to run a little low on variant covers. This issue is from one of the Marvel-Ultraverse crossover books featuring Night Man and Gambit, a pretty forgettable story.

 

This was the first book in a three-issue miniseries. They are quite easy to find cheap as a set, sometimes with both covers included for No. 1. I sometimes spring for one if I see it in a quarter bin but I’ll just as often let it sit there.

Strangers hologram

My price point on the hologram covers is $5, meaning if I see one anywhere for that or less I will buy it.

And even though the Ultra 5000 covers were printed in the same numbers as the hologram covers (5,000 of each), my price point on those is only $2.

That means I don’t buy too many of these on eBay any more since you usually have $4 or $5 shipping costs for starters.

But I saw this one for $5 shipped, popped the BIN and got it a couple of days ago. It’s a nice copy with no damage, which is always a bonus when something is shipped through the mail.

These things are so nice looking I may have to raise my price point a little bit …

Hardcase cover gallery

This is one of the bigger runs, clocking in at 26 issues. There are also hologram and Ultra 5000 variants, along with a handful of ashcans (you can read about those here).

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

Ads: Mortal Kombat

I pulled this one out of Giant Size Freex 1. It really takes me back; I remember buying this game for my Sega GameGear (talk about a battery gobbler; that system used to run on six Double-A batteries and burn through them in a couple of hours).

Mortal Kombat was pretty hardcore for its time, although the “fatalities” that caused such a ruckus seem pretty tame by today’s standards. I actually sucked at the game, but had a friend who was pretty good. He played another friend’s 10-year-old kid and beat him so bad that the kid started weeping.

One more polybag …

OK, after this one I’m pretty sure I’m done with the polybags …

 

What sets Solitaire 1 apart from the others is the black bag (I guess they had to put the price sticker on since there is not a price printed on the bag … I bet someone had a long week in that mailroom). And the comic came packed with one of four different cards, which you could collect for a full set. I opened five bags and got four clubs and one spade, but I know people who have full sets. I have one more left but I’m keeping it closed for now.

Freex cover gallery

One of my favorite series, these books are a good read if you have time to sit down with the whole stack. A couple of hologram variants, an Ultra 5000, a Giant Size (kind of like an annual) and an ashcan are included.

     

     

     

     

     

   

Polybag week continues!

Thrilling, right?

And these aren’t even Ultraverse books, just regular-issue comics from the Malibu line. My friend alerted me to these, since he likes to inform me about stuff that sends me into OCD collector-land. The bags here look identical to the price-variant polybags from the previous post, and the card that is included is just a random selection from the inaugural Ultraverse set.

 

These are the only two I have (thanks Bruce!) but I’m betting that all regular Malibu books that month had similar packages for the newsstand versions.