The rest of the ashcans

Like I said, there are a lot of little books (literally) in the Ultraverse. Some of these were freebies tossed in with Wizard or Previews, and some were sold in bundles of 50 to comic shops to be set out on the counter by the cash register.

The whole idea was to generate interest in upcoming titles or storylines but there was also a vague sense of collectability. Which is what led me here, of course. That and a touch of OCD.

OK, more than a touch.

None of these are very valuable, definitely quarter-bin material. Especially the giveaways. Hostile Takeover and Jumpstart Effect aren’t too easy to find but when you spot one on eBay it’s usually not that pricey. It’s funny to see that the Ultraforce ashcan was a “Limited Edition 25,000.” By the time the Ultraverse was wheezing to the end, the print runs on their books were under 10,000 each month.

In any case, here are the ashcans that weren’t featured in other posts. Checklist down below.

 

 

 

So here’s the rundown on every Ultraverse ashcan. Please drop me a note if you know of any others.

Freex/Mantra (Diamond Retailers Seminar)
Godwheel
Hardcase Motor City Comic Con
Hardcase Hero Illustrated
Hardcase San Diego Comic Con
Hardcase (Heroes World Sales Conference)
Hostile Takeover
Jumpstart Effect
Prime regular ashcan
Prime Comic Cavalcade
Prime Sega CD
Prime (Capital City Sales Conference)
Rafferty
Rune/Wrath
Rune/Wrath gold foil
Strangers (Diamond Retailers Seminar)
Ultraforce (limited to 25000)
Ultraforce 0A
Ultraforce 0B

Ultra 5000s

“Ultra 5000” sounds like an exclusive item. And back in the mid-1990s, a print run like that sounded pretty small. These were used as retailer incentives and rewards for fans. There is nothing special to distinguish them beyond the extra foil on the cover. And although a couple can be hard to find (Break-Thru, Ultraverse Origins gatefold and Ultraverse Premiere seem to be less common than the rest) there are usually a bunch of these on eBay or at shops like Mile High or MyComicShop.com. I spend a buck or two on them when I feel like it.

There are 21 of them. With 5,000 of each, that makes 105,000 in all. Doesn’t really sound that exclusive any more.

Edit: I added the Firearm 1 Ultra 5000 to this list on Oct. 5, 2011, since one was spotted on eBay last month. First one I’ve seen. If I ever get one for myself I will add the scan, but you can read about it here.

 

 

 

There were two versions of Ultraverse Origins and each got the Ultra 5,000 treatment. The one on the right is the only newsstand version.

 

 

 

 

 

Ultraverse Premiere 1 is the flip book on the other side of Rune 3. There is no foil on the Rune side of the book.

 

 

If you’re collecting these, just be patient. One year’s worth of scanning eBay and you will see 90 percent of them at a good price. You could also try the Dead Universes section over at Valiantfans.com. Some of those fellows might swing a trade.

Here’s the Ultra 5,000 checklist:

BreakThru 1
Exiles 1
Firearm 1
Freex 1
Hardcase 1
Mantra 1
Nightman 1
Prime 1
Protoype 1
Rune 1
Sludge 1
Solitaire 1
Solution 1
Strangers 1
Ultraforce 1
Ultraverse Origins 1 regular cover
Ultraverse Origins 1 gatefold cover
Ultraverse Premiere 0
Ultraverse Premiere 1 (on flipside of Rune 3)
Warstrike 1
Wrath 1

Ultraforce toys

If you’re going to be an Ultraverse completionist, you’re going to need to track down some toys. Fortunately these are plentiful and cheap online and elsewhere (for the most part). There are eight basic figures on orange cards and 10 more black-carded “Ultra 5,000s” that were dropped in cases as chase items. After the Ultraforce TV show bombed, the action figures followed suit and most of these are not particularly collectible.

But five other figures (pictured here) were barely distributed and are extremely tough to find. When you see them on eBay they usually go for big bucks. A group of all five sold a few months back for $550. These are appealing to collectors of action figures more than just Ultraverse collectors and some of those guys (I’m just assuming they are guys) are not afraid to drop some serious coin.

Supposedly 504 were made of each of these five (there are 5,000 each of most of the other black-carded figures) but they feel more rare than that. Here’s a pretty good site that discusses how many were made and how they were distributed. There was going to be a second run but they were never produced.

 

  

There was also a toy car called the “Rage Rover.” It’s not bad, and you can usually find a decent boxed one for under $10. I’ve got a couple.

Here’s the checklist for all of the Ultraforce action figures that were actually produced. The 504s are in bold.

0. Prime Ultra 5000
1. Prime Basic Figure
2. Prototype Basic Figure
3. Hardcase Basic Figure
4. Atalon Basic Figure
5. All American Prime Ultra 5000
6. Ghoul Basic Figure
7. NM-E Basic Figure
8. Topaz Basic Figure
9. Night Man Basic Figure
10. NM-E Ultra 5000
11. Night Strike Prime Ultra 5000
12. Polar Prime Ultra 5000
13. Solar Prototype
14. Radiation Hardcase
15. Hardcase Ultra 5000
16. Red Slayer NM-E Ultra 5000
17. Blue Steel NM-E
18. Shadowfire Night Man Ultra 5000
19. Queen Topaz
20. Night Man Ultra 5000
21. Desert Heat Night Man
25. Topaz Ultra 5000

It all starts with a checklist

So a few years ago, some of us on the valiantfans.com forums decided to go for a complete run of Ultraverse comics. For me it was not so much from a sense of nostalgia or because I was attracted to the stories (although some of the comics were quite good), but because there are so many variant covers and special editions. If you collect comics from the 1990s then this might make sense to you. Some of these were awfully expensive during the day, but now you can find them pretty cheap all over the place.

Once we started collecting them we realized that we had no idea how many variants there were. This list began as an effort to keep track, and it’s as close to comprehensive as we can make it (please drop me a note if you know of anything that deserves to be on here). Knight over at valiantfans.com has been the main caretaker. New comics are discovered sporadically.

If I had to guess, I would say this list is about 98 percent complete. Some new stuff will be found … it’s an ongoing project.

Angels of Destruction: 1
Avengers/Ultraforce: 1
Battlezones: 1
Black September: Infinity, Infinity (Alternate cover), Preview
Break-Thru: 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 2
Codename Firearm: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Collector’s Guide to the Ultraverse: 1
Conan (comic book): 4, 5 (small flashback)
Conan the Savage (magazine): 4
Conan vs. Rune: 1
Countdown to Ultraverse: 3 different versions
Curse of Rune: 1, 1 (Alternate cover), 2, 3, 4
Dream Team: 1
Eliminator: 0, 1, 1 (Black Cover Edition), 2, 3
Elven: 0, 1, 1 (Limited Foil Edition), 2, 3, 4
Exiles: 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 (Silver hologram), 1 (Gold hologram), 2, 3, 4
(All-New) Exiles: Infinity, Infinity (Alternate cover), Infinity (2nd Alternate cover),  1, 1 (Alternate painted cover), 1 (2nd Alternate cover), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Exiles vs. X-Men: 0, 0 (Alternate cover, signed)
Firearm: 0 (packaged with VHS movie), 1 (1.95), 1 ($2.50/in Polybag), 1 (Ultra 5,000), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Flood Relief: 1
Foxfire: 1, 1 (Alternate cover), 1 (Ultra Gold Limited Edition), 2, 3, 4
Freex: 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 (Silver hologram), 1 (Gold hologram), 1 (in Polybag), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 1 (Giant-Size)
Freex/Mantra: nn Ashcan (Diamond Retailers Seminar)
Godwheel: nn Ashcan, 0, 1, 2, 3, 3 (Alternate cover), Wheel of Thunder TPB
Hardcase: Detroit Motor City Con ashcan, Hero Mag ashcan, Hero Mag San Diego Comic Con version, nn Ashcan (Heroes World Sales Conference), 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 (Silver hologram), 1 (Gold hologram), 2, 2 (in Polybag), 3, 4 ($1.95), 4 ($2.50/in Polybag), 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26
Hostile Takeover: nn Ashcan
Jumpstart Effect: nn Ashcan
Lord Pumpkin: 0, 0 (Alternate cover). Note: Lord Pumpkin 4 LSE is actually an alternate cover to NecroMantra 4.
Malibu Signature Series: 1, 2
Malibu Sun: 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37
Mantra (Volume 1): 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 (Ultra Limited Archieve Edition w/ raised seal/COA), 1 (Silver hologram), 1 (Gold hologram), 1 (in Polybag), 2 ($1.95), 2 ($2.50/in Polybag), 3, 4, 5, 5 (Alternate cover), 6, 7, 8, 8 (Alternate cover) 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13 (Alternate cover), 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 1 (Giant-Size)
Mantra (Volume 2): Infinity, Infinity (Alternate cover), 1, 1 (Alternate painted cover), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Mantra Spear of Destiny: 1, 2
Mutants vs. Ultras: 1
NecroMantra: 1, 2, 3, 4, 4 (Lord Pumpkin Limited Special Edition)
New World Order: nn Preview (characters on bottom), nn Preview (characters on right side)
Nightman (Volume 1): 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 1 (Annual)
Nightman (Volume 2): Infinity, Infinity (Alternate cover), 1, 1 (Alternate painted cover), 2, 3, 4
Nightman/Gambit: 1, 1 (Alternate cover), 2, 3
Nightman vs. Wolverine: 0, 0 (Alternate cover, signed)
Phoenix Resurrection: 0, 0 (Gold edition), 0 (Red Shift cover), Genesis, Genesis (Gold edition), Revelations, Revelations (Gold edition), Aftershock, Aftershock (Gold edition)
Power of Prime: 1, 2, 3, 4
Prime (Volume 1): nn Ashcan, nn Ashcan (Comics Cavalcade), nn Ashcan (Sega CD), nn Ashcan (Capital City Sales Conference), ½, 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 (Silver hologram), 1 (Gold hologram), 1 Printer’s Proof (Ultraverse cert) 2, 2 (in Polybag), 3, 4, 4 (Alternate cover), 4 (in Polybag), 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 13 (Alternate cover), 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 1 (Annual), Prime Time TPB, Prime Time Hardcover 
Prime (Volume 2): Infinity, Infinity (Alternate cover), 1, 1 (Alternate painted cover), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Prime/Captain America: 1
Prime vs. Hulk: 0, 0 (Alternate cover, signed)
Prototype: 0, 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 (Silver hologram), 1 (Gold hologram), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 1 (Giant-size)
Rafferty: nn Ashcan
Ripfire: 0
Rune (Volume 1): 0, 0 Spin, 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 2, 3, 3 (Ultra 5000), 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1 (Giant-size), nn Ashcan, nn Ashcan (Limited edition)
Rune (Volume 2): Infinity, Infinity (Alternate cover), 1, 1 (Alternate painted cover), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Rune Hearts of Darkness: 1, 2, 3
Rune/Silver Surfer: 1, 1 (Alternate cover), 1 (Limited edition)
Rune vs. Venom: 1
Siren: Infinity, Infinity (Alternate cover), 1, 1 (Alternate painted cover), 2, 3, 1 Special
Sludge: 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
1 (Giant-Size, X-mas)
Solitaire: 1 ($1.95), 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 ($2.50/in Polybag), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Solution: 0, 1 ($1.95), 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 ($2.50/in Polybag), 2, 3, 4, 5, 5 (Alternate cover), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17
Strangers: nn Ashcan (Diamond Retailers Seminar), 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 (Silver hologram), 1 (Gold hologram), 2, 2 (in Polybag), 3, 4 ($1.95), 4 ($2.50/in Polybag), 5, 5 (UPC, no blurb), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, Jumpstart Effect TPB, 1 (Annual),
Ultraforce (Volume 1): 0, 1($2.50), 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 (Gold hologram), 1 ($2.95/in Polybag), 2, 2 (Limited Special Edition), 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, nn Ashcan , 0A Ashcan, 0B Ashcan
Ultraforce (Volume 2): Infinity, Infinity (Alternate cover), 1, 1 (Alternate painted cover), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
Ultraforce/Avengers:  nn (Prelude), 1
Ultraforce/Spider-Man: 1A, 1B
Ultraverse Double Feature: 1
Ultraverse Future Shock: 1
Ultraverse Origins: 1(Regular cover), 1 (Ultra 5000, Regular Cover), 1 (Alternate gatefold cover), 1 (Ultra 5000, Alternate gatefold cover)
Ultraverse Premiere: 0, 0 Error, 0 (Ultra 5000)
Ultraverse Secrets Marvel Doesn’t Want You to Know: nn
Ultraverse Unlimited: 1, 2
Ultraverse Year One: 1
Ultraverse Year Two: 1
Ultra Monthly: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Unleashing the Ultraverse: nn
Warstrike: 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 1 (Alternate cover), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1 (Giant-size)
Warstrike Prelude to Godwheel: 1
Witch Hunter: 1
Wrath: 1, 1 (Ultra 5000), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1 (Giant-size)
Year Zero: 1, 2, 3, 4