I've seen others ask this question and I find myself in the unusual position of having to ask it myself. So first some background: Up until about a year and a half ago I'd never heard of, nor seen, alot of the Japanese only TF's from the Headmasters/Masterforce/Victory lines. A friend and fellow board member Polenicus turned me on to the likes of Liokaiser, Overlord, Deathsaurus and Road Caesar(though he didn't really LIKE Road Caesar much. Good 'ol 'Thunder Thighs'). So since that time I've made a pretty sizeable dent in those figures. I've got a complete Liokaiser and Overlord. Almost complete Hydra and Buster(curse that ebay seller and giving me a Darkwing engine instead), Deathsaurus(just need his gun, Thanx to Vectorsigma2 for the shield), and nearly finished Thunder Thighs...Road Caesar. So on a very lucky day I come across someone selling PRISTINE MISB Blacker and Laster. And for an INCREDIBLE price too, well I thought it was incredible considering what most people jack up their MISB prices to. The stuff just arrived and aside from a couple of minor corner dings and the fact that Blackers arm seems to have shifted slightly in the box these things are IMMACULATE. I've never had the joy of opeining a new Japanese toy myself, always second handers so I'm sorely tempted to grab a blade and slice these puppies open(well that and the chrome on my blacker is pretty rough and I'm missing Lasters fist and sword.) So what to do? Desicrate those nice MISB Japanese boxes? I'll never manage to find an MISB Braver to finish that set so that's not really a reason to NOT open them up. Decisions decisions... On a side note, does anyone have a spare fist for Braver or a fist and sword for Laster, finding those might make the decision easier for me. And maybe a Deathsaurus Gun? Well I leave it all to my more learned colleagues, I'm very interested in your thoughs. Ran
Open them son, you'll like it! I did and I got all three of them sealed. Loved transforming them and 'posing' Roadceaser. iDD
Road Ceaser is amazing set, and I think Blacker and Laster are the best of the three on their own... if you're happy with what you paid for them, open them up nicely and enjoy! I found a cheap MOSC G1 Cyclonus my local comic shot the other day, and wasted no time opening it.
It's a tough call. On one hand, import toys don't have quite the price differential original US toys have for being "factory sealed". It's not like you are destroying 75-80% of the value like you could with some early G1 toys by opening them. On the other hand, once you open it, there's no going back. Even if you got these dirt cheap, they are still worth the market value - whatever that is... Plus I don't think these toys are all that expensive to get loose. May take some patience, but they aren't super-rare... Personally, I rarely open toys. There's enough loose ones out there and I don't find any special "joy" in being the 1st person to play with an item. Seconds later it's just another toy in my collection...
You won these from an eBay auction a week ago or so didn't you? I saw that auction, looked very nice! As for opening them or keeping them MISB, I'd say open them and keep the boxes around. I think those rare figures still fetch a nice resale price even MIB versus MISB.
But if everyone opened a sealed G1 every time they got their hands on one there would be none left. And then those same people would complain over the rarity and prices of misb G1...
Blast you! You've exposed our dastardly plan... All of us who already own sealed toys were in a conspiracy to get all the other ones opened... That way we'd have the last ones and make a fortune selling ours.... Muah-ha-ha-ha!
Unless you're willing to consider choice (C): "Send them to Jarodimus", definitely go with choice (A): "Open those bad boys"! I opened a sealed Star Saber last year, and it was a delicious experience. Now I just need to be able to repeat it with Victory Leo, Overlord, and Liokaiser....
I tried to hook up RL with my MIB Blacker sticker sheet about a month ago and they were totally disinterested... I'd like to see Road Ceaser stickers get made, but it was an uphill battle.
Hmm that is very disappointing. I know the collector base who might actually order those stickers is very small, but I'm surprised they weren't interested at all. If I were you, just take a high resolution scan of the stickers. You could always reproduce your own set from the scan by ordering the proper sticker paper and using a cutting tool.
If they don't want to do it, i'm fairly sure someone else will... Fairly good chance at least one member reading this thread could reproduce them fairly well.
If MISB is more expensive sell it and buy loose versions. I never saw the sense in opening say a MISB Fortress maximus worth $1500+ when you could sell it but one loose for $500 and spend $1000 on other stuff. It's not rocket science lol..... Opening MISB vintage is just stupid imo.
I guess part of the question is, how much did you actually pay for them Sealed, and is it worth it to you to deny yourself the toys and try and turn a profit on the sealed ones to buy loose ones later? I paid $100 each for my MIB ones, and was quite happy with that number.