What Else Do You Collect Besides Video Games?

[Tabonga 1,974]

I am sure we all collect other stuff -  so why not show some of it off?

This charming little fellow is a Tree Warrior that was sold in Toys R. Us.

I am currently putting together a fantasy castle playset with most figures about 2" high.  The defenders are going to be traditional knights and the attacking force is going to be a collection of various fantasy warriors.  This figure is about 10" high and is going to be an evil Ent type creature.

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by Wandering Tellurian

[B.A. 1,124]

I'm always down for showing off some of the other goofy stuff I'm into!

None of these are super recent pickups, but my Mr. T collection.  I probably have a few other things I left out.  

 

[Ryan 11]

I'll have to remember to post some stuff later.  Picked up a couple random autographs last month, Tony Hawk and Jim Davis.

Also picked up some production used documents from The Office TV show.

[Tabonga 1,974]

"I'm always down for showing off some of the other goofy stuff I'm into!"

You have met my wife???  ^_____^

Edited February 14, 2020 by Wandering Tellurian

[Boosted52405 178]

5 hours ago, B.A. said:

I'm always down for showing off some of the other goofy stuff I'm into!

None of these are super recent pickups, but my Mr. T collection.  I probably have a few other things I left out. 

Why did you leave out the sweet a$$ van you got parked outside?

[B.A. 1,124]

2 minutes ago, Boosted52405 said:

Why did you leave out the sweet a$$ van you got parked outside?

This one??

 

[Tabonga 1,974]

One of the (many) things I collect are vintage chess sets - as a subset I also collect vintage compendium game sets.  I recently acquired two really nice examples of these - both have lots of nice bakelite pieces (some fairly unique) - bakelite was one of the early plastics - not the earliest but the first to be used on a fairly large scale - things made with it are now fairly collectible.  No longer used (with a few notable exceptions) since it has been replaced with better plastics - it was made with (among other things) asbestos and formaldehyde.

The roulette wheel (no big deal - these are common), the cribbage board, red dice, dice cups (which are really desirable), large doubling cube,  and dominoes are all likely bakelite.  The second picture shows the edge of the cribbage board - this is an unusual piece.  The poker dice in the third picture are unusual - red is pretty rare for poker dice like these.

This set has a roulette wheel, dominoes, (most of the) dice,  dice cups, horse race pieces and there are likely 3 small dice in the chuck-a-luck cage that are probably bakelite.  Two of the dice are put and take (in the upper right corner) and are likely made of celluloid - another early plastic which sometimes degraded - if you look closely you will see they are warped (as odd as that may seem).  The last picture shows the horse race pieces (in six colors) - these are by far  rarest pieces in the two sets.

These things are hard to date - they are probably from immediately before WWII or from immediately after the war.

Edited February 14, 2020 by Wandering Tellurian

[VegHead 123]

I collect RPG books.  I just got in an orange-spine 1st edition AD&D player's guide and a 2nd edition Monstrous Compendium binder.  

[Reed Rothchild 7,950]

[PuppyWaffles 1,324]

I collect Lego Star Wars stuff and Deadpool Pop figures. I can't wait to finally have space to set everything up. But until then here is a picture of my Imperial Guard TIE Fighter Formation. Custom design using rehashed existing kits.

 

[Bubbapauls 246]

A bunch of my Wheat Cents recently got upgraded. I've been a coin collector for way longer than anything else and in the last 15 years or so I've decided to focus on small cents. The early Wheat Cents are a pain to get in good condition, but I was at an auction and won an old collectors book of cents and was able to upgrade everything pictured but the three key coins. 

[Lambda 130]

I had an interesting convo tonight with @Johnnyboy113 and decided to purchase a copy of Black Box Pizza POP tonight, but the convo led to an idea I had that I’d love to ask the rest of this community:

Collectors are rarely a “single pedigree breed”

What else does everyone collect besides VideoGames?!

 

 

I’ll start by giving my own answer:

I collect 3 things:

1)Antique Fishing Lures

2)Guns

3)VideoGames

The fishing lure in the picture is known as the Moonlight Dreadnought. (Circa 1918.) Only a few hundred are known to exist and this one took me 5 years to hunt down. The last one to sell (with box) in auction went for over 30k.

What do you all collect?!  

[Bubbapauls 246]

@Tabonga

I’ve been buying Bakelite at auctions for awhile the easiest way to test it is to rub it until it get warm/hot and then smell it. If it smells like formaldehyde it’s Bakelite. The smell is strange and nothing smells quite like it.

An older guy told me you can also use Simichrome Metal Polish to test it. You take a little bit and rub it in a inconspicuous spot and if it turns yellow it’s Bakelite.

I thought this might help you figure out what is for sure Bakelite in your set.

You mentioned celluloid and I don’t know much about it. Is that the early plastic that crystallizes? I have some old Vegas casino dice that started doing weird stuff and I’m thinking they are celluloid.

Thanks for sharing your compendium game set. I’ve always thought those old sets where cool. Do you have any of the really early gambling sets that have the gun and knife with them?

 

[Johnnyboy113 63]

I absolutely love seeing things like this . Could you imagine if things like that could talk , man the stories you’d hear. 

[Lambda 130]

On 2/14/2020 at 7:51 PM, Reed Rothchild said:

I own the HTML & CSS book by the same author... alongside a library of other programming books/manuals (although I don’t consider HTML or CSS coding )

[Lambda 130]

I made a collectors thread tonight (for everything sans video games:

Mods can feel free to delete my thread, and I’ll recontribute here. 

My apologies, everyone, I didn’t realize this thread was active. My mistake.

(post reserved in case of deletion, which I have no issue with).

Edited February 19, 2020 by Lambda

[fcgamer 4,049]

3 hours ago, Johnnyboy113 said:

I absolutely love seeing things like this . Could you imagine if things like that could talk , man the stories you’d hear. 

Yeah I often think about that too.

If I go out hunting for games, I love seeing all the other old junk people gave lying around, from days gone by

[Tabonga 1,974]

3 hours ago, Lambda said:

I made a collectors thread tonight (for everything sans video games:

Mods can feel free to delete my thread, and I’ll recontribute here. 

My apologies, everyone, I didn’t realize this thread was active. My mistake.

(post reserved in case of deletion, which I have no issue with).

A better option might be for a mod or admin to merge the two,

I don't get twitted out when this happens - it is easily fixed - and things happen (pretty much just because they happen) - any way you can make a mountain out of a molehill or just move along.

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by Tabonga

[Tabonga 1,974]

10 hours ago, Bubbapauls said:

@Tabonga

I’ve been buying Bakelite at auctions for awhile the easiest way to test it is to rub it until it get warm/hot and then smell it. If it smells like formaldehyde it’s Bakelite. The smell is strange and nothing smells quite like it.

An older guy told me you can also use Simichrome Metal Polish to test it. You take a little bit and rub it in a inconspicuous spot and if it turns yellow it’s Bakelite.

I thought this might help you figure out what is for sure Bakelite in your set.

You mentioned celluloid and I don’t know much about it. Is that the early plastic that crystallizes? I have some old Vegas casino dice that started doing weird stuff and I’m thinking they are celluloid.

Thanks for sharing your compendium game set. I’ve always thought those old sets where cool. Do you have any of the really early gambling sets that have the gun and knife with them?

 

I bought these online so I didn't have them on hand (actually they are still in transit to me)  - I actually have lots of similar sets (I have one of the second one already) so I know most of the stuff is bakelite.  I assume you know this already but I will mention it in case someone else is interested - bakelite is never white - white bakelite turns to a pale yellow so they usually just dyed it a deep yellow/butterscotch (often marbled) if not another color.  There is a plastic called french bakelite which can be white - but it is not bakelite at all.  Also pieces made from bakelite will never have a mold line. The chess pieces in the two sets are not bakelite - I have others of both those sets (the first is another early plastic called Tenite).

Celluloid was first invented in 1856 (under another name) and was used for a lot of things before other plastics became popular.  It has a very low melting point and can explode under certain circumstances.  

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/64247/first-plastic-billiard-balls-routinely-exploded

It was widely used as an ivory substitute and can indeed crumble - apparently if you have two pieces in close proximity once can "infect" the other - I have seen that crumbling in various things (usually chess sets and dice) - I have also seen that melting/warping I mentioned earlier -  which I suspect is related to the crumbling. (I think the melting/warping occurs when the plastic items are stored in a container  which is in a hot place (such as an attic) - just a theory though.  In any event I bet your dice are celluloid.  As far as I know the only thing commonly made with celluloid these days are ping pong balls.

I don't have any of those gambling sets with the other "toys" - my interest is more the other games in these sets - the roulette wheels (as far as I am concerned) are just along for the ride.  (I do have a couple sets with wood rather than bakelite wheels.)  I have some sets without roulette wheels - (usually they are smaller) that I like. 

I also have a couple of sets that have really neat metal race horses (similar to this set):

 

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by Tabonga

[Tabonga 1,974]

Heh - I may have to start yet a new collection:

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/collectable_hieronymus_bosch_figurines

[drxandy 3,032]

10 hours ago, Tabonga said:

Heh - I may have to start yet a new collection:

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/collectable_hieronymus_bosch_figurines

Omg those are amazing!!! Always loved that Bosch piece, and these blow my mind!!

[m308gunner 352]

10 hours ago, Tabonga said:

Heh - I may have to start yet a new collection:

https://dangerousminds.net/comments/collectable_hieronymus_bosch_figurines

Oh, thaaaaaaat's where all my childhood nightmares came from. Glad to finally put that to rest

[Bubbapauls 246]

@Tabonga

I actually didn't know Bakelite never came in white, but it was something I never really thought about.  

The exploding billiard balls was something I had heard about when I had a job as a pool table installer. The composition of the balls was never really talked about, the boss always said it was just early billiard balls that could explode on a break or if someone had a hard shot.

I'm curious about the metal race horses and how the game works that uses them.  Is it a dice game?

 

 

[Tabonga 1,974]

7 hours ago, Bubbapauls said:

@Tabonga

I actually didn't know Bakelite never came in white, but it was something I never really thought about.  

I'm curious about the metal race horses and how the game works that uses them.  Is it a dice game?

 

 

On ebay people tend to claim every plastic is old and that it is bakelite.  While you can't tell if something is bakelite by looking at it  (unless you happen to have the exact item or can find a photo that matches online that you trust the source on - even then it can be tricky - I have some early Lowes bakelite chess sets that were copied (likely without permission) after the war in non-bakelite - if someone hides the mold lines you can only tell from pictures if you really know what you are about) you can sometimes tell that it isn't.  I have a couple of those fake bakelite sets that I picked up just as a curiosity - the people selling them didn't try to pretend they were bakelite so I picked them up for a reasonable price.

Here is a picture of the layout sheet for the horse race game :

 

Not all of the suitcase sets came with horse race games (in fact there was no official list of games in them - it was entirely up to the manufacturer what they put in).

The horses could be similar to these (these are a cheaper plastic set* from a later Lowe's set (the second set I posted is an early Lowe's set with bakelite horse heads) - the metal race horses are from a Rottgames set and about 3" from head to tail.

Any number of people could play and you would bet before the game by placing your chips (evey player had their own color chips) on the corresponding cards (sometimes the cards would be different colors) - so you could bet on more than one horse and more than one person could bet on any one horse.  You would throw a pair of  dice and the corresponding numbers would move forward one space (or two if doubles)  thrown. The dividing line in the middle of the layout represented a steeple (the layouts did not always have these) and the horse would have to throw doubles to leap it.  Some of the very early sets (usually the ones with large metal horses) would have a wood rod that sat in two holders that would straddle the layout.

The layout itself was usually on a felt cloth (often on the back of the roulette layout) and could be like this or occasionally as a circular track.  I have a couple of smaller Rottgames sets (with no roulette wheel) where the race horse layout, the chess and backgammon boards are this strange rubberized canvas material that usually has dried up and are cracked and flaked.

*Note that the yellow horse is missing his/her tail (and the white has one short leg) - a common affliction with these sets (even the metal ones - the orange horse in the picture I posted is also missing a tail).

PS - here is a closeup of the bakelite horse head movers:

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Tabonga

[Tabonga 1,974]

@Bubbapauls

Here is a nice bakelite Lowes chess set (this is not mine - but I have a few just like it - including one that also has a matching backgammon/checker set in (also in bakelite) the case:

 

Sadly this set is missing a red rook (which is actually black!!)

Spoiler

In chess parlance the light color pieces are always referred to as "white" and the darker "black" no matter what the colors actually are. 

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Tabonga