Yesterday, Prop Store launched their latest online-only auction, this time for Paramount’s G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra. The auction, running through February 17th, features many costumes from principal characters in the film, as well as some props, scripts, and other production material.
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It was nearly a year ago to the day that I wrote about California Assemblymember Ling Ling Chang’s California Assembly Bill AB 1570, created as anti-fraud legislation. At that time, I wrote a lengthy analysis of the bill, pointing out problematic facets of the then proposed legislation that Governor Jerry Brown signed into law last October. Once law, other businesses and mainstream media outlets began to complain about key elements of the law that would appear to have some consequences not anticipated by those who create it and enacted it into law. Ling Ling Chang lost her bid for a State Senate seat in November, so there was uncertainty as to who would take up the responsibility of fixing the problems with the law. It would appear that Assemblymember Todd Gloria of the 78th District (serving Coronado, Del Mar, Imperial Beach, San Diego and Solana Beach) has come forward to attempt to create a follow-up bill to resolve some of the issues that critics have identified, in the form of Assembly Bill AB 228. [Read more…]
Late last year I decided it was finally time to jump into 4K with a new television supporting the latest high definition format. It usually takes some time for the standards to settle into place and pricing to become more mainstream, and it would seem that 2016 was the year for UHD/4K. The amount of detail that can be found in the quality releases on the new 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray (UHD) can be breathtaking. Of course, one of my reactions is imagining the impact such discs can have on authentication efforts in researching whether a particular artifact was used in a film or a specific scene by way of screen-matching what is seen in the film or television production to the piece of memorabilia from the same production. While Blu-Ray was a huge leap from the standard definition quality DVD and laserdiscs that came before it, with 4K/UHD we have another monumental leap forward with the amount of details and pixels on screen. [Read more…]
Below is the latest updated calendar for upcoming original movie and television prop, wardrobe, and memorabilia auction events. Please contact me if you are aware of any coming events of interest to collectors. Please also note that I update changes/additions to the calendar until the next update, in order to maintain as up to date as possible. [Read more…]
GeekTyrant has a special sneak preview of an upcoming episode of Pop Culture Quest featuring Mark Hamill, who of course played Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films. Prop Store’s Brandon Alinger appears with Mr. Hamill and shows him the original hero lightsaber that he used in Return of the Jedi, which was also used by Alec Guinness in A New Hope. You can check out a preview of the scene on YouTube. [Read more…]
As per tradition, (see 2007 Year in Review, 2008 Year in Review, 2009 Year in Review, 2010 Year in Review, 2011 Year in Review, 2012 Year in Review, 2013 Year in Review, 2014 Year in Review, 2015 Year in Review), what follows is an editorial featuring my personal observations and opinions with regards to the business of buying, collecting, selling, and preserving original pop culture artifacts. A look back at interesting trends, developments, and news stories from 2016. As is always the case, this is a completely subjective exercise, and merely touches on the developments and events that relate to the hobby. [Read more…]
A year ago I received a lot of nasty hate mail over my “sort of” movie review for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In short, I completely hated it (really even more than I let on in my review). In addition to hating what they did with the classic characters, it kind of ruined the Original Trilogy, in that by Han and Leia having a child and doing such an awful job of raising him (along with Uncle Luke), they created a monster and basically undid all of what they accomplished in saving the universe in the original films. So it kind of just made the entire Star Wars odyssey all pointless. But there were plenty of other things wrong with it as well (in my subjective opinion), and you can read all about it in my full review of The Force Awakens. But this review is different. Finally, since 1983, there is a legitimate fourth Star Wars film. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. And I absolutely loved it. [Read more…]
Bonhams is holding their next set of Turner Classic Movies curated auction events this week, starting with their “The Estate of Maureen O’Hara” on November 29th and “Lights, Camera, Auction!” on November 30th. Both sales will be held in New York, with online bidding available. [Read more…]