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Looking to treat yourself (or your favorite nerd) before the year wraps? We’ve put together a no-nonsense, highly clickable guide to the best comics, collectibles, and experiences you can buy right now or preorder for 2025. Every pick below is either already out in 2025 or available to lock in this year, so you won’t be chasing ghosts—or last year’s stock.
We’ve split our recommendations into eight easy buckets—from Smart Buys that stretch your dollar (think chunky omnibuses and killer subs) to Shelf Candy that looks unreal on display, Hype Picks everyone’s buzzing about, and even a Rich Friend Buy for when money’s no object. You’ll also find deep-cut grails for collectors, interactive Experience Buys that deliver hours of engagement, perfect gifts for civilians, and a Wild Card section for the gloriously weird.
Curated by Dave and Alex, this list mixes value, design, hype, and heart—whether you’re hunting 1,000-page bricks, limited statues, con tickets, or offbeat indies. Prices and discounts can fluctuate, so snap up the deals while they’re hot, and don’t sleep on those preorders—2025 is stacked.
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0:13
Hello. Welcome to the APT Comics podcast, episode 354. And we've got a special holiday buyers guide for you.
0:21
Right. And we are jamming out. Hell yeah. We're jamming out to some new music. If you're on the podcast, you can
0:27
hear it. You know, we're changing up a little bit. I feel like surfing.
0:32
And we only like capitalism if it involves comics. Hey, this is true. Or nerd [ __ ] Uh
0:39
yeah, we, you know, this is the time of year where people, especially before Black Friday, are looking for what to buy their loved
0:46
ones, their friends, their family, their pets. You could buy them an you could buy a a Chihuahua, an omnibus. Nothing
0:53
stopping you. I don't think we actually have a single pet toy on this list today. That's my joke. But uh so we have eight categories
1:00
for y'all. And uh they uh they span things like if you're rich, this is what
1:06
you should buy someone. Uh or you know, shelf candy, for instance, art you could put on your walls, or the the the
1:12
cheaper buy or the the better value by for instance. And uh yeah, we're going
1:17
to dig in. And we spent hundreds of hours picking these things, if not
1:23
thousands, if not hundreds of thousands. I actually had to quit my full-time job for the past month. I'm unemployed.
1:30
That's true. And that's my fault. That's on me. I told Alex if he doesn't take this seriously because this is the very
1:35
first AIP Comics buyer guide ever. Yep, guys. Okay, so anyway, let's move
1:42
on to our first category, the smart buy. Best value for the money. I picked two
1:48
things. I picked the Transformers Compendium Volume 1, which just came out a little while ago, but it's 38. Oh,
1:54
sorry. 44 issues for right now on Amazon. $38. That's not R RSVP. RSVP.
2:00
No, it's not uh R. What is the [ __ ] thing that says on the back of the cover? The uh R, you know, the value
2:07
No, no, the one where it's like this is what it should cost no matter what. You know what I'm talking price? I don't
2:13
because you know when you get cuz you know when you pull up your graphic novel say that hasn't come out yet and you go oh oh it's uh it's $17.99 but then at
2:21
your comic shop it's actually 10. What I'm trying to say is this this book is a
2:27
$65 book if you buy it at wholesale and you can get it for as little as 38 on Amazon. That's one of my picks. I also
2:34
picked Superman: The Golden Age, Omnibus. Another uh excellent buy because there's so much content for a
2:41
decent price, $125, but you can find it cheaper elsewhere. 784 pages. If you
2:47
have a Superman fan out there, friend who uh likes Superman but may not have read The Golden Age, this is uh
2:54
definitely a value buy. Yeah. You know, similarly, uh don't love
3:03
Amazon, but they sometimes have some crazy omnibus deals. They really do. Um,
3:10
particularly this uh omnibus for X-Men: Fatal Attractions with a gorgeous John
3:16
Ramita Jr. cover. One of the most like unique Marvel omnibus covers I've seen. They're usually like, you know, pretty
3:23
plain black with an image or like a classic comic splash page. This looks
3:28
like a variant for an omnibus, which is really cool. Um, love the X's on the back.
3:34
Yes, exactly. The background really is what makes it like pretty special to me. Um, it is 47% off, only 43 bucks off of
3:43
$100, which is really crazy for an omnibus. This is over 800 pages. And
3:49
it's one of the most like iconic and best classic X-Men eras, Fatal
3:56
Attractions, all leading up to a major fight with Magneto um on Asteroid M and
4:04
the uh devastating removal of Wolverine's adamantium from
4:10
iconic. When I was like 12, I got that one of the most iconic X-Men things in X-Men history. Um, I have already sent
4:18
this link to my husband saying if anyone asks for a uh gift idea for me, send
4:24
this to them. Nice. Nice. But these deals don't always last forever. So, if you're like looking to
4:29
get something early for a holiday gift, uh, I would say jump on this. Oh, we also I should have said at the
4:35
top of the show, we're only picking things that came out this year, by the way. Yes. So, what was your second pick here? What
4:42
is this? I never heard of this. My second pick is uh digital access to comics, specifically Marvel Unlimited
4:49
and DC Universe. Um you know, it's always a better deal to buy their yearly
4:54
pass as opposed to monthly. It's usually at least 25 if not more% off. Um also
5:01
they both often will do holiday even further discounts. So if you want to wait to until December or for Black
5:08
Friday, there might be bigger discounts. I think Marvel if is if you're a fan of both Marvel and DC and you only want to
5:15
choose one because they're not cheap. Marvel is a better bang for your buck. It's cheaper than the cheapest DC
5:23
option. You get every digital comic that Marvel currently has and you get all Marvel
5:32
comics within 3 months after their uh print release. Whereas at DC, if you pay
5:38
75, which is already more than Marvel's um highest price point, you get comics 6
5:46
months after release, which is a a really long wait. Um yeah, especially if you're like trying to stay
5:53
more up to-date with current arcs and stuff. And then you have to pay like $120
5:59
if you want the DC Universe Infinite Ultra. Um,
6:05
huge perk. You do get comics within 30 days after their release, which is way
6:10
quicker than any other option on DC or Marvel. So, if you want to shell out for
6:16
one year of like super accessible DC reading, the Ultra would be a good choice. You
6:21
can also gift these to other people. Um, true. Yeah, honestly the way that I really got back
6:27
into comics was in 2019. My father-in-law gifted me a Marvel Unlimited annual pass and I was able to
6:35
read the X-Men's CCOA era and that's when I started doing like comic news journalism and reviews. So, uh, can be a
6:43
really great gift for people. So, what I was trying to say is if you get one of these, you will get on a podcast within a couple years get free
6:50
access. Our third fourth co-host technically you'll be our third. Just say it that way.
6:55
Exactly. Moving on to our next category. Shelf candy. Books, collectibles, or art
7:01
prints that look incredible on a shelf. Uh, you want to go first or should I? Yeah, I'm down.
7:07
I always keep asking you to talk with just as you're drinking. I am. I'm a thirsty boy. So, the first
7:12
one I picked was um, you know, I'm not even the biggest like Funko person. I have a few like you're going to hear me
7:19
talking about the X-Men a lot. I have a few like X-Men Funko of just like X-Men that I love. But this is pretty cool.
7:25
It's a jumbo Funko. And if you scroll down, Dave, you can see the comparison
7:31
image to all the other ones. So, it's jumbo. It's not the biggest one. It's
7:37
not mega, but it is like three to four times the size of a regular pop. And
7:43
this is uh David Korn's wet's Superman from uh
7:48
James Gun's DC uh U uh Superman film that came out this year. Um it is a
7:55
great pose. The costume looks awesome. Uh I think this would look great on anyone's display case.
8:02
Yeah, I love I love the naming. It's like Apple products. When are they going to have like the Me Mega Pop Plus Ultra?
8:09
Yes, 100%. And Your second pick. The second one is I mean just gorgeous
8:16
as [ __ ] Um how big they are. God I know. Mondo. You know this could also go in
8:22
the rich buy section that we have later. It is $245 for you know a a figure that is
8:31
not cheap. But Mondo is known for their gorgeous and incredibly well-made
8:37
figures. This is the latest in their X-Men 97 series. This is Storm. It comes
8:42
with so many replaceable features, Dave, if you want to click on that photo. Um,
8:48
the second photo in the lot. Like, so many different hairstyles, so many different hands, incredibly poseable.
8:55
Um, oh my god, it's her hand watering a plant. That's Yeah. No, it's it's dope as hell. Uh,
9:01
and the way that Mondo uses the shading lines to make it look like a 2D comic or
9:09
like from the TV show. Just really stellar. If there's a Storm fan in your life, uh, they would like literally like
9:20
love you forever if you got this for them. I do. I love the look of Mono figures. It's just I don't really collect at that
9:27
scale. That's the only problem. So, I don't tend to buy them. No. My favorite thing is going to like
9:33
old comic shops and for $5 getting 90s X-Men toys.
9:38
Sure. Super tiny. Oh, yeah. Look at this toy collecting, but you know, there's some people who
9:44
love those epic display cases and this would be an awesome addition. Oh, for sure. For sure.
9:50
What about your pick, Dave? Uh, I love this Fantastic Again, Mondo. I love this Fantastic Four First Steps
9:56
poster. Uh it is a little pricey at 90, but I think it's just super gorgeous. I love the Galactus here. Uh and again,
10:03
for our category of uh wall candy, I I don't It's so retro. I just I love it.
10:09
If you love the movie or if you know someone who does, I think this would be a solid gift. My second pick,
10:15
it's also I just want to highlight it's also screen printed. It is like Oh, that's true. You know, it's not just a poster you would just
10:21
throw a poster. It is like a piece of art that is not just like a print. Like
10:27
it is it's quite large too. High edition and it's huge as hell. Mhm. My second pick was a McFarland uh
10:35
one of these statues uh the ones that scale statues. I already own the Hulk he
10:40
did. Uh and this one's from uh designed off of Clayton Crane's cover here, but I
10:46
think it's a really cool already easy to display fig because it has the wall he's
10:51
standing on. Yeah, that's it. It's got the Venom there. Uh the detailing is really nice. It's it is $50. You could
10:58
probably find it cheaper maybe at other stores or get a coupon. But um based on the quality of the Hulk, I have the Hulk
11:04
one where he's got his uh it says Hulk and he's crunching it together. Uh just really really well made. And
11:11
it's crazy how much SFarland's doing now. Like so many figures every year, every week practically. There's like 10
11:18
new figs. But these statues are pretty cool. There's others like the Spider-Man or this Carnage, but um I'll continue to echo other people and
11:24
say there continue to not be enough women that are sure by McFarland Toys.
11:30
Like yeah, so few female comic characters that they do. Um but the quality of their releases
11:37
are Look at his m Look at his teeth. The details are gorge. Super cool. I You know what I've
11:43
noticed? I really like figures that have really big shoulders. Interesting. Guess I'm I'm attracted to men with giant shoulders. I was about to say
11:51
number three, our third category, the hype pick. This year's buzziest things.
11:56
Probably not too hard for us since we talk about comics almost every single week. I uh I picked the absolute comics.
12:02
All four you can get the first trade paperbacks which are moderately priced.
12:07
And so you could probably get all of these maybe with some coupons or Black Friday deals for fairly cheap. If you
12:13
have a friend who's always loved DC but maybe hasn't dipped into Absolute Universe, get all four. They're going to
12:19
love it. All four are excellent in their own ways. They're all unique, too. Different tastes for different folks,
12:25
but also letting them get in on the ground level. I think people are really going to Yeah. hungry for for more if uh
12:31
if you give this as a gift. Yeah. And my pick, you know, is is similar, but it is Marvel's version, and
12:39
it's a little more uh consolidated. As opposed to needing to get separate things, this is a like true
12:45
slip slip cover box set of the first
12:50
volumes of the six main uh line titles of the Marvel
12:58
Ultimate Universe line. Gorgeous cover with Ultimate Spider-Man. It includes
13:03
Ultimate Invasion, which like started the Ultimate Universe, and then um
13:08
Ultimate Spider-Man, The Ultimates, Ultimate X-Men, uh what are the other ones? Um
13:16
Ultimate Ultimate Black Panther, and Ultimate Wolverine. Um
13:21
it is, yeah, this is everything you need to start start the adventure. And it's all Look, look, pour this on a
13:27
shelf. It's over a thousand pages. And if you get it at my comic shop, it's $84
13:33
off of a cover price of 120. Um, $84 for over a thousand pages in such like a
13:41
gorgeous box set is is a really solid deal and a great gift. I feel like Marvel should do this more.
13:47
These box set styles. Yes. So cool. Even with like their events like Blood Hunt, if they had done one of these,
13:52
people would be more happy to buy them all. And I feel like Absolute might do something similar.
13:58
Oh, yeah. eventually like they have to. Our next category is the experience buy,
14:04
meaning you will get an experience out of these gifts. What is your uh what is your pick?
14:09
Yeah, you know, I I I live in Seattle. Um there's a lot of cons that happen in
14:14
the summer or in like the fall. But if you are on the West Coast or in the
14:21
Pacific Northwest, Emerald City Comic-Con is happening the first weekend in May. I'm going to be going uh to do
14:28
AIP coverage. This is going to be my fifth year in a row going, I'm pretty sure. Uh tickets aren't that expensive.
14:35
It's a great con. It is, you know, not as big and overwhelming as like a New
14:41
York Comic-Con or a San Diego Comic-Con, but still gets big names. We have uh
14:48
Chris Claremont coming, Gail Simone coming, a lot of voice actors from like beloved series coming. Uh there is
14:56
someone mowing a lawn next to my house and it is very loud. I can slightly hear it actually. Yeah.
15:01
Pissed off. Um and then the other thing I picked is, you know, not comic book
15:07
related, but it is nerdy. I've just really gotten into making booknooks. Um
15:13
gorgeous wooden crafts. Uh Row Life is my favorite company. They have up to 50%
15:20
off uh early Black Friday stuff. It is just so fun. You know, if you have
15:27
anyone in your life who likes Legos or any type of like building stuff, uh, it
15:33
takes so long. It takes way longer than a Lego to complete. Does it click together or is it glue?
15:40
It so it clicks. It clicks together, but some of them come with like tiny tape that you have to peel off. Some of them,
15:47
like I have craft glue that I use to secure it, but typically glue is not
15:52
needed for them. Got it. Um, just a great gift for someone in
15:57
your life who loves to craft. Um, there's so many options. They're beautiful.
16:02
Um, yeah. What about you for your experiences? I dig it. Um, I I'm going to pick
16:08
something I picked last week on the podcast. Uh, Ice Cream Man, the Mortal Coil card set. Again, it might be hard
16:15
to find, so you might need to rush to your comic shop now. They're not reprinting this, but uh it's a 52 card
16:22
deck that uh is a a whole new comic book reading experience. And uh if you have a
16:27
comic book friend out there, they probably haven't heard of it. I think it's very much a fly under the radar product. Uh I didn't see a lot of
16:35
websites nusifying it. Um, and so if you have a friend who like got has it all as
16:41
far as comics, they probably don't even know it exists. And look at that. You just surprise them with a really thoughtful gift. Uh, my second pick is
16:50
the um the Arkham Asylum Lego set that's coming out November 22nd, so it's just in time
16:57
for the holidays. It is epic. Uh, it's one of these building sets that kind of
17:02
opens up into different scenes. Uh you can see uh if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see uh these uh you can
17:09
see all the different rooms for all the characters. There's so many mini minifigs though. You could practically get like every single rogue. Uh although
17:17
they are in jumpsuits, a lot of them. Uh you were telling me the other day that you are really pumped for this set too,
17:23
right? You're muted. Yeah. Um I love huge Lego sets. They're,
17:33
you know, so fun. And there's been some, you know, LEGO recently came out with their newest Death Star, and it is like
17:42
$1,000, and people were really disappointed by it. Um,
17:47
uh, yeah, did not live up to many of their expectations. And people felt similarly about like the $250, $300, um,
17:57
X-Men X Mansion. Uh, this one though, I mean, the opening up, the amount of mini
18:04
figs, the amount of detail, it it seems like this is I mean, close to 3,000 pieces. This
18:10
seems like it's truly, you know, potentially worth the pretty exorbitant price. Um,
18:16
it is. Yeah, Lego sets are pretty expensive. Lego sets are expensive these days. I think it would be worth it. I would like
18:22
love to get this. Um, so I think again this could be a cross-pollination with
18:28
our uh rich buy section. We have expensive taste that that makes
18:34
us more expensive taste. Our value is high. I mean, anyone especially people who like the Arkham games I feel like would
18:41
be would be gagged about about that. Oh, that's a good that's a good point. Our next category is the perfect gift.
18:48
Gifts that are accessible to anyone. Uh, art books, indie trades, collectible card sets. I picked uh two things. I I
18:55
picked the GLA Earth 2 Deluxe Edition. Um okay, so a gift for everyone, right?
19:02
How does that fit in? Because this seems like a deep cut Earth 2 thing that not everyone would necessarily like. First
19:08
of all, it's a self-contained story. It's uh written by Grant Morrison with art by Frank Quietly. Two of the best
19:13
that do it. And this is one of the the stories that when I was growing up, I think I was still in high school when this came out. Uh I just adored it. The
19:20
art was stunning. But again, it's self-contained and it's essentially the
19:26
evil Justice League. And so, you get a whole new twist on heroes that um are a
19:32
little bit different and a different flavor. So, I think that anyone who has any interest in superheroes may not this
19:38
may have flew under the radar for them. It's not something that people talk about a lot. And uh a recent new hard
19:45
coverver came out with a deluxe extras that even if you have a friend who's read it, they don't have those extras.
19:52
I've actually never read this myself and you know I obviously know about Earth 2 but the Morris and Quietly team up. You
19:59
know, if most people who are into comics know about New X-Men, uh Morrison and Quigley's, uh infamous, beloved, and
20:07
controversial reimagining of the X-Men in uh 2000, and the fact that they're
20:12
partnering on this, I'm like, well, I am going to go to my library account and immediately get a copy of this. But
20:20
having a hard cover on my shelf would also be sick as hell. Yeah, it just came out in September. How
20:25
quickly does your library get stuff? Would they already have it, you think? Well, I use Hoopla. They have digital uh
20:31
digital comics. You can uh also I don't need the newest edition just to read it, but the new edition hard cover would be
20:38
amazing on a shelf. I'm actually talking myself into getting this. I already have that paperback, but
20:43
I'm like, "Hey, it's only 30 bucks. You can make that happen." Behind the scene features. That sounds pretty rad. Um my second pick was this
20:50
incredible Alex Ross Marvel Super Villains mural uh calendar. So, it's for 2025,
20:57
which doesn't make any sense because it's 2026 next year, right? But look how giant it is. It's so cool. And
21:05
these this is um if you don't know, these are all were originally variant covers. Every character was its own
21:11
cover, but now it's montageed together. It's it's so pretty. And I mean, who does it better than Alex
21:19
Ross? Look at the detail here. Uh, and yes, it's a 2025 uh, calendar that's
21:24
going to be useless in a few weeks, but I mean, it's probably going to be really cheap if you wait a couple more weeks.
21:32
Also, the art the art will be is just worth it. I have a print of his uh, Emma
21:37
Frost and the the detail and the rendering and all of it is is beautiful. Oh, yeah. Um, and who actually uses calendars?
21:44
Like, we have a calendar from like 2021 that we just change every month on the first because we like the pictures.
21:50
Oh, yeah. I get I get a calendar for my partner every year because it's like, "Oh, look, pretty picture this month."
21:55
Exactly. I don't I don't write. I have Google calendar. God damn it. What was your uh your pick for perfect
22:00
gift? Uh mine was, you know, if you uh want to get someone a comic thing, but you don't
22:06
want to splurge on getting them every absolute comic. I would highly recommend Absolute Wonder Woman volume 1. I think
22:13
it's one of the more accessible uh absolute comics. It's not as
22:19
horrifically violent as Absolute Batman. Um, it's not as uh like slow to start as
22:29
Absolute Flash. Uh, art is gorgeous. The story is really solid. If someone likes
22:35
fantasy, they're going to like Absolute Wonder Woman. Um, if they like uh mythology, they're going to like
22:41
Absolute Wonder Woman. just think it would be a really solid purchase for someone who isn't even super into
22:47
comics. Um, my other like crowd-pleasing gift is just a gift card
22:53
to my comic shop.com. My my friend got me that for uh my birthday this past
22:58
year and I specifically with my comic shop, you're able to um do pre-orders of
23:07
things that are coming up and you get discounted prices if you do pre-orders. So, I was able to get a bunch of
23:14
discounted trades from like a $60 gift card. Um, and
23:20
you know, some people are people some people love getting gift cards. Some people like love Yeah. be able to choose
23:26
what they want. So, yeah. Yeah, for sure. Why? It's interesting that you picked that and not the gift I got. So, you like
23:33
this gift better than the present I got you for your birthday this year. Is that what you're trying to say to me right now? Dave got me an amazing print and Zen
23:41
from Al Kaplan. Um, and I love it. I'm looking at it right now on my wall. Uh,
23:48
but that's just because you know me so well. You didn't need to get me. Oh, you're I know you better than your
23:54
other. I won. I won the You won. That's great. Moving on to deep cut. Uh, rare
24:01
editions, import sighted items or niche merchandise. I had to go with one of
24:06
these new artist editions for Jim Aparo's DC classics. Um,
24:12
in part because these are relatively new editions that Skybound is doing. Uh, they've they're working with all sorts
24:17
including they've got a Hellboy one coming. We keep talking about on the podcast, but uh, it's oversized. It's
24:23
also reprinting the from the actual uh, original art so that you can see the
24:29
pencils and inks as they were intended. You even get to see like the little tape marks uh and notes on the pages. So, if
24:36
you're like a super collector, this is a whole new kind of experience getting these comics reprinted in the original
24:43
art style. And they're oversized, too. So, um and it's brand new, uh stuff.
24:48
This one isn't even out yet as of this recording, and there's more on the way. So, if you get one of these for a
24:54
friend, all of a sudden they're like, "Hey, maybe I should get more of these." so you can get them hooked cuz this is about uh sort of addiction is what we're
25:01
trying to get to here. Um that looks awesome. I love like the the sketches in it. I similarly have uh
25:11
a like colleed edition. Mine is really any one of Tashin's Marvel comics
25:18
library recreations. Talk about oversized. Um Dave, stop sharing the
25:24
screen so I can you people can see on big screen what I'm going to show. Oh my god. Yeah,
25:30
I got the Silver Surfer edition um for review which was like so sweet and
25:37
amazing of Tashin. It is reproduced so beautifully. The
25:42
paper feels exactly like comic paper from the 80s. It
25:49
is just insane. The art in it is gorgeous. Look at this pull out massive.
25:55
Yeah. Holy crap. Um I have two of those. I have the uh I have the Avengers and I have the Spider
26:02
Amazing Spider-Man one as well. And the ads are reproduced, right? Yes, the ads are reproduced. I also have no idea how to display it. I just leave
26:08
it in the box and prop it up against my wall. I'm like, "Yeah, mine are just sitting here." Heavy as [ __ ] Um
26:14
it's so big. Yeah. If someone is gagged for like any of the uh classic runs that
26:20
Toshen has made, this will be like one of their most beloved possessions. It is 200 bucks. Not a cheap guy, but
26:28
I mean omnibuses are sometimes 150 and I think this is way more impressive and
26:34
meaningful than just like a regular omnibus. It's a different experience for sure. Yeah. I mean,
26:40
oh god, yes. To be fair, when I bought it, I looked at them both for like 10 minutes and then I got too busy. But yes, uh it's
26:47
just the sheer size of of some of these reproductions is stunning and and well worth uh you know, you could pull that
26:54
out during a party and people will be like, "Whoa, what is this?" You know, also I just realized um I I gave that uh
27:04
X-Men Fatal Attractions. I actually have the original cover on display
27:10
and white. It's holographic. And this is the original one from uh
27:15
the8s. Uh is that just a regular comic framed or is it like a print or something?
27:21
No, it's just it's just the uh comic framed. Actually, this is a great gift
27:26
to get for people, too. Most comic shops will have uh like something to display
27:31
comics in. Uh and this I Yeah, this is just the comic. It is. So,
27:38
did you forget you had that and just realized? I just I was putting the Silver Surfer thing back and I was like,
27:43
"Oh [ __ ] I have that." That's funny. Moving on to our next category, the rich
27:50
friend buy. Oh yeah, this is where it gets fun, folks. Uh we tried to find the most expensive things you could buy
27:57
someone. Uh, first and foremost, I went on Sideshow and just looked around and
28:02
there is this Wolverine Weapon X uh statue that is a thousand dollars. As
28:08
you can if you're on YouTube or go to a comops.com, see the art. Uh, it is giant. It is. Uh, I that probably tells
28:15
me somewhere how tall it is. 25 inches tall. But the water effects are really cool. The the way the hair looks. We
28:21
really like Weapon X on this show, don't we? We always bring up how cool he looks. Um, but yeah, the the detailing.
28:27
I actually own a sideshow symbiot Spider-Man statue, so I can attest the
28:33
quality is there. There's like a lot of these pieces will be magnetic, so they just clip in and uh it's really easy to
28:40
put together. And yeah, this thing is going to last forever. The quality is up there, too.
28:45
Gorgeous. 2 feet tall. That's crazy. It is crazy. But oh, look at all the little details in the back. Definitely
28:51
easy to display this one. Uh, my next pick though may not be as easy to display. It's a onetoone reproduction
29:00
of the new Superman for $11,469.
29:05
This literally his It's a life-siz statue. What the hell? I know. Now, this is a pre-order, so
29:11
technically I'm cheating a little bit, but you know, if you're rich, just show them how much it is, and they'll say, "Thank you so much." Um, I don't I I bet
29:19
you they only make a couple of these for like shops, but uh that's like one step away from a sex doll. Like I cannot
29:26
I know. I mean, if it is a statue though, so it doesn't move. Hey, how many points of articulation?
29:32
Pups. Exactly. Uh, it looks just like Cornswe. And uh
29:38
yeah, $11,000. I mean, the hair is real. It's a wig. It's not Holy [ __ ]
29:44
I wonder how much it costs for shipping. I mean, I wonder how David feels about that. It's like stopped at the border cuz I
29:50
think there's a body being shipped. Oh my god. 11. I couldn't find anything more expensive. But what was your what
29:56
were your picks? So, similarly, mine was also my first one was a sideshow one. It's also a
30:01
grand and it's X-Men in the Danger Room. Um, a little bit shorter than the
30:06
Wolverine one, but much wider. So, in some ways actually could be even better for displaying. you could like really
30:12
make it the central piece of, you know, like a shelf or a cabinet that you put things on. Um,
30:18
I love the Banshee. That's really cool. Yeah. And Colossus is like so shiny and cool. So, I just thought that was sick
30:25
as hell. Um, I don't know who has a grand to buy that, but if you want to buy it for me, I will send you my
30:31
address. And then the other one is really random, but uh if you have anyone in your life
30:37
and you have, you know, $1,000 to spend who is a huge fan of Stephen King, if
30:42
you if you didn't know, um in the early as uh Stephen King and
30:49
Marvel did a collab to reproduce comic versions of
30:55
the Gunslinger, the Dark Tower, some like prequel stories to the Gunslinger.
31:01
So things that were like not written in novels and a 30issue series adapt 36
31:08
issue series adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand. Um, in my opinion, The
31:14
Dark Tower and The Stand are King's two best creations. They're the ones that I
31:19
will reread and reread over and over again. I have single issue floppies for
31:26
Stephen King's Dark Tower that I found at a local comic shop. They're amazing.
31:31
Yeah, Jay's arts. Art by Jay Lee. It's insane. So dark and twisted for uh the series. And this is
31:39
they're in my opinion, they're never going to reprint these omnibuses. It's just like not popular enough.
31:45
You can't find these on Amazon or anything? No. Uh Oh, wow. Cannot not able to find uh these.
31:53
I forgot they made the stand. I Yes. I didn't even know until I found this on eBay. I only knew about the Dark
31:59
Tower and now I'm like Holy [ __ ] I want the stand. It's uh it's 36 issues. It's
32:06
uh and it's not an adaptation of just the book. It's an adaptation of the
32:12
extended cut book. So, it's like the one that's even longer than that fat [ __ ]
32:18
stand novel. So, I mean, if you're a fan of Stephen
32:23
King's work, if you have a friend is, this would be like the ultimate Stephen King collection. To make it even more
32:29
ultimate, you've picked something that's one of one. Only one person can buy this right now. Yep. And there are It says many people
32:36
have been putting it in their carts and looking at it and it's unsealed but never read. Perfect condition.
32:42
Interesting. Moving on to our last category, the wild card. Anything offbeat, surprising, or delightfully
32:49
weird. What did you pick, Alex? You know, it's actually funny. We picked uh similar things. One of the things you
32:56
picked is a comic from the same publisher. Uh if you haven't heard of the indie pub publisher Silver Sprocket,
33:03
it's probably my favorite uh indie publisher. Two of my favorite comics I've read in the past few years are of
33:10
Thunder and Lightning and also The Chromatic Fantasy. Two beautiful queer,
33:16
really out there, incredibly illustrated comics. Um
33:22
yeah, Silver Sprocket is amazing. And also, if you're ever in San Francisco, the Bay Area, they have a physical store
33:29
that I've been to. One of the coolest comic book shops I've ever been to. So
33:35
much amazing art. So many zenes. And then, you know, I talked about this earlier. The other wild card thing I
33:41
would say is go to all your local comic shops and just look at their vintage figures or their toys. Sometimes there
33:48
are like such fun finds. I personally like love collecting toys from like
33:54
earlier than 2000, especially like X-Men stuff. Um, and you
34:01
know, a a real a deep cut nerd would like I think love a sealed toy from the
34:06
'9s. What about you, Dave? A nostalgia buy for sure. Exactly.
34:12
My wild card is not quite comics related, but uh it's the end times. uh Ben Percy and Stephen King's upcoming
34:19
newspaper, which you can get physical edition. I had an interview with Ben um a couple
34:26
days ago as of this recording that went live detailing how he got this
34:32
collaboration going. If you listen to the last interview Ben was on this show,
34:37
he Stephen King was not involved um at all. And since then he has he is now
34:42
involved and actually in an interview coming up on the podcast you can listen to the the written
34:48
interview in full. I actually cut a lot of stuff out of it and uh it's really interesting to hear him talking about how Stephen King got
34:54
involved. But basically it's a monthly newspaper that he and King are basically
35:00
jazz doing jazz together on writing different articles to fill this paper this newspaper and it'll be delivered to
35:07
your door. It starts November 19th. So, as a Christmas or holiday gift, um it's
35:12
a it's a little late, but you can still get in on the next issue. You might miss the first one, but you can still read
35:18
the first one digitally and then get the paper copies after. And eventually, this will all be collected in some sort of
35:24
hard cover, but it's actually a physical newspaper, the print style, everything.
35:30
And him and Ben Percy and Stephen King are collabing on this. So, oh, and also,
35:35
uh, King is writing under, um, his, so both of them aren't writers of this newspaper. It's all within universe
35:42
about the end times. Doomsday has happened and someone has found a printing press and they've decided to
35:48
start printing uh, newspapers to get the news out. Supernatural things are happening. Uh, I don't know why the
35:54
world has ended, but it has something to do with supernatural. But uh King is resurrecting his Bachmann character who
36:02
was was his pseudonym uh for a while uh writing who's a writer that wrote a
36:08
bunch of his books and I think including The Running Man was one of them. But uh and The Long Walk
36:14
Bachmann Bachmann was like where he released more of his like super depressing devastating
36:20
Exactly. Exactly. Which is what this is. It's like the end times, right? Uh but
36:25
that just to say for the the listener who knows Bachmann is dead but his wife is still alive and she's writing these
36:32
articles in this newspaper which is pretty cool. So essentially this is part of King's universe now since he's
36:40
involved and Bachmann's involved. So that's really cool. Uh in a few weeks you'll be able to hear the interview
36:45
with Ben. It's it's a good one. We dig into the whole project. So, I'm the
36:50
minute he told me about it months uh two months ago, I was in and I already had subscribed. So, I'm really excited to be getting this mailed to me. Uh but if
36:58
you're if you don't want uh something mailed to you, you can get it digitally, too. And then my other weird pick, as you
37:06
point it out, is PP poo poo number 100,000. Uh super indie book. it. I haven't read
37:13
it myself, but it is some silver sprocket, who was one of our best publishers of the year, I think two
37:18
years ago at a but um uh it just looks super fun and different. And whenever I
37:23
go to the comic shop, because I do have access to a lot of comics in advance digitally, I tend to go for these kind
37:29
of books to buy, not only to support indie comics, but also, you know, I don't really have access to it, but the
37:35
physical format is sometimes better for these books because they're usually made with different paper, different sizes.
37:42
And this one looks super funny and hilarious. And it's by an Eisner award-winning uh creator. So, Caroline
37:48
Crash. So, I think anyone could go pick this up. It might be hard to find. You can't just buy it online, unfortunately.
37:54
So, you'd have to go to your commerce shop and hope they have it. So, it's a trickier trickier purchase similar to your Stephen King pick.
38:01
Yeah. But it's it's part of the journey. Mhm. Um, you know, something I think we also should have said at the beginning of
38:06
this is that unlike a lot of holiday gift guides, uh, none of these are
38:12
sponsored. We have not been paid by like any of these companies or brands to
38:18
feature these gifts in this guide. You know, I think a lot of times people get free products or are sent things to
38:25
review. Uh, these are all just things we legitimately think are dope as hell and that we would want and that we think
38:32
other people would want too. We are taste makers. Hey, we are we are not paid off taste makers.
38:38
We also taste good ourselves. When this does go live, we aren't saying
38:44
that you can't send us these things. Publishers like Lego, please send them all and then we'll
38:50
review them and give you more. We will review them afterwards, but we're also already saying goodbye.
38:56
We aren't We are chills. We aren't chills until we are. But, uh, no, first ever buyer guide on the podcast.
39:02
Hope you enjoyed it. Different different kind of content for sure. We didn't recap the news. We didn't uh Well, we
39:07
didn't even explain why we're doing a buyer guide. We're both in another country. I'm in Japan
39:12
and I'm in Europe. Isn't that crazy? We're talking about the future. Anyway, uh, hope you enjoyed the buyer
39:19
guide. Uh even if you can buy one of these, I'll be happy because we inspired you. There's a lot of deep pressing.
39:26
Yeah. And uh we'll be back in two weeks. We're taking a week off. And uh we'll talk to you then.
39:33
Bye.
39:43
Come on.