Secret eBay Confessions

by | Jun 4, 2012

So it turns out the one thing you can still do for your hobby with a newborn tying up one hand is spend lots of money. eBay even made a handy app for your phone - those guys are so helpful.

Instant-fix shopping therapy combined with being spurred into panic buying as much old school goodness as I can for a new son (multiple games with multiple complete forces for each, natch) is great fun but it's also just about the worst time to be spending. Time to confess my sins publicly and dump the guilt - yay!

My increasingly inaccurate top five most expensive single figure purchases (not including P&P)...


#5 Wood Elf Captain (£17.79)


Starting off with the one that sticks in my craw the most, trouble with this one is that I used to own the bugger back in the day, alas lost in the mists of time and changes of address. It was the first time I'd seen it come up on eBay in years, and it was one of the last couple of pieces (sadly still not the last) which I wanted for my classic wood elf army (for which I squarely blame Mike McVey).

I didn't expect to pay a quarter of the price but I really wanted this specific guy with the axe and the hawk (my woodies feature animals and axes heavily) so I'm also in a bit of a quandary about doing the head swap I planned - seems sacrilegious to damage something this pricey.

#4a Ambull (£20)


Wanted one of these guys since I first read Rogue Trader. An absolute touchstone for that era, although the fluff says these guys are native to a desert planet dwellers there's also hints enough to easily justify the wandering monster in the Inq28 (pet monster?) and Shulk games. I deeply wish there were two different sculpts, but alas I'm a slave to unique model philosophy, so he'll be a very lonely hideous insectile abomination. I think I shall call him Steve.

#4b Marauder Dwarf (£20)


Apparently Dwarves are amongst the most popular of the OOP ranges. Personally the Marauder range are one of my very favourite ever ever ever, so I definitely get it and am clearly willing to pay the tax. The command sets MM15/1 and MM15/2 are particularly rare as they were removed from catalogue many years before the rest. This beautiful little fellow is to find a home as a Thane in my Coureur des Bois themed Dwarf army.

#4c Throned Patriarch (£20)


Sadly lacking the advisor, but nonetheless a bloody steal! Almost makes up for the elf. Plainly awesome and as iconic to space hulk as the ambull is to rogue trader, but plainly quite an awkward/inflexible game piece. The plan for this guy is to build him into a [magnetised] room feature for SH3D half the time (should make quite the objective room) and a cabinet piece the rest.



#3 Imperial Crusader Robot (£24.70)


Amongst the many mysteries of the heresy - why oh why oh why did GW abandon the robots? The Jes Goodwin sketchbook published a few years back has some tantalising/tormenting concept drawings of a reinvented line of the classic crusader, colossus, castellan, conquerer and cataphract robots as presumably part of the long promised and never delivered Mechanicus range. They're as awe inspiring as all Goodwin's output but until they see the light of day (hey, Duke Nukem Forever did) I'll be satisified with just the one crusader (the best of them imho) as an interesting motivator for many an Inq28 plot.

#2 Life Elemental (£26.00)


The second concession to finishing off the wood elf army, she's destined to be a spellweaver. The price tag reflects the dearth of classic elf mage models and the scarcity of the good ones on my side, and I guess the rarity of this particular figure on the side of those bidding against me.







#1 Games Day 1991 Space Marine Captain (£29.77)


ZOMG I have wanted this guy FOREVER.

Well, since 1992 anyway, when I started this hobby. Saw the picture of him in one of the first WD's I bought by which point of course he was totally unavailable to me and pre-ebay days stayed that way. These come up every now and then but sit at offensive BIN prices, so when this one came up as part of a shop clearance with another one or two I found my chance.

I'm still not at all sure what to do with him, and really don't want to screw him up so I'll take my time. The (fortunately much more common) terminator armour version of this guy I've painted up as deathwing which inclines me to echo that, but I've already got the classic winged helm dark angel captain to fill that role. The hellboy-like power fist suggests Crimson Fists to me, and I've also been looking for opportunities to do Luna Wolves and Alpha Legion. Choices, choices.