Continuing my mission to seek out new links and more info concerning Star Trek and other sci-fi collectibles, I logged on to another site that had been suggested by the customer-service people at Playmatestoys.com (see Part I in AuctionBytes-Update #11). This site, http://www.toymania.com, is GREAT! Its primary focus is on action figures of every sort from Star Trek to Star Wars to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it offers a wealth of nformation for the serious collector.

When I visited Toy Mania, their "News" section had articles ranging from coverage of Toy Fair 2000 to unlicensed figures turning up from Asia to another story detailing the Hallmark releases for the year (check out http://www.hallmark.com to view the complete list).

Go to "Resources" and you'll find definitions and a grading guide for carded action figures and helpful hints for buying and maintaining your collection in mint condition. For example, they suggest using Goo Gone (carefully!) to remove those pesky price labels, and Future Acrylic Floor Wax to brighten up those dull, scratched plastic "bubbles" on carded figures (though they warned that they were unsure of long-term effects).

Going to "Links" took me to Toy Mania's "Internet Off-White Toy Pages" featuring what may be one of the largest collections of toy-related sites on the Internet. Using a color-coded system, it lists over 500 fan, industry, and sales pages. For example, go to the S's and you'll find that Star Trek and Star Wars. Each has its own sub-page.

I decided to try a few of Toy Mania's links to see what I could come up with. Clicking on http://starwars.hasbro.com took me to the official Star Wars action figure site where I found, under "Questions", that Hasbro was not able "to respond to questions regarding information on dates of manufacture, developers, where to find older items, etc." They DID recommend, though, checking such monthly publications as Hot Toys, Lee's Action Figure News & Toy Review, Tomart's Action Figure Digest, ToyFare: The Toy Magazine, and White's Guide to Collecting for product profiles and in-depth information.

I next tried a site called Seventies SciFi Toys (http://pages.map.com/starwars/70stoys) which was actually mostly about Star Wars. In fact, their Star Wars Toy Resource Page comprises a universe of information for Star Wars collectors. They covered everything from terms and abbreviations to an explanation of the C-1 to C-10 scale. They listed numerous sources of information, such as Tomart's Price Guide to Worldwide Star Wars Collectibles (S. Sansweet and T.N.Tumbusch), which they called THE guide for the serious collector. They even detailed a scam perpetrated on the rec.arts.sf.starwars.collecting and rec.toys.misc newsgroups!

Now, I am not a big fan of Star Wars, but it was the SW Toy Resource Page nk to another site, The Star War's Collector's Archive (http://toysrgus.com) that really impressed me. The Collector's Archive not only showcased the most comprehensive collection of Star Wars memorabilia--including prototypes, non-produced toys, bootlegs toys, and fakes-that I have ever seen, but they also listed patents, toy fair and dealer catalogs, cereal box and store display checklists, weapons charts, etc. They even provided an address list for autographs and pics!!! In addition, there was information of a more general nature, such as an article on methods of storing carded action figures to prevent the deterioration of their plastic bubbles (try comic-book bags!).

Next time: Battlestar Gallactica!