143 replies to this topic

[theassassin]

I agree Behemoth that it's unlikely we will think of a method that indisputably proves this is real or fake. It's a very tricky problem. Mainly because any method used to fake this could equally be a method used by the official factory.

 

I always hoped that the star monster was a brand new monster, as in the silhoette on the back of the UK/US packaging. But if it was a completely new monster it would be much easier to find, so honestly the Jotun Troll seems more likely.

 

Oh and Nik, as someone else said, could we get a photo of underneath the feet as well? Cheers

Edited by theassassin, 29 July 2014 - 07:47 AM.

[fkro6784]

I wish we could ask the person or people who were behind the promotion at Matchbox, but of course that would be near impossible unless we knew who those people were and they were alive/reachable online. 

 

I was skeptical when I first saw this because we've gone so many years without anything near actual proof of the Star Monster's existence, and because you just have to be skeptical about things like this. Now I'm inclined to believe it's genuine though, because of the info Nik has shared. He'd really have to be master-minding a pretty elaborate scheme if he were BS-ing us. 

 

Assuming this is in fact legit, a massive thank you to Nik for sharing this. Us MIMP collectors have been waiting a long time to see it.

[bachamn]

this gives me hope that one day someone will actually find a BB Sunburst sticker; that's another promotion that has been commonly believed to be a lie. I've never heard anyone confirm what's actually inside the little black baggie that comes on the Series 2 BB 2-packs but my assumption is that this is where the sticker sheet would be placed.  

 

Don't see anyone racing to purchase and open a bunch of 2-packs to test this theory, but still

 

(sorry to derail, seemed relevant) 

Edited by bachamn, 29 July 2014 - 08:05 AM.

[theassassin]

Joe Morrison and John Weems are the names of the creators of Monster In My Pocket. I'd love to ask them a bunch of questions regarding mysteries of MIMP and what might have been but have no idea where to find them.

 

I've also previously tried to contact Jenice Heo, one of the artists who worked on the trading card/sticker art, via her official website to ask about any unpublished art she may have worked on or seen, but got no reply.

 

If anyone ever happens to find a way of contacting Joe Morrison, John Weems, Jenice Heo or Jan Sheets (who is the other artist), please let me know as I have a bunch of questions ready!

Edited by theassassin, 29 July 2014 - 08:12 AM.

[Behemoth]

Joe Morrison and John Weems are the names of the creators of Monster In My Pocket. I'd love to ask them a bunch of questions regarding mysteries of MIMP and what might have been but have no idea where to find them.

 

I've also previously tried to contact Jenice Heo, one of the artists who worked on the trading card/sticker art, via her official website to ask about any unpublished art she may have worked on or seen, but got no reply.

 

If anyone ever happens to find a way of contacting Joe Morrison, John Weems, Jenice Heo or Jan Sheets (who is the other artist), please let me know as I have a bunch of questions ready!

That would be an interesting interview. I would ask about the prototypes of the series 1 that showed up a couple of years ago. 

[fkro6784]

Joe Morrison and John Weems are the names of the creators of Monster In My Pocket. I'd love to ask them a bunch of questions regarding mysteries of MIMP and what might have been but have no idea where to find them.

 

I've also previously tried to contact Jenice Heo, one of the artists who worked on the trading card/sticker art, via her official website to ask about any unpublished art she may have worked on or seen, but got no reply.

 

If anyone ever happens to find a way of contacting Joe Morrison, John Weems, Jenice Heo or Jan Sheets (who is the other artist), please let me know as I have a bunch of questions ready!

 

That would be awesome. I just Googled "John Weems" and "Monster in My Pocket" and found his LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnweems1 . If you look at the 1989-1999 section of the resume, it confirms that's him. 

 

You never know how receptive someone is going to be about being contacted about things like that, but you don't know unless you try. I'd like to think I'd be flattered that there were people out there who still had such a deep interest in something I was a part of creating, but everyone is different.

 

Not sure if you want to reach out to him there, but I'd also be willing to reach out to him to see if he'd be up for maybe doing a Q&A I could post on Little Weirdos. Multiple people here probably shouldn't bombard him with random emails, but I'd be up for contacting him about the possibility of answering a few questions and then if he agrees, we could pool our questions here. Just an idea. 

Edited by fkro6784, 29 July 2014 - 08:34 AM.

[bachamn]

That would be awesome. I just Googled "John Weems" and "Monster in My Pocket" and found his LinkedIn page: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnweems1 . If you look at the 1989-1999 section of the resume, it confirms that's him. 

 

You never know how receptive someone is going to be about being contacted about things like that, but you don't know unless you try. I'd like to think I'd be flattered that there were people out there who still had such a deep interest in something I was a part of creating, but everyone is different.

 

Not sure if you want to reach out to him there, but I'd also be willing to reach out to him to see if he'd be up for maybe doing a Q&A I could post on Little Weirdos. Multiple people here probably shouldn't bombard him with random emails, but I'd be up for contacting him about the possibility of answering a few questions and then if he agrees, we could pool our questions here. Just an idea. 

yeah I'd definitely say it depends on how you approach the person as well. You have to keep in mind that these are people who are/were involved in something many of us are "fans" of, but their involvement wasn't necessarily anything more than it being part of their career.They may have little to no remaining interest in the actual subject matter or products.

 

Having said that, I think contacting the guy in context of doing a Q&A for an established web property (LW would be a great place for that) is something that might work. At least, it seems far more likely to illicit a response.

[theassassin]

I think the idea of trying to get an interview with Morrison or Weems for Little Weirdos would be a great idea. But it's important that we discuss all questions and approaches BEFORE anyone does anything, or else important questions might be missed or some overly keen individual might take the wrong approach and screw our chances.

[fkro6784]

Very true. I agree it can make a big difference how it's worded/approached. And yes, it is a good idea to not only ask about MIMP but also about what he's up to now. 

 

Who knows if anything would come from it, but I wanted to see what others thought of the idea. I do have a LinkedIn account and would be up for being the one to reach out and propose it in context of a Q&A for LW. As I mentioned above, I would first see if he is open to it, and if yes, we could then collectively figure out which questions to ask. 

Edited by fkro6784, 29 July 2014 - 09:43 AM.

[plasticfiend]

I know pretty much NOTHING when it comes to MIMP... but this is a fascinating thread.  Between all the number systems, and variations it sounds like MIMP was a relatively complex line.

 

PF

[Strontium Dog]

I agree Behemoth that it's unlikely we will think of a method that indisputably proves this is real or fake. It's a very tricky problem. Mainly because any method used to fake this could equally be a method used by the official factory.

I think you could make an educated guess with the monster in hand. A legit star monster will appear factory stamped; the star will be equally weathered as the rest of the monster, where a recent fake will look recent.

Based on the pictures alone, though it's not quite how I expected the star monster to look, it certainly does seem like the real deal. Great find!

[jackowock]

I'm sorry to be negative but this looks to me just like someone has imprinted a star shape on a regular monster which would be fairly easy to create. You can still see the circle where the normal points are shown.
I may be wrong but I'd be astonished if this was genuine.
Sorry!

[Ridureyu]

Exactly how easy is it to mod this kind of rubber like that?  it ain't MUSCLE plastic.

[jkaris]

I'm sorry to be negative but this looks to me just like someone has imprinted a star shape on a regular monster which would be fairly easy to create. You can still see the circle where the normal points are shown.
I may be wrong but I'd be astonished if this was genuine.
Sorry!

Nothing wrong with being skeptical, especially with a find of this magnitude. However, I think Veers is correct in saying that the best way to figure out one way or the other is to test it out. Grab a brand of some sort (bent paperclip maybe?) heat it up and try to duplicate it.

Other than that, looks like an incredible and awesome find for the MIMP group!

[Nik]

I am not offended if people are skeptical. I am the original owner of the figure and that is how it came out of the box. My fiance and I both work 60 hours a week running our business and raise our 2 year old daughter, which doesn't leave much time for elaborate internet hoaxes. I'm not really hurting for money and am not interested in selling the figure so I don't know what the motive would be. I really had no idea that this was a rare figure, I had been paying attention to colors and clean figures and not point values. The reference to star pointed monsters is really obscure online, I had been collecting these leisurely since last October and saw nothing about it until now. I think if the information was on the front pages of these sites more figures would turn up. Here is a pic of the feet.

 

 

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[theassassin]

Thanks for the pic Nik. For the record I am increasingly leaning towards thinking this is genuine. In my experience when someone is faking something like this, they will not only be trying to sell the item, but they will also be extremely hostile, condescending and uncooperative if questioned or asked for more details. And often will have an overly-elaborate story of how they got the item, emphasizing how few of them exist and how crazy unlikely it would be to find another one anywhere in the world. Nik has been the complete opposite of all these things.

 

Assuming it is genuine, one thing that strikes me is its surprising how rough the star looks. Whether it's some kind of heat/pressure brand or a tweaked mold, you'd think MEG/Matchbox would have made it look a bit cleaner or more complex, in part to beat the fakers but also just to look nice. OK so the promotion was only worth $50 in toys, but if someone faked multiples they'd be getting a lot of value by claiming on them. I'm probably overthinking this though, as when the original promotion was running in the UK/US, nobody knew what the star monster looked like. And by the time the African leaflet told us it was a Jotun Troll, not only would the US/UK promotion most likely be over, but we're talking pre-internet days anyway so it's unlikely the information would have spread abroad. Yeh I'm definetely overthinking this lol.

 

While it's nice to have some closure on this mystery, part of me is disappointed it's a Jotun Troll and not a brand new monster, as in the silhoette we saw on the back of the UK/US packs. But I guess if it was a brand new monster it would have been spotted much more quickly than this.

 

Oh and fkro6784, yes, that sounds like a great plan. After all, this may be the only chance we ever get to get some insight on the mysteries of MIMP history and what could have been so it's important to be thorough. I'd be heartbroken if someone got an interview with Morrison or Weems and didn't ask about the unreleased 15, Bash Tchelik, the Electronic Monster, etc

Edited by theassassin, 29 July 2014 - 02:53 PM.

[Behemoth]

A brand new MIMP would have been cooler, but I am just happy in knowing that it exists at all. To me this is like walking into the front yard and finding Bigfoot standing there chilling by the curb. Crazy and awesome

[theassassin]

Does anyone know if the Raumhafen site guy is a member here? I bet he'd love to know and update his site. I'm not sure if the site is even updated anymore though.

 

Also Nik, could you possibly give your thoughts on whether you think the star on your figure is part of the mold or branded-on (via heat or pressure)? To me it looks branded, especially in the second set of pics but examining it in-hand would probably give a better idea. Obviously either method could have been used by the factory.

Edited by theassassin, 29 July 2014 - 03:02 PM.

[Behemoth]

Does anyone know if the Raumhafen site guy is a member here? I bet he'd love to know and update his site. I'm not sure if the site is even updated anymore though.

 

Also Nik, could you possibly give your thoughts on whether you think the star on your figure is part of the mold or branded-on (via heat or pressure)? To me it looks branded, especially in the second set of pics but examining it in-hand would probably give a better idea. Obviously either method could have been used by the factory.

I don't think it is updated much if at all. Some of the links don't work anymore and the neon guide is way out of date. I have not seen him on here. I bought from him a long time ago from his site, but didn't keep in touch with him. Wolfgang was his first name, I remember. 

[trumanshower]

Just to bring some accurency, the promotion was not only on the US/UK package, but also on the FR one.

 

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[Nik]

 I would say branded because it crosses over part of the normal points circle. It could be molded though because I would assume that branding the pvc with any heat would discolor it at least a little and that doesn't appear to be the case. The site you mentioned: http://www.raumhafen.de/  says that the it has "a special star branded on it's back" so that makes sense. One thing I had noticed is that the example on the yellow flyer looks like a pentacle instead of just a star. If you look close on the figure you can see a clear circle around the star like in the picture, but it is not indented, rather part of the shape of the troll's back. I tried to get the closest shot of just the star, but I am working with an iphone 3gs at the moment so I can only get so close before the focus gets blurry.  

 

 

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[theassassin]

I hadn't even noticed that it said "branded" in the original promotion text, good eye Nik. It could be branded just with pressure though (not heat), perhaps while the rubber was still hot/malleable from the mold? Or "branded" could just mean the term for marked and have nothing todo with the actual process.

 

And good eye again noticing the slight circular shape on the back of the figure, it's feint but I can just about see it. I had noticed the outer circle shape on the African leaflet but hadn't noticed in on your figure until you pointed it out.

 

You say the outer circle is not indented, so you mean it's slightly raised? That would suggest a mold I suppose.

Edited by theassassin, 30 July 2014 - 04:44 AM.

[Nik]

 The circle around the star must have been part of the mold. It looks like a flat round disc in the middle of the back.