Walter, Gale and the New Guy

I may have a ton of Urlacher stuff, but my favorite things are still those Walter Payton collectibles. My daughter bought me the 12 inch McFarlane figure (white jersey) for Christmas and I always seem to pick up a few other items here and there.


I now have a framed Memorial Program from Walter Payton's service at Soldier Field. I'm sure that Walter is up there with the Angels, just wished he could have stayed here on Earth a while longer. I'll bet he would have done some great things. Please check out the Walter and Connie Payton Foundation and see how you can help.
http://www.payton34.com/




I bought another 1992 Sport's Impressions figurines, club edition. Some guy was just selling them way too cheap, like under $10. They are worth $100. Now I have a new one still in the box. ETOPPS offered a Super Bowl Series Walter Payton card, so I now have that in my ETOPPS collection.


I hit paydirt with a couple of new Gale Sayers figurines. They are both autographed, well supposedly, and have values of $300.00 each. Of course, I would only have them because I lucked into some pennies on the dollar deal. One is the 8 inch 1992 Sports Impressions...it is extremely nice and the signature card is very, very good. The other is a Salvino figure and is kind of an odd helmetless figure. The helmet comes with it, but the thing has no face mask (at least mine doesn't)and the helmet is way too small for the figure. The worst part is that it looks like some fool "traced" over a fading autograph. Oh well, that's Ebay for you. Sometimes it's REALLY good and SOMETIMES it's more like 'ya get what ya pay for'. My problem is that I refuse to return any items because I have waited so long to procure them. Anyway, my Gale Sayers shelf is looking mighty, might fine!


...and NOW there is the new guy, Matt Forte...wow, what a great Rookie year HE had. He's the man! I hope that he can have a super career and end up some day being mentioned in the same sentences as Sayers and Payton. I was a little leary of buying any expensive rookie cards of Forte, because I've been screwed too many times in the past...ex. Enis, McNown, Grossman, Benson...so I decided to go another way. I bought an autographed picture with COA and picture/video proof of his signing. The nice thing about the picture, well first of all, IT'S HUGE at 16x20...it's Forte's VERY FIRST GAME against the Colts, PLUS, it is the 4th or 5th carry of the game where Forte runs 5o yards for a touchdown...HIS VERY FIRST NFL TOUCHDOWN! Also, I like the fact that the autograph was signed in 2008, his first year. He may sign that same picture the rest of his playing days, but I will always know that mine was signed October 8, 2008. I did buy his ETOPPS rookie card too, because that is part of my collection.

More Urlacher

I could probably do a whole room with my Urlacher stuff. He is the King of present day Chicago Bear products, and extremely marketable for all football fans. It is my intention to grab hold of every Urlacher item I can find and I am particulary fascintated with action figures, dolls, etc. I have never seen a Bobblehead that I do not own, well, except the 3 foot tall one. In 2008 I purchased the BigHead version and the Photobase version.


and THEN I thought that I had mad the deal of all deals...I won an Ebay auction on an 18 inch Urlacher bobblehead for $50. I believe the value of those to be around $200. My excitement for delivery was intense, only to be totally dejected when I picked up the box on the front porch that the mailman had left. Needless to say, there was a lot of clanking going on. I can't believe the guy stuck it loosely in a box that was way too big and it appeared that he, without caution, tried to stuff loose newspaper around it! I sent him pictures and he gave me my money back. I let him keep $10.00 because I did glue the dozens of broken pieces back together and I am now able to display it in a dark corner. lol. However, I am disappointed that I don't have the real deal. Oh well, shit happens. That's the problem with shipping items.

I've seen it all, believe me. UPS plays WWF with their deliveries. Man, (my wife hates it when I say "Man") UPS really wrecks stuff...I can give you so many stories...I CAN'T understand why people use THAT service...It certainly CAN'T be cheaper. As much flack, or is it flak?, as the USPS gets, I would take THEM over UPS 100 times to 1. FED-EX has never given me bad shit, but that dang UPS has broken SO many of my orders! The boxes, a lot of the times, look like they have been DROPPED, KICKED, SAT ON and RUN OVER! Those brown shirted guys are fast to jump out of their trucks and deliver, but ANY breakable item is always broken, GUARANTEED! Sure, I can maybe get refunds from the fuckers, but that does NOT soothe me! I wanted the items to be delivered in tact, and not DAMAGED, I AM A SERIOUS COLLECTOR! okay...my UPS venting is over. (deep breath) The worst part about my "rant" is that my 18 inch Urlacher Bobble was delivered by the USPS. But, I don't blame them, it was lame packaging.



I saw an Urlacher Probot transormer doll being offered for sale at $29.00. TWENTY-NINE DOLLARS? WTF. I did some research and it was true. Other dealers were selling Peyton Manning dolls for $39.00. They were calling these dolls extremely rare. I waited a few weeks and finally bought 2 of them for $36.00, because I just had to open one up and see what it was all about. The figure is about 4 inches large and it's head spins and rotates back and forth between Urlacher's bare head and a Chicago Bears' helmet. I found the thing to basically be a piece of crap and poorly made. The McDonald's Happy meals toys are much better. Oh well, maybe it will be worth something down the road, as I have one new in package. I also found a hand blown X-mas ornament that I thought was somewhat rare. It is a Lausche painted ornament from Germany...kind of cool. I know these Lausche people paint a ton of ornaments, but THIS is an Urlacher!


Every Christmas we get a little money and we try and buy something substantial for the little woman and something EXPENSIVE for my Bears' collection. LOL. Wife got a Dell laptop and I bought the Urlacher 4 doll series of 2008 Upper Deck All Star Vinyl dolls. The home jersey doll was limited to 1,000 produced, and the white figure and orange figures had only 500 made. Upper Deck finished off with an all black version limited to 250. Needless to say, these babies were quite expensive; initially going for $50, $75, $75, and $100. I was able to buy all for around $200 and now the prices that I see online are quite a bit lower. I think Upper Deck came out and initially priced these with a price much higher than many were willing to pay. Only the future will tell what these things are worth. Anyway, they are nice. They are packaged in a book like display box. I just don't know how to display them.




I also found a 3 inch Urlacher McFarlane with a white jersey that I had been missing. Plus, the 2008 Upper Deck card and 1:64 die cast car.


and I got an Urlacher snowflake ornament from my daughter as a token of her undying love and affection...before Christmas, too!

Some Games, Toys, Die Cast and Miscellaneous

It seems nowadays that the NFL will enter into licensing agreements with almost any manufacturer that can produce any sort of item that will provide exposure of NFL teams, while at the same time making the NFL some money. Well known games and toys from the past are now being recreated to represent your favorite team. And, of course, as always, if it says Chicago Bears on it, I WANT IT! So yeah, I just had to acquire a Mr. Potato Head, a hot rod car that makes engine noise and plays a football song and a piggy bank that plays the Bears' fight song everytime a coin is deposited.





I've got a good start on "game" collecting, as well....just acuired a nice Bears/Packer chess game and a Connect Four game.



And I had to buy those ever popular games of fun, like Yahtzee, Jenga and the new version of monopoly. I already have a Bears monopoly game but this new one depicts players on Super Bowl XLI roster and highlights Urlacher, Tommie Harris, Greg Olsen and Devin Hester on the box lid.




Speaking of Devin Hester, 2008 brings him the distinguished honor of being made into a McFarlane Wave 2 action figure, as well as an Upper Deck card with a 1:64 1967 Mustang die cast car and another card with two cars. I bought these plus the "variant" McFarlane where Hester is wearing blue sweat bands instead of white.




I updated my die cast collection of haulers to include the 2008 Upper Deck truck. I now have every truck since the series started in 1990. WOW! That's 18 freakin' years. I have added to my 1:24 die cast collection of cars, as well, to include a 2003 NASCAR edition race car, and the 2006 Upper Deck Corvette. I'm a little concerned about the 1:24 cars. The NFL has been sponsoring them since around 1993 and I don't think they made one for 2008. That makes me sad.



Here are a few miscellaneous additions to my crazy ass collection: a light up, musical snowman ornament, a tiny pewter train set, a miniature level...oh yeah, and a Memory Company Snowman snowglobe with a matching miniaturized version. It's called the "Surfboard Snowman" and was made in 2006. I now have 6 of the snowmen in the series.