Back in the day..............you just know you're going to hate a tale that begins with "back in the day"......
When I was first starting to collect, I had a shot at both the FLAGG and the defiant complex, in the box. This was around......1987, so they were still haunting some retailers, and in the Vancouver BC area too.
The Defiant was interesting because there were several available at the store--a toy liquidator ( whose name I forget) located in a old "Supervalu" or IGA store on east, east Hastings street. in Burnaby, right across from the refinery before Burnaby mountain. They had about a half dozen of these sitting at the back of the show floor..........for $75, each.
Oh, I was tempted.........very tempted, as I was still a couple of years into collecting RAH by that time. But.......I had no way to get the thing home. A buddy of mine had a car, a Ford Escort, iirc......and, well...........the thing was too small. The BOX for the Defiant was TOO BIG to fit in his car.
I know, we measured both.
So I left those sets there. The price was easily the best I'd ever get on that set, but the circumstances.........just would not allow it.
The Flagg, was not too longer after. I was shopping at a hobby shop on west 10th Avenue, near UBC ( the much-missed Crash Crippletons), and I stopped by a Rexall Drugs pharmacy closing down, its final liquidation sales were that day. Since those stores commonly stock some toys i thought I'd take a peek inside.
And inside was a handful of carded joes for 25 cents each---bought about 5 figures I did not have. But up on a shelf was the USS Flagg, MIB........unspoken for. I took a long look at that thing........I was riding transit so I had no way to get it home. But here's the killer: the thing was marked
with a sheet of paper saying " discount", but there was no price.
I asked a harried staff member, who looked over his shoulder at the thing and didn't even waste a moment, and then told me it wasn't spoken for yet. The price:
$25.
And again, I had to leave the set there, as the store was closing forever just a couple of hours from then. I can only assume someone else walked out with it.
<sigh>
Oh yeah, these two haunt me..........so close...........soooo close.