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Partworks magazines [split topic]

Started by JesusAndYourBush, January 14, 2022, 03:35:45 PM

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The only partwork I've ever "finished" was the Ancestral Trail. Finished in quotes, because the 26th and "final" issue saw a gateway open to another world and another 26 issues of cutting out bits of cardboard and dripfed story. Mum said no and that was that.

The author, Frank Graves, got the copyright for the stories back, so he's self-published them as novels. Not sure they'd be quite so impactful without the beautiful illustrations from the partwork, mind.

http://www.theancestraltrail.com/

I came close to finishing How My Body Works, the tie-in to the French cartoon Once Upon A Time, Life. Would have finished it and all but my newsagent suddenly couldn't get them any more so that was that. Was really close to the end as well.

imitationleather

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on January 15, 2022, 10:59:36 AMI came close to finishing How My Body Works

I finished that one. All those months of buying it religiously just so I could have the Reproduction issue on my bedroom shelf without looking like a pervert.

Uncle TechTip

I bought about 46 issues of Quest - this came with articles for your binder (quite good), a poster (less good) and a cardboard model of some machine (terrible). I reached 3 binders before I felt it was time to give up. The articles were pretty good and informative, but when they started repeating issue topics you could tell the writing was on the wall. Still got them and they attract an ok price on eBay, I should really cash in.

We also had about 11 issues of The Joy of Knowledge which was a small hardback book each week, this was also good but too expensive to carry on. I do regret there isn't something equivalent today that I can get the kids to read instead of playing games on the computer.

DoesNotFollow

Quote from: imitationleather on January 15, 2022, 11:01:09 AMAll those months of buying it religiously just so I could have the Reproduction issue on my bedroom shelf without looking like a pervert.

Just a shame the rest of your appearance and general demeanour let you down though, eh?

Blue Jam

The only partwork I've ever bought wasn't this one but something very similar:



A recipe collection which included a piece of cookware with each issue. Issue 1 was 99p and came with 12 silicone cupcake cases. Silicone bakeware was a bit new-fangled and not cheap back then and I bought the magazine after a friend who also loves baking bought a copy and urged me to pick up this ridiculous bargain while I could. It was during the cupcake craze as well, they must have sold loads of first issues to hipsters and Bake-Off fans who then didn't want to pay £9.99 to get a spatula with issue 2.

Oops. Reckon someone at the publisher got fired for that fuckup. Especially as ten years later I still have the cupcake cases and they look good as new after loads of use, so they evidently weren't cheap crap. Should have just given away a wooden spoon instead.

Replies From View

Quote from: Huxleys Babkins on January 15, 2022, 10:59:36 AMWould have finished it and all but my newsagent suddenly couldn't get them any more so that was that. Was really close to the end as well.

Ah, man, those were the days.  Same happened with me and the ALF comic.

Never did find out if they stopped printing them or the newsagent just couldn't be fucked to keep ordering them for one reader.

mothman

A while back I subscribed to a Star Trek vlogger's feed as he'd decided to try a subscription service to build a model of the TNG-era USS Enterprise. I haven't actually checked to see how he's getting on, must do that at some point...

gilbertharding

When I was about 12, I was given a set of encyclopaedias by our neighbour who was moving house. They were a complete set of this partworks, all bound in blue and gold leatherette, at least 10 volumes. I guess he suddenly came to his senses, and realised that his new house would be best left unsullied by a reminder of this lapse of his judgement.

I didn't wonder at the time, but I assume he started collecting with 'Aa-Ah' or whatever, a week at a time for about three years...  it wouldn't work these days because you'd get to 'Xa-Zo' and all the first volumes would be out of date.

Or else you'd be like Joey in that episode of Coffeefriends where Penn Jillette sells him 'V' so he can only have conversations about volcanos and vegetables.

JesusAndYourBush

They've been whoring the absolute shit out of the latest partwork on every ad break today.  It's some Marvel thing and the free gifts/tat are so meagre the ad doesn't even mention them (a mug, a badge, and some bookends according to the site - I looked it up. You'd at least expect a little plastic action figure with each issue wouldn't you? But no, nothing so grand.)  The Marvel films are popular (can't stand them myself) so this will probably do well, despite the price from issue 3 onwards being an utterlly piss taking £11.99.

mothman

So the Trek builder I was going to check out fell by the wayside, but instead I found this guy who builds absolutely loads of partworks. It's fascinating, even relaxing, to watch, but I'm not tempted to try one myself.

It's the cost that gets me. Often £2.99 postage and £9.99 an issue - and there can be 100, 120, 140 issues. You're looking at £1500 over a couple of years for a DeAgostini BYO X-Wing - not really worth it at all, it's mostly plastic - or an Eaglemoss/Hero Collector BYO Enterprise NCC-1701-D - which just might be, the quality and detail is stunning.

gilbertharding

Quote from: mothman on February 18, 2022, 01:22:27 AMSo the Trek builder I was going to check out fell by the wayside, but instead I found this guy who builds absolutely loads of partworks. It's fascinating, even relaxing, to watch, but I'm not tempted to try one myself.

It's the cost that gets me. Often £2.99 postage and £9.99 an issue - and there can be 100, 120, 140 issues. You're looking at £1500 over a couple of years for a DeAgostini BYO X-Wing - not really worth it at all, it's mostly plastic - or an Eaglemoss/Hero Collector BYO Enterprise NCC-1701-D - which just might be, the quality and detail is stunning.

Your man there with his YouTube channel has 53K followers (or subscribers or whatever they're called... could anyone guess if he's making a profit from this after all his Hachette subscriptions are deducted?

Pete23

Do I want a 1.2 metre high Alien that turns his head to follow sound (even if he is a bit out of proportion and has a weird brown jaw)? Yes I do.

Would I buy him for just under £1,100 if I saw him in a shop?* No I bloody wouldn't.

https://alien.hachettepartworks.com/

*Total cost of 100 issues

Pete23

Should also mention that the few videos I've watched of people assembling the Alien all mention that it will cost a small fortune in superglue on top of the cost of magazines.

mothman

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 18, 2022, 09:13:52 AMYour man there with his YouTube channel has 53K followers (or subscribers or whatever they're called... could anyone guess if he's making a profit from this after all his Hachette subscriptions are deducted?
I have wondered about his business model, he has a Patreon, but whether that enables about £50-100 a month in the subscriptions he must be paying, plus the newly built workshop he now has, etc., who knows? Maybe just has a really high-paying job...

Bad Ambassador

...which he's been sacked from due to spending all his time on building a model of Hercule Poirot.

Blue Jam

Surely you could make a better Xenomorph now using a 3D printer and an Arduino? These partworks seem like a relic.

mothman

He has a 3D printer too, it's often chuntering away in the background. I think in one vide he said he was doing a from-scratch build of a VINCent from The Black Hole; in another he was printing a copy of the headpiece of the Staff Of Ra.

Sebastian Cobb

I bought a facehugger plush toy when I was a teenager, it used to live on my car's parcel shelf like an alien version of the Churchill Dog.

I don't drive at the moment so it's clinging to the mirror in me lounge.

Blumf

Quote from: Blue Jam on February 18, 2022, 05:32:19 PMSurely you could make a better Xenomorph now using a 3D printer and an Arduino? These partworks seem like a relic.

Each week receive a different five foot length of ABS printer filament to add to you collection

Blue Jam

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on February 18, 2022, 05:45:42 PMI bought a facehugger plush toy when I was a teenager, it used to live on my car's parcel shelf like an alien version of the Churchill Dog.

I don't drive at the moment so it's clinging to the mirror in me lounge.

I've got a load of Giant Microbes plush toys in my office at werk. Used to get them free at conferences. Got a neuron, an adipocyte, think the Shigella one is the nastiest I own. Shame I never got the AIDS or Coronavirus ones. The reproductive biologists I know mostly have the sperm and egg ones. One colleague has a plush antibody which looks a bit rude and made me do a double-take.

I also still have a plush of an anthropomorphic blood drop from the first time I gave blood. It looks a bit evil.

Dex Sawash

Quote from: mothman on February 18, 2022, 12:16:53 PMI have wondered about his business model, he has a Patreon, but whether that enables about £50-100 a month in the subscriptions he must be paying, plus the newly built workshop he now has, etc., who knows? Maybe just has a really high-paying job...

Onlyfans is where he really makes coin.

Buelligan

Quote from: Replies From View on January 14, 2022, 11:12:41 PMI got that murder one as well.  I collected it and my older brother and his friend thought there was something wrong with me for getting it.

The newsagents wrote my name on it for every issue because I was subscribed to it and picked it up from there.  These murder magazines with my names on, in their special dedicated folder, are probably still in my parents' house somewhere.

I'm afraid your dear parents sold them on.  They're now catalogued in the Metropolitan Police's warehouse, in case they ever need to axe you to death in a car park or shoot you up the tube station.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain


Buelligan

They wouldn't even care, Lisa.

Just shrug it off with a big-eyed trust-me look, those swines love that sort of activity. 

They'd disable the cameras first, obvs.  Or seize the tapes.  Those cameras everywhere, watching everyone to keep them safe...

Then they'd offer the inquiry a big stare at the million-part Great Book of Fucking Lies.

Replies From View

Quote from: Buelligan on February 19, 2022, 11:12:08 AMI'm afraid your dear parents sold them on.  They're now catalogued in the Metropolitan Police's warehouse, in case they ever need to axe you to death in a car park or shoot you up the tube station.

Oh for crying out loud.  This is the exact polar opposite of what I planned from the outset.


Buelligan

Quote from: Replies From View on February 19, 2022, 11:30:52 AMOh for crying out loud.  This is the exact polar opposite of what I planned from the outset.

Us little people should learn not to plan.  Learn it or die trying.

Replies From View

Quote from: Buelligan on February 19, 2022, 11:37:18 AMdie trying.

On it.  This is going to look so awesome when I'm done.



I'll be wearing such trendy clothes that there's no way the police will recognise me.

Buelligan


Replies From View

How can you possibly know the outcome of this pattern before it is done.