Interesting find in eBay lot
Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 7:15 am
I recently won a combined lot of used G1 Transformers on eBay, and this Saturday, I finally had to chance to pick up the package from the post-office.
The lot contained a couple of items I was interested in, including a couple of mostly complete Dinobots and an original 1984 G1 Optimus Prime which (although I own a MISB Encore Optimus Prime and a MISB gray BAPE OP) I have never actually had loose in hand. When I unpacked Prime's trailer, my first though was: "Darn, some kid scribled all over the trailer." Then, I looked again:
A quick doublecheck on the Internet confirmed that this is actually Peter Cullen's signature!
Now, this item puzzles me for several reasons. Most of all, the fact that this trailer, which is almost certainly not a knock-off, has no factory-applied stickers on either side (although it does have the interior stickers), and the sides are clean, which makes me think this item never had those side stickers. Secondly, it seems this item might have been signed quite a long time ago, as I am not sure if Peter Cullen still signs his name and adds the name of the character he's signing (especially one this obvious). Lastly, despite the signature, the cab and trailer have obviously been played with, although only the nozzle for the gaspump and one of the four missiles are missing.
So my question to you guys is this: was there ever perhaps some prize give-away of non-stickered, Peter Cullen signed OP's? It seems to me like maybe a kid somewhere won this item and then just played with it.
The lot contained a couple of items I was interested in, including a couple of mostly complete Dinobots and an original 1984 G1 Optimus Prime which (although I own a MISB Encore Optimus Prime and a MISB gray BAPE OP) I have never actually had loose in hand. When I unpacked Prime's trailer, my first though was: "Darn, some kid scribled all over the trailer." Then, I looked again:
A quick doublecheck on the Internet confirmed that this is actually Peter Cullen's signature!
Now, this item puzzles me for several reasons. Most of all, the fact that this trailer, which is almost certainly not a knock-off, has no factory-applied stickers on either side (although it does have the interior stickers), and the sides are clean, which makes me think this item never had those side stickers. Secondly, it seems this item might have been signed quite a long time ago, as I am not sure if Peter Cullen still signs his name and adds the name of the character he's signing (especially one this obvious). Lastly, despite the signature, the cab and trailer have obviously been played with, although only the nozzle for the gaspump and one of the four missiles are missing.
So my question to you guys is this: was there ever perhaps some prize give-away of non-stickered, Peter Cullen signed OP's? It seems to me like maybe a kid somewhere won this item and then just played with it.