Judging by the luck I've had, it's probably time to place the fifth G.I. Joe DVD pack on the whale list. Maybe once the 25th Anniversary stuff is forgotten, supply will finally catch up to demand.

My lucky streak continues, since I've been able to land both of those White Whales, so....

Now JLU RED TORNADO (show accurate colors) & ULTRAMAN are my new White Whales.

Yeah I managed to get my JLU white whale, Solomon Grundy. Now it's down to a few G1 Transformers.

I can't believe I've overlooked this thread for so long... Anyhow, my white whale used to be DCUC Gentleman Ghost. I've since acquired it. But once I had it in hand, I wasn't as happy or overjoyed as I expected to be. After all, he was (probably still is) the holy grail of the DCUC line. Long story short, I ended up gifting GG (yes gifting, as in for free) to an awesome member here at AFi. That made me feel so much better than having it myself. To this day, that's probably the best feeling I've had as a collector.

Currently my white whales are:

Palisades Muppets Backstage Playset
JLU Shazam
JLU Mary Marvel
MOTUC King Grayskull

For a long time, my white whale was the DCSH Man-Bat variant from the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con. It's a totally pointless clear variant; as far as I know, Man-Bat was never invisible. But I still wanted it. Unfortunately, it never showed up on eBay.

When one finally did, I hesitated at the price, but then ended up buying it anyway. I'm glad I did, because I have yet to see another one on eBay.

Some of these white whales can easily be found on Ebay, for less than $100. To me, my idea of a white whale is something you've seen maybe once or twice, tried bidding on and lost, and that comes up maybe once a YEAR, not weekly. Like that Cave fisher. I got lucky to spot that in a group of windups, other than that, I've seen one carded one form over $1000, and one on the Toy Archive site Alex Bickmore runs for $275, and it's jaw had come off the pegs. That's it, 2 and mine, 3 I've seen ever. I see the Mattel JLU 4 packs every day on ebay. All 4 are on there right now if you look and are willing to spend $60-200, depending on which ones you want. The Doom Patrol and the Marvel family are the most expensive I believe, but they're there, you can find them easy without hunting them down. The same can't be said for a Galoob Maneaters shark or alligator windup, or a carded Powerlords Arkus windup, etc. (or the Q bert Dartboard or Stamp set I got, try finding another one of those...). Anyway, no disrespect to anyone on here I just have a different opinion of what a white whale is. If it's something you have the ability to buy daily, to me, it's not a white whale.

I didn't know white whale had a finite definition. I thought it was open to interpretation. I'm not like Chip and some of the other collectors here. I can't afford to collect some of the über expensive vintage stuff. So it's not even on my radar.

Just so you know else, I'm not attacking you, I'm just stating my opinion.

I don't think the definition is locked in on anything, but I agree with Else. The whole point of calling it a white whale implies that it is something that is rare enough to not be seen very often. People can define it however they want, but if it's easy to get one at any moment on ebay, then it doesn't fit my definition. Some people just seem to define it as what's currently on the top of their want list.

Read these variations:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... te%20whale

Agreed. My main WW is Mego 3.75 inch Betelgeusian. They stopped making him 30 years ago. Something that is still in production or part of a line still in production does not qualify to me.

CCC.

Your right, it's slang, so there's no set definition anyway, but it's based on Moby Dick, Captain Ahab didn't see Moby Dick popping up on Ebay every day...

Also, I don't collect alot of uber expensive stuff (actually, I don't collect ANY really expensive stuff). I'm not talking about expense, but about rarity. Most of my windups are under $50, but many are once a year finds, if that. Some of my windups, or ones I'm looking for, can;t even be googled, there's no pictures, on them, I only heard about them from a wind up book. For instance, try finding a Galoob Maneater windup toy on Google. There's none, ever. I look all the time. Yet they're in the White Knob Wind Up book I have. To me, it's something you have to chase over time, that is super rare (*like the literal white whale of literary fame)

Here's a good one: the Save Blinky Bart from Mattel.

It was offered by mail-away in 1990, but not many people actually mailed away for it. I've heard it talked about a lot, but I've only seen it show up once on eBay, and it sold for more than $1,000.

I'd love to have one, but I don't have the patience (or insanity) for the hunt.

European-only release The Batman show accurate Batbot figure. The US versions are the suck.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Aayla Secura 'CW40' (I have never seen this at any store ever) people want around $40 for it.

I don't know if these are white whales, but there are a few things that I'm looking for at decent prices.

1997 Babylon 5 Vorlon Visitor and Shadow Sentient
2008 Iron Man Wave 4 figures (only released in small numbers on East Coast, thus expensive)
2009 Wolverine & X-Men Wave 2-4 figures (again, small release, expensive figures)

I'm sure there are others, but nothing I'm really hunting for actively.

I agree about the definition. If you can find it RIGHT NOW, then it's not a "White Whale."

Just look at my signature below. I'll pay that cash immediately if those were available anywhere.

They are not.

In 3.5 years of obsessively hunting Super Powers, I've only seen one example of any of them for sale (33-back Kalibak).

It's not about the cost of the item, either. I'm still looking for the Super Powers valentines in the white box. I've seen two in 3.5 years, and that's it. They usually go for $20-25 on the high end.

Peace,

Chip