The Story of Your Toys

The purpose of this thread is to post about toys in your collection that you have a special attachment to. Vintage or modern. Whether it's on display or in a box in storage. Whether you've had it for decades or you finally got it last week. Whether it's in mint condition or a beater. Tell us about it. Why do you love this?

I personally have enough to keep this thread going solo for at least two pages. I plan to drop one at a time every so often but the more the merrier. I'd personally love to see pics too, so that will be a bonus. Here is my first entry:

VINTAGE TMNT SEWER PLAY SET:

Part of my childhood collection since it first came out. This thing saw tons of play. I used to pour the mutagen slime through every crack and crevice in this thing and it got pretty crusty over time. For a long, long time it was complete EXCEPT for the blue lamp thingie on the right side that was the lever for the elevator. Well when I met my future wife I got to know my future brother in law who is big into vintage figures and he got me the one piece to complete my sewer play set. He's good people.

So this piece sat in storage at my parents' house for a good 15 years. When I got my apartment in the late 2010s I could only fit my GI Joes. But when me and my wife got our house in 2015, I could finally move some of the other stuff (TMNT, He-Man, Transformers). I cleaned the crusty mutagen slime off and it's been displayed proudly ever since in my figure room.

Recently I have finally decided show my 5 and 8 year old girls the original TMNT cartoon. I have the complete series on DVD and we are almost through disk two. Every Friday night me and the family have pizza and watch some TMNT to kick off the weekend. They love it. Michelangelo is their favorite by far. My girls love when I pull the sewer off of the shelf and play Turtles (I go with the NECA figures since they look more like the cartoon than the vintage figures which I still have). They love this thing. Playing with it tonight was what inspired this post.



Lets hear about yours.

Love this idea - and pictures of loved items.

I'll start with one of my oldest: the OG ToyBiz Rogue!



There she is, chipped nose and all. Rogue was my favorite from the cartoon and I was always so frustrated that Storm was the only one of the women I could find. Still frustrated by the lack of Jean and Jubilee to this day, but Rogue was on the back of some of the cards so I knew she existed.

I hunted and hunted and hunted over months and months. Not one, at any TRU, KB, Best, any of the malls, second-hand stores - she did not exist.

One day we were in the checkout lane at Toys R Us and I spotted an orange card on its back facing the ceiling. I reached up and the second I saw green I got SO EXCITED!!!! My Mom knew how long I had been looking for Rogue but I couldn't contain myself - I handed her the figure and had to dance around one of those long aisles in joy. Money was tight but I didn't know it at the time and my parents never let it show - they also knew which ones I was looking for because I talked about them... a lot.

I have the green Phoenix on my Phoenix shelf but those are the only two 5" ToyBiz I have in my current place. Rogue is important to me and that's why this shelf is front and center to visitors because of this story and it shows the evolution of action figures for the last 30 years.

And y'know what's funny? I think ToyBiz executed her boots the best of any company - dedicated sculpt, correct design and paint and they don't fall down.

Power Uppercut Punch! Still works.

Great shelf. I love Rogue too. I almost pulled the trigger on that Mondo version. I got my 90s Toybiz Rogue at a comic convention in the early 90s. I was 13 or 14, something like that, and I had discovered the art of haggling. But I wasn't smart enough to understand that it doesn't usually work with the latest hot ticket item, which is what Toybiz Rogue was at the time. A guy had a few of them and was selling them off at a steady pace. I don't remember the price, but I asked if he'd sell her for a couple bucks less. He just said, "No", and I paid him the full price. Nice try, kid.

I have some (good) things to say about 90s Toybiz X-Men that will get its own post eventually. One of the things on my list.

I still have my Spider-Man 2099 from the classics line. That was the figure that started it all for me. My dad let me get it from KB Toys when I was 11 years old. I had never had an action figure that articulated before and it blew my mind. I got ML series 1 Iron Man next and the rest is history.

The figure itself is completely floppy joints at this point but it just reminds me of a different time. My dad died when I was 17, but he was the reason I was able to get into Marvel Legends. The first entire wave I was able to get was the ML9 Galactus wave. I was just a kid so obviously I didn't have money, but my friends helped me buy them so I could build Galactus. Still have that one too.

For me, I have to give some love to the ToyBiz Spider-Man Legends wave one classic Spidey. While I'd collected the occasional figure here and there in my young adult life, I didn't really get heavily into the hobby until this guy debuted. At the time, having such a poseable figure with so many articulation points was MIND BLOWING! Of course, Marvel Legends debuted shortly thereafter, and I was quickly adding characters like Captain America and Hulk to my collection in a rather small, but oh-so-cool display.

Nowadays, most of those old ToyBiz Legends are gone, replaced by newer figures with improved sculpts and articulation, but I still have that Spidey front and center on my Spiderverse shelf. He is definitely dated, and his joints are mostly loose so it's hard to get him to stay in many poses, but I have such an attachment to him that I can't see myself ever letting him go. He started all of this figure collecting madness for me.

TheGillMan said:

For me, I have to give some love to the ToyBiz Spider-Man Legends wave one classic Spidey.
He started all of this figure collecting madness for me.

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For you and everyone else. The most important action figure of the last 25 years. Modern action figure collecting is what it is today because of that figure.

yojoebro82 said:

For you and everyone else. The most important action figure of the last 25 years. Modern action figure collecting is what it is today because of that figure.

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Came out my first year of university. Only had $100 a month in fun money, which back then let you live like a Taco Bell King.

Bought him and the black suit, which set my party budget back, and I was living in a dorm, so what the hell was I gonna do with my embarassing figures?

Pose 'em on my Gateway tower. And as always happens in reality, most people thought it was cool, including women. My friend Rebecca later admitted she used a late night posing session with him and a pipe cleaner guitar as an excuse to keep hanging out to try to hook up.

I was and am obtuse, so we did not, because I thought she really did just want to play Soul Calibur and Spider-Man figures on a Friday night with no roommates.

I made this post in one of the GI Joe threads:

I still remember and associate what figures I was collecting with the year I was in school.

I was born in ‘77. Entered kindergarten in ‘82. It was all Smurfs for me.

First grade, ‘83, I was finally appreciating the Empire Strikes Back figures I had been gifted, and started adding Return of the Jedi figures. Also started in Masters of the Universe. Playsets and vehicles were coming in hot. Grayskull, Ewok Village, Jabba the Hutt were highlights.

Second grade, ‘84-85. Got some of my first Transformers, MotU was still going strong. Got Snake Mountain (playsets were always from Santa).

Third grade, ‘85-86. Really got into GI Joe and Voltron. Pieced together the Panash Place set for Christmas, and the ‘85 Joe crew, Crimson Twins, and Dreadnoks had me hooked. Got the Fright Zone, but MotU was wrapping up for me by then.

Fourth grade, ‘86-87. Back to Transformers thanks to movie hype. GI Joe was killing it, with the show still featuring favs from the previous year, while strengthening leadership with General Hawk, Sgt. Slaughter. Also took an interest in baseball, football, and pro wrestling thanks to local teams becoming champions (Mets and Giants) and Wrestlemania III.

Fifth grade ‘88 was my last year of elementary school, so it was becoming uncool to still play with toys, but that wasn’t stopping me. ‘88 got me further committed to Transformers with my first complete combiner (Terrorcon Abominus), and leaders like Ultra Magnus and Point Blank filling my ranks.

By sixth grade ‘89, starting middle school, I was really wrapping up any toy collecting. Transformers was the last group standing. Started collecting records and cassettes including Bon Jovi, Van Halen, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Fine Young Cannibals and the single for Don’t Worry Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin.

By the time I was in grades 7-8, my six years younger brother was collecting, and of course I was guiding him into which TMNT, MASK, and RGB were the best to get.

High school was about being in bands. Taught myself guitar as a freshman by listening to Nevermind over and over. Was heavily influenced by the grunge era, til music started to lighten up with music from Weezer and No Doubt and Stone Temple Pilots. My friends and I were interchangeable members of maybe 10 different band configurations.

Wasn’t til college years (‘95-99) where I had my own PT job with my own income to buy what I want. PotF2 supplemented my original figure collection gaps, 5” Marvel figures were experimenting with added articulation and team completion with rad box sets. These would be the precursors to Spider-Man Classics and Marvel Legends. Transformers would return to form with designs that finally echoed the Generation One designs through their Classics line. And Masterpiece was just around the corner. Eventually GI Joe would come back into the fray with their modern 4” line. It would be a few years before I reluctantly revisited the Masters of the Universe through their Classics line.

Kenner 1997 Legends of the Dark Knight Manbat. I loved this guy so much. This action figure is what got me to start reading comics. Manbat will always hold a special place in my heart.

altcunningham said:

My friend Rebecca later admitted she used a late night posing session with him and a pipe cleaner guitar as an excuse to keep hanging out to try to hook up.

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Hell yeah!

I hung out with a girl who put my figures in some suggestive poses, she thought it was hilarious. But it was all just in fun. She wasn't sending any hidden signals that I missed out on. Nah. Nah......I'm sure of it.........

This was the same girl who, in the early days of AOL instant messenger, sent me a pic of her in the bath tub. But dude, it was from the shoulders up. Totally casual. Just friends.

Aw, man. This is everything to me. LONG story.

My sophomore year of high school, I was OBSESSED with Crash Bandicoot.

I borrowed the second game from my buddy, and conveniently kept forgetting to return it to him.

My buddy used to have a subscription to ToyFare, and would lend every new issue to me between homeroom and third period to peruse. In one issue was an ad for the Resaurus Crash toyline. I cleanly ripped that page out of the magazine, so I could have forever. Still do.

That Thanksgiving, I spent the entire time on AOL looking up all things Crash, even as my uncle was yelling at me to get off of the computer, because family was going to be calling (sorry, Jeff, your family actually attempted to call about 4 times. I ignored it, and signed back in to stare at the pictures of Crash toys some more--clearly more important).

In our Fall play that year, "Up the Down Staircase", there was a good fifteen minute long scene where our characters, high school students, are supposed to be taking a test in a booklet, while a few other characters monologued. I drew Crash and gang in every single one of those booklets, I believe, throughout the course of rehearsals and the actual performances. And I did the Crash dance as a gag anytime something good happened (sorry, anyone who had to see that).

Christmastime that year, I drove my Mom bonkers with that ad I tore out of the ToyFare. Everyday before school, I would sneak it on her pillow, or on the coffeemaker, or on her bathroom sink. Every single day, the ad would make it back to my bed, and every single day, I would repeat the routine. I *really* wanted her to know how much I wanted these figures. That was my way of showing her.

Even after telling me that she was unable to find them, I kept pestering, preparing my 15 year old self for inevitable heartbreak.

Christmas morning, I opened all my presents, which was a GREAT haul in and of itself--Resaurus Duke Nukem figures, the debut Eve 6 album, Duke Nukem, Crash 2, and Metal Gear Solid for Playstation, etc.--she wasn't lying. No Crash figures.

I think she could see the disappointment in my face. I think she relished in it for all of my ad pillow placement chicanery previously-- for a few minutes, at least. Until she pointed out an unwrapped box behind the couch that I assumed was trash.

Therein were the figures I had been dying for in all of their glory. My God, they were gorgeous. All of them were there, minus the Surfboard Crash. Her justification was that she wasn't lying, she just couldn't find ALL of them. She even went so far as to contact Resaurus directly to try to find him. But I didn't care. There they were. Mom/Dad/Santa pulled through for me!

I ran to my room, and put them on the shelf I had already cleared space for, and admired them for at least an hour.

And later that summer, during break from school, (one of my favorites EVER), while my friend and I were out "looking for jobs", I somehow found myself over in the toy section of a Hills...and got my hands on a lone Surfboard Crash (a perfect cap to an already amazing self discovering summer). I begged my Mom to buy it for me. "IT'S THE ONLY ONE I DON'T HAVE!!! PUHLEEEEZE!!!". Job hunt for me ended effectively immediately upon her acquiesce. The line was complete, and now, so was I!

However, sadly, leading up to the wife and I's wedding, I was unfortunately unemployed for reasons beyond my control, and needed to make many sacrifices in order to help finish paying for it. Many truly heartwrenching decisions that needed to happen so that my wife to be could have her perfect day. She deserved it.

So, my entire DC Universe collection? Gone. Not real,super heartbroken over that. Was over the line at that point, but it was still rough, as I had a great time hunting down the line over the course of 10 series.

My entire Marvel Legends collection? I'm talking EVERY figure and subline, over 250 figures or so? Yeah, that one stung a lot. That was a LOT of time and money and toyhunts and love and memories spent on that line, dating back to the Spidey Classics line's beginning in 2000. 10 years of collecting at that point. Gone in an instant, shipped to China. Fuuuuuuuuck.

However...my Crash collection, series 1 and 2? I literally cried as I was packing them up to ship them off. Mad at myself for having to be in the position that I needed to do this, and sad because of what they represented for me. The nostalgia, and the memories. How hard my Mom searched for these for me. I was devastated.

I got over it a bit, as I realized that the memories and nostalgia would always be there for me, but damn, if I didn't swear to myself then and there that I would get them back one day. Those figures STILL mean the world to me. And even with this, I still have every intention of doing what I need to do to get them back.

But damn, if the NECA Crash figures don't hit all those right spots that it did when I was 15/16 years old. I fell in love all over again, I love having them on my shelf. They aren't the Resaurus, but they will do. I was so happy that one of my favorite characters and games, and now toys was getting a revival. And I am at a place right now where I am going to be going back at getting my Resaurus ones back.

Definitely going to have to revisit this thread in the morning when I'm in a clearer headspace because I'm someone who lost ALMOST my entire collection at 21 to a house fire and have spent most of my 40s chasing what I once had. But I do still have the Buddy "Clutch" Hawks from my old Mask collection, absolutely beat to hell, as one of the last remaining bits of what once was....

docsilence said:

Definitely going to have to revisit this thread in the morning when I'm in a clearer headspace because I'm someone who lost ALMOST my entire collection at 21 to a house fire and have spent most of my 40s chasing what I once had. But I do still have the Buddy "Clutch" Hawks from my old Mask collection, absolutely beat to hell, as one of the last remaining bits of what once was....

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Dude is ten miles of bad road but still kicking.

I’ve been posting about it in respective threads, but I spent most of last month restoring/replacing original vintage MotU and GI Joe figures from my childhood collection. A little at a time, but it’s really adding up now that I reviewed the month’s eBay spending.

NORM said:

I’ve been posting about it in respective threads, but I spent most of last month restoring/replacing original vintage MotU and GI Joe figures from my childhood collection. A little at a time, but it’s really adding up now that I reviewed the month’s eBay spending.

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I've been replacing MOTU leg binders here and there for a while. Not the fun and straight forward process that replacing a GI Joe O-ring is. Most are a tedious process, one was super easy (King Randor), and one was an absolute nightmare that I never want to do again (Sorceress).