General Toy Nostalgia

[Damien]

Florida is the only place I know that lets students out before June. My high school graduation was in the middle of May.

I moved from MA to FL when I was a teenager and it was so weird. Like, the day I left MA, I had something like 6 weeks of school left. Two days later I was in Florida with less than 3 weeks of school left.

 

[Ultra Seven]

Massachusetts is in NORM's boat. We had an ungodly winter this year, coupled with eighty bazillion holidays (including Diwali, but on the wrong day for most of our Indian students), and ... last day is June 25th. And the junior high's old enough that it isn't air-conditioned! Good times.

Edit: ah, Damien is also a Masshole. This tracks.

 

[Damien]

Edit: ah, Damien is also a Masshole. This tracks.

Born and bred!
Raised largely in the Whitman/Brockton area until I was a teen. Lived in FL for 3 years, then back to MA (East Bridgewater/Halifax area, then Carver/Plymouth area) until my early 20s, when I came to Canada.

 

[Ultra Seven]

Born and bred!
Raised largely in the Whitman/Brockton area until I was a teen. Lived in FL for 3 years, then back to MA (East Bridgewater/Halifax area, then Carver/Plymouth area) until my early 20s, when I came to Canada.

No kidding! One of my best friends is from Dighton. I've spent my whole life in and around Boston, except for weird patches in L.A. and Georgia (of all places).

 

[Damien]

One of my best friends is from Dighton.

Aw man... real sorry to hear that. Let me know if there's anything we can do to help.

 

[yojoebro82]

I did a big restoration on my vintage MotU collection this year, replacing bands, hunting down weapons and accessories. Even filled some gaps of figures I didn't have growing up. Yours look pristine, at least on cursory view from the video.

I think at this point I've replaced every band that needs it. Some are super easy (Randor), some are a nightmare (Sorceress), most are kind of finicky but doable. I don't enjoy it as much as replacing a GI Joe O ring but getting those legs nice and sturdy is rewarding.
My brother-in-law is.a big buyer and seller of vintage action figures and he has a big surplus of any 80s and 90s toy line you can imagine. He hooked me up with a Roboto gun attachment this past weekend and I also found a He-Man sword this weekend that I've actually been missing for a long, long time (for $3!). I know I'm missing Saurod's gun, a Beast Man, arm band, Rondor's cape.....a couple other accessories, I keep my eyes open for them but I don't often actively hunt them down. Same with the figures.
Yeah, I think overall my guys are in nice shape, there's some dings here and there that the video might not show, there are some waists that have broken springs, but even my childhood stuff (He-Man, Rio-Blast, Saurod, Man-E-Faces) were kept in decent shape. My childhood Castle Grayskull has a broken top hinge that connects the front and back sections and the only real fix is getting a new front half......I'm not doing that. Even when the figures are packed up, Grayskull is constantly displayed and the fact that I had this specific one forever is a big deal for me, so it's just going to stay like that which is fine

NJ/east coast usually lets out mid June. 24th is pretty late for us, but they've added things like Eid and Juneteenth to the calendar, so we get off for those days. So much of it is a waste of time, especially after AP testing is finished. The students are already so checked out, it's painful to think we still have 2-3 weeks left.

I'm finishing my 12th year teaching at a private school in MN. My principal of the last 3 years is all about getting out as early as possible. It all depends on your start time too, but we meet state requirements.

 

[Misfit]

Massachusetts is in NORM's boat. We had an ungodly winter this year, coupled with eighty bazillion holidays (including Diwali, but on the wrong day for most of our Indian students), and ... last day is June 25th. And the junior high's old enough that it isn't air-conditioned! Good times.

Edit: ah, Damien is also a Masshole. This tracks.

I'm in Mass too and the last day of school in my town is June 22. A combination of snow days and taking two weeks off for Christmas/winter break pushed us to this point. June 22 also happens to be my birthday and I can safely say that I never once in my life went to school on my birthday so this is highly unusual for us to still be in session this late. And yeah, no AC in the schools in my town because it's just not really needed ordinarily, but it doesn't take much to get these old, brick, schools hot when the weather gets above 80 (like it is today and will be tomorrow) and it's pretty damn miserable.

 

[NORM]

I'm in the high school, and we got ACs in the classrooms about 2-3 years ago (I'm pretty sure after Covid). We don't need them about 90% of the year, but man do they make a difference in that 10% when we do. We also host summer school, so it's important to have them for that month of July.

This year, we used two of the three snow days we were allowed. They gave us off yesterday with the unused day because our schools are also polling places and yesterday was the primaries. I don't know why they don't just build this voting day into the calendar if they're gonna close school for that reason.

 

[Spongyblue]

I live on the gulf coast so we have to factor in hurricanes. My kids got out at the end of May, but the school district moved to year round school about 4 years ago, so they start back up the last week of July. It works out because the kids don't totally mind dump over 3 month break, and they get multiple mini breaks through the year. When we first moved here, we found it so weird that not only does the school get 3 days off for Mardi Gras, but the whole damn town does.

 

[NORM]

Year round school. I don’t know if that would ever fly in NJ, or my district specifically. Very curious about it though.

 

[Spongyblue]

I was taken aback by it at first, however this school district (in Mississippi of all places) shot up super high since they implemented it. It wasn't terrible to begin from my understanding as we are in one of those few pockets of financial stability in this state, so the schools actually have money to invest into various programs, but it's in the top 5% school districts in the country, and I think the year round has contributed to that.

 

[TheRealSmallville]

These last few weeks have been one busy day after another and it will not be letting up for a couple of more weeks yet. But I got a package the other day that made me smile.

Now I love my vintage figures but I try not to have my nostalgia blinders on at all times. That said....what's with that neck, Kenner? Jeez. I wonder if I want to attempt a head swap with Endor Han. Are they even compatible? Will it look right? I don't know, I'm happy to have this guy regardless. I now have three of the last 17 figures counting the Ewok with the bow and Anakin, five if you count my Stan Solo Stormtrooper Luke and general Lando. I have a few more SS figures in a cart ready to pull the trigger with my next pay check. I also have my eye on ordering the ANH and ROTJ Retro sets but I only want like two or three figures from each of those sets which is why I've held off.

James Hampton, is that you?