When men hit their mid-50s they usually buy a convertible sports car. When men hit their mid-30s (and are secretly huge movie nerds) they usually combine and display action figures on shelves. And then die alone for all of their troubles. I’ll be turning the big 3-5 this Pearl Harbor Day (that’s December 7th and yes I do have an Amazon Wish List, thank you for asking) so when I began getting urges to do the latter I simply accepted it. I went with it. It’s who I am. Dave Pye – the font of useless pop culture knowledge who will watch the same movie over and over until his eyes bleed – and it’s usually Blade Runner.
Shall I pull my pants down and show you the jewels… of my personal collection? Super then. Top shelf Indy, bottom shelf Star Wars. Let’s start with the Indiana Jones conglomerate, left to right. First we have a genuine leather satchel, designed to look like the one Indy wears, with the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull logo burned into the lower right corner. Spielberg had them made by the Canadian company Roots (more details) as gifts for all of the cast and crew. I found it on eBay last month when I was looking for additions to my Halloween costume and couldn’t help myself. In the background we have an electronic whip, a Spalko action figure and three lego sets – all from the newest movie. Next we have four prop replicas – a Sankara Stone from Temple of Doom, the Hovitos Fertility Idol and Staff of Ra Headpiece from Raiders of the Lost ark and a bullwhip.
Ladies, all of this could be yours. Form a line to the left.
The Star Wars shelf contains a couple of items that are actually worth quite a bit of money on the open dork market. On the far left we have a modern little Chewbacca beanie baby. Behind that is a stuffed R2D2 doll with a little red button that squeaks that I got for Christmas in 1977. In front of that is a remote control R2, the controller long since lost, which I believe I got in 1981 when Empire Strikes Back came out. Next up is an original Han Solo Blaster, with no chips, the sticker intact and it still works.
Beside the blaster is a Canadian-version, bi-lingual copy Han Solo figure. The packaging is in pristine condition and I found the little guy whilst cleaning out one of my grandmother’s closets last summer. She must have bought it for me for Christmas in ’77 and hidden it from my 4-year-old self in said closet – where it became lost for three decades. As I was cleaning out her home due to the fact that she is now in a long term care facility out of her mind and near death, the discovery choked me up. It was like a last gift from her to my inner-child. Nerd or not – you have to admit that’s pretty gosh darn cool. Thanks for everything, Claire. You did an excellent job with Janet and I.
“Pardon-et-moi? C’est la Guerre des E’toiles, cocksackeer!”
Next up is a rubber Yoda puppet in decent condition, still with all of his white yarny hair, which was given to me in 1981 and then finally bookended with another modern beanie baby version of the same little green Jedi master. All told and in retrospect a decent little collection of movie paraphernalia. Which begs the question – guys and gals: what are your most treasured trinkets from childhood? More Star Wars stuff? A little G.I. Joe or Rainbow Bright, perhaps? Maybe it’s just me, but I sincerely doubt it. Don’t leave me hanging here, folks.
For me it was Planet of the Apes collectibles. I was the same age when PoA came out that you were when Star Wars came on the scene. I had poseable action figures (about 10″ tall) of most of the major characters in the movies.
I also had a passing fascination with the Hasbro line of “Logan’s Run” tie in action figures at around age 9-10 if I recall.
All of it went into the trash when I was maybe 13. I had gone off to Boy Scout Camp for a week and my brother, angry because he couldn’t go too, destroyed most of the toys with a play hammer (back then, they were literally miniaturized actual hammers. Think Andy Dufresne’s rock hammer in “Shawshank”) and a pair of my mom’s sewing shears.
Thus ended my days of collecting things. Just as well. Who know where I’d be now.. mebee alone with my toys up in Canada …blogging.
Great comment, Sean. I had a cardboard Planet of the Apes playhouse which I was given in the mid-70’s sometime. Sounds like you had quite a decent slew of touys yerself. Shame about their untimely demise.
After moving pretty much once a year since 1994, all of my collectables have been lost, thrown out etc.
Wish I still had all my original Transformers though. I could still have hours of fun playing with them
What did you think of the first Transformers movie? I liked it a lot more than I thought I was going to.
Perhaps we should start a support group for adult males who are subconsciously filled with regret over carelessly discarding their action figures.
I really enjoyed the first movie, I’m looking forward to the second as well. And as for the support group, count me in.
Transformers was awful. Megan Fox however, is very….well….foxy.