My folks also did the “now you are too old” thing, for my 12th birthday they gave me a card with a cardboard cutout of a cartoon rabbit in it and told me that was the last “little guy” I was going to get. The result of that was me just doubling- and tripling-down on action figures and the various other interests that were no longer “appropriate”. My mom is one of those who would say “don’t you think you’d have more girlfriends if you didn’t watch those kinds of movies/collect those things/dress like that?”. I sometimes wonder if I would be so hardcore into this stuff at 46 if my mom hadn’t pushed so hard to get it all out of me at 12.
OH! And now that I’m an actual psychotherapist, I can say with authority that the “too old” stuff is absolutely bullshit, there’s nothing “wrong”, psychologically speaking, with any non-harmful hobby/interest, and those “inappropriate” judgments are all about social conformity and fear of the “other”. Hell, they said the same thing about video games when I was a kid, and now it’s completely “normal” (read: popular and widespread) for adults to play them constantly.
There is literally no such thing as “normal”. And my folks get to deal with me bringing a bunch of figures every time I visit, I play with them in the car on the way while my beautiful wife drives, and she loves it.
Right. You don't need more girlfriends, just one that cherishes you for who you are. Come on, parents!
"Too old" for me was less about being a certain age than it was who I was spending time with. There was a time, around 6th grade, when I stopped collecting my lines (Star Wars, MotU, Voltron, GIJoe, Transformers). But this was around the same time my younger brother (by six years) started collecting (Real Ghostbusters, TMNT, MASK, Silver Hawks, X-Men). So I had a hand in contributing to that collection, whether it was swaying him into particular characters, or buying them for him as gifts. But I've been the keeper of those collections since he moved away, and my memories of his toys are probably even more fond than the memories of my toys, because it was him I was playing with. I remember making the GB headquarters and Turtle Lair and Technodrome out of cardboard boxes, making stop motion videos with him.
Eventually, once I hit high school, I was hanging out with kids who didn't really play with toys anymore, but that's where I got my introduction to comics. Marvel Trading Cards of the early '90s, Jim Lee's X-Men run, all started in my freshman year. I kept collecting comics. But also that's when Nevermind, Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Dirt, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge all came out, and I learned to play guitar. That became my interest for the rest of my time in high school - playing in bands. Then we went our separate ways once college came along.
As a commuter, I kept a part time job close to home, and with that disposable income while living at home, I started collecting as an adult. My first purchases as an "adult" collector were the Toy Biz Original X-Men 5pk, Power of the Force 2 Shadows of the Empire figures... and nearly 30 years later, I'm here.
I think most of our parents came from a generation were toys where disposable, and when you reached a certain age you had to move on. I mean boomers where really the first generation that had recognized "teenage years". Before that you where either a kid or an adult, and I would guess that depending on how old the boomers parents were when WWII, depending on how they saw what age was a "grown up" age.
I think i was lucky in that my parents worked hard to get what we had and part of working hard is being able to enjoy what you worked hard for. I think they both also relished being able to enjoy those "nerdy" things that I liked in a time when as an adult it was still seen as weird to like those things. My dad, as a a black, tough police officer had two favorite shows: the cowboy mini-series Lonesome Dove and Star Trek. One of my moms favorite fictional characters growing up as a young black girl in the segregated south was Green Lantern and she had a crush on Spock. When I was 12, my dad gave some of my Transformers to a guy he worked with who had a younger kid. When I asked what happened some months later when I was looking for them in the attic he told me, and I think he saw how upset I was at that didn't mess with my stuff again. He thought I just wasn't interested in them anymore since I was getting older and reading more comics, but I think it was then that my parents realized that it was a bit more than just toys and I had a deep appreciation and joy with collecting my figures. They started giving me bookshelves and what have you to start displaying, and when I moved out to join the military they kept a hold of some of my stuff until I was able to get them a few years later. Re-got the collector bug with the ToyBiz Lord of the Rings as that was coming out right when I got my first apartment so I had somewhere to put them and it's been on ever since.
And back on topic, re-imagine Refrigerator Perry. Not sure if they could even do him due to image likeness or whatever, but just keep the name Fridge and modernize him please.
@panthercult heh heh, same. It's really great to get a sense of everyone's personal connections with what we collect.
My parents were cool - they didn't make me give up collections - it was me that was an idiot who moved on an let things go for a song, or gave them away to friends, - only to wish I had them back years later. I did that with alot of things. But I do remember keeping a collection of valuable baseball cards and comics in my boyhood bedroom closet. I had some great stuff - Reggie Jackson rookie card, Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver Rooke Card, George Brett and Mike Schmidt rookies - all saved in a binder. Also had some great key comics - first appearance of Phoenix (UXM 101) 1st Vindicator, 1st Alpha Flight, solid late 70's and early 80's books...
While I was away at college my mom let one of my sister's friends move into my room and she and her trashy boyfriends stole all my stuff, so when I came home to get it, it was all gone. Terrible.
At least my Mego figures and vintage Star Wars toys met their grubby ends at my own hands though...
At least my Mego figures and vintage Star Wars toys met their grubby ends at my own hands though...
Just like Cobra Commander, if you can't have them, no one will!
At least my Mego figures and vintage Star Wars toys met their grubby ends at my own hands though...
Just like Cobra Commander, if you can't have them, no one will!
LOL... as kids we played with that stuff hard. I shudder to think how much all of that stuff would be worth if we would have kept it pristine... my brother's Micronauts Biotron and Shogun Godzilla and Mazinger, the Millenium Falcon and the At At Walker, there was gold in them thar backyards...
I thoroughly love what this thread has turned into...
@panthercult heh heh, same. It's really great to get a sense of everyone's personal connections with what we collect.
That's why I prefer it here even though the community has shrank to be spread out over social media, like butter over too much bread. It just.....de-volves so quickly out there. Here it's just natural.
My parents were both products of terrible parents--my mom's parents were absolutely shitty, my dad's were either absentee or drunk--so while I have absolutely no idea what it means to have good grandparents, I was fortunate enough that my parents were very eager to give me the childhood they never had, to the best they could. Money was very tight--we lived the typical paycheck to paycheck--but I was as spoiled as finances would allow. My mom even wanted to buy me the Flagg, but I told her that first it was too expensive and second it was really something you play "on" and not play "with," and I'd rather spend that hundred dollars on smaller items that were more fun.
My dad has nothing from his childhood, and my mom got so very little that she taught me to take care of my belongings, which is why I still have every toy/comic/book I've ever owned, in as good as shape as they could possibly be with so much use.
I hit the age of twelve and most everyone my age no longer had any toy interest, so I figured it was time for me to stop also. I was tired of the snide "You don't still get toys, do you?" So I stopped...for about a year. The only toy I picked up in this time was the Toybiz '89 movie Batman figure, and even then I felt a little weird, like I should have been over toys. I was a teenager by now, so I told myself it was just this one toy, because I loved the movie.
But having a toy in my hand after such a long cold-turkey vacation ignited a fresh spark. I started getting a few GI Joe figures again. I had developed an interest in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so I bought the main figures. Every time, I kept saying that I wasn't going to be a "toy collector" anymore, I was just getting a few cool things here and there.
Then Toybiz started up their 5 inch Marvel Line. I got Wolverine, because he had always been a favorite. Then I got the Hulk, because they never made a Hulk figure in the Secret Wars line. And then Punisher. And then Silver Surfer and Venom. At this point I realized I just wanted to buy toys, and it didn't matter what age I was. My parents never made me feel bad about it. My mom was thrilled, since she missed having a toy list in her pocketbook.
I almost quit one more time. After the five inch line died away, I was planning on that being pretty much it. Then I picked up the first Spider-Man Classics figure because I had heard how super-poseable it was.
Quitting was not an option.
My dad didn't buy me any toys unless they were garage sale cheapies. Eventually it was clearance toys but even then unless it was under three dollars, it wasn't happening. He'd drag me to his work under the promise that we'd go to the toy store on the way back if I was "good", and no matter how good I was, we'd always drive past it on the way home. Legend has it, he still lies to get what he wants, even to this day...
The new figures I had were KB Toys clearance like Eco Warriors and Ninja Force, so I still like those designs a lot to this day. Had probably a dozen garage sale figures in good condition, like v3 Snake Eyes, so those hold a nostalgic value too. As an adult it's a blast to see these figures and go, "hey I had that guy!" and see what their name was and what kind of gear they came with. I'll be stoked to see any later-line figures: v2s, v3s, and weird late 80s/early 90s rejects.
When I was 12 or maybe 13 in 1990 I was in the back of the car telling my friend that the best time to buy G.I. Joes was right after Christmas because that was when TRU put out the new figures. I said, "Isn't that right, dad?" He leaned back a bit and said "The best time to buy toys is when you're under 13 years old." That was it for toys outside of a few trips with just mom. Then Spawn came out and then I got a driver's license. I've been making up for those lost 3 years for the past 31 years.
I definitely came from the "my dad grew up with NOTHING and so he just wanted his kids to have joyful childhoods" side of things. I got mugged when I was like, five for my Skeletor figure (we grew up in a rough neighborhood that has since gentrified to the point I couldn't afford to move back now!) and my dad stopped at Child World on the way home for a new one. Dude's a hero. (And he thinks he's a screwup of a father, too, despite all of us tell him the contrary.)
I shamed MYSELF out of collecting. I would furtively pick up figures here and there, and dallied when Phantom Menace came out, but I really didn't get back into collecting until I was in my late 30s and had a house. Nobody's better at stealing my own joy than I am. Except maybe that kid who stole my Skeletor.
My mom will occasionally find tupperware boxes of toys and ask which of her kids they belonged to so we can come collect them. I've got boxes of absolutely WRECKED Gobots, Joes, and weird stuff like Cops N Crooks in my garage right now.
There is a box of original Joes at my folks' house right now but those were mostly my little brothers. I think my box got destroyed in a house fire. Per earlier in this thread, I know it's his box because there's all those Ninja Force dudes in there 🙂
@docsilence ah man, my Grimlock got stolen when I was a kid, by far my favorite transformer. Which is absolutely why I got the masterpiece version as soon as that went up for pre-order years ago, and was my only transformer on the shelf until last year.
Yep... I'm making up for a lot of childhood stuff still.
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