This past Sunday, I was publicly outed as a toy collector twice. The first time was when Airport security X Ray'd my carry on baggage. The officer yelled "who's this Captain Hero doll you got?" I told her it was Batman, her question of "and the little fella?" was met with "Robin!". She burst out laughing and said" Oh, I should have known". T
he second experience was when Canada customs searched my car with a fine tooth comb, no doubt looking for all the guns and cigarettes I obviously hid inside the dollies and dunkin donuts coffee. "What are you some kind of toy collector?" the security guard asked me with the disgust of a father whose son has just told him that instead of football, he's going to take "LARPing" this semester.
Toy collecting is still, well, weird to the outside world. I guess that's why I hop a (budget) flight every once in a while and hook up with pals to do toy shows. It's a feeling of normalcy, the same kind that my friend gets when he drives 14 hours to put a block of cheese on his head and watch football. So, rather than show you pictures of my pasty face on "nerdcation", here is a run down of some of the cool things I saw this weekend, because I know you'll likely dig it:
This is the first thing that really caught my eye, a super duper sweet Remco Monsterizer. I don't even collect the 9" Monster dolls and I wanted this badly. From what I hear it went to a very good home.
My buddy Will mugs for the camera with what was probably the best pick up of the day, a boxed Kenner Stretch X Ray.
Stretch people are tough to find in good condition, either the box looks like junk or the doll
has just gone and exploded (seriously this happens), it's tough to find a nice figure in a nice box.
I didn't pick up anything of merit at the show, unless you're one of my kids, they made out like bandits. We headed back to my friend Charlie's place (of the Charlie's basement series) and I did what I always doo, take random pictures of things I think are cool.
Marvel comics Freezies! "Mmmmm Captain America tastes like patriotism"
A whole unbroke box of Creature Feature cards, I can't tell you how much I loved these as a kid. Going to Charlie's gives me inspiration to spend tons of money.
7-11 Slurpee cups, I love how obscure the characters get.
I mean really, Triton? I would not have known who that was as a kid, despite the fact that I loved FF.
Boxed Bionic Bigfoot, I doubt I've really looked at this since Christmas of 1978, it set off sparks in my head.
That's it for now, hope you've enjoyed it, I'll likely post the rest in a couple of weeks. Thanks for making me feel normal.
