The Mutant Messiah

It is pretty much second nature for a kid, that when confronted with a group of new colorful characters in a new lineup of toys or comic book to immediately pick a favorite. The basis of which varies for person to person, but in most cases it usually boils down to who looks the coolest. It was many years ago when I picked up my very first issue of Uncanny X-Men and was introduced to the merry world of mutants. For someone already familiar with Marvel’s flagship heroes like Captain America, Iron Man and Thor, meeting all these new interesting characters was a treat and even before actually reading the issue I set off to find who my favorite X-Man would be.

Top 15 of 2015 part 3

Every year it’s becoming a more arduous task to sit down and write about my favorite purchases in the last 365 days. But when you’re an involved and obsessive collector like myself, there is a tendency to be always on the lookout for the next big thing coming and losing track of what you’ve already got. So it’s always good to take time out, assess and appreciate all the good stuff you were blessed with in the past year. New baby aside, I would have to say that last year was a very “Transforming” year, as one toyline re-affirmed itself as number one in my rather diverse collection. So without further ado, here’s the final part of the best of 2015.

Top 15 of 2015 part 2

In February of 2015, my wife and I got some amazing news, we were going to be new parents! So a big portion of that year was spent on preparing for the new member of our family. And while I made some sort of effort to try to lessen my spending on my rather expensive hobby, I think a part of me viewed 2015 in another way; that it would be the last year I had to get all these toys before expenses for the baby would have to take real priority over daddy’s collection.

Top 15 of 2015 part 1

2015 will go down in the record books as one of the most memorable years for me. If you noticed prior to this post, my previous post was way back in Oct 14. Well 2 days after that post I welcomed my first born daughter…. the heir to my collection, into the world ☺

Little Red Radar Dishes

Doing battle against a ruthless, terrorist organization determined to rule the world day in and day out cannot be an easy job. Granted the G.I.Joe team is composed of some of the most skilled and talented military operatives, you have to imagine that it can get quite stressful. Even if these guys are supposed to be the best of the best, they are only human and like most of us need time to refocus and air out their problems to someone. This was probably the line of thinking over at Hasbro when they decided to give us Psyche-Out…the official G.I.Joe psychologist!

Blue Thunder

You never forget your first. And when it comes to my first “Transformer” toy, it was a blue F-15 jet that my dad brought home for me. While the concept of a robot transforming into vehicle wasn’t new to me at the time (I’d had a few machine robos already), my new blue jet was just cooler than all the other transforming robots I had at the time. He wasn’t exactly an official Transformer, my robot belonged to a Japanese line called Diaclone that would eventually be repackaged into the Transformer line that we all know and love.

Turning To The Black Side

Like most kids born in the late 70’s, Star Wars was the first major toyline I fell in love with. It was my older brother that introduced me to that wonderful world in a galaxy far far away inhabited with jedi masters, stormtroopers, droids and numerous other alien races. And it was my dad that steadily fed and nurtured my growing collecting habits and completist tendencies by bringing home endless numbers of Star Wars action figures whenever he returned from his numerous business trips.

The Great Green Dream Come True

When it comes to adult toy collectors (as in an older person who collects toys, not someone who collects adult toys :P) like me, nostalgia plays a BIG part in why I pursue this hobby. Each toy I buy brings me some degree of great memories of simpler and more fun times of a kid growing up in the 80’s. Not all toys are created equal though and the degree of joy varies from toy to toy. It’s the difference between receiving a couple action figures versus the G.I.Joe Tomahawk for Christmas. Even today, while pretty much all my toys are purchased due to some level of nostalgia attached to them, a special few are on a totally different level of awesomeness and magically bring me back to my childhood days.

Hawkeyes for the Home (Pt.2)

The West Coast Avengers was one of the first comic titles I started collecting religiously as a kid. Every month I would eagerly surrender my 25 pesos (a little under 50 cents) for the latest issue. There were many reasons why I enjoyed this title, month to month, the writing and art were consistently good, but the main reason was because it featured one of my favorite superheroes as the leader of the team…the avenging archer, Hawkeye.

Higher Stakes for the Archer (Pt.1)

When I was younger, I would often accompany my mom to the grocery. Yeah I liked pushing the cart and going through the aisles in search of junk food, but the real highlight was when we would check out and I would get to see the latest comics available at the comic book rack nearby. At this point I wasn’t a serious comic collector, I would literally pick up whatever looked interesting that week and that was that. One day I picked up a comic I was vaguely familiar with. Now I knew who the Avengers were….but the West Coast Avengers? That was something new.

I Wanta Wampa!

Sometime in the 80’s, when I was about seven, I got the opportunity to go to the US with my family. Back then the US was this magical place that my dad would occasionally fly off to and come back bringing lots and lots of new toys! So you can imagine just how excited I was. I was finally going to see for myself this magical place where most of my amazing toys came from…I was finally going to see what heaven would look like.