Addendum
How could I have forgotten so many things about Kevin and our toy collecting but I did. Well, I didn't forget them. It was a bad day, I did make it to the library as planned but had some other things on my mind. Things that were not as important but hit me by surprise, a work situation, and so unfortunately grossly inserted themselves into my daily routine against my will. I was furious last Wednesday and I'm still angry today. Office political garbage; I'm not in the mood for that anymore. But that was last week.
How could I have ever forgotten that Kevin was the one who got me started on toy collecting! I think I might have written about the Christmas that Kevin wanted a Dragonzord from Power Rangers. It was the hot toy that year and so we couldn't find one anywhere. We even called F.A.O. Schwarz in New York City to no avail. A day after Christmas Brian, Kevin and I went to Toys R Us for some reason. Not that we needed a reason. It was something we did many times. There on the shelf was a Dragonzord, apparently returned at some point! I didn't have any money and so they held it for me while I rushed home to figure something out. I only had a couple of dollars on me and so decided to return an American Indian Barbie, the first in the series, so I could get the Zord for Kevin, which we did.
Fortunately, I didn't get into Barbie dolls, too expensive, but I did want that American Indian Barbie and so Brian and I set out to see if we could find another one at another store. We went all over. My first toy hunt trip! We were unsuccessful but a couple of weeks later, there at the Toys R Us, was the same doll. They apparently had gotten another shipment after Christmas to replenish their sparsely stocked shelves. That was the beginning.
Shortly after that and after a few trips to Comic book - Toy stores with the boys I became more interested. Kevin played with all his action figures. He would even buy a female character Like "Storm" from X-men or Princess Leia. Around the same time, or perhaps a little earlier, Star Trek figures were coming out with numbers on the bottom of one of the feet. That was the time I became aware of the collecting craze, I guess. The female figures were hard to come by since the manufacturers made very few, sometimes one per case. Most boys wouldn't buy the female figures to play with but Kevin did. He even had the original Storm figure but his dog, one of them, had chewed on it. With the collecting craze the female figure then became desirable because it was rare. I got mad because I couldn't find a couple of figures for Kevin and so entered the collecting rat-race. A rat-race it was and very cut throat at times but it was great fun. I belonged to a small group, thanks to Kevin, and we all helped each other out. Kevin loved his collectibles as I did. He wasn't into it for the investment and neither was I.
I don't know what it all meant to Kevin, if anything, but a normal part of growing up. I know a few toy collectors, and have met quite a few over the years. The few that I know well are artistic types, as Kevin was, and I am(an unpublished artist, that way no one can dispute it) Most of them thought about investment but had collections that were special to them and they wouldn't have sold. Three of them that I can think of right off the top of my head made custom figures as maybe Kevin would have too. So it was something more to them and Kevin and me. I've thought a lot about what it really means. Thanks to Kevin I even ended up having a booth at the flea market! There's no money in buying retail and selling but it was really neat. I can think of quite a few stores that sold secondary market toys which are no longer in existence, sad to say.
Kevin's and my relationship would have evolved away from toys as it already had begun to do so. We began to spend a lot more time on books and music and trips to Borders. As I said, I still bought him an "adult" collectible for special occasions. He didn't play with them any more but displayed them. Action figures would have had to make room for a more expensive statue as he was interested in plates and statues; work done by a favorite artist like Alex Ross. But toys are neat because of what they symbolize. They are super heroes and heroines as we would all want to be and good always overcomes evil without exception.
And I hope that ends up being true in Kevin's young life...
How could I have ever forgotten that Kevin was the one who got me started on toy collecting! I think I might have written about the Christmas that Kevin wanted a Dragonzord from Power Rangers. It was the hot toy that year and so we couldn't find one anywhere. We even called F.A.O. Schwarz in New York City to no avail. A day after Christmas Brian, Kevin and I went to Toys R Us for some reason. Not that we needed a reason. It was something we did many times. There on the shelf was a Dragonzord, apparently returned at some point! I didn't have any money and so they held it for me while I rushed home to figure something out. I only had a couple of dollars on me and so decided to return an American Indian Barbie, the first in the series, so I could get the Zord for Kevin, which we did.
Fortunately, I didn't get into Barbie dolls, too expensive, but I did want that American Indian Barbie and so Brian and I set out to see if we could find another one at another store. We went all over. My first toy hunt trip! We were unsuccessful but a couple of weeks later, there at the Toys R Us, was the same doll. They apparently had gotten another shipment after Christmas to replenish their sparsely stocked shelves. That was the beginning.
Shortly after that and after a few trips to Comic book - Toy stores with the boys I became more interested. Kevin played with all his action figures. He would even buy a female character Like "Storm" from X-men or Princess Leia. Around the same time, or perhaps a little earlier, Star Trek figures were coming out with numbers on the bottom of one of the feet. That was the time I became aware of the collecting craze, I guess. The female figures were hard to come by since the manufacturers made very few, sometimes one per case. Most boys wouldn't buy the female figures to play with but Kevin did. He even had the original Storm figure but his dog, one of them, had chewed on it. With the collecting craze the female figure then became desirable because it was rare. I got mad because I couldn't find a couple of figures for Kevin and so entered the collecting rat-race. A rat-race it was and very cut throat at times but it was great fun. I belonged to a small group, thanks to Kevin, and we all helped each other out. Kevin loved his collectibles as I did. He wasn't into it for the investment and neither was I.
I don't know what it all meant to Kevin, if anything, but a normal part of growing up. I know a few toy collectors, and have met quite a few over the years. The few that I know well are artistic types, as Kevin was, and I am(an unpublished artist, that way no one can dispute it) Most of them thought about investment but had collections that were special to them and they wouldn't have sold. Three of them that I can think of right off the top of my head made custom figures as maybe Kevin would have too. So it was something more to them and Kevin and me. I've thought a lot about what it really means. Thanks to Kevin I even ended up having a booth at the flea market! There's no money in buying retail and selling but it was really neat. I can think of quite a few stores that sold secondary market toys which are no longer in existence, sad to say.
Kevin's and my relationship would have evolved away from toys as it already had begun to do so. We began to spend a lot more time on books and music and trips to Borders. As I said, I still bought him an "adult" collectible for special occasions. He didn't play with them any more but displayed them. Action figures would have had to make room for a more expensive statue as he was interested in plates and statues; work done by a favorite artist like Alex Ross. But toys are neat because of what they symbolize. They are super heroes and heroines as we would all want to be and good always overcomes evil without exception.
And I hope that ends up being true in Kevin's young life...
posted by Patricia | 8:46 AM
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