toy collectors prior to 1990

[kingdom warrior]

I started in 1984 with the first SuperPowers line up...It was the first time I had bought two sets of figures one in the card the other to pull out. In 1985 I was starting to get nostalgic about my old toys and went looking for Megos i came across a complete set of The FF for $200 but passed I was a broke college student who only had money for books and my girlfriend.

It wasn't until 1989 when my then girlfriend gave me Robin as a Birthday gift. After that I got the Mego bug to get all my megos from my childhood back.....

[Gorn Captain]

I started collecting around 1975.
My first purchase was Captain Peg Leg from Fighting Furies.
My Dad felt buying dolls wasn't for boys, and threatened to cut off my allowance completely. I proceeded to buy The Lone Ranger, and he more or less caved in.

Hey,these were fighting men, not Barbie!

I collected Action Man, of course. They rocked!
Then, it happened. 1977. Star Wars. My best friend and I passed a store, and saw a display with all 11 first run figures, the Jawa wasn't out yet. We just freaked, and bought an R2 and C3PO each.
My folks still didn't get it, but I kept my allowance.

There were just two 12 inches from SW, Luke and Leia. Yeah! We could now...brush her hair....

When we went on vacation to England, my Dad said I could but whatever I wanted. I found all large SW figures, and then...my Dad cut me off again. I had just enough money for Darth. I wanted Chewie, too, but it would take 15 years before I eventually got him.

Later on, my Dad did embrace my love for figures. In Rayader, Wales, he bought me a Dr.Who and Tardis, stuffed behind some Barbies in a old grocery store.
My Mom bought up all Action Men she could find, and I now have over 100.

I bought my ST Mego crew in a small newspaper store at the end of the street.
My ST Mego Aliens I bought, one at a time, at each trip to the beach, in a little toy store called Bazar Teddy!
Another friend found POTA in Spain, which he brought home to Belgium. Later he turned to drugs, and sold all his apes to me.
I found Six Million Dollar Man in Holland, again on holiday.

So most of my stuff came from trips. These were the days before internet, even faxes.
I got my info from Famous Monsters magazine, Star Log, etc.

I still have all my figures from my youth, I'd never part with my Mego Kirk, who survived a header off a three storey building, into the turtle tank in the garden.

Golden memories.....

[rche]

... prices of common stuff plummeted since you could now go somewhere else. of course rare stuff got pricier since there was much bigger pool of people going after the same stuff...

Well now; that sums it up quite tidily. In the digital age of ebay and chats such as this, you can find just about anything you are looking for in minutes. But when it gets high end.... there are 1000 eyes (and 500 wallets) looking.

rche

[spotter]

my bro and I started in late eighties for vintage toys but had kept a lot of our toys over the years got hardcore with secret wars and super powers figs from Heroes World ( Damn I miss that Store) then started the toy show and mail order route even hooke dup with Gerard Stezelberger for cool Joestuff

[jemboy2004]

I started collecting in the 90s. It all started when I found a mego like figure. I found a karate guy in a black suit and painted on sandals. I still have that figure. It reminded me of megos and I went out looking for them.

Funny I found other stuff that same day at that same flea market. I found a vintage Barbie for 12.00, I found the string puppets that were megoish of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman all boxed for 35.00 each. This got me collecting but I went out and started buying all sorts of stuff not just mego stuff. I later had to figure out what I should stick with. I still have not figured out what to give up. Guess that's why I have a room full of toys and all the space in my condo is used and a huge storage area that's all filled up! lol

[starsky]

when i first started back in the late 80's some of my friends were laughing at me. now i see them collecting too!! lol

[goldenryan]

when i first started back in the late 80's some of my friends were laughing at me. now i see them collecting too!! lol

i have notice that toy collecting has become more acceptable in peoples eye i think. at lease i think with superhero toys.

[MIB41]

Nothing substantiates a hobby like the almighty dollar... and those willing to give many of them to take it off your hands.

[tomstoyz2]

I collected mainly comic books in the early 70's. Even though I was only a little kid I was pretty serious about it & had special bags / boxes. I quit later when I became serious about wanting a car. Then, in the early 80's, when I was in my 20's & had my own apartment, I had a job that gave me a little extra money so I started to collect comics again & did that for a few years. Then one day around 1983-84, I'm guessing, I drove by an antique shop that I used to see in my car all the time while driving to a friend's house. It had real vintage soda pop signs all over it & always sort of intrigued me. So, I went in...WOW! The 1st cool thing I discovered ( that wasn't $200.00+, ha ha ) was a vintage metal lunch box of The Incredible Hulk. Then I found a cool vintage Fisher Price pull toy, the Bumble Bee. I had one as a kid & it really brought back a lot of fond memories. I ended up buying both items for just $10.00. After that I was hooked. It didn't take long & I was a toy collector & became a dealer too. I used to set up at toy shows, flea markets, etc... I made a great living at it for around 10+ years. Then eBay came up. I was an eBay slave for about 13+ years & started in their 2nd year. The 1st few years were really great as there were many more buyers then dealers. The prices I got for stuff was crazy. But it didn't take long for GREED to totally kill the toy market. Soon, everybody & their dog was a "dealer wannabe". Garage sales became a nightmare. When you go to Estate Sales there's now a line around the block....it sucks. It's got so bad that it's almost imposable to make a living unless you eat, drink, sleep it...it sucks & YES, I am bitter. I would commit suicide but if I did that then both God & eBay would win. So...I started to do other things to live. I really miss the old days before all the corruption. I hope Google or some other large company comes along & totally KILLS ebay. They deserve it. They are a corporation that is totally BEYOND greed & have an immoral monopoly. They don't care about their customers, only shoveling money to their stockholders. eBay does NOT, in any way, care about the love & nostalgia of collecting. They only care about screwing dealers down to the micro-penny. eBay has ruined everything & pretty much ended the whole toy market.


Whoops, ok...sorry to vent but eBay sucks!

[goldenryan]

yeah the early 90's were the golden days unless you were a collector in 80's but sadly 95% of us weren't. i still think i would enjoy going to the kane, ill show 15 years ago alot more than i would now. with all the new star wars ,trek, mcfarlane and all that other shelf warming crap.

[EmergencyIan]

Besides toy shows, back then, ToyShop magazine was a "place to find a lot of what you were looking for and a great "place' to make connections.


- Ian

[goldenryan]

I collected mainly comic books in the early 70's. Even though I was only a little kid I was pretty serious about it & had special bags / boxes. I quit later when I became serious about wanting a car. Then, in the early 80's, when I was in my 20's & had my own apartment, I had a job that gave me a little extra money so I started to collect comics again & did that for a few years. Then one day around 1983-84, I'm guessing, I drove by an antique shop that I used to see in my car all the time while driving to a friend's house. It had real vintage soda pop signs all over it & always sort of intrigued me. So, I went in...WOW! The 1st cool thing I discovered ( that wasn't $200.00+, ha ha ) was a vintage metal lunch box of The Incredible Hulk. Then I found a cool vintage Fisher Price pull toy, the Bumble Bee. I had one as a kid & it really brought back a lot of fond memories. I ended up buying both items for just $10.00. After that I was hooked. It didn't take long & I was a toy collector & became a dealer too. I used to set up at toy shows, flea markets, etc... I made a great living at it for around 10+ years. Then eBay came up. I was an eBay slave for about 13+ years & started in their 2nd year. The 1st few years were really great as there were many more buyers then dealers. The prices I got for stuff was crazy. But it didn't take long for GREED to totally kill the toy market. Soon, everybody & their dog was a "dealer wannabe". Garage sales became a nightmare. When you go to Estate Sales there's now a line around the block....it sucks. It's got so bad that it's almost imposable to make a living unless you eat, drink, sleep it...it sucks & YES, I am bitter. I would commit suicide but if I did that then both God & eBay would win. So...I started to do other things to live. I really miss the old days before all the corruption. I hope Google or some other large company comes along & totally KILLS ebay. They deserve it. They are a corporation that is totally BEYOND greed & have an immoral monopoly. They don't care about their customers, only shoveling money to their stockholders. eBay does NOT, in any way, care about the love & nostalgia of collecting. They only care about screwing dealers down to the micro-penny. eBay has ruined everything & pretty much ended the whole toy market.


Whoops, ok...sorry to vent but eBay sucks!

ebay is a negative thing in my eyes too. but it was just a matter of time time until something like that came along.
ebay, almost made collecting not fun me anymore. finding stuff like megos and redlines at garage sales is a rare thing nowadays.

[cjefferys]

when i first started back in the late 80's some of my friends were laughing at me. now i see them collecting too!! lol

Oh man, I remember looking for toys in department stores and Toys R Us during the 80's and being so embarrassed and self conscious. Worried about people pointing and laughing at a 20 year old man buying toys (or so I imagined). Now, I wouldn't even give it a second thought. Times have changed, and so have I.

[GovernmentIssueJoseph]

Collecting? My brother SAVED everything. Well, what ever we didn't destroy with fire in our Super 8 films. Picked up a lot of stuff at the old Toy Shows and Thrift Stores in the early 1990s (especially in the Pacific Northwest)

[samurainoir]

I first discovered a book called Garage Sale Gold at my local library in the late 80's or early nineties. I hit the garage sales pretty hard for a couple of summers in a row. Found one Superman Mego in awesome condition and it made me a happy camper. Mostly bought cheap loose stuff with an emphasis on Star Wars.

I became a collector of packaged toys of that era, starting with the Toy Biz Superheroes, followed by stuff like Batman TAS/Returns, Aliens, Star Trek TNG, and eventually McFarlane Spawn and the new Star Wars before giving it up. Only recently returned to collecting, but with an emphasis on vintage things from my childhood.