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The Gen X generation has a lot of collectors. And by collectors we mean, Barbie, Hot Wheels, Lego, and even Power Rangers. Like Josh, who started his collecting at the age of 10 with his first Micronauts! But it didn't stop there. Soon he would have amassed a 20 season Power Rangers collection alongside his Sailor Moon and Samurai Pizza Cat toys from Japan. For now, let's just focus on the Power Rangers, Transformers and Tyler's Funko Pop! collection.
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Transcript
Introduction to Yabazonka Zoinks
00:00:01
Speaker
All right, welcome back to Yabazonka Zoinks. So excited to be here this Saturday morning. It's a trick because it's really not. But we'd like you to wake up and be excited and surprised and listen to our wacky stories of our Gen X childhood and all the the craziness that we grew up with.
00:00:21
Speaker
So i'm I'm going to start off. My name is Josh, by the way. I'm the host and I'm here with my best pal, Tyler. Hey, everyone. Hey, Josh. Hey, it's great to have you here. Thank you. i really appreciate when you give up your time to do this.
00:00:35
Speaker
He's talking to all of us, by the way. Not just you. So to show my appreciation, I'm going to ask you a question. Oh
Collecting Memories: From Stamps to Toys
00:00:46
Speaker
that's Okay. So who, okay. How do I, I forgot how I wanted to phrase this question.
00:00:55
Speaker
um What do the 60 plus generation, which is you know, just a little bit ahead of us, yeah the 60, what did the 60 plus generation, what are they known for collecting?
00:01:09
Speaker
Okay. Oh, that's interesting. ah Well, it's an interesting question, but my gosh, it could be anything. It could be bottle caps. It could be, um well kid well, are we talking about toys?
00:01:26
Speaker
I would just say collectibles. Collectibles. I'm trying to put my head into into the minds of my aunt and uncle who aren't that much older than me. And i'm trying to give the influences in their life, but neither of them are collectors.
00:01:39
Speaker
I, I'm trying to quickly think of like what was big for them that they would actually do like cereal boxes, records.
00:01:51
Speaker
um i have no clue. What's the answer?
00:01:57
Speaker
Well, here's the answer. it is stamps. Good gosh. Right? That's boring. Who even knows what those are? I mean, I know I was a stamp collector when I was a kid.
00:02:08
Speaker
Really? Yeah, I really was. i was a nut. I went to the first meeting of a stamp club at school because I was all excited because my friend Rob had these DC superhero stamps.
00:02:20
Speaker
I'm like, where did you get those? Those are awesome, right? But I never was able to find them. He said he got them at Wilco. I think he lied. Yeah, he probably did. I was like, well, if we can't have that, then I'm not going to stick around for this stamp club.
00:02:36
Speaker
Hey, don't turn that channel. You've reached Yabba Zunker's Wings, the Saturday morning podcast where your host Josh Downing, and that's me, will take you on a trip through a Gen X Saturday morning of cereal, toys, cartoons, and so much more. So grab your honeycombs and your favorite Micronaut and sit back and enjoy.
00:02:58
Speaker
That was awesome. I like when I can catch when you've sort of given this great tagline. Like, I'm not going to join that stamp club. and I'm going down the hall to join Fight Club.
00:03:09
Speaker
Oh,
Millennials and the Rise of Toy Collecting
00:03:12
Speaker
that's crazy. So the reason I've gathered you here today is i want to talk about... He never tells me, by the way. It's always top secret.
00:03:23
Speaker
barely know. It's like a gaslighting, abusive friendship. I'm like, what are we talking about? I'm not prepared. I'm not going to tell you. You have to guess. That's and then i only mini As soon as you guess, I'm going to go like this.
00:03:39
Speaker
um Yeah, so i we've talked about toys in you know a couple of different ways, but I think that what I want to talk about is collecting because I think that's a whole other level.
00:03:53
Speaker
And it's interesting because I was trying to see if I could find any kind of clear stats on who are toy collectors and what are they collecting? And I'm sure the client's complete completes and who in very This episode is called mint in box, by the way.
00:04:11
Speaker
And it's so funny because I can't really get a clear answer. I just seem to get the canned answer. And and I think that that's just the state of, you know, internet information these days.
00:04:23
Speaker
But apparently the 30 to 40 year old generation, which is what the millennials, they're the fastest growing toy collectors. Right. Well, all they they all collect the same four things.
00:04:36
Speaker
They all collect the turtles. They all collect Ghostbusters. They all collect Back to the Future. And Star Wars, I guess. But,
The Art of Paper Collectibles
00:04:45
Speaker
you know, I'm probably... Everybody collects Star Wars.
00:04:47
Speaker
Except for you. hi Yeah. um There's probably one other one of the time that I'm not thinking of. But they all seem... Oh, He-Man. they all They're all, like, laser-focused on those specific properties.
00:05:01
Speaker
Yeah, that kind of makes sense, though, doesn't it? Well, yeah, but it's kind of funny because when I think to myself when I was a teenager, you know, people were, well, yeah, they're already collecting turtles and He-Man. And yeah, I guess it is the people who are just that few years behind us. so yeah yeah So I guess they grew up collecting it because they could. Whereas we didn't really have much to collect, but they did. And now they're probably replacing it all and, you know, enjoying it. Yeah.
00:05:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. Because I think a lot of the stuff that we would have collected just was never mass produced enough for us to actually see anything, you know, kicking around. Yeah, it was all paper products.
00:05:40
Speaker
Yeah. Made in USA paper products, right? So... magic slates yes exactly like those paper dolls paper dolls that was like a paper doll here's a paper doll story oh no kids oh no seriously it's this is a real thing so when we were kids in the winter time um my mom taught us how to to make cutouts from like the sears and the eaton's catalogs so we cut out people And then we would go shopping and cut out furniture and housewares and then we'd make these paper strips to make oceans.
00:06:14
Speaker
Totally. And then we would just play, we would play this sort of paper cut out house on the table. And I loved it. It was it was so awesome.
00:06:24
Speaker
That's back when parents would let you use scissors.
Early Toy Collections: Mego Heroes and Micronauts
00:06:27
Speaker
it Totally. Now you're not allowed to run with them, but seriously. Yeah, that's funny. You would run with them to get the next catalog. Exactly. Quick. No, no, no. We weren't to cut up the new catalog. I was just thinking that. like I would have thought your parents would be like...
00:06:42
Speaker
Who cut up this magazine? Oh, yeah, I'm sure I was guilty of that many a time. But that's a whole other thing. I loved it when I could cut out say really cool things like um a lemon yellow, you know, outdoor patio set just like Rhoda would have had.
00:06:57
Speaker
Stereo consoles. Right. Oh, my God. A plastic dome stereo console. That would have been the best. A lot of terrariums. Oh, I love terrariums. I forgot about that. a lot of macrame owls. Yes. Which I made myself.
00:07:15
Speaker
So, so getting back to collecting, both of us have been collectors in our lives, but let me ask you this. What was the first, the first sort of toy line that you kind of considered that you were collecting?
00:07:33
Speaker
Like it appears I'm collecting this. Yeah. Yeah.
00:07:38
Speaker
Oh, sorry, it took me a second. The Mego Comic Action Heroes. Because ah it was the first time i ever saw an Aquaman action figure.
00:07:50
Speaker
And it was at Save It. Nice. And... and I was there with my aunt who, you know, only a few years older than me. And we were, we were at Wilco and she got it for me, which was incredible. Right.
00:08:03
Speaker
And then of course you look at the back and here's all these other figures that were available. So my mom started picking them up for me at the Miracle Mart department store, I don't think there was many of those.
00:08:17
Speaker
And every now and then i i would come home and she would have gotten me one. So I literally had them all lined up. I have a picture somewhere taken in my room of them all lined up on my bookshelf. And I don't think I missed any of them.
00:08:33
Speaker
And then I was fortunate to get the play sets to like the exploding bridge with the Batmobile, the exploding tower with the invisible plane, the Justice League's, um oh, Superman's Fortress of Solitude, the Batcopter. Like, like, it was like, wow, this is happening.
00:08:49
Speaker
you know And I hesitated only because I thought maybe it was Micronauts, but I got them as gifts. Like I didn't go out and buy Micronauts. And then I thought, well, of course it's the black hole, but no, you got to rewind a couple of years.
00:09:02
Speaker
So for me, I didn't collect comics, but I had a lot of comics. um But yeah, for sure, was the Mego Comic Action Heroes. Nice. Yeah, it's ah it's ah it's a nice memory. And those were fun toys. And I literally played with them. And, you know, it was just, you know, I remember going to Eaton's at Young and Eglinton. Remember that one upstairs? With my grandmother who lived nearby.
00:09:28
Speaker
and You know, ah she's the one who got me the exploding bridge play set with the Batmobile. And like the packaging blew my mind because it was like a comic book. I just want to stare at this box all the time. And I kept all the boxes. Everything went back in the box after I played with it. Right.
00:09:45
Speaker
Assemble it, blow it up, put it back in the box and repeat. But yeah. How about you? yeah i was trying to think about this earlier and I i originally thought it it would have been my Micronauts.
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah. Because that was the only toy line that I kind of had as a complete toy line, and I bought it with my own money. And when I... And I played with those Micronauts, trust me. I played with them nonstop.
00:10:16
Speaker
My Battle Cruiser was in the pool, and you know everything was in the bathtub, and it was just... It was crazy. But... that battle cruiser was like like that it was that in the i the monorail was the one thing that i wanted the most that that air uh vacuum monorail i just drooled over that thing in the catalog i didn't have that but i had the tower you remember the tower that had the track Oh, yes. Yeah, that was cool. used to find black hole figures in the tower because they fit because they're same scale, right, Migo?
00:10:55
Speaker
And pretend it was the black hole Cygnus, you know, and then the track was like the air car that they go on, you know? Yeah. my My big purchase after the Battlecruiser was the the Galactic City.
00:11:09
Speaker
my gosh, you had that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was it was just a box of girders and those little panels and I still have the little blisters on my thumbs from trying to make those little things stick together.
00:11:22
Speaker
What store was that from? you know I want to say it was probably Yeagers in the U.S. because we shopped down in Bellingham a lot. yeah And i would have I would have bought it down there.
00:11:33
Speaker
it was at or Kmart. That's what I was wondering if it was Kmart. yeah like We didn't have those giant toy stores here that Americans had. you know We didn't have that until late 80s.
00:11:45
Speaker
So all that stuff that was cool, yeah had to go to the States to find. and i was lucky because we were in the states all the time so that woman and i would go down and i i had the hydrocopter i had the photon jet i can't remember the little blue car with the the bullets um but i had the calm sort of shaped
The Emotional Journey of Letting Go
00:12:07
Speaker
one shirt no would had that that was the photon the photon books on slide or something yeah photon slide had the yellow cycle and biotron they didn't have the cycle but i had the uh what was he called biotron robot yeah yeah yeah he was so cool yeah yeah i love the hyper in the 90s i still oh did you really yeah yeah
00:12:33
Speaker
Yeah, i um I sold on my collection to to a couple in Seattle way back. It was one of the first things I sold. but And then it was kind of a heartbreaking one because i'm like, no, I don't have it.
00:12:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's tough, right? Like you think you're going to have this stuff forever. And then one day you're like, oh, I can part with that. it's like, that's weird. you know And then when you do, and there's still a bit of a tug, it's like, well, it's okay. But it's like, obviously, it truly meant something, even though you're willing to let it go.
00:13:03
Speaker
Yeah. I think for me, because that was the one that I was still playing with, you know, I, I i built my city and then I would blast it all the pieces with my battle cruiser. oh my god But then when I was done, i would set it all back up and it would be a nice display. I had this massive green, like a lime green cabinet in my room with glass shelves.
00:13:24
Speaker
And, uh, that was where I displayed my collection. It was huge. like this This was a monster cabinet. I used to pretend that the Battlecruiser was also the god phoenix from Gotcha Madness. Yes, it has that same design. All those vehicles, right? So it was just like, oh my gosh, you know.
00:13:43
Speaker
Yeah, inspired by perhaps? Yeah, well, yeah. It would be old at that point. You saw the Micronauts were coming back again. Yeah, I've heard something about that.
00:13:58
Speaker
I sent you a link. don't know if you've seen it. Oh, I haven't, I haven't a chance to explore it yet. Yeah. No, no. Japan's relaunching Microman. So. Nice. Check it out. All the prototypes were gray. it's early days.
00:14:11
Speaker
Wow. Is it going to be like the original though? Like the 70s? It looks the original. Like Biotron looked the original. Like no change. Okay. That's cool. It might just be a classic reissue.
00:14:21
Speaker
and yeah Yeah. The only one i collected I kept from my original collection was my clear a time traveler. Oh, yeah.
00:14:32
Speaker
And unfortunately, the rubber bands holding them together finally disintegrated and he just collapsed into a bunch of pieces. And i'm like, I don't even know if he can fix that. But wow that's a project for another day for sure.
00:14:43
Speaker
I love those eight inch microman that are out there. I'm like, that's so cool. Yeah. That's amazing. Like, I don't know why those things capture my imagination. Like the orange, I had the orange and the blue and I just love that they were see-through. But that haven't I die cast that green guy who was die cast.
00:15:02
Speaker
and And not Baron Karza, but the one who was white and pink, he was a bad guy. yeah But anyway, just the fact they were like clear was just fascinating.
00:15:13
Speaker
Oh, yeah, totally fascinating. And I never heard of this story. Did you have that sarcophagus, the Egyptian? no. I didn't understand what that was. it didn't matter. I wanted it. It was like some kind of a recharging chamber.
00:15:24
Speaker
like They were called time travelers, right? Yeah, they were time travelers. Okay, well, you seem to be in the future. i don't know about travel. No, With your sarcophagus. And I never thought of them as being tiny.
00:15:37
Speaker
No, I never did. No, they're human size. Normal size, yeah. and yeah I like that that their parts would come off, like you could interchange their little chess pieces.
00:15:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. That's right, that funny chess piece. Yeah. yeah and Take their hands off, their feet off. Yes. yeah less Less excited about that part because then i would lose them. But they also had that little, that little L shaped piece that would go in their back. what was That was to connect them to things in the city and in some the ships. So you could like, you know, display them in there. Like they were, you know, or something.
00:16:14
Speaker
It was just a, it was just a functional tool allow you to connect them. Yeah. So cool. Like that was awesome stuff. i do remember that when they would sit in a vehicle, they would just like go into that.
00:16:26
Speaker
Yeah. very So what was your, what was out of all the things you've collected over the years, what was your favorite collection? Huh? Anything that I've opened, like I'm a mint in box guy. Cause I worship packaging, but for some reason, everything I care about, i open.
00:16:45
Speaker
So it's like, well, that's interesting. You know what I mean? Like, obviously it means more, which I never thought possible. Yeah. And even though i don't really encourage opening things, as you can always just sell it later.
00:16:58
Speaker
um You know, i I love the things that I've opened. And that's that's the Justice League 10-inch action figures. That's the Scooby-Doo 5-inch figures with all the monsters from the first couple of seasons.
00:17:14
Speaker
um my Frankenstein jr. and the impossibles my San Diego Vincent who's pretty big um I'm just trying to quickly think of what I've opened over the years my gotchman figures my real adventures of Johnny Quest they oh my Ben 10 the the Nice.
00:17:32
Speaker
Like I collected every band and like every i did everything. And that was tough to get rid of. Like, I mean, hard to get rid of is what I meant to say, but I made a lot of kids happy.
00:17:43
Speaker
Um,
The Economics of Collecting
00:17:44
Speaker
but I kept one of the vehicles and the main figures and I love that. And I i really can't imagine parting with that stuff, but I do part with stuff all the time that I think I wouldn't part with. I've got a few things on eBay right now that I thought are going to the grave with me, but I'm like, no, they're for sale. So,
00:18:01
Speaker
you know, you need to whittle it down. of course, the more you do, the more exciting your collection is because what you really care about pops even more.
00:18:12
Speaker
right Yeah. So it's much more curated at that point too. Yeah. a hundred percent. Like you and I have owned everything once or twice over, you know, and it's a lot of fun. And i like, I'm amazed now when I go to Walmart and I just stroll,
00:18:28
Speaker
stroll through the action figures just out of curiosity and some tiny little five inch figures, $39.99. I'm like, wait, that's not inflation, right? Like that's gotta be a whole new price range, right? Cause I don't remember action figures being, let's say $25 30 years ago. Maybe they were, you would know better. Like what were, what were typical action figures like in the nineties?
00:18:51
Speaker
Do remember? Uh, they were, it depended on the size because ah everything was kind of back and forth between getting smaller and then getting larger because plastic was getting more expensive. Right.
00:19:03
Speaker
Most common action figures were under 10 bucks. So and like a star Wars action figure, I think they were like 699 for, you know, ah basic, I w was at like a four inch figure.
00:19:18
Speaker
That's so crazy cheap sounding. I know. It sounds so cheap. But then you've got to think about things like, you know, Power Rangers. When they they started putting out the 8-inch figures, that boosted the price. But even those were $10 when they first came out.
00:19:35
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds really cheap. Right? Because it was... i $15 for the talking eight inch Power Rangers. Yeah. Oh my God. They're always met so expensive.
00:19:47
Speaker
You could never collect them all at that price. I've sat on my hands my whole life. Yeah. I've sat on my hands my whole life to not collect transformers. I'm crazy. belt seriously I've never pulled the trigger.
00:19:59
Speaker
but i'm just like and they and they get better and better but they're another one where it's just like how are people affording to collect transformers like they're so expensive yeah so i'm gonna talk a little bit about my power ranger collection cool because
The Power Rangers Obsession
00:20:16
Speaker
that was that was probably my favorite collection was very exciting times yeah it was It was a little nutty. It got to, uh, like craziness, but it was, it was an amazing journey.
00:20:31
Speaker
So I started when I met you because you actually were the one that said, Hey, are you watching that show called Power Rangers? And I'm like, uh, probably not. I'm an adult.
00:20:42
Speaker
That's like when when Homer gets um Barney hooked on beer. Totally. here That's exactly it. So I turned on the TV and sure enough, I'm like, these are freaking Japanese robots.
00:20:58
Speaker
Like, what is going on here? i love Japanese robots. And i decided I was going to go and see what was on the shelves and there was nothing.
00:21:11
Speaker
There was nothing on the shelves after Josh went. ah so Yeah. Remember that shortage? Like that was, you thing that was the year. Like that was the year that, that everything was gone.
00:21:22
Speaker
Before I moved to Vancouver in April of 94, I went to Walmart here in Toronto the day before I was flying out and Walmart had just got back in Ranger toys.
00:21:36
Speaker
And remember thinking, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, like they've been gone for months. This is massive. And I'm like, wow, I'm actually seeing this stuff, you know?
00:21:47
Speaker
yeah that was crazy. That was so crazy. And, you know, my experiences with, I think Toys R Us was relatively new still. i can't remember what year they opened and I worked for them for like, you know, 12 years.
00:22:00
Speaker
um But i there was a... Sorry, what was that? need Nestor to call in and tell us. Totally. Call in. He went when they opened ah your store.
00:22:13
Speaker
And who was there? Was it Mr. T? Yeah, it would have been Mr. T. Mr. T. Yeah, Mr. T opened the Thornhill store. I think they opened in 87. That sounds so right.
00:22:25
Speaker
yeah Well, it was late 80s when all of a sudden we had stuff. Yeah. You know, the big box. The only other, yeah, we didn't have big box up to that point. We had Kmart and we had, you know, maybe some toys at Wolco and we had wheels and wings.
00:22:40
Speaker
Does that seem familiar? You had wheels out there. we didn't have that here. We had Playtime Dominion Playworld. And, you know, it wasn't until i started collecting Pee Wee that I realized we had, oh I can't think of what it was called. It it was the same size as Toys R Us.
00:23:00
Speaker
All I can hear is the child world ad, but I know that's not what it is. The logo the the logo was a panda bear. Oh, I don't know that one. Oh, shoot. And that's where I was going to. Oh, and Beetlejuice. Isn't that funny? I'd like to be oh yeah going there to buy Pee Wee and Beetlejuice. Anyway, we're talking Power Rangers.
00:23:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, actually, speaking of Pee Wee, we always get sidetracked with Pee Wee. I don't know why. but tell The very first time I was in a Toys R Us was to go and get a peewee talking doll. And of course I walked in and I'm like, there's no such thing. There's just empty shelves in this crazy so empty store. Cause of course it had sold out.
00:23:40
Speaker
So I like, forgive me, my, me and my friend, Carrie, we both got peewee dolls in the subway at the it store at young and Eglinton. And we walked in and they only had a couple and we both bought one and it was, it was, it was expensive. Like I swear he was 50 bucks.
00:23:58
Speaker
Like it was crazy expensive. And like I just, I couldn't believe I had it. Like, I just couldn't believe they made it. i couldn't believe I had it. I couldn't believe he talked. It was a pull the string, you know, didn't really care about the box, but I kept it.
00:24:10
Speaker
And, you know, I just remember getting it home and being, oh my God, you know, this thing is awesome. And I'm what? 17, 18. like, oh, is this really what I should be doing? But anyway. Yes.
00:24:23
Speaker
You were on the right path. I didn't get the bug for a while. For sure. For sure. Uh, so yeah, I don't even remember what the first Power Ranger thing I bought was.
00:24:34
Speaker
I remember your, I remember your, yeah. I remember your house that you lived in. full yeah i Yeah. No, I mean, in the early days you had, you had all your stuff on the mantle that's where it was before it became like, you need a bigger house.
00:24:50
Speaker
Oh, that was when we were still in Vancouver, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah So I swear it was like whatever, uh, maybe you got it Eaton's or maybe when we went to the States. Yeah. Oh, it would have been definitely stuff in the States.
00:25:03
Speaker
Yeah. Triangle box, um, eight inch figures. Remember we were trying to find Target and we're like, what's Target? But we need to find it. We could not find it. We did find it.
00:25:15
Speaker
Did we? Yeah. it was really more i Remember they had that, that exclusive tour that was like action figure size. you remember that? Oh yes. Yes. It was like the intermediate size one. I'm like, what's Target? why do I got it from them.
00:25:30
Speaker
What's that? I did get it from them. Very good. I did. very Yeah. But yeah, I can't, like, I'm trying to picture your mantle and I swear I see the gumball machine. that would have been there.
00:25:42
Speaker
A little green one. and then it gets a little... foggy Very little at that point. Yeah. I think it took a while before I actually got a Zord because they were also so crazy expensive.
00:25:55
Speaker
Yeah, they really were. Right. Yeah, they really were. and And they weren't really around. Like, don't want so many retailers where you go and buy this stuff. i I think we found them when we got to Toronto.
00:26:06
Speaker
We found them at an Eaton's. Was it that long? Yeah. Before you got that? Oh my God. Because I remember walking around the corner an Eaton's and I was like, oh my God, there they are. It was a wall of, you know, that Mighty Morphin green. And I think they had the the Thunder Megazord set.
00:26:24
Speaker
I remember all of a sudden all that stuff was out. I'm like, well, wait a minute. What about the other stuff? You know, how can I collect it all if you're only going to do stuff here? I'm a year behind. i think you had the remote control Megazord before you had the real one. Am I wrong?
00:26:38
Speaker
That sounds about right. Yeah. yeah fuck is been wrong No, no, no. You had to grab what you could find. Yeah. And I was like, we would go to the States and we would just load up the back of my, what was I driving? A Nissan Micron?
00:26:53
Speaker
Yeah, it was my Nissan Minecraft. Yeah, that little car that just never died. No, and we could hide a lot of toys in the back of that little car. It's a great little hatchback.
00:27:04
Speaker
Oh my God. So yeah, so that was my that was the the beginning. And I can tell you listeners, I did not stop. It was a long time before I stopped collecting.
00:27:16
Speaker
I think I got to... uh i want to say like season seven or eight before i was like i'm i'm overloaded with stuff i feel like it was like ninja storm or wild force or like i was still getting for jungle fury and mystic force mystic force oh my god yeah i loved mystic force that was an amazing line so you were still going yeah right not as deep i wasn't buying like everything in every color and i would just buy the main zord and the figures but i because i was just overloaded because at that point too had i've been buying the japanese versions of a lot of the swords which are probably cheaper prices
00:28:03
Speaker
<unk>ce I drove by the old Bandai place just yesterday oh yeah when they had that small office in the north of Scarborough. i was
The Emotional Significance of Collecting
00:28:14
Speaker
there.
00:28:14
Speaker
Tiff Field, the the streets. Yeah. Yeah. And it was just like, oh, I wanted to work there so bad. and I tried so hard. And remember we went to all those promotions. You know, I shook a lot of hands.
00:28:28
Speaker
You know, those Tamagotchi launches and the Beetleborg launches and really want to work for your company, sir. Yeah. And I was hanging out with Jackie in her office after hours.
00:28:41
Speaker
That sounds familiar. that that yeah Jackie was like, Oh, whatever you want, just take it. And I walked in one night, we were just doing bad stuff, like just hanging out in her office And I walked in and they had a six foot, I want to say Ninja Storm because they had just finished doing the Ninja Storm promo. So it was a six foot, like a life size red ranger statue because they were giving them away.
00:29:10
Speaker
And I was like, oh my God, I want one of these. And she's like, it's yours. Get it out of my office. I'm like, are you freaking kidding me? And she's like, take it now. Nobody else is around.
00:29:21
Speaker
Did you have three of those six foot? No, I only... Oh, did I have three? Wait a second. No, I think I only ended up with two. I ended up with a Wild Force? Wild Force, yes.
00:29:34
Speaker
Yes, I ended up... I think Wild Force is actually the... think Wild Force was the one that they gave away. So every Toys R Us got one Wild Force six-foot Ranger. Because there was styrofoam, right? There draw.
00:29:48
Speaker
No, they were fiberglass. Oh, thought they were styrofoam with like real real leg cloth uniforms. like They were very They definitely had cloth. Yes. No, they were they were much more solid than that. They were they were fiberglass molds. Oh, that's cool.
00:30:00
Speaker
Based on the actual stunt actors.
00:30:04
Speaker
So that the sculpt was really athletic. I remember them being in the apartment. Yes. Very small, very large, six foot, very well built.
00:30:18
Speaker
red rangers in our little tiny apartment and anybody who would come over like they were scared of them yes i like why why why are you scared like i get if it was like a mannequin who just had like dead eyes and just staring at you right but when it's just a six foot action figure it's like well why is that freaking you out right but nobody like them they're like um you're like 40 and you have giant dolls in your apartment Wait, they're standing in front of toys? That's so funny. Children's toys? Yeah, no, it freaked people out.
00:30:50
Speaker
Freaks people out. Weird, weird, weird. I remember selling my six-foot Rangers. I sold them to a guy who was giving them to his kid for his birthday. I'm like, oh my God, you're going to blow your kid's brains out with these.
00:31:05
Speaker
And yes, he was very excited. He also bought one of the three-foot Rangers that I had as well. I love those. yeah they're so amazing. They were really cool. one of my One of my memories was walking into a Walmart and seeing those for the first time. Remember they had them on those planks across the aisles. And there was just dozens of them.
00:31:28
Speaker
Three foot rangers. Yeah, it was literally like the most exciting Christmas effort that I've ever seen Walmart do. And I don't know there was like a mandate for them to do that.
00:31:39
Speaker
But whoever built that wall of them, but you know, with like, yeah, as you say with the... plank going across the top of the aisle yeah okay this is great now how do we get one of each down yeah seriously that was the goal oh and no can you keep bringing down more because this one's got a nick in the box this one's a little crooked and where's the girl i don't see the girl exactly i never did get a three foot pink or yellow ranger which is really sad
Evolving Collecting Habits and Modern Trends
00:32:05
Speaker
they didn't exist though right no they never did yeah the the the one that was a bit of a mystery for the longest time
00:32:13
Speaker
was a green ranger and i was like it didn't seem like it ever had been produced but there was lots of people that talked about it but then i saw actual pictures so what ended up happening was they made a green ranger but it was so late in the game that they just they weren't going to go to retail nobody wanted them i guess they brushed up the white instead yeah yeah a little strange yes which is and it was kind of a back step to go back to a green anyways So very few of them were made, but you know, they were really cool. I would have, I would have had one of those.
00:32:47
Speaker
Okay. So now I have a question for you. Okay. Go ahead. Did you put those on layaway or did you buy them flat out? You know, at knowing me, it was probably layaway. i think it was. Yeah.
00:32:58
Speaker
I have a feeling it was. we So we would go as soon as Bandai would release everything. so the way Bandai worked was they would sort of pre-release toys in just before Christmas because they knew that everything else was sold out.
00:33:13
Speaker
So they would kind of trickle in like key action figures for like next spring's, you know, new season of Power Rangers. So they would trickle in some some vehicles, maybe some bikes and, you stuff like that.
00:33:26
Speaker
And then in January, they would start to mass ship the rest of the Power Ranger line. So you and i would promptly rush to the nearest Walmart and sometimes more than one Walmart if we didn't get everything yeah and put everything on layaway.
00:33:46
Speaker
We would have layaways in Mississauga, layaways in Whitney. Yeah. Skyboro. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and the staff never had an issue with it. No.
00:33:59
Speaker
And it's so, it's so much of, of its time, right. To have that service, you know. yeah And very American too, you know. oh totally.
00:34:09
Speaker
Yeah. That's where it came from. Right. Yeah. And there was only that one, we all know the story of the one layaway I never picked up. Yeah. I lost my deposit and I lost some of my item and I would still like to have that toy today, but it's probably still there. It's just sitting back there with your name on it. It has a posted on it, you know, call Tyler Saturday.
00:34:32
Speaker
the The number is smudged. Yeah, that's right. Just leave it. That's so funny. Yeah. So, and then ah just after my birthday, we would go and start picking up some of these, these layaways.
00:34:46
Speaker
like them all There was so much. Sometimes it would be like down with the wire. you would just say, you know what? I have a layaway at blah. That's going to expire today. I'm like, Oh, we better go.
00:34:59
Speaker
quick and then it'll be like what's in the layaway here i don't remember i don't know roll some pennies i gotta to go to get my layaway at walmart yeah and then start firing out the boxes i'm like oh that's cool oh that's cool i'm like what you got here yeah really cool and then i would promptly take it and put it in my locker yeah like them all there was no room anywhere else Because that was the red plastic chair, the red plastic child's chair that you had. Oh, my God. I can't believe had that.
00:35:30
Speaker
Yes, I had that. You literally had it all. You had... I did. I had everything. If there was... I think I still have the stickers. So, these you know, those bubble stickers? They were like $1.99 at Toys R Us.
00:35:42
Speaker
Okay. I had like packs of those because they were on clearance. I bought a bunch of them. I had like party favors. I had... You know, every licensed kind of thing that you could get. Remember the phone?
00:35:57
Speaker
I had the Red Ranger phone. Yeah, I think you had that in Vancouver. That's one of those That would have been one of my first things, yeah. That was a cool one, right? Because that had him kicking. It was a figural phone.
00:36:08
Speaker
Yeah, like if you were a kid back then, like the stuff that you you could get, just incredible. you know, it's it's so like, ah what do i want to say? It's done today, but back then it wasn't. So it was just like, look at all these items, you know?
00:36:25
Speaker
Yep. Just, yep. You had the running shoes, the umbrellas, the curtains, the bedspreads, like you everything. Yes, I did. Everything. No, I really did. So but that was a fun one.
00:36:38
Speaker
When it only got to the point where I was completely overloaded and I was spending my entire paycheck on my storage lockers, that's when I had to kind of say, you know what?
00:36:49
Speaker
i'm I'm done. It was just too much. yeah So I started to started to relieve myself. Part of the problem was that I worked for Toys R Us and we had a very strict company policy that we weren't allowed to sell toys.
00:37:03
Speaker
because people were stealing from the company and then selling them and the internet was new and they didn't really know what it was going to do to them. So they're really strict about that. So I couldn't just go and, you know, set up a toy table or right with sell stuff on eBay. Yeah. yeah yeah So I had to be really careful. So when I left Toys R Us, that's when I started the big purge in a lot of my collection went, went away.
00:37:29
Speaker
as it does you remember the day you you called me and said should i open everything you remember that and i was like slow down just where what are you thinking and then i remember going up to your apartment and you you did you opened everything yeah i did you know yeah but which of course cuts down on space totally because then i i flat packed all my boxes you remember when i threw away the boxes though know that i don't remember you probably didn't tell me no i probably knew i would be upset there was so many of them there was so many boxes like zord boxes that i had to take them with me to work and take them around to the back and throw them in the dumpster well the packaging got a little dull so it wasn't like you generic you weren't yeah you weren't really missing out on anything you know early years it was great but then they just got lazy
00:38:22
Speaker
You know, it's funny you're talking when you were talking at the beginning about how you the stuff you opened, you loved
The Star Wars Lego Adventure
00:38:27
Speaker
more. i did that same thing. Cause when I started opening, you know, all those words and playing with the, like not playing with them, but like, you know, setting up the figures, adddling them set up, you know, all the, the, uh, the really articulated action figures. I enjoyed my collection so much more. and i had all those big, uh, acrylic display cases that I kept everything Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:51
Speaker
Yeah, that was that was a good times. Yeah, yeah. And like there wasn't a show that we missed. like There wasn't a store that we didn't know. And now I couldn't tell you anything.
00:39:03
Speaker
You know what I mean? If if I'm interested interested in something, I'm aware of it. you like That's not changing. But luckily, it's far and few between that I get excited about things. But Jada Toys are launching Scooby-Doo figures in July.
00:39:19
Speaker
that are deluxe with nice incredible packaging and you know they're doing the villains and it's like oh oh dear i think i think they're 40 us oh what's that gonna be so threehe hundred can hear they're releasing shaggy and they're releasing the mummy and they're releasing the creeper and they're done sort of almost like the horror collectors you know where like it's a really nice big box you know and you know, anyway, like that stuff, I won't stop because it's too important and I love it too much. And, you know, thankfully those things are far and few between. So yeah, no kidding.
00:39:59
Speaker
Until you start your transformer collection. Oh, I can't, but I am going to the Transformers convention again shortly. Nice. Sorry, go ahead. No, I was to say that the thing that i that drives my mind crazy is that the Japanese versions of everything.
00:40:16
Speaker
Because it's for Japanese robots. For me, it's the TV shows. The TV shows are so good that the toys are like the the souvenir. And I'm like, oh, I love that voice actor or I love that character. And it's like, oh, here's the toy.
00:40:31
Speaker
I'm like, wow, it's something tangible yeah from the show that I love. you know So that it kind of goes that way for me. And i don't own ah single thing, but every year it's like, oh, look at that. and ohh look at that. And, i you know, I just I can't. I want to.
00:40:48
Speaker
ah want to I'd be very happy if I owned all the you TV shows, you know. Like Beasties. Oh, okay. Do you remember when I collected that?
00:40:59
Speaker
Yes. Oh my gosh. I love that show so much. I just rewatched piece Wars a couple of summers ago and just loved it. You know, like the the CGI of course is dated, yeah but the acting and the story writing, I'm just like, Nope, top notch.
00:41:15
Speaker
And you know, I, I collected those toys for quite a while, but then it does, it becomes like a burden all of a sudden. It does. so like It's like, I'm obligated to buy more when I don't want to, you know, and then all of a sudden you just find yourself stopping. Thank God. But, you know, it's hard. Then they get reissued and they look better than ever. And it's like, oh, yeah, stay away. you stay away
00:41:44
Speaker
So what's what's currently in your collection? A lot of Funko. Oh, yeah, that's right. Because of the licenses, you know, like all the all the things that you could never get, you know. um I'm just having a look around one sec.
00:42:00
Speaker
It's really just old stuff getting reissued. Like I'm looking at my Wacky Races model kits that are reissues. Yeah, I love those. I'm looking at Black Hole action figures that are reissues. you know So luckily I don't have to worry about things. But there's always Funko stuff. There's two Funko figures coming shortly from Crybaby.
00:42:24
Speaker
And I'm like, I'm glad they're not making everybody, but I can't pass those up. And they're making Melanie Daniels from the birds Funko. Oh, yeah. It's like, well, I can't afford the Barbie. That's $100.
The Nostalgia and Mindset of Collectors
00:42:37
Speaker
But can afford the $15 Funko Pop of Melanie. Yeah, that's true. So it's just like, okay.
00:42:43
Speaker
But those are things where I'm like, no, really, you know, but I also collect department 56 and Halloween ships. It's already shipped in the States, but it ships to Canada next week.
00:42:54
Speaker
So I've got some sleepy hollow stuff, not wo you know? So it's like, I, I, I, On one hand, I would say, oh, I don't buy anything, but I actually do. But it's not often.
00:43:06
Speaker
Most of my money in collecting goes to physical media, music and movies. Totally. That's really what I'm collecting. They lot less space. Yeah. Well, yeah. If you can keep it under control, yeah.
00:43:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But and it's that it's that wanting to own something rather than stream it. Yeah, no idea until I get that.
00:43:31
Speaker
You know, I'm not sure why I can't just switch over, but I can't, you know, I do feel a little bit of relief each time something comes out and it's only digital. I'm like, oh, OK, I don't have to worry about it. And don't have to pay shipping.
00:43:47
Speaker
you know um but that's another thing where um everything that gets repackaged is gorgeous you know but i have so many things where it's like it was remastered two years ago and here it is again remastered oh i better get it so when it comes to music the completest oh you know it's rough you know it's like well if you've remastered it again ah better get it or i got it two years oh i'll do it again you know Yeah, that's the problem with collectors, right?
00:44:17
Speaker
And my biggest complaint, so know that we're talking about it, is it's like, oh, here it is with all the bonus tracks. It's complete. No, it's not. I can already tell you what's missing, and I'm sad. and They should have called you first. yeah Exactly.
00:44:30
Speaker
Stop saying this is everything. No, it's not right it's it's not. What's this note on this re-release album that says, call Tyler? What's that? Who cares? Who is this Tyler? i His number is smudged. I don't know.
00:44:45
Speaker
But, you know, i think I told you that I had to do a disc replacement recently um for Wait Till Your Father Gets Home because they screwed up a disc.
00:44:55
Speaker
And I'm picturing, like, a vertebrae. Like, you don't tell me you're in surgery. Now I just found out the Batman that I bought a couple of weeks ago has to have a replacement disc. Oh, no. and And the ad they're running actually shows, like, six different titles. And I'm like, come on, Warner. Like, what what's going on there?
00:45:12
Speaker
Yeah, seriously. I don't know they're rushing. I don't think so because the releases aren't that consistent, but you know, anyway, nothing's perfect, right?
00:45:23
Speaker
No, it totally is not. But on that note, wait, wait, wait. You haven't told us if you're collecting anything right now. Oh, ah currently, you know what? Um, I moved from collecting. So my, my last sort of collecting wave was my star Wars Lego.
00:45:41
Speaker
do you not do that anymore? No, i'm I'm pretty much done. oh I didn't know that. Yeah. The prices are crazy. Oh, no, it's it's crazy. i'm'm There's nothing really that I'm, because I got the the sort of, you know, Holy Grails for me. Like I got
Concluding Reflections and Listener Engagement
00:45:56
Speaker
the X-Wing and I got this small Millennium Falcon. Cool. um I got like dozens of Stormtroopers and I got, you know, Leia and Luke and Han, all that kind of stuff. I got the ones that I wanted to.
00:46:08
Speaker
um And I kind of went, you know what? I think I'm good. My collection fits nicely on ah on a single shelf. I don't think I need to add any more to it. um and like was just saying this Oh, totally. Yes.
00:46:22
Speaker
Yeah. And I built everything. So it's out, it's on display. I love it. It's not just a box. If there was something cool, I might consider it. The last piece that I got was ah just last year when I got the Millennium Falcon.
00:46:36
Speaker
And it was it was a really cool kit because it's just, it's quite small, but it's, it's an amazing kit. It was a ton of pieces. Does that mean there's a couple of versions? Like, is there a jumbo one? There's so many versions. Yeah. There's like a small, medium, and then large, and then like life-size Lego version. Yeah. Like Lego is just blown up like crazy the past few years.
00:47:00
Speaker
So when i when I looked up one of the top toy lines that people collect, Lego comes up first, and it's adult collectors, and Star Wars is the first in that list as well.
00:47:13
Speaker
Yeah. but that makes That's put them back on the map, right? you know Licensing Star Wars was just, that was that kept their their company alive. Yeah. And I can't imagine what that cost, you know.
00:47:26
Speaker
Right. All the new tooling and then all the licensing. Yeah. But they're still, you know, raking in the big bucks. It's a great license for that. Those price tags are just nuts. Like I had no idea.
00:47:38
Speaker
You know, something new comes out and it's $700. I'm like oh okay. Yeah. Yeah, just the the small, i i was I lucked out and got a good price on the small Millennium Falcon. I got it for $80. Okay. The the going price is like usually about $100, $120.
00:47:55
Speaker
What was that display you had that you sold? It was a Toys R Us acrylic case, and I think it was Star Wars. Was it Lego, or that wasn't it didn't happen yet? What was that? No, it was it was they were Lego cases. i had two display cases from R Us, and that used to have Lego displays in in them. So you'd go to the Toys R Us the middle shelf would have these plastic display cases.
00:48:21
Speaker
right And they would they would sort of pre-insert, glued together, um whatever this the newest versions were, and they would leave them up for a few months. And then the reps would come in and pull out the tray and just put a new tray in.
00:48:36
Speaker
what were the ones that you saw? I got, well, I didn't give very many figures. yeah i don't around back then sorry which star wars no it wasn't i didn't get star wars stuff they were just generic lego cases oh i just remember somebody coming and buying one from you and i but i can't i can't see what's in it you know but i thought it was some kind of like diorama that you know they were they were completely empty they were clear cases They were a yellow ah yellow background, yellow bottom on them. And then they said Lego across the front.
00:49:11
Speaker
And they had locking cabinets. I felt so bad because when I had these up for sale, I had them up on like a GG or something. And somebody responded and said, are they still available? And I said, yes. you know um And then they asked me a couple other questions. And I answered their questions.
00:49:26
Speaker
And they said, well, I'm going to come by. And I said, OK, no problem. Here's the address. And then I see this woman walking up my driveway. And she looked at them because I had them in my garage. Yeah. Yeah. And then she turned around walked away.
00:49:39
Speaker
Oh my gosh. And I felt so bad because I'm like, she doesn't have a car. These things are four feet long by like a foot and a half tall. I wonder what she was thinking. Yeah. I think she was thinking it was Lego. So it's going to be like pocket sized.
00:49:51
Speaker
Oh my gosh. I felt so bad because she didn't really ask how big they were. And I didn't explain them. I thought i thought the pictures would sort of explain that. Yeah. But I guess she didn't understand. And her kid wanted them and.
00:50:04
Speaker
wow you know that's so sad oh dear somebody else came along took them i also had uh the the giant minifigs from the displays oh yeah yeah yeah when lego got rid of those as well i wanted the halloween ones because they were kind of cool there's that giant pumpkin yes you know but i'm like no no no no no but really cool to see No, I had two of them. I had one with a paintbrush. They were just like city figs. like They were just saying like blue and blue and red or something. And they had little wall caps. But they were really cool.
00:50:36
Speaker
I had those in my collection for quite a while. Oh, you don't have them still? No, I sold those. i sold those a few years ago. Oh, okay. well'll considerba Yeah, I was going to say, I'm sure they would have sold quite well. Yeah.
00:50:49
Speaker
yeah I have very little of my original collection left. I'm trying to see what's behind you, but I can't quite know. That's my um Hall of Justice. That I can tell. And then that's Lego Star Wars there.
00:51:01
Speaker
oh It all looks blue. I'm like, it looks like a bunch of robots lost in space. It's also blurry. I still have like one, I would say like a six-foot section of Power Rangers.
00:51:16
Speaker
Cool. So that's my, it's just the loose stuff from the first three seasons. I still have my, uh, two foot tall Zords. Cool. Um, I still have jumbo, right? Jumbo. Yeah. I still have all those.
00:51:31
Speaker
Cool. And, uh, I still have my Star Wars collection, which is just a bunch of pieces, but I've got the big gigantic Millennium Falcon and and X-Wing fighter and a Ad-At walker.
00:51:47
Speaker
Cool. And then I added a three foot tall Darth Vader. Yeah. Even though I didn't collect Star Wars when I was kid, like some of those toys, like that they like the Ad-At, I'm like, wow, you're going to get to play with that? Like you're lucky. You know what i mean? that They literally make everything.
00:52:03
Speaker
they you know i think i had no i i had a die cast of the snow speeder but i like the snow speeders but yeah yeah i did too yeah yeah i wanted to add one of the the action figure versions of my collection but they're just too expensive everybody wants like 100 bucks and they're they're really beat up and i'm like no i just can't do that well Well, it's pretty amazing that, you know, all this stuff just keeps getting made. Remember that really ugly nineties revamp of the star Wars figures where everybody had like really big shoulders. Yes.
00:52:37
Speaker
yeah that That was disappointing. I felt bad for the fans. Wasn't it the unleashed collection? is that what it was called? I think it was star Wars unleashed and everybody was just exaggerated.
00:52:48
Speaker
Yeah. That was really bad. So bad. You know, right. Exactly. Too funny. Okay, you know what? You talked to yourself out of a ah game of eighty s trivia, so o I know your favorite thing to happen is when it doesn't happen.
00:53:06
Speaker
The 80s.
00:53:08
Speaker
No, they're all answered the 80s. No, the answer was Prince, by the way. Oh, I would have gotten it. You would have gotten that one. I would have gotten it. What do I win? I don't know. We'll give you one of these here. Oh, wrong one.
00:53:23
Speaker
There you go. got to level up. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Tyler. I really appreciate it This amazing stuff. Hey, you know what listeners, <unk> if you're still there, if you're still listening and you think this is cool stuff, you know, please subscribe, please check us out, check out my social media, ask some questions.
00:53:41
Speaker
um I've got a speak pipe account set up that you can ask a question. I'd love to hear from you. Like sometimes i just, you know, I don't want to hear myself talking. I'd rather hear somebody else. So just give me a shout.
00:53:53
Speaker
Ask a question. If there's something you want us to talk about, we'll figure out if we can talk about it or not. Other than that, ah that's it for today. So have a great Saturday. Have a Yabba Zunker Zoinks Day, and we will see you next week.
00:54:06
Speaker
You've been listening to Yabba Zonker Zoinks, a Gen X for Life podcast. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any exciting episodes. You can reach out on Instagram at Gen X for Life podcast. That's Gen X number four life underscore podcast or send an email at Gen X for Life podcast, all one word, at gmail.com.
00:54:28
Speaker
I'd love to hear about your favorite Gen X Saturday morning memory, maybe a favorite toy or the cereal you just couldn't wait to tear into. Until then, have a Yabba Zonker Zoinks day, and I'll be back bright and early next Saturday morning.