Tales Of A Fanboy: Thundercats HO!!!!!!!!

Currently enjoying photographing my friends retro toy collection. Many of these action figures I had myself as a child and wished I still did. Unfortunately sometime in my early teens i accompanied my mum to a local car boot sale where she had a stall for the local club she was a member of. I saw all the people there making money and thought to myself maybe I could earn a little something as well. So the following week I decided to sell all my toys (something I now regret).

Lion-O, originally uploaded by Fanboy30.

I was lucky to accumulate a large collection of toys from certain series like He-Man and Thundercats so my little folding table was crammed with colourful little figures, weapons and accessories.

I recall a man circling my stand with a suitcase until he finally came up and said "How much for the lot?". I looked over the array of different collections trying to put a price on them because until now they had been priceless to me. "Fifty pounds" I stuttered "Done!" the man said, handed me the cash and threw my childhood into his suitcase and walked off.

There had been no time to process what had happened and for the moment I was overjoyed, thinking about how I was going to spend the money. It wasn't until I got home and reality sunk in that nearly all my fond memories of playing had been exchanged for such a measly price. The man was clearly a dealer and would make three times as much on my immaculate collection. I think it was that moment that defined the value I have on personal possessions and probably why I try to collect toys at any given moment.

As an adult I am always on the look out for new and exciting action figures, but now my excuse is for photography. It gives the object another purpose, almost making it into a new art form. When you look at my 'Retro Plastic' collection or the 'Transformers Animated' series they bring memories to the viewer of a time that have forgotten. Its for that reason alone I love doing what I do.

You can find awesome retro Thundercats T-Shirts

at Tees for all

2 comments:

PortugePunk5 October 2009 at 15:21
I got rid of so many of my toys, too, when I was younger (or took many more of them into the pool!) and now they're gone. I wish I still had them, too. I think it might be time to bring home from Dad's house my Lego and K'Nex collections, though! :-D
Red Dragon5 October 2009 at 15:37
Ah, fond childhood memories. I had a lot of the same toys I guess. Only I didn't sell them. As the stories I played progressed a large scale war emerged between technos and mages. The mages won and left half of my toys being mere screws and parts ("I'll put them back together again when the war is over" I hear myself saying...)
It diminished my Mask, Transformers and G.I.Joe vehicles to a pile of junk...Luckily my StarWars wasn't affected...much. It was all Evil Yoda's fault.