I find it fascinating what stuff my parents decided to keep from my childhood. When I got too old to play with some toys I boxed them up in old VCR box or two and put them in a closet. It felt like ages later but in retrospect was less than 10 years before some of those toys made it out of their box when younger cousins would come over to play.
Not all of my childhood toys were created equal however. My remaining G.I. Joe’s and Star Wars action figures along with some miscellaneous other action figures and matchbox cars were what the family would get to play with when they would come and visit. Other stuff such as most of my transformers and I believe the Lego state safely tucked away. Of the toys is that made an appearance when the cousins came over only the matchbox cars survived. I don’t know where any of the Star Wars figures went. The G.I. Joe’s physically are still around however I believe I’ve written about in the past that the rubber band that held them together deteriorated on most of them so by the time I opened the box with them in it they were in pieces. I did have some other action figures that survived. Most notably my Ironman, Hannibal Smith’s and Murdoch from the A-Team.
It must have been well over a year ago when I asked my mom to bring the action figures over to my house if she still had them. I wanted to introduce the girls to some of the superheroes that I thought I had. What my mom brought wasn’t a whole lot since overtime things broke or got lost. I was still surprised how much stuff there was. The box that she brought over was mainly matchbox cars, G.I. Joe’s and a few of the other action figures I mentioned. There was one or two small transformers and a few transformer accessories. At the time I thought that was all that survived.
Of the toys that I got some of the matchbox cars I could not give to the girls because the wheels were very loose and I was concerned A might put them in her mouth after breaking them off. After I vetted what toys were safe for the girls I gave them some matchbox cars and action figures to play with. MC’s parents bought a few other new matchbox cars had to the limited collection I had released for use. Even to this day I get in all the install job when I see the girls playing with a matchbox car that I recognize and remember playing with when I was a kid.
More recently I wrote about asking for Legos that I knew my mom had. After I began asking for that it opened the floodgates for my mom to want to purge what stuff she had left from my childhood out of her apartment. Having an apartment of my own with two kids made it high time I probably took this stuff anyway. I was surprised at how many transformers and additional matchbox cars I had in the second box I received in August. Several of the matchbox toys I can’t give to the girls because the paint is flaking off them. Most notably are two die cast metal space shuttles and one 747 where one of the space shuttles would sit on. That jet for some reason I painted completely white and the paint was flaking as well. I did find several transformers. I even had the cab to optimist prime. I don’t know where the semi part of him went however I was happy to have anything at all. I decided that there was no way I was giving the girls Transformers from the 80’s to play with. First of all they would break them in a minute. Second of all there’s too much nostalgia in it for me to chance them destroying them. Nancy found a shelf in our bookcase where I have them on display now. Jetfire still remain separate however that’s a different post in and of itself.
Next up for my mom to bring over is my baseball card collection. When she brought up that she was doing that I asked where my comics were. She insisted that I didn’t have any. After I insisted she look for them further she found my boxes and will bring them all over together. The baseball card collection is not that substantial. I had significantly more of them when I was much younger. I remember my mom would bring home tons of them were confiscated or found from her classes. That must’ve been late 70s and early 80s. What I do have are a few complete annual series from the late 80s. As for my comic books I will wait to go through them before writing more about them. I have an idea about some of what I have however I don’t recall how extensive the collection that I kept was. I think I kept everything that I don’t however I will need to confirm that once I get them.
It’s cool getting all these flashbacks from my childhood. As an adult I purged a lot of the things that I had taken with me when I moved out or previously gone from my parents. For example I remember getting rid of my relatively extensive collection of Dungeons & Dragons books in the mid to late 2000’s. I could’ve gone some money for them on eBay but the amount of effort to sell all of them would’ve been too much for me at the time. Each piece individually wasn’t worth that much however the entire collection might’ve been worth selling. I also have purged much of my book collection from my childhood. There are a few that I kept however not much. That reminds me I need to find where I put my Narnia Chronicles box set. I know I loaned them to my niece Morgan with the specific instructions that I would like them back when I have kids. My sister did give them back to me recently but I don’t remember what I did with them. T’s not quite ready for those stories however she might be pretty soon.
