The Collector

In the world of collecting, I have noticed that there are two kinds of people; those that collect and use the things they collect, and those that collect and never touch the things they collect. I would describe myself as being more of the collector that never touches the things I collect, though I do have my exceptions. An icon of mine that I admire for this very trait of never ever opening up the things he collects is The Collector, aka Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons.

The Collector first made his debut in Treehouse of Horror X. In the episode Comic Book Guy becomes a villain who takes his hobby to extremes by collecting real life individuals. Unfortunately the Collector does lose to Bart and Lisa, and even mistakenly opens up an extremely rare and expensive collectable, noooo. That episode was hilarious, and I loved the super hero/villain treatment Comic Book Guy received. He also gave a voice to us collectors that love things to be mint in box.

I’ve always wanted to buy the version of the Collector that Playmates Toys made, but it was out of my budget for what I was willing to pay. Then early last month (September) I heard that Burger King would be coming out with the Simpsons kid’s meal toy, and that it would include a version of the Collector. This got me real excited, because I would finally be able to add him to my collection.

The toy is nicely painted, and bright colours were used to make him stand out. On the back of the figure there is a switch and button that activates a red light, so that you are able to read a secret code or image on a brick wall. Unfortunately my toy’s light didn’t work, but it wasn’t so bad because eventually these added features stop working anyway. Regardless of that, I am glad to now add the Collector to my collection of the Simpsons Burger King toys (right beside Comic Book Guy).

Burger King:

www.bk.com

Comic Book Guy Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Book_Guy

YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XmlHYseRCc

Roberto Alomar Bobblehead

Earlier this year sports news broke word that Roberto Alomar would be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I was really happy for him because I had watched him play for the Blue Jays growing up. During his stay in Toronto he was responsible for Toronto winning 2 back to back World Series. From 1989-1994 my whole world revolved around baseball and the Jays. The team was simply amazing, and played with so much heart. I remember I would watch every single game religiously, collect baseball cards, and go to the SkyDome once in a while to watch a live game. What made that team so special to me was that they never let me down. Even when you thought they were going to lose they would end up winning (specifically the 92-93 team). Those wins felt so genuinely satisfying especially after having lost the American League series to the Twins in 1991.

As the 1992 season began everything started to fall into place and the Jays had reached a new level of excellence led by Alomar and Carter. Alomar would play second base like a machine, diving and reaching for balls in what seemed like backbreaking jumps and then throwing them to first base to make the out. Then he would also go up to bat and make a hit, RBI, sacrifice or homerun when it was most needed by the team. One such homerun came in the 1992 playoffs against the Oakland Athletics when Alomar homered against Eckersley. This homerun was significant because the Jays had been losing and he had tied the game. As the ball left the outfield, Alomar threw his hands up with his fingers pointing to the sky as a moment of tense anxiety was lifted and replaced by joy and euphoria. This moment was then chosen as the stance Alomar’s bobblehead would get for his free giveaway.

Alomar’s bobblehead was given away at Rogers Centre on Sunday, July 31, 2011. Only 20,000 were given away to fans, and I was lucky enough to get one. It celebrates and honours Roberto Alomar for being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a Toronto Blue Jay. The organization also decided to retire his #12 number as well. The bobblehead comes in a nice box that commemorates and highlights his many accomplishments. The paint job is also nice, as far as bobbleheads are concerned (don’t expect neat and clean lines). While the face doesn’t really look like him, the stance is really indicative of Alomar. The bobblehead is also a little heavy and is made out of ceramic. Overall this is a very nice collectable and I am happy that we are able to recognize and thank Alomar for what he did for Toronto, and Canada.

Roberto Alomar wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Alomar

YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5LpndNOmBU

Toronto Toy Stores

I decided to make a list of toy stores in Toronto. This list should be helpful for anyone visiting the city, or who lives here and would like to know where other stores are located. This is a working project so the list should be updated from time to time. If you would like a store to be included please do not hesitate to pm me.

The Silver Snail
Specialty: Comics, Action Figures, Japanese Imports
Location: 367 Queen Street West
Phone: (416)593-0889
Website: www.silversnail.com

One Million Comix
Specialty: Comics, Anime, Action Figures
Location: 531 Yonge St.
Phone: 416-934-1615
Website: http://onemillioncomix.net

401 Games
Specialty: Board games, Sports cards, Card games, Miniatures, Toys
Location: 401 Yonge Street
Phone: (416) 599-6446
Website: www.401games.ca

Planet X
Specialty: Action Figures, Comics
Locations & Phone: 2227 Queen Street E (416)-698-8950; 2879 St. Clair Ave. E. (416)-285-4421; 815 Major Mackenzie Dr. E. (Richmond Hill) (905)-883-9324
Website: http://eplanetx.com

KC Toys Shop
Specialty: Japanese Imports. Anime
Location: A web store, but you can do meet-ups
E-mail: sales@kctoysshop.com
Website: www.kctoysshop.com

Hairy Tarantula
Specialty: Toys, Comics, Anime, Card games, (depends on location)
Locations & Phone: 354 Yonge Street (416)596-8002; 6979 Yonge Street (647)430-1263;
2949 Dundas Street West (416)762-1303
Website: www.hairyt.com

Toys2 (Toy Square)
Specialty: American and Japanese toys and collections; Hot Toys
Location: 3255 Highway 7 East, Unit 221 (Markham)
Phone: (905)470-0007
Website: www.toys2.net

Magic Pony
Specialty: Designer Toys (Dunny)
Location: 680 Queen St West
Phone: (416)861-1684
Website: www.magic-pony.com

AnimeXtreme
Specialty: Anime and Japanese Imports
Location: 315 Spadina Ave. Unit H
Phone: (416)979-0399
Website: www.animextreme.ca

Transformers Vault

I’ve said it numerous times on this blog, that I am a newbie when it comes to Transformers. Although I did watch them as a child, only until recently have I become interested in them. I started off watching a few episodes on DVD a few years ago and those brought back a lot of memories. I also started buying the toys, though I prefer displaying them in auto mode. However I was still confused about the whole story behind the franchise, so I decided one day to go online and read up on them. This didn’t go very well because there were pages and pages of stuff to read that was all confusing. As a result I gave up, and just stuck to watching a few TV episodes at a time and buying a toy once in a while as well.


Then one day I went online and discovered that someone had written a book about the entire franchise that contained many cool features and that was an easy read. The book is called ‘Transformers Vault’ and is written by Pablo Hidalgo. The book comes in a protective hard cover, features great art work, the writing is informative (gets to the point) and brief, and best of all it covers the entire franchise from where the Transformers started to the animated TV series, comics, toys, and even movies. I bought my copy on sale, and with all the goodies it comes with I would definitely recommend it to anyone that loves the Transformers.


Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Vault-Showcasing-Collectibles-Memorabilia/dp/0810998688/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1
YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8gHybsmyhA

Ralph Wiggum

The expression ‘an elephant in the room’ has been used several times by people to describe a reality that people hate acknowledging. When it comes to The Simpsons that elephant took over the room more than 10 years ago, then became a woolly mammoth that took over the village, than a brontosaurus that destroyed the city, and is now Godzilla. Of course the elephant or the reality I am referring to is the lack of originality and humour that has surrounded The Simpsons for more than a decade. The show simply sucks now. The jokes are dry, storylines are written by lazy writers that look to gossip shows for inspiration, characters aren’t faithful to their original idiosyncrasies, and too many episodes are dedicated to boring Lisa or Marg. Case in point: whenever Homer breaks their heart and has to spend an entire episode trying to make it up to them by showing them how much he loves them.

Fortunately re-runs and DVD’s take me back to the good old days when the show was brilliant. I call this ‘the Phil Hartman slash Conan O'Brien slash traditional cell animation slash still has some balls’ days. I figure as long as I stick to watching these classic episodes from season1-9 (and some exceptions from later seasons) this show will always be gold. Besides Homer my favourite character from the show is Ralph Wiggum. (Though I can’t forget Lionel Hutz, Comic Book Guy, Jimbo Jones, Bart Simpson, Homer’s monkey, etc...) For some reason I have always liked the dumb slow characters on shows; such as Butters on South Park and Bobby from King of the Hill.

When the Simpsons first appeared in the late 80’s early 90’s merchandise from the show was everywhere. From t-shirts, coffee mugs, stickers, underwear, video games, pyjamas, and music CD’s just to name a few. Though toys were also made it wasn’t until the year 2000 when Playmates came out with a line that became popular and continued for numerous series. This line gained momentum when it became collectable because people started buying them in multiples and collecting every character. I remember the one character I wanted to buy was impossible to get, Ralph Wiggum.

Yet this collectable period was short lived because as the show declined in quality so did it start to lose numerous fans, and as such resulted in a wave of discount sell-off of figures on eBay. I took advantage of this wave last year by finally being able to purchase a Ralph Wiggum toy for real cheap. Ralph’s accessories include a bottle rocket, keys, school books and a Radioactive Man comic book. The toy itself is well done with the paint job not having any mistakes, and the sculpture being true to what Ralph looks like. I’m really glad I was finally able to add him to my collection, and hope to add more World of Springfield characters later on.

World of Springfield toys:
http://figures.nohomers.net/
YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_51nQxahcs

Upper Deck Pro Shots

One of the first things I collected as a child was baseball cards. I remember my parents used to buy me a pack every Friday when they would go grocery shopping. The cards would be intelligently placed by stores at the checkout line along with candy; making it impossible for parents to leave a store without buying something for their kids. My eyes would open up at the sight of the glimmering gold or silver packaging that the cards would come in. My favourite brand was Upper Deck, followed by Donruss, Topps, Fleer, and if I was broke O-Pee-Chee. While baseball cards were cool, I always felt the hobby could be taken to a whole other level. I wasn’t satisfied with just a picture of a player and his stats printed on a piece of card board paper.

Suddenly McFarlane Toys came along a few years later and decided to start a new hobby market by creating sports figure collector toys. These figures were great because the details were amazing, there was lots of variety (many player and sports), and they looked amazing placed on your desk. However the one figure I never saw from McFarlane Toys was a Michael Jordan. Luckily Upper Deck (probably owned the legal rights) decided to then produce sports figures as well, and I was finally able to get a Michael Jordan version. What made the Upper Deck Pro Shots version even better was that they released figures in different iconic Jordan basketball position. My favourite was the dunk that he did to win the 1988 All-Star slam dunk contest; this is the version that I bought from Pro Shots (more specially Series 2 figure 4).

The toy is up to the same quality as a McFarlane toy, and comes in a clam shell case which makes it perfect for people that like to collect mint in box toys (like me). My only complaint about the toy is that you do see paint smudges, and that the version that was released isn’t the same one it was supposed to represent. In the real dunk, Michael wore a red “away” jersey and white cement sneakers. Upper Deck did release a figure that was accurate to the real dunk, however it was limited. I would have definitely preferred that version to have been the general release version and not the one I have. The figure is still an amazing collectable and I would definitely recommend any Jordan fan to pick it up as well.

Website for Info (currently sold out):

http://mcfarlaneonline.stores.yahoo.net/mijoupdepros2.html

YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdOx9JGc4_8

Playmakers

With another season of baseball about to start I thought it was appropriate to showcase a baseball themed toy. I came upon Playmakers MLB toys one day when I was in a toy store looking for anything interesting. This toy instantly caught my attention because I love baseball. When I was a kid I used to collect baseball cards, and I know if these toys were around back then I would also have collected them. Playmakers are made by McFarlane Toys, a company that has been making sports figure toys for years. This time around, McFarlane Toys offers MLB players in a 4inch scale. For the first series some of baseball’s current fan favourites were included such as Ryan Howard, Alex Rodriguez, Josh Beckett, and many more. Most players come in two versions, either batting or fielding; though pitchers and David Ortiz only come in one version. Each sports figure is highly poseable because they have over 20 moving parts. The version I have is of Derek Jeter in a white pinstripe Yankees uniform. The quality of these toys is really impressive when compared to the price they cost (Canadian retail $9.99 plus tax), and the size they come in. These toys are a great collectable and will be fantastic to have around once the new MLB season begins.



McFarlane Toys:
http://www.mcfarlane.com/
YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDh6griDDpo