Special Collectors Edition! 

This week on Invasion of the Podcast: Episode 96 - Got it, Got it, Need it! Paul and Joe talked about collecting everything from toys to comics to human souls. Okay, I made that last one up. But they did cover a broad range of all the things that people collect. After listening to the episode I thought it would be fun to share a little about my 20 plus years of collecting. 

You collect comics don’t you? 

Well, no I don’t. I read comics. It sounds pretentious but it’s true. Now I want to make it clear I’m not putting down collectors here. It’s just that to me comics are to be read. In fact I’ve had friends be utterly perplexed by the way I treat my comics. Sure I bag and board them but I’m not delicate when handling them. I read my comics. I take them with me places. I even sometimes eat while I’m reading comics. Its inevitable that those comics are going to have some wear and tear. If you really want to know if I truly loved a comic just look at its condition. It probably looks like it’s been beat to hell and is moments away from falling apart. I’ve even bought second and sometimes third copies of things simply because I’ve read the original over and over. Ironically as someone who will always be a die hard physical comic book guy I have to admit that the beauty of digital comics is that no one is buying them to collect them. Those comics are being read. That’s what comics are for. So while I own a lot of comics I don’t collect comics. 

Just a few of the comics I own that have been lovingly re-read over the years.

1989 or the year of Batman…

I discovered comics the year before the Michael Keaton film came out. To say that there couldn’t have been a better time to become a comics fan than around the release of that movie would be a complete understatement. Bat-mania (as it has often been described as) was really gripping the country. Batman was everywhere. And while I was reading comics I started collecting everything else Bat-related. I was buying t shirts. I was collecting the Topps movie cards. I was even eating Batman cereal. At the time my brother worked at the local movie theater in our local mall. There were a lot of perks that came from my older brother’s employment. One of the coolest of said perks was that I got to see Batman a day earlier than everyone else in my hometown at a midnight screening. Cooler still was that I received one of my most cherished collectables from that theater. I was given the actual film trailer for the 89 Batman. It came in the box from Warners along with a letter instructing the theater on what films to play the trailer with. It is unlike anything else in my collection and is one of my favorite memories of my teen years. 

A letter from Warner Brothers with instructions on which films to attach the trailer for 1989's Batman to. 

The actual film trailer and box it came in!

What do I collect? Almost everything.  

In 1993 I graduated from high school and started my first year at college. That year I received one of the most memorable Christmas gifts I have ever been given. Knowing how much I loved Star Wars, and how much I regretted not having taken care of my toy collection as a kid, my Mom surprised me with a number of vintage Kenner Star Wars toys that Christmas. She had bought a collection of figures and playsets as Christmas gifts for me and I quickly found myself starting to collect vintage Star Wars toys. Another year or two later Kenner would start producing a new line of Star Wars figures and I started buying those. Since I was often in the toy sections again I also found myself buying other toy lines as well. It would typically go like this, “Hey, those Batman: The Animated Series figures look pretty awesome. I need those in my life.” or “Wow, McFarlane is putting crazy details into those movie maniac figures. I have room on the shelf for some of those.” I no longer collected just Star Wars. I was picking up Marvel Legends, DC Directs, Happy Meal toys, Lego sets, etc. Basically if I thought it looked cool I bought it. In recent years I’ve gone back to mainly focusing on Star Wars. However the Funko Re-Action figures have caught my eyes with their Kenner style figures. They just announced they’re going to be doing a line of Batman 66 figures in that style too. That’s pretty much a guarantee I’ll be buying those. And after Christmas this year I found quite a bit of the Ghostbusters line (2016 & 1984) on clearance. So, I’m collecting those now too. So I guess I’m really not just collecting Star Wars. You could say I collect just about anything. 

Here you see some of my Batman: The Animated Series Collection
and Justice League Animated Figures. Or The Bruce Timm-verse if you will. 

Some of my Marvel Legends figures and proof that
 I'm the only person who liked Superman Returns.

Bespin Luke!!!!!

My all time favorite toy is the Kenner Bespin Luke Skywalker action figure. Despite having come with a yellow lightsaber I loved that figure unlike any that had come before or after.  As a child I collected multiple copies of the figure. For a brief period, whenever I would get a new Star Wars toy, I would lie to my Mom and tell her I had lost Bespin Luke just so I could get another. I would also sometimes tell her she was thinking of a different figure. “No Mom, I got Luke in X-wing pilot outfit last time. I don’t have a Bespin Luke.” I don’t know how long this went on for. What I do know is that one day I came home from school to find my Mom had made a discovery under my bed. She had found a shoe box of just Bespin Luke figures! With all the shock of a mother who had found porn in her son’s room my Mom tried to understand why I had lied about Bespin Luke. I didn’t have a good answer for her. All I knew was he was my favorite. Thirty-seven years later I still feel the same way. Over the years I have compulsively collected the character. If there’s a new Bespin Luke figure on the peg at the store there’s more than a good chance I’m buying it. When I got married almost five years ago my wife gave me an on card Kenner Bespin Luke Skywalker figure as a wedding gift. Last year I was able to meet Luke Skywalker himself - Mark Hamill - and have him sign it. If I had to sell everything in my collection it would be the one piece I wouldn’t sell. Chances are I would take that money and buy more Bespin Luke action figures anyway. 

Just one of the shelves devoted to Bespin Luke. This photo
was taken 5 years ago so the collection has grown. 

The Gentle Giant 12 inch Bespin Luke.
The Kenner Original is next to it for size. 

Me, Bespin Luke, and my best friend Mark Hamill. We hang out all the time. 

Okay, that’s all for now. I plan to share more of my collection with you in the future but I want to know more about what you guys are collecting. Tell me in the comments! Right now my entire collection is in boxes because we are trying to sell our house. So I need to hear about all of you out there enjoying your collection. Remember, sharing is caring. And of course thank you for reading!

Shameless plug time! Be sure to also check out the horror webcomic www.thesaturdaynightslasher.com by myself and Ryan Kacsandy. We return with our new format on Saturday May 6th! Be sure to catch up before the next chapter!