Nostalgic Toys and Childhood Collections

You are listening to a GeekCast Radio Podcast.

welcome to the new Off the Cuff. I am your host

as always, Michael Powers. I'm joined this week

by Steve Megatron Phillips of GeekCast Radio.

How you doing? Pretty good. If anyone's listened

to the first episode and what have you, you'll

know that each week I'm going to attempt to have

a revolving host. So there will always be someone

new sitting opposite me and they will have the

chance to choose... the topic that we'll spend

the next 30 minutes talking about -ish. So Steve,

what do you want to talk about this week? I guess

childhood toys that maybe you lost and wish you

could still get your hands on. Oh man. Because

that kind of opens up this this nice little Pocket

of the the geek universe that everybody's like

oh, I wish blah that is that is that one thing

that like if you Every once in a while an article

will show up that somebody Like I have a perfect

example of this my favorite game my favorite

video game is Chrono Trigger and Whenever I go

to like a retro replay or any kind of gaming

store that sells old games I'm always I always

look for a copy of Chrono Trigger even though

I own it like four times over I always look to

see if they have one and maybe I'll buy it again.

I don't know So my brother -in -law We were out

Looking around and of course, I'm looking for

a copy of the game and I said I turned around

I said to him I said man, I really wish I could

find a copy of Chrono Trigger and he goes, well,

the box is right there. And sure enough, I turned

back around and the case I was just looking at,

I never look at like the display stuff they put

in cases. I always look at like the back of the

case where they just have stacks of games. But

there was the box from like the original Chrono

Trigger box for the Super Nintendo from like

1995. That's going to sound really bad if I got

that wrong. Anyways. It was there, it was beat

to hell because it's like 20 years old, right?

But they were selling it for $275. And I don't

even know if it came with the game. I didn't

even inquire if it came with the game. I didn't

buy it just so no one thinks I'm crazy. But I

wanted to. But my wife... I didn't even bother

asking my wife because I knew $275 would be like

She would probably divorce me for buying a box

for $275 But she did ask if it at least comes

with the game So there was like a slight chance

that she probably wouldn't have divorced me if

I'd bought it if it had the game But yeah, that's

the kind of stuff that I think about like I had

I mean I have my original cartridge of Chrono

Trigger But I don't have the box. I just keep

thinking man If I still had that box I'd have

$275 Like that that's the kind of stuff that

makes me like when I think about stuff that I've

lost is when I see someone selling something

that I had for an ungodly amount of money Do

you have anything like that I have quite a few

things that I wish I could still get or It's

more or less. I don't have the disposable income

I used to have to reacquire these items. And

that my wife would never let me buy them again.

But it's I wish I had like a mint condition or

better condition of the really big crane body.

For the Ninja Turtles in the 90s I Have the toy

still but it's so beat to hell and the pieces

are broken on it It's just it's in bad shape,

but it costs so much to buy a new one That's

that's I'll agree with you there that's one of

the things that I had when I was a kid that we've

had conversations about it and even Joe from

the pull bag and and off the cuff like we've

had conversations like I about about that particular

toy like I had it uh Danner had it uh you have

it um but nobody has it like in one piece anymore

I don't even know where mine is my brother my

little brother lost it I want to kill him but

I mean that yeah that's that's one of those things

that just It's that nostalgia thing that I cling

to and I've only kept select figures a lot of

them I've gotten rid of over the years, but you

know like that one's one of them I Had like the

Star Trek Generations Captain Kirk's They they

had two different ones that came out for that

movie Of the like four or five inch figures They

had the one where he's in the spacesuit Hmm doing

the The the dive from the atmosphere and then

they have the one where he's wearing his Like

Star Trek 2 through 7 Starfleet uniform I still

have that Kirk. However, my dog mauled the face

when I was a kid So like one side of his face

just looks terrible. Oh I wish I could find another

one for cheap like Periodically, I go through

the Flint mission, that city market, basically

like a flea market in the old Big Lots building

in the door mall. I managed to find the spacesuit

Kirk and I found it. It was loose, three bucks,

perfect condition. I picked that up. Nice. I

was ecstatic to get it. And I haven't been lucky

enough to find the other stuff. I did find a

die -cast Batmobile. That was like a Hot Wheels

toy. I used to have one. It's still not the one

I had as a kid. From the the late 80s early 90s

from like I think it was from Batman either the

first Batman movie or Batman returns, but But

I found one that just happened to be just after

that one was released Because the newer modern

Batmobile Hot Wheels car that looks like that

is cheap cheap plastic It just feels it feels

so lightweight. There's no weight to it and the

wheels are just the wheels are actually better

but it's again the car so lightweight i just

and they thinned it out around the middle so

it looks awkward um so i found this die cast

one in the same place and i bought it that day

too and it was like two bucks um couldn't help

it it just i was like okay this has some weight

to it i gotta have it um at least it's close

to what i used to have and i can't i i wish i

could get the old batmobiles where you could

actually put the figures in them I remember those

because I had the 89 batmobile or Knows for Batman

returns because the side the side cars blew off

the the centerpiece of it Oh God, I hate that

thing. I didn't mind the car. I just didn't like

when it popped off on its own It was just one

side always did it worse than the other and Then

there was the Batman the animated series car,

which I really loved There's that Speaking of

that one There's that come on. You showed it

to me The ones coming out in the fall the $84

collector's edition one. Yeah Figures in it.

I got a bookmark that one thought I had a bookmark

because I want to get it but that's too big of

an item for me to Obtain I can get away with

getting the figures, but The the car is like

too much of a where the hell are you gonna put

that? On a shelf I am gonna get that the animated

series Batman though that goes with Because I

have the the one that came out first was the

new adventures Okay, the new Batman adventures

version of Batman and then there's one that's

from the animated series from like Mask of the

Phantasm Like that one thought the first the

first one you mentioned with the black logo Okay,

the the one that has the kind of The the red

-skied Batman with the Kind of cleaner more crisp

Yeah, he has the it's the black and gray suit

with the black logo. Yep. Yeah I like that one,

but I like the other one because I saw that first.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I like them both equally

It's just I it's it's crazy. So I gotta have

both And I may pick up some of the other guys

as it goes along. I just those are the ones I'm

gonna start out with They are gonna come out

with a Harley Quinn with the Joker that comes

with the mad love trade Okay for like 40 bucks

So basically the comics free So Real quick there's

because we're talking about like retro toys if

you will or toys that we have when we were kids

There is a Twitter feed that I follow at Kenner

toys I don't know if you follow this or not.

I don't think it's I don't think it's done by

actual by Kenner themselves But the guy whoever's

running it. It's every tweet is like a blast

of nostalgia for me And I didn't realize Kenner

had made so many toys He had they do he does

like runs He'll do like here's the here's the

Kenner line of mask toys and like every photo

who post will be for like mask If you scroll

down to like the 25 -day mark, I don't know how

your Twitter feed works But if you scroll down

to like the 25 -day mark, it's all the Batman

returns figures And I remember having all of

those. He's done like Jurassic Park sets and

stuff like that One of my favorite toys growing

up. I don't know if you some people remember

these some people don't they were like the they

were made by Tyco, but it was like dino riders.

I vaguely remember that I I love the dino rider

toys. I still wish I had like certain ones, like

the T -Rex. I thought that one was awesome. I

also had another toy that I loved growing up

was Starcom. This probably makes me feel really

old. But Starcom with like the guys with like

the magnets in their feet. So they and they each

of the... Each vehicle in the set had some kind

of motorized action. It was like a wind -up motorized

action, not battery powered or anything like

that. And then there's Sky Commanders, which

they zipped around on those power lines. A lot

of these are shows that were made to sell toys.

Definitely. And I didn't know that. Like as a

kid, like I had several of these like cassettes

with like, you know, episodes on them, but I

didn't realize that they were like, you know,

when I first started doing like the lunchroom,

like a long time ago, we did an episode where

we talked about all these old toys that we had

growing up. And one of the things I found when

I was started, when I did research for those

toys was that there were only 13 episodes of

this cartoon that were ever made. and it was

solely for the purpose of selling toys. There's

Star Wars toys that I wish that I still had,

mainly the original B -Wing that was released

along with Return of the Jedi in the 80s. I found

an original in the box one at a geek sale, but

I couldn't bring myself to buy it. My Lego B

wing that I have kind of ruined that for me So

Yeah, I'm looking at that Kenner toys And I found

a Batman figure I used to have That I still don't

have that I'd like to obtain again. I don't know

what happened to my original one It's the crime

attack Batman Crime attack Batman. It's from

Batman returns and it's He's the black Batman

with the the cape that attaches with the little

nub thing that hugs the back of the neck And

it's got the the gold Basically west thing where

it shoots the battering there is I found it the

one that looks most like Batman. Yeah The one

that actually looks like Batman. Yeah as opposed

to what is that the Arctic? Arctic Batman. Laser

Batman and Arctic Batman and Air Attack Batman.

Oh man, toys are fantastic. Deep dive. I used

to have all those, even the one that changed

from Bruce Wayne, the quick change Batman armor

that looked like Michael Keaton. Yep, I had all

of them. I had all the mask ones too. A mask

is something else that I really enjoyed as a

kid. I can't, I don't really know like anything

that... Like I said, usually just, usually when

I get nostalgic for something... that I that

I miss it's it's when I find out how much something

is worth now and I'm like damn it I had that

and it's not so much I want it to sell it's I

want it to like show like to say I have this

yep instead of being like I had that I say the

lot anymore it's sad sometimes it's kind of like

the uh the old Transformer comics, the Marvel

run. I was short by like 10 issues from having

the entire collection. And I know I've told this

on the poll bag before, but I had there was there

was 80 issues of the regular run. There was three

mini series and there was like a 12 issue. Generation

two line and Like a kind of encyclopedia of characters

comic series so I had all but like about 10 12

issues all together and It killed me because

I had to sell them for gas money. Oh This is

before I work at my current employer I worked

at McDonald's, so I didn't have any money And

this is so I could go to work and go home So

I had to sell them all and the sad thing is is

if I go into that comic shop to this day They

still have all the damn comics in there almost

all of them are there and they're overpriced

to the point that nobody's bought any of them

and I know they're mine because I had a certain

thing I did to some of the issues so At least

you know where you can go to get them. I can

get them. I just paid an obscene amount of money

to get them. I got about a third of the collection

back only because my brothers decided they didn't

want them anymore. Because everything that we

got it was always duplicates of something one

of the other one had. So I do have part of the

collection back. Micro machines. Micro machines

all those were so awesome. I have none of them

anymore, but I wish I did Yeah, I love I I really

like microman the last thing I remember collecting

for micro machines, and I know you'll you'll

you'll Jump right on board with this was Star

Trek Star Trek and Star Wars yes the ships yes

Man, I I know they had the one Like did all of

the enterprise ones do the saucer section or

was it just one particular? Version of it the

enterprise D. Well, I know that I know I'm talking

about like the micro machine Did they all do

the saucer separation or was there only one that

was made to come in two parts? Two of them did

the enterprise B and the enterprise D and that

was for the Star Trek generations line Okay Before

that they had a it was a 30 pack of ships and

it came with every ship that that they'd had

at that point Yep, like DS 9 it It wasn't generations.

They just had all the other ones but the only

because I had a lot of them separately the only

catch To make you get this set was this was the

only way you could get the enterprise a Micro

machine See, I don't even think that's why I

know the stuff that you're talking about because

I remember buying it. I don't think I bought

it for that reason. I think I just wanted to

get as many of the ships as I could as fast as

possible. So I bought more Star Wars stuff for

the Micro Machines. The reason being was because

my cousin had a train set in his basement that

he was working on. And the people, like you could

buy the little figures, like the Micro Machine

figures, they were like the perfect size to use

with his train set. So I bought packs of those

guys and had like squadrons and we would do like

little wars on his train set with all the, we

would, you know, buy the ships and I would, I'd

slowly buy like the same pack over and over and

over again so I could have squadrons. I don't

have any of them anymore. So much money wasted.

I don't have any of them anymore. I think I think

I know where some of the people are, but. So

much money wasted. But and of course, Legos,

but I still play with Legos. I still would, but

I just I don't have anywhere to put them. I do

still have the two. The the serious. It was like

from the old like 80s and Robots and like Mars

stuff yeah, and then they came out with like

the robos the robo -liner the robotech liner

robotron was black tron no Anyways, anyways,

they were like the orange and gray and black

We talked about this. Yeah, we talked about it

once when we did the live show Dang it And I

still have those two they're you know, they're

in bags But I because part of them broke but

I could probably still put them together even

though I don't have the instructions Those are

the only two I'm not going to give to my son

Because probably around the time he gets into

Legos I'm gonna pull those back out and put them

back together and put them on my shelf See, when

I say I play with LEGOs now, I don't play with

them like I did when I was a kid. Oh, I know.

You just buy them to build them, to have them

on display. And display them like models. My

dad would go and buy an Urdle kit when I was

younger, and he would spend his nights building

those. I buy LEGO kits and do that for myself.

I don't glue them together or anything like that.

However, I'm still trying to find a way to display

it. I have a LEGO ship that I built custom. It

was the last LEGO thing that I built. From my

brain Is still together In my garage right now,

and it's been together for about 16 or 17 years

And so I'm still looking for a way to display

that because it's a really cool thing, but I

have no way of showing it to people Other toys

man like I had all the he -man figures I had

all of those. I used to have almost all of them.

I don't remember having a lot of Transformers

figures. I remember having a lot of Go -Bot figures.

I do remember having Optimus Prime. And this

is not quite like obviously I was in high school

when I did this but I had all the the first generation

of Beast Wars As did I slightly slightly bummed

I don't have those anymore I don't have any of

those anymore, but I've also like some of them.

I've managed to get the Like the remastered versions

so, okay We've got like the the toys that we

you know, we wish we still had or that we you

know That is like lost. Is there anything that

like are there any of these toys that I know

we talked about your comics and that you sold

and stuff like that But is there anything like

you would consider? Like collecting again like

there when I'm when I'm out like I said We talked

about at the beginning of this when I found that

copy of Chrono Trigger. Like when I go to an

old video game store, there are certain video

games that I look for because I want another

copy of them. And I just look to see if they

have it. And if it's I deem it to be the right

price, I'll buy it again. Is there anything from

like your childhood that you would that you regularly

look for? Like you said, the Batmobiles and stuff

like that. or anything that you would like to

start collecting again if you could? I honestly

I look for a lot of times I look for the certain

Batman figures or I look for I'm trying to think

what I've been trying to because I've got this

like itch you can call it where I like to try

and Find figures that have to do with shows that

I like but I pick certain characters and then

I buy just those To try and have them all Like

I'm trying to collect some of the old Star Trek

figures I had from when they had the collections

of them Because I used to have every version

of Captain Kirk and the shorter action figure

line I want to collect some Dragon Ball Z figures

of certain characters but mostly I try and go

towards like a lot of the Beast Wars figures

either A used to have or B never could get. And

if I had the option of getting some of the bigger

figures or bigger toys, I would probably get

a couple Batmobiles and maybe some of the shuttle

crafts and Star Trek ships. Because I used to

have a lot of those, too. I actually used to

have all the shuttle crafts. I used to have all

the Star Trek ships that were the full size,

kind of, you know, like foot long ships. Right.

My friend used to have the shuttle. from the

Enterprise D. I had that up until probably about

five years ago. I sold it at a pawn shop. But

I destroyed a lot of these toys when I was a

kid with like markers and stuff, so. Oh, destroying

toys. That's like a rite of passage. I don't

know. I would never deliberately destroy them

just to destroy them. I would I You could look

at it as the first form of modifying a toy, right?

It's like my first version of the Joker you made

for Batman Beyond. When I was a kid, obviously

Days of Thunder had come out and they released

these cars, little matchbox cars of all the...

The days of thunder the main cars that were in

days of thunder so like mellow yellow flow Exxon

And I I had all those cars and I had like the

racetrack that went with them and everything

and then eventually like one day I decided to

make the cars look like they do at the end of

the movie and so I took the cars and just like

Scrape them on the sidewalk or the driveway Scrape

the paint off of them like they had been actually

racing and rubbing up against each other nice

I did that to all of them and it to me that made

it look cool cooler. It was more fun to play

with them that way I remember when I had I Think

I think this might have been a little more Me

being delinquent with my toys or actually being

mean to them The Jurassic Park toys did you ever

have any of those? No Okay, they the vehicles

the the Ford Explorer and and the Jeep that came

with them there was I believe they said that

they were Indestructible to a certain point like

when they were once they were they were built

in such a way that once they were snapped together

It was almost impossible to get them apart again

hmm And one day, my cousin and I decided to put

said thing to the test. And we went down at my

house, we went down to the bottom of the driveway,

and you know, when you have a ditch, they lay

that pipe at the bottom of your driveway and

then they pave over it. Well, that slant of asphalt

going up to where the driveway is now flat, makes

a nice little ramp and My cousin and I we weren't

Yes in some degree you could say we were throwing

these things as high as we could into the air

But we weren't just like standing there and like

throwing them we were like crouched down in the

ditch the wheels were on the pavement and we

were like making them go as fast as we could

up the ramp launching them and they they never

broke they always came smashing back down into

the pavement and they never broke it. It was

it was bizarre. Yeah, they got like a little

dinged up because it's plastic and concrete,

but like the wheels never fell off of them. The

glass never glass, the plastic looking glass

never like popped out or anything like that.

It was quite remarkable. But I think that was

more me being malicious with my toys. Is there

a toy from? That from like your childhood that

you remember getting like as a like Like as a

reward or like a present that you were that you

remember that was like a favorite Or just like

a funny story or anything like that I have a

funny story. I've kind of already mentioned it

that Captain Kirk that with the Starfleet uniform

From the movies I actually got that one around

the time of Generations coming out And there

was a magazine that it was like the Star Trek

companion or communicator or something in it

It had like a holographic like cover to it and

I had that for years and then I don't know whatever

happened to it, but In order to get them The

bribe was I had to behave At the dentist office

while I was getting my cavity filled My first

cavity so They they said if you can sit still

and behave and do do this When you we leave you

can have these and I was like Okay And I did

and I got them mine I've got one and then we

can wrap this up. Mine was, I'm trying to remember,

okay, it was one of two things. I don't remember

which one it was because this kind of situation

happened twice in my life, but it was either

for the Trypticon Transformer. Oh wow. That was

either my reward or the Silverhawk's Jet. Do

you remember that? Silverhawks jet. No. Are you

familiar with the Silverhawks? I am familiar

with it. Okay, there was a jet that all five

of the figures could ride in. Rather large toy.

I feel like this story, I feel like the reward

for this story was the Silverhawks jet and not

the Tripticon. That's another story, but not

for today. My parents were trying to get me to

count to ten. for school and I wouldn't do it.

I was stubborn even as a small child like I just

I would not do it and my grandparents came to

visit and they sat down and you know my parents

told them they're having a hard time blah blah

blah blah and I really wanted that jet for Silverhawks

and my grandparents said okay they sat me down

and said okay if you count to ten We'll go get

you that we'll go get you that silver hawks thing

forgive me for not knowing the name listeners

And I said my mom tells it says I went One two

three four five six seven eight nine ten That's

a just exactly like that just matter of facts

And it wasn't I didn't know how to do it is that

I didn't want to do it until someone made it

interesting for me, so That's funny That's I

I tell that story every once in a while so I'm

not actually sure who's heard it or if I've ever

I said it on a podcast I've been around before

but it's one of my favorites so Give me a reason

to talk. Yeah, so All right. Well, thanks for

joining me Steve Obviously you do altered geek

unlimited for geek cast radio and Where can they

get anything you want to tell them or plug or

anything like that? Just check out the show on

GeekCastRadio .com and yeah, that's pretty much

it. And where can they find you if they want

to talk to you? I am most active on Twitter.

You can get a hold of me at scp21. Alright, and

I've been Michael Powers for Off the Cuff and

you can find me on Twitter at BoothNinja81. Thanks

for listening. you