NOTE: All links in this article are to vintage toy commercials. Prepare the relive my childhood… I mean, that is what I spend most of my time trying to do!
When I was a kid, I mean like elementary school, back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s my little brother and I had a bunch of cool toys. We grew up in the post-Star Wars toy era which also happened to be the second action figure explosion. Where the popularity of the original 12” GI Joe had led to Captain Action, Major Matt Mason, Mego licensed figures and more, the Kenner Star Wars action figures launched a 3 and 3/4th inch revolution which extended to Fisher Price’s Adventure People and, of course, the GI Joe: A Real American Hero line. But Star Wars also brought an tsunami of science fiction toys. We had Battlestar Galactica toys (the Viper, the Cylon Raider and the really lame wheeled thing with a Viper front section…), Space 1999 disc shooters (the plastic discs were basically the “stun” setting… pennies were our preferred ammunition) and I remember desperately wanting the Eagle and Moonbase Alpha action figures. Another spaceship I was obsessed with was Milton Bradley’s Star Bird. It was so incredibly cool because its rocket engine noise changed as you moved the ship! And its lasers could actually shoot at targets! Don’t take my word for it, check out this commercial. Sadly, I never got either.
Two great science fiction lines we did have some toys from were Mattel’s Shogun Warriors and Micronauts from Mego. Although very different toys from established US companies, both of these lines were actually from Japan. Shogun Warriors were a series of robots (plus Godzilla and Rodan) licensed from Popy, a division of Bandai, with all designs originating in well known manga and anime of the day. When I say well known, I mean in Japan! Shogun Warriors came in three basic sizes: a 3” series, a 5” series, both die-cast metal, and giant 24” plastic figures which shot missiles, fighter planes, buzz saws, battle axes and, in the case of Raydeen (which my brother and I both had) a big plastic fist. Later there were die-cast toys which transformed from robot to vehicle (years before Gobots or Transformers came to America). Micronauts were a license of Takara’s Microman toys which featured mainly transparent and chromed plastic 3 and 3/4” figures. They had interchangeable accessories which often connected to a small hole in the back (like the 3 3/4″ GI Joe backpacks). They also had vehicles and bases with interchangeable parts allowing for a near infinite ability to customize the toys… you were only limited by how many toys you owned. There was also a line of Magno Micronauts, die cast robotic looking armored warriors and their mounts with magnetic joints and interchangeable accessories and weapons. They shot plastic missiles, too (because all the best toys were dangerous). I am pretty sure their fists shot off, too. We co-opted the two lines into a single, frantic storyline with the 24” Raydeen Shogun Warriors becoming the ultimate weapons of our Micronaut factions (and sometimes the giant gods they worshipped… I am pretty sure I had seen Zardoz by the time I was seven).
Eventually, I believe all of these toys were passed along to younger cousins along with our Star Wars and GI Joe toys. Then they all faded into the mists of history. Let us pause for a moment of silence to remember my toys and how extremely cool they were.
It is probably not a spoiler alert to reveal I love toys. I really never stopped buying toys… I am 51 years old and I still buy Lego sets (I doubt there has been a year in the last 45 or so which has not seen me buying a Lego set or six). I visit the toy aisle of every single store I enter. There are no less than three Nintendo systems within reach as I type this article… Oh, no, make that four. My Nintendo collection is a discussion for another time. Although I look back with nostalgia to Star Wars toys and my old GI Joe stuff, I am content to leave them in my childhood. I can’t really make the same claim for all my old toys!
A few years ago, when Gerry Anderson the creator and producer of Space 1999 passed away you could literally buy one of the Eagle studio models from his estate cheaper than the action figure sized Eagle toy (in the original box) I wanted for Christmas. Needless to say, I still don’t have an Eagle! There is a real lesson to be learned there: rebuilding (and completing) your childhood toy collection is an expensive proposition. But why should that stop us?
A while ago (maybe two years ago or so) I decided I really, really needed to finally get a Milton Bradley Star Bird. I wanted one so badly back in the day and I think what jumpstarted my interest was finding some Star Bird inspired miniatures while picking up spaceships for tabletop war games. Star Birds are not cheap, but I managed to pick up a few pieces on eBay which were in my budget. While searching for those I looked for the 24” Shogun Warriors and they were insanely expensive… I have literally paid less for used cars! But the desire for Shogun Warriors and Micronauts remained and the search (on a budget) continued.
I am not above visiting thrift stores and garage sales for old toys. My wife was a serious and dedicated garage saler for a long time, especially when she had to find supplies for her woefully underfunded urban elementary school classrooms. She has come home and presented me with $5 boxes of Raspberry Pi boards and accessories and one time announced she had spend “a lot of money” ($20) on something that I better say I loved even if it was stupid… She had found me a working Nintendo Virtual Boy with two controllers and three games. I did not need to pretend I loved it!
But the truth is, I don’t really expect to find any of the old toys I want at a garage sale or Goodwill. Since most of these toys haven’t been on the shelves of retail stores for about 45 years it would be a pretty major stroke of luck to find anything that way. I am resigned to the fact eBay, dedicated collectible toy dealers and other collectors are my best bets. Since I constantly travel for my “grown up job” I am able to look for collectible toy stores (and used book stores and comic book stores and game shops) across the country. And I have plenty of hotel downtime to scour eBay when I have a little extra cash. The key is staying within my budget but I have been pretty good about it thanks to a few decisions I have made about my collecting.
First, I want nice toys but not pristine toys. I have pretty much given up on finding any of these with original boxes, much less still in their original packaging. Some distant day if I find a Shogun Warriors Godzilla in an unopened box and have the disposal income to drop on it, I probably would buy it. But I might not. I can’t say I am going to run around and play with these toys the way I would have back in 1978 but I can say I want to see them, not display packaging, and actually handle them. If I have grandchildren some day, I might want to even play with them again. Ironically, I have purchased some modern toys which I do keep unopened and simply displayed. I also picked up a nice Star Bird Intruder, the “bad guy” in the toy line, with its original box. It was not complete (ie it did not have the directions) but the box was in good condition and since I was able to grab it for about the price of a good Star Bird Intruder without a box I jumped on it. I might end up trading the box in the future. But when it comes to vintage toys my focus is the toy, not the packaging!
Second, I am starting small. In the case of Shogun Warriors, I mean that literally. Although I was probably aware of the smaller, die-cast toys when I was 6 they were not really on my mind when I set out looking for Shogun Warriors. While researching the line I ran across the smaller figures and some research showed a decent 3” piece was WAAAAY cheaper than a decent 24” figure. By way cheaper I mean about $15 to $30 as opposed to $700 or $800! Some day I want all the Shogun Warriors but for now I am sticking with the smaller figures. I am applying this same strategy to my search for Micronauts, by the way, looking for the single plastic figures but so far I have not acquired anything in that line.
Another strategy I am using I refer to as the “OPAAT” method. I don’t know if you are familiar with the 1976 song “One Piece At A Time” by Johnny Cash (it was his last number one on the country charts), but it is about a guy who worked for years at a car factory. When he retired he ended up with a car built out of all the small parts he had snuck out of the factory over the years. While Johnny’s car was a Frankenstein vehicle with two different headlights from two different model years, I am trying to get all the correct parts for toys. But I do not need to buy complete toys. I am fine with the idea of getting a 5” die cast Shogun Warrior or a Micronaut vehicle for a good price that is missing some of the accessories (like those plastic missiles) and then finding replacement parts separately. I have purchased the “cockpit” of a Star Bird, which held the electronics and detached from the main body of the toy, just because it had working electronics and the stickers were in good shape even though most of the toy was missing.
I am also fine, by and large, with not acquiring instructions or bonus comics which may have been included in original packaging. I am just not that terribly interested in the ephemera, with the exception of catalogs. If I had chance to grab a cheap Micronauts toy catalog, for example, I would. It would be for research purposes as much as collecting purposes.
I am also willing to trade with other toy collectors. This means I am willing to buy multiple pieces I already own just for trade. It also means I am willing to jump on a great deal for things I don’t really collect just to offer in trade. Even though I have never owned a PSP, I have snatched up a few PlayStation Portable games in the past for a few dollars simply to trade away for games I did want. Right now I don’t have a huge reserve of toys to trade, but I am slowly building up my barter stock!
My last strategy is a little hard to explain and it kind of varies by toy line. It is kind of rooted in the old “restoration versus original condition” debate. Some things I am willing to leave as I found them, other than some minor cleaning, but not always. I have two 3” Shogun Warriors (Mazinga and Dragun) which I have cleaned. Both figures have chipped paint, which I can live with, and their metallic stickers are faded and scratched. I have purchased replacement metallic tape but I have yet to apply it to either. Right now I am happy with these little guys as they are but that could change. However, some things cry out for more than just simple clean up or restickering when it comes to restoration.
For example, I found a really cheap Milton Bradley Star Bird with most, but not all, of the pieces and working electronics for really, really cheap. At some point it had been dropped (or thrown), cracked and glued back together. Over the years the glue had yellowed at a very different rate than the white plastic body. Pure collectors would have considered this piece junk only worth purchasing to crack open and harvest the original electronics for some future restoration project.
I decided to buy this highly damaged toy. The body, though scarred by glue, was intact. The detachable engine was included although the gun turret and other detachable pieces were not. Still, I was able to acquire the damaged Star Bird for a few dollars (less than $20 including shipping). My plan is not to “restore” the toy because it will never be able to be restored to anything near its original condition. Instead I am going to clean the plastic, then sand the glue down where it is lumpy and fill in the gaps left by the cracks. Once the plastic body is in good physical condition I will paint it even though the Star Bird was not a painted toy.
I am going to treat this Star Bird almost as if it was a model kit or display. I will paint the body white since the plastic is irrevocably stained by the glue, add details and then paint the detachable pieces. Because I am not restoring it to the original issue condition I am not worried about finding original replacement parts. Instead I plan on using my 3D resin printer to make new wingtip pieces, a new gun turret and battery cover. I have already sourced modern vinyl replacement stickers for the Star Bird and am trying to decide between recreating the sticker images with paint or simply using the new replacement stickers. My Star Bird Intruder (that bad guy ship I mentioned before) is in very nice shape but has a few scratched up stickers. I plan on removing the original stickers, cleaning the black plastic body and then applying modern recreation stickers to bring that toy to a “like new” condition, essentially restoring it. Some collectors would argue the new stickers have ruined its value and I am fine with that. I just want it to look cool!
While this approach might not work for every toy, there are certainly many toys which can easily be disassembled and rebuilt. Most of the 3 and 3/4″ GI Joe, for example, are more or less held together by a screw located in the hole in their back where the backpacks mount. Arms with broken thumbs (the most common GI Joe injury by far) can easily swap out the limb for one in better shape from another figure suffering from scratched/missing paint or a broken leg. While some toys are almost impossible to take apart others are even easier to disassemble than the Real American Hero.
The thing about collecting is that different collectors have very different goals. Some are like historians or museum curators and want everything to be as original and pristine as possible. Others are toy doctors who want to restore these beloved old pieces. And some are just big kids who want to play with everything they acquire. There is no right way to do it although a little research, from learning the going prices for pieces to finding out how to tell vintage pieces from re-issues, is going to help any collector! The main thing, especially when it comes to collecting toys, is to find the things that make you happy.