Monday, June 4, 2018

Toys And Model Kits For A Grown-up Boy


I primarily collect comic books and books about comic books.
 
Having written Collectors’ Corner going on 27 years one can imagine all of the review items I have in my collection.

There are comic books, books, model kits, toys, trading cards and so forth.  It’s quite an extensive collection. 

I never set out to have so much stuff, it just happened.

Still, there are a few items I wish I had.  They are toys and model kits I had when I was young and wished I had never parted with.  And there are a few toys from my later years I want simply because they are associated with two TV shows that I like: M.A.S.H. and Magnum P.I.

Having grown up the youngest of four boys I spend most of my childhood as a single child.  Primarily because my brothers we so much older than me that they had grown-up, married and moved out by the time I was five years old.

That left Mom and I.

I never was much for sports or activities that involved a lot of other people.  I tended to stay to myself and draw, read, build things and watch TV.  I had few good friends with similar interests.

It should come as no surprise that since I did not have a dad or a strong male role-model around each day that I gravitated to strong male TV and movie figures.


When I was around 10 years old the The Man From U.N.C.L.E. series premiered on TV.  I was hooked-even so far as making my own miniature spy gadgets. 

One Christmas my mother bought me The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Napoleon Solo Gun.  I loved it and played with it every day.  It’s #1 on my ‘want’ list.




Since I liked the spy genre it was a natural progression to the ultimate spy series: James Bond.  I had a number of James Bond toys ranging from his famous Attaché Case to the die-cast figures and play sets created around the time of Goldfinger.  Want #2. 


Want #3 is the AMT Star Trek model kit that included the Tricorder, Communicator and Phaser from the original TV series.

The Aurora Superhero And Movie/TV Figures were my favorite model kits and they rank in at #4.


Moving up to my young adult years I had two TV series from the 1970s and 1980s that I still enjoy watching the repeats of until this day: M.A.S.H. and Magnum P.I.


Wants #5 and #6 are the M.A.S.H. Action Figures And Military Base.


You can’t get more macho then Thomas Magnum, the star of the Magnum P.I. TV series. Not many toys were produced for the series but there is one I definitely want and that is the Magnum P.I. Car And Action Figure toy clocking in at Want #7.

There are other toys I’d like to have, but these are the ones I ‘really’ want.  I have managed to get a Magnum P.I. die cast Ferrari and one of the M.A.S.H. figures.  

Who knows?  Perhaps someday I get all the rest of the toys and model kits on my want list.