Random Happenstance

No secret here: I love my toys. It's a hobby I approach much like a junkie--if my wife would let me sell blood for toys, I probably would. My cash flow varies between some and none, and so then do my toy buying habits. (I still have twinges, like a phantom limb, where I miss my old crap job where I got a discount on toys...which explains a lot of the stuff in my collection: a Spawn toy for $2.49 is hard to pass up, even if it is an unposeable lump.)

My wife, of course, hates the toys, the action figures, even the comics. Although I probably act like she hates them because she doesn't want me to have any joy in my life; she just doesn't like the clutter, and while I've never spent the mortgage money on Marvel Legends or foreign gashopon, she could see it happening. (Probably not, but still.) Aside from comics, though, toys are about the only thing I spend money on. I used to eat out a ton, drink like a cheap drunk, buy new CD's weekly, have a huge Coke at work every day, rent videos (I'm old, sod off), play video games...

A lot of those things have been phased out completely, or scaled back to where you can barely see them at all. I think I bought one CD last year (the new Depeche Mode, since I'm a slave to old habits) and my video game playing ground to a halt about the time the Youngest decided he could roll off a bed when I wasn't looking. (In my defense, he had pretty much been a lump up to that point! Lazy baby.) I did have more cash to throw around before marriage and kids, but then again pre-wife I wasn't paying for any niceties like mortgage, power, or insurance. (I lived in a friend's basement for several years, and had previously lived in my boss' basement a couple as well; so I was kinda 'off-the-grid' for a long stretch.)

Action figures had more or less got me off the sauce even before I was married: when it came down to a pitcher of domestic, a bar full of morons, and a blinding hangover caused by drinking out of said pitcher; or a toy, eventually I decided on the toy. You may laugh, but I never woke up covered in frost in a yard from buying toys, or walked ten miles home at four in the morning because I bought too many toys...I could do this all day, but I'm not sure I can count on my thumbs truly stupid things I've done for toys; while I could fill two blogs with dumbass, dangerous, and incriminating things I've done drunk. I freely admit some of those things were fun, but trust me, I'm better off with the toys. Much better.

Anyway, this year I decided in January to keep a running total of my action figure and toy purchases, which I did in a little yellow notebook kept next to my desk at work. (That was important, as I either would've lost it two months in if I had kept it at home, or my wife would've found it, said something snarky, and I would've quit keeping track.) In part this was to budget out my purchases--I didn't want to spend too much on, say, DC Direct, if the new Marvel Legends were coming down the line. It was also to see exactly how much I did spend on toys, and how bad my wife was going to murder me. (Luckily, I don't think she's ever read this, she's more of a perezhilton.com fan.)

Let's just get to the list, with almost no set format at all: The toy, possibly the line it's from, where purchased, and the price. Sometimes the price includes tax, sometimes it doesn't. And 'gashapon' is a Japanese term that refers to those little toys you get from vending machines, in my case regardless of origin. The majority of commentary is saved for the end.

1/1/06 Hulkbuster Iron Man ($8.99, Kmart)
1/9/06 Speedy, Aqualad, Red X Robin: $3.57 each, Teen Titans 5-inch, ToysRus closeout. $10.71
1/17/06 Scarlet Witch, $8.99 Kmart, DC Heroes Batman $9.99 Target
1/19/06 Figure Factory Nightcrawler, $6.99 Comic Book Shop, Battle Dice Nightcrawler $8.07 with postage, ebay.
1/27/06 Storm, Walmart $5.00, JLU Atom, Toysrus, $1.62.
2/6/06 Figure Factory Iron Man, Toysrus sale, $4.19.
2/8/06 Figure Factory Thing, Toysrus sale, $4.19
2/9/06 Iron Fist, $7.99 Target
2/11/06 Human Torch w/Impossible Man $7.99, Robin $5.39 Toysrus
2/13/06 Dr. Doom gashapon $1.00, Bruce Wayne bust .50, from Brokeback Mountain with the wife!
2/21/06 Jetfire and Evac (small) Transformers, $3.99 each, $7.98 (Plus some for the boy!)
2/24/06 Sasquatch, $7.99 Target
2/27/06 Nightcrawler Jollibee Kids Meal Toy, ebay $9.00
2/28/06 Taskmaster, $7.83 Walmart
3/1/06 Cartoon Network Capsule toys: Weird bear-brain thing, I think from Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, but not the main show, the backup...the hell? $0.50. Seriously, it's like a lobotomized Yogi Bear with a mad scientist brain stuck in him.
3/2/06 Captain America Kubrick $3.99, Boo Radley's
3/10/06 Darla from Buffy, $3.75, Hastings.
4/4/06 Batgirl from new Batman cartoon, $7.49, Man-Wolf (kept in package) $5.00, Target $12.49. Anime Girl, pilot from Grandizer? $12, the Comic Book Shop.
4/18/06 "Rondador Nocturno" Nightcrawler lead figure from Spain, $24 on ebay.
4/18/06 Titanium Battlestar Galactica Viper, $5.
4/25/06 Hobgoblin, Target $7.84
4/26/06 Diecast Venom, Thing, Dr. Doom $5.23 total, Target
4/29/06 DC Heroes Superman, Bizarro, Supergirl, total $29.97 Fred Mayer's.
4/30/06 The Goon, $5.99 Suncoast.
5/4/06 Cowboy (plastic), from son's birthday (5-3). Found Fisher-Price Lion, "Lucky": Lucky he didn't get run over in the parking lot, probably fell out of wife's Scion when she put the car seat in my car...(gave) back to youngest that afternoon.
5/4/06 Thor, Walmart $7.44, first of Giant-Man.
5/16/06 Marvel Legends Monster Boxset, Dracula, Zombie, Werewolf by Night, and Frankenstein's Monster: $32.41, Walmart.
5/18/06 Bane, w/Osito bear, $9.88 Walmart.
5/19/06 Titanium Battle-damaged Millenium Falcon, $4.99, Walmart.
5/25/06 Vector Prime small Transformer, $4.99, Fred Mayers (Plus one for the boy!)
5/25/06 DC Heroes Doomsday, $9.88 Walmart.
5/25/06 Spider-Hulk, $8.50 Target.
5/27/06 Puck, $3.50 (?) ebay.
5/30/06 Vending machine busts of Bane, Bruce Wayne, Batman. $1.00 at X3 with son!
6/5/06 Kitty Pryde, Warbird, Captain Britain: Walmart $25.51, four of ten for Giant-Man
6/6/06 Havok and Sentry, $17.01 Walmart, 6 of 10 Giant-Man
6/12/06 Ant-Man, $7.83 Walmart, 7 of 10 Giant-Man
7/3/06 Wonder Woman vending machine launcher, $.50, Shopco
7/6/06 Variant AofA Weapon X, $8.50 Walmart, 8 of 10 Giant-Man
7/11/06 Green Lantern, Flash, Batman vending machine launchers, $1.50, Shopco
7/27/06 Megamorphs Captain America and Ghost Rider (GR for son!), Centipede handheld, Target, total $10.82.
8/1/06 Happy Birthday! Megamorphs Ghost Rider for me, $3.74, Target; Shade and Batman vml's, $1.00 Shopco.
8/2/06 Hawkgirl, vml $.50, Shopco
8/4/06 Marvel Battle Dice Starter (Spidey, Wolvie, Doc Ock, Ultron) from Target, Superman and 2 GL vml's Shopco: Total $4.13.
8/12/06 Yard sale toys, including Enterprise-E. $1.50
8/15/06 Flash, Batman vml's again, $1.00, Shopco.
8/17/06 Megamorph Iron Man, Walmart $16.00.
8/19/06 More yard sale toys: small Spidey and He-Man, TMNT villain, and others for the boys: $1.00.
8/31/06 DC Direct Gotham by Gaslight Batman, Comic Book Shop $15.95.
9/22/06 DC Heroes Scarecrow $2.70, Flash vml $.50, Shopco.
10/5/06 Ultimate Nightcrawler $7.56, Target.
10/7/06 to 10/12/06 Toy backlog! Madjack (Spider-Man villain) $7.83, 2 Ultimate Nightcrawlers $6.99 each, Falcon $7.83: Walmart, total $29.64.
10/13/06 7 Curious George capsule toys, from Departed with wife! $1.00.
10/17/06 Psylocke, Target $7.89; Wasp, Beta Ray Bill, and Spider-Woman, Walmart $27.50, 3 of 6 for MODOK.
10/19/06 Abomination, $8.99 Kmart.
10/20/06 Curious George, Shark Tale (random) capsules, $1.00 at Marie Antoinette with wife!
10/21/06 Old school Conan, Fairgrounds yard sale visiting wife, $3.00.
10/28/06 Knockoff Optimus Prime, $1.00 Dollar store with the kids.
10/30/06 Moon Knight and Captain Marvel (standards) and candy, Walmart $19.01, 5 of 6 for MODOK.
11/22/06 Corgi 90's Batmobile, $7.44, Walmart.
Total as of 12/01/06: $551.48, average $50.13 a month

12/16/06 Batman/Batgirl DC Heroes pack, $14.99 Target (split, Bats for Ky, Babs for me)
12/18/06 Pre-Christmas rampage: Figure Factory Nightcrawler, $3.50 Kmart (to keep in package), Speed Racer classic Mach 5 ($1.00, Dollar Tree, crap wheels), Marvel Gashapon: Nightcrawler, Iron Man, Hulk, Doc Ock, $4.00; plus various toys for the kids and one for Toys for Tots!
12/19/06 More Marvel Gashapon: another Nightcrawler, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Punisher...an assload of dupes...say $12.
12/22/06 2 more Nightcrawlers and a Kong, $3. Thorbuster Iron Man, $7.83, 6 of 6 for MODOK.
12/25/06 Merry Christmas! The Wife got me the X-Wing Transformer.
12/26/06 Clark Kent/Superman DC Heroes 2-Pack, $10.53, Target. (Clark for me, Supes for the boy.)
12/28/06 Dr. Doom Figure Factory, $2.48, Target
December to date, $59.33, YTD $610.81

Well, it looks like a lot put like that, doesn't it? Maybe. But for comparison purposes, if you have a latte every morning, five days a week for 52 weeks at three bucks a pop, that would be $780. (I drink the cheapest drip coffee I can get, which I guestimate runs me about $5.69 every couple of months.) Or, back at the crap job, I had a refill of Coke (85 cents, vanilla and diet mixed) every morning and usually one later in the day, but even one a day would add up to $221 a year.

Does this sound like I'm trying to justify my habit? Maybe. But I like the army of toys surrounding my little cube at work. I like being able to put the Justice League and the Avengers on the same shelf. And I like making stupid little cartoons with my toys and letting my sons throw Hulkbuster Iron Man and Superman at Spider-Hulk. So, even if I had spent the gross national product of Paraguay on toys; I'd still be OK with it.

I am doubtless missing at least one or two. Also, sometimes I've counted toys for my sons, sometimes I haven't. I just picked up two of the last Spidey and Friends toys up for the youngest's birthday next week, for instance, but I left those off this time. You might also have noticed a ream of Toys R Us purchases (sorry, I can't do the little backwards R) early in the year, then not so many: the store nearest me closed and converted to a Babies R Us, a sight that still makes me choke like an EC Comics character every time I see it. (Yes, I have a baby--infant?--toddler?, but I already have all the baby stuff he needs.) The other location is a pain to get to, and hasn't come through for me very often.

The most expensive single purchase was the Marvel Monsters Box Set, but that was four figures, which comes to $8.10 a piece. That's probably cheaper than separate Legends.

After that was the lead Nightcrawler figure, and if you have a better idea how to get that one, I'd love to hear it! Several of my Nightcrawler figures are from ebay, even on the domestics, usually because I'm too impatient to find them myself, and sometimes because it would be too hard. I have the Nightcrawler Battledice figure from ebay, for example, because those were blind-packed, and I more than likely would've had to buy box after box with no guarantee of ever getting it. End result: on my desk at work are Nightcrawler toys from the Phillipines, the UK, Spain, and Japan...all probably made in China, but even so. I didn't include the Nightcrawler bust, since that was a gift, and strictly speaking not a toy.

I didn't see Boo Radleys, Hastings, or Suncoast represented on the list as often as expected; considering I do go to those stores fairly regularly. I've just dropped a lot of the McFarlane-style toys, the more expensive movie licensed figures, DC Direct, etc. Again, I used to get a discount on those, and have grown too accustomed to paying $8 or $9 for a figure (often with a comic, accessories, and joints) instead of $15 or $17 (with nothing but a vague, burned sensation). Also, the selection at Suncoast and especially Hastings is sometimes spotty; and often cherry-picked of the good stuff. Usually I'll get DC Direct from the Comic Book Shop if at all, but at $16 a pop it had better be a good one. (Sadly, I think the last few DC Direct figures I've bought have been variant Batmans, and while I like them, I miss when they did more random choices. I bought Kilowog last year, I guess.) That's not to say I'm not biting my fist over not getting the V for Vendetta or new Army of Darkness and Bubba Ho-Tep figures, though.

The Titanium Millenium Falcon was the only Star Wars toy I bought this year? Incredible. Still, while I loved loved loved my little 3 3/4 inch toys when I was 6, they seem tiny and spendy now. The last one I bought, and don't laugh, was the Cloud Car Pilot last year. Had to break my ass finding it, too...what? Look, I had the old one as a kid and I completely identify with a background character who has to wear a horrible helmet to work. Shut up, that's why!

The Thorbuster Iron Man was an ok figure, but I was holding out for the Destroyer, of Thor fame. In the end, I couldn't resist getting the last piece I needed for the MODOK build-a-figure; and I'm pretty glad I didn't. The astute toymongers among you may have noticed I never got the Walmart wave Age of Apocalypse Weapon X or Sabertooth, which means my Giant-Man BAF is missing his feet. Meh. I just don't like either one enough to cough up $8.50 a foot. Anyway, he's tall enough; put him in back and no one will notice.

Also on the short list of Figures I wanted in 2006 but didn't get: Kang and Dragon Man, from the Fantastic Four line. Distribution on those were not so great, and I never saw any from that line. Recent discussion on oafe.net backs that up, and I'm not ready to bid on them on ebay, since I'm hoping they'll get reissued some day. I would have also liked the Marvel Select Thanos, but that was spendier than a DC Direct if I recall, and I'm not sure I ever saw one in person either.

Enough. Here's hoping for an even better new year, and may all your toy hunting be successful. Unless you live in my neighborhood, in which case, take up stamps or something.