Losing a monster collection, and getting it back

If you were a regular visitor to this blog then you probably knew that I collected various things. These included foreign, and domestic comic books, comic book toys (especially Hulk figures), Japanese video game magazines, sneaker books, vinyl basketball figures, Wonder Eggs ephemera, and of course Oswald the Lucky Rabbit merchandise. One of the things that I used to collect were monster truck magazines. In fact I used to have a massive library of 4x4 magazines, skateboard magazines, and US video game magazines.

Unfortunately almost 20 years ago Southern California experienced a series of freak rainstorms that lasted for weeks on end. Some of my collection was in my bedroom, but a good portion was also stored in my parent’s garage. I didn’t realize at the time that there was a leak in the garage roof, directly over where I kept most of my magazines. It not only dripped directly onto my magazines, but it also pooled on the garage floor, where most of my books were sorted in cardboard boxes. By the time I learned what had happened I had lost decades of issues, including the first hundred or so copies of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Game Pro, and Gamefan.

By a miracle the rarer Japanese issues that I owned managed to stay dry. After the storms passed my family rented a dumpster. My brothers, and I helped empty out the garage, throwing away piles of disintegrating paper. My mom would have the garage torn down, and rebuilt. I began sorting, and organizing the things that survived. I put them in a storage unit where they remained for years and years. I was genuinely heartbroken over what I had lost. I didn’t bother trying to build the monster magazine collection again. In fact I didn’t want to look or think about anything monster truck related for years after. I mentioned how I broke out of that cycle in 2019 when a monster truck jumped over a flying plane. Some people outgrew the things they loved as kids. Not me, from the moment I saw my first monster truck I was hooked. My friends, and family learned to live with my obsession. Remember the story about how I was more excited to play a monster truck arcade game than go on any rides at a local theme park? When I say I was a fan I meant it.

My parents always supported our interests. While they bought my brothers toys, I begged them for a subscription to Four Wheeler Magazine. They were happy that I was a voracious reader, more important they appreciated how well we took care of the things they bought. My brothers, and I were aware how hard they both worked. They gave us the advantages they didn’t have growing up. We saw them go without just to make ends meet. So we took good care of every present we got. In fact we still had some of the toys, and comics we grew up with. At the end of the year we would give some of the toys we had outgrown to cousins, nieces, and nephews in the US, and Mexico. In my case I gave up entire Hot Wheel track sets, and dozens of cars that I had held onto for years. For my little brother he gave up folders of Pokemon cards, which in hindsight could have been a downpayment to a house. The gifts also included our BMX bikes as we entered our teen years. We knew that things were sometimes tough for our extended family. We were fortunate enough to help.

Quality monster truck toys were hard to come by when I was growing up. For the longest time all we had were Hot Wheel trucks, which were good, but not real monsters. Then one day the gods smiled on us. The Super Chargers by Matchbox set the bar that wouldn’t be topped for years. They were roughly the same scale as Hot Wheels, about 1:64. They had the trademark oversized Goodyear tires, and axels with a little give so you could roll over your toy cars. They debuted in 1985-1986 and featured a who’s-who of the monster pioneers. These included Bigfoot, USA-1, Awesome Kong II, Fly-N-Hi, Mad Dog II, Rollin’ Thunder, and Taurus. Over the following years Matchbox would add more trucks, and even pulling sleds to the lineup. These other monsters were completely made up. I’m sure an accountant at Matchbox said they could save money on licensing costs by creating their own lineup. These included cars, trucks, and jeeps with names like Bog Buster, Hawk, Toad, Doc, and So High. My parents were willing to get me one of these cars each time we visited Toys R Us. Again, I was grateful for their generosity. I’m sure they were happy that we were content with Hot Wheels, and never asked about the U.S.S. Flagg for our G.I. Joes.

As the ‘80s went on more, and more monster truck toys started popping up, and even monster-adjacent trucks started appearing. For example my older brother was an avid collector of Legos. He’d been a fan since the late 1970’s. In my lifetime I only collected a few sets. Some of which were the first lifted trucks produced by the company. I remember my brother’s excitement when he found them. He pulled me to the toy aisle to show me. A little red, white, and blue truck called the 4-Wheelin’ Truck from 1987. Then in 1988 he found the black Road and Trail 4x4 which was even larger, and clearly the first monster produced by the company. Just out of curiosity I jumped on eBay to see what the trucks were going for today. The white one was around $20 including the box. I was shocked to see that the Road and Trail boxed set ran for around $260. This made me more grateful that I took good care of my toys, even if most of them were still in the garage. Looking back on the ones I collected it frustrated me was that the Bigfoot Matchbox toy was never on the shelves. I searched at every toy store for years, but I could never find the iconic blue Ford. That was the one that I always wanted. I had to settle for some of the generic monsters, and a couple of the named ones. I still respected the vehicles in my collection because they were groundbreakers.

Taurus was a popular truck. It became a legend for crushing busses. By the mid ‘80s people knew that monster trucks could easily crush cars. In order to stand out the drivers had to get more creative. Jack Wilman the builder / driver of Taurus decided to run his crimson painted monster over two school busses tucked side-by-side. It was super dangerous considering that in order to reach that height the truck first had to roll over some cars, and then crawl up to the roofs of the busses. You might know that bus roofs were not reinforced. So the almost six-ton monster truck would flatten the roofs, and create a shaky platform. Mr. Wilman would then have to get off the other end without falling off sideways. He could have easily injured himself, and wrecked his truck in the process. It was a spectacular stunt that was rarely performed by any other monster. Then there was the first monster van Rollin’ Thunder. This bright orange van was actually a local legend. The owner / builder / driver was Jim Oldaker. He was out of Redondo Beach. I would often see the van parked at a shop in Wilmington California. I never got a picture with the van because I assumed it would always be there. These two Matchbox monsters went everywhere with me. They were especially fun to play with in the playground, and beach. The big wheels rolled right over the sand whereas all my Hot Wheels would sink right in. I was super-happy with the Matchbox toys, then one Christmas I got the greatest present a kid could ask for. My very own Bigfoot from Playskool toys.

The rest of the toy industry was learning that monster trucks were not a fad. They had captured the imagination of the entire nation. They appeared in movies, and on television. There were news reports, and magazine articles on the movement. Kids were especially drawn to them. We couldn’t get enough of the awesome machines. Toy companies were scrambling to create new 4x4 products. Then they had to figure out how to market these trucks to the masses. It was an easy sell to me, however some people needed to understand what these giant trucks were all about. Playskool, or rather their parent company Hasbro learned that they could feature Bigfoot in a cartoon show. These shows were wildly successful ads for their other toy lines including Jem and the Holograms, Inhumanoids, Transformers, and G.I. Joe. In the cartoon series the fictional Yank Justice was the driver of Bigfoot. He was the star of a traveling crew called the Muscle Machines. This team had sled pulling cars, and trucks like the Orange Blossom Special, War Lord, and Black Gold. They were putting on shows all over the country when they got involved in a mystery adventure.

The series was animated by the same studios that worked on G.I. Joe, and voiced by the same cast. It was a cheesy series that managed to make sure that each character got a chance to shine. I think this was the part that studios didn’t really understand about the culture. The trucks were the draw at the sled pulling events, mud bog, and hill climbs at stadium shows, and county fairs. Each vehicle had its own personality. They all had unique bodies, suspensions, tires, and power plants. No two performed the same. More important each truck built their own fan base. It was apparent in the Knight Rider TV series that the robot car K.I.T.T. was more than the co-star of the show. The episodes that revolved around vehicle opponents like K.A.R.R., the Juggernaut, and Goliath were the most memorable ones. In a similar fashion the best parts of the Bigfoot cartoon was watching the truck go up against combine harvesters, steam rollers, and the fictional monster trucks Grave Roller, and Barbarian. I had a feeling that if the series had been more encounters like that, and less mystery adventure like a G.I. Joe then it would have been picked up for another season.

When our parents moved us out of our tiny apartment in Downtown Long Beach into a house in North Long Beach our toys, comics, and magazines came along. When I didn’t have anything to read I would walk to the local 7-11 to buy issues of Off-Road, and also 4Wheel & Off-Road magazine. This was through the mid ‘80s, and early ‘90s. You could now imagine how many issues of that era were lost. Monster trucks meant a lot to me all through my childhood, through my formative years, and into adulthood. While I gave up a lot of toys to my nieces, and nephews, I never stopped loving monster trucks That was why I was devastated when my collection was wiped out. I learned to accept the loss, and be grateful with what was preserved. Years later I got married, went through various moves. Including a period where we didn’t have a permanent residence. Eventually we were able to get some stable housing. By the grace of God I was able to bring the collection out of storage, and move it into a new garage (with a better roof). My family noticed that my mental health improved when I brought my Japanese game magazines into the house. My wife, and kid encouraged me to start collecting again. The library felt incomplete because it lacked the extensive 4x4 library that I once owned. So I decided that would become my focus.

I started rebuilding the library in earnest. It took almost 15 years by the time I wrote this blog to talk about it. I would pick up back issues on eBay. Sometimes I would get an entire lot of 10 or 20 off road issues at a time for very little. I’d toss the ones that didn’t have monster features in the recycle bin, or pull out single pages for my scrapbook wherever there was a short article. Sometimes I would go months without seeing anything worth collecting. Then there were greedy sellers asking too much for single issues. I kept to my budget, and waited them out. Every now, and then someone would sell the same rare issues for a few bucks, and that’s when I would move. By my estimation I managed to get back about 95% of the titles that I originally owned. I was missing scores of posters. Again greedy sellers were gutting poster books, and trying to sell individual posters for absurd prices. So I passed on all of those. The biggest surprise was that I managed to land books, and magazines that I never owned as a kid. I had an entire chronology of the birth of the monster truck movement in the early ‘80s, all the way to the creation of the Monster Jam tour in the ‘90s, and even the rise of the mega truck generation in the 2000’s. As an illustrator I had a resource library that I could go to for every era, and type of truck, engine, suspension, and angle that you could imagine. I was very proud of what my family helped me rebuild. As with everything I owned it was a slow, and steady process.

Speaking of rebuilding. When I couldn’t find any back issues then I would hunt for physical toys. Since our apartment was tiny I wanted something small that wouldn’t take up much space. Preferably something that would fit on my desk. It would be nice to have something that I could look at every day while I was working from home. I already had a number of items on my desk to remind me of my passions. Things like skate tools, fantasy coins, a Big the Cat figurine, a Laboon gashapon, a Neo Geo Pocket Color, and a Michael Lau figure. These were things that I could pick up, study, and play with while I was on break. The only thing missing were some vehicles. At first I thought about picking up some of the recent model quality trucks. GreenLight Collectibles launched the Kings of Crunch series in April 2020. These were first generation, and some second generation monsters in the traditional 1:64 scale. They were absurdly detailed, with realistic interiors (including cupholders!), and undercarriages. The quality of each build was well above the standard Hot Wheels toy. No disrespect to Mattel, but these were gorgeous models that you could proudly display. Although I was tempted to invest heavily in the line I decided to only get a couple of trucks. Those being Bigfoot V, and Bigfoot VII, the ones that had the 10-foot tires.

In addition to the Greenlight models there were tons of monsters in the toy aisles, however there was only one line that I really wanted to return to. I jumped on eBay, and searched for the original Super Chargers. You could already guess which was the first one that I picked up. After 40 years I finally had my own Matchbox Bigfoot! Then I worked backwards to pick up the other real world trucks. USA-1, Awesome Kong II, Fly-N-Hi, Mad Dog II, and Rollin’ Thunder. My original Taurus truck was somewhere in the garage, so I would eventually add it to the desk as well. It turned out that a lot of monster truck toys came, and went after I lost my original magazine collection. I’ll talk about picking those up in a future blog. Did you have something you loved, and lost? Were you able to get it back? Tell me in the comments section. As always if you enjoyed this blog, and would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Married to the Sea, part 1 - A 1UP classic from February 6, 2008

Hey there friends, now don't get all bothered about the title of this series. I really didn't go out and get married, but if you'd like to send me wedding gifts then I'd gladly accept them. This blog series deals with my fetish fascination with the sea. It all goes back a long time ago, before some of the peeps on 1UP were even born. All my life I've been a fan of vehicles. Cars, trucks, trains and planes fascinated me. My mom says one of my first words was "train" for every time I saw one I'd point and say "ten, ten." Of all the vehicles in the world I hold a particular interest in ships and submarines. It must have something to do with being born and raised in Long Beach. The Queen Mary was always on the horizon, the Port of Long Beach was just across the LA River and the beach even nearer. The creatures of the sea interested me to no end and I often longed for ways to see them in their natural habitat. Say, who wouldn't want a bathysphere, deep sea diving suit or submarine to call their own?

I spent lots of time doodling whales and sharks in my notes, the octopus was always my favorite, always thinking that the seven seas were infinitely large. I'd wonder what it would be like to pilot a mini sub, deep-sea research sub or even massive nuclear sub. Later did I realize that not every kid grew up near the beach or even a large body of water, so they didn't share the same interests. Too bad for them!

You can put some of the blame Disney for the early influence as well. The movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the park rides the Submarine Voyage and Pirates of the Caribbean were very strong memories of my childhood. These things taught me to fear and respect the creatures of the deep. They showed how amazing ships were. The Submarine Voyage in particular introduced me to the underwater narrative, themes of Atlantis, mermaids and sea monsters that sparked my imagination.

I understood that many of my childhood friends dreamed of being the star quarterback for a super bowl team or even becoming an astronaut and exploring space. These things never interested me. Piloting a submarine was an achievable goal, something tangible. The sub was a window to another world, far more fascinating than space travel. There was life underwater, changing terrain, vast unexplored areas, many wonders yet to be discovered. In space there was nothing but... space. Cold, dark empty space for millions and millions of miles in every direction. In my lifetime we would never have the resource to visit other planets with the speed that we could visit other continents. Space travel was a science fiction dream but the real application of science was exploring the sea. To be a pilot of a sub that explores the ocean floor, treading through the unknown, it would be the closest we'd ever come to finding out what it would be like to discover life on another planet.

The toys my parents got me reflected this curiosity. My favorites were the toys that could float. Submarine toys with action figures were my favorite. My big brother had the majority of the G.I. Joe's and vehicles. Some of the Cobra boats were really keen but early in childhood I preferred to play with Adventure People from Fisher Price. These were action figures of everyday heroes. Some came with camping gear and a kayak, others had motorcycles. Some drove dragsters and funny cars. One had a parachute and a couple with scuba gear and a boat. My parents must have got me all of the sets that Fisher Price made, most of them I still have in the garage, those that I'm missing I can easily go to eBay for.

My two most favorite sets were the deep sea diver with octopus and treasure, and the submarine and helicopter set. I figured that a deep sea diver must feel like an astronaut leaving the shuttle. He is weightless, tied to a lifeline and his suit is a self-contained atmosphere. So while I'd never take a ride into space I could imagine that I wasn't missing much. I spent years having all sorts of adventures with these toys. Unlike Eddie Murphy my childhood bath time toy was a floating submarine, I never had to fight a brown shark. I'll consider myself very lucky for being that kid. Even today I am fascinated where I hear a story about the game studio that looks like the inside of the Nautilus. Or when news reports surface of giant squid footage, I'm all over it.

Granted I don't play with toys anymore (wish I had the time though) and the only things I collect are the odd Hulk toy and the occasional vinyl figure. I realize that it's been 30 years since I've seen anything as playful as the old Adventure People series... that was until recently. You may not know that Mattel bought out Matchbox a few years ago. Those would be perennial rivals Hot Wheels versus Matchbox under the same label. Some of the best Mattel toy designers are now collaborating on new products for Matchbox. Mega Rigs is a series that features interchangeable parts. It's not a Lego system where you can build anything but instead more generic one where you can swap out wheels for tank treads or tack on a helicopter propeller. I thought the series was okay, mostly because it allowed kids to create their own vehicle combinations. Some time ago they created a Mega Rig ship and submarine one as well. My interest was piqued but I didn't buy them as the toys were a bit pricey for my budget. So I just let them go. Over the holiday season I saw that the big retailers Sams Club, Costco, Target began offering special boxed sets of Mega Rigs. There was a bundle with the ship and submarine in one set for a low price.

One variation of this set offered an extra motor, one offered a shark. I chose the latter and picked it up just to have. Both ships float and each comes with all sorts of accessories and figures. While they aren't as large (in scale) as the Adventure People toys they were still pretty big. These toys helped remind me of my childhood and love of the sea. They made me want to share these interests with you. Of course this is a videogame blog so I have to connect the dots. Tune in tomorrow when we look at the best submarine videogames.

As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!