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!

A story of robots, monsters, and rad rides

As the year winds down I get a bit nostalgic. I know a lot of my friends, and family members look back on the year, and think about how much has happened. Our family has recently had its share of losses. Not long ago our pet cat died, and a few days later a loving aunt passed. The winter season has not been kind to us in this regard. There have been good things to happen throughout the year. Projects completed, returning to orchestra playing, new business leads, building new friendships, these were just a sampling of the good things that have happened. Thankfully I’ve stayed employed, the family has stayed healthy. Things could have always been worse for us, or our loved ones, and I’m grateful for what we have.

With Christmas I’ve been thinking about some of my favorite toys, especially those I received for the holiday. I hope that you have fond memories of the toys you grew up with, and I wonder if there was something that you always wanted when you were a kid. I’m going to share a little bit about one of the toys I longed for. This story begins with Irma, our favorite aunt, and Tomy. Aunt Irma (RIP) was my mom’s younger sister, and easily the fun aunt. She had a great sense of humor, was highly creative (her Halloween decorations were legendary), and a good singer. My brothers and I always looked forward to her visits. Irma used to work at Human Resources at Tomy Toys.

Tomy was a Japanese company that was known for their games, puzzles, and toys. They didn’t necessarily have a lot of big name licensed products like the US companies Hasbro, and Mattel, but what Tomy did create was undeniably fun. They used to have a factory, and office building in Wilmington California. A small port town nestled in between some oil refineries. It was not far from where our family grew up. Irma got a big discount in the company store, and when she visited she would bring us various wind-up, and battery operated games. We still have many of the “Pocket Arcade” games that they created in the ‘70s, and early ’80s. These handheld games predated Mattel’s Electronic Football by years. I think the Tomy games were far more interesting than the early LED games of the era. They were tangible, had their own gameplay, rules, and control. The mechanized ones were usually wind up. Most didn’t need batteries. So we could take them anywhere to help pass the time.

Almost as awesome as the toys we were gifted from our aunt, were the catalogs from the company. We got a glimpse of what was coming out later that year, if not the following year. Many Gen-Xers had fond memories of the Toys R Us Christmas Catalog, or Sears catalog. Kids got to see every toy, video game, and bike that was available, or coming soon. My brothers, and I would take turns putting together our wish lists. We assumed it was just a matter of time before we won the lottery. As nice as those catalogs were, they were nothing compared to the trade magazine than Irma brought us each month. Playthings Magazine was our bible. Each issue was some 200+ pages in size. It was a way for the industry to share what they were working on with vendors. It took us behind the scenes, gave us in depth interviews, concept art, and reviews. Each magazine gave us a glimpse of what was coming out in the future, sometimes years in advance. These included entirely new toys, cartoons, and comic characters.

Imagine being in elementary school, and knowing more about toys, and cartoons than your classmates. Our friends were skeptical at first when we told them what was coming up. The thing was that since the industry was talking about things happening in the far future, there were lots of prototype details. Lines, and characters had name, and design changes before they came out. Classmates thought that we were just lucky with the predictions, until we brought the magazines to school, and gave them a glimpse at the future as well. They no longer doubted us when it came to news about toys, and cartoons. Many thought that with my love of toys, animation, and art, I would eventually get into toy design. I think about that timeline a lot. I hope that universe’s version of me is as happy as I’d hoped.

Tomy was on the cutting edge of electronic LED games, they made some of the first licensed arcade games, including Pac Man. Their Tomytronic 3D games were brilliant. Although quaint by today’s standards, imagine playing a game through a viewfinder, whose bright colors made it look like Tron graphics come to life. More important Tomy had a reputation in Japan, and the US for their toy robots. Going back to the ‘60s the company made very cute wind-up, battery-operated, and remote control robots. As tin gave way to plastic, and transistors found their way into manufacturing so too did the Tomy robots evolve over the decades.

Mom and dad bought us many of the smaller battery operated robots that they made. I have now passed a few to my kid. Aunt Irma would bring us the two most expensive robots that they made to play test on weekends. These being the Omnibot, and Omnibot 2000. The larger of the two remote control robots debuted in 1985, at the price of $600. Adjusted for inflation that robot would retail for over $1,500 in 2021. You can imagine that mom, and dad were stressed that three young boys would be taking turns playing with a robot that cost more than the monthly rent in our apartment. We promised our aunt to be extra careful, and you can bet that we were!

Of all the toys that came out in the ‘80s, I was the biggest fan of vehicles. Tomy made a few great cars, and trains, but they didn’t really capitalize on them. This was something that I don’t think toy designers often looked at when creating new properties. Yes, I enjoyed He-Man, the Transformers, and G.I. Joe. Those were character-driven franchises. When kids played with those figures they indeed took on the roles of those characters. I was happier imagining myself as the pilot, or driver of the various jets, tanks, and race cars.

I was most excited when a company made a vehicle that had some sort of neat gimmick, and wasn’t tied to an existing license. This meant I could imagine it in any scenario. I wasn't forced to play within the confines of their universe. Some of the designers working behind the scenes were becoming aware that there was a market for pushing vehicles to the forefront. A car could be the star, and not the driver. This was obvious going back to Speed Racer in 1966 (Mach GoGoGo in Japan). As cool as it was watching Speed / Go beat up bad guys, and race around the world, he would be nothing without the Mach 5. The state of the art race car could handle any course, and do all sorts of impossible things, including cut down trees, jump, and drive upside down with the aid of spiked tires. In 1982 Knight Rider introduced the world to Michael Knight, and his amazing car K.I.T.T. The self-driving car was fire-proof, bullet proof, and could also jump via “turbo boost,” The car was brilliant, and often helped Michael solve crimes. 

Between Mach 5, and K.I.T.T. the toy designers were beginning to realize that super cars could be a franchise all to themselves. Mattel had already cornered the market on toy cars thanks to their Hot Wheels line, but super cars was another story. So how do you sell kids on a vehicle as a star? It’s not like they could convince retailers that a vehicle-centric toy would sell, unless it was based on already popular car. The thing was famous cars were already attached to shows. The Batmobile, the Munsters Koach, and the Drag-u-la were associated the campy 1960’s TV shows. Toys, and model kits on those had already come, and gone in popularity. So where would the next big thing come from? In the early ‘80s no vehicle was more amazing than Bigfoot. This was a real truck, it could conquer any mud bog, pull a competition sled, and roll over cars. I had already talked about the mainstream success of Bigfoot in the early ‘80s.

Playskool got the license to create the Bigfoot monster truck toy in 1983. It was easily one of my  favorite birthday presents of all time. The toy was great at climbing, it had a forward, reverse, 2-wheel, and 4-wheel drive mode. When I played with it I imagined myself as the driver. I don’t think that anyone playing with the toy imagined that they were Bob Chandler, or Jim Kramer, the respective builder, and driver of Bigfoot. The same thing could be said of those that played with, as as K.I.T.T. Nobody missed having a Michael Knight figure because the car was the star. Playskool looked to build a “Muscle Machines” franchise around Bigfoot. They reached out to the wildest cars in the mud bog, and tractor pull circuits where Bigfoot was often featured. They signed licenses for the Orange Blossom Special II, and War Lord. These two stood out because they looked like street legal monsters, and not competition tractors. They fit right in with Bigfoot as plausible, albeit impossible rides. A cartoon show soon followed to help get Bigfoot on the minds of kids all over the country.

Many toy companies were also picking up on the 4x4, and monster truck trends. In 1980 Schaper toys (later Tyco) released the Stomper, a small battery powered 4x4. They also offered amazing play sets, and sleds for off road pulling action. To me these truck toys were as fun, if not more so, than the playlets for G.I. Joe, or He-Man. Galoob was known for their licensed toys such as the A-Team, Ghostbusters, and Aliens. They were keenly aware of vehicle toys, and developed the highly successful Micro Machines series. The toy that set my imagination on fire was a 1984 off roader was called The Animal. It was four wheel drive like other toys, however if the tires couldn’t get any grip while climbing then claws would automatically pop out from inside the tread to give it more traction. It was a radical concept in toy design. I never owned one, but knew some kids that had. I was envious, but it wouldn’t be the only Galoob toy I lusted after.

The Animal was the first in a series of beast-like rides from Galoob. The company added a combination tow wench, and spotlight called the Clench that could be pulled by the trucks. They also added smaller buoyant trucks called Swampers. A year later they added a bigger, and badder Animal called the Xtendor. This truck was modeled after a cabover diesel truck, like Optimus Prime. It also had a rocket launched on the tail, I’m not sure why it was weaponized considering that the vehicles didn’t have a story or military alignment assigned to them, but it was cool nonetheless. It offered the extending claws of the previous model, but if it needed extra help climbing the tail would stretch out, and lengthen the wheelbase. These automatic transforming mechanics elevated the toy above the competition.

The Animal was a hit, and showed the industry that kids loved these types of toys. The company released an off road buggy called the Flex. The tires seemed small, and extremely wide. When it needed climbing power the tires would shorten, and their treads would pop out, leaving gaps between the treads. The tires were shaped like rubber windmills, allowing even more grip than the set of claws that popped out of the Animal. These wheels seemed more adept for all-terrain play, making short work of grass, sand, shallow puddles, mud, or anything else that kids could throw at it. It made me wonder if this technology could be used on full sized cars. With Flex, and the Animal Galoob found themselves in a war with other companies building climbing rigs. Tyco, and Tomy liked touting that their vehicles could climb a steep grade, or wouldn’t slip under any condition. It was as if toy designers saw that nothing could stop real monster trucks, and they wondered if they could build monsters that could scale walls. Climbing further, and higher was the goal for their best toys.

Bigger wheels, expanding wheels, and low gear settings were revolutionary for the industry. The lessons they taught designers would be incorporated in toys, models, and remote control cars over the next few decades. The other way that manufacturers found that toy cars could climb was by putting multiple sets of wheels on them. Wheel counts jumped from four, to ten, to 16, and ultimately 32. Galoob set the bar impossibly high when they released the GIANT series. The Leader 16 featured 16 wheels, and could climb vertically with the aid of a rolling arm that was suspended in front. The rig wasn’t based on any real truck, although it had a cabover front. There was an even larger version called the Command 32 which featured the Leader 16 that connected to an eight wheel “GripIron” crane, and an eight wheel “TurboJet” Power Cab. The additional wheels, and engines meant that it could climb even greater obstacles. I was obsessed with the toy as a kid. Drawing it in my free time, hinting to my parents that it would make a great birthday, or Christmas present. I spent many days imagining how cool it would be to own one in real life. I never got one, and that was fine considering all the other wonderful toys that my parents got for my brothers, and I.

The idea of a multi-wheeled, all terrain vehicle stuck with me. I filled countless pages in my sketchbook of multi-wheeled giants. I remembered how Bigfoot 5, and 7 had 10-foot wheels that Bob Chandler had gotten from the Letourneau Land Train. Land trains were used by the military, and fossil fuel industry to cover expanses of land that were inaccessible to most vehicles. I have no doubt that the the Overlander from Gerry Anderson’s Terrahawks was inspired by the Letourneau land train. In the sci-fi series the Overlander was supposed to be massive, a rolling base of operations.

It was closer in scale to a space station, than a monster truck. I could only imagine how awe inspiring a real life version would be. Even more I wanted to see what a toy based on that would be like. In all fairness there was a six-wheeled science fiction toy that predated all of the ones I lusted after. The Milton Bradley Big Trak was a programmable vehicle from 1979. You could punch in commands for driving, turning, and distance using the keypad on the back. As nice as the design was I never could figure out the target audience. I wanted a toy sci-fi vehicle to play with, not to program.

The end of the climbing vehicle trend pretty much ended in 1991. Kenner was the company that had made the Star Wars toys of our youth. They were looking to do something else now that there were no new Star Wars films on the horizon. Return of the Jedi had come out in 1983, and the prequel movies wouldn’t come out until 1999. They needed to change with the times, or close down. Kenner was late to the party when released a vehicle called The Claw. To be fair It looked better, and moved much smoother than the 4x4’s of the ‘80s. The gimmick for this truck were tires that split, and extended to help it climb over rough terrain. The addition of teeth on the exposed treads, and ninja-star-like rims made it look wilder than the Animal. Of course by the time it came out I was almost out of high school. My tastes were changing. I still loved monster trucks, and always would, but video games seemed much more interesting, and engaging than traditional toys.

In the middle of the ’80s there was one multi-wheeled monster that Tomy made that gave the Leader 16 a run for its money. Tomy had launched a line of monster trucks called Monster Machines. The battery powered trucks were much different than my Bigfoot toy. Tomy was taking a shot at Galoob, and by my estimation created the best looking ride of that era. The Rad Rig / Mad Masher was a 16-wheeled, multi-engine, diesel truck capable of climbing over obstacles. Proportionally the wheels were larger than the Leader 16’s, making it look more like a real monster truck than a caterpillar. I was captivated by its design. Two sets of exposed, supercharged V8’s over the lead wheels, plus a massive spoiler on the rear made it look like something out of The Road Warrior. There were different colored versions. I only saw the red, and blue ones in stores. The yellow one may have been exclusive to the UK.

My sketches in school switched from the Leader 16 to the Rad Rig almost overnight. The scale, proportions, and design of it made it look much more realistic. Realism was something that tended to sell me on a toy design. Not to mention that Tomy had licensed the use of Goodyear, and STP so that the racing stickers on the truck made it feel more authentic. I lusted after the truck, but never managed to score one as a kid. Years later that I learned that there was a French auto sports promotion that had actually built a monster truck that was almost an exact copy of the Tomy icon. The Road Boss had one less engine, and set of wheels, but the proof was there that a Rad Rig could indeed exist. It made my love of the toy that much fonder. My brothers, and I never forgot about the toys we grew up with. A good portion of them I still have in my garage. Especially the ones I was gifted on Christmas. 

The toys that I wanted as a kid I kept an eye on as an adult. At least once a week I jump on eBay, and take a look at some rare items. Sometimes I spot a deal, but most of the time I look them up just for the sake of nostalgia. I don’t have room in my tiny apartment for toy collecting. So I often talk myself out of buying anything. The Rad Rig comes up often, but it’s usually incomplete, missing the cab, or some tires, or the stickers. A complete one that works does pop up from time to time. They are often the red model, the one that never spoke to me. A complete model, with the box is the rarest of the rare. As any toy hunter could tell you the value of a complete toy with the packaging could be astronomical. An old toy could fetch a lot, even if the box had been opened. You could imagine my shock when one of my grail toys had turned up in early December 2021. Not only was it complete, but it was in the box, with the instructions, and sticker sheet untouched. I told myself I didn’t really need it, but I had wanted it so badly growing up that pangs of that childhood frustration came bubbling to the surface. The seller wasn’t asking anything too outlandish either. I was just being a fiscally responsible adult, and didn’t go for the buy it now price. The seller offered $20 off the asking price just because I put it on my watch list. I couldn’t resist, and bought it. 

It got to me a few days later. I checked the contents, and sure enough everything was included in as close to mint condition as you would expect for a 36-year-old toy. I haven’t decided if I’m going to wrap it up, and then open it for Christmas, or even if I’m going to put the stickers on it. Just having it in my hands fills me with a sense of joy I haven’t had in a long time. I’d like to think that this was not an accident. I’m almost certain that Aunt Irma called in a favor from heaven so I could get that one Tomy toy I had always wanted. I hope this Christmas you get everything you want, and need. Tell me about a favorite toy you had always wanted, but never got. 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!