Mansfield Drive-In & Jewett City Flea Markets

I got up early today so we could be at the Mansfield Drive-In flea market when it opened but it was raining and windy as hell. The rain stopped around 9:00 so we made our way over but it was still cold and windy so there weren't very many vendors. I've been going there since I was in 1st or 2nd grade and can't tell you how many pieces in my toy collection have come from that flea market. Over the past few years there's been a lot more toy vendors but they charge a lot because they know what the stuff is worth, these are the guys who go to to Comic-Cons and toy conventions so you're not really getting any deals.

No toy vendors today, but I did get a pack of Street Fighter Movie trading cards from one of the regular indoor dealers. I know, I know, everyone hated that movie, everyone except me. Hell, I'll admit it, I still think it's dope as hell. I had all the toys, the trading cards, I tried to convince my parents to buy me a Sega Saturn just so I could get the movie video game. My attempts failed but I tried. I actually kept the packing from one of my packs of cards and I had it for the longest, in fact I remember coming across it just a few years ago and my wife asking why the hell I still had the empty wrapper. Why? Because it's f***ing awesome, that's why. I love the artwork on it. I thought I kept it but can't find it anywhere so I might have actually thrown it out. I do remember it was ripped down the center so maybe I decided to get rid of it since it was in rough shape.

So today I got a sealed pack for a dollar and I still love the artwork on it. Then Jaime and my dad started teasing me because the packet says there's a possibility of rare chase cards inside and I'd have to open it to find out, that there's no way I could resist. But I can... because I already have the chase hologram card of Guile. I didn't realize it was rare back then but I loved it and put it in a protective sleeve, even though I've never been a huge fan of holograms because you have to be looking at it just the right way to even see the picture. They're cool, but certainly not easy to display. If you can find anyone who actually collects Street Fighter movie merchandise, I swear I can't be the only one, the card goes for about $40.

From there we made our way over to the Jewett City indoor flea market which we've been going to for a couple years now. I've gotten a few things there but there's only one regular toy dealer who I usually buy a few things off of. Today I picked up Tuska Warrior from the Thundercats. So far, in piecing my collection back together, I've concentrated on the villains because I've always loved the bad guys in every line of toys. So this is the first good guy Thundercat I've added to the collection, aside from the Lion-O I'd kept from my original figures. On a side note, the Top Spinner figure you see part of in the picture, right in front of Tuska Warrior, I got him a year or two ago at the Jewett City flea market as well.

I also grabbed the blue Baroness figure from the 1997 GI Joe Cobra Command Team 3 pack. I got this set for Christmas in 1997, even though I was too old to be playing with GI Joes. Did that stop me? No, no it did not. Unfortunately the rubber bands on all three of them broke and I sold them in a lot of broken Joes during my poor college years. I do still have the original card back hanging in my laundry room and it turns out I still have some of the weapons as well. I bought the in-package version a few years ago at the Toy Vault but I'd love to have them loose again as well. Baroness is now my first of the set and she's even been reunited with her machine gun.

We made our way towards Norwich to visit Grandma and Uncle Paul but stopped first for lunch at Friendly's which was delicious, haven't eaten there in years. There was nothing good at the Crystal Mall Toy Vault but they did move back downstairs to an even larger location right on the food court. Theyhad a few figures I thought about grabbing but ultimately decided to pass on them. I have a feeling I'm going to regret not getting the Sectaur for $10. Even when I don't buy anything, it's still fun to look at all the toys with my dad. He's been toy hunting with me before toy hunting was a thing, malls, Toys R Us, flea markets, hobby shows, so he has fond memories of all the figures as well and surprisingly remembers a lot of them.

Back at the house, I rummaged around in the shed for awhile before it got too dark, going through toy boxes, mostly my sister's stuff but I'm really looking for weapons and accessories now. Those little pieces wind up everywhere, usually at the bottom of some random box. I did manage to find a few things, some GI Joe weapons, all three parts of the GI Joe Dreadnock leader, Buzzsaw, which I've since put back together, and some Micro Machines transport vehicles. I took them home to sell but I think I've learned my lesson, I'm not planning on selling them. I don't particularly have an attachment to my Micro Machines but I'm not desperate for money anymore so I think they'll remain a part of my collection for now. Then I got sucked into the first few minutes of Jurassic World and watched the whole movie, and okay, I wasn't expecting much but that was freakin' awesome.

(The next day we stopped at K-Mart to look for WWE Retros but all they had was the ring which I thought about getting, but Jaime said no, I don't need another ring, they take up too much room. But, but AJ Styles is on the box. She's right though, I don't have enough room for it. Got Cajun Cafe at the Buckland Mall because it's the greatest Chinese food on the planet. No, I'm not confused, yes it's called Cajun Cafe but they also have Chinese food like a regular Chinese place at any mall food court but their's is the best. We didn't have any reason to stop in Portland on our way back home so that concludes our quick celebratory trip to CT)

Solomon Pond and Emerald Square Mall for birthday/job celebration

At the tail end of yesterday's trip to Acadia, one of the last for The Acadia You Haven't Seen Vol. 2, while exploring the abandoned Bass Harbor Lighthouse trail, Jaime got a few brief minutes of cell service. She got the job! Our lives are about to change. When I got back to the car, we went down to the shore to watch the sunset and begin to make plans. First on our agenda, a quick trip to CT for an early celebration of my birthday and her getting the job, where she'll be making what we made combined this past year. We've taken huge strides in our careers as authors but we're not there yet, this will afford us the opportunity to get there.

Unfortunately we only had a couple days because she had to be back for a drug test on Tuesday but that left us a couple days to eat and shop our way across CT and MA. We packed Friday night when we got back from Acadia and went to bed early, I did well over ten miles and was feeling it. But man did I get some cool places for Vol 2 and with the best news we've had in a while, it was one hell of a day.

Just the other day I happened to see that a new Toy Vault just opened in Massachusetts at the Solomon Pond Mall, which we pass right by on our way to CT. In fact, we've stopped at the gas station across the street many times, usually in the middle of the night when the mall is closed. This was our first time actually going into the mall. Since the Toy Vault there is so new, it wasn't on the directory so we walked the mall until we found it. It was a good size store, all the regular stuff. Huge Star Wars and Superhero section, little bit of everything else. Nothing crazy rare like Inhumanoids or Jayce & The Wheeled Warrior, Sectaurs, Super Naturals, green card WWF Hasbros, Action Master Transformers, all the stuff like that I'm really after, but a good selection nonetheless.

I only ended up leaving with two figures, the first being Scareglow from Super 7's Masters Of The Universe Reaction figure line. It's honestly kind of weird that they included MOTU in their Reaction figures since it's really a line about making toys for the popular brands that didn't get their own toy lines, and god knows MOTU had it's own toy line. So I passed on the earlier figures, not overly impressed with their basic design. However, I love the artwork for them and actually saved the pictures as my desktop background. I ended up caving and buying Battle Armor He-Man and Skeletor because I love those battle armors. I wanted the Sorceress but could only ever find the white version and I really want her in all her glorious blues and oranges. And from the moment I saw the Scareglow packaging, I knew I had to have him. I've checked the Newbury Comics in Portland Maine a couple times on our way back from NH but he was sold out, they of course still had every other figure in the set. So when I saw him here, I grabbed him right away. Scareglow was always one of my favorites, it's a shame we didn't get him in the 200x line or the Staction series that gave us some of the characters we were missing out on.

I also picked up the loose version of Black Cat from the 90's Spiderman line. I got her in-package version two years ago from the Toy Vault around Christmastime along with Peter Parker. I absolutely loved that show, it's really the only superhero show or movie that I legitimately liked, aside from Smallville. I was a little old for toys at the time so I didn't have any of the figures back then but would eagerly race home to watch it after school. And hands down, my favorite character, Felecia Hardy who later became the Black Cat. I love both versions of her and somehow, 20 years later, and who knows how many Marvel figures and variants and remakes, there is still no Felecia Hardy. And I'm still pissed about this. I can't even find a custom one online. I'll make my own someday but until then, my Black Cat figures will have to do.

From there we decided that instead of going our normal way to CT, we'd head over to North Attleboro MA to hit up the Emerald Square Mall's Toy Vault as well since we were pressed for time and wouldn't be able to make it on Sunday if we were going to tackle both flea markets, Grandma's house for a quick visit and the Crystal Mall.

I bought a few more items there but not as many as I'd hoped, usually the Emerald Square one has too much and I have to narrow down my choices. I ended up getting the 1997 re-release of the Cobra Rage GI Joe vehicle. I have the original on display and it's tied for my favorite GI Joe vehicle, neck and neck with the Python Patrol Cobra Stun. Not only is the vehicle one of my favorites, I love its updated black and blue color scheme and it comes with an Alley Viper, one of my favorite Cobra soldiers, repainted in purple urban camo, my favorite camo color. So when I found out this vehicle and figure were in existence, which I just found out about kind of recently, I knew I had to have them.

I also picked up Ratar-O from the vintage Thundercats line. Should have never sold them off in the first place but when you're desperate, you do things you're not proud of. We needed money, I had figures I didn't think I'd want in the future. There are very few of them I don't regret getting rid of. If that 2011 Thundercats cartoon never existed, I would have been fine but after seeing that first episode, I was like 'aww s**t, I definitely made a mistake getting rid of those'. I have a feeling I'm going to spend more re-purchasing these stupid things then I even got for selling them. Stupid stupid stupid. I'm not even going to get into what I sold off because then you'll beat me up more than I've been beating myself up. We'll dig further into that in a later post.

I bought my first Power Rangers figure today, Lord Zed. So I was never into the Power Rangers, I don't know, maybe I was a little too old. But one of my friends, the kid from across the street that my mom would babysit after school along with a few others in the early 90s, he was obsessed with the Power Rangers. Hell, his entire grade was, which is weird because he was only a grade below me and my grade really couldn't have cared less. Who knows, kids are weird. So I saw a lot of Power Rangers, and I'd help him collect them so every time I was at the store, I'd check for figures for him. Some of the villains in season 1 were kinda cool, it was like an even cornier version of the Ninja Turtles which got a little too cheesy for me. But in season 2, I believe, this bad ass dude who looked like an inside out human with metal armor and a ninja face mask took over the bad guys, that's who I was rooting for. I wanted a figure of him back then, he was just so freakin' cool. By the time his figure hit the shelves, my mom was no longer babysitting my neighbor so I never bothered to get the figure. 25 years later and I finally have Lord Zed, complete with his Z staff.

And while we're on the subject, I also picked up some Ninja Turtle villains. I grabbed Slash, the Rat King and General Traag. They weren't complete but I have some of their accessories in my weapons bin including Slash's belt and some of the Rat King's rats, possibly even a weapon or two of Traag. I'd love to see slightly darker versions of these awesome characters, a more grown up version that I wished we got back then, a major reason I grew out of TMNT so quickly. But the newer versions just seem to get simpler and cornier so I think a darker, more serious take on them is pretty much off the table for the time being.

And from the cheap rack I found a red and black Cobra Commander from the 2002 GI Joe vs Cobra line. I love Cobra Commander repaints, always have. This line of Joes looked a little different with the bulkier build and the different leg joints which sadly takes away some of the articulation I always loved about the Joes. You could move them any way you wanted which made them great to play with and pose as well. I always wished that all figures were made with that design, especially wrestling figures. I think they were trying to move away from the rubber bands since they wear out and break over time, if only we knew back then how easy of a fix it is. Despite his limited leg movements, I love this figure and his color scheme, I'm glad I finally have him out of package.

And that wraps up today's purchases. I thought about picking up the MOTU Dragon Walker with its box, its severely damaged box, but seeing as how I already have the vehicle itself, I couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money on a damaged package. I also considered getting Entrapta and Double Trouble from the MOTU She-Ra Princess Of Power line, neither of which I have. I collected the She-Ra figures as a kid but am missing about half the series, I must have stopped getting them part way through or something. I decided to pass since I have no real attachment to either character, I can't say I remember either one of them being in the cartoon which I actually enjoy even more than He-Man. I'm really looking forward to the new She-Ra Netflix original, let's just hope they don't screw it up.

We finally made it to Willimantic around 8:00, starving, so I stopped to get some Papa Ginos and Jaime got her sub at Papa's. I won't say what time we fell asleep because it's embarrassing but it's been a long couple of days and I'm exhausted from hiking and driving. This is our first time really spending money and actually eating out since we both got fired back in the middle of August. Tomorrow, the celebration continues.

The New England Toy Hunt Begins... sort of

I actually started this blog in the beginning of January 2019, but because I've been keeping a diary for the past year, I was able to go back quite a ways. This is by no means the beginning of my toy hunt, I've been collecting since before I can even remember. But it's a new era for me and my wife so I figure this is a good time to start the blog.

A little back story for anyone wondering. I turned 35 in November of 2018. I'm from Willimantic CT and moved to Maine in the summer of 2004 where I went to college and worked at Toys R Us until 2010. During my time there, I got back into collecting toys, despite not being able to afford it. I picked up a few pieces here and there but mostly got reacquainted with my childhood collection. This is also when I got into making my own custom action figures, mostly WWF Hasbros and Masters Of The Universe.

My wife wasn't working when I lost my job at Toys R Us so in order to survive, I sold off a ton of my action figures. I kept most of my Masters Of The Universe, GI Joes, Transformers and wrestling figures but almost everything else went. It kept us afloat until we could both get rehired at our seasonal job where we'd be able to stay on, possibly full time, even after the holiday season ended. Instead, the business moved to southern Maine, leaving us without our guaranteed jobs.

I took the first job I applied for, Ocean State Job Lot, and worked there for 7 years. Jaime bounced around a few jobs in management positions until the stores eventually closed before coming to work with me. One day this summer, they fired us both, along with our work friends and a manager we were close with. It was the best thing that could have happened to us as I'd been used and abused by that place since I started. 2018 was rather rough, mostly due to a poor work environment and struggling to make it in the publishing world.

But in the years I'd been there, which weren't all horrible, we became independent authors after growing tired of rejection letters from agencies. I got back into hiking and began leaving the trails behind in search of unknown wonders, which I now write hiking guides about. I even began rebuilding my lost toy collection.

After taking a couple months off to focus on writing, Jaime got hired at a job she'd been trying to get into for a couple years. Her current paycheck is what we were making combined during the last year, which gives me the opportunity to stay home and run Orange Rock Publishing. Despite not actually having a job, I typically work about 12 hours a day and we've released 14 books.

I've never been like other people. I don't do things other people do. Not to be different, but because I am different, and I accept that. I live a life of solitude, a far cry from my high school years in the inner city as a rapper. The things I've done in this life could fill a book, and kind of do, multiples in fact. I'm sure we'll get into some of those things in later posts but in being different, it means I don't collect what most collectors do. You won't find much for Star Wars or Pop Vinyl or Marvel and DC figures here. Which does make collecting rather difficult, especially in New England where all you see at comic shops and flea markets are Star Wars, Superheroes, Pop Vinyl and a few wrestling figures. But that's what makes it a hunt.

The majority of what you'll find in my posts are Masters Of The Universe, Thundercats, Wrestling, GI Joe, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dino-Riders, Battle Beasts, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Go-Bots, Lord Of The Rings, The Sectaurs, Super Naturals and if we're lucky, hopefully some Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors, Inhumanoids, Dinosaucers and whatever other random toys I had as a child. We'll hunt them down, reunite figures with their accessories, explore my collection, and piece by piece, rebuild what I sold back when I had nothing. It's about more than finding toys, it's about finding myself. These action figures, no matter how pathetic it sounds, they made me, and now it's time to make them mine.