Toys

A Day With The Toy Hunter

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Last Saturday, in celebration of my friend Jack’s 30th birthday, we embarked upon the most glorious part of our mission to reclaim our childhoods, one toy at a time. With our friends and fellow nerds Andrew and Cory in tow, we took the long trip up to Westwood, New Jersey, to visit Hollywood Heroes, a vintage collectibles shop owned by Jordan Hembrough of TV’s Toy Hunter. The store is only open for a handful of hours on Fridays and Saturdays, as Hembrough travels around the world looking for vintage toys of untold value. On Toy Hunter, which was the highest-rated show on the Travel Channel before the network inexplicably cancelled it, he would raid the basements and attics of other toy collectors, searching for rare toys to resell at his store, at conventions such as Comic-Con, or to his celebrity clients like Gene Simmons from KISS, or Kirk Hammett from Metallica.  Continue reading →

Hail To The King, Baby!

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Originally published on 10/14/14 at The Nerd In The Box (thenerdinthebox.com)

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Some years back, I came across this Duke Nukem action figure from Duke Nukem Forever in the Toys ‘R’ Us in Times Square. Without question, I snatched it up, seeing as Duke Nukem 3D was one of my favorite games of all time. I began to remember the countless hours I spent after school playing that game on my Windows 95 computer (that’s right).

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Ghostbusters Anniversary Special: The Toys

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Originally published on 9/4/14 at The Nerd In The Box (thenerdinthebox.com)

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Ghostbusters, two amazing toy lines were released earlier this  year. The first of which was released by the company Funko, a personal favorite of mine.  Funko is known for its primary line of Pop vinyl dolls, which are short figures with large heads and smaller bodies, modeled after fictional characters and real celebrities. Funko put out their much anticipated line of Ghostbusters Pop dolls in April, which included Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Ray Stanz, Egon Spengler, Slimer, two different oversized versions of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and the Ecto1, (the Ghostbusters’ tricked out hearse, which comes with Winston Zeddemore behind the wheel). Continue reading →

The One That (Re)Started It All

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Originally published on 8/28/14 at The Nerd In The Box (thenerdinthebox.com)

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One day, a few years ago, my future roommate and cohort Jack randomly surprised me with the toy pictured above, a set of Ghostbusters Minimates, by the company Diamond Select Toys. The two-pack features Courtroom Pete Venkman and the Washington Square Ghost, as seen in the movie Ghostbusters II. When I was a kid, I had tons of toys…everything from Ghostbusters, to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to Batman, to Transformers. Unfortunately, the vast majority of my collection was broken, lost, or thrown away by my parental units as I lost interest in it for the middle part of my life. Continue reading →

The Nerf Bow and Arrow: An Evolution

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Originally published on 10/12/14 at The Nerd In The Box (thenerdinthebox.com)

I’ve been a fan of Nerf ever since I was a wee lad, and I’m still quite a wee lad at heart. One of my favorite weapons from their foam projectile arsenal has always been their bow and arrow. The first incarnation of this was released when I was a kid, and proved to be worth years of fun. Continue reading →

The End of an Era

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Originally published on 9/11/14 at The Nerd In The Box (thenerdinthebox.com)

This past week, it was brought to my attention that the Travel Channel’s Toy Hunter will not be renewed for a fourth season. Rumor had it that the show was cancelled by the network, but with a bit of digging, I found that the show’s star, Jordan Hembrough, decided to move on to other opportunities as his contract had ended. Continue reading →