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In which I confess an obsession
May. 13th, 2013 11:02 pmIn 1992 Fox Kids started running X-Men: The Animated Series on Saturdays, which ran for 5 seasons. Around 1994, my then 6-year old son discovered the series and,being the horrible parent I must have been, I allowed him to watch the show every Saturday morning. As the case with most kids show, there was merchandising available mainly in the form of action figures. Naturally, my son wanted said action figures. Which is all fine and good, except his younger sister also wanted actions figures. So if my son wanted say a Cyclops action figure, my daughter wanted a Storm action figure. I really had no problem doing this except for one tiny little problem, in 1994 female action figures were in limited supply.
Very limited supply.
As in
1) many figure series released did not include a female character and
2) if the figure series did include a female character, they came packed one or two figures to a case.
Needless to say, I was soon on a quest for female action figures for my daughter. Unfortunately, that quest quickly became an obsession as I continued to purchase female action figures long after my daughter lost interest. Most of my collecting occurred between 1994 and 2001. By 2002, the quest became the occasional "oh look I like that figure" type of purchase as opposed to "oh a female figure, MUST PURCHASE."
Now, I told you that story to tell you this one. As I've mentioned before, my son and daughter are moving back home for at least the summer. I've spent the past few weeks, shifting things around in drawers and closets to make room for all the clothes and furniture that will be moving back in with them. In the process of cleaning out, I've been discovering various parts to said action figure in various locations. You know a gun and spear in a box in dresser drawer or a lightning bolt and piece of armor in a baggy in a desk. So a bright idea came to mind, why not collect all my figures and accessories and box them up together.
Oh, better yet, let's get OCD and make a complete list of figure names, associated series, release date and production company. Whee!
271 entries later, I now have a list. Yes I said 271. o.O I told you the quest became a bit of an obsession. I have a handful of figures I can't identify because I no longer remember the character, but I have managed to identify most of my girls, bag them up with the proper accessories and place them in one location. Now if I can just figure out who the extra pieces I have bagged up go to.
Very limited supply.
As in
1) many figure series released did not include a female character and
2) if the figure series did include a female character, they came packed one or two figures to a case.
Needless to say, I was soon on a quest for female action figures for my daughter. Unfortunately, that quest quickly became an obsession as I continued to purchase female action figures long after my daughter lost interest. Most of my collecting occurred between 1994 and 2001. By 2002, the quest became the occasional "oh look I like that figure" type of purchase as opposed to "oh a female figure, MUST PURCHASE."
Now, I told you that story to tell you this one. As I've mentioned before, my son and daughter are moving back home for at least the summer. I've spent the past few weeks, shifting things around in drawers and closets to make room for all the clothes and furniture that will be moving back in with them. In the process of cleaning out, I've been discovering various parts to said action figure in various locations. You know a gun and spear in a box in dresser drawer or a lightning bolt and piece of armor in a baggy in a desk. So a bright idea came to mind, why not collect all my figures and accessories and box them up together.
Oh, better yet, let's get OCD and make a complete list of figure names, associated series, release date and production company. Whee!
271 entries later, I now have a list. Yes I said 271. o.O I told you the quest became a bit of an obsession. I have a handful of figures I can't identify because I no longer remember the character, but I have managed to identify most of my girls, bag them up with the proper accessories and place them in one location. Now if I can just figure out who the extra pieces I have bagged up go to.
