Monday, September 10, 2012

Toy Regrets- Lighting the way Home

I'm a toy girl. I can't quite explain it, but my whole life has been about collecting all kinds of toys, from action figures to dolls and even some things in between. Not to mention all those other items that fall on the outskirts of a regular toy range. (If something like that even exists.) Most of my collection has been with me, growing in numbers; much like me. As year goes by, I get older and my collection does too. Older and larger. (Though I am really doing my best to lose some weight. When you can't get a pair of jeans past your thighs and hips, something needs to be done.)

Part of the problem growing up with my collection was that my parents were always like, "You have too much. We need to put some stuff in the attic to make room for all the other stuff you have now." So about every year or two my brother and I would go through the painful task of deciding which items we'd be holding onto and the items that would be finding their doom in the heat of the attic. It was never easy.

Of course every time we'd put stuff up in the attic, we'd find ways to sneak older stuff back out. Or my brother and I would find ways to blackmail our parents into going back into the attic for certain items. It would work until we got older, and then we'd just travel through the attic ourselves. Much to our parent's annoyance.

About 20 years ago I lost my Princess of Power action dolls for a brief moment. It was an "everything must go" attic experience. My parents were tired of looking at all the stuff, so I sadly put everything up. I'm talking about my She-Ra and He-Man items. Grayskull and Snake Mountain. Barbie dolls. My Little Pony. Strawberry Shortcake. Thundercats. Everything. I hated it. However later on that year I tricked my mom into "looking" for something in the attic. With my plan in order, I found ways to sneak items out. Quickly spiriting everything away, I was so thrilled to be reunited with She-Ra and her friends.

Except one of She-Ra's friends was missing. For some reason Glimmer had not been packed with the other POP action dolls. It just never made any sense to me, "Where was Glimmer?" Now I am not sure if I have stressed this to you all, but for 20 years I have searched through the two main attics in my parent's home looking for my long lost Glimmer. I have never been able to find her.

It has been a story that my family and friends are painfully aware of. They all know about my searches and anguish over having absolutely no clue what happened to her. I even joked that my mom somehow got rid of Glimmer. (The biggest way to punish me growing up was by taking something from my collection. I was a bratty lil child so there have been many items we have found hidden throughout the house years later that can be traced back to those bratty ways.) So I thought that was it. Glimmer would be gone for good.

Not so fast. About three years ago my husband, who I was dating at the time, got me a mint Glimmer for my birthday. He knew how important Glimmer was and what she represented. After all, she was a part of my life. She-Ra is with me every day. I can't emphasise that enough. So that birthday gift was very special to me. I finally had Glimmer! All new and shiny! With her card. (Don't worry, she'll show up on a Toy Chest Tuesday one day.) Plus it felt amazing to have this man in my life that truly understood me. Yes diamonds can be a girl's best friend, but a mint Glimmer is truly the way to my heart.

Anyways, the light was still burning though for my old Glimmer. The new Glimmer I had was wonderful. Simply wonderful. However I couldn't handle knowing that somewhere in the heat of the attic was a lost Glimmer, just waiting to be in a safer place with air conditioning. So I continued to search. Never finding her.

Years went by and I still never found her. I have certainly cursed myself for sure. How did she get separated from my other POP items? Was I not looking well enough on my trips to the attic? Would I be able to get over this? After all, it was just a figure. Would the world really need to end if I never found her? My biggest Toy Regret was that I had not formulated a better packing plan for these items when they went up in the attic. Everything was just scattered, much like my brain.

Now let's flash forward to the present. My brother has come to town to visit for a little while. I have been thrilled to say the least. In an interesting turn of events, my mom and brother joined me with the idea to rummage through the attics. Our goal was simple, we were looking for things to keep, sell, or donate. So we were all on board. Besides, I was going to do a nice Heroic Hottie feature last week, but I needed a certain play set first. My biggest goal throughout this process was to find Grayskull.

There are three attics in my parent's house. One attic is in the garage, but we never go up there because there is really nothing there. Next we have an attic in the hallway that is a pull down. The ladder comes down from the ceiling and the walk up can be quite terrifying. The final attic is in the loft, and we just have to climb through a small doorway. The final attic has always been our go-to attic.

On Night 1, we were in that attic. We found some good things but no Grayskull. My brother then decided that a more thorough investigation would need to commence in the hallway attic. So the next day we set out on a course to brave the hot new world of the hallway attic. I had only been to the top of the ladder. That attic scares me slightly, if only because the ladder is wonky. My big hips can sink ships. I was not about to risk falling.

My brother braved through it. He was like, "We're searching through everything!" And did he find the stuff. Oh my goodness. We found boxes and boxes of things that even I had forgotten I owned. A Robeast coffin from Voltron? Check. A pretty swan from Keypers? Check. An awesome Jessica Rabbit pvc figure? Check. I was so happy and excited to see these items again. But I was really hoping to see a Castle Grayskull. I still had my fingers crossed.

After awhile my brother found himself getting worn out. But he kept pushing, "M, I just want to travel a little further back, there is something in the back." All I wanted for him was to be careful. I told him to forget about it, to hurry back down. It was too hot up there.

And then he said it, "M, I see Grayskull." I flipped out. "Can you get it? Is it visible?" My heart was beating so fast. There was silence. Until my brother called out, "I've got it! I'm bringing it down." I was jumping for joy, I finally had Grayskull again! My trifecta of MOTU and POP playsets would be complete. My dad was in the other room laughing at our excitement, he thought we were so silly. My mom was cooking something and she had kept saying Grayskull was in the loft, but we were like, "No! It's here! We have it!" Meanwhile my husband was drinking a beer soaking up the sun outside.

What happened next was nothing short of a miracle. My brother had yet to reach the ladder when he decided to stop. He called out, "M, there's something in here." There was a pause. And then he uttered the most magical phrase ever, "I think there is a She-Ra doll in here." My adrenaline spiked. I was ready to race up the damn wonky ladder, big hips and all, "What do you mean?" My mind was racing. I dared not think it could be true. Instead I thought of other things I have owned that he was possibly looking at. But I had nothing come to mind.

Then he walked closer to the attic ladder opening, leaving his light behind. He handed something to me. In the dim light, I saw her. It was Glimmer. After 20 years of searching and speculating her whereabouts, I was looking at her again. He looked at me and said, "Is this..." I nodded and crawled up to reach for her. "Yes. Oh my. You found Glimmer. You found Glimmer." I lost it right there. I just started sobbing. I couldn't stop crying, which got my brother crying. We both couldn't believe it. This whole time Glimmer had been in Grayskull at the back of the hallway attic. We couldn't stop crying. After 20 long years, it was finally over. Glimmer was home.

My dad thought we were nuts. He couldn't stop laughing, saying, "Ya'll are crazy! It is just a toy!" My mom rushed in shouting, "I told you I never got rid of her! I need to put you two on youtube! You both look crazy!" We were. My brother knew how important this was to me. He knew the amount of time I had spent searching through the attic. And now here she was, in Perfuma's skirt no less, but she was finally with me. So let's look at some quick pictures!




Now I am not sure why I had put her in Perfuma's skirt, but I am glad to have Perfuma's skirt too. That skirt has been missing, but I was somehow alright with that. Either way Glimmer looks pretty good for being in the attic for 20 years. Now she is in need of a trip to the Sink Spa where I will do my best to have her looking her fighting best. (There will be a follow up!)

And as for that other little item my brother found, well...


I need to do some castle cleaning, but when it is all said and done, September's Heroic Hottie is going to have some great pictures! So keep it here folks! This is going to be a big week! Huge! I have found so many items that there will be some fantastic Toy Chest Tuesdays coming up. With all the work that I will be doing to restore and clean some of these items, I will not be doing a Toy Chest Tuesday tomorrow, but it will be worth it. This week is just going to be huge!

Before I go, let me also share something else that we found in all those boxes. I have always written in a diary. Writing a diary and chronicling certain events has always been something I love to do. (I don't call this joint Diary of a Dorkette for nothing.) So I have been reading over these old diaries from when I was in elementary and middle school. Let me tell ya'll something. My goofy ass was writing about toys and dolls that I wanted to collect and display back then. I got such a kick out of that. I will have to share some of those things with you all. I sounded so happy and hopeful. This was all before I became a megabitch teenager, but it is still nice to have those old diaries. Alright! I hope everyone is well and enjoying their Monday. Keep it here folks, it is going to be great! Until next time!!  

28 comments:

  1. Congratulations on finding Glimmer! I know the frustration of not being able to find something at the parents house that you know is there but is nowhere to be found.Iv been looking for my fortress of fangs every holiday for the last 10 years. I know its there because I saw it in the mid 90's before they condensed everything and moved stuff around. One day I hope my story ends like yours lol

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    1. Oh goodness Brothermidnight, I hope you find your fortress of fangs too! It is really a lot of work to try and find this older stuff, but it is so rewarding. Just entirely rewarding. And we aren't really done either, there is still some other stuff too we need to look through. Hope all is well!

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  2. GREAT story, and congrats on the reunion with Glimmer!

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    1. Thank you Eric! Thank you for the comment as well. I hope you are doing well.

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  3. Great that you found your lost Glimmer, however, I'm jealous that you received a "new" Glimmer as a present--your husband does know how to please--I wish a girl would have done that for me...

    So, how complete is Castle Grayskull? I had to restore mine (I think you read that article).

    Do you have any Go-Bots or Transformers? I don't think you ever mentioned them???

    You owe your bro for going into the "oven", you know.

    Later.

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    1. Well I am very lucky. He got me the best birthday present for sure. Of course I did get greedy and ended up buying another newly minted Glimmer myself a couple years after my birthday gift. I couldn't help it, I never thought I'd find my original Glimmer and I really wanted to open one! Now it seems I jumped the gun a bit.

      Grayskull is more complete than I thought it'd be. I love that article you did, and I will probably be reading it over again to check everything out. The trap door is a bit warped and there are some pieces missing. When I first got it I used it more for a place for She-Ra and her friends to chill at. So I don't have a lot of stuff. lol

      I don't think I have any Go-Bots, but I do have some Transformers. I am not sure of their names, but I do know that I had the brightly colored cassettes. I loved those and had a crazt affinity for cassettes back then.

      And I have been totally doing whatever I can to owe it to my brother. I bought him lunch today and will probably be doing that for the entire time he is here. I will also be putting his stuff up on ebay for him. Of course even that stuff can't totally repay him for what he did. Just amazing.

      Hope your week has started off well, talk to you later!

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  4. How awesome is this Miss M? After all of these years and you finally are reunited with these wonderful things. Congrats. : )

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    1. It is very awesome! I am so excited. I just can't belive I have found these items again. I owe it all to my brother though, he was not scared of that attic! lol

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  5. Great you found Glimmer and Grayskull Castle! I'm already awaiting cool reviews of all that new-found stuff. Thanks for sharing the story.

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    1. Well I hope I can do it all justice. I am very excited about what I have found. Many items that are now able to be more complete.

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  6. Much like your husband in this situation I would have been drinking-only I would have been drunkenly in the attic searching for toys. Who needs a tan when there's toys in the attic! (Although I probably would have drunkenly fell through the ceiling.)
    I may have told you this already but I lost my He-Man sword when I was a wee lad (the one that came with the original first figure) probably never will find it and it may have been my worst toy loss -except for the time my Mr. Potato head pipe fell in the toilet and got flushed! ( I had a tough childhood)
    Something you said about finding a Robeast Coffin-I have most of a Voltron in pieces in a closet and I have a robeast called Mutilor, here's a condescending article about him with pictures:
    http://www.collectiondx.com/node/2631
    I actually enjoy the shitty quality of this "Panosh Place" toy but I do not remember the coffin thing. did these come in coffins?

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    1. Well roaming around drunkenly in an attic sounds like the making of a very interesting story in and of its own. lol

      Losing a figure is one thing, but losing a small item I would imagine would be worst, because searching for that sword would literally be the needle in the fiberglass attic stuffing.

      So Mutilor was sold on card, but I believe he was also sold with the Robeast coffin. There were two coffins, a black one called the Coffin of Darkness and a red one, called the Coffin of Doom. They basically looked like the travelling coffins from the cartoon. I will have to post pictures of the red one I found.

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    2. Ok -but you are getting the trapdoor if you didn't get my wordplay with-"toys in the attic" -not just an Aerosmith album from the 70's! It's a euphemism for insanity. my quote: who needs a tan when there's toys in the attic?" was quite a clever little way(if I do say so for myself) for me to say-"yeah,I'm a loser who needs to get a tan. But I'm carrazzay-so I'd rather look for toys!"combined with the literal version of the phrase which is also umm-get it? If u don't get that lame play on words then I dunno what I'm (waits for you to punch the trapdoor button dumping me to my doom because I've annoyed you now with word-play games)
      I believe they reference the "toys in the attic" expression in the wall by Pink Floyd too so it's not just me right?People know what that means?

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    3. Ya know I thought you were meaning something by that, but it just wasn't clicking for me. I am always bad about reading things on the internet. But now that you typed that, I can't stop laughing at that. I also can't believe how slow I am. Seriously though, I am really slow. So who should be falling down the trapdoor now? lol (methinks... me.) lol

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    4. if I ever found myself in front of Hordak about to be trapdoored-I think I would act like that one guy, who was the guy that was the Horde general and Hordak said it might be funny to trapdoor him, and then the guy was like "maybe you should try it then if you think it would be funny Hordak!" and Hordak was like "uhhh never mind" -I forget the name of the character but that was bad ass! I'd love to call Hordak's bluff like that!
      What would you do if you found yourself on top of the trapdoor with an angry hordak having his hand on the button? Would you just cower and gulp and wait to get dunked?Or would you try to talk your way out of it? I guess what I'm asking is What would you do if you were faced with the prospect of a trapdooring?

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    5. I'm not sure what I'd do. I'd probably try to jump away or something. I would hope it would never come to that. lol I saw what Mantenna went through from the cartoon. No thanks. lol

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    6. The Panosh Place Voltron was pretty cool, though, because it could actually fit action figures of the pilots inside the lions.

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    7. Yeah my cousin had all the pilots and lions and I always thought that was the coolest thing that the could fit in like that.

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  7. Great story, and so awesome it finally has a happy ending, I would've been super excited to finally find Glimmer, there would be jumping up and down, but probably not best in an attic since they tend to have slanted walls and low ceilings :P lol

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    1. I know! My brother is really tall, so he wasn't doing any jumping at all. But I was completely freaking out. I'm glad this story had a happy ending too!

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  8. nice finaly not only finding greyskull again but glimmer after all this time you owe your brother big time for braveing that journey to bring greyskull and glimmer back plus your husband is a true catch to go out and buy you another glimmer . when you get her all clean up you need to do a group shot of all three glimmers together the two you got as gifts and the original one back home where she belongs after twenty years.

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    1. Yeah, once I get everything done, Glimmer will be having a nice post in her honor! Nice to hear from you demoncat4! Hope you are doing well.

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  9. I can't believe I started crying while reading this...

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    1. Oh. Well if it helps you feel better, it was all a big mess when it actually happened. Thank you for reading and leaving a comment. Hope you are doing well.

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  10. Great post, and congratulations on finding her! It gives me hope that one day I will find my Spike from Transformers in the attic of my Dad's house. Fortress Maximus sat up there, supposedly intact, until I went up there one day to find the Spike Headmaster figure missing. Now one else goes up there! Where could it have gone?? Did I put him somewhere for safe keeping and forget? To this day it drives me insane. I've even started to blame ghosts! lol

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    1. I feel your pain! I was thinking there were ghosts, roaches, drifters, I mean I had all these scenarios running through my mind as to where Glimmer could be. It became such a long running joke with my family and friends. They thought I was so lame. Now I think they will need to find something else to make fun of me for. lol

      I hope you find the Spike though! That unanswered feeling is the worst! And thanks for the comments!

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  11. That's GREAT! I heart that! My Greyskull is still floating around in the attic at Mum's :D
    I just found you through JBoy @ the Cosmic Ark- we don't have enough friendgirls in our toyblogging community, though I KNOW they are out there. Yay for girls!!

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    1. Thank you Super-Duper ToyBox! I'm glad you stumbled upon this site. And I hope you find your Castle Grayskull one day. And you are right, there are girl collectors out there! I think we are bigger in numbers than it seems, but we just need to speak up more. I won't speak for all women, but I know with me I was comfortable sitting on the sidelines and not really speaking up with folks. Anyways, I hope you are doing well! Thank you for the comment.

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