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!!