Popular culture is ingrained in my personal heritage. I connect with peers who share my interest in mass media personalities and events. I celebrate historical and fictional characters from print and screen. I revel in memorabilia of my favourite heroes and villains. I collect toys.

For me, toys invoke a strong sense of nostalgia, a forgotten time of innocence when switching Optimus Prime from robot to vehicle mode repeatedly and making Superman soar through the living room were the greatest joys a child could have.

Takara Book Reissue Optimus Prime

The first movie character that left indelible impressions on my psyche and physical self was Superman. His portrayal of the iconic comic book character filled me with wonder and awe, so much so that I attempted to recreate his heroics by soaring off my bed onto a table, resulting in a scar above my left eye, giving Mum much grief then.

My earliest memories of the first toy Dad bought for me was Kenner’s Super Powers Superman. One evening he brought me to Queensway Shopping Centre and we left with that figure. That toy was a long time favourite of mine as I remember playing with it for a good many years of my childhood.

In my youth, Mum and Dad worked irregular hours, and Dad used to go away for work for extended periods of time. I never felt any lack of love from them, but they somehow deemed it right to make up for their absence by giving me toys quite regularly.

The toys I clearly remember having included Star Wars, He-Man, Transformers and MASK. You would have to be a child of the late 70/early 80s to remember these toys. Star Wars was at the inception stage of becoming the huge merchandising juggernaut for George Lucas that we know today, while the rest of the toys were based on cartoon series, which are disparagingly regarded today as 30 minute commercials for their respective toy lines.

I largely credit Akira Toriyama’s Dragonball Z for helping me to pass primary school Chinese, as reading the translated manga greatly improved my Mandarin vocabulary.

Medicom Dragonball Z Son Gokou & Super Saiyan Son Gokou

My teenage years were all about achieving decent grades, besides trying to act ‘grown-up’. Toys did not figure as part of the equation, but I did read the occasional Western comic and became immersed in the music by a certain Liverpudlian band.

The Beatles

Fast forward to 1999, when Star Wars Episode 1 was released. I was fascinated by the choreography of the final light saber battle and just had to own the characters from that scene.

Hasbro Star Wars Qui Gon Jinn, Darth Maul & Obi Wan Kenobi

It was a good year to start collecting, as the toy companies were starting to embark on their own retro trip. Basically, what was 80s was new again. It was astute timing on their part as kids from that generation had entered the workforce, which meant they had expendable income for nostalgic pursuits.

I greatly enjoyed witnessing the evolution of toys from casual playthings to collectibles. Take the first Superman figure based on the ‘96 animated series that I bought, and compare it to later and larger versions from DC Direct and Hot Toys, which boast intricate sculpts, detailed outfits and extensive articulation.

Hasbro 4 Inch Superman The Animated Series

Hasbro 8 Inch Superman/Clark Kent

DC Direct 13 Inch Clark Kent & Superman

Hot Toys 12 Inch Clark Kent

Hot Toys 12 Inch Superman

I know for a fact from seasoned stamp collectors like Dr Tan Wee Kiat, a Friend of Yesterday.sg, that there are stamps for almost anything. It seems that toys are, in their own way, capturing snap shots of popular culture, as the following collectibles illustrate.

Coca Cola Miniatures

1:6 Canon EOS 5D

1:6 adidas Superstars

1:6 Vespa by NewRay

Besides collaborations with popular brands, there are toys that capture the likeness of historical or famous figures.

Part of the fun in owning such figures is placing them in fantasy scenarios.

My personal evolution as a toy collector was something like this:
- Bright-eyed newbie who was enamoured with the new hobby
- Crazed junkie who longed for the next hit
- Jaded journeyman who lost focus
- Weathered collector who streamlined his collection
- Astute archivist who displays his collection thematically

I started out with Star Wars action figures, and collected every release that reached our shores, as much as possible within my means. Waiting for every new release was a thrill, and bordered on obsession. When there were lulls between releases, I started to look at other toy lines, and assimilated them in my collection.

My collection reached a point where I realised that it didn’t make any sense simply hoarding toys for the sake of having the latest item in hand, so I started selling off sections of my collections that I didn’t need. I gave up collecting for about a year, keeping an eye on the toy scene till I was drawn in again.

I then realised that the best way to manage my hobby was to restrict my collection to items that meant something to me, and these things tended to be nostalgic or iconic.

At that point, my job was museum-related and I picked up useful information in terms of collections management, conservation and presentation. Like museums, I was collecting, archiving, displaying and telling a thematic story with my hobby, in my personal display room.

The Dark Knight Movie figures by Hot Toys

DC Comics

Superman Returns Movie Figures by Hot Toys

Marvel Comics

Gundam

Star Wars

Transformers

My hobby and job converged when I was given the opportunity to use figures from my collection to enhance an exhibition at a museum. The exhibition was ‘Comics & Superheroes’ at Singapore Philatelic Museum and it was launched in 2008 and ran for about a year.

In 2010, my son was born. I look forward to the day when I can read him a comic in my display room, and he’ll point to a character on the shelf and say, “Look Daddy, that’s the character we’re reading about.” And I’ll tell him the story behind that character’s appeal to me.

My hobby provides me a fond nostalgic trip, a celebration of my favourite historical and fictional characters from print and screen, a retrospective account of my interests and most importantly, it serves as my personal popular culture archive and my legacy for my child.

I blog at Fortress of Testicular Fortitude and do drop by if you happen to share my interest.

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