Historical Hoard

 

Since I am going to be going over my Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings action figures, I thought I would recall the incident that more than doubled my collection. It was in February of 2008, and while the ToyBiz line was kind of winding down, my enthusiasm was still riding high. Here’s what happened, related from a couple of contemporary blogposts at the time:

“My brother [Kenny] in Florida has had to do a lot of refurbishing and redecorating of his house, and as part of the general neatening-up decided to send me his collection of The Lord of the Rings action figures. He did this because 1) he knows I love them and 2) he knows I'll never sell or throw them away so if he ever wants to see them again, here they are.

“I knew there'd be a lot of them, but wow. Yesterday the Fed-Ex man drove up and started unloading boxes on the front porch. The first three were out and I thought, "Okay, that should be about it." Then another was hauled out. Then another. And another. In all six boxes, each 30"x13"x16", were piled up on the top step. The Fed-Ex man asked me what was in them, and I told him.

"Are you opening a store?" he asked.

I had a ready answer.

"No, we just play with them."

“I spent most of the evening sorting them out, assisted by my enthusiastic niece. Altogether there were 193 LOTR action figures. I collect LOTR action figures, but there are at least 30 figures here that I didn't have before. A quart and a gallon Ziploc baggies hold all their accessories.

“The figures break down into these categories: 55 Hobbits, 29 Orcs, 18 Aragorns, 14 Legolases, 14 other Elves, 14 Nazgul, 13 Men of Gondor, 13 Men of Rohan, 11 Gandalfs, 6 Evil Men, 5 Gimlis, 4 Gollums, 3 Dead Men, 2 Sarumans, 2 Ents, 1 Shelob, 1 War Troll, and 1 Eye of Sauron. [I think that though I never sold or threw any of them away, I must have given the kids some; I know I don’t have 55 Hobbits.]

“All of these could probably be packed into three boxes as described; after all they are loose figures. But there was more. Lord of the Rings premiums from Burger King. Lord of the Rings miniatures from The Armies of Middle-Earth, with playsets. LOTR chess pieces. LOTR Legos. And that wasn't all.

“There was the new Castle Greyskull and about 15 figures from The Masters of the Universe. [Kameron got those.] There were stray Star Wars pieces that were part of a collection to be sent to my brother John and Joey. There were 40 or 50 miscellaneous action figures of all kinds and makes, and accessories galore. Some will be distributed among nephews and nieces; others will go into my collection.

“So I've been very busy and happy. I swim around in toys like a porpoise; I burrow through them like a gopher; and sometimes I toss them up and let them hit me on the head, all the while chortling with merry glee.

 

“Here is a list of the miscellaneous action figures Yen sent along with the LOTR haul. Descriptions are applied where I don't know their exact names.

Captain Kirk (Original Series, Playmates)
William Ryker (Damaged, Playmates)
Geordie LaForge (Playmates)
Deanna Troi (Playmates)
Lt. Worf (Playmates)
Quark (Playmates)
Beldar Conehead
Prymatt Conehaed
John Belushi as Samurai Baker
The Flash (Justice League Unlimited)
2 Batmans
Killer Kroc
Dr. Evil
Austin Powers
Earthworm Jim
Drej Blastin Stith from Titan A. E.
Goombah from Super Mario Brothers
2 Jurassic Park Humans
Jack the Ripper from The Last Action Hero
Evil Eye Benedict from The Last Action Hero
Louis Tully from Ghostbusters
Sheriff of Nottingham from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves
Tall Gargoyle from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame
‘The Regulator’ Leslie Ferina  from Seaquest DSV
2 Ladies from The Masters of the Universe

“And then there are three mystery figures, that I don't know the names of or even what series they came from. One has a yellow suit, red breastplate, and a rather lion-like head with red hair. One is a kind of goat-man with blue-gray skin and an eyepatch [Quark from X-Men]. And one is a small 3&3/4" figure of a bald man with pointed ears and ebony-black skin. If anybody has any ideas on who they are, I'd like to know. But they're going in the collection.

“There were also four figures from the Narnia series: the White Witch, a Centaur, Peter, and a Dwarf. This one was the Narnian dwarf halberdier from a set I hadn't been able to get, so I was very pleased with that as well.” – Power of Babel.