Figure This Out

I have had this crazy obsession with toys from as early as I can remember.

My dad travelled everywhere for work. Business trips to cities I couldn’t even pronounce, in countries I could barely find on a map. And every single time he came home, he came home with toys. Cars, robots, wind-up firetrucks that would climb a tiny ladder over and over until the batteries died. I didn’t care what it was. If Dad brought it home, it was the greatest thing I had ever seen.

Then one day he came home with something different.

It wasn’t a car. It wasn’t a talking robot. It wasn’t a wind-up firefighter going up a ladder. It was an action figure. Fully posable. With gadgets you could swap and change and customise. You could build it, style it, make it yours.

It blew my mind.

The best way I can describe it — if all the other toys were like being on a constant dope high, that action figure was like trying LSD for the first time. Everything changed. I wanted it all. Every figure, every scale, every detail. I still do.

Over the years I started collecting certain figures more deliberately. Specifically the movie ones. Not just because of the craftsmanship — though that is part of it — but because of what they carry with them. A film I saw with my dad. A character that meant something to me at a certain point in my life. A piece that takes me straight back to a moment in time when I was happy. Each one is less a toy and more a memory you can hold in your hands.

These days I collect 1/6 and 1/12 scale action figures, miniature figures, toy cars, Star Wars, and movie memorabilia. The collection has grown a little out of control — the people who love me will tell you a lot out of control — but every single piece has a story. And when I’m in my man cave surrounded by all of them, I feel like Peter in Neverland. I never really grew up. I just got better at collecting.

Welcome to Figure This Out. Life in plastic, it’s fantastic.