A few months ago I was out in NJ visiting my mom. By now, I’ve scoured every nook and cranny of the house I grew up in for remnants of toys from days gone by. My previous visit turned up a vintage MEGO Dukes of Hazzard General Lee (a week after I bought one on eBay). But that was in a far corner of the attic and it was the bottom of the barrel. So when I was out this time I didn’t think there was anything left to go through. My mom, however, pulled out a big box of old LEGOS. Just for fun I decided to separate all the pieces by color, put the sets in Ziplock bags, and have ma sell them at her next garage sale. Well, as I picked through the pieces I came across some miscellany related to the little plastic people …
Apparently, when playing with LEGOS as a kid, I invited other toys to the party. There was none of the sterile isolation my current toys are subjected to.
Every now and then as I went through the process of segregating primary colors I’d stumble on something was was definitely not of the LEGO universe. The small pile I was left with represented a good cross section of the toy lines that were a big deal to me. In this photo alone we have accessories from He-Man, G.I. Joe, Dungeons & Dragons, and Star Wars.
Then I saw the sword.
As you know, I’m a collector of vintage 3 3/4″ action figures. Most recently, I’ve been piecing together those old Gabriel Lone Ranger and Zorro lines. Its slow going to collect these loose since 99% of the time their little guns and swords are missing. Each of the four Zorro figures (Zorro, Amigo, Sergeant Gonzales, and Captain Ramon) come with the same sword. Now, I’ve got the four figures but I’ve only managed to acquire a couple swords. So, when I saw this little accessory in that pile of LEGOS I let out a little squeal. I guess in the grand scheme of things its not a huge deal, but it did feel like a serendipitous victory.
And Zorro can go back to carving “Z”s on people’s chests.
OUTSTANDING VICTORY!!!
sounds like me a few months back. dad’s farm was put up for sale and I hurried over to get the comics someone had thrown up in the hayloft twenty years ago. there were only a few books that had been ruined, but I also found some G1 Transformers like Sixshot and Metroplex, and some early 90s Joe stuff (flat tan tank-?, HISS v1, couple figures) that I had thought were lost forever. total “squee” moment upon finding them intact and not thrown into one of the two ten foot high brush piles he had made, or just tossed out/sold at some point over the years.
nice find just proves one never knows what treasure one can find going through old stuff of the past. for found my old original wheeljack doing the same hunting.
Come over to my house. I have boxes and boxes of little accessories you can sort for me. I was sorting stuff yesterday – yikes what a lot of stuff I have.
Nice. I was round my folks the other day and saw that my dad had found an old Cheetara figure that I had as a kid which he’d given it to my nephew to play with. It got me thinking what else might be stashed away in the loft or shed.
“I guess in the grand scheme of things its not a huge deal, but it did feel like a serendipitous victory.”
You sir, are wrong, This is a HUGE score, of the best variety; totally unexpected. How ironic was it that we couldn’t stop talking about the damn line in your previous blog?
Congrats mate!
Very cool find. The Zorro line is small but rare and expensive. Congrats, Danny.
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Cool, now if I can just find some Mego POTA shoes at Mom’s house!