i already have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…

the simpsons toy line made by playmates(not those playmates)is regarded as one of the best toylines ever made along with gi joe, transformers, the original star wars figures lines and cabbage patch kids. welcome to the toy subculture. in japan, the subculture is actually mainstream…more extensive and involved…intimidating if not scary.

the history of the simpsons playmates line is too extensive to recap on my site. but there is an excellent article with pictures of every figure and diorama from the line here. you don’t have to read the whole thing….just look at the pictures(i feel a weird playmates theme arising).

this is theresa’s workstation. at her office, there is a culture of collecting and displaying toy collections from robots to kinder egg toys to the current vinyl toy craze. theresa features our simpsons figure collection by bringing in a different diorama and cast of characters every few months.

with so much snow during this winter, i think of where kids would go on snow days back in my time….the comic shops were full and so were the arcades. “not safe enough to travel for school” said the officials but the kids knew better…it was a free play day. snow got old fast and the budding video game culture was being born in the 80′s…snow was a midwife.

to commemorate, the simpsons has this diorama of an old school arcade depicting a time when the place had more of a mystique. before you could own a video game system…or two…and play in your own living room.  this was the only place for this kind of magic. it was usually ruled by jimbo, dolph, kearny and other thugs. good kids went at their own risk…but when they did….i can attest to the joys of galaga when my mom wasn’t looking or there was a window of time unaccounted for.

the set comes with jimbo but i had to find and acquire the rest of his gang. sometimes bart joins them.

happy snow days!

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