FW Presents: Those Wonderful Toys VIDEO Announcement!

Chris pops in to point you toward the Fire and Water Network’s YouTube Channel, and the first VIDEO episode of Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys! Take a tour of the Franklin Family Toy Room!

Here's the video link: Wonderful Toys Video Tour

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Clip credits:

Audio clip from Spaceballs

“Toyland” by Doris Day

16 responses to “FW Presents: Those Wonderful Toys VIDEO Announcement!

  1. That’s one champion-grade museum of figures and collectibles, Chris! There’s a very good balance of vintage and modern toylines, and as far as I can guess, that’s true for both your collection and Cindy’s. I like the posing that some of the super-articulated (e.g. Mattel DCU Classics) characters are sporting. Overall, the arrangement looks really great.

    Looks like you have Eternia represented — very good. Maybe you were aware of this, but that set of heroes and villains have kept coming in various form factors in the last couple decades, with more still on the horizon. Did you once have a larger MOTU collection? I grew up on that property too, and enjoyed the mention of He-Man and She-Ra in, I think, some of the old Super Mates promos I’d hear on the network at times.

    Is there any Batman toy that you don’t own, good sir? Heebies jeebies. I mean it — that’s quite an exhaustive Bat-toy compilation, and it would be interesting to know what someone with so many various dark knights would consider the holy grail of Bat goodies that you haven’t come across yet. Sorry if this is something you’ve discussed before, but the video made me curious about that.

    At about 9 minutes in, with Universal Monsters showing up, it occurred to me that you might have added to this display something I sent you last year, and sure enough, a second later, unless I’m mistaken there it was indeed. Awesome stuff. 😀 Thanks for the tour!

    1. Thanks for watching Doug! I tried to balance posing those super-articulated figures between “character specific” and “won’t fall off the shelf the moment I walk away”. It’s hard!

      I do have a larger MOTU collection, most of which is still in my basement, simply because I don’t have the room to display them! I had all the figures and vehicles up through the beginning of 1986. MOTU was the first toy line I “grew out of “.

      As for a Batman grail…it’s the Wayne Foundation by Mego. My Mego collection will come in a separate video (they are in our dining room), but I don’t own the Wayne Foundation. Another grail would be one of those wonderful tin litho Batmobiles made in Japan and imported by AHI. I wouldn’t turn down an Ideal Utility Belt, either!

      And yes, Doug, those great 90s Pepsi cards you sent me are in with the Universal Monsters! Thank you!

      Chris

  2. Wow, Chris, what an awesome collection!!!!! I really enjoyed the video and am jealous of some of the stuff you have. I’m going to bookmark this video to send to my relatives that fuss that I have too many toys. I don’t have a tenth of what you do. I really appreciate you sharing this video.

    Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?

    What make/model is that large Batman that you have behind/over the Carmine Infantino-styled Batman and Robin lamp? Do you know about when it came out? I’m just guessing that Batman & Robin I mentioned was the lamp without the lampshade on it. I don’t have the lampshade on mine, either. Sorry for the tangent, but I really like that larger Batman figure near the lamp. I’m so jealous of the 60s lunch box, too!

    I didn’t recognize a few of the figures. Were some of them customs? Unfortunately for me, there weren’t a lot of Batman toys to buy in the 1980s and I started college (so I had no money) in Fall 1989 right when the flood of Batman merchandise hit. Batman is my favorite character and most of my merchandise is for him. You have a lot of diversity in your collection.

    Props to Cindy on not just having her own collectibles but being ok with you having them and showing them off. I had an ex who wouldn’t kiss me in my house because she said it was like kissing in the middle of Toys R Us. She had a lot of Pooh toys and was ok with those. She also got mad when I bought a Talia action figure once. I don’t think she wanted me collecting the ladies. Easy to see why she’s an ex.

    Do you mind if we viewers ask you about something we have? I have this, what I think, was a paint by numbers Batman figure. I’m not sure, but I think it was Super Powers branded. I may have never seen the packaging because my mom bought it and got my extremely mean grandmother to paint it for some gift occasion. Granny fussed about it for years. I’ve never been able to find one online. It has a 1984 copyright date. I wondered if you might have any background on the figure. Whenever I google 1984 Batman figure, the Super Powers figure is about all the comes up.

    I really didn’t know whether to post here or on youtube.

    1. Thanks Gothos!

      That large Batman is also based on Carmine Infantino’s art, and is from the much-missed Warner Bros. Studio store. They made a whole line of “New Look” Silver Age Infantino Batman merchandise at the time, including that lamp (my lampshade got too close to the bulb and burned, so I had to toss it), the book ends you see, and a smaller statue that I don’t own where Batman is preparing to throw a Batarang. It surprisingly retailed for around $60, despite it’s size! The 60s Lunch Box isn’t the original, but the smaller Hallmark reproduction from the early oughts.

      Yes, there are customs sprinkled throughout my collection. Many of the Barbie Super Heroines are customs Cindy and I made, or Cindy had commissioned from Barbie artist friends. I made a few DC 9″ customs from the Hasbro series of the late 90s, like Flash and Neal Adams style Green Arrow, for instance.

      Cindy and I are co-enablers, which is one reason why the room was in such a mess for a long time. It took a long time to get all this on display, and there is still tons in storage, and more in the rest of the house you’ll see in the sequel!

      I think I have that particular Batman figure you are thinking about. The one I’m thinking of was made by Craft House. They also made Superman and Wonder Woman. I have all three somewhere, but they were badly painted by me in 1984. I repainted the Batman in all black in 1989, just to cover up my horrible, earlier Paint Job. Is this it?

      Batman Paint figure by Craft House

      Feel free to post either place. Thanks for watching, and commenting!

      Chris

      1. Thanks for answering my questions, Chris. Yes, that Batman you posted is the one I have. Mine has a good paint job. I’m sure the reason my mom asked Granny to paint it is because Granny was skilled at painting ceramics. Unfortunately, Granny is one of the meanest people I’ve ever met and she complains relentlessly about my fondness for super heroes, so she managed to suck the joy right out of that figure. Looking at the picture, I think I may have seen the statue in the packaging.

        I agree about the WB studio store. The had lots of great stuff for low prices. Sometimes I still cringe at the price I’ve paid for some statues that weren’t as nice as ones I got at the WB store for $19 or $29. I can’t believe I missed that big Batman. There was a store in Birmingham, Alabama, which is about 40 miles from where I live. I always got their catalog. I wonder if that big figure was never in the catalog. I still have several of the WB store figures on top of my book shelf, including my Infantino lamp. Sorry you lost your lamp shade!

        I’m really looking forward to seeing more of your stuff. Thank you for sharing and taking the time to make the video.

  3. Very impressive – thanks for sharing! They’re wonderfully displayed. It must be fun to just go in that room and hang out. One of yours that stood out for me was the toy I asked for as a kid and never got – Castle Grayskull haha. Speaking of grails, which pieces in the video do you own now, that were grails, that you finally acquired?

    1. Yeah, that’s my old, childhood Grayskull. A bit worse for wear, but hey, I had HOURS of fun with it.

      Hmmm. In this room, I would say one thing would be the Ideal Batman helmet. The DC and Superman the Movie Pepsi glasses were sets I worked a long time to complete, picking up nearly everyone in the “wild” and not off ebay, or through online means. Getting back the Remco Energized/Powerized figures, including the recent addition of Captain America.

      But the absolute grails were the Empire ride-on Batcyle and Batmobile pedal car. I had both of those as a kid, and they were both thrown out. They aren’t mint or complete, but they are close enough for me, and make for great “wow” pieces in the room!

      Chris

  4. Thanks for the tour, Chris. I think we had that same wood paneling in our family room when I was growing up. Good times.

      1. Good for him! We all gotta find our joy somehow. 🙂
        Truth be told, it wouldn’t have even occurred to me to look at the walls had you not commented on the paneling in the video. There’s so much else showcased to draw the eye, after all.

        OK, on additional rewatching: at about 8 minutes in, I’m looking at dolls of Vixen — Liberty Belle — a Tom Welling Clark? Wow: Lady Blackhawk?! Could this be a whole shelf full of custom Barbies? Please pass along my compliments — Cindy’s display here is just remarkable!! Such great work.

        I’ll be eager to see the future videos showing the other parts of your and Cindy’s collections.

        1. Yes, Doug, those are custom Barbies that Cindy and I worked on together about 15 years ago or so. A few were made by some of her Barbie costuming friends, or parts of them were. Most were kit-bashed, painted, etc. by us. The Lady Blackhawk uses a Playing Mantis Captain Action Kato outfit, for example. Phantom Lady has a standard Barbie bathing suit worn backwards, and a cape borrowed from a plush Count from Sesame Street.

          More videos to come!

          Chris

    1. It’s sad to say I don’t know the square footage off the top of my head, Mike. The room was once a carport that previous owners enclosed and made part of the house. There’s a small laundry room behind that Curse of the Werewolf poster, so it runs the width of our ranch style house from front to back, minus that tiny room.

      Chris

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