My love affair with toys has stuck with me for as long as I can remember. I still have my dad’s “Dinky cars” and “corgi” trucks from when he was a little boy (although they have seen better days), my brother and my Lima electric model train set from the early ’80s and my old lego collection (sparse as it may seem).
Apart from them keeping me attached to my childhood, there is something magical about toys. I can’t really explain it, a lot of my family doesn’t get my fascination with toys (although my kids definitely appreciate it). I suppose they allow me to explore my imagination station (#gibbosimaginationstation), to consider them as interesting characters as opposed to plastic objects.
I was an 80’s baby, my mom called me a TV baby as I used to love watching cartoons and tv shows about superheroes, villains, etc. My all-time favorite was He-Man. I collected all the different figures over the years! I used to play for hours with them in my room or in the garden… I used to pretend that they were real and imagine they came to life at night time when I was asleep.
Fast forward a couple of years; and when Toy Story came out, it blew my mind, not just for the amazing animation and story, but because it was about toys that actually were real and came to life. I had to have Woody and Buzz, so that is where my toy collecting started…