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The Karate Class Kid

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Memories of the Nanuet Mall

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Christmas of 1994

By: comic_book_fan

The Christmas of 1994 is very foggy to me, but I am nostalgic and it is the first Christmas I remember, and it is an important one to me. So, I will write what I remember about it, and hope I can somehow keep things in order.

I remember my family was going Christmas shopping at the Middlesborro Mall (A little history, irrelevant but some might find it interesting - Middlesborro is a small town in Kentucky. Back in the 1930's, it was known as little Las Vegas and many of the mobsters fled down there because gambling was hot and the police presence was low. It was built inside a meteorite crater, and I think Lee Majors lives there, for any Six Million Dollar Man fans.) Anyway, me and my family went Christmas shopping and I went in to KB toys.

I almost never got to go there, but it was Christmas so they told me if I were good and let them shop, I could pick out a toy while they scoped out my presents. A distraction that worked like a charm.

I had just recently got into the Wildcats cartoon, thanks to this really cool action figure my mom got me. It was a Spartan action figure. I hate to use another picture so soon, but this part kind of warrants it.

It was a lot like this figure. It could exchange it's hand for a weapon, or you could shoot it's hand off. Being 5 years old, I lost Spartan's hand almost immediately. But I took that toy everywhere. I wanted Grifter, who quickly became my favorite Wildcats member after watching the show. At the time, I was crazy about that show and my brother loved the Ninja Turtles and they always came on back to back along with the Real Ghostbusters and Garfield on USA Cartoon Express. That was a great lineup in my opinion. The only one to rival Fox Kids. We would always argue about who would win in a fight between the 2 teams.

Anyway, they didn't have Grifter and my brother was over looking at an action figure, so I went to see what he was looking at. When I got there, I saw this:

This bad*ss looking action figure came with a book that was all about him, and it had all these cool drawings of him ripping monsters apart. My 5 year old mind was blown.

Then after we paid for the figure, my brother dropped a bombshell on me that changed me forever. He said, "You know all these cartoons are based off of these comic books that you can get that tell their stories in moredetail. I was like, "So Wildcats, X-Men, Batman, all of them are based off these books?" He said, "Yeah!" And was like "Where can I get these?"

He took me to the comic store that was not far from KB toys and they were having a sale. I bought all of these issues - Spectacular Spiderman #205 and #206 and all of the X-Men Fatal Attractions stories. None for the Knight Medieval Spawn action figure but it was later taken away because of the spikes?

That was the first Christmas related memory I can recall. I hope you find it at least somewhat amusing.

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Hoju Koolander Posted on Dec 11, 2014 at 01:08 PM

That's an awesome introduction to the world of comic books, nice story. Image comics were pretty disposable to me, but the toys were the best. That first Spawn figure changed the game entirely. I had a few WildC.A.T.S. figures myself, in fact I made an "action figure movie" starring Maul and Hellspont with our family video camera. But Grifter definitely had the best design.

Vaporman87 Posted on Dec 11, 2014 at 12:57 AM

You and me both SoF. Those early/mid 80's toys were the ones I played with more than any others. I got so much use out of my Masters of the Universe/G.I. Joe/Star Wars/Transformers/Thundercats toys that they probably looked like 50 people played with them.

comic_book_fan Posted on Dec 10, 2014 at 09:15 PM

i was thinking this may have happened in 1993 but what ever i can't remember for sure but it was a good time.

SockofFleagulls Posted on Dec 10, 2014 at 08:56 PM

Wow, I feel old. My first real Christmas memories were a decade sooner and getting stuff like Castle Greyskull and the Atari 2600!!! No matter what year though, those first memories of Christmas are treasured.

Vaporman87 Posted on Dec 10, 2014 at 05:04 PM

By the mid-90's, KB Toys (KayBee Toys) had become a go-to place for toys that had been out of production for a couple years. And, by 1997 (when hype was building for the awful mess that was Godzilla '98), Trendmasters' Godzilla toy line had ceased production (as did Trendmasters altogether - they filed bankruptcy). The prices of those figures, especially the 12" line, had increased tremendously on the only existing online aftermarket of that time (Ebay).

So, my mission was clear. I began mapping out EVERY mall with a KayBee Toys in it within a 100 mile radius. Every weekend (and sometimes weekdays) I would travel to another mall, check out the KayBee Toys for Trendmasters Godzilla figures, collect my treasures, and head home. I did that for probably a year. I sold most of what I had found, but also supplemented my own collection (which I still have today).

Ahh, the days of bachelorhood when you could just leave on stupid trips like that for no good reason. Yeah, I don't miss those days. They all feel wasted now.

comic_book_fan Posted on Dec 10, 2014 at 04:58 AM

yeah it was a cool figure.
hey there is my next top 5 list right there i got 2 lined up and then another Christmas story.

massreality Posted on Dec 10, 2014 at 04:24 AM

I loved that Medieval Spawn figure. Its one of those things on my must buy again list. It was just so cool.

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