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My 90s Bedroom

By: Hoju Koolander

If a kid is lucky enough to have their own room growing up, it quickly becomes their sanctuary. In my case, I had 2 siblings that were out of the house at college by the time I was 6, so I enjoyed the freedom to decorate as I chose very early. In some ways my room was constantly being re-designed based on my current obsession, but the core theme always remained. Allow me to take you through a tour of my childhood bedroom from 1990-1999 and let's see what retro eye candy we find along the way. Truth be told, I should be way more embarrassed than I actually am by what follows.

Here we have a moment captured by my Mom while my buddies Brent and Brandon were over for a visit in 1990. The first thing you'll notice are the LEGOS, which I got a lot of mileage out of over the years. Apparently we each took out turns building spaceships of different configurations.

OK, it's hard to ignore the elephant in the room. No, not the picture of me literally riding an elephant on the bulletin board behind my head, the Kenner Super Powers action figures! I'm proudly propping up the classic Batman figure, while Brent is quite content with Robin. The amazing thing is I still have them to this day, though their capes have since vanished. Note: based on the whiteness of Robin's bare legs, the lightness of the yellow cape and the darker green paint on his gloves, Brent might actually be showing off the Toy Biz DC Super Heroes re-issue from 1990. These are the kind of things I notice, because these details ruled my life at the time.

Also, please notice that Brent is sporting a t-shirt featuring He-Man & She-Ra that he got from the merch table at the Masters of the Universe Power Tour live stage show in 1987. I am still insanely jealous that I did not attend this extravaganza back in the day. Whenever I was at Brent's house after school, I would soak up every inch of the full color program from the Power Tour show that he kept in his room.

Flashing forward to 1994, you may be asking, "Who is that cool dude in the leather jacket?" At least that's the reaction the 12 year old me was hoping for. Yes, I was a pale, chubby youth, but just look at that radical McFarlane Spider-Man standee and all the other fun stuff I had to keep me inside.

First of all, hiding behind one of my comic short boxes is The Rocketeer from the 1991 movie. I was always disappointed we didn't get an official action figure line and had to settle for this vinyl doll from Applause. Still, any version of Cliff Secord was better than none. On the next shelf over is the Delta Probe One vehicle from the Super Powers line. Probably the most miraculous moments of my pre-teen years was coming home from 6th grade to find my mom holding that Delta Probe One and a Lex Luthor figure still in their original boxes claiming she found them on the shelf at Sears. This was 7 years after the line had been cancelled! I was nostalgic even then, so this was unbelievable. I still have Lex, but Delta Probe One is lost to the ages.

Spread over 2 shelves you'll also see evidence of the Cyclops Light Force Arena playset. As were most boys of the 90s, I was obsessed with the Toy Biz X-Men action figure line and bought up as many of their offerings as I could with my chore money. This playset was like having a piece of the Danger Room to train Cyclops in where you could split a steal block in half, tumble down a wall or hit a pop-out Magneto with a well-timed optic blast. Each of these features was activated by a switch on the platform you attached the Cyclops figure to and it was lots of fun. I also had the Wolverine Combat Cave that worked on a similar premise.

As I got into Junior High I finally entered the computer age with my own 286 PC! I basically just used my computer to play Wolfenstein 3-D, but I also managed to get the slowest of dial-up internet service on it around 1995. At least, that's the only way I can explain my Fairchild from Gen 13 screensaver (gggggrooowwl). I actually held onto this computer until 1998, when my tech-saavy high school pal was so disgusted he gave me his old 486 with a Pentium processor because he couldn't stand for his friend to be in the "dark ages". Soon after I was AOL Messenger chatting and playing DOOM like a champ. That's progress for ya.

As alluded to, my buddies and I filmed a lot of video comedy skits and my room became "the studio". Here you can see me showing off a Bravestarr action figure with a jolly/goofy grin on my face. Also in the background is my personal TV complete with clicking dials and rabbit ears. That television set played all my "secret rentals" from Blockbuster Video. I'm talking about horror VHS tapes of questionable content that because of my size, I was able to rent without permission from my parents because I looked and sounded like a young adult to the college kids working the checkout counter. Oops, secret's out!

Now let's take a look at the cork board in the background as I put on an equally ridiculous expression for the camera. Yes, not only is there an ad from Wizard magazine for the Gen 13 1/2 comic offer, but also a signed photo of Lucy Lawless as Xena, Warrior Princess. I had a major crush on Xena as my hormones began to rage and wouldn't you know it, my real-life crush in 7th grade looked just like the leather clad goddess. I believe I mailed away for that signed publicity still from an issue of Starlog.

Also on my door for some time was a poster I put together with fake photos of me climbing a wall that claimed to be evidence that I was in fact, Spider-Man. Hey, I was a fan and despite looking more like The Blob, I wanted my chance at cosplaying my favorite hero. So sue me.

Here is the photo sequence of my being caught unmasked. I am sporting my homemade web-shooters constructed of cardboard and shiny tape, as well as my Spider-Man ski mask that I had been wearing since 1985. I sewed the white into the eyes in order to be more comics accurate. How could I see? Well, the material came from my Dad's worn out old underwear that was basically see-through by that point. And yes, I washed 'em before I wore the thing. Sheesh!

As a Freshman in high school in 1996 I began really enjoying this giant display shelf in my room. That's where I showcased my favorite figures and other collectibles. As you can see there's lots of Toy Biz X-Men figures, but what's that behind my head?

My one and only foray into Manga or Anime was through The Guyver and I managed to pick up his dubbed animated series from Japan on VHS at the now defunct Suncoast Video. Amazingly enough, there were not one, but 2 American adaptations of the story, one of which starred Mark Hamill (but not as The Guyver himself) and I watched those even more often than the Anime. Also joining his Japanese buddy is the terror of Tokyo, Godzilla. That's the classic giant rubber version from the 80's which I picked up at a garage sale a few years prior. Wish I still had that thing.

In 1997 I was introduced to the band KISS during their Reunion Tour and have been a card carrying member of the KISS Army ever since (I literally have a vintage membership kit). Soon my room was filled with posters and magazine clippings and the comic book action figures slowly moved into boxes. I was still into comics, but my KISS-mania was in overdrive.

During my one and only outing the the San Diego Comic-Con that year, all I bought was KISS merchandise, which included the original McFarlane action figures, which I proudly built a stage for and clipped out images of from the promotional booklet I got at the McFarlane booth. I even suspended the figures from the ceiling using fishing wire to re-create the levitating stage antics from the live show.

My room design pretty much stayed that way from 1998 through my high school graduation in 2000, but by that point I had dropped a few pounds and was playing in a band, neglecting my once coveted Kid Cave. Still, the space that basically served as a mini-comic book store for me will always be fondly remembered and I'm glad I have some photographic evidence of its glory days.

What was the favorite corner of your childhood bedroom? What do you miss the most?

Looking for more from Hoju Koolander?

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comic_book_fan Posted on Jun 16, 2018 at 01:53 AM

i liked the fairchild screen saver

Superman Posted on Jun 15, 2018 at 03:49 PM

This is really cool. My room had a poster with cut out pictures of some of my favorite superheroes glued to it. This poster would later be replaced with pictures of some of my favorite female movie stars that I had printed off of the computer and taped to the wall.

Vaporman87 Posted on May 12, 2018 at 01:46 AM

LOL Rick! Exactly.

Rick Ace Rhodes Posted on May 10, 2018 at 09:28 PM

This is everything I ever expected.

Hoju Koolander Posted on May 08, 2018 at 02:30 PM

@jkatz Good eye, there!. Yep, it was a metal Luger cap gun. I got it when I moved into my brother's old room along with another awesome toy I mentioned in this article http://retro-daze.org/site/article/id/9084

jkatz Posted on May 08, 2018 at 02:41 AM

Is that a luger in your pants. or were you just excited in the photograph?

Hoju Koolander Posted on May 08, 2018 at 02:28 AM

@NLogan I'm pretty sure to this day my Dad has no idea how he contributed to my rudimentary cosplay.

@Vaporman87 Well, I did hold a press conference to reveal the truth of my identity, but then I made a deal with the Devil and erased 40 years of history, so you've all forgotten about it. Also, I've been recast several times so it's hard to know who the Spider-Man is these days.

NLogan Posted on May 07, 2018 at 11:10 PM

Hah! Beautiful, just beautiful. I may have even teared up a little... from laughing so hard that you used your dad's old undies for your Spidey-Eyes! I only wish I had any photos of my room growing up.

Vaporman87 Posted on May 07, 2018 at 10:56 PM

This was intensely fascinating... but you failed to answer the all important question of "Is Adam Pope the Spider-Man?" Well... is he?

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