Nothing Replaces The Feeling Of Finding Figures In Store

Late yesterday evening, I made a trip to Walmart for some epsom salt and chipped beef on toast. Though my routine toy runs to brick and mortar are far and few between these days due to the futility of the effort, I still swing by the toy section when other business gives me cause to set foot in retail establishments. So it was a nice jolt of collecting excitement when I turned down the action figure aisle to see the newest Ahsoka sitting on the front of a peg. Being Walmart, it was the wrong peg (Black Series Deluxe), but we can't look a gift horse in the mouth these days. I would have been equally as thrilled if I found them hanging on the Halo pegs.

Whether or not the brick and mortar experience matters varies wildly from collector to collector. Some prefer the modern paradigm of placing preorders and having the product show up on your doorstep months later without ever leaving the comfort of your house. I get the appeal of that certainly, and it's how I acquire the bulk of my collection, but as a "Kenner kid" it feels somewhat anti-climatic. For me, nothing will replace the feeling of walking into a store and finding something new on the pegs, especially back in the vintage era. It was a multistep process. First, you spit out your Lucky Charms when the Saturday Morning Cartoon commercial break revealed a new figure:



Then you begged a parent to take you to a store that no longer exists, and if you were lucky, not only would that new figure be there, but also additional figures that you had no idea existed. There was nothing like it. Those days are long gone and are never coming back, but still being able to find figures in stores today is a nostalgic echo of those times. It's why I get antsy at the online-ification of the modern hobby. It's a valuable and primary method for acquiring product, but it should never be the only method. In-store, in-person purchases are still an important part of the experience for many of us.

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