Collecting Misfit Toys
06.05.06 By Deanna DahlsadLike Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, why not help Misfit Toys? I don’t mean those with manufacturing flaws, like those in the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys (which have huge price tags for certain!) why not consider used toys with character?Collecting these less-than-perfect, so-well-loved-it-shows toys preserves more than just mint-in-box perfection, it preserves the memories and real meanings of toys themselves.
Like Velveteen Rabbits, these toys have been well-loved, and their wear and tear is proof of their individual souls.
There are collectors of Teddy bears with missing eyes. I know, I have met them. One lady told me that she “simply cannot pass up a one-eyed Teddy because who else will love it if I don’t? Doesn’t it deserve some honor after all it has done?”
While a Teddy bear has earned its wounds fending off boogey-men, monsters under the bed, and plates of spaghetti siblings tossed in anger, what about those with less noble battle scars?
Many a toddler has teethed upon his own Fisher Price farm animals, or his big sister’s favorite doll. Why not collect toys that preserve such memories of baby’s first teeth? And what about the more neurotic childhood chewing?
If Barbie is collected for nostalgia, why not collect her for the childhood chewing memories? I found pages where boys had done the same to their action figures as well. However, I have it on rather good authority, that boys tend to do far worse than chewing on their toys… they have a penchant for torturing toys.
Like the neighbor in Toy Story, Sid Philips, boys have a tendency to blow up, melt and play hideous doctor on their toys… Army men, G.I. Joe, and even sis’s Barbie have gone where no manufacturer intended. Perhaps G.I. Joe wasn’t meant to be all he could be, but all that Johnny could un-do?
Of course, girls had their destructive toy behaviors as well. For example, I myself made more science experiments with my Easy Bake Oven than baked goods.
As a testament to creativity you could rescue real-life Sid’s toys and display them proudly in your home. The by-products of such endeavors are worthy of showcasing — amusing carnival sideshow freaks in plastic, tin and fluff. Where some may see a wall of horrors, I see a shrine to youthful imagination. (I bet Einstein, Edison and Marie Curie had some pretty maimed toys.)
Whether you collect only well-loved shabby Teddies, toe-less fashion dolls, or an entire assortment of misshapen toys, you are conservator to toys which once felt as unloved as those on the Island of Misfit Toys.
And you can get these works of art & science for a song as well.
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Article Tags: , Fisher-Price, Misfit Toys, teddy bear================
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