You already know that ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ is now a feature film directed by the amazing Spike Jonze, and with every visually stimulating film comes collectibles.

While Medicom is releasing beautiful statues and figures and Kubricks of the characters in their movie appearance, what you may not know is that McFarlane Toys released storybook accurate action figures almost a decade ago, completely true to the meticulous cross-hatched style of Sendak. While they originally sold for around 12-15 bucks each, the soon languished on discount racks for years with nothing but nostalgia to support them. If you look on eBay today, you’ll notice that a complete set has suddenly started to sell for hundreds of dollars, sealed or opened.

One other thing worth nothing is that while the book was written and illustrated in 1963, the monsters themselves did not receive names until around 1980, when they were incorporated into an opera based around the book. McFarlane’s release of the Wild Things figures was actually the first time that these monsters’ names were made more widely known, as the audiences who read childrens books and attend limited engagement operas don’t regularly coincide that often.

While it’s never wise to invest in toys, these made a miraculous leap into the spotlight. I’m currently embroiled in my own attempts to offload a whole mess of sealed 25th Anniversary GI Joes on eBay to try and pay off a new car, and let me tell you, it’s rough out there. Toys that were worth a hundred bucks a year ago and dropped to almost 25% of their peak value, and it’s a little scary to have your backup plan buckle out under you.

All of this leads to one thing : buy the things that you love. Don’t buy to invest. Eventually, and this takes a whole lot of patience, your love of these things will be mirrored by the rest of the world when the collective consciousness comes around, and you’ll have return on your original investment.

But back to the original point : when it comes to entertainment collectibles,  you never know where they’re gonna go. A football player gets tied up in dogfighting and his action figures lose all value – OR, if the figure is still in production, production stops and the figure becomes scarce, increasing its value. If I had a good ol’ time machine, I’d sure as heck go back to Toys ‘R’ Us in the year 2001 and buy up all of the $2 Wild Things figures. I didn’t, because I loved (and proudly displayed) the set I had, and still have.

For those of you interested in the newer Wild Things aesthetic, Medicom really does make some beautiful stuff, and Funko has some pretty nice bobbleheads. For now, I’ll keep it oldschool.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 1:59 am and is filed under collecting fyi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.