Quests

People sometimes say that it is the thrill of the chase. I have gone on many a quest since becoming a mother over fourteen years ago, and I would like to clarify that for me, the chase is not terribly exciting unless I catch what I am after. The times I have come home empty handed, rare as they may be, have provided neither fanfare nor delightful tales of what basically amounted to running errands. When Stacy mentioned, in her blog, that she was desperately seeking Skylanders, I have to admit that I felt a little rush of adrenaline. It had been awhile, and I was looking to dust off my super seeking skills to find her some. Of course I didn't write down what the little figures were called, so I was unable to scour the shelves at Target very effectively. In my mind they were called Star Avengers, and I certainly didn't see any of those. I have been to Target three times since, but have not remembered what they are called.

I started to reminisce about some of the good old days, rummaging for whatever fabulous item would make my child smile that particular season. Since I am a collector by nature, some of the findings absolutely had more to do with satisfying my own needs than any actual deficit in our toy box. I was fortunate that my missions were rarely for any one big ticket item. Instead, they were usually things that cost under $5.00 a piece, which made the "how many?" decision difficult. If one is going to collect Littlest Pet Shop animals, she should have every pet, no?The constant creation of new critters to add to the mix was compounded by the fact that they were pretty cute (as was my daughter). This is a small sampling of who lives in our basement, but to get out the fanciest would've required me to run dangerously close to actually playing with them, and I had a blog post to write. I did have to resort to ebay one holiday for the ladybug and bee. Most of the time though, I was actually crazed when I'd hit that aisle to find five new animals...madness in $4 increments! Plus, was there ebay potential to consider, beyond the needs and wants of our own home?

These dudes (formally called Rescue Heroes) were about $7.00, and in addition to how cool they were visually, they also had awesome names. If your son is named Matthew, it goes without saying that a search for Matt Medic needs to commence. We knew people with other names too, so we needed CLIFF Hanger, BRANDON Irons, and BEN Choppin' too. I needed to find Aiden Assist because he was in a wheelchair and I was all about having a diverse team. Why do I remember their names, you might ask (or at least think, but are too kind to question). Well, the part of my brain that struggled with Social Studies every year, even into to college, was clearly reserved to house such delicate matters as toy names. (Oh, except for Skylanders...for crying out loud, I just had to scroll up to see what they are called again!) That photo is just part of our remaining collection. I sold a good portion of them on ebay about five years ago. (The owner, who was nine at the time was consulted, but perhaps not compensated.) I think I am over it. I did purchase the 9/11 FDNY firefighter Billy Blazes on ebay, since my uncle is a proud FDNY retiree. I am not exactly sure why I have that "sealed in the box" item in my basement though.

My current hunt is for Series 6 Lego minifigures. We sort of missed Series 1, but I had two through five covered, as you can see, from the boy's shelf, (where they all pile out of the VW bus):and of course, the girl's shelf:These come one per sealed package, and you don't know who you'll be getting...unless you get really good at feeling the package very carefully, while looking at the picture of who is available in that series...at least, that's what I've heard. Yes, they are available online, but part of the adventure in my missions is to pay a decent price for things, and shipping charges do not fall under that heading.

I've given you a brief glimpse into our Lego world, and though I took the pictures to discuss this specific collection more fully, I am not ready to divulge the extent of what is lurking in our basement. It is not just my fear that they will riot and come after me while I sleep if they do not get their very own post! Here is one last glimpse... This is the Dwarves' Mine set that was sold out online, and nonexistent in any local stores one Christmas (and marked up too much on ebay). I actually resorted to calling the various Lego stores that were listed on the website. I got lucky on the fourth store, and they agreed to take my credit card number and mail me the set from halfway across the country. Full disclosure? I called back and asked for a second set for a friend...named ebay.

We were hit pretty hard by the Webkinz craze too. In fact, it still punches me every now and then. I am not including a photo of that collection because it's the only one I was not truly on board for. It was the one that I heard actual pleading about. It was the one that I...I...Ok, I have some Webkinz too.