He-Man

"By the power of Grayskull, I have the power!"

He-Man has got to be one of the most memorable characters from the 80's. Every boy wanted to be him; I know I once did. I used to have a lot of He-Man action figures, even Castle Grayskull. Growing up, I was the only kid who had a Castle Grayskull in the neighborhood. While my playmates had almost every figure in the series, even the vehicles and weapon sets, they didn't have the castle. I felt really proud because I had one. Ofcourse my friends were envious.



But, alas, I don't have them anymore. I've managed to lose all of my He-Man toys, including the Castle. I must admit I haven't been very keen on taking care of them when I was younger.

But since I have rediscovered the joy of collecting toys, I have since been scouring the net and toy stores for He-man. I was so fortunate to have found a loose figure at a 2nd hand toy shop near where I live. Unfortunately for me, I didn't have any money on me that day so I went back the next day to buy it. But it was already gone. Somebody bought it right after I left.

I spent months looking for this particular figure. I've seen a lot on ebay, but it's mostly the ones from the MOTU series fro the 80's, which I wasn't looking for.



I found this 2 days after my birthday 2 years ago at a toyshop in Shoppesville. I was actually there looking for a personal birthday present, and when I saw this, I immediately took it off the rack and paid for it. It's from the newer line of MOTU toys, and I got it for 500 pesos( about $12), and admittedly it was actually a bit too much of what I'm willing to pay for an action figure. I normally wait until it goes on sale, and if it's loose I would haggle like crazy. But hey, it was new, still sealed and exactly what I wanted. So I went ahead with the purchase. I went home totally satisfied.

I'm not really looking to complete the entire series. I just want to get other select figures like Prince Adam, Skeletor, the other He-man Variants, Sorceress, Teela and She-Ra. Unfortunately, most of them are a bit hard to find, loose or MOC.

MegaHouse Dagashi Set

I love a good bargain which is why I'm always at 2nd hand toy stores and always on the look-out for sales. I would spend hours going through boxes, bins and racks just to find something in particular, and also spend hours browsing through online market websites like ebay.

I learned about this local online market called Auctions.ph. I can't recall how, but it was before they made their TVC that starred Alessandra De Rossi. Anyway, I was browsing through the site, looking for toys, books and comic books when I came across the listing for this toy set-- an opened box of dagashi miniatures from MegaHouse. MegaHouse is a Japanese toy company that has a big range of toys it manufactures.




It really was a bargain at 75 pesos! I hit the "buy it now" button immediately. Shipping fee was very minimal.

Dagashi is a Japanese shop that sells all sorts of sweets like chocolates, candies and snacks, at a very low and affordable price. These stores also sold cheap toys like tops, marbles, playing cards, etc. and were very popular back in the day. According to web-japan.org, up until the 60's and 70's, every town in Japan had one. You can read more about dagashi here.

I bought this just so I could use it as a subject for photography. But I have since parted with it after I took these pictures. I gave them to my niece  as a going away present.

Dunny

This is one of two Dunnies I own. Both are from Series 3. My sister got them as party favors from an an event she attended 2 years ago. Since she wasn't into toys that much, she gave them to me! Both are about 3-4 inches high, and have "tattoes" printed all over. Pictured here with the Dunny is pk014 Maki's head. I took this photo about 2 years ago, as part of a photo story I was trying to put together.

Dunnies are vinyl toys made by toy manufacturer Kid Robot, and are available locally at Fresh, Manila.

Photos From The 3RD TAGCOM Toys & Hobbies Fair