happiness Archives - PS

The Imperial Toy Center

Mantooth — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 13:39:00 +0000

The sight of this is just a total happiness trigger to me. I especially want that Dinosaurs display box.

New Six Million Dollar Man Shirt in our Redbubble store!

Don’t forget to join our new facebook group.

Get the expanded digital edition of Rack Toys here.

The post The Imperial Toy Center appeared first on PS.

Rack Toys the Digital Edition Now Available!

Mantooth — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 13:22:00 +0000

I am so happy to announce that my baby is back! Rack Toys: Cheap, Crazed Playthings is finally ready and available for download here!

This new version of Rack Toys is now expanded (now weighs in at 162 pages) and includes some new stuff i’ve found, most of which i wished i had at the time.

It’s been a wonderfully cathartic experience going through these old files, taking new photos and just reliving the whole creative process (well, save for the sitting and inevitable back pain, I really need a new chair) has been so positive and wonderful.

Seriously the other day, I noticed I had been smiling the entire time I was re-linking photos. Those things shouldn’t go together….

Just a couple of the new things in the book.

So much so, that I added the following PS to my own introduction:

“PS I published Rack Toys in 2012 and it was one of the best things I ever did. I didn’t get rich but I grew as a human being and made many new friends as a result. If you have an aspiration in this life, do it, don’t listen to naysayers, just go for it. I’m so happy I took this risk, you should too”

I sincerely mean that, I’m so happy i did this and i‘m grateful to everyone who came into my life as a result. Record your podcast, make your movie, audition for that play and write your freaking book! Put it out there.

A book about trash toys changed my life and I thank you.

Rack Toys: Cheap Crazed Plaything digital edition is now $6.99.

The post Rack Toys the Digital Edition Now Available! appeared first on PS.

Goodbye to the World’s Coolest Basement

Mantooth — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 04:00:00 +0000

This week got a l’il emotional as I bid goodbye to my grandparent’s home. Even though they both had passed a while back, my whole family was a bit attached to their place and it took some time to finally decide to let it go.

For me, the hardest part about it was that it was a perfect time capsule complete with wood paneling, funky carpets and even rotary phones (which now reside in my home). It was like stepping into my childhood every time i went there:

I played with my Mike Power: Atomic Man in this corner, wrote my first post college resume on that desk and more recently filmed the Brick Mantooth toy commerical here.

The house was built in the mid 1960s and honestly I think they stopped decorating around 1972. They kept everything perfect so it was museum quality and it was also filled with weird “high tech” items like electric space heaters and intercoms in every room!

Seriously, what kid wouldn’t play with this for hours? It was like living in the Venture compound!

This house will forever remind me of catalogs (my grandmother kept them for years, so yeah I got it from her), the Lawrence Welk show (which I hated then but now cannot get enough of) and Dean Martin records. I’m sorry to see it pass but I’m also taking all of those things with me, so it’s never truly left has it?

Speaking of “taking it with me” I did manage to inherit something, somehow my siblings, parents and even nephew didn’t fight me from getting what was truly mine.

Yes, this magnificent belt massage device works and it’s all mine! Those fools just let me have it.

Thanks for reading, have a terrific weekend!

The post Goodbye to the World’s Coolest Basement appeared first on PS.

Spider-Man meets Kamen Rider V3

Mantooth — Sun, 01 May 2016 19:55:00 +0000

I’m packing up PlaidStallions HQ for an eventual move and this fluttered across my desk, it’s a Japanese post card for the Toei Spider-Man series and for some reason, they included Kamen Rider V3. I prize it dearly.

I’ve had this card since highschool, it was gifted to me by fellow toy collector and friend John McGonagle (sadly no longer with us). He just threw it in a box as a surprise and it blew my mind, I called John to ask what it was and he said “It’s the Japanese TV series of Spider-Man, I think the other guy is called The Fly”

That simple nicety set me off in a milllion directions, I wanted to know more about these characters, were there toys? How could I watch these shows? What else is out there? It was like he gave me a corner of a treasure map.

It’s a hunger that’s never satisfied but that’s also because it’s been a world of fun. So thank you John, for showing me how to not only be a good collector but also for being a friend to a teenage kid with a billion questions.

This post card means a lot to me and will be on my desk in my next home, wherever that may be…

The post Spider-Man meets Kamen Rider V3 appeared first on PS.

The Summer of Fuzzy Hair GI Joe

Mantooth — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 00:56:00 +0000

While
summer comes to end, I now have an awesome set of memories wrapped in some well
loved vintage GI Joes.

You see, my
family chose to spend our summer weekends hiking the wilderness and
then exploring a new town. We got some exercise, saw some natural wonders, tried new food and then
checked out any area flea markets or antique malls (as anyone who has been to my face book page knows, I like this sort of thing).

the “non toy part” of the day

On our first trip, I visited the awesome Bounty Hunter Toys in Hamilton Ontario, where I got a
fantastic deal on a talking GI Joe in the box. He wasn’t perfect but his price was more than fair and he kept telling me he “had a tough assignment for me.”

I took that assignment by trying to pick a
well loved Joe everywhere I went the next two months.

I struck out a lot, often passing on overpriced ones but as our family adventures continued, I had some luck finding some gently used adventurers.

Now, each
figure reminds me of one of those trips, even the Man of Action, who was angrily
purchased online the day we got lost in the woods for 3 hours.

With summer over, so ends my Joe quest, they will remain above my desk, as a reminder of time well spent.

Thanks for reading, hope you have an awesome labour day weekend.

Brian

The post The Summer of Fuzzy Hair GI Joe appeared first on PS.

Goodbye to my biggest fan

Mantooth — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 05:00:00 +0000

Normally I wouldn’t trouble folks with my personal
life but if there was anyone that is a foundation for this site, it was my
grandmother who passed away this week at 91 years of age. She (and of course, my parents) is largely
responsible for why I look backward with fondness.

I was fortunate enough to read her eulogy and was glad
to share with people how much she meant to me and my family but I had to leave
a lot out.

Today would have been her 92nd birthday and I’m going to spend it celebrating many of the things she did that made me
want to create this site in the first place:

My grandparents owned a store in a mall, almost every
Saturday I was babysat there. I spent the majority of the day going from the Woolco,
to the hobby shop and then to the drug store to ogle the rack toys. My grandmother
was usually good for $2, which was completely pissed away on what she would call
“Junk”.

She kept old catalogs in her house and if she traveled
to another country, she would bring me back their toy catalogs. It was kind of
a weird torture looking at Big Jims and GI Joes that I would never own. It did
however spark my interest in foreign toys, is anyone seeing a connection here?

In college, when I was forced to sell my toy
collection, she arranged the purchase of my two favourite MIB Mego figures
(Spider-Man and Captain America) and gave them back to me years later. I still have
them, I will never sell them.

On my sixth birthday, she left me in the Eaton’s toy
department and told me to pick out one thing for my birthday. I spent what felt
like an eternity pouring over the GI joe and Big Jim offerings. More than the
toy itself (i forget what I chose), I appreciated just being given that luxury of time.

When I was 13 she knitted me a Tom Baker scarf, she
also sewed me a Jon Pertwee cape that I wore to my first convention a year
later. I still have both, I never wear them.

She bought me my first issue of Starlog and more
comics than I care to calculate.

My first Ramones record? You guessed it, it was Road to Ruin.

Christmas was incredible event at her house, some of
my fondest childhood memories stem from those evenings.

When I got the Brick Mantooth figures in from China,
she was the first person I showed. She approved but thought it was bad investment and well,
the lady wasn’t dumb.

I filmed the Brick Mantooth commercial in her
impossibly funky basement.

She owned one of these and now, I do I guess….

Rack Toys is still proudly on her coffee table.

She always told me the truth, even I wasn’t going to like it and could present it in a manner that I couldn’t get mad at her.

She was my enabler and I can’t look at the majority of the
things I blog about and not think of her. That will always make me smile and
one of the reasons I’ll keep going and will be just fine. I love what I do
because she loved me.

Thank you for indulging me.

The post Goodbye to my biggest fan appeared first on PS.

Happy New Year from the Mantooth Compound

Mantooth — Wed, 01 Jan 2014 03:21:00 +0000

I hope your 2014 is as cool as this picture.

The post Happy New Year from the Mantooth Compound appeared first on PS.