Big Boys & Their Toys

Tom Sosnowski

Managing Editor, Playthings

Collections: Hess trucks, R/C vehicles

Items pictured: Hess Trucks from years gone by; R/C Chrysler 300 from NKOK; R/C from TRU's Fast Lane brand.

My obsession with scale vehicles stems from my developmental years and receiving a Hess truck every Christmas since I was born. While the first five or six years saw me destroy the box and, quite frankly, beat up the toy until it was missing headlights, hoses and tires and became trash, I later became enlightened.

The reckless play ended when I discovered my playthings could be worth big bucks some day. While I doubt I will ever sell them, perhaps I will someday pass them down to my kids so they can walk around telling everyone about their great Hess truck collection—like I do today with anyone who will lend me an ear.

But my love of vehicles goes way beyond collecting Hess trucks; I also love remote-control vehicles. On my desk I have an NKOK Chrysler 300 in a steely grey. Occasionally I will zoom it around the office; but my colleagues tend to discourage this! It is an excellent release for me, though.

Deep down, if I were in therapy for this, I think there are two reasons that would bubble to the surface as to my vehicle/remote-control obsession. To begin with, I never had an R/C car as a kid. Back then R/C vehicles were pretty expensive compared with today's offerings. I guess technology and manufacturing have evolved a great deal since then, making R/C across the board more affordable. Also, my family was very practical in the sense that instead of getting one or two expensive gifts at Christmas, it was better to get a number of more affordable gifts. I suppose that was probably better economically in the long run.

As I grew older, another factor influencing my love of vehicles was the cars I had owned. I never really had the “it” car. Yeah, growing up in New Jersey I had the obligatory Camaro, then I tailed off with a Datsun 210 and Geo Storm—two real winners. Now, living in Manhattan, I have no need for a car. So I guess I might be satisfying my need for wheels by surrounding myself with toy versions.

I also like to be in control. I'm probably compensating for something with that, but I really do enjoy being the point man on just about anything. To that end, the ability to hold in my hand a controller and dictate every move an R/C car makes is very satisfying—start, stop, go backwards. I can do just about anything I like with the vehicle. My only wish is to find a car with better speed control. My experience so far is either the vehicle is going full-tilt or it is stopped. I have plenty of years left to find that dream car, though.

My latest infatuation is with R/C aviation. I'm not sure what direction I'm going to go in—helicopter or fixed-wing craft—but after seeing some sensational product during the last American International Toy Fair, I have the bug. There are many details I have to look into such as can I use it in Central Park? Are there restrictions on when it can be used? But that's all part of the fun of being a Big Boy with toys. The minutia of regulations, maintenance and customizing our toys are all parts of the Big Boy play pattern.

Miguel Bravo

Art Director, Playthings

Collections: Action figures, statues and busts, original comic art Items pictured: (clockwise top left) Shazam! Captain Marvel plush, Warner Bros. Store; Spawn action figure, McFarlane Toys; Martian Manhunter statue; DC Direct; Aliens bust, Palisades Toys; The Falcon bust, Bowen Designs, Kingdom Come Red Robin action figure, DC Direct; original art to cover of JSA Strange Adventures #1 I was 10 years old when my collecting craze began. My mom would buy the local Sunday Spanish-language newspaper and hand me the comics section—The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Prince Valiant—all in color! My uncle would then introduce me to Metal Men and Superman comic books produced by DC Comics.

That's all she wrote—I was hooked on comics (little did I know they would also start my interest in a career in art). I would hit the local candy stores and purchase about 10 comics a week, and continued to do so for more than 37 years. (Do the math and figure out the size of my collection. Yikes!)

Soon I also started buying action figures and some 6-inch PVC figures of Marvel Superheroes like Thor, The Hulk, Captain America—which I still have. I looked around for anything I could find. But there wasn't much out there. That all changed with the release of the Super Powers collection of DC heroes—Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and the Martian Manhunter, among others.

Marvel figures started showing up in more toy stores. I was consistently hitting the figure shelves. The strange thing is— I gave most of them away. If I still had all of them today my eBay business would be great. D'oh!

But my “serious” collecting started in the '90s. It breaks down into three categories: action figures, superhero statues and busts, and original comic art.

My statue collection started with a really cool Batman statue from Randy Bowen (the same guy who made the Superman statue you see in the background of Jerry's living room on all the Seinfeld episodes). I walked into the comics shop and told the store owner that I must have that great-looking statue. Other companies like DC Direct, Marvel Selects, Diamond, and the WB Store soon started a tide of superhero-related items—and I was in heaven. Today my collection numbers about 250 statues and busts in my studio at home. That original Bowen Batman, along with Will Eisner's (one of my college art professors) The Spirit, statues are among my favorites.

My figure collection is not as large. It's mostly superhero figures with some Star Trek and McFarlane Spawn and sports figures. My favorites are DC Direct's Kingdom Come and Legion of Super-Heroes, an old favorite of mine as a teen, that I thought would never get made. I still pick up a new figure every now and then at the local comics shop. I think I own about 70-80 figures that are either in my studio or here at my desk at Playthings.

My original comic art collection is made up of some of the best artists in the business: Ariel Oliveti, John Buscema, Joe Chiodo, Glen Orbik, Mike Grell, John Watson and my favorite, Alex Ross. All are one-of-a-kind pages that bring me joy just looking at and remembering the comic issue they appeared in. My favorites are hard to pin down. The Ross Kingdom Come pages, the Batgirl cover by Orbik, and Watson's cover to JSA Strange Adventures #1 are on the top of the list.

My buying habits lately have slowed down since there's only so much room in my home. But I still pick up the ones out there that just make me say “Wow!”—just like that kid finding that Super Powers Doctor Fate figure many years ago.

When will I stop collecting and getting enjoyment out of them? To paraphrase Charlton Heston: “When they take my Adam Strange action figure from my dying hand!”