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Monday, January 16, 2012

After watching the new reality show Toy Hunters...

...I am intrigued to say the least. This show debuted on the Travel Channel last night. It is basically like American Pickers but with toys instead of antiques. The show follows toy dealer Jordan Hembrough around as he tries to haggle local toy collectors for figures he can resell at NY Comicon. Since only a pilot was filmed I have no idea if the show will be picked up for a full season; I imagine that is up to the network based on how many viewers were watching last night.

The show isn't bad per se, however there were definitely moments that were pre-arranged or staged for the cameras. I find it a little too convenient that on the very first episode Jordan just happens to come across the rarest Star Wars figure in existence. Not only that but he also comes across the rarest Thundercats figure in existence! I can't blame them for needing to hype it up a little bit, but that type of discovery just isn't sustainable for a multi-episode show. There just isn't that much out there of that high value. On the plus side we got to see inside the Tomart Warehouse and Jordan got to talk to a lot of previous Kenner employees, some who actually designed the toys themselves.

I was surprised at some of the values of the figures. Maybe it is just because all I have ever dealt with are Transformers, but many of the items he was haggling over didn't even crest the $100 mark. Even the production sample Batman from the Kenner employee himself only sold for $45. This just reaffirms my opinion that collecting Transformers is one of the most expensive toy hobbies out there.

I do hope this show gets picked up for a full season, while I find Jordan a little brash I do enjoy seeing all the figures and learning more about their history. However I must point out that the host doesn't really have a deep familiarity of certain lines (he called MASK a precursor to Transformers) for which I can absolutely forgive him because of his wide breadth of knowledge. I understand not everyone knows the back story on Transformers, maybe they should call me in as an expert :-) It became clear that Jordan is a child of the 70's and not the 80's when he was drooling over Six Million Dollar Man and Battlestar Galactica figures.

While no Transformers were featured last night (except for one lone RID spychanger Optimus Prime in a half second shot) I do predict that if this show is picked up Transformers will spotlight heavily on it. I'm not sure if it will re-run any more but I'd be willing to bet anyone who missed it can check it out on the Travel Channel's website.

Hmmm, look at that, two posts in one day. Usually I don't have enough to talk about.

1 comment:

  1. My brother told me about this show, but I didn't catch the pilot. I do agree with you about Transformers being an expensive hobby when compared to collecting other toy lines from the 80's/90's.

    I gave the producer that interviewed me last week a little crash course of Transformers history and explained why some of the earlier toys had cockpits. I doubt any of that will be used in the episode of Carolina Camera however.

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