As a kid, I always had toys. My earliest memories are of laying belly-down on the living room floor on a Saturday morning, avoiding the Florida heat, watching cartoons and playing with toys. Micronaughts, G.I.Joe, Transformers, The Krusher- any monster, robot or horror toy I could get my hands on battled it out, to the death, every weekend, holiday or summer vacation.
Somewhere along the way I started skateboarding, and through the magazines of the time, particularly Thrasher, discovered the artwork of Brian Schroeder- better known to legions of skaters and thrash music devotees as the enigmatic PUSHEAD.
Like tons of other kids into the skate/art culture, I rushed my S.A.S.E. out to San Francisco to join the Pushead Fan Club- getting letters and stickers from the man himself, encouraging me to keep on drawin' monsters.
Fast forward 16 years and I was still collecting toys here and there. My knees and wrists weren't really happy with my occasional bouts of skating, but when I did, I skated on a deck with art by- you guessed it- Mr. Schroeder.
Around the same time, my then girlfriend developed an obsession with vinyl toys. She was a little more than a decade younger than me and I quickly picked up her enthusiasm for collecting Western and Eastern toys- based on seeing the green colourway KAWS Pushead companion behind locked doors in a NYC toystore's display. The price read $500- a bit too much for a single toy, so I let go on ever owning this monument to my childhood obsessions; toys, monster and Pushead.
Several years later, and my toy collection had a few Pushead pieces in it- but the one that started it all for me still eluded my capture. Over time, I started finding it for under the initial $500 pricetag that the store in Manhattan sold it for. After chasing and missing for months, I finally picked it up- $250 from a fellow collector who was willing to part with it to pay bills.
In a few days, it will be in my collection, with a new glass display case purchased just to house it.
Little things like this make me happy.
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