Integration

[Devinebull1978]

In 1986, SABC - South African Broadcasting Corporation - brought out a new show called Thundercats. I was 8 years old and during this time in my country sanctions were imposed. I loved the show as a kid and of course saw advertisements for the toys on T.V but alas, the toys were very hard to come by and very exspensive. They were privately imported into the country and sold to very high end toy stores.

It was only on Christmas 1987 that to my surprise my parents managed to find some Thundercat toys and my brother and I each got one to our delight. As usual I always chose the evil side and I got my beloved Mumm-ra. My brother got Lion-o.

Over the next few months it seemed to me that a few of my friends too seemed to have access to buying the toys. We all used to get together and show off our new figurines to the disgust of the girls in our class. I was happy to add Vultureman, Monkian, and Ma-mut

Sadly South Africa never did get the second or third series aired to my knowledge and the craze died out.

I never did throw away any of my toys from my childhood and at the age of 21,I immigrated to the United Kingdom and started my new life in London. I of course brought all my toys that mattered to me along.

A few years back I went into a large DVD retail store and to my amazement saw that series 1 and 2 had come out on DVD.

I immediately bought it and rushed back home and started to watch the series. It brought back so many good memories I thought to myself it time for me to go through my old toys hidden somewhere in the back of my cupboard.

I dusted off old Mumm-ra and his fellow evil companions. I thought to myself its been over 20 years, how much are these old toys worth. I went onto eBay and I was happy to see that in good condition with all the weapens etc they can be worth a lot to someone who really wants them.

I am happy to say that my collection has grown somewhat over the last few months with favourite additons of Ben-gali (my favourite figurine) complete Jaga ( 2 variants) complete Moat monster. Young/Old Tygra.

I seem to be drawn to the variants of each character and also the rip off done in countries like Mexico. I recently purchased a Ben-gali rip off from Mexico and it really does add a new demension to my figurine collection. Even kids in poorer countries in the 80's wanted to have a Thundercat.

My next aquisition I am looking at next to purchase, is a complete Driller. I tend to stear away from the MOC's as I want to be able to touch,hold and experience the toy line that brought back so many good memories and play times with my childhood friends. What is your opinion on this ???

I am super happy that the cartoon has been revamped and released. And I will be purchasing the new toy line as soon as I have completed my old loose classic set.

Watch out as there is a new collector out there in London UK. I would love top hear from other London or UK based collectors if you are out there.