Toy Bender

I’m pleased to announce that the contest to benefit Toys For Tots is now over. All that’s left is getting the winner picks from the official number picker. In the meantime, I’d like to thank everyone who participated and anyone that linked to the contest in order to help the tots out.

One contestant that I’d really like to thank is Sean Hayes who goes by the name hrdwrkngXsoldier on several different forums. Inspired in part by the contest, Sean took it upon himself to organize a drive to donate to Toys For Tots. He first enlisted his work place and then got a local comic shop Comic Evolution to match donations. Overall, they gathered about 10,000 dollars worth of donations!

I asked Sean a few questions about his efforts:

TB: What kind of items did you gather? Anything other than G.I. Joes?

Sean: I actually tracked all of the GI Joe Stuff, we got 15 Vehicles, 10 DVD packs, 20 Comic Packs, 6 combat heroes, 40 single carded joes, 2 sigma six 10 inch style Vehicles, 10 Sigma six figures, and a complete set of the Walmart exclusive 12 inch joes, 2 Dusty 12 inch and 1 Snake eyes versus red ninja. 2 Firefly vs Green Suits, 1 Air command Set. There were also donations of sports equipment, barbies, Hannah Montana stuff, even some Army Men. (I did see 1 Corps figure) Comic Evolution in Puyallup that matched us with our donations included more single carded Joes, tons of Spawn Figures, Marvel Legends, Spider man, Iron Man, DCU, and Hulk Figures. He also had some cases of Polly Pocket playsets and Dolls for the girls.

TB: Was it hard to find others to help you toward your goals?

Sean: It wasn’t hard to get support at all. When I was looking for a local shop to match my clinic, I called a couple of the owners I knew and Chuck at Comic Evolution was very glad to have his customers and his store participate. It all started with just my small clinic, but the word had gotten around to everybody in the department and we gained the support of the rest of the Dept of Family Medicine Clinic.

Sadly here in the Seattle-Tacoma Area we had a bit of a snow storm that made it hard for people to get around. We aren’t used to snow up here and don’t have the equipment or crews to maintain the roads. Many people also take leave for the holidays. I think if we had started earlier and the weather was friendlier that we could have done at least twice as much.

TB: Do you think you’ve made anyone into new collectors?

Sean: I know for sure I did. This whole thing started because I was a collector and desperately wanted to have a chance to win the GI. Joe Extreme conditions sets. So I have GI Joes in my office at work here on Ft. Lewis. I just decided that I could do something bigger. I remember when my co-worker was helping me make the donation boxes people asked us about what was going on. I would take a minute and explain that GI Joe has come out with a re-release of most of the 80’s toys in a super articulated style and that I think the less fortunate people of our military community would like to have a GI Joe at home, especially with so many children in the area that wont get to see their life size Joe during the holiday due to deployment missions.

I would bust out my Snake eyes, Breaker Para-Viper and custom Peyton Manning to show them off. There was a great consensus among the soldiers I serve that they needed to get some for themselves or for their children. I know on Special Forces medic that I work with went out and picked up some Lt. Falcons for his two kids. Two to keep sealed and two for his kids to play with. I’ve even had people ask me what figures are out there with their MOS (military specialty) and inquire about customs.

Lots of stores here had shipping problems due to the weather, but the PX, all the Wal-mart and Targets are still pretty empty in the GI Joe section. I created competition for myself that is for sure.

That’s some awesome work by Sean and Comic Evolution and it’s more than I could ever hoped for when thinking up this thing. If you combine Sean’s amazing effort and the other entries I received, I’d have to say that this was all worth it and a lot more kids had a good holiday season because of this. I’m hoping I can do this again next year, only bigger and better. Oh yes, I have plans…

I also want to thank the sponsors again, 80sTees.com, Big Bad Toy Store, Brian’s Toys, and Sideshow Collectibles. Without their prize donations there wouldn’t have been any prizes to give to those kind hearted souls out there.

Finally, be sure to check out the following links if you haven’t already. I promise the sponsor spotlights are actually entertaining to read as opposed to painfully boring like you’ll find on lesser quality bloggidy blogs.

80sTees Spotlight
Big Bad Toy Store Spotlight
Brian’s Toys Spotlight
Sideshow Collectibles Spotlightt
Pictures of Some of the Contestants