Seriously- is there a secret underground monster toy collecting network?

[Jscareshock]

GOd, I remember walking into a COles dEPARTMENT sTORE IN aLLENTWON pa IN THE MID TO LATE 1980S AND THEY HAD A WALL FULL OF THE ahi MONSTERS FOR 99 CENTS EACH.  COLES WAS A BIG DISCOUNT STORE LIKE OLLIES OR BIG LOTS.  I  passed on them because I did not like them.  I wish I had bought them.  Someone did or they went to a warehouse and sat until they were remaindered to a flea market seller somewhere.

The Freakies stuff was everywhere too.  You could write the cereal company and send them one box top and they would send you complete sets of the toys.  Those were later remained to a discount store out of Oregon that has a catalog (I cannot remember their name) but they still sell lots of novelty stuff.

You just have to keep looking.

[chrisnurse]

GOd, I remember walking into a COles dEPARTMENT sTORE IN aLLENTWON pa IN THE MID TO LATE 1980S AND THEY HAD A WALL FULL OF THE ahi MONSTERS FOR 99 CENTS EACH.  COLES WAS A BIG DISCOUNT STORE LIKE OLLIES OR BIG LOTS.  I  passed on them because I did not like them.  I wish I had bought them. 

Oh man, what happened to the UMA time machine that people were talking about here a while ago? Did anybody get that baby working in the end?

[chrisnurse]

Yes, but the original Stretch Monster was green, (this is a nearly perfect repro in black.)  I blew my original Stretch Monster to bits with an M80, and I recall the goop running down the driveway.  The mysterious filler material was corn syrup, it turns out.

I could never quite understood why the Stretch Amstrong stuff went so high on ebay, but reading the posts here I now remember all the kids who had them when I was younger  ripping them apart eventually, and if they didn't rip them to pieces I'm pretty sure the rubber perished. They're not my thing really, but the monster was pretty damn cool.

[AHI Creature]

GOd, I remember walking into a COles dEPARTMENT sTORE IN aLLENTWON pa IN THE MID TO LATE 1980S AND THEY HAD A WALL FULL OF THE ahi MONSTERS FOR 99 CENTS EACH.  COLES WAS A BIG DISCOUNT STORE LIKE OLLIES OR BIG LOTS.  I  passed on them because I did not like them.  I wish I had bought them.  Someone did or they went to a warehouse and sat until they were remaindered to a flea market seller somewhere.

The Freakies stuff was everywhere too.  You could write the cereal company and send them one box top and they would send you complete sets of the toys.  Those were later remained to a discount store out of Oregon that has a catalog (I cannot remember their name) but they still sell lots of novelty stuff.

You just have to keep looking.

Wow, was that a wall full of the 8" figures??  Or all the monsters...?  I wish I had the UMA time machine just to send a digital camera back for you to take a few photos.  Great story.  Maybe they aren't as rare as I have been thinking.  Maybe some UMA members dad was manager of that Cole's store, and they have a storage unit full of carded AHIs somewhere that they are just waiting for the perfect moment to drop on the market.  I would be stoked to get the whole set I would not even care if it killed the value of my entire collection.  In fact I wish the market was so flooded with a lost pile of them that I could get 3 full sets and tear one set open to play with.   In the end, for me, it is still all about the kid getting to have the cool monster toy.

[NekroDave]

All kidding aside, there IS a secret underground network. But it's just more commonly referred to as friendships. The longer you hang around, the more people you meet, the closer you become and people will start to look out for you (and vice-versa). But until that happens, many collectors, myself included, don't like to reveal their sources since it basically adds to the competition. I don't tell people what I know.. until I know them well enough to trust that they wouldn't compete against me or like them well enough that I don't mind stepping aside for them. Otherwise, it's basically shooting yourself in the foot to tell everyone who asks how to find the toys that you yourself are looking for.

[Jscareshock]

AHI CREATURE, that was ALL the monsters!!
The company is Seattle was/is called Archie MacPhee.  They are still around but the stuff isn't as cool as it was in the early 1990s.  back then they were selling all kinds of warehosued stuff.  i bought lods of GIANT 1/72nd soldiers that were used in teh HELEN OF TOY COMPANY games found offered in the back of comic books.

As we got more and more into trading with China the good stuff vanished--or maybe was all sold out--so inferior molded items from China replaced the cool goodness.