State of the Batcave Toy Room Site

More on toy collecting and vintage toys is coming soon. However, for now, I originally started to write this post as part of an assignment for the Extraordinary League of Bloggers, but didn't complete it until now.

I've always wanted to jump into the fray and join the Extraordinary League of Bloggers, but time just never seems to be on my side. Hence, why it took so long for me to get this posted. I constantly attempt to make it a point and read a couple a posts a day from my fellow toy bloggers with Sunday being my biggest reading day. I really wanted to jump on the bandwagon after I happened to catch a post from Brian over at Cool and Collected on one of the Leagues latest assignment and I thought I'd throw my own two cents in.

That weeks assignment had really interested me, not that other assignments haven't, but I kind of dropped everything and started working on this post, but I wasn't able to wrap it up until now. I always look forward to reading Reis O'Brien's State of the Horde Address monthly and this weeks assignment seemed to be inspired by it, but Brian's post really hit home with me.

It hit home because it made me realize so many of us have a lot in common. Not just the toy loving geek part, but the real life part. The day to day work life, being a husband or wife, a father or mother, as well as the joys and sorrows we all experience.

The year 2012 brought some triumphs, but it also brought its share of sadness as well. Losing family members is never easy and 2013 started with a similar pattern as we lost our Basset and family mascot, Daisy Mae. However, the loss we experienced last year was greater, which I haven't spoke of this to any of my toy friends and I won't go into details now, but lets just say my home is really feeling empty right now.

My super cool, yet non-geek, wife and I own our own business, providing screen printing, embroidery, and advertising materials to businesses. The great recession just about did us in on multiple levels, but I feel God, the blessings of my business and finance degrees, experience, our perseverance, and the love of our children got us over a slippery slope. I am thankful for this turn around and expect God will continue to only give us that which we can handle.

However, these experiences also provided us with means to provide residual income through things like blogging and getting involved in that which put us in the middle of our bliss and the ability to follow our true passions.

Blogging and writing for Batcave Toy Room has really made me realize, outside my family, what I truly love and that is toys and the movies and TV series that inspire them. There are those who make a living at it, and that is a formula I need to discover. Being like Kevin Smith and his band of Comic Book Men or Jordan Hembrough of Toy Hunter fame, are occupations that I have always dreamed of , but never pursued. The first question is, why not? The second question is, why do so many of us not pursue what we love an make a living out of it? The answer to these questions are what I hope to explore over the course of 2013.

Many have asked me what became of my appearance on Toy Hunter and the answer is...nothing. After the producers caught wind of my collection they blew up my phone and emailed me repeatedly in an attempt to schedule a taping. The tapping was originally supposed to transpire at the end of September 2012 and then was later moved up to the middle of September,  but no follow up took place after that. The producers did express a problem of finding collectors in my hometown, which I guess in the end was the demise of my appearance on the show. I have emailed and called the producers back multiple times, but never so much as received a return email or phone call explaining what happened. I put a family vacation on hold and held off on the continued purging of the Batcave Toy Room at the producers request. The least they could have done was let me know and tell me they changed directions or whatever. I will say however, that reality TV is certainly not reality TV based on what I discussed with the producers.

It is awesome how many people I have connected with here at the Batcave Toy Room. I wish everyone lived close by and we could meet up for some serious toy and comic book collecting discussions and check each other collections out. Colin from Super-Duper Toy Box recently discussed how he too wished he knew more people to chat about the things we all love in person. I related to that and I think the same thing all the time. How I wish so many of you lived in the same city. I wish there could be some sort of master collaboration for a joint effort website, making the Dork Horde a major national organization, have a site like Super Hero Stuff and feature the art of Bubba Shelby for shirts and other ephemera, design toys, or have our own version of Kevin Smith's Comic Book Men. Time will tell, but I feel everything happens for a reason.

For 2013, there are a lot of things I want to accomplish:

• Continue to work towards making the Batcave Toy Room a major reference point for toy collectors.
• Increase my involvement with the Justice League Las Vegas or create another group with a similar goal of increasing literacy and bringing smiles to ill or under privileged children.
• Join my local chapter of the 501st Legion.
• Complete my checklist of the top ten Star Wars toys I want to add to my collection.
• Work on my top 10 list of Mego toys I want to add to my collection.
• Find answers to the questions I asked above and pursue making a living by doing what I have a passion for. 

May everyone's 2013 be off to a great start and remember...There is no sin in the dream but the sin is not trying to go after your dream. 

About the author: John Sholtz is an avid toy collector and the interim editor of the Batcave Toy Room due to the abrupt death of Bruce Wayne. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter at, Facebook, Google+ and Linkedin.