Sunday, June 22, 2008

Robot Love





If you've ever stopped by "Casa De La Brew" you surely noticed my collection of authentic Japanese Bandai robots. Despite criticism from many a former girlfriend, I proudly display them for all to see in my dining room. Why you may ask? Well, not only are the robots amazing, and way cooler than any Transformer or Go-Bot that were made with lesser plastics and die-cast, but there is a story behind these toys.

When I was a wee superbeast, my Mom had the greatest job ever. She worked at the Afton Toy Shop, a virtual play-room of cool imported toys that you could never find at any of the malls. Not only that, but for a time I lived directly behind the shop. That meant that I was there every day, drooling over the new robot toys as they became available.

The toy shop was owned by a geriatric couple. They had a beautiful colonial house right off the main drag in Afton. They collected art, and were intimately involved in various dance troupes and fledging artists from around the Twin Cities. I only remember this because my Mom was one of the fledgling artists they supported. They were nice folks and they let me put frogs that I caught in their gold fish pond.

I believe they opened another toy shop in St. Paul for a time, but I don't recall where.

These robots were really expensive and we didn't have a lot of money, but my Mom always got me a new one for Christmas or a birthday here and there. I have 4 total full-sized Bandai Robots, and many, many smaller bots. I also have a huge collection of the miniature bots that later became "Go-Bots" in the states. Mine were more detailed and were made mostly from die-cast and not plastic.

It's not a story of a date puking and menstruating all over my bed, just a moment of nostalgia from the Superbeast.

2 comments:

Jen said...

Hey,

I know this is a really old post, but I came across it when I was researching Afton. I lived there too and was trying to remember who owned the Afton Toy Shop way back when and wondered if you remembered their last name?

Also the goldfish pond they had...did they live in the white house about one or two houses north? I know that house has a bubbling natural spring and a pond.

Loved the Afton Toy Shop!

Casey Brewer said...

The Scroggins owned the Afton Toy Shop and they lived in the big white house just North of the store. Very nice people.