The Archive at 30: Yehuda Kleinman

Yehuda writes:

 There were a few rough years.

Surrounded by plenty of hip geeks in New York City, I was hard pressed to find anyone who was interested in anything other than comic books or Dungeons & Dragons. 

It was around 1990 and Star Wars was dead. Deader than dead. The only active part of the franchise on the planet I could remember was the Star Tours ride at the Disney parks. 

I had already scavenged my childhood friends' discarded collections of Kenner toys and I had been spending most of my weekends scanning the Chelsea Flea in Manhattan looking for Kenner action figures I hadn’t already found. But I was a man alone on an island even though I was surrounded by millions of people. 

There were two pivotal events that occurred during my collecting journey that for so many of us marked the true rebirth of this hobby after the vintage years. 

It was around 1992 and I was perusing the hobby and collectibles section at Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side when I spotted an oddly proportioned book that was somewhat small in stature. Its black-and-gold cover displayed an artist's rendering of the Kenner Darth Vader collectors case. The title was Star Wars from Concept to Screen to Collectible. It was by Stephen Sansweet. 

Turning the pages was something of a redemption. Each page of information were peppered with jaw-dropping images of the memorabilia I loved. Star Wars collectibles were being elevated to the stature which they deserved.

I was also introduced to the toy production process and realized that many prototypes still existed for the Kenner line of toys. I also knew at some point I wanted to meet this Sansweet guy!

A few years later while I was in medical school, the internet became a thing. At times I find it hard to truly recall what life was like without it. But I do remember what it was like to be exposed to it for the first time. It was immersive, and although quite clunky compared to today’s technology, it was already populated with millions of nerds ready to have fun. 

And one day there it was, just like Sansweet’s book. Surfing the interwebs I stumbled upon a site called toysrgus.com (the old domain name of the Archive).

Created by Gus Lopez, the site was a collaborative effort of friends researching and cataloging every aspect of the hobby. 

I knew I had found my people.

Reading the special features and later discovering the endless ever-growing database took my collecting interest well out of the Kenner comfort zone and deep into the esoteric.

My dear friend Ron Salvatore was gently unrelenting in his suggestion that I should write for the Archive as one of its bloggers, and I thank him immensely for it. Contributing to the hobby has undoubtedly been one of my greatest pleasures. 

I am so looking forward to the next iteration of the Archive as our hobby enters its next chapter. And I am forever grateful to be a part of it.