Staggerment

My brother Yen in Florida has had do to a lot of refurbishing and redecorating of his house, and as part of the general neatening-up decided to send me his collection of The Lord of the Rings action figures. He did this because 1) he knows I love them and 2) he knows I'll never sell or throw them away so if he ever wants to see them again, here they are.

I knew there'd be a lot of them, but wow. Yesterday the Fed-Ex man drove up and started unloading boxes on the front porch. The first three were out and I thought, "Okay, that should be about it." Then another was hauled out. Then another. And another. In all six boxes, each 30"x13"x16", were piled up on the top step. The Fed-Ex man asked me what was in them, and I told him.

"Are you opening a store?" he asked.

I had a ready answer.

"No, we just play with them."

I spent most of the evening sorting them out, assissted by my enthusiastic niece. All together there were 193 LOTR action figures. I collect LOTR action figures, but there are at least 30 figures here that I didn't have before. A quart and a gallon Ziploc baggies hold all their accessories.

The figures break down into these categories: 55 Hobbits, 29 Orcs, 18 Aragorns, 14 Legolases, 14 other Elves, 14 Nazgul, 13 Men of Gondor, 13 Men of Rohan, 11 Gandalfs, 6 Evil Men, 5 Gimlis, 4 Gollums, 3 Dead Men, 2 Sarumans, 2 Ents, 1 Shelob, 1 War Troll, and 1 Eye of Sauron.

All of these could probably be packed into three boxes as described; after all they are all loose figures. But there was more. Lord of the Rings premiums from Burger King. Lord of the Rings miniatures from The Armies of Middle-Earth, with playsets. LOTR chess pieces. LOTR Legos. And that wasn't all.

There was the new Castle Greyskull and about 15 figures from The Masters of the Universe. There were stray Star Wars pieces that were part of a collection to be sent to my other brother and my nephew. There are 40 or 50 miscellaneous action figures of all kinds and makes, and accessories galore. Some will be distributed among nephews and neices, others will go into my collection.

So I've been very busy and happy. I swim around in my toys like a porpoise; I burrow through them like a gopher; and sometimes I toss them up and let them hit me on the head, all the while chortling with merry glee.