I was a child of the 80's. Our generation has been called many things, but the way I like to refer to us is as The Action Figure Generation. Action figures have been around since ancient times (more on this later) in some form or other, but it didn't really explode into it's modern incarnation until the original Star Wars action figures were released. I was a toy kid, and especially loved action figures. I had all the Star Wars figures, most of the small 80's GI Joe figures, Tron figures, and figures from Battlestar Galactica, Sgt. Rock, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and many more. Not only did I have the figures, but I had the vehicles they rode in, the playsets you could stage them in, and a variety of custom made carrying cases and the like. I moved up from large to even larger boxes to hold them all. And then college came.
If only I had taken my action figures with me to college, they'd have been fine. I assumed they were safe, stored in my parents' basement. Plus, having action figures in College makes it hard to look cool, and I shudder to think what would have happened to them had my drunken colleagues come upon them in the wrong state of mind. So in my parents' basement they stayed when I left the nest.
Last year, I went home for Christmas, and was collecting all of the things from my parent's home to take to my house. Sadly, it became obvious that while my comic collection and other treasures were safe, my entire action figure collection had been disposed of. Neither of my parents could recall what happened to them, but I think they were given away to a friend of the family with a young child.
I have looked on Ebay to potentially replace some of the items, but it's just not the same. Your toys mean more to you than just the toy itself. I remember my luke skywalker was missing an arm that was chewed off by my dog, Scruffy. I was sad at the time, but then after Empire Strikes Back, I thought my figure was really cooler than the original. You can't bring back these memories from Ebay. Not to mention the price. Given the scope of my collection, it would cost me thousands to replace it all.
My childhood friends, I shall miss you always.