Cool & Collected is the name of the new magazine that just began its run this winter, prompted by a successful Kickstarter campaign. The tagline for the magazine is, “The magazine for pop culture collectors.” The first issue has an article about everyone’s favorite bounty hunter, Boba Fett!
A magazine, you ask? Well, for the Kickstarter generation, you may not realize this, but people used to have to spend considerable time looking for the things they liked to collect. Looking at this magazine brought to mind memories of how collecting used to be and how far it has come.
A review and look inside the first issue can be found here. For a better look, you can purchase from the link above.
We all know that the Internet has changed the way we acquire and process information. Long gone are the days when it was necessary to read the morning paper and wait for the televised evening news to tell you what was going on in the world. Now, everything (whether you want to know it or not) is just a click away.
For the collector, the change has been just as dramatic. Those of us who have the bad habit of collecting anything and everything related to Star Wars used to have to check the stores, watch or read the news for advertisements, or wait for the new catalog to come in the mail. If you never had the joy of opening the Christmas Sears catalog, you really missed out.
Some people had comic book stores or specialty shops in their area that could be good for some news, but otherwise you just … waited.
The era of the collecting magazine has sort of come and gone really. I say that because most of them have succumbed to the fact that people don’t need to wait for their information anymore. With tons of websites getting insider information, conventions in every corner of the country, and eBay, it is not that difficult to find out what is coming well in advance and get whatever you want, old or new.
Toy Shop magazine was one of those toy publications that weathered the Internet and eBay storm for awhile. It morphed from a newsprint rag of advertisements and dealers looking to sell, to the more conventional glossy magazine style. However, it just couldn’t compete, and in 2008 it ceased publication.
For a REALLY cool look into the pages of Toy Shop magazine and what it had to offer Star Wars collectors, click here for Chris Georgoulias’ Toy Shop Scrapbook. You won’t be disappointed.
ToyFare was a magazine that had a very different method of bringing consumers the collecting news they desired. I felt it was very effective with its sophomoric comedic style. I’d call this the Mad Magazine of toy collecting, and I must say that I for one miss the crazy humor within its pages. Several former staffers went on to help create the Adult Swim program Robot Chicken with actor Seth Green. If you’ve seen the show and the magazine, this fact is very obvious. Unfortunately, ToyFare and it’s counterpart, Wizard, which focused on Comics and comic related products, ceased publication in 2011.
Lee’s Toy Review is one other major publication that had great information and pictures from all areas of toy collecting. The last issue released was #220 which came out in 2012, but there is still hope. After talking to someone at Lee’s Toy Revew customer service, there is an edition in the works for 2014. Apparently Lee (yes there is a Lee) has had some issues and is still looking to get a new magazine out there in the near future.
These “Toy Mags” spanned the gap between the “dark ages” of collecting and the “golden age” that we are seeing today where news is abundant and anything can be had if you have the cash. Can Cool & Collected keep the flame of collector magazines flickering? They have a good start. We will see.
If you’d like to share your experiences or let us know what magazines you used to frequent, please do so in the comments section. Share your nostalgia with us. I’d love to hear the stories!
~kknight – is a lifelong Star Wars fanatic that is incredibly excited to be working with T-bone. I’m a toy fanatic and have a pretty impressive collection of Star Wars “stuff”. Maybe one day I’ll be able to share it with everyone, but for now it is packed away. Ah, the nostalgia…...