Rankin Bass, Stop Motion, and Toy Collecting

Remember those old Rankin Bass specials when we were growing up? They were always my favorite, especially the stop motion specials: Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Year Without a Santa Claus, Rudolph's Shiny New Year. We were recently watching the original Rudolph (where he goes to the Island of Misfit Toys), and there's a doll there that doesn't seem to fit in with the misfits (like the Charlie-in-the-box or the elephant with pink spots). We re-wound it a number of times, and couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. Well, apparently, we're not the only ones that had this question. This article sheds a little light on the subject.

I was recently listening to The Wall and was surprised at the parallels between that story and Rudolph. Both are about misfits that are rejected by society for being who they really are. Of course, Rudolph has a happier ending.

I'll definitely never make it as a prognosticator. This is the story of my life as a collector. I see lots of things that I want, but, of course can only buy a few. It always seems to end up that the things I do buy never are worth much, but the things I don't always seem to go up in value. Maybe it's just Murphy's Law. Maybe I should create a new one:

Chester's Law: The things that you don't collect will tend to increase in value, while the things you do collect tend to depreciate.

Anyway, case in point. A couple years ago, I had the chance to buy set of action figures from The Year Without a Santa Claus - you know, the one with the Heat Miser and the Snow Miser? Well, I didn't buy them when they came out, but now that I think they would make neat Christmas decorations, the Heat Miser and Snow Miser sets have tripled in value and and are going for $50-$60 on eBay. Of course, the Abominable Snowmonster that I did buy a few years ago is going for around $10. I guess I was never intended to make it as a toy investor.