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Cool and Collected

Collecting pop culture toys, comics, and collectibles collections

October 16, 2014 By Brian 7 Comments

Collector Profile: Atomic City Pop’s excellent eclectic collection

I’ve had the privilege of showing many collections on this site, but when Atomic City Pop sent me his photos recently, it was as if I was looking at my own collection, rearranged on someone else’s shelves. We share almost identical interests, and just knowing there is another collector seeking out a fabled blue AJ Renzi King Kong bank, makes me feel a little less crazy. Check out the amazing items found on Atomic City Pop’s shelves…

Vintage Toy Collection

How did your collection start? What was the first item in your collection?
I started collecting when I was a kid. I went antique shopping with my mom and helped her find the items she was looking for…my first collection consisted of old shot glasses and pocket knives.

Vintage posters

Approximately how many items are in your collection?
I have no idea…well over 1,000 I guess.

Vintage Toy Collection

Do you have a favorite item in your collection?
I have many favorites but off the top of my head I would have to say one item I would never sell would be my 1957 3-sheet movie poster of Robby the Robot in The Invisible Boy.

Vintage Toy Collection

How do you store/display your collection?
My collection spans my entire house from the living room as well as the kitchen. But a majority of my collection is in one big room just off of the living room.

atomiccitypop-collection4

Is there a “holy grail” item that you would love to add to your collection?
Since my collection is so very broad, I have many holy grails but a couple items have eluded me over the years — a haunted house target game made in the 50s or 60s (I’ve seen it in only one other person’s collection), and the infamous AJ Renzi corps “King Koin” banks in the blue, green and brown (Argentina bootleg) colors. The smile would never leave my face if I could add any of those to my collection!

Vintage monster toys and poster

Do you collect other things?
I often say I collect anything I think is cool…which is everything from toys, movie posters, old advertising signs,vintage photos, cameras, radios, tobacco tins… and so much more… its’ an addiction!

Vintage Toy Collection

Do you have any advice for new collectors who are just starting a collection?
Collect for the love not the money… and learn everything you can about your collection. Knowledge is the first thing I gain when I find an item I know nothing about!

Vintage Toy Collection

Do you have any interesting stories or memories about collecting?
Last year i bought a 1980s Dracula game called “I vant to bite your finger” off of eBay. About a week later, I get a box with broken parts and pieces of my game with a letter from the post office that basically said, “your package didnt have any address or returned address so the bomb squad blew it up!” In the debris, they found a little sliver of paper from the invoice that had had my address on it so they packed it all up and delivered it to me. I still have the letter and one mostly complete piece of the game… but since then I got one that wasn’t blown up!

Where can you be found on the internet?
Instagram @atomic_city_pop
And I just started a blog at: http://atomiccitypop.wordpress.com/

—

If you are a collector and would like to share your passion with other like-minded collectors, just fill out our collector profile form.

 

Filed Under: Collections, Toys Tagged With: collection, collector profile

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kal says

    October 16, 2014 at 3:22 pm

    Fantastic Collection. I especially love the space ray guns.

    Reply
  2. The Toy Box says

    October 16, 2014 at 3:49 pm

    Not that I want to use your site to plug mine, but I thought you’d be interested to know that on Halloween The Toy Box is posting up a post dedicated to Remco’s Universal Monsters line. You don’t have to post this comment if you don’t want, but I hope you’ll stop by to check it out. Goes live on Halloween at 5:00 AM eastern.

    Reply
    • Brian says

      October 16, 2014 at 4:15 pm

      Sounds great! Thanks for letting me know!

      Reply
      • The Toy Box says

        October 30, 2014 at 10:58 am

        It goes live tomorrow!

        Reply
  3. Matt K says

    October 16, 2014 at 9:17 pm

    Excellent profile Brian. It’s funny you mention his AJ Renzi banks, as I was talking to him about them a few weeks ago. And when I saw his it reminded me of your search for the elusive blue ape! Good stuff.

    Reply
  4. kngfu says

    October 17, 2014 at 8:20 am

    I had I WANT TO BITE YOUR FINGER. What a fun game, until the red ink dried up.

    Reply
  5. Mike Gutierrez says

    October 20, 2014 at 1:22 am

    What a fantastuc collection. Of course, I’m drooling over the Spider-Man collectables. There are some items in his collection that I have been wantimg in mine for a while like the Pez mask, the Spider-Man Crime Lab van, The Spider-Man and Hulk pinball game and the Spider-Man remote contol van.

    Great collection. I have added Atomic City Pop to my Instagram and I’ll be reading his blog from here on. Great profile.

    Reply

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