The Toy That Made Me

This is a story about why collections are important, and how they can change your life.

Joe Douglas
4 min readDec 16, 2020

There are moments, they say, that shape you. Sometimes they are big, grand, Earth shaking moments. Other times, they are small, at first seeming insignificant in the series of events that shape your life.

One of these such moments was my birthday, I think my 6th or 7th. Birthdays are always fun of course, but this particular birthday now stands out as one that shaped who I would become. It was the birthday on which I was gifted my first Mighty Max playset.

Within this small, roughly 5cm playset lay a world of danger and excitement. I could create my own adventures or act out the “official” story that appeared as a short comic on the reverse of the backing card. Usually, I went for the former. And I absolutely loved it!

My first Mighty Max playset was the Horror Head set Skull Warrior. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and I fell in love right away with Max and his exciting world.

Horror in the Palm of Your Hand!: The History of Mighty Max | by Joe Douglas | Oct, 2020 | Medium

As I mentioned, I was around seven at the time when I received my first Max toy, and probably around nine or ten when the cartoon series began to air in…

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Joe Douglas

Collector. Writer. Artist. Geek. I write mostly about the hobby of collecting. Check out my full portfolio at JMDWorks.org.