I nearly cried in Walmart today

I was just walking through today as I went by to pick up a copy of The Dark Knight. While there, I decided to peruse the toy aisles, since I haven’t picked up anything to give my little niece for Christmas. While milling around, I wound up in the boy’s toy aisle, and while there I was interested to see many things from my own childhood hanging on the shelves. Real American Hero GIJoes, Ninja Turtles, and, of course, Transformers.

I’d known that there had been a Classics line of Transformer figures released that were based on the old school figures from the original series in the mid-eighties. But while browsing through, just looking at them, I found something that totally took me by surprise…a 25th anniversary version of the original Optimus Prime.

Optimus Prime was the holy grail for many of my age in 1984 and 1985, as he was the leader of the good guy Autobots and was the hero of the then-airing TV show…with a personality that was some strange combination of George Washington and John Wayne.

I was instantly transported back in time and space, to sometime in 1985 in the now-closed Walmart in Livingston, AL, when I first saw the original styrofoam-packed tractor trailer sitting on the shelf for an at-the-time unattainable price of $21.00. And I was totally unprepared for the feeling that it brought on, which was surprising since I’d seen the 20th anniversary version on Toys-R-Us shelves just a few years back. Maybe it was just that I wasn’t expecting it.  Aside from this one having short smokestacks, painted-on stickers, a DVD and old #1 comic, and sound box, it looked like the real deal.

I probably would have bought it, had it not been for the fact that I still have Christmas shopping to complete and not much money to do that with.  That, and the fact that it was a ridiculous $70.  For seventy bucks, I could probably buy an original figure from the old days…

Oh, well.  The feeling was what mattered most to me.