There he is. He could kick all of the butts.

We’ve hit our Friday of the week, and at the moment, Kyle and I are rather busy with some big things (we’re recording a separate, legit podcast with a very special guest). That means I’m going to keep today light and nostalgic, which lends itself to a Forget-Me-Nots, the segment Kyle came up with but we haven’t been doing enough with. For today then, join me as I remember one of my favorite toys as a youth: My Lone Ranger Action Figure.

Time for the timewarp. WOOSH! Okay, wavy lines and spacey music just kicked in, and now we’re in Chris’ childhood circa 1989. My grandmother, Grandma Barbara, probably one of the greatest grandmas the world has even seen, had one of the greatest rooms in the world known only as “The Toy Room.” You can probably surmise what was in this room, but for me, one of the coolest items was a simple Lone Ranger toy from even before I existed.

This is how he looked in my head.

The toy was nothing complex. Lone Ranger’s head could turn, his arms would move at the shoulder (though they were completely loose, so they couldn’t be put up and stay there), and his legs bent at the knee and the hip. Because his joints were so loose he could hardly even stand up, and he was missing his guns or his horse Silver, but for some reason I couldn’t get enough playtime with him.

I ended up taking the Lone Ranger toy from my grandmother, either by accident or design, and incorporated him into my daily routine. The most basic storyline I came up with involved the Lone Ranger and three G.I. Joes I owned, one of which was Lifeline. For the first few months I had the Lone Ranger fight the G.I. Joes until Lifeline became a good guy as well, making him my official Tonto. Does that make sense? Of course not, but I was five.

My plots were better than theirs.

As time went by, I eventually added more Joes to the mix, always as bad guys. More and more Joes showed up with new powers and such until I...

A modern and adjustable 6" vinyl Godzilla

Godzilla is THE king of monsters, no matter your preference. Monster movies wouldn’t quite be what they are today if Japan hadn’t decided that Gojira wasn’t scary as sin and needed roughly 3 gazillion movies made.

Even the US attempted bringing Godzilla to our shores and in the process botched the whole affair, as was expected, because we failed to realize that Godzilla isn’t supposed to be cool: He’s just awesome.

As a kid, I only had one Godzilla-related toy: a little plastic Godzilla. Without any moveable parts, my imagination had to be sharp to gain the right amount of fun, and since the toy was already smaller than a standard Ninja Turtle , I really had to stretch those imagination muscles. Well, Japan has a few toys that are just slightly better than mine.

Which Godzilla Toy is Best?

Unless you’ve been keeping track, it’s going to be very difficult to know which Godzilla version is which, not to mention all the various other monsters that Godzilla has fought over his long career. For the collectors out there, you’ve got your work cut out for you since there are quite a few variants of each Godzilla action figure in pretty much each line available.

However, if you’re just a casual fan or enjoy actually playing with toys, it’s hard to choose wrong. A monster toy is a monster toy, so if you get a standard Godzilla and a MechaGodzilla together, you’ve got yourself a b...