This post is a continuation from Summer 2021 Part 1. I really wanted to have an Anansi toy like this custom one that I saw online (created by Double Thwip Customs). It is based on a Marvel comic where they reimagine a bunch of classic Marvel characters in different cultural settings than the one in…
Category: Action Figures
Summer 2021 (Part 1)
In the summer of 2020, I had my nephew living with us for a few months, and one of the things that he loved to do was play with my old action figures. He didn’t like to play alone. He always wanted me to play with him. The things that I learned about him and…
Wifey with the Win
One of the toys that I bought my nephew for this fifth birthday (in addition to the toys that I already mentioned) was another Green Lantern whose real name is Simon Baz. I had hoped to use this toy to teach him a little about Islam and Islamophobia. Unable to contain my excitement about this…
Revolutionary Toys for Revolutionary Boys
A friend of mine is a real leader when it comes to radical change. She writes articles and books about the ways that we need to focus on addressing the root causes of harm in our communities so that we can build a society where policing and prisons become obsolete. She critiques the dangers of…
My Baby’s First Action Figures
The first two action figures that I bought my baby were Valkyrie and Falcon. He was about eight months old, and I thought that I could use these two toys (just about as well as any random doll or other toy) to teach him basic human body parts and movements. So, that is what I…
How to Get Black Action Figures
Back in the 1980s, Yla Eason saw the problem with the absence of Black toys and she did the work of creating Olmec Toys so that our kids could at least have some toy that looked like them. A few decades later, you can get the impression that toy companies have taken great strides and…
“Heart Grew 3 Sizes that Day”
Some family members have referred to me as a “Grinch” before. I’m not much of a fan of Christmas. But I will say that giving gifts has been pretty fulfilling, especially when I feel like I might have helped a child in their development as a caring person. One such instance came in June of…
A Few Toys for My Nephew’s 5th Bday
As my nephew approached his fifth birthday, I ordered a handful of toys for him from eBay. Since we live a couple thousand miles away from each other, I asked his mom to gift him the toys one-by-one on different days (because I figured he might disregard some immediately if he gets them all at…
List of Action Figures
This blog post is one that I will continue to update as I learn more. Below is an alphabetical list of characters who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (and a few white people) that I know have at least one action figure out there for sale. I am also including a few words…
First Experiment with Black Toys Matter
I bought my nephew a John Stewart (Green Lantern) toy as my first experiment with this whole #BlackToysMatter idea. After learning what I could about Green Lantern on Wikipedia, I decided that he could work well to teach my nephew about mental health and depression. I wanted to make sure that he know that heroes…