Eight Year Old Me Would be So Proud

Have you ever had one of those things that you yearned for your entire life?  I sort of had something like that.  You see, 25 years ago I yearned for something, and then I completely forgot about it, until a few days ago.

When I was eight years old, my favorite toys were battle beasts.  If you're not familiar with them, they are little action figures that look like animals wearing armor.  (Basically, they are the best thing that could possibly happen to an eight year old boy.)  My brothers and I would have battles with them.  My brother had the spider battle beast who would always attack the castle filled with all mine.  Even though I had a good collection, there was one in particular I yearned for.  It was a gorilla that had a robotic arm.  A gorilla with a robotic arm!!  How cool is that?

I told my mom that's what I wanted for my birthday.  I laid awake at night thinking how great my life would be, if I could just have a gorilla with a robotic arm.  My birthday came around.  I waited excitedly to open my presents.  I just knew I would get the battle beast I wanted.  Then my mom gave me the bad news.  They stopped making battle beasts.  I was never going to have my gorilla with a robotic arm.

Fast forward 25 years.  My mom was cleaning her basement, and she found a few of my battle beasts.  She asked me if I wanted them.  Of course I did!

These are the 5 that my mom retrieved from the ancient past.

I took them home.  I thought of the many happy moments we had together.  

Then I started thinking about how I was missing so many that I used to have.  I thought it would be fun to restore my former collection.  I did a little search on ebay for battle beasts.

While I was browsing the listings, I found this.

The very beast that I dreamed of as a child.

It turns out it's actually an orangutan.  But it was only $7.00.  How could I not buy it?

So, though I didn't remember that I had this dream, it was eventually realized anyway.  Someone should tell eight year old me that dreams do come true.

Also, special thanks to my wife for being okay with the fact that I suddenly have a hunger to own all of them.

My collection is growing, and they've claimed the cube as their territory.