A DAD says his incredible toy collection has led to ex-girlfriends calling him weird – but he doesn’t care.
Andy Whitehurst’s Action Man figure stash is worth over £20,000 and he conducts photo shoots with them in the woods.
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The 50-year-old joiner and sign maker from Crewe, Cheshire, claims the hobby has helped him reconnect with his inner child.
But he does not believe and Action Man movie would be as much of a hit as Barbie.
Mr Whitehurst rediscovered his childhood interest in Action Man in his late 20s and since then his collection has ballooned to around 200 fully dressed figures, with thousands of individual items.
He mostly collects military-themed items issued between 1966 and 1984, including an Action Man uniform of the regiment his grandfather fought in during the Second World War.
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On collecting, Mr Whitehurst said: “It’s like a drug almost. If you do complete something, pretty much straight away you start looking for the next item you want to get.”
Mr Whitehurst has also amassed a collection of hundreds of Star Wars items, incorporating the franchise into his wedding as well as using his hobby to give back to the community, regularly donning a Storm Trooper costume at weddings and school open days to raise money for charity.
Despite his passion for the action figure however, he does not think an Action Man movie would reach the heights of Barbie.
Mr Whitehurst said he enjoys his hobby despite some judgement from strangers, and he has found support from his “very accepting” wife.
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He said: “When you meet somebody for the first time that doesn’t understand it, they’re like, ‘why do you collect toys, what’s all that about, you’re a middle-aged man, why do you collect toys?’.
“There’s a bit of a stigma attached to it. If you said you collected stamps or medals or football shirts, it’s almost like that’s more acceptable, whereas if you say to someone that you collect toys that you had when you were seven or eight years old, a lot of people look at you with this quizzical look on their face and say, ‘why?’.
“I can’t answer that question. Because I do. It’s just something I enjoy doing.
“I’ve had that quite a lot in the past, when I was probably in my early 30s, and girlfriends at the time said, ‘why have you got all these boxes of things that you rarely look at and you’re off to toy fairs every few months? I don’t understand it’.
His hobby started around 20 years ago, when he stumbled across a British parachute regiment Action Man that he owned as a child while at an indoor market with his daughter.
The most expensive items in Mr Whitehurst’s Action Man collection are two space explorers, which he paid about £500 each for, “but they’re worth a lot more than that”, he said.
“That was being produced for about a year or so and it’s got white overalls and a very delicate clear bubble helmet, which always gets cracked and the uniforms always get stained and it’s got some very hard-to-find accessories with it,” he explained.
Among his most treasured possessions is an Action Man Royal Engineers uniform, which was the regiment his grandfather fought in during the Second World War.
He said: “Once I found out what regiment he was in, I started to look for it.”
Mr Whitehurst said that several years ago he asked himself “why am I doing this, what’s it all for?” and sold off about half of his Action Man collection, earning back several thousand pounds.
“I got rid of a lot stuff and then Covid struck and I got bored and I couldn’t go out anywhere and we couldn’t go on holidays and started buying again. I’ve probably got more now than I had before Covid,” he said.
Mr Whitehurst combines his hobbies of Action Man collecting and photography to conduct photoshoots of the figures, posting photos of the results to his Instagram, @vintage_action_man.
He said: “If I’m taking the dog to the beach I might take a couple in a rucksack.
“You get very strange looks from people walking by, when they see a grown man on his hands and knees posing these things in the sand, but you just get used to it.”
One such post shows an Action Man dressed up in a red ski jacket bearing a Union Jack and blue ski trousers, taking to the slopes on tiny skis, while another shows an Action Man in military gear hauling another figure along the sand at a beach.
Turning toy franchises into movies was a hot topic following the highly successful Barbie film, but Mr Whitehurst does not think an Action Man film would hit the heights of Barbie.
“It would just be somebody dressing up and pretending to be something which you held dear as a kid and it wouldn’t be the same,” he said.
“I think if they did it, it would have to be aimed at the adult collectors really because I don’t think many children of today know what Action Man is, whereas Barbie is still a current thing.
“I think it would be a lot of 40 and 50-year-old guys going, ‘hmm, that doesn’t work’.”
Mr Whitehurst explained the satisfaction he gets from collecting Action Man items, saying: “The thing is with Action Man collecting is you collect the uniforms really.
“Obviously, the figures are just something to put them on, it’s the uniforms that cost the money rather than the actual figures themselves.
“You get a sense of completion, whether you’re missing the hat for it or a belt or pair of trousers or something, it’s always nice to be like, I’ve got everything now, that’s ticked off.”
A big Star Wars fan, Mr Whitehurst sometimes dons a Storm Trooper costume and appears at weddings, supermarkets and in schools to raise money for charity.
Taking his Star Wars passion further, two friends attended his wedding dressed as Storm Troopers and he incorporated Star Wars-themed decor into the special day.
“I’ve got little Star Wars characters that I’d photographed for the table cards and for the table plan and we had two little Star Wars robots on top of the wedding cake as well, one with the top hat, one with the veil,” he said.
“There was a bit of a nod to it because obviously it’s a big part of my life and my wife is very accepting of that as well.”
Mr Whitehurst said collecting Action Man figures and Star Wars items allows him to connect with his inner child.
He said: “Call me a sentimental fool if you like but I remember my childhood being quite a happy time and these were things which were a big part of my childhood.
“It’s just flashbacks if you like to when you were young and innocent and carefree and everything was tickety-boo, and then you start paying bills and things.”
Sky Protect Smart Home Insurance reveals that Britons are sitting on collections worth an average of £2,740 each as it is estimated 28 million adults in the UK have at least one collection.
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The research, amongst 2,002 consumers, reveals that books, trainers, and mugs top the list of items Britons are building collections of, yet over 60% of people don’t even consider themselves collectors.
To find out more, visit skygroup.sky/en-gb/article/accidental-collectors-brits-stashing-collections-worth-2-740-at-home-with-trainers-books-and-mugs-topping-the-list-.
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