Amac Productions

When I was a kid, my parents were watching a movie. I wandered into their living room, wondering what they were watching, and discovered Superman: The Movie. And subsequently discovered Superman.

Since then, the Man of Steel has always been a source of comfort for me. When I’m sad. Don’t feel good. Or when I want something wholesome to watch, because he always saves the day. He provides hope.

Some people find him boring, but I find him anything but.

Superman chooses the right thing. Not the easy thing. All the time. Every minute of every day. Do you have any idea how hard that is?

I will never tire of his story. Never.

Over the years, I’ve collected many Superman themed items. Toys, movies, Funko Pops, books, and so own. I’ve even made a carving of his symbol out of wood and painted it. And a few weeks ago, I was at a retro store. They sold all sorts of things there. Video games, action figures, Lego, etc.

I saw many figures and cool items. Including some stuff, I remember seeing for sale at Wal-Mart when Superman Returns came out.

I ended up going home with two action figures of a different superhero I love, The Phantom.

But I kept thinking to myself about a couple action figures I had when I was little. One memory replaying over and over again in my mind.

This guy!

I remember a summer, years ago now. A summer after third grade, maybe. I was about eight years old, home for the summer with nothing on my mind except playing.

One day, my mom is at work at her night job. My dad and I are home. He needs to take a trip to the store, he’s got to get something. Don’t ask me what that something is, I cannot remember to save my life. What I do remember is that I didn’t want to go.

I was playing in my room.

I was a kid.

I don’t really remember the reason, just the feeling. I didn’t want to leave my house.

My dad needed to go to the store, however. He was adamant. So he made me a deal, if I went to the store, and behaved I could get a toy before we left.

What kid wouldn’t agree to this deal?

I don’t remember the amount he set on what I could buy. Probably like ten dollars or something like that.

But I do remember seeing this toy in the store. I remember the whole collection of them there and there were a few interesting ones. I couldn’t decide.

I like this one because it had Kryptonite in it, but the suit was stupid because it didn’t cover all of him. How would that protect him from the radiation? It makes no sense.

Another with him smashing through bricks, but the suit was black. I liked the blue one better.

Another one had Kryptonite in it and I can’t even remember the other details beyond that. I guess it was forgettable.

For whatever reason, my tiny self picked this one. Maybe because my Dad was convinced that I’d lose the tiny piece of Kryptonite before the night’s end. I did not, by the way, out of this set, it’s the only piece I still have. It’s in a box tucked away safely after I cleaned out a nightstand.

Go figure.

I was happy with my choice in toy.

I remember going home and while my Dad did whatever he needed to do with whatever he went to the store to get, I played with this toy for hours. I flew him around. I attacked him with Kryptonite, but he always survived to save the day.

He landed on the chairs. He went on adventures.

And I never wanted to set him down. I slept with him in my bed that night despite not at all being cuddly.

He was around a lot in my childhood.

So much so, I remember part of the paint on his hair rubbed off.

I had two more too. A black suit. And a 20 inch one as well.

But this one was special to me.

After thinking about him and that I hadn’t seen him while renovating my room like I had found the Kryptonite, I realized I had no idea where he was. Where any of them were.

And it’s not like my parents to throw my childhood toys away, especially if I carried them around a lot. So I couldn’t for the life of me remember where they had gone.

So I looked online.

Except, I had no idea what it was called.

For hours, I scrolled through various searches to try and find him. The one distinct thing I remember was that he came with a tiny chunk of Kryptonite. Except, that wasn’t in the wording for this toy.

Hours and hours of searching, I knew it was part of an ’03 line of Justice League toys. I took the word Kryptonite out and searched through pictures of the figures for a while until I found the exact one, I remembered seeing in the store.

Overall, purchasing one in a moderately decent package was way cheaper than I expected. Sometimes things like this are wicked pricy and I hadn’t anticipated finding a good one so easily on Ebay.

But I did.

It arrived today as I write this. My father wondered what I ordered, and I showed it to him.

I knew without a doubt that he wouldn’t remember buying the toy or the night in question. To him, he was in the middle of fixing something and needed to run to the store. But he had an eight-year-old to deal with on top of the issue he was having. He spent maybe ten bucks to amuse her so he could run to the store and handle the problem in peace.

To him, it was another day surviving adulthood.

To me, that memory lives imprinted in my brain. I can still picture the sunlight through the window as I played on my mom’s chair while my dad did stuff. I remember how much I loved this toy.

How it was with me when I was homesick from school or sad. He sat on my night table. Stayed in bed with. Played Barbie with me.

It was one of my favorite toys.

And a favorite memory I think about at least once a summer.

For my Dad, it was a Tuesday.

For me, it was special. I hung out with my Dad, got one of my favorite toys, and spent countless hours with it.

Today when I told him, he was teary-eyed as he hugged me. Happy that I do have such fond memories of my childhood where my parents were just there with me.

Honestly, I wanted to write all this because I think we forget sometimes that big moments don’t make up life. Little ones do.

It’s the small things in life.

The little moments while a child plays with a toy in the same room her father fixes something. Each doing their own thing, but together as well.

I bought this toy all over again to remind myself of that moment. For myself. For my family. For my friends. For my future family.

You never know what will make the biggest impact. Even if it’s the smallest thing.

Remember that tomorrow. And the next day.

I promise, it’s worth more than any grand gesture.

Thanks for reading!

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