For a kid, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas has to be the most excruciatingly slow time of year. It’s a never-ending wait to see what toys will be you under the tree come Christmas morning. When I was little, I would spend this time making wish lists and browsing through the toy pages of the store catalogs. I’d revise my list again and again in hopes of getting the perfect mix of loot.

Now as an adult, I remember those in-between days fondly. Like many things in life, I know that anticipation is equal to, if not greater than, the event itself. As a parent I also now realize how impractical my vast Christmas wish lists were. I wanted so many different things that a certain degree of disappointment was inevitable on Dec. 25. There were always things on those lists that were left unfulfilled.

Christopher Tupa remembers those days as well. The artist and toy collector has created a book of toys and collectibles he wanted as a child but was never able to receive. His free ebook can be downloaded from his website.
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One of my favorite sites in the blogosphere is Cool & Collected, a pop culture site run by Brian Adams. A couple weeks ago, Brian starting posting some excess toys he was wanting to get rid of (something I should probably do) and one of his posts caught my eye. I love action figures as much as the next geek, but something I’ve never really blogged about that I have a major addiction to is PVC figures. When one of Brian’s posts contained a bunch of them, I snatched them up.

I swear guys, I didn’t even know I was collecting these things. I just realized that I have a ton of them from when I was younger, and some of them have been played with more than my old action figures. They were usually made by Applause or Schleich, and based on the figures I have, were sold at Disney theme parks a lot. I have a lot of Mickey, Donald, Figment, and various Disney characters in tiny PVC form.
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Well, the release of the epicly-hyped film Avatar is just around the corner. For better or worse, I’m going to see the movie at my local IMAX theater on Friday. I previously told you about the cool Avatar Toys that I unfortunately haven’t had a chance to play with yet, but today I bring you something new: Avatar Happy Meal Toys.

I didn’t have any nieces or nephews handy when I saw these at my local McDonald’s, so I haven’t picked any up yet, but they will be mine. Whether it’s great or a dud, you can’t deny the impact Avatar will have on the nostalgia of 2009, so the Avatar Happy Meal Toys have earned their place on my junk shelf.

Head over to the official Happy Meal website (weird) to check out more and download the one-size-doesn’t-fit-all Avatar Happy Meal Toy Wallpaper.

Oh, and how often do PG-13 movies get Happy Meal toys?

See also Avatar Toys on Amazon and Avatar toys on eBay.