What's your Earliest Indy toy memory?

I was looking through my old and new Indy figures (particularly the classic Kenner Indy in Leather Jacket and started to think about when I first started collecting (I really don't recall owning to many of the original series (in fact, outside of Indy and German disguise Indy i don't think I had any of the other figures in the first line.
It then occurred to me that it was strange for that to be the case as my earliest memory was in the Letter I sent to Kenner a few weeks after Raiders was released.

I no longer have the letter itself (or it's response that Kenner very nicely sent to me) but I think my letter went something like this

Dear Sirs,

I have been a very big fan of the toys you have put out for the Star Wars Movies. My favorite character in that series was Han Solo. I have just watched another film that stars the actor who played Han Solo (Mr. Harrison Ford) It's called Raiders of the Lost Ark and it's about an adventurer named Indiana Jones
Sadly, I have not seen any toys about Indiana Jones and have been forced to settle for pretending my Hoth Han Solo is my new favorite character. Still, I'd really like to see figures done of indy, his friends and enemies. I hope you will make some cool play-sets to go with them as I loved the Death Star playlet I got a few Years ago. please take this under consideration as i'm sure I'm not the only kid who's interested in collecting Indiana Jones related toys.
Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Michael C Kramer

or words to that effect..... what's your earliest memory of collecting things IJ related?

Coming across 2 full pegs of Toht at a Children's Palace toy store in 1991-1992. My dad was just as confused as I was but was upset why I was wasting money on Toht instead of holding out for Indy.

I bought Indy at an antique toy store for $35 complete/loose in 1993. My dad was then upset that I spent so much money on a small figure.

I'm pretty sure it was my 7th birthday, I got the Arabian Horse, Toth, Belloq, the Swordsman and of course Indiana Jones!!! I also received a tape recorder (if some of the younger member are confused, Google cassette tape for answers ) and the Read along book and tape for ROTLA!!! Great birthday as far as the presents went. Mom got sick that night and had to go to the hospital. Thank god she was okay, but not the best way to celebrate ones birthday.

Henry W Jones said:

I'm pretty sure it was my 7th birthday, I got the Arabian Horse...

Click to expand...

On my seventh birthday I also got a white horse.

However, it was Gabriel's Lone Ranger and Silver because Indiana Jones hadn't been created yet.

It must have been a long time before I realized Kenner made action figures for Raiders, as they were conspicuously absent from the toy stores I visited.

I had the 12" Kenner Indy when it came out and cringed for it being Han Solo in disguise. A little after that time, 1982 I believe, I was frustrated that the 3 3/4" Indy was no where to be found in Toys R Us, although there were tons of the Arabian Horse and Desert Convoy Truck and I didn't get either because I would have felt taunted for having them without Indy. But boy, did I kick myself later on since I never managed to get the horse at a reasonable price even though I did get the truck, a used specimen, at a relatively hefty amount.

Christmas of '81

I remember playing with Indy and Marion in the Well of Souls on Christmas Day and my dad yelling at me to help him clean the basement before relatives come over. Never fails every year for the past 40, even still this year, my parents wait until Christmas day to finish cleaning the house and getting things ready.

Bonoferox:

I have the exact same memory of Toht at my local Children's Palace in Mobile, Alabama. I was amazed there were that many of Toht and not another figure from the line to be found. They were a great deal at .99, but I really didn't care for him then. Oh, well.


Jonathan

We had a SUPER HERO shop in The Livingston Mall. No comics, just toys. Just Super Hero toys. It was the first store as you entered, (those doors of course) and had a huge exterior window, (before entire Malls were built of glass) which had a full window hand painted Marvel/DC character collage.

Mother Dearest tried every trick in the book to avoid it, but it was a must stop.

I was usually just excited to browse and see what was there, (That was a store where I learned about value), I remember standing in the entrance to the store studying the packaging and the price. I walked out with Indiana Jones and a few extra chores but I got it!

Oh...I didn't steal it.

I may as well have been in church, I was standing still, head bowed and hands together, concentrating on the text like I was never going to see it again.

I remember trying to open it carefully on the way home and cringing when I ripped the packaging...

Sadly, being born in 1985 means I missed the Kenner toy line and the LJN ToD line, but I was able to find the Disney toys back in the day. I thought they weren't that bad when compared with the then popular POTJ toys, but now I do think they look pretty damn bad.