HOMETOWN: Wilmington, DE

EMAIL ADDY: michaelmensinger@aol.com

EBAY USERNAME: starwarsudel

OCCUPATION: I graduated in 2000 from the University of Delaware, where I double majored in Entomology (study of insects) and Wildlife Conservation. I am currently working for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control in the Division of Soil and Water Conservation as an environmental scientist.

COLLECTING HISTORY: I have always been a collector by nature. My parents are both collectors, so the mentality was easily passed down to me. I collected Star Wars toys during my youth and experienced countless hours of fun with them. It was my favorite toy line by far. To this day, I still have all of the toys from my childhood and I cherish them greatly.

In the late 80's/early 90's I began collecting comic books, which led me to begin a collection of Secret Wars, Super Powers, and Mego action figures. I played with these toy lines during my youth, however this time around something changed. The brilliant packaging and mint quality of these figures greatly appealed to me. I distinctly remember the first carded figure I purchased: a Secret Wars Baron Zemo. I paid what seemed a lot at the time and it was initially quite a dilemma whether I should free him from his carboard and plastic prison. I chose to leave Baron Zemo carded and it all snowballed from that point. I was bitten by the collecting bug and through dilligent searching and some good luck, I was able to finish these collections in a few years. With those sets completed, I found myself yearning to start collecting packaged Star Wars items. I vividly remember my father vowing that I would not start another collection. However, as I mentioned, my father is a collector as well, so he let me have a go at it. Guided by the force, I followed my destiny and the Star Wars collection has grown from that day and continues to grow 8^)

COLLECTING FOCI: My main foci of collecting lie in the vintage Kenner line. From this line, I heavily collect store displays, prototypes, carded figures, and boxed vehicles. Although, the carded figs and boxed vehicles have really been put on the backburner to allow me to keep up with the displays and prototypes. I also actively collect prototypes and store displays from Kenner's Super Powers line.

CHARACTER FOCUS: Well, as you may have already seen, my character focus is the Hoth Snowtrooper. The origin of this focus dates back to the Atlantique City toy show of 1993. Here, I purchsed a vintage carbalon 3 ^3/4"snowtrooper figure hardcopy from Mark Huckabone. Over the years, I have concentrated intensely on this focus and have acquired many interesting pieces.

As the number of snowtrooper items I need slowly dwindled, I decided to add a second character focus to my collection: Biker Scout. You can view my growing collection of this character here

STAR WARS HOLY GRAIL: A snowtrooper 3 ^3/4" action figure sculpt

OTHER COLLECTING INTERESTS: The wide array of toy lines I played with during my youth has festered into a collecting habit encompassing many of these late 70's and 80's toy lines. Kenner is by far my all time favorite toy company, so many of the lines I collect were produced by Kenner. The Super Powers line is my other true collecting passion next to Star Wars, although I'm also intrigued by and actively collect many other Kenner, Mattel, and Hasbro lines. My interest in the production process and prototypes associated with it, initially fostered by Star Wars, has grown over the years to include prototypes from other childhood toy line favorites. As such, I actively seek out production toys, prototypes, and store displays primarily from the following toy lines: Star Wars, Super Powers, Silverhawks, Ghostbusters, Centurions, M.A.S.K, Sky Commanders, Swamp Thing, Indiana Jones, Grabbits, Batman: Dark Knight Collection, Inhumanoids, Secret Wars, Army Ants, Flash Gordon, Clash of the Titans, Suckerman, Shogun Warriors, Mego World's Greatest Superheroes, Captain Action, and Rocks & Bugs & Things.

In addition to the toys and prototypes themselves, I'm interested in items given to or used by toy company employees, which often feature the company logo. These types of items include: hats, t-shirts, pens, binders, folders, stamps, stationary, business cards, mugs, paper weights, and internal documents, etc. These types of items greatly compliment the toys themselves from my perspective. They are nice artifacts used by the talented individuals in the toy industry, who were responsible for bringing so many of my favorite toys to life.