There’s a part of me that still hesitates every time I tear open a toy box.
The artwork is bold. The cardboard is nostalgic. The blister pack is practically sacred. Collectors know this struggle. The package feels like part of the toy’s soul.
But here’s the question I had to wrestle with:
Do I really need the packaging?
In Toys Are Totems, Chapter 9 (Trapped in Someone Else’s Dream, pp. 49–52), I dig into this tension. Packaging is designed to hold you in place. It’s someone else’s narrative — a marketer’s dream, a price guide’s prison. Beautiful, yes. But it’s not the totem.
The totem is the toy itself.
When I finally pulled Sgt. Slaughter and Leatherneck out of their cards, when I let Kup transform without worrying about box integrity, I realized something: I wasn’t destroying value. I was reclaiming it. The spark isn’t sealed in the plastic — it’s in my hands.
That’s the invitation: Don’t stay trapped in someone else’s dream. Open it. Hold it. Own your story.
Takeaway
Packaging is a frame. A beautiful frame, but still a frame. The totem is waiting beyond it, ready to reconnect you to who you are.
Toys Are Totems isn’t just a book.
It’s a mirror to see yourself.
A map to find your way back.
A mission to remember who you truly are.
📖 Read more: jimbumgardner.com
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