My name is Michael Whitty and I am an ape-o-holic.

 

It has been some time since my last purchase but I am sure to fall off the wagon at some point.

 

My passion for collecting started as a child when I discovered the Curtis (Marvel) Planet of the Apes Magazine #8 at the local Newsagent in Rivett, Canberra, Australia.  This was well before the Australian NEWTON publications were released and my dad was reluctant to fork over the $1 to pay for it (but he did!).

 

I entered a world of talking apes, mutants wearing human masks and worshipping a nuclear warhead, set in the future - not really "kid stuff" but I never looked back.

 

I would search high and low for apes merchandise and I was horribly disappointed  most of the time.  Many of the items that were plentiful overseas didn't get to Australia.  Worse still, I was raised in Canberra - the National Capital but a very low population in comparison to the major cities - where I am sure only the meager leftovers reached our shelves.  Nevertheless, this scarcity translated into a euphoric reaction when I did find playsets, action figures, model kits, jigsaw puzzles.

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My dad even sent a cheque to the USA to buy the VHS tapes when they were released but to no avail - the American Bank could not cash an Australian Cheque and the VHS tapes were in a different format (NTSC not PAL) and even buying a player from the US would mean getting an expensive transformer and a NTSC TV.  These are indicative of the typical challenges I faced and it was no wonder that I was isolated from the blitz of Planet of the Apes Merchandise after the success in ratings of the "afternoon movie" on TV in the USA.

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I am now turning my focus from collecting items to recording them and investigating as much information as I can find to share here.  ENJOY!