Yes, I'm Michael Crawford. No, I can't sing, and I have never had anything to do with the Phantom of the Opera. I've never even seen the Broadway show.

I am a toy collector. I have been for about 20 years now, starting in the mid-80's with kid's meal toys. I still have tons of them, and break down once in awhile and end up buying a bunch more.

I've been involved with the online toy collecting community for over 15 years now, and here's a run down of some of my experiences:

Online:

- in the early and mid-90's, I was very active with the news group rec.toys.misc, doing reviews, area reports, and running the annual RTeMmies, our version of the best of the year awards.

- in the mid-90's, I worked closely with several other folks to develop the mission and charter for the new newsgroup, rec.toys.action-figures.discuss.  RTAFD was the place to be back then, extending the size and membership of the older RTM.

- After doing reviews for the news groups for years (and having developed the style of review you see me use today with separate groupings for Sculpt, Paint, etc.), I was frustrated by the lack of photos and the fact that the reviews were lost to posterity.  I started this website in February of 2000 to counter those two main issues.

- in the early days of this site, I also wrote a column on toys for Comic Book Galaxy, a site that originally had many contributors managed by Alan David Doane, but which has become his regularly updated blog.

- for a year or so I also provided reviews for Yakface, all Star Wars related of course.

- I also write a regular weekly column for Kevin Smith's website, Quick Stop Entertainment.  It's called the Toy Box, and covers toys and collectibles, of course.  I've been writing the column since the very start of Kevin's first entertainment site, originally called Movie Poop Shoot.

- I have ran my own best and worst contests since the inception of this site (with the RTeMmies and the Taffies going back much further than that), and also did the People's Choice Awards where readers voted. back in 2001, MROTW was mentioned on the big promotional sign at the Playmates booth at Toy Fair. Click here for the photo.  Expanding on that theme, in 2007 I began the Poppies.  These awards are voted on by industry judges, and are an industry event.

- I did several guest reviews for Eternal Collector, a website dedicated to showcasing people's collections.

- I've also provided reviews for Sideshow Collectible's own website, including Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Ardeth Bey, Invisible Man, The Monster Legacy DVD Set, Connor MacLoud, Outer Limits, the first Hot Toys Alien, and a brief history of collecting action figures.

Company Involvement:

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Interviews:

- Michael Miller did an interview with me that ran in the print version of the Toledo Free Press, as well as on his own website.

- Another print interview was with the Ann Arbor Magazine, a cool local full color pring mag.  I was in the section "Celebrities in our Midst", a monthly interview that covered someone local, obviously.  The month before myself was none other than Jeff Daniels.

- A third print interview I did was for Lo-Fi magazine.  I was their first "Geek of the Month" in an ongoing feature.

- Back when Palisades Toys were still in business, they did a regular 'Daily Bits' section, and I did an interview with them.

- I also did an interview for the Mezco Collector's Club website, as well as online interviews with The Toy Pirate and Poe Ghostal.

- I've provided background information and responded to questions with Monte Williams, who writes the column Lowbrow Literati at Pop Matters.

Web Site Contributions:

- one of my earliest web sites was the largest archive of western themed figures, called the Western Action Figure Archive. There were hundreds of pictures of over 70 different lines there, and my background in western figure collecting has resulted in my involvement in a recent project. I wrote a section of the informational encyclopedia The Mythical West. This non-fiction book covers the relationship between the Old West and our current pop culture, and I provided information and images on various action figures.

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Other Publications:

- I wrote a section of the informational encyclopedia The Mythical West. This non-fiction hard cover book covers the relationship between the Old West and our current pop culture, and I provided the entire chapter, text and photos, on action figures and the influence of the American West.  A book review from the Library Journal called out my section as one of the entries of interest within the book.

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If you have any questions, or just want to talk toys, please drop me an email!