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> but there's only so much time in life to hoard useless shit There’s this very strange episode of the original run of the series Amazing Stories starring Mark

> but there's only so much time in life to hoard useless shit There’s this very strange episode of the original run of the series Amazing Stories starring Mark Hamill in which some sort of gnome whom only he can see follows him around telling him that the most important thing in life is hoarding toys. He spends his life homeless, hauling his toys around in a shopping cart, completely alone in the world. When he’s like 80 years old and literally planning his suicide, a wealthy collector bumps into him on the street and buys his toys and he becomes rich overnight, and the episode ends with old Mark Hamill and old gnome dressed like rich folk, apparently very happy with themselves and giving off an “it was all worth it” vibe. Even childhood me, who was very into this tv show (the introduction to which featured computer animation!), Steven Spielberg, toys, and Mark Hamill – even that young version of myself could see this was a terrible message. https://youtu.be/Hbn5cNgEzKA https://youtu.be/Hbn5cNgEzKA

ludamad 5y ago
It reminds me of the stories of old where a person has great but humble qualities. To enforce that these qualities are worth their own virtue, the protagonist gets their wishes fulfilled by a deus ex machina
felipemnoa 5y ago
This is awesome. My sister told me about this film/episode like maybe more than 20 years ago. Pre-internet era, so I could not search for it back then. I had even forgotten about it until now. I've never seen the episode but now thanks to you I'll be able to watch it. Much obliged! p.s I'm surprised the memory was still in my head considering I probably have not thought about it since my sister told me about it.
- majjam 5y ago
  How wonderfully ironic :)
varelse 5y ago
In reality, more of a prophetic message given what people will pay for the right scarce variants of Star Wars toys. No more dangerous and speculative than cryptocurrency IMO, but with a much longer investment horizon. The part that's unrealistic IMO is the wealthy collector paying a fair price for the toys when in reality he would go out of his way to convince Mark Hamill that his crap is worthless and he's doing him a favor by giving him a pittance for it. And the final shot would be a dirty and broken Mark Hamill sobbing uncontrollably as he watches a television in a store window where his collectibles are auctioned off one by one on one of our many shopping channels for far more than he got for them. A recurring theme on Amazing Stories was the power of imagination best embodied by the episode about the World War II gunner who was also an animator who saved his own life by imagining a set of landing gear cartoon style after they were shot off his bomber. The Mark Hamill episode was yet another example of this theme where he prevailed by the power of his own belief in himself and his imagination.
- saalweachter 5y ago
  Or the other collector could have waited until after the first's death, and then taken up the cart cackling with glee at his good fortune.
  - varelse 5y ago
    And there's the Robot Chicken vignette paying homage to this episode right there...
pram 5y ago
Haha I've thought about that episode off and on for years, it's very memorable. I honestly think they didn't have the spine to let it have a really dark ending. The resulting 'moral' is pretty fucked though, yes.

ludamad 5y ago

It reminds me of the stories of old where a person has great but humble qualities. To enforce that these qualities are worth their own virtue, the protagonist gets their wishes fulfilled by a deus ex machina

felipemnoa 5y ago

This is awesome. My sister told me about this film/episode like maybe more than 20 years ago. Pre-internet era, so I could not search for it back then. I had even forgotten about it until now. I've never seen the episode but now thanks to you I'll be able to watch it. Much obliged! p.s I'm surprised the memory was still in my head considering I probably have not thought about it since my sister told me about it.

majjam 5y ago
How wonderfully ironic :)

varelse 5y ago

In reality, more of a prophetic message given what people will pay for the right scarce variants of Star Wars toys. No more dangerous and speculative than cryptocurrency IMO, but with a much longer investment horizon. The part that's unrealistic IMO is the wealthy collector paying a fair price for the toys when in reality he would go out of his way to convince Mark Hamill that his crap is worthless and he's doing him a favor by giving him a pittance for it. And the final shot would be a dirty and broken Mark Hamill sobbing uncontrollably as he watches a television in a store window where his collectibles are auctioned off one by one on one of our many shopping channels for far more than he got for them. A recurring theme on Amazing Stories was the power of imagination best embodied by the episode about the World War II gunner who was also an animator who saved his own life by imagining a set of landing gear cartoon style after they were shot off his bomber. The Mark Hamill episode was yet another example of this theme where he prevailed by the power of his own belief in himself and his imagination.

saalweachter 5y ago
Or the other collector could have waited until after the first's death, and then taken up the cart cackling with glee at his good fortune.
- varelse 5y ago
  And there's the Robot Chicken vignette paying homage to this episode right there...

pram 5y ago

Haha I've thought about that episode off and on for years, it's very memorable. I honestly think they didn't have the spine to let it have a really dark ending. The resulting 'moral' is pretty fucked though, yes.