London action figure collector holds auction to raise funds for children's health

London's Jay Bartlett has been collecting action figures since he was a kid.

Earlier this year, he went on a trip across North America in hopes of finding the rarest action figures to sell at his auction.

"We drove around to different toy stores. We went as far as North Carolina, back up, we went to Toronto. Just everywhere. Hunting for what I thought would be the best 10 pieces that would draw all the collectors and fans of pop culture. Pieces that they would want to have in their collection."

Thousands of dollars later, Bartlett had his 10 collector pieces. Items included Jabba the Hutt's sail barge, the Star Wars cantina adventure set and Optimus Prime. He's now begun auctioning them off to bidders across the globe, with proceeds going to the Children's Health Foundation at the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). 

The auction was initially set to take place across from Heroes on Dundas Street on free comic book day in May but due to the pandemic, Bartlett's ultimate action figure auction was forced online. 

Docuseries about adventure to premiere this fall

Bartlett's search for North America's rarest action figures is set to premiere as a 10-part docuseries on GINX ESports TV this fall.

He doesn't want to give too much away but said the series, Action Figure Adventure, is about much more than his quest to find the auctioned items. It will feature interviews with the people who created action figures like He Man, Gi Joe and Optimus Prime, he adds. 

The series was created alongside filmmaker Rob McCallum, who is also based in London. 

The best friends also worked together on Nintendo Quest, a 2015 documentary that follows Bartlett as he hits the open road on a mission to obtain all 678 original Nintendo games in 30 days. 

A lifelong hobby

Action figures have always been a part of Bartlett's life. The 45-year-old holds his mother responsible for his collecting habits. 

"Well I blame my mom for that, right? She raised me well," he laughs. "She raised me on Star Wars and G.I. Joe and all that good stuff. It was always something that I was interested in. It just stuck with me my whole life." 

Growing up, he remembers having a few friends that didn't have the home life. They would find comfort in watching shows like He-Man. 

"They would learn values from He-Man and they would watch Transformers and look up to characters like Optimus Prime. They didn't have role models. So, it goes much, much deeper than just toys." 

Bartlett has been working with the Children's Health Foundation for a few years now. It started when he and a few of his friends would entertain the kids dressed in Star Wars cosplay. 

"It's great to do that and to kind of take them out of that world for a few minutes."

But he says he wanted to do more for the foundation. He decided he wanted to raise money and thought what better way to raise it than with an action figure action. 

The auction closes Thursday with a live show featuring some toy industry personalities commentating the final minutes of each auction.