Inside the home of vintage pop culture collector Scott Crosher

If filling your space with things you love is a key to a happy home, Scott Crosher must be onto something. He has a passion for pop culture artefacts that date back to his childhood heyday, and it’s a feature of his apartment in Sydney’s Chiswick. 

If the Ghostbusters action figures and video store sign of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure hasn’t given it away, it’s the 1980s and early 90s that Crosher is particularly keen on. 

Born in 1984, he was a kid when big franchises like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and WWF wrestling dominated the landscape and the toy store aisles. His collection of vintage action figures from these series and more are displayed in his collection room – a small spare bedroom turned cosy chill space where he can put a VHS tape into the VCR and kick back like it’s 1989. 

It’s a way to keep the spirit of the old-school video store alive for Crosher, who grew up well before the invention of streaming services and loved renting a bunch of bulky tapes from his local store and buying a wax pack of trading cards for good measure (he collects those too).

He has a Sony VCR, a retro Sony Trinitron television he got for free from Gumtree, and there’s a Game Boy, Super Nintendo and his childhood Sony PlayStation too. 

There’s a noticeable number of film character action figures, too, from Dick Tracy to the original Jurassic Park crew. Crosher explains the 80s and 90s were a kind of golden era for movie merchandise – and he eagerly collects it all. 

“It was that period where feature films that came out got an action figure line; they got a Nintendo game, they got a trading card set,” he says. “Feature films from that era basically touched every part of pop culture in the 80s and 90s.”

Crosher, who owns an automotive accessory business, says the room of nostalgia is a way to relax and enjoy things from before the world became more complex.

“It’s nice to have these things in your possession that kind of take you back to that simpler time,” he says.   

The room is still a work in progress. Crosher has been collecting for about four years after having “zero interest” for a long time – his mum even sold some of his original toys at garage sales, and “I was putting up no resistance – now I cringe when I think about that,” he laughs.  

He bought his apartment in early 2020 (shared with his beloved bulldog, Nala) with the view of having somewhere to unpack the collectibles he’d stored in plastic containers. 

Crosher’s interest in collecting was revived after finding a shoebox of his original Ninja Turtle figures a few years ago. “You want to start out by putting back together your childhood collection that’s been lost,” he says. 

But the fun of being an adult and having your own money means he soon wanted “to get my hands on some of the larger and more expensive items… those unattainable large playsets that were on the Christmas list that I was never going to get.”  

He occasionally finds gold at op shops and flea markets, but the huge toy fairs and collector events bring the most joy, and there’s no lack of them. 

“I feel like the hobby of collecting vintage and modern toys and collectibles is something that’s really booming,” he says.  

There’s a strong sense of camaraderie with other collectors too. 

“Going to collector fairs and connecting with other collectors through social media and Facebook groups has been a massive element of joy of the hobby,” says Crosher (who started a YouTube channel during lockdowns). “Collecting is a solo pursuit, but there’s nothing quite like having a group of friends that are all into this sort of stuff.” 

The “wave of appreciation” for 80s and 90s pop culture has hit a new generation thanks to Netflix’s Stranger Things and recent cinema releases like Jurassic World Dominion, Top Gun: Maverick and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.  

Crosher says he’ll always be grateful he grew up in the era when the originals were first crafted.  

“The creativity of it, the imagination of it – it was awesome, there was always something new … The 80s and the first half of the 90s, at least for me, were just such a great time.” 

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