Eight Years Already?

Eight years ago today, battlegrip.com launched . . . and very few people even noticed. When I hit publish on my very first post I had almost no idea at all of what I was doing or what to expect. All I knew what that I wanted to write about toys and that a blog was a good way to go about it. Now, eight years later, I can look back and see just how far the site has gone.

Numbers

I didn’t have analytics tracking the site for the first six months or so, but what information I do have available to me states that since starting the site we have seen:

• 13,488 posts
  
• 16,670 comments
  
• 2,444,718 page views
  
• 909,962 visitors

That’s nothing next to the big toy sites, but I am proud of the stats and feel this is pretty good for what is mostly (99.9%) the work of a single person. And hey, what other site is as random and scattered as battlegrip.com?

A Little of Everything

battlegrip.com, if you have been visiting the site for more than a few days, isn’t afraid to go out that and chase down any bit of odd toyness to share. Over the years the site has discussed new toys, old toys, art, games, and anything else I find fun. In 2016, the site turned into even more of an exploration of the past as I chased down many newspaper ads and articles and shared them with the world, even going so far as to publish a hardcover book about Star Wars newspaper ads of the seventies and eighties.

You can expect even more toy history in the coming year. Lots of sites cover today’s toys, and even though there isn’t a great demand for looking back at the toys of the past I will keep seeking out old ads and info to share. I enjoy today’s toys, yes, but I believe we need to archive and index as much of the recent toy past as we can before it is lost to time. And besides, I find it relaxing to dig into history and hunt for old info on toys.

Top Pages in 2016

Here are the ten most popular pages at battlegrip.com for 2016, many of them older posts that continue to attract readers. Looking at those posts on the old Kenner Star Wars action figures makes me want to clear time to write some more feature posts like those. Maybe one day soon . . . for now just enjoy these top posts for the year.

• Five Reasons Why Action Figures Cost More Today
  
• Acid Rain World at New York Toy Fair
  
• Review – Star Wars Jumbo Vintage C-3PO
  
• Review – 1985 Cherry Coke Robot
  
• Steel Monsters in the 1987 Tonka Catalog
  
• Review – Transformers Rescue Bots Boulder
  
• Review – Transformers: Titans Return Powermaster Optimus Prime
  
• The Genius of Kenner’s “Star Wars Collection” Mini-Rigs
  
• 1985 Olmec Toys’ Sun-Man Action Figures
  
• Where Kenner’s “Star Wars Collection” Failed Cloud City

Thank You, Everyone!

Eight years! That’s a long time to write about toys, and I can honestly say the site wouldn’t have made it this long without your encouragement and support. I don’t post every single day of the year, but I like to think I’ve got a pretty reliable track record and that you have learned that you can visit the site almost any day of the week and find something new to keep you smiling.

Thanks, and I hope I see you back here one year from now! (And, maybe, every day between now and then.)