Jordan Hembrough is the ultimate hunter—on the never ending quest for the perfect find.
What does he hunt? Bear? Poisonous snakes? Bigfoot?
Not exactly.
Hembrough’s “game”… is hunting TOYS. That’s right. Toys and Pop Culture Memorabilia.
His Travel Channel Show, “Toy Hunter” premieres its second season tonight (Wednesday April 10th) in back to back episodes at 9PM and 9:30PM ET/PT.
I got the chance to talk with Jordan about Season 2 of Toy Hunter. It’s a show that follows the adventures of this acclaimed toy expert as he crisscrosses the country searching for pop culture memorabilia hiding in attics, basements, and everywhere in between.
So what are some the most outrageously valuable or unique finds he’s made? And what are the most bizarre places he’s hit the toy jackpot? Dust off that old toy box… and tune in.
This season, toy hunting takes a celebrity twist. Just imagine being on a quest with Gene Simmons of Kiss, Danny Bonaduce (“Partridge Family”), and none other than…. Eddie Munster! (Otherwise known as Butch Patrick!)
Here’s my interview with Jordan, who, what would you expect—seems like a really fun guy!
Be sure to watch the premiere. Jordan will be live tweeting so you can join in the fun.
Q: Life is Sweet TV- For a toy hunter is there such a thing as an ultimate find?
Jordan: The ultimate find is anything that really brings back or evokes this emotion from my childhood. So I’ve got a lot of ultimate finds. They are not really dictated by money. They are not really dictated by rarity all the time.
Q: Life is Sweet TV- Is there a most unusual thing you’ve ever found? Something really weird or unexpected?
Jordan: I found a shrunken head kit. It was a great kit. It was actually Vincent Price, the master of horror who was on the cover. It was a shrunken head kit that you made with apples and you were able to take an apple and shrink it down. And it had hair and teeth and everything like that and you could make your own shrunken head. That’s a cool toy in and of itself. But what was so weird is that l when I found it – I found it in a guy’s collection, and he had photos of his grandmother in there and what he was trying to do was carve a likeness of his grandmother and shrink it down so it would look his grandmother. And it wasn’t sort of a “ghouly” or gross type of thing, it was sort of like an homage that he loved his grandmother so much. But it was just very strange finding personal family photos in with this toy. And finding the back story behind it.
Q: Life is Sweet TV- Is there a most unusual place you’ve ever found something?
Jordan: I found toys in the back of a butcher shop one time. Behind three or four pieces of hanging cattle in a freezer. The guy had a back room and I had to walk through a freezer to a back storage room. Here I am going through these huge sides of beef and at the back I found all these toys.
Q: Life is Sweet TV- What does a toy hunter do for fun?
Jordan: Sleep! I’m going at full speed all the time. I travel 22 days out of the month. When I do have some down time, I like to catch up on some sleep. I like to go to the movies. I am a huge movie fanatic.
Q: Life is Sweet TV- What is the one thing you always take with you on a toy hunting expedition?
Jordan: My headlamp and my smartphone. I use a head lamp because I never know where I am going to be crawling into. And I use my smartphone so I can quickly access information on the web if I find something I don’t know.
Q: Life is Sweet TV- What’s the magic of Toy Hunter?
Jordan: We were all kids. Everyone watching the show was a kid at one time and chances are we had a toy or a toy that we wanted. And it brings back the memory of a simpler time.
