The story of Super7 employee Brent StJames and toys goes back a while.
Born into a family of toy collectors, the 54-year-old got his first childhood friend — a Snoopy stuffed animal — from his mother when he was only a year old. He fell in love with Star Wars when he was seven after watching it for the first time, and promptly started his now-favorite collection of what are currently some 3,000 Star Wars minifigures.
They, and his other collectibles, could be worth some $200,000, he estimates.
“Because I just don’t throw anything away, and I don’t sell anything,” said StJames, who works most days at Super7, a toy store at 3253 16th St., near Guerrero Street. This week, it will celebrate its eighth anniversary.
He even still keeps Snoopy; the doll’s black ears have since turned white with age, and buttons have been sewed onto his eyes after the original ones fell off.
StJames once worked at the county jail at 850 Bryant St. with incarcerated individuals, but felt burnt out by the work. He then took a job at Amoeba Records, got to know the local toy-collecting community and then, five years ago, landed his job at the Super7.
“It kind of checks all my boxes for being here,” StJames said, listing a few: Organizing book signings and toy-collector hangouts, making new friends who share the same passion for toys, taking customer service calls to help buyers locate a specific Star Wars character minifigure, and photographing toys for Instagram. “It’s like, everything’s fallen into place and taken care of itself that way.”
He even runs a bi-monthly podcast called “Where The Toys Are,” which he co-hosts with his neighbor, Sam Supa. They invite toy lovers like themselves to chat about anything toy-related: Picking their figure of the year during Christmas, reviewing new films like “Avatar: The Way of Water,” sharing their fun experiences at the East Bay Comic Con, and so on.
“It exists because of this place,” he said, recalling how the podcast started about three years ago, “We would sit here on a Saturday around the desk talking. And one day I was just like, we should record this. Why don’t we just talk about this kind of stuff?”
The store is a rabbit hole of the comic fantasy world: On the right side is a wall of minifigures of characters from Disney, Sesame Street, Godzilla, Star Wars, Willy Wonka, Dr. Teeth, G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and so on. On the left, colorful graphic T-shirts and sweatshirts emblazoned with Cookie Monster, Mummy’s boy and other characters.
“It’s kind of like a little museum that you can buy things from,” StJames said. “Think of it as a giant Comic-Con booth, except that we have everything.”
“I always joke around with Brian, and I’ll say that I’ll be with you as long as you’ll have me,” StJames said with a smile, referring to the store owner and his old friend, Brian Flynn.
“I like what I do. I like who I do it with. And I like who I do it for,” StJames said. “And I think that once you have those three, you know, I’m okay.”
His own favorites in the store at the moment? The giant vinyl Snoopy figures.
