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If you know me, I mean–really know me–you know I love DC super heroes. I discovered Batman at the age of 3, started getting comic books not long after, and became hooked on Super Friends. Around 1984, Super Friends evolved into Super Powers with a correlating toy line.

The Super Powers toys were utterly fantastic. They looked like the comic book characters of the time period, were very well sculpted, came with cool accessories, had actual cloth capes, and sported a neat “power” action like a kick or a punch.

For context, I was 7 in 1984. And, because I was greatly loved (or spoiled, some might say), I had no shortage of toys. I would move from Super Powers, to Star Wars, to GI Joe, to Transformers, to Masters of the Universe, with some Silver Hawks or M.A.S.K. thrown in for good measure. In other words, if it had a cartoon, I wanted the toys.

For the 1984 Super Powers line, I was all in. Wave 2 came out around 1985. Of course, I couldn’t miss out on some of my favorites like Firestorm or Red Tornado, but I otherwise didn’t have much interest. By Wave 3, I was largely out. I did get a Captain Marvel (Shazam), but that was about it.

I have an early January birthday, so I tended to make my biggest hauls around Christmas. If I wasn’t into a toy line around Christmas, I wasn’t likely to get a big batch of them throughout the rest of the year.

However, as time went on, I grew to love DC even more and more because I continued reading their comics throughout junior high and high school. Suddenly I really wish I’d gotten more of that Wave 2 and Wave 3 of Super Powers. After all, my parents graciously allowed me to have a “Comic Book Room” in the basement where I displayed all of my super hero paraphernalia and comic books.

In those days, we didn’t have the Internet or EBAY. If you wanted to find discontinued toys, you had to search hobby shops, flea markets, and garage sales.

And that’s when the mighty hunt began. Slowly, over time, I picked up a Martian Manhunter here, a Batmobile there, but there were three figures I never saw out in the wild: Cyborg, Plastic Man, and Mister Miracle.

And out of those three, Mister Miracle was my absolute favorite. I loved his costume, his “power,” his story–he became my white whale.

Then EBAY came along, which allowed me to pick up a figure every once in awhile if the price was right. I found a Wonder Woman, a Desaad, a Darkseid. But never a Mister Miracle. He was always ridiculously overpriced.

Years passed. I got a job. I got married. I had kids. I built a house. I got a new job. I got a dog. Yet, I would think about Mister Miracle and Super Powers often. Heck, I even wrote a story about finding a bunch of Super Powers toys at a comic book shop! And, of course, super heroes greatly influenced my own take on the genre with The Chronicles Of Purgatory Station. But with being so busy, I never fully committed to extending my collection.

Then Todd McFarlane came along. When I was a kid, Todd McFarlane was famous for drawing Spider-Man and creating Spawn. Nowadays, however, he’s involved in much, much more, including his own toy brand. As fate would have it, he rebooted the Super Powers series with a mixture of modern takes on classic characters and some old-school characters never before made.

My passion reignited. Knowing me as well as I do, I figured I’d better get them at cost rather than wait a few years and pay for them marked up on EBAY.

I have a friend, someone I’ve hung out with for years, who also still loves super heroes even as a grown man. I would send him pictures of my McFarlane Super Powers figures as well as some vintage figures I got off EBAY. You know, because that’s what cool dads do.

He mentioned he still had a few when he was a kid and sent me a picture of just their feet. He asked me if I could guess them all.

Obviously … I could.

But one set of feet … could they really be … was it possible …?

Yes. All of these years, my friend had an original Super Powers Mister Miracle action figure in very, very good condition.

I’d found my white whale. Now the question remained … could I reel him in?

Even as obsessed as I was with Mister Miracle, I valued his friendship far more, and so I quelled the fire burning within and gently negotiated with my friend. As I said, I value his friendship more than anything else and so I wanted to offer him a price that reflected the value of the rare figure. I asked him not to give me any breaks; I wanted him to feel good about the deal if he chose to sell him. I’m rather proud of myself for keeping that impatient fanboy within at bay and treated my friend respectably, patiently, and fairly. Of course, these are things that should be expected from any adult, but if you’re a collector who has finally come across a treasure that eluded you for over three decades, you understand my plight.

In the end, my friend made the whole process fun, smooth, and rewarding. He wanted to see his Mister Miracle among my collection rather than sitting in storage, so I think he still might have given me a bit of a break on the price.

Mister Miracle is now proudly displayed on a shelf across from my desk. Every time I look at him and the rest of my collection, a spark of joy flashes through me. I don’t know if it’s a mid-life crisis, some kind of late-stage collector OCD, or simply the nostalgia of a very happy childhood, but every time I look at him I experience a sense of wonder.

So how should I wrap this up? Something clever about seizing an opportunity? Maybe a word to the wise on the importance of patience? How about the value of a friend who truly knows you?

All of that would work, honestly, and it’s all true.

I think I’ll end it like this, though: never stop believing in the possibility of a miracle.