Chris Scarola discusses his love of pop culture, and how it enhances his adult life and friendships
By Vincent Forlizzi
In 2012, when Chris Scarola was only eight years old, he fell in love with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise through the at the time brand new Nickelodeon cartoon. Then, while looking for his birthday gift, his aunt found a set of masked, green action figures on the shelf at a local Walmart.
Fast forward to today, and as a full grown student at CSI, Scarola is still in love with TMNT, Marvel, and the other pop culture franchises of his youth. While most reject their toys with age, Scarola still collects action figures for display and remains proud of his hobby .
“It’s nice to have something to be passionate in, that something would always be there as you grow up,” said Scarola. “Collecting toys for display helped me grow with them.”
In fact, Scarola spoke a lot about how his growing agency further fueled his passion for pop culture. Though he first found out about TMNT through the 2012 cartoon, Scarola now finds enjoyment in researching media from before even he was born. Scarola cites the live action film from 1990 as one of his favorites.
YouTube content creators are Scarola’s main way of learning about pop culture and collecting. Scarola was even inspired to buy figures from the 1990 TMNT movie after watching a video by one of his favorite creators, Pixel Dan.
“As a kid, I would only learn about toys by going to the store and seeing them on the shelf,” said Scarola. “Watching YouTube content helped me to explore my horizons and get more into the franchises I love.”
Besides TMNT, Scarola is also a fan of Marvel, and is particularly fond of the Sam Raimi Spiderman trilogy from the mid 2000s. His love for these particular films also stems from his close friendship with another collector, Enes.
In the summer of 2017, Scarola went on vacation to Kalahari Resort in Pennsylvania. By complete coincidence, Enes was also on vacation at Camelback Resort nearby.
During their sudden dual vacation, Enes texted Scarola that there was a rare Spiderman action figure on the shelf at a Walmart between both of their resorts. Scarola left the resort and rushed to the Walmart to pick up the figure, only to find that they were already out of stock.
It wouldn’t be until Scarola’s birthday later that year when Enes would surprise him with the truth: Enes bought the last Spider-man figure that Walmart had and was saving it until that moment to give Scarola as a birthday gift.
“It was nice that he thought about me,” said Scarola. “We didn’t have jobs at the time, so him getting me a fairly expensive present was kind of shocking.”
