It Was Turbo Time for the Kids at The Hollenbeck Center’s Miracle On 1st Street!

Every year, the Hollenbeck Youth Center has been fortunate to provide thousands of low-income families with cheer and gifts during the holiday season. This year marked the 38th year of providing Christmas cheer to the families in the Los Angeles area and ANY child was welcome to come get a free toy. In a long, ongoing tradition at the Hollenbeck Youth Center in Los Angeles, Arnold Schwarzenegger brought his celebrity friends and TurboMan (me) to help him hand out toys and entertain the inner-city children.

The activities kicked off at 9am for a parade and I was asked to ride in a train along with a few other supports of the event, including Gabriel Luna and Santa Claus. My suit was too uncomfortable for sitting but I happily walked directly behind the train and waved to all the kids. I was surprised that most people recognized me as TurboMan but one cute little girl asked if I was The Flash. 

Tom Arnold introduced everyone, including Turbo Man, up on the stage with him. Tom is always a very entertaining and hilarious improv speaker. He introduced Schwarzenegger to come on up onto the stage and now it was the Governor’s turn to fire zingers back at Tom but also he delivered a heart-felt message about the day’s toy mission and about a brief history of the Inner City Games, founded by Danny Hernandez. 

Gabriel Luna stood next to me up on the stage and when Arnold walked over, Luna introduced me to him as TurboMan but Arnold knew who was under the costume already and said “Hey, Randy, good to see you” and he shook my hand.

Tom Arnold, Chef Rush and a couple Terminator: Dark Fate co-stars (Natalia Reyes and Gabriel Luna) were all here to pass out presents and a free book to the long line of children.  Natalia told me her favorite Arnold movie of all time is Jingle All the Way and she really appreciated holding my Turbo Man toy.

I presented Arnold with a Christmas gift on behalf of ALL of his fans! A few minutes later, Schwarzenegger pulled me in next to him and he filmed a quick message to his video camera man about the support for this event and thanked Chef Rush and TurboMan for being here with him. I’m not sure if that video will ever make it online but it was a nice moment.

I started off feeling a little embarrassed wearing this suit, but after donating gifts and seeing the children’s faces light up, I felt the power of giving back...and suddenly I felt like a real super hero. 

Finally, my favorite moment of the day was when I was upstairs in the main headquarters of the Hollenbeck Youth Center after the event was over. I was there to grab my bag containing my street clothes so I could change back into my mild-mannered true identity. When I reached for my bag, Arnold surprisingly walked into the room to give Natalia Reyes a personal tour. It was very busy earlier downstairs but now, up in this room, it was quite and only a few people witnessed what happened next.

After listening to Governor Schwarzenegger tell the Terminator actress all about The Hollenbeck Center, Arnold saw me holding my TurboMan action figure and walked over.

“Randy, look at you. I can’t believe you’re playing with toys. I mean really, a grown man, playing with toys,” Arnold said teasing me. Then he grabbed my Turboman. “What’s so great about this doll?”

Arnold’s face changed expressions suddenly and was now filled with wonderment. He looked very appreciative of the doll.  He started to move the doll in the air, played with him and then made the Turbo Man doll soar through the air several times. Here Arnold was after first teasing me about playing with dolls and then he started to play with the Turbo Man with funny turbo jet flying sounds from his mouth. Arnold tried to get the attention of his video guy so he could fly the doll for the camera too. Schwarzenegger handed me back my Turbo Man doll and I told him he needs to do a sequel to the film. He thought I was crazy. Jingle All the Way super fan, Natalia Reyes, would certainly be interested in joining the cast!

Special thanks to my friend Tracy Walker for filming a portion of Arnold playing with my TurboMan doll and thanks to Brandon Krum for editing the video with the proper music! See Arnold playing with Turbo Man below!