Author Topic: Why Do You Collect?  (Read 6484 times)

Offline Brian

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Why Do You Collect?
« on: August 22, 2003, 09:31 AM »
Judging by the site we are on, we all know why we collect Star Wars figures, legos, or other memorabilia...be it nostalgia, the love of the movies, etc.  But, I was curious why you might collect other lines.  The other day I was talking with my wife about collecting the MOTU line, needless to say she wasn't overly enthused about the idea of another toyline creeping into our house, and she asked me why I wanted to collect them.  For me, I guess it was kind of hard to explain...I don't "play" with them, I don't "need" them necessarily, I just enjoy it and I suppose a lot of it is nostalgia with that line as well.  I'm still not sure if I'm going to be (or be able to) collect another line like this, and I suppose there is more than enough Star Wars stuff out there for me to collect, and that is my first collecting love and comes before any of the other lines.  I guess my question is, why do you collect the "other" lines?  Am I the only one who looks sometimes at these "toys" (aside from Star Wars) sitting on my desk and wonder, why, really, do I buy these?  Not that I don't think many of the other lines we all collect aren't great, because they are, but I do sometimes wonder why...I guess its hard to explain :).  I was just wondering what some of your explanations are...thanks :).

Offline Scott

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #1 on: August 22, 2003, 09:57 AM »
90% of it is nostalgia on Star Wars...and the same goes for MOTU.  Being not quite 30 means I was the tender age of 2 when Star Wars hit the big screen and 8 when ROTJ came out, which was also the year after He-Man came out...

So being the ripe old age of 7 and having a cartoon I can watch every day for 3 years I glommed on and said goodbye to SW.  With the 20th anniversary rereleases I got back into MOTU and with the new line I fell in love all over again.  The 4 Horseman absolutely rock

Marvel is sorta nostolgia.  I read comics pretty religiously from 1983-1989.  These figures are the absolute best on the market and really are fun to collect.

LOTR, not sure why.  I thought the figures were horrible when they first came out.  This might be the first line to get the axe...I want Eowyn, King Aragorn, Queen Arwen (If they make her), Merry and Pippin in armor and that will be about it.

Offline Morgbug

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #2 on: August 22, 2003, 10:24 AM »
Like most, SW is related to a love of the movies.

Most of why I collect is related to the fun (adrenaline?) of finding something new on the store shelves.  There just isn't a better feeling in the toy collecting world for me than going into a store and finding something I don't have, but want.  I hunt for stuff from almost all toy lines I'm familiar with and will snag stuff for trading or just for people in general at cost.  

McFarlane sportspicks started that way too. I had decent luck finding some variants, once I started paying attention, simply because I was in stores enough to have that kind of luck.  Most of that rush has been driven out by what I've seen occur in stores.  Shoving, yelling, lining up at 7 am to run down the aisles ::)  I've gone back to just goalies and the occasional player now.  I still order a case, helps me avoid the madhouse rush, almost guarantees a variant or two or three and leaves me with some stuff to trade.  

Predators are just cool looking and I liked the movie.  Plus it has the advantage of being extremely limited in terms of items.  

Simpsons I collect because I like Homer.  He's sort of the prototypical parody of American (North) life.  While the humour can be crude and basic, some of it is so subtle as to be amazing.  What clinched my love of the Simpsons was an episode where Homer is driving through a corn field, reaches out, grabs a cob, bites in and says mmm, carb-o-mates.  It's an allusion to a new (1996) pesticide law in the US and the reference is to the Carbamate group of insecticides, which was to undergo a major review.  I KNOW not many people caught that and there are so many more like that.  Someone keeps trying to expand my collection as well.   ;)

Star Trek is pretty minimal for me.  I like exclusives, so I snagged Kirk but mostly I am a Spock fan.  My wife is a McCoy fan, so that fits, but it is very limited.  

Marvel and DC figs are part of my history.  I've collected these things all along, way back from being a kid.  I also collected comics so there's the tie in for that.  Spiderman, X-men (all incarnations), Thor, FF, Avengers from Marvel were my major lines.  Flash, Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and Green Arrow were the DC side.  
I grew up at the Aunt and Uncle's cabin at a lake and on rainy days we read comics.  Beaten, covers torn, ripped, coloured on comics.  I have held a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 in my hands.  It was beaten beyond belief but it was my fave.  I look at the ML stuff and those memories come flooding back.  Very cool.  Plus my daughter seems to be a fan of that stuff and likes playing with them, so it provides a good justification. ;)

A big part of why I like collecting stuff now though is the trading. I believe I have made some very, very good friends from the trading aspect of it.  Plus it gives me someone to have my geeky conversations with.  Mrs. Bug refers to y'all as my little toy friends. ;D
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Offline Darthshader

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #3 on: August 22, 2003, 01:32 PM »
Well, there were so many things I could not have as a kid, I am getting revenge now!

 ;D

Offline roguestormtrooper

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #4 on: August 22, 2003, 04:47 PM »
As far as MOTU is concerned,  I loved the cartoon series from the 80's and started to collect the figures then.  Same thing with G.I. Joe...  A young age and lack of money hampered my collecting then,  now just a lack of money. ::)

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #5 on: August 22, 2003, 05:04 PM »
For Star Wars it's a mix of nostalgia, a personal love and interest of the military aspect of the films, an enjoyment of having small poseable and accurate toys of the films I love...  I'm one of the rarer breed who takes my stuff from its shelf to "pose" it...  Play with it if you will, but whatever. :)

For The X-Treme Detail line from 21st Century it's all about my love of the military and military history.  To see accurate poseable figures...  Build dioramas as if they're still photos of life-changing events.  My one friend who I knew for years and who served in WW2 was blown away by some of the detail I showed him o n a German figure once...  He said it was like staring at a statue of some of the men he saw on the opposing side.  He said it's a stir of mixed emotions, and that he was proud that I had enough interest and respect to buy these and to learn about the times he lived in.  I wish he'd lived long enough to see the Battle of the Bulge U.S. infantryman, because he served at the Bulge and wore exactly what this figure came with.  

My love of the BBi 1:18 Elite Force figures which are shipping now (They're all modern military) is just that they're freakin' amazing. :)  Working holsters, removeable belts, tons of  accurate accessories, tons of cheap and to-scale vehicles...  They're fun toys...  I don't even fully support the war (Just the troops) we're in at this moment but damned if they don't have some neat little toys representing them.  They're just fun to have...  Like the XD line I won't buy them all (Can't afford to and nowhere to keep it all) but I'll enjoy what I can get.

I do enjoy posing, playing, or whatever with my figures...  Dioramas inside, outside, LOTS of customizing and tweaking, scratch ship building...  These are the things that keep me interested in Star Wars even through its darkest times (I think we had the darkest times ever in the past year, both in quality and availability).  That's why I collect I guess.  
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Offline Valtar

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #6 on: August 22, 2003, 07:11 PM »
Well, there were so many things I could not have as a kid, I am getting revenge now!

 ;D
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Offline SiteC

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2003, 08:00 PM »
an enjoyment of having small poseable and accurate toys of the films I love...  I'm one of the rarer breed who takes my stuff from its shelf to "pose" it...  Play with it if you will, but whatever. :)  

That sums it up for me.

I just enjoy having something to own from various movies and TV shows I like.  usually I cannot get into something unless there is an action figure line to collect along with it...I think having something you can feel and touch goes a long way into helping you enjoy and appreciate the universe it comes from...

Offline DrunkJedi

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2003, 08:20 PM »
Lego is the only line I actually stuck with my whole life. I started collecting Spawn when the Spawn with Malbolgia's head caught my eye. Then a student of mine got me into the new MOTU and TF Armada and then I got back into GI Joe. After that Star Wars. Then because of Canada sucking for toys I ended up starting on Sports Picks as filler while waiting for better.

I do want to get Dark Alliance and the earlier Chaos Comics figs because I was a fan of Evil Ernie and Lady Death.

Offline Taminar

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2003, 02:02 AM »
I collect things that I love.  Mostly it's Star Wars.  I used to collect a lot of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and other SF toys -- this is going wa-a-y back.  And I started collecting all those things because I couldn't get enough of the movie, TV series, or whatever.  I collect toys related to Harrison Ford and Kenneth Branagh (yep, I even bought the tank from Wild Wild West because he played Loveless), and the occasional Gilligan's Island toy.  And it's all because it brings a little bit of something that I love into my life.

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Offline Darby

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #10 on: August 24, 2003, 03:59 AM »
I love SW and I love figures.  I think for me growing up with the Kenner line the two are synonymous to me.  The idea of transporting your imagination (or the imagined world of cinema) to reality in the form of little plastic men has always been fun for me.


Offline Ben

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #11 on: August 24, 2003, 02:34 PM »
I collect Star Wars and Transformers mostly out of nostalgia, although as far as TFs go, I didn't have too many of those, so I'm going back and buying what I didn't have then. Nostalgia was the reason I collected GI Joe and MOTU, but those were either driven into the ground (MOTU) or reached a state where I didn't like the way they looked anymore (Joe).

I collect Marvel stuff and Lord of the Rings because the characters in their respective media fascinate me and I like to have figural representations of them.
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Offline Nicklab

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #12 on: August 24, 2003, 02:57 PM »
Two words:  It's fun!


**edit-Boy, that answer makes me seem like a simple S.O.B., doesn it?
« Last Edit: August 24, 2003, 02:58 PM by Nicklab »
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Offline Brian

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #13 on: August 28, 2003, 10:25 AM »
Thanks for the replies everyone, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has that "nostalgia" factor with many toy lines.  Star Wars is really big with me, I can watch the movies (specifically the OT) over and over, and really never tire of them.  I imagine I will probably collect the figures in some capacity until they quit making them, just because I really like Star Wars.  Also, with MOTU, and to some extent Marvel Legends, it is a nostalgia factor as well...especially with MOTU.  Plus, as many said above, the 4HM have done an amazing job updating the looks of the characters.  Every once in awhile I get a nostalgic flavor from the new G.I. Joe stuff, although I haven't bought any of it apart from the black Snake-Eyes.  It just seems like the 80s were a good time to be a kid with these great movies, shows, and toys...I'm happy to see much of it brought back.  Again, thanks for the replies everyone.

Offline Jim

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Re: Why Do You Collect?
« Reply #14 on: August 28, 2003, 03:32 PM »
For the Nostalgia and the Hunt :)