Collecting, how did you get hooked?

[Reconsgt]

Just curous how did you all get started in collecting?

Me I had a number of figs and ships when I was a kid but never thought of them more than old toys until a few years ago. About the same time as EP1 I was getting a tattoo done by a guy who I have known for years. Well we got to talking and he said he was picking up some new figs. He casually asked if I had any old ones. I said sure. Well after a while we talked and he dug out some he had at the shop and here I am today with a room full.

For me it brought back alot of those childhood memories of gazing at the backs of the cards trying to figure out how to spend my allowance now when ever a new find shows up at the door I feel like a kid again ripping open the box to see whats inside. For me it isn't a monetary investment it is more as an investment in my youth.

[Scott]

As a kid I can still distinctly remember my mom buying me a Han Solo after I got a shot at the Doctor...I must have been 3 or 4...not sure why I picked him out or why I picked Star Wars but I was hooked from then on, I had a huge collection through ROTJ when I moved on to other things (MOTU, Transformers and GI Joe)

FF 12 years...my girlfriend at the time's brother was a huge SW fan...he told me that they had released figures again...this was mid 1995 I believe.  I picked up the whole first wave of figures on Orange Cards when they came out.  He hooked me up with a Princess Leia and I was satisfied for about a year...then I finished college got a job and had gobs of money just needing to be spent    So I started in again with a passion...about two years agao when I found out my wife was pregnant and realized I had tubs full of carded figures I switched focus from MOMC to loose/army building and Vintage loose complete.  So I traded all of my carded and boxed stuff for army builders and here I sit with almost 1000 figures

[Reconsgt]

Funny you bring up getting a shot and getting a toy.

When I got my first SW toys it was when I was very sick. I remember that I just came home from the hospital and my parents had a mattress laid out on the floor in the living room for me. That was before the days that every room had a TV. I was about 5 I think and when I woke up my mom had a landspeeder, Luke and another fig I think was C3PO sitting besides the matress. That was a great feeling. That is why I really love collecting the vintage boxed and carded stuff along with the loose. Its the best of both worlds.

[Angry Ewok]

My godfather's son was a huge Star Wars fan when I was about 3 (born in '84), and so because he was an older kid and he was nice enough to share his toys with me... how could I NOT automatically like Star Wars with him... He liked it and so I liked it, and I'm not sure why, but even after GI Joe and GhostBusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... I still loved Star Wars more. The first vintage toy I ever owned was probably when I was about 6. I bought a naked Logray Ewok for a nickel at a garage sale. I ended up slowly getting more and more until finally I've probably got 1K of vintage stuff and almost every modern figure made to date (or at least the ones I've wanted to spend $ on).

[stormtripper]

Starwars has always been part of my life, well I was 3 when it came out.I had all the vintage, the wallpaper the sheets and pillow cases(still have them). I remember getting two deathstar playsets which I would have wars between the good guys and the bad guys.My best friend had the Cantina and the Hoth playsets which we would make battles and kick the tar out of the battle star galatica's figs and trek figs.I had so much and I really cant tell you what I did with it all, I remember giving my nephew a few boxes full of GI Joes so I imagine that is where the intact starwars figs and playsets also ended up.
I went through all the toy groups over the years, Transformers,G I Joes(Had Everything for the first couple years), LJN WWF Wrestlers(All of them),Secret Wars Marvel , MOTU (Had Everything for the first 4 yrs)  M.U.S.C.L.E Men I Skipped the TMNT for some reason.
Now I have a stormtroopers helmet tattoo'd on the inside of my right forearm which is done in a chrome style.
In 95 I bought a few of the steriod figures and had them stored away for a rainy day, then I moved from Toronto to Vancouver with my wife and happened to stumble into a comic shop one day, I saw Lak Sivrack on the shelf and just had to have him( I really dig werewolves) from then on I was hooked again.

[JediMAC]

After the dramatic pause of A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..., I was immediately hooked the second that bright yellow Star Wars lettering hit the screen and John Williams triumphant Star Wars main theme came blairing out of the theater's speakers at the beginning of A New Hope.  The rest is history...

I was six when Star Wars came out, and it pretty much took over my childhood (along with video games and Little League that is).  Of course, having all of the toys to go along with the movie was a given.  I was a completist, even at the age of seven.  I loved the Star Wars figures, and had to have them ALL.  I vividly remember when my neighbor was the first kid in town to get the 12-backs.  Of course I got mine soon after, and this trend continued well into 1984, though I had to temper my Star Wars fandom a bit in Jr. High, when it wasn't very cool anymore.

But I jumped back into collecting in the early 90's when I was off in college (still kept myself in the closet though), and started snatching up at conventions all of the Vintage POTF that I had missed out on, then followed by the early Galoob offerings, finally sealing my fate with the release of the POTF2 line.  Carded and loose completist ever since September of 1995!

But it all started with that opening scene of Star Wars, way back in May of '77...  The movies and toys (I call them collectibles now) pretty much go hand in hand IMO!

[Obi-Juan]

When I saw the Darth Maul figure, I was hooked on the new stuff.  Man, that figure was awesome (still is).   Anyway, from then on, it was just obsessive collecting.

[Becky]

For me, it was after I went and seen A New Hope at the drive-in.  My mom had bought me C3PO and R2D2 for my birthday, that was kinda the beginning of the whole collection frenzy.  And, I was the only girl the neighborhood and I wanted to keep up with the boys.    

[Darth Paul]

I can still remember the day my cousin came over  with his brand-new X-wing and Luke figure.   My fate was eternally sealed in 1978....

[Thomas Grey]

I was 7 years old in 1977 and a friend's mother screen tested "A New Hope" to see if it was appropriate for us. She took us to see it and it changed everything. All my green plastic army men, GI Joes and electric trains went in a box and it was Star Wars everything! I collected to play. I had pretty much everything from A New Hope and Empire and outgrewthe toys coming into Return. I decided, "choke", to have a Star Wars bonfire, "sob" one pyromanical, insane ridden day and they all turned into a big plastic blob! I still have a hard time forgiving myself.

I got back in it with the hype of EP1, although I combed the pegs late in the POTF2 run at TRU and snatched up a few to my liking. EP1 brought back the childhood memories and I became that giddy kid again and haven't looked back. Star Wars was such a part of furthering my imagination and creativity. It gave me the gift of understanding how limitless the realms of the creative mind can be. Now, I am hopeless and I have most of the modern stuff. It will be awhile before I can start to focus on reliving my childhood again and collecting the vinatage stuff. Until then, they are giving me plenty of amazing new sculpts from the old movies to keep me happy.

[JediMAC]

I decided, "choke", to have a Star Wars bonfire, "sob" one pyromanical, insane ridden day and they all turned into a big plastic blob! I still have a hard time forgiving myself.

Doubtful if I'll ever forgive you for that bonehead move either.  Shame on you, ya' silly kid!  Fortunately for me, though my Mom hocked the vast majority of my toys at garage sales throughout my childhood, the one area that was always untouchable was my Star Wars collection.  It spent many years up in the attic, from the mid-80's to the early 90's, but is was all SAVED, thank God...

Now if only I had kept all of those vintage figures carded...  Silly kid indeed...

[jkno]

I started thanks to my little cousin Roby who is a great SW fan. In 2001 when he was 6 had a bad car accident and thus tried to help him overcome this by finding SW toys for him. Many friends from lots of forums found for him great toys and he loved especially Action Fleet. After he got well I started collecting for myself too. Thus there are 2 almost identical collections (mine is just a little bigger).

[Rob L]

I started in 1999, when I said to myself "Rob, those new Star Wars figures look quite cool, but you're 23 so just get the Qui-Gon for old time's sake". Five years later...

[Mainland05]

I started in 1999, when I said to myself "Rob, those new Star Wars figures look quite cool, but you're 23 so just get the Qui-Gon for old time's sake". Five years later...

I also started in 1999, with the hype of the "new" star wars film being released.  I did have the fact in my mind that I would probably love the film, since I was not to much of a star wars fan, for the original films.  I was in the 6th grade, getting ready to graduate and my best friend "at the time" was in love with SW and collected all the toys, to me at the time I thought it was nerdy to collect toys.  But I had went to so the film with him, then we went to Toys R Us, and saw all the merchandise they had of Star Wars, and was thinking "wow this is amazing".  So what do you know I started collecting "just the action figures".  And I was very stupid at the time and did not know they made more then 1 figure of that character.  So one day I went to his house and he showed me the Queen Amidala (Coruscant) and Darth Maul (Tatooine) and I was like what! How did you get those, and he said they are the new ones, and I was thinking new ones, arent the new ones the ones we got?  And he said they release new versions of the character all the time.  So he did no alot more then me.  But I have stuck to collecting for 5 years, and he does not collect any of them anymore!!!
HA! I am glad I got into this hobbie, or else I dont know what I would do with my spare time!

[jokabofe]

i started collecting in 1978 when i was 7 years young... went on a slight hiatus in 85 after potf1 was released, and then picked right back up in 95 when potf2 was released.... but how did it start? i was 7, and i liked toys... what can i say?