Life after customizing?

[CHEWIE]

Tonight on the way home from a bar social event, I decided to stop by a local Walmart wth my wife, and I found the new Clone Evolutions Variant pack.  When I picked it up, she said it looked like someone had switched out the figures, and replaced then with customs (mainly because of the paint application on the Sandtrooper).

Being not as crazily into this than I am, she didn't understand that it was a variation.  After I explained it to her, se understood... but then came a question in the car drive home. 

She was drunk (I was not) and she for whatever reason began to interrogate me about my collection, but namely customizing.  She asked me several times how much longer the line would last, and I told her it could be only 2-3 more years, or longer, depending on how well they market the stuff in conjunction with the TV series and the degree to which they find a balance in the older collector's market.

But it quickly turned to customizing for whatever reason, which I think was her basis for asking any of this is in the first place.  I told her that if the line ends in two years, then I will have less new figures as well as custom fodder to continue buying, but I will try to expand my armies and will continue the customizing craze by going back and buying more of what is still available.

Really when it comes down to it, customizing is my #1 interest in this magical galaxy we endulge ourselves in.  My plans are to continue to expland my collection through my imagination of customs for years and years to come, perhaps until I am an old man.  It's my hobby, what I enjoy.

Thoughts?

 

[jedistyle]

My wife and parents have asked me the same question on several ocasions. "What are you going to do with all this stuff when you get older?", "How long are you going to customize them?" At the times that they I asked I didn't have much of a reply other than "I'm not sure, probably until they stop making figures or I get tired of the hobby". But after I had time to think about it more, and I won't stop collecting and customizing when the line comes to an end. As you said CHEWIE, I'll go back and buy the older figures and continue to make customs to expand my whole Starwars universe. I do it because I enjoy it, especially customizing, and half the customs we make now use fodder from the saga and potj lines, so the older stuff is good for what we need it for, not to mention once the new line ends I will be able to go back and pick up the figures that I have yet to get from the older lines as well as army build. The rots line gave us some awsome figures and fooder, I'm sure we will get the same from Hasbro with the new saga line. So in the future, however long the line last, I will continue to collect and customize, and have agreat time with it, and hopfully continue to share my customs with all of you on this board for a long time to come!

[Joe]

same here...Just not many people ask me.But when the starwars line does come to a Halt I think I'll have to get some older figures and if I am to live MANY clones on ebay.(lets see i think I have around 100 different clones.)

[Famine]

My girlfriend soberly told me that I'm selling my Clone Trooper army for lots of money when we got married.

I then laughed at her and went back to eating my dinner.

My family asks me such things all the time.

It's nothing new, for sure.

Kevin

[Darth Delicious]

I get a slight variation on this. Marie often asks me "What are you going to DO with all this stuff? You're running out of room!" in reference to my regular collection, but is far more supportive when it comes to my customs...probably because she's a mural artist, and therefore she views those as art of a sort.

I do get chided a lot that Star wars is my "god," and that if Geoerge Lucas started a church I'd be there every week. "Only if I could actually learn to use the force," I tell her. 

There's a lot of people in So. Cal that need a good force choke. I lean to the Dark Side.

-DD

[hemble]

I'm like DD my wife does'nt mind at all I don't drink or smoke and as she keeps on telling me she knows where I am .

But all in all I'm pretty lucky as I've got the 12" figures and my Military models and now the smaller figures so I'll never run out of things to do.
 
If I do start to run out of room I sell a few of the older figures to make room for other stuff and as long as I take photo's of all my custom's and figures I'm happy.

So to sum it all up me personally I will keep doing models and customs till I can't do them anymore .

Ron

[Smartypants1635]

ill probably keep going w/ it till i cant comeup with anymore designs.
 i like making expanded universe because making things from the actual movie has its limitation but since im into ex. uni. running outta ides probably wont happen fr a while

ps starwars is such a large part of our culture we probably wil never run out of figures hasbro wil continue this line because its such a high money maker. i mean even presidents quoted starwars.
its crazy itll be around for ever

[Fritzkrieg]

My wife harasses me sometimes about the money I spend on my hobby. I hate being judged over doing something I enjoy. When she starts grilling me about it I remind her that I don't smoke or drink. I have no car payment because I drive the same Beat-up truck I've had for six years why she enjoys a shiny new sports car because her job requires her to have a nice car. I work a job I hate so she can afford to persue her dream job as a realastate mogel. And I remind her that I can afford my half of the Bills and Morgage and have plenty of money left over to enjoy my hobbies when she can say that she can question me about my spending habbits.

[darth_ripley]

this is just reminding me that i am not a normal woman (whether that is a good thing or a bad thing) 

i've collected star wars for over 15 years now and started up customizing about 6-8 months ago. i'm lucky that my husband enjoys star wars as much as i do and likes to help me engineer some of the customs i have worked on too. he never complains about what gets spent or anything on customizing. as a matter of fact i have reached a point where all i want to do is customize as so many of Habro's figures really fall short in my mind, such as Gree to name one. Hasbro will never make all the characters in all the outfits in all 6 films, and no way they will touch on a lot of the EU characters either....so the world of customizing will pick up wherever and whenever hasbro leaves off imho.

i don't know that i will ever get tired of star wars or customizing. its a great hobby and i have already met so many nice people here that i don't want to leave. i know there aren't many women who even care much for star wars or like to customize so its nice to be welcome and not feel like a complete weirdo  lol 

my parents are great, and think everything that my hubby & myself do are great & they enjoy our collection and customs too. i might have to explain more...but i don't get any strange looks or questions which is very nice. my hubby's side of the family however is always thinking we are weird/strange and the kinds of questions everyone mentioned have all been asked at one point or another.

customizing costs some money, just like any hobby, but at least we are all keeping our minds active rather than becoming tv veggies...that's one way i look at it.  the hobby of collecting star wars & other movie stuff and customizing makes me happy & i will continue to do it until i am an old lady 

[Glassman6]

My wife is facinated by my creativity...period, not just customs. But she is even more facinated when others( her co-workers, friends etc) become amazed at my creations.
She has never asked when will i stop making. I think she enjoys seeing them come together. She keeps bugging me to make one of her...I will for christmas.

She figures that i should be selling every figure i make though, which i dont want to do.

She has asked when i will stop collecting and i respond, when they stop making figures...To which she relpys they will never stop! This was prior to Episode III, more than a year before. I think she realized it was a lost cause. As long as lucas makes 3 3/4" figs, I'll collect em.

Since i have moved into sculpting my own parts, I dont need the toy line to continue for fodder. So i dont know when/if i will ever stop.

Good topic Chewie!

[Quazar]

One day, and certainly not in the foreseeable future, I'm sure I will box up the majority of my collection and put it in an attic or closet somewhere.

Years later, I hope to give it to a child.  My own?  Doubtful.  Probably a friend or relative's.

[CHEWIE]

It's really fun hearing everyone's opinions on this.  Very cool to see the passion behind everyone's love for customizing, and to hear what their significant others think of it too.

My wife is pretty supportive of my hobby probably 99% of the time.  She also mentions that I should sell more of my customs, but it's not about making money; it's about having fun and enjoying your work.  The only time I've sold any is when I've hit a financial problem or make a second version that I like better than my first attempt.

Funny too though... a few years ago my parents thought I was crazy, and that this hobby would stop when I got married... if anything, I'm more into it than ever.  And with how I have it all set up, even the people who used to think it was weird think it's cool now.  Even some ladies who have never seen the movies admit that it's cool, and sometimes they try to pick out the ones they think I customized.

Honestly though, it's customizing/army-building/diorama-building and the photonovels that I enjoy most about this hobby.  And of course the good group of people here at JD.

 

[Smartypants1635]

at this moment i make em for fun and for my little bro he always jumps for joy when ever he gets a new figure. techniclaly her still mine though so evetnutally when he doesnt play with eemill pac k up ht e old ones and continue with new ones

[findswoman]

this is just reminding me that i am not a normal woman (whether that is a good thing or a bad thing) 

Ah, but just what is a normal woman anyway?  Or a normal man? I bet none of us here really fit either category!    That said, I guess I'm just not a normal woman, either.  Our hobby is, perhaps, just not a normal hobby. 

Fortunately, I haven't ever really gotten much real grief from loved ones about it.  Teasing, however, is another manner.  My husband is a very teasy man, and also a very thrifty one, managing all the money in the household.  He has been known to tease mercilessly whenever I'm abt to spend money on customizing, or when yet another Zuckuss arrives in the mail.  (I don't really have all that many of them!  :p )  Fortunately, tho', we make enough (read: he makes enough) that it's not a financial strain.  Once in a while he'll balk if I select more than about three figures to buy. 

In the end, though, he's very supportive of this hobby of mine.  He's never asked when I'm going to stop, and I don't plan to for a long time! 

Only thing is that I have to take frequent, extended hiatuses because of the school year, such as right now.  I haven't customized anything  since the summer.  School is currently taking up all my time because I'm studying for oral exams.  But I always come back to the hobby as a special treat for the vacation periods.

My mom sort of knows about the hobby; she doesn't have muuch to say, but is perfectly supportive and all.  I have a whole lot of relatives and friends, though, who don't even know that I do this, and there's one or two who know and think it's kind of odd & different, but don't really mention it much.  It's unfortunately not something I can talk about with most of my real life friends -- just one or two.  Sometimes that depresses me, since it's something that gives me such joy.  But one gets used to it, as I'm sure all of us have!

Sure, it costs money -- as Darth Ripley pointed out, all hobbies do.  But I am drawn to it because it is such a creative hobby, and I love that feeling of completing something creative of your very own.  (Especially when it's wearing soft goods.  )

... the Findswoman

[Ruprecht]

I won't stop until I get tired of it.  Whenever my wife asks when I might stop, I just reply:  "When are you going to stop painting little pieces of wood to plaster our walls with?  When will you quit scrapbooking, and making cute little dollies for our daughter?"

It's a hobby, it's constructive, and fun.  The reason it's viewed by many as a kid's hobby is because it utilizes action figures.