We're about halfway through the year, and I was just curious how some of you were sitting with your collection(s) or collecting habits.  Is there anything that you have picked up (new collection wise), or gotten so frustrated with that you've given up on it?  How is the rest of the year looking to you?  Here's what I am thinking (at least at this moment )

Lines Collecting

Star Wars 3 3/4" - Not much new around here lately, but still collecting most of the line.  Getting some help from Jeff here on the boards that will get me almost caught up with Saga and ready for the OTC.  On this side of things, we haven't seen new figs on the pegs past the Tat. wave (aside from Dodonnas, which seem to be everywhere here).

Vintage Star Wars 3 3/4" - I haven't been able to pick much up lately with funds going elsewhere, and with moving and such, but I hope to (eventually) have a complete loose collection.  I try to pick up figures here and there to slowly work towards this, depending on what available collecting cash I have.

Star Wars Unleashed - I have been picking up all the OT releases, but still have a few to go back and get (Emperor, Leia, Vader).  I really enjoy this line, although it does take up quite a bit of space.

Star Wars Galactic Heroes - Waiting for these to come out.  I picked up all the Playskool (Original Trilogy) sets, and think its a fun little line.  I'm looking forward to the upcoming sets and hopefully we'll see another ship or two in the future of this too.

Marvel Legends/Spidey Classics - Although the rest of the line has been tempting, I've been sticking to Spidey and X-Men figs only so far.  I hope to pick up the Sinister Six box set when it is released later this year, as well as a few figs from ML (Juggernaut, Brown Wolvie, Phoenix, etc.)  I also picked up the movie Spidey, and might look into a Doc Ock too.  I have one pack (Spidey) of the minimates, and more of those are tempting too.

Lord of the Rings - Like I have mentioned many times before, this is a line that has constantly tempted me.  Watching the ROTK DVD lately hasn't helped that any...these are just my favorite movies outside of the OT.  Lack of space and funds has kept me away (along with the wife not really being enthusastic of "another" collection), but a part of me still really wants to pick up some of the main characters and have about a 10-12 figure collection.  I might take a look this weekend and see what's out there at retail...not much new Star Wars around here lately anyways.  The LOTR minimates line will be awfully tempting too.

Overall, those are the only "lines" I'm consistently collecting.  I picked up various figures from other lines, and might collect those lines more if I had the money or space.  Various figures include: Adventure Kermit, Spidey mini-mate 4-pack, Roboto, He-Man, and Sy-Klone from MOTU, and Zipline Batman (as well as various Star Wars collectibles).  Well, sorry for the long post...how's collecting looking for you?

The price is a little disappointing to me too.  I was hoping to pick up this vehicle when we first heard of it being a Target exclusive, and I never had the vintage one and thought it would be a nice piece to add to the collection (even if a bit underscaled).  However, I'm another one that doesn't know if I can part with $60 for this...probably depends on the funds at the time too.  I'd like to have one, but not sure if I would feel comfortable paying that price for it.

You know, reading through some of the opinions on the OTC got me to thinking about this VOTC line.  One of the excuses we often hear from Hasbro (or people backing Hasbro up) is that the reason that the OTC line is mostly re-releases is because they were focused on Episode III and didn't know about the DVD release in time to get any figures out.  If this is true, then what were these VOTC figures being developed for?  They obviously put a lot of time and effort into each of these figures (at least the ones we've seen so far), so its not like they were rush jobs.  Either Hasbro knew soon enough to make these 12, and no others, or they knew all along and this was their plan (rereleases, etc.)  If not, I wonder what the original plan was for these 12 VOTC beauties...regular carded release?  Some sort of "ultimate" line?  What do you think?

Thanks a lot for the suggestions Scott, I really do appreciate it.  It looks like we have much the same taste in figures too, because most of those were ones I was considering as well.  Now I need to talk the wife into it, and see what I can find at retail around here.  I am pretty sure I have seen both of the armored Pip and Merry around here, and I might end up waiting for the Coronation Gimli to see what it is like.  There is supposedly "super poseable" versions of Frodo and Aragorn coming up in July, I might see what those are like.  The toughest find might be a Gandalf, but I'll take a look.  Also...the Legolas I have is the Rohan Armor version...does anyone think another version is better?  I'm going to try not to have too many "multiple" versions of characters on display, since I'm trying to keep it small for now...so I'm looking for the best version of each character for the most part.  Thanks again.

That's been a decision I've been wrestling with too Scott, Minimates or the ToyBiz figures.  I like minimates, and they wouldn't take up nearly as much space, but the Toy Biz figures are pretty spiffy too.  Plus, I will only be getting a handful of them if any.  It is hard to decide, what would you LOTR collectors do, if you didn't have a collection to start with and had to choose one line to collect in a somewhat limited fashion.  I only have a Legolas and Gollum right now...and none of the minimates.  I guess I'm leaning towards TB right now, just because I don't think I'll get more than 10 figures total.  Then again, even if I get those, I'll probably decide I want the minimates too later .

Glad to see its not just me seeing this wave all over the place.  Thanks for the kind words Matt.  The moving weekend was long and tiring, but that's all past us now.  I guess its "big city" to us , but probably not to most of the rest of you.  I think our population here is between 225,000 and 230,000...so nothing what many of you are used to.  Much bigger to us though...but a welcome change because now instead of being 45 minutes from Target, Wal-Mart, and TRU...now we're 5 minutes from them .  Should be able to make some more frequent toy runs now, although with what is out there, I'm not sure if it is worth it .  Thanks again.

Found something new this weekend, in our new hometown .  The TRU nearest us had 3 Ultra Ewoks hanging on the pegs, so I picked one up.  Glad to see it, first thing new in quite some time now.  Now if only the basic figures would start showing up.