JediDefender.com Forums
Community => Other Toy Lines => Topic started by: Brian on September 2, 2004, 01:58 PM
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I was curious how many of you started collecting the "other lines" that we discuss here. Did you start with Star Wars and eventually start branching off into other lines? Did you branch off because of interest, because you couldn't find (or there wasn't) anything new to collect in Star Wars, or maybe a combination of both? Did you collect other lines before you ever got into Star Wars? As I've been thinking about trimming down my non-Star Wars collections due to space/money/etc., I just got to thinking that I might (probably) have never gotten into these lines if it wasn't for collecting Star Wars in the first place.
The only other lines I collect with any sort of regularity at all are Lord of the Rings and Marvel/Spidey-related collectibles. As far as Lord of the Rings goes, I have always looked at the figures, from when they first started showing up before the first movie was even out. I was always a little tempted, but never bit the bullet to buy in. After seeing the movies I was even more tempted, because next to Star Wars (the OT, specifically), these are THE movies for me. Plus, many of Toy Biz's offerings are quite good. I continue to collect these, very minimally, and will probably quit after a few more figures. However, if this had been a line more in scale with Star Wars (smaller), it might have been a different story. However, I probably wouldn't have hardly known about the figures (or known very little) if it wasn't for visiting the aisles, internet sites, and forums because of Star Wars collecting.
Marvel and Spidey stuff (to a lesser degree Batman/DC) has a bit of nostalgia for me like Star Wars. I was into comics growing up, as well as the Secret Wars/Super Powers lines (and certain cartoons), so I have always been a fan of "superheroes". I started off slowly in Marvel Legends, and basically just have a few X-Men to show for it. I've also collected some Spidey (comic and movie) figures along the way, and hope to continue to in some capacity. I might have to cut these areas due to certain factors, although I would like to continue collecting them. I've also been interested at times in expanding a Batman/Justice League/DC collection, or just building up the Marvel Legends collection much more. Again, aside from possibly the movie figures, I wouldn't have known much about these lines either if it wasn't for Star Wars.
My wife and I have always kind of just walked around the toy aisles/stores, even when we were dating and long before I was collecting anything. It just seemed fun. Plus, I've always liked action figures, and have been a collector in some sort for most of my life (toys, comics, sports cards, etc.) I probably would have seen many of these lines, and thought they were cool, but I think the fact that I had dove in with Star Wars and gotten over any embarassment I might have had about shopping/buying "toys" really opened doors to other lines as well. There are a lot of other great lines out there nowadays, and so much I'd collect if I had unlimited funds and space, but it all comes back to Star Wars. Just curious if this was the same for many of you, or if you entered into these collecting worlds in different ways.
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I started in other toy lines then migrated into SW.
Going back to the time when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I collected (played with) 12" GI Joe's. They were toys, though, not collectibles. I hit puberty about the time of SW, so drifted out of toys at that time, though still loved them and comics as well.
Around 1986 I started collecting comics, as much to read as anything else. Every so often I would pick up a Marvel character or two: Venom, spidey, green goblin, Cable, wolverine. Comic shops also sold these hideous little figures (I sent Scott a couple, much to his dismay) of Marvel characters, grossly overpriced, but that would be my first "collection".
I started on SW in 1995, with the orange cards, a story found elsewhere here. I would have to say others influenced my purchasing habits, predominantly folks from boards that I traded with. Drewlam would be responsible for my vehicle collection, having seen his and how cool they looked. Needless to say, as I often do, I carried it a bit overboard ::)
McFarlane is due to conversations on snowtroopers.ca and Brew, over there. I still like the figures, and love the adrenaline rush of finding chase figures, but the line is becoming repetetive, overproduced and with questionable, IMO, players. So scaling back is a natural.
I had an original Homer for some time and decided to get them all at some point, having seen others collections. That line always has stayed well in focus. Again, other people influenced the decision, but ultimately it was a line I liked.
Marvel Legends/spidey figs are my first love, so getting these has been a no brainer. Also a fortunate selective attitude was in place from the get go, so it's saved some money. Not enough money, mind you. But this can be traced back to my love of comics, first in the 80s-90s, and previously as a young child 5-10 at my aunt+uncle's cottage, where if it was raining we read comic books. Had me hands on Amazing Fantasy #15, I did. Dog eared and tattered, but worth more than you could ever get for a mint copy to my relatives.
LOTR I've been in and out of, then back in, in a selective fashion. So very many figures and honestly, I wish they'd made a 3" line, I would have gone whole hog on them. The size issue is just overwhelming though, so limitations are in place ;)
Just about everything else is related to SW, so here ends the tale.
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I'm in the same bag as Morgbug here. I was on somthing else before I got hooked on SW.
Toys 65 million years in the making got me hooked. Yes, my first love, Jurassic Park had me snagged. I've been collecting for quite some time. in 1999 when E1 stuff hit, I got hooked on it and the rest is history.
Any other line is extinct. ;D
Kevin
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I got into MOYU in the mid 90s I watched an old golden book on tape and fell in love with it.
LOTR- A friend of mine is a fan and I decided to check the books for myslef and saw the movies
I also have some Silent Screamers, I'm a fan of silent movies especially Nosferatu and saw them online thought they were cool and bought them
Marvel legends- a friend got me Dardevil for Christmas and somnce I've always liked Marvel Toys, I was reeled in.
And I have a Vlad the Impaler figure from McFarlane, I've alaways liekd Dracula and all that has to do with him so I bought it
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I started my renaissance with vintage Star Wars figures, then migrated to Spawn/KISS figures.
A couple years later, the 80's revival began, and I got into GI Joe, Transformers, and MOTU.
Then LOTR debuted, and I just HAD to have the figures. Then Marvel Legends came out, and I decided to collect Buffy figures, and, ugh.
I do spend more on toys than I should, but I do enjoy it and my bills are all paid on time, so what the hell, right? I'll stop around when I'm 30, I think.
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I'll stop around when I'm 30, I think.
:D Nuh, don't think so, bub. :-*
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I started in SW as a kid. When the POTF line debuted, I picked up a Darth Vader and then got more into it when I met Jamie (jjks.) I got out of it around the time all the stores like TRU and KB started doing the big liquidation sales. I just felt like I had too much stuff and no room for it. Same thing happened w/ the Simpsons line. I kept everything Darth Vader that I had and then once I found out about MRs, I got into the mini line simply because they are 100% cheaper and I'd have to pay secondary market and almost every piece of the full scale.
As for SPs, I'm a life-long sports fan and athlete so the attraction to those was natural.
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I got started as a kid, I collected Star Wars, He-Man, ThunderCats, SilverHawks, Secret Wars and Super Friends.
Today, well I still collect Star Wars, MOTU (if it still existed), Marvel Legends and Minimates (DC & Marvel) i guess goes back to my childhood as well.
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I got started as a kid, I collected Star Wars, He-Man, ThunderCats, SilverHawks, Secret Wars and Super Friends.
Today, well I still collect Star Wars, MOTU (if it still existed), Marvel Legends and Minimates (DC & Marvel) i guess goes back to my childhood as well.
I had He-Man, ThunderCats and Silver Hawks too.
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I didn't necessarily want to start a new thread for this, so I thought I'd ask it here. When the Star Wars line re-started back with POTF2 in 95, were you collecting anything else? Was this "new" Star Wars your first foray into collecting (aside from stuff you had growing up/as a kid)? It seems with many of us, Star Wars collecting was sort of the gateway into other lines. I was just wondering how many of you just started out with Star Wars in 1995, or were you currently collecting something else and just added Star Wars in (or switched to it)?
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I guess I started collecting with LEGO, when I was about 5 years old. That's pretty much all I collected, until a little movie called Attack Of The Clones came out. Although I had been a huge fan of Star Wars prior to AOTC, (The SE OT VHS was the first time I saw the OT, and I saw TPM in theaters in '99) I had not gotten any of these newfangled SW figures. I ended that dry streak by picking up a Kamino Excape Jango Fett at Wal*Mart. After that, I didn't pick up SW collecting again until about March '04, when I picked up a CW Animated Yoda. I started to more heavily collect SW after that, and eventually branched out into other areas of collecting of things that interested me, like more LEGO, GI Joe, Halo, POTC, etc.
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I was collecting Star Trek and some of the Marvel X-Men line from Toy Biz. I also got started in the 12" GI Joe Hall of Fame line a little before really jumping into the Classic Collection stuff. I also was big into the Spawn figures back when they first came out but the repaints in that line quickly killed it for me.
In general I was a toy and comics collector from about 1991 - 1995 then dropped most of the other toy lines when POTF2 came out. I still picked up 12" Joe figures and some odds and ends of other lines but I didn't follow any line like the SW line.
I'm really just a toy fan in general. I love walking through the toy aisles at WM and Target or going to TRU just to look around at what's out there and I'm usually tempted to buy other stuff even though I don't anymore.
E...
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I was into Playmates Star Trek and Kenner Aliens/Predator before SW reemerged. I NEVER thought I'd still be buying SW figures 11 years later.
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well ever since i was like 6yrs old i've liked starwars. me and my older bro got realy into when we saw my dad vintage toys we were in aw! THen when ep1 came out thats when it all started and i've been collecting since. :) I also sometimes buy some other toys that are think are cool the latest toy i bought that was'nt star wars were the A.V.P toys back in 05 and thats it . So yeah that how i got into other toy lines.
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Well, I was a fan of the videogame Halo so when I heard abut there being action figures with the game I started collecting for the first time. Then, when the RotS started to hit, I picked some up as "what the heck". They got me hooked, though, so I started collecting.
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Star Wars goes back to 1978 when some kid dropped his Obi-Wan Kenobi on my door step.
As for the other figures...Since I started collecting X-Men comics I started collecting the original toys. Stopped that and about series 3 found out about Marvel Legends and started that.
I had collected Batman & Transformer toys for awhile, but gave them up to slim down the collection. Movie Maniac's started hitting and I went after just pieces that I liked the movies of. From there it sorta snowballed out that I was getting more pieces from movies I liked. Only in the last 3 years have I gotten any toys from TV shows I liked (Muppets & Stargate).
The odd thing is that I probably enjoy my movie collection of figures more than my Star Wars. People see my movie collection and start talking movies with me. They see my Star Wars room and call me a geek.
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I didn't want to start a new thread for this, but its along the same lines as the original topic. How many of us here really do just "stick to Star Wars" in their collecting habits these days? I know that Jeff and a few others do a pretty good job, but many of us seem to be collecting multiple lines. I know I often think how much easier (and cheaper) it would be if I just stuck to one line, but yet, here I continue to buy a number.
Like I've said before, I started back into Star Wars by picking up some POTF2 figs (some loose online, some carded in stores), and then the TPM figures. I continued with basically just SW stuff for that time, and I think the first time I picked up a non-SW collectible was a movie Spider-Man. From there I picked up a couple of Legends figures (starting around Series 3/4), and then a couple of LOTR figures. From there it seemed to get worse. It was primarily focused on Marvel, but I've since picked up stuff (sometimes one or two figures, sometimes multiples) from the following lines: Marvel Legends/SMC/etc., DCUC/Batman/etc., He-Man, GI Joe, Transformers, JLU, LOTR, Indy - not to mention all of the "other" Star Wars lines (Unleashed, Galactic Heroes, etc.) Now, I'm beginning to slow down and pare things down again (more significantly next year most likely), but looking around our office/collection room, its crazy how much "other" crap I've gotten along the way. Its not that I don't enjoy those collections, but I'm sometimes envious of those who stick to one line (or just have better willpower I guess). Heck, I think collecting just a line like Marvel Legends or DCUC would be easier than Star Wars even at this point - with so much stuff out in a given year. Anyways, just wondering if anyone has stuck to the "just Star Wars" (or any other line) - or if you're working at getting back to that point.
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When the modern era came into play back in '95, SW was all I collected for several years.
Then my then fiancee and I collected Digimon and Simpson figures.
She got some Batman figures.
Then the Marvel Legends line came along and while under Toy Biz we collected nearly all of those figures. Once it became Hasbro's line we dropped collecting most of it and now only get the figures we absolutely like.
Since this time Digimon and Simpsons lines have ended. She no longer collects Batman and as mentioned Marvel Legends is low priority.
I however have picked up Halo 3 toys. I enjoy it (other than the relentless amount of exclusives...) and since there are no major army builders, I mostly stick to one of each, which makes it fairly affordable. I won't be collecting the Halo Wars line however as I've got to say no somewhere.
In the meantime, my SW collecting has dwindled. In 2007 my budget for SW stuff was $6K. I trimmed that in half for 2008 to $3K. I'll again trim that in half for 2009 to $1500. Then finally in 2010 and beyond will only commit $600 (10% of what I spent in 2007) to SW toys. It's unlikely at that point that there will be any big items or army builders that I'll want to get that would push me over self imposed the budgetary restriction. Since I've stepped down form major army building (20 of each), down to no more than squad building of 4-8 figures of a troop type fig, collecting has become more affordable and has allowed for me to collect the Halo stuff as mentioned.
I see the Halo stuff ending no later than 2010, so that's money back in my pocket. At that point it will be purely SW for me and at that only a small amount as compared to my "heyday" of collecting.
-Sal