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.
