This thread just makes me glad that I don't like or collect Clones!
I've been able to get just about everything I have been looking for this year (and most years) thast way
To keep this a bit more on-topic: I strongly disagree with the army building = hoarding sentiment, simply because sometimes you actually need alot of a particular figure for whatever reason you collect them (unless they are still carded, with no intent to open, then it's haording
).
Lord knows I have alot of figures, but even I have to admit after seeing that pic, that amassing 95 of a particular character, especially a fairly hard to find one at that, over so short a time is a bit nuts in my opinion.
Just take into account the sheer logistics of it (I'm a logistics analyst by trade
)- all of the running around, trying to beat other collectors or scalpers to stores, gas burned running all over looking for toys, monetary output, time involved, low availability of particular item, possibility of having to commit immoral/unethical acts to get said toys, etc., etc., etc.
It's staggering! And actually, if you
REALLY get down to the bare nuts and bolts of it, not worth the effort involved considering that the end result of all that energy/time/money spent is just a pile of plastic toys, not improving your/others' way of life or standard of living, not making anyone else happy, not doing anything of "true" import, just a pile of toys.
Here's what I have to wonder:
Does owning a ton of little plastic men that others are having difficulty finding bring him actual "joy"?
Does this individual spend
ANY time doing anything else but collecting?
Where does his money come from? (he doesn't seem to have the time to
actually work if he's running all over grabbing up toys)
Does he have a wife or kids? And, more importantly, would any wife actually stand for that type of (seemingly) wasteful time management or lack of attention given to her/the kids?
Is he trying to compensate for a "shortcoming"?
Sure, I build decent-sized armies, not as big as some peoples', but alot bigger than most. I think I top out at 160 of any particular figure (standard Stormtroopers), but here's the key thing, they are made up of all the versions available throughout the life of the line (POTF2 through current), not all the most recent version. You get alittle variety in their appearance that way (and you don't end up in the poor house from re-buying hundreds of figures everytime a "better" version comes along
). And I have amassed them since 1995, not just in the last month.
I also used to buy tons of figures for customizing fodder. In the past, I've cleared out entire pegwalls of common figures for use in customs, freeing up valuable space for newer waves to come in. I don't feel that made me a hoarder, especially as I usually did this after the figures had been clogging the pegs for at least a few months. I don't do this anymore simply because there are more important things to spend my money on (girlfriend, rent, car insurance, groceries, etc.). The same goes for my toy runs, I used to go every day, now I go maybe once a week, life takes priority over little plastic people.
Even my customizing takes a back seat to real life. In years past, I'd complete 5 or more figures or a decent-sized vehicle each week, now I only really pop out one figure a week, if I get the time (I have not posted anything new in 2 weeks because I'm working on a massive Super Secret project that I want to debut all at once when the entire thing is finished, most likely the end of next month/early May). I'll occasionally do customizing marathons if I have the spare time and energy (see my 2 most recent entries in my "The Brotherhood Of The Serpent" line! 6 figures in one and 3 in the other!), but those marathons come further and further apart lately as I just can't justify devoting massive amounts of time/energy to a hobby anymore when there are other things that need to take priority.
