With all the negativity here with some other threads .... Let's talk about the positive. I know it's much more fun to rant and commiserate but its depressing. So what making your toy collecting day ?
When I get a new toy in a box, I like to let it sit there a few hours. I am dying to open it but I just let it sit and marinade. Usually right about the time I start to forget it's there, I open it. It's an old teaching in martial arts that I subconsciously applied to toy collecting. Once in a while I just rip the box open but it's never as good as when I wait till it's not actively nagging me to open it. When it does get opened, there are those minutes or even hours of childlike wonderment before I return to being a cynical old punk.
I am looking forward to a zollmen box from Celga in the next couple weeks. Includes items going back a few months. Still wish I had at least one Gorilla ju, or nag, or so many others, but not letting it get me down. . . . .
it makes me smile when my favorite indy toy designer passes on a collab with a big toy industry corporation. no sellout!
I like to let pkg's build up until I have 4 or 5 boxes to open and then usually on friday night I go into my toy/computer/art/gun/survial room (you know we have to get ready for the economic collapse or 2012) fix myself a stiff drink sit back in my easy chair and slowly start opening pkg's..This is how I go back to my childhood (except the alcohol) and I place every new toy on my desk after really checking it out, then the next weekend I spend time placing each one in a certain place on a different shelf usually by color and size.. I've got three shelves in my display and have only got one shelf complete..It will more than likley take a good while before I fill the other two up..The more I've collected in this hobby over the yrs the more picky I have became with my toy buying... I'll be honest and say that I'm thankful we have artist like Rich, PK, Joeman and Greasebat who are killin-it in the Japanese Vinyl toy world, other than a few other toy's here and there these are the toy's I collect (or at least I try to collect when I can get them)..It blows me away at what I have seen each one of them achieve in the past couple of yrs..
my 4 yr old daughter has been begging me to watch Ultraman. As a bonus, I won't have to watch Dora the Explorer quite as often. That's a double positive!
my biggest high lately has been the blobpus enma 1/1, scoring a 1 off pk sally, and ambrosia sally from tag, got hooked up with a spilled paint En-Man, and last but not least, was finally able to hunt down a 12' LB Rebel Captain... This has been a pretty Amazing roller coaster in the few short weeks... I feel like I received so much win... that I might be back to the begining of the coaster slowly hearing the ticking of the track, and making my way up this long ass hill, anxiously awaiting the big drop for some more serious WIN.... thats how I see it anyways
That's easy: True friends from teh scene being there for me in real-time - guess what, we hang and dont even talk about toys - BUT we met here. The new wave of US/Jp stuff is breathing new life into teh scene (PK, MVH, Splurrt, MW etc...) The mainstays keep churning out oldies but goodies (Gargamel show releases, SB bagmen etc...) The mainstays churning out great new stuff (Zollmen, Elegab etc...) TAG has made LA a fun toy place again - the PK event was a blast, as was tradefest...and more to come..
Funny how this is in 2 different threads, but feels so much more at home in this thread And above all this rings true to me " True friends from teh scene being there for me in real-time - guess what, we hang and dont even talk about toys - BUT we met here. " This place is what you make of it, thats 100% true. If you deal with, or let the assholes get you down then, well your gonna be depressed and never have a good time. If you pick the right people, this hobby can be such a blast. I had Any of KK here last week and me him and my wife went out for dinner. Such a great time, I totally got Andy drunk on some great margaritas. It was funny shipping him off on the train knowing full well he was drunk. Good times !
I really like opening up packages, and finding a little extra in the box. I can't remember who off the top of my head, but someone from SB put an original Garbage pail kid card in my box one time and it made my day, now I try to always pass on the good feelings, by packing my boxes with GPK cards, and whatever extras I have at my fingertips. Your trash is someone else s treasure. I also love to draw, and receive box art. More than a few times, it's made me feel better on a dreary day. Now I try to always draw on boxes that I send out, in hopes of cheering up others, who are having a crap day. Last but not least; waking up early in the morning, and having the sun shine in on a case of vinyl. It's always guaranteed to give me a warm feeling, and remind me of how good I really have it.
I got my DX Sludge Demons today! Those things are a blast, Rich. It was killing me because I got the email from the mail room at work after I had gotten home last night. Needless to say, I hauled my ass up there as soon as I rolled in this morning.
This is great. I rarely purposely do this and usually just open when I have a spare moment, but I'm going to do this for awhile and also only open when I have some time to really check out and enjoy the toy rather than open and sometimes check out later. One thing I really enjoy is learning about new monsters and other characters that I never knew of before. SB is a great place to learn so much about characters and toys I never knew about and that learning brings back a sense of childhood wonder for me.
Deadboy's picture reminded me that I never shared my "header collage" that hangs above my sofa: Sorry for the lousy pic, but you get the idea. Its pretty much all the headers from everything I've painted, and any stickers/patches/cards/extras I've got along the way.
