So I dunno if this has been "polled" before, but I was thinking about the aspect of this hobby of collecting Japanese vinyl toys known as "the thrill of the hunt". Where the trying to find an elusive piece, and steps it takes to track one down are almost as good if not better the feeling of actually owning same piece. I'm at work right now, so I can't go in depth here; but I think you know what I mean... I was wondering how others thought about it.

I hate missing out on figures I really want and I LOVE really exclusive figures. So for me it's always a damned if they do, damned if they don't situation.

I think it's funny, but the figures that are hot and favorites are usually the rare and limited one.

The best example I can give and I'm sure there are hundreds, is the Flesh head Ghost Fighter. I know a few would just about die for one, but the flesh color Brain that came in the set or the flesh RxH figures go for damn near nothing.

I also find that usually after I get a figure I've been hunting for so long he just kind of moves in with my collection and doesn't hold the glory he once did.

I'm a fan of the hunt. Not just to find the figure but to get it for a decent price as well. I'll wait out the hype and grab the figure afterwords. The hunt is also great for meeting new people with common interests.

I'm enjoying find awesome SB pieces for reasonable prices now. There's still a bit of hunt, but it's not stupid hard. That's the sort of hunt I like - older stuff for decent prices. I hate the hunt for brand new stuff and refuse to put effort/money in on a recent release.

Living Dead, I couldn't have said it better. Amen to that entire comment.

I guess I don't really care for the "hunt" since I'm only into two companies and I can't really afford a lot of the older harder to find figures. I usually buy from the sales threads what I like that I can afford at the time, but now and then I like buying direct from the company or a retailer since that's the only way those companies can stay in business. But if I could afford it, I'd definitely buy just about every new SB fight figure and Cure boogie sets, colorway or blind bagged release available.

Fuck the hunt! . . . I want toys and I want 'em NOW . . . direct from the manufacturer with no sucky exchange rate, intermediary fees, flipper mark-ups or dicking around!

The hunt!!! It gives me something to do

i don't have time to hunt for shit. i DO like when i happen upon something in the sales thread i've been wanting for a long time that pops up out of the blue. that's the type of hunting i like, the lazy kind.

Not to say I don't mind finding a gem without having to scout for it but things don't usually happen that way with the things I collect....tend to wait in lines and do the thousand refreshes

I like hunting. Thankfully I'm not too into the super exclusive stuff, and even if I fancy something that is, I want it for original cost or later when the hype dies.

What I do like about hunting is trying to find something that has been out for awhile. It can be a challenge. YJA makes our lives easier at times but sometimes scoring there isn't totally satisfactory if it gets too high and you factor in middlemen cost. I like searching ten ways to sunday with multiple japanese character searches. Search by web, by image, anything to bring up that particular toy. Sometimes I go to "like auctions" in YJA and have google translator open in another window. I'm cutting and pasting text like no tomorrow. Best ever is when you find that toy you've been seeking and it's been forgotten about in some off the wall online shop (rarely) AND they ship overseas. That's when I go: SCORE!

fuck the hunt.

I fall somewhere's between these two. I don't like ridiculous hunts, jumping through hoops, making sure you're on the right list, hoping your number gets picked, having to know someone in Japan who'll sit in line or hunting down someone with a sack of toys at a con to get a toy ( ). There's tons of stuff out there I'd love to get, but some of it is released in such a clandestine obscure way I don't even know about it until someone posts it here on the "what they received it in the mail thread" and by that time I don't have the money to pay secondary market value on some of these things. All and all, the hunt is a pain in the ass most of the time.

That being said, seeing something that's been on my radar pop up here is nice; having the money to afford it is even nicer, and getting to it before anyone else is nicest... I'd do more YJA, but not until the exchange rate gets better.

Also, I'm glad for the community and camaraderie here, being an active part of whats gong on here has helped me learn a lot about the hobby, and get to know (and now have met) a lot of great folks, and as an added bonus I've had lots of help with stuff on my wants list!

Thanks for the input so far, and I'd like to hear from any and all.

I'm torn, so I don't know what to vote. Hunting down an elusive figure most certainly adds to the excitement and makes them more special when you finally do crest that hill, but that can't be every figure. I love occasionally being able to just *get* something and score a little quick gratification.

I think there should be a third category for preferring to buy figures in person. Elusive or not, I know that being able to meet, for example, Paul Kaiju at NYCC and talk to him before waiting in line for my Boss Carion imbued that toy with an extra special memory of a good time, something that I can always be reminded of when I mess with that figure.

If I were able to hunt in person, rather than on the internet, I think that would actually make scoring those super elusive figures way more satisfying. I only did the YJA thing once, and don't think I'll do it again. But finding stuff from the Japanese on-line stores was a lot more rewarding. I stopped "going to" Kaiju Taro whenever they became whatever they became, but that an Mandarake have yielded some gems. But it sure would be awesome to walk into a brick and mortar and find a Bemon staring back at me, or some Skull Toys suits or Toxic Phantoms.

Same here. Hunting is fun, especially when you manage to get it at near retail or when someone nice (usually on sb) offers it to you out of nowhere after a casual remark in a random thread.

Then again, it sucks badly to be hunting for toys when you know fewer than ten have been made (GID Sleeping Killers? HP clear with red lining Visighost?). It only takes that number of completists in the world and you're pretty much screwed - fine if you're into Dokuwashis, hell if you're into Bemons.

Not too sure why manufacturers go into these tiny runs. If toys constantly sell out in minutes, shouldn't they simply make more? Stinks of hype otherwise.

You call it hype. They call it good sales.

ALSO don't forget a LOT of them are HAND. PAINTED. Can you crank out enough high quality paint jobs in a short amount of time (sometimes while working a "real" job) to meet demand? Hmmm, I wonder why they have such small runs sometimes?

They forgot fire up Goto-san the painting machine.

I like the thrill of the hunt, but thanks to the Internet, this is a mixed bag at best. I’d much rather be able to go to local store to score vintage Microman and related stuff, but no choice. And if it’s online the thrill is not the same.

I also miss waiting in lines to buy tickets. So hey.

small run sizes sometimes help flame the chase, but not always the hype. i chased the skullbrain secreters for a long time. even after the hype was dead, and it still was pretty hard to track those last 2 down.

as crazy as the japan vinyl/kaiju scene seems sometimes just by reading the endless pages of some of these threads, it still is a relatively small fan base. take gargamel fight figures for instance. they were released in larger runs and ended up being dust collectors for store inventory, and if i remember correctly, is one of the reasons they stopped making them.

The Internet has killed a lot of that thrill of the hunt for a lot of things, movie/concert tickets, galleries, SDCC and other similar venues, and of course toy buying. That said, when you live 1000 or more miles from a certain release, waking up early, or staying up late and making sure you are feverishly hitting F5 kinda feels like a hunt. Well maybe like a video game version of a hunt where it's dangled in front of your face.

Oh, and I really love thrift stores, as that hunt for cool, yet hideous, toys and clothes will never be taken from me.

I think it matters more on what we are talking about. I am fine spending time, blood, sweat and tears to track down something actually rare. I think it stinks when something just released is done in ridiculously small numbers unless there is a good reason. MVH Ollie and PK Boss Carrion are hand painted by the guys themselves, not in a sweatshop in China. I am more than happy to try and score one or track them down. Same for true vintage or long sold out releases. If you are using a factory to produce, paint and package your toys then making super small runs would actually cost more unless Japanese manufacturers are more generous than I know. Unless you have them pump out 100's in the base color and release them a little at a time. Either way it reeks of manufactured rarity for it's own sake. What really doesn't make sense is micro runs of factory produced toys are often sold for reasonable prices leaving the flippers to profit of the size of the run. If you are going to make us scramble like rats for an over hyped toy you would think you would want the money for yourself. There is some notoriety to be gained but still... it doesn't really make sense. Of course making to many turns off collectors so I do understand it's a balancing act. Still, if you think only 10 of your toys will sell then either your toys suck or they are over priced so obviously some things are kept small for hypes sake. I will stop rambling now. Standard releases should be somewhat easy to get if you are on time for the release, If I wan't a pain in the but it better be custom, 1 off or at least hand painted by the maker.

hunting an older toy is one thing but hunting for something new just because it's got a small run is what I dislike. It seems like almost anything can be the next big hit once word gets out that it's a run of 10. Today, the hunt and the hype seem to go hand in hand. Sometimes collecting this stuff reminds me of collecting baseball cards and how a regular card wasn't good enough and you had to have the chase cards, ie the super limited hand painted variational mumbo jumbo. I like the idea of things being made to order. Then you would see who the real toy lovers are and which toys are truly loved.

The slow hunter stalks his game for years if necessary. All these fly-by-night, pay-now, button-pushers are like settlers shooting buffalo from the train while enroute to a frontier now tamed by those who forged their path through the true wilderness.

Acquiring high-priced new releases that are rare by design is not hunting for toys, its waving a wallet in the air and screaming "pick me! pick me!"
And some of your fellow wallet-wavers have little stickers on their leather cashsacks that say "Pick me first! I donated to the Kaiju Police Benevolent Order!"

I voted hunt, but just wanted to clarify.

oh and as a side note on thrift stores, I'm pretty sure I picked up a 9"x12" landscape oil painting worth around $6K by Wayne Cooper. He's super american themed cowboys-n-indians, wild west, etc. I liked the moody woods scene at the thrift store and looked up the signature after shelling out the twelve bucks for the piece. the artist is like 70 years old and i suppose i could find out if its original. but if it is real, then i have to sell it because i'm poor. and i like it, i don't want to sell it. but i want it to be legit too, so i can say i own nice things.