To those who are considering quiting or breaking, a possible "methadone" to your situation MIGHT be collecting cheaper toys. When I say that I mean used, older, figures NOT kaiju but still related to these toys. I try to get a month or 2 of just flea market and thrift store finds. It's cheaper, gets me outa the house, and it all still goes with this stuff, and then I'm pumped to come back and buy some more vinyl figures to match up. Examples: Madballs, TMNT figures, MOTU, vintage (used/cheap) Star Wars, etc.

I was wondering what was up with your signature. You sure? SB just came out with a new Obake dog head...

BD -- That's actually how I started collecting, when I was a kid. I still do have lots of that stuff and have always been picking it up here and there even while on the sofubi addiction. Collections of that type of stuff are infinitely more interesting to me than vinyl.

Joe -- Yea, I like the new Goner head, was thinking about picking it up at some point soon, actually. Any Fink nod is cool with me.

/\ mmm - this item on the MIGHT list is causing more collecting!!! since pre-ordering the Jumbo Trooper and going through a Star Wars toy nostalgia thing I've dug out all my old SW toys and am now hunting a few vintage 12" and some of the rarer standard size figures I don't have!

Never really considered full on quitting but I need to thin out, would love to make room on my shelving for the boxes of SW i have stashed away!

Very interesting reading here...like a lot of the other guys, I use toy collecting as an inspiration for artwork related stuff. There's just so much creativity in these figures. Over the years I've only collected a few things...punk vinyl, GI Joes and Japanese toys. The one constant has been Japanese toys. I sold most all of my GI Joes and sadly a large part of my punk records...I really regret that.

Lately I've been finding and buying specific things from my childhood. The other day I bought a Disney magazine I had as a 5 year old. Looking at it brought back really odd, vivid memories. It's amazing the things you can find on a site like flickr, no matter how obscure.

As long as I have the means to buy them, I'll never quit buying kaiju.

♥

I love ABC! Always Be Collecting!

I've collected things since I was a toddler. I had over 1,000 elephants in my bedroom as a kid. I sometimes think I stopped collecting, but never really do, as I've got about 5-10 collections going at once most of the time.

Yesterday Skylar and I spent almost a whole day organizing stuff that had nothing to do with toys, yet I had hundreds of each of them. Pins, Magazines, Travel Brochures, Records. Even when I'm not buying toys, I'm buying something to add to my collections.

For better or worse, collecting is in my blood. I love it 99% of the time. The 1% I think about quitting is when Its time to dust or move.

I prefer to look at it all as "filling up empty space" vs. "collecting" I don't define myself by it then, and it's really more truthful. I just see dead space and think "I need something with 1 big eye ball or slime dripping from it there!"

I never owned many personal expensive things, aside from a car, before I started collecting toys. I find myself frequently grappling with feelings of greed and jealousy. It's a totally new experience for me, and I don't like it one bit. So yeah, I've been thinking of throwing in the towel.

I think the folks that use toys as inspiration for art, etc. probably have the best reason to collect. I can barely draw, so that's pretty much unavailable to me. I do feel really sad when I look at my cabinet and imagine all the beauty gone. That's some confusing shit.

haha, you can start by selling me your GID walking Hedo.

ihave always collect stuff even as a kid
i was the one that bought two of everything one to keep in the package one to play with my friend came over the other night and i was telling yah i still have all my variant x-men from the 90s then broke a bunch of them them also broke out the thousands of comic crap ,cells , cards uncut sheets rare mail aways that i have just stored since i was little
i have probally read about none of these comics to i just straight like to collect stuff (i feel like that hoarder show)
though i didn open a spawn violator wich make me feel really good
not like any of that stuff is worth much anymore especially with the price we pay for some of this stuff i just cant get rid of it
its the nostaliga of it i remember when there where comic store and opening packs of flair cards and getting that rare chase card
i think that what i love of collecting its alll about the hunt and finding that key piece or completing someone you want
any actually i have started doing that with old video games from my youth(so if you have any old sega snes gamecube 64 let me know) trying to start a Barkade

I have a question folk everyone in relation to this- When does it stop being "collecting" and when does it become hoarding, or stock-piling? I have more toys then I can display in my home. My collection of Japanese vinyl is small. But I have totes and totes of Star Wars, Transformers , "designer toys", LEGO, misc toys, GI Joe, etc... Occassionally I change my displays around a bit, to highlight different things, but thats maybe once a year if that. Like I said, I own more Transformers toys then I know what to do with, but some haven't seen the light of day in years but I still wouldn't part with them. Same with my LEGO collection. I feel less like a collector and more like a pack rat when I think about things like this. Maybe then I entertain the idea that some day I'll open my own toy store/museum, and I'll have a place to have everything out on display.

How do you think about collecting more then you can adequately display? What about the overflow? Sell to make room for new stuff, or just box it back up?
Kelvo mentioned sticking to one detolf, I wish I could do the same.

Ah! I used to rationalize my toy collecting by using the rare pieces as display at my store. But I think I've been buying more since I sold it, and the end effect was half/half as for clients being impressed/trying to convince me to sell the pieces.

I've long had the project to open an indie music archive library - which means I've stockpiled thousands and thousands of records and cds. But I'm growing older, the project has taken a step back due to family obligations, and I know physical formats are doomed in the more or less short term. The more I wait, the less value this all has. And it does take a lot of space and makes it hell to move. But just listing everything would take months, so it lies in boxes...



Collecting is irrational. It's a rich man's pleasure (or it should be, because if you stop eating because of your collecting, you've got a problem). I justify it because it gives me happiness. When it stops to, I'll carefully consider whether it might start to again at some point or not, and I'll hopefully have the strength to sell it or the space to store it. The last thing I want to do is start hunting back for all that stuff in 15 years out of nostalgia.

If I ever stop enjoy it then I'll sell everything, or if it was a case of eating vs a cabient of toys.

I think really so long as you live within your means and aren't dr-frauding your employer, stealing or only using credit cards then collecting anything is healthy. In that you get to meet a lot of like minded people and as I have made some good friends I otherwise might not have met.

My Hedos would be the last to go if I had to sell off!

I am at a weird place in my collecting progression. I can't tell if I am tired of collecting, or if I am just at peace with my collection. A little of both, I suppose. Maybe my recent acquisition of a couple of toys that were haunting me for years helped this along. Sometimes I think I would be just as happy with a complete archive of photographs of my collection, as I would with the items themselves. Part of the enjoyment for me is knowing that I had things like the EXO MMs at one point, handled them, photographed them, and then passed them on to another collector.