on toy hunting-

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Dominic
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on toy hunting-

Post by Dominic »

As many of you know, I have recently cut back on my toy collecting. Some of it is a lack of interest. Some of it is financial. (Crushing student loan debt and all.) Some of it is me re-considering my priorities from the last decade.

Either way, I have cut back. Gone are days of random toy hunts and picking up stuff for giggles. (In a macabre way, I really liked Animorphs, for all the wrong reasons.)

The thing is, the hunting instinct is still there. Some days, before or after work, or on a weekend, I get the urge to hunt. I really get the urge to hunt. Mind you, there is not always anytthing to hunt for.

I am done with "Star Wars". Completely and totally done.

Even begore I flipped out and gave up on "GI Joe", hunting specifically for that line was a fool's errand.

And, put simply, there are no TFs I want right now. I am not a fan of "Animated". I have all of the movie toys I want. "Classics" is just hitting the shelves, and I have the two of those from the first wave that I plan to get. But, I have this weird drive to hunt. Part of me want to hit the local K-Mart and snage the Tankor figure. I do not like that toy at all. I do not want it. But, it is the only tor from the first wave that I do not have. Part of me just wants to make a clean sweep of it.

Does anyone else get this sort of thing?

Dom
-hunkered down and waiting for the next wave of "Universe" toys.
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138 Scourge
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Re: on toy hunting-

Post by 138 Scourge »

Yes. Yes absolutely, god damn it.

Even when I'm broke, or know full well that there won't be any new toys out, even when I've checked a particular store the day before, I'll still feel the urge to go out, and see if maybe the G.I. Joe wave with the B.A.T.S. is in yet.

It's kinda compulsive, but what the hell. There's gotta be way worse compulsive behaviors, y'know?
Dominic wrote: too many people likely would have enjoyed it as....well a house-elf gang-bang.
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CrossRook
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Re: on toy hunting-

Post by CrossRook »

Ditto to what Scourge said. I now order wave sets from BBTS to save on gas and all that, but goddammit I feel the urge sometimes. It's hard, ya know?
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Onslaught Six
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Re: on toy hunting-

Post by Onslaught Six »

I must be lucky. I literally pass a Wal-Mart on my way to work every day, so if I really do get that urge...I just take it? I go in, I look around, and that's it. Usually because there's nothing there.

Something somebody said on ATT a few months back really intrigued me--how come there's no "catch and release" collectors? Go to Wal-Mart with your camera. Find a toy--let's say OcTankor, for example--and then you take a picture of the toy. Perhaps yourself with the toy. And then you put it back and go home.

It's the 'buying,' for me, that's the problem--and a lot of it's because I know stuff doesn't stay on shelves for long. I kept passing up on the NECA TMNT figures at my local Hot Topic until I went back one day to buy them and...they were all gone. Damnit!
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Dominic
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Re: on toy hunting-

Post by Dominic »

Willis wrote a "shortpacked" joking about this, linking toy-hunting with a primitive instinct to hunt and gather. I think there is something to this.

Still, I suppose it is a better vice than gambling and booze. And, nobody can post a Keno review. :ugeek:

I did a sort of "catch and release" with Octankor in that I reviewed it, but will likely not buy it (despite my instinct). I also have been doing that with all but a few "Animated" toys. (I have no desire to own more.)

And, yes, buying is a problem. Even if this vice is more fun than gambling and booze, it still gets expensive.

Dom
-notes that Keno and booze do not lend themselves to discussions about waffles either.
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andersonh1
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Re: on toy hunting-

Post by andersonh1 »

I think half the Cybertron figures I bought were just because I had to 'scratch the itch' as it were. Not that I didn't like the figures I bought, but I wasn't dying to get them or anything.
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138 Scourge
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Re: on toy hunting-

Post by 138 Scourge »

Mmm...Cybertron. Those were good days.

Back when there were a large variety of figures in various price ranges that were easily accessible? Sigh.
Dominic wrote: too many people likely would have enjoyed it as....well a house-elf gang-bang.
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onslaught86
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Re: on toy hunting-

Post by onslaught86 »

I definitely get this now. But it's not just with toys. Clothes, music, games, even 'groceries' excite me in a retail sense. I love supermarkets. Lugging everything home's a pain, but at least grocery shopping is an essential, and not something I'm likely to fall into massive debt over. Oh woe is me, I compulsively engage in mundane everyday activities!

It hasn't helped that my no-debt steady-income lifestyle for the past year affords me a sense of laziness, in that there's nothing really stopping me from going out and buying random crap. It's very rare that I'll buy something I don't like, too, so that's a plus.

Still, there's definitely a compulsory and unhealthy factor to the desire to buy and obtain. It's especially odd for me, since I watch absolutely zero TV, and am thus less affected by advertising than most. It's the in-person shelf-factor instead, or simply luck of the draw. TFs are a different story, being that I'm actively hunting for them, and I do enjoy the hunt. Not so much when everyone else in the area hasn't reported anything new for an age.
As mentioned, though, worse compulsions to have..
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Dominic
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Re: on toy hunting-

Post by Dominic »

138 Scourge wrote:Mmm...Cybertron. Those were good days.

Back when there were a large variety of figures in various price ranges that were easily accessible? Sigh.
"Cybertron" was only accessible if you were casual about it. I had to hunt for some of the ones I wanted, owing to me having a specific "to-buy" list.


I tend to avoid impulse buys. Of course, having a tight budget helps there. I have never been a big one for advertising. I like what I like, but I really like what I like. (For example, I am looking for a cell-phone, but I have no desire to get the Apple iphone. That thing looks to be a piece of junk, advertising be damned.) I look at clothes and grocery shopping as a necessary evil. I will do it, but I will put it off as much as I can.

But, with toy hunting, that is compulsive. I went to a TrU with a friend over the weekend, and spent 5 minutes trying to figure out if there was anything I needed to hunt for. (There was nothing.) And, yesterday, I had to go out and get a second Sun Streaker, and Octankor called to me, despite my dislike of the toy.

Dom
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BWprowl
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Re: on toy hunting-

Post by BWprowl »

I'm bad enough with hunting for toys (there's two Targets and a Wal-Mart right off the highway I take to and from work. Wicked tempting, let me tell ya), but when you factor in that I ALSO compulsively look for and buy Anime and Manga, it's a wonder I'm not totally broke all the time.

Manga's not too bad actually. Once something's on the shelf it's a safe bet that it's going to be there for a good while (as in YEARS). Problems there really only arise when I put off buying something, and then end up several volumes behind on several series. I mean, I know they're going to be there for me to get when I'm ready, but the very knowledge that the things are OUT and I'm not reading them manages to get to me, especially if it's a series I like (I've had four volumes to go on Card Captor Sakura for some time now, don't know when I'll bring myself to catch up). The other issue is when I'm looking for something from a smaller publisher. I've managed to get most of the Seven Seas stuff I want by buying on sight (in some cases I got the only copy I ever saw), but with DrMaster's run of Tsukihime, I got volume one AGES ago, had to buy a multipack with that same volume one years later, and managed to get volume five at a convention. And who knows how I'll acquire the soon-to-be released volume six. Anyway.

Anime's a bit trickier, not leastly because it's more expensive. Plus, since the industry's in something of a slump right now, stores like Best Buy are ordering less copies of volumes and doing less reordering. I picked up volume one of The Third, a series I would've loved to follow, but ended up not being able to since I missed what was apparently my only chance at volume two. And it was ages before I got ahold of volume four of Mai-Otome (of course, that was partly due to a quality control recall, but still...)

So yeah, consider yourself lucky if you *only* collect toys. These compulsive buying habits get stressful... :|
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