on toy hunting-

[Dominic]

Gah, the hunt is a pain in the tuchus. Gah. I call it, "collector's coproma".

I had a similar experience to JT with seeing the downside of having the toy. I organied 100+ Joe figures...the day before a friend of mine died. All I could think of was somebody organizing, or even throwing away my collection when my time comes. Then, I think of the resources spent to produce, ship and buy these things. ("Wall*E" figures are a source of morbid curiosity for me.)

I like the hobby, but, as JT said, it should be a hobby, not a burden. Doc-Gate just about put me off Joes. Waves full of "buy it when you see it or not at all" figures somehow became less fun when Hasbro dropped the ball on a simple mail-away.

I suppose the trick is to set a standard for collecting, and more or less stick to it. My current standard (for Joes) is iconic/sentimental favorites and conversion fodder.


Dom
-never got into Transmet, despite seeing it next to Transformers on the shelf.

[Onslaught Six]

Transmet's great if you're into what it does, which is mock society horribly and have lots of needless profanity. Woohoo! Also lots of philosophical crap.

I see you're still harbouring hate over the Doc situation, but Hasbro said that there's going to be a second run of them--so yeah, it's not really an issue anymore.

[Dominic]

Ya know, Toy Biz did a second run of 1701 toys, but that does not make the original 1701 series right.

Dom
-gonna make that Doc figure look like Doc after issue 109 of the original US run.

[JediTricks]

A few years ago, one of my Star Wars collector friends got cancer, found out on New Year's Day. It was such a bummer. She knew she had only a few months to live, and she had this MASSIVE collection of all sorts of stuff that she had been gathering since the '70s, she was truly an uber-collector. Her wish was that her collection made it into the hands of her collector friends, but we all felt that was too painful to think about. After her passing, one of the other members of our tight little clique took on the mantle of distributing the collection, and the thought was that we'd pay for items to give the money to the hospice that took care of her. As noble an idea as this was, it made the already-difficult task of distributing her collection that much more difficult, people had already not been speaking up on wanting specific things because it felt weird, and now finances had gummed that up even worse. This caused the friend who was organizing all this great frustration, he was a rather unsentimental chap and didn't like seeing the burden left on the family who was still housing this massive collection. Things did not go well, I took some choice items but the box I received remains sealed to this day, I just can't yet bring myself to open it. Ultimately, the organizing friend took his own life due to a lot of emotional issues far deeper than collecting and organizing, but I've always wondered if that frustration added to the reason. Anyway, his family also didn't know what to do, his mother eventually worked out a way to send off the packages that people were waiting on from the first friend's collection, and then built a shed to house his collection (he was far more selective and collected micro-scale stuff, so it wasn't as expansive). I miss both these folks, and their passing has left me wondering what I should do with my collection, what my family should do with my collection when I'm gone. Sadly, I don't think I have any answers at all for either yet.

[donosaur]

Yeesh.. Well you know what they say, you can't take it with you. It makes me glad I never got into the collecting side of the hobby. I'm just an "enthusiast."

[onslaught86]

Wow, JT, that's pretty hefty. I've somehow rather morbidly hoped I've had time to write up a will of my collection before anything in particular happens to me. Should it be sooner rather than later, there's a lot of people I'd want to have certain figures, for assorted reasons both sentimental and hilarious, in keeping with my wishes in general.

You, for example, would get my Primus. Hell, both of them.

[Onslaught Six]

Dibs on Magmatron and Torca. And all your lyrics. Mmm, lyrics...

[Dominic]

The thing is that there is nothing wrong with opening the box you got from that sale. You were not hungrily waiting to pounce on your friend's collection when she died. And, she herself wanted the collection to go to other collectors. (I can fully understand this.)

Do not define your friend by her death. She lived. And, part of her life, something she enjoyed, was toy collecting. If anything, keeping her stuff boxed is more a slight than opening it.

I do want my collection to go to collectors as well. Given my own health these past few years, I should probably have a will in place. My cats are a priority. They are going to a local no-kill shelter that I have worked with. None of my trust-worthy friends can take (more) animals right now.

I would want my collection distributed among friends, and/or sold off. I would want that money to go to said animal shelters.


A bit more on topic:
All told, I am done with Joes. I walked by a bunch of the new wave Joes, making this my first "full skip" wave. (I have skipped parts of the last few waves, but I am probably skipping this whole wave.) A 60% price increase in a year (consider the rate of increase for TFs and other lines, over 5 years), and the fact it ain't fun to look for them has just about killed it for me.

Dom

[Onslaught Six]

You were not hungrily waiting to pounce on your friend's collection when she died.

Like I am. Yeah, you 'go' out tonight, 86...Mwahahaha...

A bit more on topic:
All told, I am done with Joes. I walked by a bunch of the new wave Joes, making this my first "full skip" wave. (I have skipped parts of the last few waves, but I am probably skipping this whole wave.) A 60% price increase in a year (consider the rate of increase for TFs and other lines, over 5 years), and the fact it ain't fun to look for them has just about killed it for me.

Amazingly, they just keep coming out with less and less crap that I actively want. I still need Steeler, Flash (if he 'ever' gets repacked), Short-Fuze and the eventual Zap, and Dr. Mindbender if they come out with him....but...that's 'it.'

I was looking over them the other day and came to the stunning realization that I 'had them all.' My major goal was very simple in the beginning--get the major Cobra characters I liked, and the O13 Joes, plus any other Joe or Cobra characters I have an interest in. And up to this point I've essentially achieved that goal. It's only a few random Joe characters that I like enough to consider picking up.

*thinks*

Hrm. Looks like there's more than I thought. A short list, what the hell:

-Falcon/Nemesis Immortal. Nemesis Enforcer rules and Falcon is okay too I guess.
-Shockwave, if they ever make Shockwave.
-Mainframe, because I have some kind of rabid attachment to him. Maybe half of it's 'cuz he's dead.
-Big Ben who is awesome. They will never make 25th Big Ben.
-Possibly Swamp Skier Zartan, though I have no idea why--I totally dig the Zartan I already have, especially since he has the kickass gear from the Zartan/Fred/Zarana comic pack some time ago.

[JediTricks]

With the Joe line, when it first hit I was tempted, and every time I see a geared-up figure in package, I am still tempted, but the scale change, some of the wonky "man-boobs" sculpting, and a marked lack of new vehicles left me cold, so I decided to buy nothing, and still haven't.

Wow, JT, that's pretty hefty.

Yeah, it's been tough the past few years carrying those sorts of thoughts in my collecting head, but it's a reality every adult collector eventually has to deal with one way or another.

I've somehow rather morbidly hoped I've had time to write up a will of my collection before anything in particular happens to me. Should it be sooner rather than later, there's a lot of people I'd want to have certain figures, for assorted reasons both sentimental and hilarious, in keeping with my wishes in general.

You, for example, would get my Primus. Hell, both of them.

Yes! Must... doom... o86.

The thing is that there is nothing wrong with opening the box you got from that sale. You were not hungrily waiting to pounce on your friend's collection when she died. And, she herself wanted the collection to go to other collectors. (I can fully understand this.)

I know there's nothing wrong with it, but that's not how it feels. I paid a quarter for her first-edition 1976 novelization of Star Wars because that's what she paid for it, but she EARNED that, I am only a usurper through the cold hand of fate. I would much rather have her around than her book - that's how it "feels", as Colbert would say.

Do not define your friend by her death. She lived. And, part of her life, something she enjoyed, was toy collecting. If anything, keeping her stuff boxed is more a slight than opening it.

As generous as she always was, her collection is part of what defined her, so to have it scattered also feels wrong.