Are you a collectibles perfectionist?

[Collector47]

If it's very minor and mostly fixable, I'm okay with it, but not thrilled. And the "minor stuff" should not start adding up. To date the only figure I 've been decidedly unhappy with is my WW II Capt America figure. The outfit was sewn so tight, I couldn't raise his arms with any degree of posability. And the straps on his shield came unglued. Actually I had all sorts of issues with his uniform. Many items needed to be fixed. The lasting impression left me incredibly underwhelmed and feeling ripped off with the asking price. And since Hot Toys does very little to manage their price points, I don't feel any criticisms for a lack of quality can be deemed "too picky". You pay a premium price for these figures. I expect a premium product in return. No one should ever lose sight of the fact you're paying hundreds of dollars for a highend action figure that is essentally overpackaged. I would prefer some scaling back on these boxes , if it will give us a more competitve price. No one displays the boxes. Those are good for the first 10 minutes of opening the figure. Then their mostly forgotten, until you have to store them.

 

[Hidden Jitsu]

I'm terrible when it comes to things like this.
I even hate the brown shipper being damaged and the box itself i hate having any marks on at all.
Also i look at my statues and figures every day and if i see a mark my eyes are drawn to it.
I often sell the marked stuff and then keep the money until a mint version turns up.
It winds me up to the core.
I recently started collecting hot toys and i went through them removing any loose threads in the material and inspecting them.
I'm the same when it comes to games and blu rays.
I got ninja schroll on blu ray and the tin had a dent.
I could not sleep until i went back to the shop the next day and returned it.
I remember ordering Syrim collectors edition from gamestation and the heavy handed pig opened the box with his dirty hands and inspected the content's.
He also creased the sleeve so i told them i was not buying it as it is now classed a second hand so i bought it brand new online.

 

[Mr Walker]

It all depends on what we are talking about. If it is about a prop that had flaws in the first place even when screen used, then I have no problem with that. I also like my props as accurate as possible, and not just because company X said they are accurate, but when compared to the real prop.

I'm a little different (and I recognise your name from the RPF, I think).

I like my props accurate, to a degree... many of the props looked like absolute crap. Misshapen, poorly painted. They relied on camera movement and tricks to make them look good. Some of them, just wouldn't look good on my shelf. So there's a certain amount of compromise, for me. Especially when it comes to SS models.

1/6 figures, I'm very picky. I'm not a figure guy, first up (I've been collecting props mostly, on and off). If it looks like crap, I won't buy. Like DX Indy. Pee-ew. What a stinker. I've had my eye on figures for a long time, as a representation of some of my favourite characters from those truly iconic movies, and it's only recently the quality has stepped up to where it needs to be to add them to my shelf. I don't mind minor imperfections, but it has to look GOOD!

Boxes though, don't care. It's a freaking box. Into the roof crawlspace with you.

 

[Joda]

Yeah. I've done the same with a few things as well. I really think it's a little bit of a mental illness that I have. I try to not let it get to me too much these days and try to look at it logically, but I still have my little episodes once in awhile.

When I used to buy toys in the retail store, I'd always compare each figure to get the one with the most perfect paint. I probably have one of the better painted DC Universe Classics figure sets because of this. I'm just really weird, I guess.

You sound very much like me. In fact I bought 5 sets of NECA's Aliens Series 1 figures online because I wanted to find the best possible paint applications. Lord knows what I'll do with the rest...back-ups and spare parts, I suppose.

You say 'used to' when purchasing at retail stores. Do you buy your figures online now, and how do you deal with not seeing the product beforehand?

I definitely fall into the nitpicky camp, and I really hate it sometimes. It definitely takes what should be a fun 'hobby' and makes it kind of stressful. Just something to work on with myself, I suppose.

 

[New_Kryptonian]

Personally, I don't like buying at stores, because the price goes up a lot in comparison to buying online.

Buying online costs less, but the downside is that you can't see the product beforehand. You're pretty much buying blind.

So, I got my mind made up into not giving too much importance to certain flaws that some products may have. In any case, I rather NOT preorder a figure, and wait till the reviews start popping up. Then I read them, and I always expect a certain margin of error with EVERYTHING that is produced, so I want to see what are the flaws that most people is reporting that a product has.

If the reported flaw sounds like something that may bother me too much, then I just don't buy said collectible. Ever.
If it's something that I can say, "well, I'll pose it in the shelf in a way that it cannot be seen" or "it's not really noticeable", then I go ahead, and there's always the possibility of being lucky enough to get a flawless one.

Of course, there's always the risk of the price on the piece rising, but since most people review their stuff when they just bought it, hopefully most of the time the rise isn't that high.

 

[The Skull]

I think most collectors are to some degree a n a l, specially in a hobby like this. You spend hundreds on collectible items so I would not think you would be happy with a flawed item, I know it would annoy me, Broken joints or paint rubs and I hate when the underlying body gets stains from the clothes I know I wouldn't remove most of the outfits that come on them but knowing there stained annoys me

I avoid letting the crouch grabber stand from touching the actual figure so as to not make an impression on the legs. I used to collect gijoes back in the day and would buy one to open and one to save mib. That's not a realistic option now-a-days due to prices so ether I keep the figure mint on display in a glass cabinet or for my most treasured collectibles I will still get a extra to save mib.