Do you live with the damage or does a little piece of you die inside?

[siquisiri]

I have a figure who's sculpt has a tiiiny scratch in the paint under the right eye. Nobody would notice it, but it ate away at me for about a week. I actually lost some sleep over it...

Lmaooooo...sorry.

 

[sky_captain]

I wake up screaming in the night.

 

[Verified]

I tend to damage my statues when moving them around for display or cleaning. The most recent one being my ex Thor Pf.
I repaired it myself but the damage is still noticeable.
But since i'm never going to sell it, i just see it as my 'own' piece which is set apart from the other 499 pieces out there.

 

[CanolliCrusader]

Every piece has something...depending on where it is...effects the level of how much it will burn me. But a piece of my soul does die when I see defects, I HATE THEM.

For the most part I havent recieved a piece with any significant amount of damage. :knocks on wood:

 

[Doon]

I was photographing my Hot Toys Wolverine the other day, had him since release, When I looked at some of the real close up macro shots that I took, I noticed a really small line on his eye running down onto his lower eye lid, like a very slight mold fault. It really annoyed me when I noticed it, couldn't rest until I shaved the line away with a scalpel.

Most of the small faults are fixable if your brave enough. I know some people would hesitate though.

 

[Rotfish]

Most of my figures are in good condition. My Lost Pred and BD P2 had the famous back-of-the-belt breakages, so I handled those without worry. I also had to glue my BD P2's back armor together because it kept splitting apart when I'd pose him. Bummer, but I can live with it and pay it no mind.
Little issues that are to be expected are no use spending the money to replace, when they can easily be fixed.

 

[robbiethepainter]

I really am pretty lackadaisical about the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, I hate it when things break or get damaged in general but I don't lose any sleep over it. I fix what I can if something happens. I don't ever plan to sell my figures of awesomeness so mint condition is not necessary for me. Im in aw over the whole thing and love these things but Im not going to treat them like priceless objects. They are too much fun to handle and pose!

 

[Legion]

a microscopic chunk missing from the inside thigh and it's HUGE. .

A huge microscopic chunk eh? A rarity indeed j/k

want to see defects? i suggest looking in the mirror. we are far from mint.

I am.

It bugs the hell out of me but I find I get over it eventually. One of the wrist pegs on my T600 broke right out of the box and it still annoys me. Which in itself is annoying because the hand is still secure and its invisible without taking the hand off, so why do I care??

Also one of the studs around the pockets on Wolverines jeans was missing when I recived him. Again, annoyance but its pretty hard to spot without collectors OCD. Which every collector seems to have!

 

[Lejuan]

A huge microscopic chunk eh? A rarity indeed j/k

Yeh, you should see the size of this minute chunk, it's absolutely enormous.

I just offloaded my medicom stormtrooper. I snapped the ankle a couple of weeks back during a routine posing session, and despite doing a solid repair job on it, I can't live with a figure that's liable to break into pieces whenever I handle it...

 

[gotham_knight]

Personally i dont mind small defects, but that doesnt stop me from trying to pick the best paint job i can find from a figure im buying.

If thre is a defect, i live with it because once i own it, its my figure and i know that i selected it and made the choice to have it as part of my collection.

 

[agentofchaos73]

I've always said that a majority of adult toy collectors have at least a bit of an OCD issue, and I certainly have had figures with flaws that most people wouldn't notice that bugged me to no end.

When I used to purchase 6" figures, I'd meticulously check every copy of a particular figure that a store had to make sure I picked the very best one. If, by chance, it was a more rare figure and only one was available, and if it had any flaws at all, I would buy it, and sell it off if/ when I found a more suitable version. Ugh. I hate to even admit that. hahaha!!

Now that I collect 1/6 figures, there seems to be a little more room for issues to be resolved. Crappy head sculpt? Repaint it, or buy a new one. Ruin Whiplash's pants trying to bleach them orange? No problem. Plenty to pick from on ebay. At the price point, to get rid of an entire figure over a defect now would take a pretty significant defect.

What we can or cannot live with is up to each collector to decide. If I had a HT Leo, and noticed the "huge microscopic" chunk missing, I would keep him if it's covered or at least mostly covered by his outfit. Otherwise, I'd probably sell him off, noting in the auction the defect. A visible chunk of his "flesh" missing would be a deal breaker for me.

 

[cr0w]

I used to be pretty obsessive over it, but after I got a DX Batman from one of the very first Hong Kong batches, I learned that if you let things like this get to you, it can drive you nuts. I've gone through so many issues with that thing, from the leaky abs to the distorted heads to the paint flaking off certain parts of the armor to Lord knows what else, that now I just don't care. I take my figures out, pose them, and then just enjoy them without putting them under a microscope.

The way I see it, if I put up with the DX Batman, I can put up with anything.

 

[Lejuan]

The way I see it, if I put up with the DX Batman, I can put up with anything.

That's a healthy attitude - maybe I should get myself a DX Batman

The chunk in Leo's leg is no more visible or obvious that any of the seams or other mold artifacts on the body - maybe I was bothered by the former but not the latter because seams and artifacts are an unavoidable part of the production process whereas the chunk was possibly something that I had caused.

But what did bother me before I read many of the comments on this thread now doesn't bother me nearly as much - it's on his inside thigh, not a prominent place by any stretch. Thanks fellow Freaks, I can now love my Leo again without the nagging feeling that I would secretly like to replace him with a flawless model

 

[MANDO]

My Iron Man mk III has the fading on the rubber parts. Best I can recall he came out of the box like that. It's not too obvious at first glance but if you look at him for a bit its quite hard to miss. It bothered me for a while then I got over it or forgot about it. Really want to repaint him eventually anyway so he's more shiny.

 

[ezewok]

i have a few gentle giant pieces that have 1 or 2 flaws that i bought like that. at that time it was the only way i could afford them. i like to think a small chip gives them a little character.

 

[ProgMatinee]

my collections so big, after a while its not like i'm looking up close at the older pieces anymore. i'd rather get the next new item than go back and replace something i owned for a long time.

i actually feel the same about my cd collection when i lose a cd or it gets scratched. i have a hard time replacing something i owned for years. rather move on. the cd would have to be one of my absolute favorites to replace it.

 

[Lejuan]

my collections so big, after a while its not like i'm looking up close at the older pieces anymore.

Good point - the more figures I buy the less I'm bothered by it. Is there any problem that buying another figure won't fix?

 

[jkno]

I wish all items we get to be perfect or near perfection. But that doesn't really happen. We don't need a magnifying glass to see all the imperfections of the figures, statues or props we collect. It would be nearly impossible for companies to make them perfect.

That being said I know there are a few items of mine that are not 1005 perfect. And I don't mean big problems, flaking paint/paint chips or discoloration, broken parts (which most of the times can be replaced/refunded) etc., but small imperfections that are barely noticeable. I know they are there I was bothered for a while but got over it.

 

[elämän merimies]

I used to be that way (die a little inside when something broke), nowadays not so much. I mean, it's not fun when something brakes, but (almost) everything can be fixed somehow...
If there's one thing my son has teached me, it's this: If these are the things in life you die a little for, something really important might just be passing you by, right now as I write this?

Think about it this way, what if something really important/big/expensive brakes? Will it literally kill you???

These are not the things in life you should be stressed about... I know the feeling, but there's more important things in life.



- -
proofreading it now > makes it sounds like a cliche but it's true.

 

[cr0w]

Good point - the more figures I buy the less I'm bothered by it. Is there any problem that buying another figure won't fix?

Poverty is one that comes to mind.