Thor: Love and Thunder **BEWARE SPOILERS**

[ZE_501]

Was just catching up on the conversation a few pages back, despite it greatly deviating from the thread topic.

I should change my user name to Off-Topic.

[...] There has always been entertainment but there has never been a time like today where "pop culture" is this massive money making behemoth that people get engulfed by. When I was a teenager I definitely got obsessed with a lot of pop culture properties in a way that would be too much now. As a teenager I think it's alright; it's just part of growing up.

Agreed. It's not in the marketing department's best interest for people to outgrow things anymore. I've remarked a couple of times now that geeks are getting transformed into shoppers.

I myself only re-engaged with the collecting side of things between late 2011 and 2012, and I've had a lot of fun re-visiting things and discovering what's out there, but I guess it comes as no surprise that I've recently been losing interest.

I was always an outlier on this forum in that I'm a minimalist in every other aspect of my life, so I was always looking for a curated, minimal collection and playing with that concept -- and seeing my collection expand and contract periodically while trying to achieve that -- was the actual entertainment, rather than owning the-thing-in-itself, which is static, whereas the acts of seeking, curating and collecting are dynamic.

This latter distinction is what keeps a lot of people collecting, IMO. It's the act, not the things.

I am still extremely adamant that the greatest stories are the ones that have a definitive ending. All good things must come to an end. I enjoy Marvel, DC, Star Wars, whatever but my absolute favorites are still the things that have ended (whether it be LOTR, or TDK trilogy, POTC trilogy, or even the original SW trilogy - they all have proper endings). Just taking Marvel and Star Wars for example now, I'll still watch/read to be entertained but when there is no end in sight, I not only become less invested in new content but it also just never really seems to satisfy. It's missing a lot of heart.

Absolutely. I've lost interest in Star Wars for a lot of reasons, but the biggest reason for me is that it actually ended in 1983 as I myself was slowly leaving childhood -- it's just a fond childhood memory that Disney keeps trying to hack my brain and my wallet with.

There are opportunities for very entertaining content but it's still sugar-y junk food at the end of the day, it's not nourishing and I find I'm not feeling compelled to own a piece of it.

As far as collecting specifically, I've said this before on the forum but while I find it enjoyable, the longer I collect and partake in the collecting community the more everything just kind of blurs together and I find myself not caring quite as much or not being satisfied.

When geeks get turned into shoppers.

[...]But as I was saying I am slowly feeling less invested in collecting as a whole because just like with stories, all good things should have an end. I want a definitive end to my collection and I am trying to once and for all settle on what that looks like.

I've had a great time with this hobby the last decade. But I'm allowing myself to admit I've outgrown it. Let me clarify: I don't mean that I'm somehow 'more mature' or 'better' than people who are still enjoying it. I mean I've literally just grown in different directions and want to spend my time differently at this point, and since my relationship to objects has ultimately been one of detachment because they're only things -- I feel I'm able to let collecting go.

A big part of me just wants to go all out and get a couple Prime 1 statues, essentially having my collecting culminate in a big, beautiful, expensive piece or two. Everything else would be sold save for 1 or 2 smaller things. Though to be fair my collection is also drastically smaller than it used to be (I can count all the pieces I have on my fingers lol). [...]

A collected object -- say a 1/6th figure -- is a reference point to something that I find meaningful due to the confluence of entertainment, genre, time and place, aesthetics, and personal history.

This object is connected to all other parts of that Venn diagram for geekiness. My enjoyment of the representation of Spider-Man is connected to every single other geek interest I've ever had.

(Sure, you can argue that I don't listen to just one band or genre of music, so I'm going to have different kinds of music represented -- but musical enjoyment is an active thing, not a passive representation. That makes a big difference.)

So to take that further, in theory I could pare down my collection to just one sixth scale figure as a nod to things I love without filling my shelves with a collection of any kind. It's a symbol.

In practice I just might. The idea is very appealing to me, but I don't expect everyone else to do live that way.

I've been feeling that for a while now, which is why I sat down and made a couple of lists. What IPs I still care about, what I have some fond memories of, all that. I broke them down by medium, filtered them to leave only the most "important" ones and so on. Now I know what Omnibuses I want to buy, what figures, everything. I have a clear vision of just exactly what I need and I'm sticking to it. There's a chance I'll deviate once or twice and buy some new thing, but I'm done chasing the new fads or trying to be an uber-completionist.

I will always enjoy certain types of entertainment, although I may engage with it less due to repetition or a dearth of high quality. But I don't feel much desire to own most of it these days. Entertainment for me is more potent as an experience than as an object.

[...]In my age now I don?t get the same fulfillment as I did opening a new figure cause months later a new version gets announced of that same toy. But I still enjoy the hobby sometimes cause I love the characters and it does look nice on the shelf

You're still enjoying the whole process and you have it in perspective. Makes sense. I do think -- further to darthkostis' point -- that some people get their identity conflated with these things we experience and the process of collecting, and inertia takes over. I don't think inertia is a good reason to do anything.

 

[ShadowGuardian]

I was always an outlier on this forum in that I'm a minimalist in every other aspect of my life, so I was always looking for a curated, minimal collection and playing with that concept -- and seeing my collection expand and contract periodically while trying to achieve that -- was the actual entertainment, rather than owning the-thing-in-itself, which is static, whereas the acts of seeking, curating and collecting are dynamic.

I wouldn't call you a complete outlier; I feel the same way (in general too!). I have gravitated towards being a minimalist for the past few years for sure, and definitely a fun part of the collection has been seeing it change. In general, over time my trend has been getting higher and higher quality pieces but less and less of them. It's really allowed me to hone in on the absolute essentials, and then get a top of the line version of whatever character it may be. I don't buy for completionists sake and I don't buy if the collectible is only subpar. I only settle for what I personally see to be the best at the chosen price point.

A think a lot of that has been a mix of my personality and the way I'm living my life, but also just the funds I have available to me. If I could reasonably afford like 4 detolfs worth of Hot Toys right now, maybe I wouldn't have figured some of these things out so early. But truthfully I can honestly say I'm not sure I'd even want that. A small well lit display of pure artistic excellence versus a cluttered display full of great to subpar pieces will always appeal more to me. And it's been fun to see my collection get to that point and continue to progress beyond that in the same way. I mean currently all I have is what's in my sig, and I'm selling Vader and Joker to hopefully get a P1 piece.

That's the other thing too, having rules for your collection and actually sticking to those rules is essential IMO. Some of mine include...
1. If you want something new, you gotta sell off some other stuff to fund it and create space for it.
2. Only get characters or pieces that have actual significance to you; don't get it just because it looks cool.
3. Only 1 of a given character, no doubles!
4. Only 1 from a given franchise or movie. I go a little more precise here; so I'll allow say multiple Star Wars figures but only 1 from the OT or only 1 from The Mandalorian. Or if I was more into Marvel I could say I'll get 1 figure from Endgame, and 1 from the original Avengers. This rule is a bit more flexible for me.
5. NEVER impulse buy, actually take time to view the product, hunt around for prices and sleep on it a bit. Anytime I've impulsed bought something (whatever it may be, doesn't have to be collectibles) I almost ALWAYS regret it. Did that recently with the Hot Toys John Wick even though that's still a cool piece. Thankfully I was able to sell it quickly and I didn't lose money but that isn't always the case.

If anybody else wants to share some of their rules I'd be very interested to hear them!

 

[ZE_501]

[...]

If anybody else wants to share some of their rules I'd be very interested to hear them!

Can't remember where it is but darthkostis started a thread where some of that was covered...

 

[Victοr]

I will always enjoy certain types of entertainment, although I may engage with it less due to repetition or a dearth of high quality. But I don't feel much desire to own most of it these days.

Honestly, aside from the odd tv show or movie I stumble upon, nothing new interests me. No franchise, no IP, no new content. I remember when I kept up with games, anxiously watching every trailer. Now titles drop left and right and I had no idea they were even announced. I don't look forward to sequels or anything. It's why I decided to go back and finish the older things I abandoned. I guess I wanted to play Bloodborne and Uncharted 4, but I never got a PS4 and I see no reason to get a PS5. I haven't upgraded my PC rig in 6 years now. It's all just so trite and boring. I see no point in anything "new". Too much stuff that have little to nothing to say. Wasted time. More melodramas. More generic genre fiction. More of the same. I'm just tired and done.

Now that's pop culture wise. Being free of all that means that I can do some constructive things without feeling like I'm "missing out". And there's tons of classics to read, academic research to do, and so on. In fact, time's too short, if anything. It's honestly a nice feeling to not care about what you're being bombarded with.

Entertainment for me is more potent as an experience than as an object.

As time goes on I find the reverse is true for me. I hardly get any actual entertainment out of anything anymore. I'm honestly just trying to close the chapter on things I missed out as a child. Games I never finished, comics I saw on the net but never bought, books I never read because it was too daunting to get into the entire series, and so on. Movies and shows I'm done with. Apart from the odd old gem I discover, whatever I was interested in, I've watched. Comics the same. I'm down to playing some older games on Steam now, with one or two anime series to finish. I know that it's not healthy per se, as I'm motivated by an OCD sense of completionism. I need to finish the games, buy the old physical copies, put them on the bookcase and fill the shelf for it to be over. I need to buy the Omnibuses. And so on and so forth. I reckon that by 2025 I'll be done, since I'm taking it slow and don't have tons of time anymore.

And after all is said and done, the figures come in. They're the "seal" to the whole undertaking. The way I see it is this. I trimmed it all to a few products acoss all media. Some I'm fine with just owning the BluRay/Game/Omnibus/Floppie/Whatever. Some of these I like enough to want a representation of. Some of them won't ever get any merch made, but it's alright. At the end of the day, while I'm still not "free" of this completionism addiction, I've trimmed it a lot and have it under much more control compared to when I started, which means that I'm fine and at peace with this specific collection I want to create.

After that's all done I'm thinking of moving to old, rare books, but that'll have to wait at least a decade.

If anybody else wants to share some of their rules I'd be very interested to hear them!

Like

Can't remember where it is but darthkostis started a thread where some of that was covered...

said, I made a thread about it a while back. Here: https://www.sideshowcollectors.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237832

 

[matticus]

Man, you guys should have seen the stuff I have gotten rid of. Thankfully, I wanted to sell the horde of Legos during this Covid crap and people wanted them. I was able to purge over 500 Lego sets. I just kept buying and buying over the years and I ended up with a Smaug the Dragon horde of Legos. Glad I kept them all separated and organized! Down to like 5 sets now. I won't even get into the amount of various other things I had, I just needed to par down significantly cause I just had so much and barely appreciated what I had.

 

[ShadowGuardian]

Man, you guys should have seen the stuff I have gotten rid of. Thankfully, I wanted to sell the horde of Legos during this Covid crap and people wanted them. I was able to purge over 500 Lego sets. I just kept buying and buying over the years and I ended up with a Smaug the Dragon horde of Legos. Glad I kept them all separated and organized! Down to like 5 sets now. I won't even get into the amount of various other things I had, I just needed to par down significantly cause I just had so much and barely appreciated what I had.

WOW! Selling 500 sets sounds like a PITA to do all at once unless you sold them in large bundles. Definitely capitalised on the perfect time to off load those though.

 

[Victοr]

Man, you guys should have seen the stuff I have gotten rid of. Thankfully, I wanted to sell the horde of Legos during this Covid crap and people wanted them. I was able to purge over 500 Lego sets. I just kept buying and buying over the years and I ended up with a Smaug the Dragon horde of Legos. Glad I kept them all separated and organized! Down to like 5 sets now. I won't even get into the amount of various other things I had, I just needed to par down significantly cause I just had so much and barely appreciated what I had.

I stopped buying Lego years and years ago. I did a last hurrah when I wanted to try my hand at some brickfilms, but they were too time consuming and that was that. Now I just have them all sorted by colour and stored somewhere. I will admit that I want a couple of sets that are in my wishlist. The Doctor Who and Tron ones most notably, and a Star Destroyer I've wanted since forever. I don't keep up with news, but I will track down one of those 500+ $ Star Wars ones some day. But that's as far as it goes, Lego is done for me. 1/6th's the only toyetic thing I'm getting, with the exception of the odd figure here and there if it's something really cool, or if it's anything Doctor Doom related. I think we all have our one favourite pop culture character, and I settled on him.

 

[matticus]

WOW! Selling 500 sets sounds like a PITA to do all at once unless you sold them in large bundles. Definitely capitalised on the perfect time to off load those though.

It was. Just had to get to it. I did big bundles to some on CL and then small bundles on Ebay. Thank goodness for Ebay I was able to move a lot of none Legos too.

I stopped buying Lego years and years ago. I did a last hurrah when I wanted to try my hand at some brickfilms, but they were too time consuming and that was that. Now I just have them all sorted by colour and stored somewhere. I will admit that I want a couple of sets that are in my wishlist. The Doctor Who and Tron ones most notably, and a Star Destroyer I've wanted since forever. I don't keep up with news, but I will track down one of those 500+ $ Star Wars ones some day. But that's as far as it goes, Lego is done for me. 1/6th's the only toyetic thing I'm getting, with the exception of the odd figure here and there if it's something really cool, or if it's anything Doctor Doom related. I think we all have our one favourite pop culture character, and I settled on him.

Funny, I sold the original ISD in a big lot on CL. Before the new one, it was going for around 1200-1500 for awhile there.

 

[Victοr]

Funny, I sold the original ISD in a big lot on CL. Before the new one, it was going for around 1200-1500 for awhile there.

Jesus, it was going for this much? Damn, Lego's even more expensive than I remembered. Well, that just got moved to the bottom of the wishlist for now...

 

[matticus]

Jesus, it was going for this much? Damn, Lego's even more expensive than I remembered. Well, that just got moved to the bottom of the wishlist for now...

Well it probably isn't now since the new one came out and dropped the price for it, like a newer version of a rereleased Hot Toy. Old one is now 771ish and new one is 700.

 

[Victοr]

Well it probably isn't now since the new one came out and dropped the price for it, like a newer version of a rereleased Hot Toy. Old one is now 771ish and new one is 700.

Well, maybe one day...

 

[andrewjones]

Love it. The salt will be glorious.

 

[Prime Clone]

Cast and director sample Australian sporting customs in Rusty Crowe's corporate box (he owns the team!)

 

[a-dev]

Is Jeff Goldblum back for this?

 

[punisher1974]

I hope so because you can never have enough Goldblum.

 

[The Buffinator]

Isn't the redhead in the last photo Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers)? I wonder if she's in the movie or just hanging with friends...

 

[Prime Clone]

I suspect the latter, but who knows.

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

Cast and director sample Australian sporting customs in Rusty Crowe's corporate box (he owns the team!)

Goldblum is the character from JP in real life.

 

[The Buffinator]

Goldblum is the character from JP in real life.

I think you're giving him way too much credit.

 

[Prime Clone]

Aside from his... imperfections!