What got you collecting?

[sladesuperagent]

Like most of us, I started pretty young. I was huge into He-Man, so my parents told all my relatives to buy me those one Christmas. I liked Star Wars and G.I. Joe also (what 80's baby didn't?) and I had an uncle that had only a daughter, so every year he'd buy the really cool machines that my parents really didn't buy me. One year was a Y-Wing, the next year was a Rattler. I was into Garbage Pail Kids too because kids were trading them on the playground. Then when I moved, I had a friend who was really into G.I. Joe and those became the next big thing for me. The were commerce to a 6 year old, because they could fit in your pocket and all pretty much cost the same. I started buying and trading for all the leaders that I had missed out on (Baroness, Zartan, Major Blood). Joes pretty much carried me into girls, which became my next collectable. But I kept all my Joes and one day I picked up the 1992 Tomart's Encyclopedia and realized the they were worth money! This book really solidified that the action figure was something that could hold value. At the time, I was pseudo-into the whole Image comic thing, but then McFarlane started his own toy company. I couldn't rationalize spending $5 on a chromium-covered book, when I could get a figure for that...and the figures were way more fun! So I started buying the Spawn toys and then this little company called Toy Biz started making X-Men toys, so I started buying those too (both regrets in the long run). And new STAR WARS TOYS? I'll buy those too (another regret). Around then eBay came along and totally flipped the collector's world on it's ear. The first auction I won, I got ripped off (Thundercat figures), but I gave it a chance, and now I'm addicted. Then I met this crazy guy in a Jughead hat named Joe (Galactiboy) who liked SW and M.U.S.C.L.E. toys and we trekked through Tokyo for stuff (Golgo 13!). I also spent mucho deniro at now defunct Ames for the Simpson's first few series. Nowadays, I'm been getting rid of what I consider clutter (Total Chaos anyone?). I'm really just into the 1/6 right now, along with Justice League and Marvel Legends, which gives me a reason to check the pegs at Target.

:eek :eek :eek :eek :eek :eek :eek :eek :eek

 

[choopie]

My collecting habits have always been centered around my love for movies, and I fell in love with films, specifically sci-fi, fantasy and horror, at a very early age. I remember my parents taking me along to see Jason and the Argonauts at the drive-in. I was just a toddler back then, but the memory is still vivid today. Then they took me to see Star Wars when it came out and movies would forever be a part of my life. And it was just natural to collect memorabilia of movies and characters that were near and dear to me. Over the years I dabbled in trading cards, magazines, comic books, movie posters, collector plates, etc. but there was nothing like your favorite character in plastic. So I made the transition into action figures and collected movie characters for a good 20 years -- Robin Hood, Batman, Jurassic Park, SW, TMNT, He-Man, Matrix... Then LOTR came out and Sideshow's poly. I was hooked. I gave up the plastic and moved up to higher-end collectibles and haven't looked back.

I've tried over the years to walk away from collecting, but I always come back to it. Collecting is in my blood and I will never be rid of it.

 

[lcummins]

I come from a long line of "pack rats", so I have been a "collector" since I was old enough to know what that meant! But! what really "turned" me into a real collector was meeting the person who has become my life-long best friend for over 30 years now! He and I both collected comics, and it was the camaraderie (much like this board) that really turned up the heat on my collecting bug! So, I can blame him for the rest of my life!!!! And just to show how much I value his friendship, he is getting a Buffy PF Exclusive for Christmas!

 

[Jmlsuperman]

I wanted to see if I could spend it as fast as I made it.

 

[user 1190]

I wanted to see if I could spend it as fast as I made it.

Thats to funny.
If you are having trouble doing it let me know, I can help

 

[Gunner73]

Like a lot of people here I'm a hoarder and I've collected various stuff all my life like stamps, comics/magazines, die cast cars, model aircraft kits, Football programs etc. I think Star Wars had alot to do with it too as I was 4 when it first came out and I spent most of my pocket money on the Kenner figures and toys which I still have today stored up in the attic. As for modern movie collectibles, I first found out about sideshow when I heard Lord of the rings was being made into films from www.theonering.net. I've been hooked ever since my first purchase which was the "No admittance" bookends followed shortly after by my Cave troll statue. It's weird, I was actually unemployed at the time of buying the Cave Troll which was a pretty stupid thing to do really. I remember seeing it on the sideshow site and thinking I had to have it but couldn't afford it, then the following week it said it was sold out. The week after that it was back up again !!! I Couldn't believe it and decided I couldn't miss out so I bought it. Must be fate or something!!!

 

[figuremaster_les]

First I have to say, Galactiboy's new banner rules!

What got me collecting?
My love of movies and TV shows as a child. I was a kid in the 60's, so there wasn't much like we have access to now. Kids (old and young!) today HAVE IT MADE! But, I recall, a JC Penney's Home and Auto store...it always smelled like new bicycle tires...that had this window display over the old Model kit section. In that case were each and every Aurora Monster model kits that somebody had built and painted. I would run in there, and just look at that case and envy whoever had all those kits.

In time, I got the Aurora Godzilla with the glowing fins, and a Kong. Beloved Kong. My first real movie love. Those two fought mercilessly in the ditch out by my house. Model fingers were lost and many micro toy soldiers lost their valiant little plastic lives out there. I even predated ALIENS and Starship Troopers making those little soldiers fight these shedded bug skins that harden on our Southern pine trees in the autumn. Man, those little guys crunched great!

Sometime during or after that, I saw 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and made Nautilus models out of the end of broomsticks. It was a desperate time, that required desperate measures.

I later got an Aurora Drac and Frank and Mummy, and some others, but it began to be my stealing plastic salad bowls to make odd looking spaceships and subs, that began my real collection. I remember taking a red yard reflector I found in the street, and making a cool looking space satellite out of it.

Beyond that era, who knows. I can say that in 1975 I started making sharks from JAWS (One I sent to Bruce mechanical master Robert Mattey) and that shifted to a King Kong custom made from an old school GI Joe in 1976.
Then Star Wars hit, and all bets were off!
By 1979, and ALIEN, and that Kenner toy, I began to realize that I had better keep some of these cool toys, rather than break them, or blow them up.

So, maybe 1980, the year I graduated High School, the year I began another more accurate Nautilus model, that I began to truly collect.

Now, it's so easy to collect. It's not even work.

And I will always have an attachment to the original 1960's GI Joe scale, ie. 1/6, as it is set into my mind as an absolute. PF, busts, Maquettes, all that is nothing to my beloved 12" figure scale! Never! I'll never give in! But, they are nice.



Still steal a plastic bowl when I need one!