why do i collect? Im not sure.
I collect primarily MU and Transformers, and in the 90s, star wars. With Transformers ive been actively buying into since i was 7 in....1991. Im not a completionist, but i do pick what strikes my fancy. someone was mentioning above about why mostly males collect, and its probably an extension of our caveman psyche, hunting and gathering. I love the thrill of the hunt every weekend, kinda like a small christmas for myself.

wow.. very much respect on this thread. thanks really for putting this up. i really respect all the people who share there own stories. you do all take care sir's and ma'ams! As we do collect toys remember to take care of ourselves and family. =)

Probably one of the more fascinating, yet long winded, threads on the Ark.

Confession booth of sorts.

Excellent topic however.

I'm 42 and have been collecting for a long long time. I guess it can be silly?? but it is something I enjoy doing. There are so many other ways to spend money and waste time but we choose to collect. We could drink as our hobby or we could blow are money at the strip club. I have gotten my 8 year old son interested in the hobby and with this he has learned a few good lessons. 1. sometimes you have to save to get what you want. 2. you have to stay organized ( or you dont have room for new toys) 3. he has also learned the most important thing and that is how to meet people and have fun. We walk into our local toysrus and they say hi to him by name. thats bad ass for an 8 year old.
I have enjoyed collecting for 25 years and plan to continue for another 25.
thanks for a great topic!

teach your kids to know the importance of budgeting.

That's what I'll be doing for sure!

Also I never was able to get toys when I was a kid, so this is me now making up for it :)

i had a 5 dollar allowance and the prices being what they were, it was pretty good. too bad i spent so much money on pokemon cards...buyin' packs like they were cigarettes(i think they were the same price.

I like MU a year or so ago, I have always like marvel stuff. and something was missing. I had to get colossus. I was supposed to only collect marvel universe. We had a small apartment. It's like a year and a half later and my bedroom is full. If I wasn't so compulsive I wouldn't have half of this stuff. I don't regret any of it though.

I think so, and you can sort of sell those back, unlike cigarettes:p that's what I tell my smoker friend all the time.

Great thread,without getting all psychological...I JUST LOVE TOYS!!! I guess toys were there for me in my teens when i was the shy introverted kid,who struggled to socialise with other people,when i got my first G/F i gave all my toys to my brother......then she dumped me,and i swore id never change for anyone again,i jumped from SW to Action Force(GI Joe),and through the long dry years of the mid-late 90's and the early 00's i waited and waited..then the new SW hit,followed by the new GI joe,then MU/IM,my collection is a little out there,but i do have eclectic/unusual tastes which dictate my buying habits,im currently reworking my collection to include customs made by other toyfans,and my own kitbashes,but i do feel that i have retained my "child-like wonder" where toys are concerned,which is why i enjoy em so much!!!

My collecting started last year with Marvel Universe and, the 90s Cyclops to be more specific. I guess, it reminds me of that simpler 90s period where I'd watch X-Men and Power Rangers without a care in the world. My collection is mostly based on Marvel Universe and Yu-Gi-Oh figures (which are a bitch to trackdown) as well as a set of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in the same scale

I think a lot of the need to collect comes from previous losses.

I'm not sure if it was something just ingrained into children of the 80's and beyond, but the basic thought that keeping these in good condition might bring either you or your family good fortune in the future is definitely part of the driving force to my collecting.

We've all heard the stories about ancient items being worth a mint if they're kept in good condition. Those have always had an impact on me personally, subconscious or not.

I started reading comics in the 90's, and when I finally had enough of my own cash flow, would buy everything Marvel produced every week. After 10+ years of buying, reading, bagging/boarding, and storing or organizing comics, I got burnt out. I asked myself the same collecting question of my comics as you are of your toys. Sure, I had one or two worth a couple hundred bucks, but the vast majority were worth nothing, yet I couldn't get rid of any of them.

Last year I went to SDCC and fell in love with the Sentinel. It's incredible mass alone caused me to stand in line for 6 hours to get one Thursday morning, and then I got two at the last minute.

Thinking, "Okay, that was a huge purchase, but maybe I can just grab some awesome X-Men and pose them all over it," I sought out the toys that would go with it. To my surprise, the Sentinel was a Marvel Universe Figure, and there were TONS of them! The cost was high, so I started slow, picking up an X-Man for my own team here and there. Eventually, I started to get ALL of the X-Men so I could change the team out whenever I wanted. It was the beginning of the end.

After stumbling into a couple awesome deals (MU singles on clearance for $2, a comic pack for $1!), I eventually told myself, at THAT cheap, I can afford to have them all! And so my MOC completionist obsession began.

The thrill associated with building this collection has changed from month to month. At first, it was excitement of having my own team to make them do whatever I wanted. Then it was the excitement of finding awesome old figures at cheap prices. Then it was the excitement of finding the rare ones in person. Then it was looking at the incredible collections of others on this site (Andy included), and trying to complete the list.

When Andy started selling off his collection, I saw it as an opportunity to pick up where he was leaving off, and I bought many of his in bulk at great prices (totals be damned!).

After spending so much money and building so quickly, I always figured I'd just try to make a dollar here and there by continuing to hunt for those who can't or don't want to, using those dollars to pay off my collection.

I do all of this because I am a perfectionist and I have OCD. I want to create the type of store I would have been thrilled to find as a kid, and keep that store all for me to enjoy myself.

Nice confession, Parker!!!

Thanks for sharing your testimony.

You forgot "My screenname is Peteparker... And I'm addicted to plastic crack."

;)

Whoa are one of the ones you sold me one of them? If so I'm so thankful...
You weren't the only one who bought in mass bulk from as well as to complete what was missing.
Yup I do as well to pay for my addiction:)

I scalp thrift store finds to fund my collecting.

Lol. Funny you should mention that. As I've gotten more and more confident in my postings across the web, I've become more and more disillusioned with the use of my screen name.

I wish it was easier to change your screen name web-wide to become your real name. I don't feel the need for anonymity anymore...

"Hello. My name is Nathan Elliott, and I'm addicted to plastic crack." ;)

Yup, you got one of the two I bought. It was getting difficult to justify having two to the wife, and prices were going down rather than up. If I got to help someone else collect it without losing money in the process, that was more than enough for me. :)

I figured I wasn't the only Jackal chewing on Andy's carcass, but it sure felt like I ate until I was about to explode!

Money's gotta come from somewhere! If I didn't have kids, it'd be easier to pull it out of the family income, but as it stands, that feels too much like taking things like new books or PJs away from them so that Dad can have a MOC nunchucks-down light red Daredevil... doesn't feel all that good.

I'm over 30 and as a kid, I loved toys. Hot Wheels, He-Man, Secret Wars, Super Powers, Transformers, GI Joe, the list goes on and on. When I hit my teens, some of my friends thought it was weird that I wanted to collect all of the Toybiz Marvel figures. A lot of those friends are long gone out of my life now, but then it was important. I collected for a while but soon found myself not enjoying it as much. I got made fun of a little (being a nerd was pretty lame) but it was also taking my money. I could drop $50 on toys and still not hae every one of them. So, I grew up. I had a pretty normal high school life, collected comics but I didn't tell anyone that, I hung out with friends and life was alright. I got a job at Toys 'r' Us when I was 18. I loved the environment! Toys everywhere! I started to buy things here and there, but when Star Wars relaunched it was over. I wanted them all and I collected the first 4 waves, proudly. After leaving TRU and moving on I found people in my life disapproving of my toy buying: "adult" friends, college girls, my girlfriends. Eventually though, they moved on. Some bad experiences in there because what made me happy didn't make others happy and I tried really hard to please the wrong people.

Now, I have a lovely wife who doesn't care about my hobby. Better than that, she supports it! All my friends think it's cool or at the least call me a nerd but still like seeing me happy. My best friend's wife cracks jokes about it, then he comes over and poses a bunch of them and says, "dude, these are so cool!".

So, why do I do it? It makes me a happy kid, every day. It's nostalgic, it's like Christmas, it's simple, whatever! I'm a mature adult but what is maturity? Paying bills, being a self sustaining person who made it on his own with a family? Got that. A lot of adults today don't see that they're still just a bigger version of that kid on the playground. I think being that is okay, as long as you weren't a bad kid. I've always liked comics, toys and video games. That is me. As for why I collect MU? Simple: "3.75" scale has always been my favorite. I loved GI Joe and Marvel as a kid and wished they would somehow combine the two. When I was a kid, I had dreams of walking into toy aisles and seeing every character I loved as a GI Joe on the pegs. That's pretty close to what we have now.

I grew up Marvel, now I'm a DC guy, but I still love the characters. And when DC puts out a worthy "3.75" line, I'll be there too.

Oh ya most def. Probably because this figure was only a year old and it's just a Sentinel:p But hey I'm glad!
Heck ya I was taking bites at a time from him, but getting some stuff, than going back for seconds;)
Yup I know I'll be down that road someday hopefully and when it comes, it'll be worth it.

Snailbot, I think I would collect a DC 3.75" line on the level with Marvel Universe too!

easily. That would be awesometown

Snailbot yours and my circumstances/outlook are almost identical,when i was in my teens i was the only kid in a school of 100-200 who was still into SW toys(this was '86-'91) there was no established toy collecting hobby in the UK then(no internet!!),so i was pretty lonely amongst my age group,though me and my younger brother had some great Joe adventures!! And i continued building model kits,customising my Joes etc,and i still do now. Its nice to know there ARE people who have been through the same stuff,its funny as iv got older,iv realised if you are confident about what you love people dont even give it a second thought,ALL of my friends know about my love for toys and customising,and often ask what iv been working on,which is awesome,and on one occasion i brought a girl home,she looked around my room and said..."hmmm you know this is exactly how i thought your room would look" and was totally cool with it!!!

As for the customising/kitbashing thing,i just like to add a little something to my figures to make them "mine" if you guys get me??

I think often its also a bad thing to try to work out "why" you like toys,i mean football fans dont have to explain themselves do they?? The more you try to justify or find a reason the more you can become unhappy,i love the escapism of my collection,and whilst i dont actually play with them,i do love dreaming up scenarios and incidents for them to get involved in,planets for them to inhabit,armies for them to battle,etc,and also just taking em out into the garden or local park and just doing little photoshoots with them,taking pictures of new finds to add to my collection thread,and seeing peoples comments is really rewarding too,im really looking forward to hitting NY in october with an elite group of my favourite figures and (hopefully) getting some awesome shots of them around the city!!

Collecting toys can get out of hand, but as a casual hobby it is pretty harmless. I can remember being really little and going to a "toy museum", you know, back when that kind of stuff still existed. Plus my generation relied heavily on imagination and action figures to entertain ourselves, and with how depressing the world is now, it's no wonder that people are recreating fond childhood memories through collecting.

I believe it's a combination of things, addiction being one of them. You see many of the things we enjoy today our minds have not evolved the ability to cope with, mostly instant gratification. IT's only been around for a few years or so to the general public. Longer to those of wealth, but even still, it hasn't been as fast as it is today. THere's also the need to grasp a bit of one's childhood, relive the moment they toys gave you. Or buy that which you couldn't have or wish you could've had. Sometimes you just want to do it, just to do it.

There's a ton of reasons why you'd want to. Hell some people might buy a few just to have something to display in the room.

I'm 25, I'm not married, I have a baby boy, a girl who I love dearly, a big family, 2 brothers a sister, I live alone...I work, and just started real estate school, so as u can see my life is really busy. I always have to cater to everyones needs I.e..the gf, so the reason I am into marvel (comics, toys, etc...) Is because when I do say read a comic or open a figure, I'm in my own world, noone to bother me, not needing to care about anything or anyone just me. Collecting is a gateway for me to relax be myself and not have to worry about the everyday life and challenges I go through. I zone out everything so I can just have a breather, even if its just for 10 mins in opening a MU and posin its all worth it...I'm almost up to date in MU and I open everything cept CCexclusives and my fav characters, I don't ever plan on selling this which is why I have a loose collection. What I'm saying is collecting is my place of Zen :) and I'm proud of it, everyone that I know, knowsim a collecter of toys and they all think its cool, but not there cup of tea which is fine. I don't expect anyone to be like me, just understand that I love my toys...hope this explains why I collect? Maybe my post is a lil weird, but I don't care :) I love me some MU.