I collect moc and loose. When i first started i was only a moc type of guy but now i try to get doubles of the ones i truly like. (Which is most of them lol)..

So we can all agree that toys should be opened and MOC collectors should send me their stuff to be opened and loved, nnot coldly entombed in plastic..

I wouldn't want to break anything...

It's a little like Schrodinger's Cat, isn't it? What if it's already broken and you won't know unless you open it?

I've had a few like that over the years. One time, a TF had two left thighs and I had to exchange it. Normally that wouldn't have been a big deal, except the thighs in this case were supposed to be asymmetrical due to the transformation scheme. So having them be the same essentially broke the toy.

EDIT: I just realised that was an exceptionally cruel thing to say to an MOC collector. My apologies. =>:)

Interesting... well I guess I should note I collect mostly current Star Wars (with a focus on ANH and the cantina), Japanese robot toys, Marvel Universe, and Infinite Heroes. I also get some MOTUC, Soul of Chogokin, vinyls, and Batman stuff. In the past I was deep into TF G1, Marvel Legends, Mego, 1/6...

personally I havent' been MOC since the late 90's. Much happier and my displays look much better to me. I was way into vintage Star Wars and the old 90's Marvel Universe 5" line pretty deep (by 1998 or so I had one of every 5" figure release MOC and loose, and many doubles for cool cardbacks) and after a while I ran out of room to show it all. I used to freak out about people handling "the rare ones" and thumbtacks ruin the hangpegs. I got deep into playsets and big vehicles for a long time and the move to "open it now, or sell it" really helped me focus on what I liked and not just buying any handcandy I found along the way.

How many other lines do you collect MOC? I found myself only really collecting two or three lines MOC and the rest loose (or in the case of Transformers and Godaikin, open boxes)

Another question, for those MOC guys, do you see yourself selling your collections? I've found in many years in the hobby, that MOC guys tend to drop off first.

There is a deep misconception that selling modern figures (I'm old so I say 1990-current ;) ) in the package "will make me money someday" - when the market has clearly shown, "nope!" for many years now.

Please, no offense to anyone is implied... just trying to see what you guys think. :) :) :)

the best MOC collectors are guys like Target, TRU and Walmart nobody beats those guys for there MOC collections :P

I used to buy two of most things - one to keep MOSC, one to open. But I realized a few things over the years.

1) Toys are so expensive these days and the quality seems to get worse.
2) No space to keep doubles of everything.
3) The carded and boxed stuff would sit in storage for months without being looked at our touched.
4) I was becoming a horder.

I no longer buy two of everything and I no longer have much stuff that still in package. The only ones I still have in package are any 25th anniversary carded GI Joe figures (and even then I only have one of each carded), the MOSC/MISB Kenner Super Powers Superman and Supermobile, and a few rare Macross items.

Agreed!! A good plus advantage of being a MOC collector.

Ha ha you mean like Peter Parker and Wolverine:P
I would like to think of it as having a 3D poster on a wall ;)
Especially the MU figures going up to 10 plus!!!
Too true...
True as well that's why I hang my stuff up on the walls.
Hope I never reach that level, although I've caught myself almost doing that...

Lol, there's no comparing the 5 Targets, 11 Walmarts, and 2 TRU's combined collection to mine. Combined they maybe have 10 different figures. Granted, there's probably a hundred of each of the 10, but still...

closed until I open them.

Depends on what the figure is. I love opening and displaying my DCUC and TF figures, Star Wars I keep MOC.

no apology needed. Not sure what was cruel about it.


Those MOC collections suck compared to ours :)

man, if you saw what collectors here in Spain had to deal with, your head will explode. 3 or 4 15+euro pegwarmer figures from 2008 legacy...

Great discussion going on here everyone! This is what I love to see here!

As for me (apologies for not posting this when I made the article on the frontpage, just have been too busy to type out a decent response) I have at times been at every stage of the "collector dilemma" and now have seemed to settle at a mixture of both.

I used to buy 2 of anything I wanted (WAY back in the day) 1 to open and 1 to keep sealed. But space and finance forced me to put a stop to that. I still have several items from those days that are still sealed, and in recent days began to open many things (R.I.D. figures, 200X MOTU figures, Marvel Legends, DCU) and found that in some cases, I didn't really like the items as much. For example the old 6" Titanium Transformers figures, I had every single one of them sealed, then a couple years ago decided to open them all in one fell swoop while watching some G1 on DVD. It wasn't until then that I realized how shitty those toys were, joints were loose as well, some pieces were already broken out of the package, they didn't stand or display well on their own. I was a bit upset but realized had I been opening these things from the beginning, I would have realized all of that and stopped buying them after 2 or 3 of them.

Still to this day there are a few items I like to keep sealed. Sometimes I think they just look better in the package. I LOVE the Japanese packaging for Transformers, sometimes I see that as art in itself and love to display it as such. Some items I keep sealed are vintage G1 items, I have some vintage Battle Beasts on card that I will never open as well. And sometimes It's just a matter of I buy too much at one time that piles of stuff just sits around until I have the time to open it and enjoy. I have stacks of Lego sets I haven't even gotten around to yet.

So there are some days when I need a pick me up for whatever reason, and I can come home and dig into an unopened toy that has been sitting there waiting for me, and it feels good. Sometimes having some of that stuff sitting there sealed works out for others, when I realize after a while that I no longer care for it or want it, and it usually ends up going to Toys For Tots since they require toys to be sealed in package.

It can work against me as well, sometimes I miss out on an entire toy movement if you will, and come to the party late, realize how cool it is, and have to play catch up while everyone else has moved onto the next thing. I would open stuff up right when I buy it, but I love taking it home, and getting pics of everything before I open it.

Overall I would say that I am still a mix of both, but I primarily try to open. It saves on space, allows me to enjoy the figure more, and gives me the opportunity to take some sweet pictures!

Planting the paranoia seed that some of your MOC toys might be broken and you just don't know about it yet because they're unopened. More of a joke than anything. ;)

Ha ha...it's a good thing I won't be opening any of mine up for a while than :P And if there ever resold to the general public, well that's the advantage of being a MOC collector...cause we've never opened them!

With G1 I was always "open the box, keep carded carded" on those items. The old 80s Hasbro artwork always looks so cool, Joe and TF just had the best artwork and I wish they'd do what Star Wars has done with their "vintage" packaging.

In 1997 I had an "open the megos" party with my roommate in college that would make Megoheads cry deeply. Nobody really seemed to care about them in my area, and I can't even believe some of the trades I made back then (POTF2 Leia and several other variants that nobody cares for now, for a complete Marvel Mego set MOSC, oh the laughs nowadays)

I wish I kept them and replacing them has been quite hard for many years now. I cashed out in the "ebay boom" years, which was good for my wallet, but now I'd rather have the toys and trying to replace what i had is just impossible financially.

Over the last 3-4yrs I've noticed a serious drop-off in vintage toys not even being up for sale anymore, or at never-gonna-sell-it-in-a-million-years prices. It seems my old/current/always love, japanese robot die-casts, were once plentiful and cheap, are now nowhere to be found. Mego has become more like model kits if you don't want to pay the really high prices!

How do you feel about opening vintage stuff nowadays?
With many loose/complete examples available in the market, many people feel it's a crime, as it removes one more MOSC figure from the gene pool so to speak. You can always, and will always, find another MU Jungle Cap, but carded Battle Beasts... there's only so many left in the world...

I disagree. Take a look at such toys as the Barnyard Commandos. Those sets weren't all that popular on the shelves, so the even more unpopular characters in the series are impossible to find because not only did no one keep those in the package, but no one even bought them!

Time will tell if Jungle Cap will always be able to be found, but my hunch is that it was unpopular enough that only collectors and a handful of kids bought it, so it won't be easy to find in the distant future. (Not that anyone will want it then either).

Barnyard Commandos don't go for much above their original 80s retail man. I can buy any of those right now for under $30. Not much money for something 20+ yrs old.

For your point i think ML Toad is a better example, but even then, that is one of the only modern figures I can think of that does command a large price MOC for over 5 years that isnt mail in or exclusive.

I posted this in another thread but thought it would be appropriate here:

Just wanted to post pics of my collection (with a special link for my MU collection). Loose collectors, beware. They are 95% MOC :)
Wolverine2281's collection

Wow. That did make me kring a bit.

As far as boxed or not, I used to buy doubles of all my figures. I kept one mint and opened the other, but as I got older, the pressure to keep everything that was still boxed pristine became too much. Then after my complete run of mint boxed late 80s early 90s Toy Biz X-Men figures got water damaged. I was so depressed that I just gave up on doubles, although it is still pretty hard for me to open a blister on card. That is why I prefer 1/6 becasue you can open them, take them out and put them back the same way.