[behindthemask]

I collect action figures, partly because it was drilled into a young age that toys were cool. As kids we don't grow up watching Oprah or the news we watched cartoons, movies and read the comics.. so because of the nature of the shows and entertainment we used, we got targeted with commercials in TV/movies, adds in newspapers,comics, the wishbook when x-mas time was around... all telling us that our favorite characters can obtained in miniture plastic for for the low low price of... I had almost every Ghostbuster, TMNT,gi joe growing up, and transformers, tastes change, we all lost/sold toys we wish we didn't. I then moved on to dc figures, batman mainly, had the bat mobiles, jets, bat cave, 100+ figures, and I slowly got away from them sold most of them off to friends or in yard sales. I collected hockey cards for years, and realized after a while that I was spending $5-10 for a pack of cardboard, and never had the same enjoyment as owning a figure. at least I could play with it, change the accessories display them etc. I learned of customizing and was hooked, got late into ML figures, tried buying some on ebay, Was a huge Iron man fan growing up and when the movie launched I was obsessed with trying to own them all.. I have maybe 30-40 diff iron man figures from 3 3/4 -18'' scale... I personally don't own any Hot toys figures simply due to cost... average figure is $100-300 range + shipping and in my case + exchange rate. I really have to like a figure to spend a 1/3 or more of a paycheck on a toy... I'd rather complete an entire wave of MU figures or ML figures. I collect toys based on attention to detail, accessories included, how rare it is, how obscure it is, does it fit my collection, do I need it and does it look cool when displayed.. Generally if a toys answers yes to all those questions I'll buy it or at least put it on my wanted/watch list. I try to pick up figures locally, vs online, independent stores over bulk stores to give them the business and keep things local.. I'd rather pay a little extra for figures if it means I get first crack at a case or can get a case ordered for me and not have to take 4 of the same figures.. My normal range is $10-30 / figure. I did recieve a dc Green Lantern Corps deluxe box set figure for xmas, round 100$+ retail ,he's 1/6 , amazing detail in clothing and accessories, and the price when I got it was half price... which prompted the buy, also the possability of resale when the movie comes out! A lot of hot toys buyers buy the figures because they know the stuff is expensive and limited and when they're done, they become even more valuable, ie that grey suit iron man, that was limited to 500-1000? was like $150-180 range and now good luck finding 1 for less then 500-1000. I don't buy figures because they're going to make me rich but because they make me happy. A lot of us have the mentality to collect them all, or look for variants, some buy multiples for army builders /display purposes. hope that helped