Any insight is appreciated

[Access]

I've collected toys since I was a kid, also a stint with baseball and football cards, and other things throughout my life, but I've found that there is ,in my experience, an inordinately high ratio of jerkoffs in the toy collecting world.

There seems to be a pervasive culture of "one upsmanship" and maligning others stuff in this hobby. Why?

What is it about playthings that seem to bring the insecure, weirdos out?

I would think that it could do just the opposite, bring a sense of community to people who remember fondly what brought joy and imagination to their childhood, in some case (like here at the mego museum) that spirit exists, but elsewhere it devolves quickly into ugliness.

Anyone who has been in this hobby knows what I'm talking about, so there is no need to walk softly around the subject.

[Mikey]

Try collecting wrestling stuff

The toy guys will then look more sane

[JWLJN]

Try collecting wrestling stuff

The toy guys will then look more sane

I can vouch for that one. Wrestling autograph/photo op collectors are the worst, though. They complain about wrestling promoters treating the talent like meat, but they do the same thing.

-J\/\/

[SentientApe]

It is my firm belief (and life experience) that there is a specific subset of jerks within any group of people. I have not witnessed "more" in toy collecting circles, but I think the highest percentage is within the hobby of Historical / Military Reenacting.

... and to make matters worse: those guys have guns.

[Werewolf]

I would think that it could do just the opposite, bring a sense of community to people who remember fondly what brought joy and imagination to their childhood, in some case (like here at the mego museum) that spirit exists, but elsewhere it devolves quickly into ugliness.

The museum has strong moderation.

But it's not just toys. You could say the same about pretty much any hobby these days. Comic book forums are especially bad in my experiences. There are several nerd news sites I check for toy and pop culture news. But I've learned to never go to the forums or read the comments. I still think the mean people are in the minority online. But they and their sock puppets are by far the loudest.

Same with even news articles in online news sites and papers. Don't read the comments. EVER. Trust me.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Those types are few and far between here. And once they get riled up often enough, they are shown the door. My advice is just stay here, and don't bother with other sites.

Chris

[4NDR01D]

One upmanship is in all hobbies and in all facets of life from sports /athleticism to/and including intellectualism. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, from Steven Hawking when asked what his IQ was, he replied "I have no idea. People who boast about their IQ are losers". I think it should be applied to anybody who brags period.

[palitoy]

I studied and taught Karate for a number of years, we were a pretty zen bunch with a "check your ego at the door" philosophy. A departure bumped me up the pecking order and I sought to a message board to seek some advice on how to run the dojo better, get new recruits.

My first reply? "You ***s ought to learn judo so you can be real men"

It's the same crap everywhere, a small group of people like to pin their self image on what they have rather than who or what they are.

[Access]

Thanks y'all. Yeah some complete tool got dumb on a fb group yesterday. My wife can't stop laughing about it. A guy getting into it over who's little plastic toy is "better", or whatever. I probably wont live the fact that I actually got roped into his little game down for a while. Right now my wife is probably crafting some clever little jibe about the whole confrontation! LOL

[Gorn Captain]

Every group has its weirdos, some more than others.
I'm a Star Trek fan, but honestly, at conventions I often see a gathering of narrowed-minded xenophobic basket cases. You'd think that the ST philosophy would expand their minds, but no, they live in a very small micro-universe of their own.
And I'm a toy nut and convention guy myself, but oh boy, sometimes it does feel that the looney farm has its "grand day out"...

The weirdest thing I have run into is racist Star Trek fans. Two-headed green monsters are cool, but people with brown skin, those are evil...

[rykerw1701]

I've actually found Star Trek fans to be pretty inclusive overall. But I've also found the truly hard core to be introverted and obsessive, but that's probably true of Star Wars, baseball or any other group of fans.

As to toy collectors, I backed way off of this hobby for several years in part because I got tired of some of the all too frequent childish squabbling that was occurring. I still see it in statue collecting forums like StatueForum or SideshowFreaks, too.Just watch them light up the message boards because Sideshow has released a variant version of a statue they own. As much as I hate to admit it, I think the subject matter appeals more to people with some serious maturity and mutual respect issues, though certainly one can find plenty of jerks in NFL forums, too, for example.

Greed was the other reason I walked away from this for a while. I've certainly sold my share of unwanted stuff on ebay, but making money is not the reason I'm in this hobby, nor is justifying avarice because I have to pay for all the stuff I want to buy.

But for every one greedy, childish ******* in this hobby and here in particular, there's 10 cool people with good insight and perspective wanting the hobby to be fun for everybody.

Lastly, I think this the best run forum occupying this hobby space on the internet. A lot of people work hard and don't get anything out of it except the fun of building the hobby for everyone.