What got you back into toy collecting as an adult?

[jason9298]

12 inch Mego KISS figures in the early 90s.

92 to be exact for me a Gene Simmons figure at a flea mart

[acrovader]

Nostalgia. I sold a lot of my figures around '92. I never thought there would be much of a collectors market for them. I quickly regretted the decision. I was going to college, needed money to buy compact discs. I figured that once I graduated and had a good job, I'd buy them again. Bad. Bad. Bad. Not only did I got ripped off from the hobby store that bought them, but I never expected they'd go up in price over time. There was no toy collector magazines in the early 90's (at least, not yet) and the internet was still considered a luxury. I sold these figures for dirt cheap. I had no reference on what they were worth. Well, several years later, I was collecting those toys again. And I still collect them. Mainly vintage stuff. I'm always nostalgic for my childhood years- when Santa was real, no bills to pay or any other concerns of adulthood, there were plenty of toy stores everywhere. In the early part of my adult toy collecting years, I kept it a secret. I wasn't too keen to display anything. My brother would try to liken me to the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons. My mother would shake her head and say that I'm too old for toys. But collecting vintage toys, toys I had and were lost or broken, or never had at all, is very therapeutic. I still don't display my collection, though.

[Splitty]

Once again I don't fit in with other collector stories or mentality.

For me, not so much 'back into' collecting as 'start collecting', as I was never able to collect to start with. I wasn't a boy, and I didn't have super hero or star wars figures to play with as a child.

Being a girl from a poor family constrained to smaller private schools (who were not very media savvy), but with a MAMMOTH imagination and a love for TV and movies which thrived on fantasy, sci-fi, and horror monsters, but no way to fulfill it was frustrating!
I only ever got a few Barbies a year, never got to roam toy stores, and rarely even got a toy catalog. Never even got to see sweet lines like Other Worlds, Inhummanoids, or even She-Ra. For my Barbies, I had to hand sew fantasy and sci-fi clothes and make my own props! But sadly no monsters. I never even other girls I could play with, because all they wanted to play was house, modern dress-up, and kissing junk. I had epic stories I needed to fulfill.

When I got into highschool in the late 80s, it was all about the movies. My love of those genres (especially horror) took off. Got even worse after HS when I got a job at a good 'ol video store. I was a bonafide movie-phile. I collected VHS tapes. Toys weren't even on the radar.

And on another note, since childhood I had always wanted to be an animator, but tendonitis in my early 20's (from the video store and my disorder) squashed that and my doodles, and when CGI started up that didn't interest me, not hands on enough (I do really kick-*** at puppetry though, tendonitis be damned).

Then the first action figure I noticed was Spawn's Freak back in the mid-90's. With that one creepy figure I discovered that there was a whole opening world of physical figures that represented all the lurid, horrific, terrifying, crazy (and some 80s TV nostalgic) things from my all-consuming never ending imagination. It was AWESOME. Since then, my collecting continues to grow in more directions every year (a surrogate for creating my own things I suspect) discovering new planes and genres of things I could never fathom and continue to amaze me. I will NEVER be bored collecting now, as there's always something new I just haven't discovered yet. That excitement of discovery will keep me fueled forever.

[Splitty]

... I still don't display my collection, though.

I just saw this. You should totally think about setting up a small shelf somewhere, even if it's for only a small part of your collection.

When you're having a bad day, with nothing but black thoughts, just wandering over to your special collecting place and letting your eyes roam over them can usually do nothing but make you feel really good, a nice distraction. It's another highly recommended therapeutic action!

[The Toyroom]

Super Powers back in college and then WWF Hasbro figures as an "adult"....

[Bronxboykev]

I think I gave the short version on last years Pre Christmas podcast, and have hinted to it a few times in the Mego Meet threads... 5 years ago I went thru what was suppose be the most minimally invasive of the Gastric bypass surgeries (gastric sleeve) for a person of my size. My brother took the journey with me, we started together and eventually wound up at the same end point, it just took me a bit longer to get there, According to my doctors at NY Presbyterian Hospital for special surgery, I am the first case to develop a leak 6 weeks after surgery. As I lay bed ridden and not knowing if I would ever be able to walk again, you spend a lot of time trying to occupy your days and nights. At first it was Television... I think I must have watched the entire West Wing series 2 times... then there was the mornings and evenings filled with The Rifleman, Chyenne, Wagon Train, Bat Masterson, Maverick, Paladin,and Marshall Dillon and Gunsmoke... they made me start thinking of my childhood toys, Marx's Johnny West best of the west, then that led to GI Joe, and eventually my Favorites... Mego's WGSH. Well what is one to do with idle hands and lots of spare cash... Yep you guessed it E bay lol, 4 Mego meets, lots of museum deals and the bank account has taken its share of big hits lol.

I did forget to mention that all of it has led to numerous long distance Friendships from the South East to the far west from Canada to Jolly Ol England, thru this forum and Facebook which is immeasurable!!!