Have you radically changed your collection over the years?

[Gorn Captain]

I've been thinking of a radical change for quite a while now: getting rid of the whole "toy room" concept (hundreds of figures), and just buying a handful of lifesize collectibles, like an R2D2. For the rest, I'd just build and customize my own stuff.

[Hector]

Awesome posts, guys!

[Hector]

I too hated Trek as a kid, found it incredibly boring...loved Lost in Space waaaaaaay more as well...

[Hector]

Just saw this after reading your post . . . Need one, Hec?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18649[/ATTACH]

That must be a custom...I don't believe there's a licensed Alien pez...

[Hector]

I forgot to mention that I also mingle with NASA stuff, not a lot, but specific pieces...have always been fascinated by the space program...The Right Stuff and Apollo 13 are amongst my favorite movies...love watching documentaries as well...and reading its history...great fan of Neil Armstrong...

[johnnystorm]

I used to be into collecting tv theme toys & board games, then I purged a good bit of that. Otherwise it remains pretty steady in comics, nonsports cards, books, and assorted stuff. But now it's only stuff I personally like. I like collecting loose action figures. And Megos!
I occasionally thin the herd though, I find some stuff piles up and then I sorta wonder why I have it all...a good example is Dr. Who stuff. I really lost interest when Capaldi took over. So a lot of that has to go.
Same with comics, I might be into a series then it ends and a few years later I can't think why.
I used to really be into hockey in the 90s, collected Lemieux & Gretzky but after they finally retired it faded away. I still like both players, but rarely add anything.

[Spyweb007]

I haven't gotten rid of much of my collection, but I do have a smaller focus of stuff that I still buy. I mostly buy Mego scale stuff now, since there is so much available, I like having so many characters from different properties in one uniform scale to display. I also pick up some 6" Star Wars Black Series figures from time to time. I used to collect across more lines and scales but that was before all this Re-Mego product hit, now I can't even keep up with just the 8" stuff.

[Mikey]

I remember reading a book made me get into lunchboxes.

[rykerw1701]

My focus changes, but I tend to circle back to old collecting loves. Star Trek TOS has always remained dear to me, but I've bought very little in the last dozen years. The new Mezco stuff has my interest though. I went full on Mego nuts in the late 90's and early '00's, but haven't bought anything vintage since then. I did get the whole Mattel remego line and most of the Batman '66 line, but that's it for now. 12 inch GI Joe is like Star Trek, I circle back to it from time to time. I was full on comic books nuts until the early 90's crash, and only buy one here and there now. Which I mostly don't get around to read. Oh and football cards completely dominated my collector mindset in the early 90's, but I haven't bought any at all in forever.

I also have half a dozen Hot Toys, and about as many Batman:TAS animation cells.

And statues, oh man. Dozens of them. Right now it's the DC Bombshells line, before that it was Covergirls line. In part because I already had enough Superman and Batman statues. I feel a big statue purge coming on this fall.

And of course the oddball action figure that still makes it's way into the house.

My problem is that once I loose interest, I don't usually sell. I throw the stuff in a box in the basement and forget about, either thinking I'll circle back or they'll become worth selling, which doesn't usually happen. Playmates Star Trek anyone? My basement looks like the last scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

[SKotK]

I'm going to illustrate how my collecting has changed by talking first about what I *don't* collect, or stopped collecting, or pared down for the sake of space.

NON-VINTAGE STAR WARS:
First and foremost, Star Wars is my thing. I have been picking up the action figures, vehicles, and playsets since they came out, and that continues to this day. What's changed there is that I generally *don't* collect stuff from the 90s-onward anymore. It was hard to resist when new Hasbro Star Wars action figures hit the shelves again in the mid-90s, but by the mid-2000s I was burned out on that: way too many figures and reissues/repaints, and I realized I just didn't have the kind of nostalgia about those things that I did the vintage line (as cool and as well-crafted as some of the new figures were). So I stopped, and have been unloading what I had at an increased pace lately. However, the vintage line on the other hand I've been collecting more quickly to try and fill in those last gaps. So I'm done collecting anything SW that's non-vintage, unless it's really, really amazingly cool and impossible to pass up.

VINYL RECORDS: At the beginning of the 90s I became a record collector, at about the same moment the industry declared that vinyl was dead. This meant I could find used records for cheap, so I started buying them up with all the spare cash I had. At some point, I had most of what I wanted to own, and I stopped for the most part. Still pick up the odd release here and there, but let me tell you - moving with all that vinyl is like hauling multiple boat anchors around! I've found there's not a lot of it I want to sell, though. But for the most part, I'm done with collecting vinyl.

RETRO GAMING & COMPUTER SYSTEMS:
Also in the early 90s I started picking up any and all retro video game systems and retro computers. At the time they could be had for peanuts at the local thrift stores, because nobody wanted them...they hadn't quite achieved their retro nostalgia collectibility yet, and everybody was focused on the latest PC and gaming platforms. My collection ballooned up like crazy and at one point I had a whole room dedicated to old systems. But at some point I had to move, and didn't want to deal with that massive pile of old systems and games. Plus, emulators had come out and that meant I could play any old game I wanted with the click of a mouse. So I dumped nearly the entire collection at my local retro toy store and back to the local Goodwill, keeping only a couple working Commodore 64s (my retro computer of choice), an Atari 7800/2600 with a handful of cartridges, and my original childhood game system, the Vectrex (which I have stepped up my collecting for more recently). So other than Vectrex, I'm done with collecting video game and computer systems (although I did pick up a TI-99/4a - my first computer - that was new in box more recently).

COMIC BOOKS:
I was very selective about what comic books I collected, and I never collected superhero stuff. In the 70s it began with Star Wars. In the 80s it expanded to Indiana Jones, GI Joe and Transformers (along with a bit of Tintin and Asterix). Then I started getting into Judge Dredd, followed in the 90s by the Aliens series when Dark Horse began. Once Dark Horse picked up Star Wars and began publishing that title again, I was buying it up regularly for a while. At some point it became overwhelming, in addition to feeling like a lot of what was being published didn't fit my view of what Star Wars should be, so I quit Star Wars (and most everything else). Since then I collected the full run of a couple indie titles called Gloomcookie and Little Scrowlie, completed my Tintin collection, and cornered the market on (French comic book character) Iznogoud fandom on this side of the globe. At present there are no more titles I collect, and I only buy to fill in the gaps here and there on series I never completed. So I'm pretty much done with comic books for the forseeable future.

Now for what I started collecting more recently that I never really collected before:

STAR TREK:
Star Trek is definitely second to Star Wars for me, but it was my first love. Prior to 1977 it was everything I wanted. Top of the list was the Mego line, but I never had a single one when I was a kid for various reasons beyond my control. However, my love for it never died, even if it was pushed aside by vintage Star Wars collecting for many years. More recently as I've come closer to closing in my Star Wars collection, I've turned to Mego Star Trek as I always knew I would. I've had a mint in opened package Kirk since the 90s, waiting for his crew and foes to join him...and now they have. I started by picking up all the EMCE Star Trek collection, which were awesome. Once that was done, I turned my focus on the vintage Mego stuff, buying everything as near-mint as possible so I could enjoy it as 5-year-old me would have back when it came out. I'm closing in on completing the collection now, and this childhood wish is finally being fulfilled. What a joy it is!

DOCTOR WHO:
Doctor Who is third under Star Trek and Star Wars for me. But I remain resolute that I will not collect Doctor Who toys (apart from the sonic screwdrivers, which I see as more of a prop replica/costume piece). Instead, I've collected classic Doctor Who missing episodes (or the best recreations of them), and related info on them. Which is really not a very tangible thing, as it all resides on my hard drives. However, that's a good thing since these days physical space is a premium, and I don't have the room to collect physical Doctor Who toys. I've made an exception for the Classic Who novelizations, which I've wanted to complete since I was a kid...so I fill in those as I come across them. So for the most part, Doctor Who collecting is primarily in the digital realm for me...which is kind of a new concept for me.

So I guess the major way my collecting has changed over the years has been to narrow down my focus to just the most important childhood era stuff...the stuff that brings me the most joy. That's enough to fill the available room in my house as it is, so that's where I stop at this point.

--SKot

[Hector]

Holy smokes...I think you win the yin yang collecting award ^^^^ 😀😀😀

Seriously, what a great read guys...

[vulcan2074]

Holy smokes...I think you win the yin yang collecting award ^^^^ ������

Seriously, what a great read guys...

I agree. That was an awesome post.
Sammy

[cjefferys]

I've always collected toys, I've taken breaks, but never sold everything. I've just got a bit more focused and sold most of the 80's-90's carded stuff I had to narrow things down to mostly Megos, Godzilla and Japanese robots (and vintage 12" Star Wars).

I used to collect comics but sold/traded off most of it years ago. I used to collect movies, first VHS, then DVD, then Blu-ray but I don't buy too many these days, I can just stream almost anything I want to watch these days. I'm trying to recoup some of my money on these by selling the out of print stuff, but unfortunately most used video is near worthless, I don't want to think of what I paid for all of it!

[Captain Big Trousers]

A pictorial journey.

Shortly before my tenth birthday my family moved from the UK to Australia and I was forced to give away all my toys. ALL of them.

We arrived in Oz a week before Christmas and for that I received a Six Million Dollar Man doll. What's a kid supposed to do with a lone 6MDM figure? He just sat there, looking stupid.

And from that point my childhood changed. I had a skateboard, a bike and a pocket knife and toys weren't really a thing. But giving away all my toys left scars, man. Deep scars.

In 2004 my "collection" looked like this... a few desk toys (R2D2 is a pen jar)...



In 2006 there was an added Dalek and a Terminator...



In 2008 I bought a Cyberman head...



2009 and things are still fairly minimalistic...



... but there are a few more things on the shelf. I've started buying toys I had to give away in 1976. Oh oh.



Later that year and I'm thinking about how my new collection will fit into a (supposedly) adult's house. Bought a shop display cabinet.



2010... first night in a new house (I painted the room on the first day).



Let's skip a bit. 2014.









I don't really obsess over any one collection. Just a bit of everything. In this bowl alone...



... there's:

A 1970s yoyo, a dinosaur tooth, a fossil amonite, a meteorite, a WWI cigarette lighter, coins dating back to 1594, casino dice and chips and pinball bearings.

I'm continuing to add things to the room, but I've slowed down considerably. Maybe 3 new items a year. And I've started making my own collectables (eg: the puppets and the large Martian Tripod). Much cheaper.

[toys2cool]

man I got thru different stages all the time...Star wars, Gi joes, hot toys, TMNT, legos..But still strong with the Warrior, WDCC, and video games