Toy collecting questions...

[fatcow]

This thread is likely to get a rise out of some people, and I apologize in advance. This questions below pertain to myself and are not potshots are anyone. I am a fairly recent toy collector but a life long lurker and window shopper. I started about two years ago with DC minimates. It got a little out of hand, as I did not have anywhere to display all of them, and have a toddler around the house so I just made customs and would put them away in a container. I still continued to collect them, despite it notably not being fun. I almost completed the collection but then got fed up of DC mates for some reason, possibly the lack of new ones or the aesthetic compared to the newer mates. Not sure what happened but anyway, they are now my son's and he loves playing with them and swapping parts.

I recently caught up on all battle beasts promos and retail figures as well as the Thundercats series and new View Askew mates. I also ended up ordering 3 minimate carrying cases and it seemed like a good idea. I am not a toy collector who breaks the bank over things so the spending didn't bother me as much as the end game. What am I going to do once I put the minimates in the cases? I love the way the Thundercats look and the details in each figure...but beyond that, am I just going to stare at them?

I can't help but continue to collect the lines that I like, but I have questions for you guys.

1.Why do you collect minimates? Especially people with massive collections.

2.How do you enjoy them? Do you play with them, stare at them or customize them?

3. Do you ever have feelings similar to the inarticulate babble I have posted above?

4. Did the loss of gh freak anyone else out, I know a lot of you were great friends with him, but I wasn't and it still bothered me in way I'm not sure how to describe.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[buttheadsmate]

I'm guessing this is one thread that'll have people 'wanting' to post in it but perhaps won't ......because 'minimates' are quite inexplicable...leastways they are to me .

1. I guess my collection could be described as 'massive' ,it became so out of some sort of OCD that I have about 'collecting' in general . I could elaborate but ....with the exception of Herr Bob Harris "who has seen all"....I don't think anyone here even gets close to realising how fucking mental I have been('am still' to a certain extent ) with this obsession.

2. Enjoy them ? It's got to be a 'Yes' but I really need to figure out why .

3. Inarticulate babble ? I'm legendary at that one.

4.Groundhog's decision was the right one (for him ) but a brave one.......& truly shook me to the core .

Edited December 31, 2013 by buttheadsmate

[MiniFiend UK]

It all started with me when I saw the first waves of marvel way back when. The size just appealed to me and just thought it would be the core figures back then and then just fizzle out. Now the majority of core marvel is covered and its still going strong. I'm not a major completest not having the gold and silver spideys or promo's dont bother me at all but there are some TRU figures I haven't been able to get that niggle me.

Do I play with them..Dunno if play is the word but I like to look at them and still enjoy them in hand. My nephew is old enough now recognise who is who and can comment on if I have a figure of the person in the latest marvel cartoon. He wants know why I don't have A-bomb, Batroc and The Wrecking Crew as they are in the cartoons.

Babble..yes usally linked with beer and prob due sometime later tonight.

I respect anyones decision as its really about them. Even if I stopped collecting I would still come here to see what the latest news was and especially check out the customs.

[MiniMage]

Hmmmm.....

1. I guess it's because I wanted to set myself apart. Not many teenagers have toy collecting as their hobby and nothing else really appealed to me. Sports, video games, etc. I didn't find myself enjoying that stuff. When I stumbled upon Minimates all those years ago (2009?), I was hooked. My collection is in no way massive. The number of Minimates I get yearly is miniscule compared to how many everyone else gets. But I'm content. I have what I want. That's fine by me.

2. Define "play."

3. I think everyone here asks themselves these questions at one point. If you take your time and look at some old threads, there are a lot of them that are dedicated to that type of "babble."

4. I think this question can be best answered by the other members of the board. GH made many friends here. I wish I could've been one of them.

[Zexion_Armando]

Luckily I don't have children, and my younger baby brother is really good about taking care of them (started him off on legoes, gave him my spare dupe Avengers, so he is learning)

1. I love them. They are cheap, dynamic enough to pose but small and cute enough to not take up a lot of room. Plus I prefer character looks over sets. I love variant looks. Plus the cute weapons. And inter changable parts to make customs

2. I play with them on a smaller scale. Mostly I pose them on jewelry display tier sets, either in teams or in dynamic fighting sets.

3. I dont,but my boyfriend sees the issue when I have too much. As it stands, I store all dupes and unmatched mates in my nice tacklebox under my desk.

4. Not really

[undeadpool]

this is actually something i've been waiting to contribute to, i've wanted to share my thoughts on why i have and continue to collect these little plastic figures. Im not sure if my collection warrants "massive" but then again I hardly post pictures, and it is at least in the hundreds and maybe even a low thousand

1. why do I collect minimates? it started as an interest in figures that were 1. more pose-able 2. interchangable and 3. accessorized

Lego's had 2 of those qualities and when I first saw minimates, i knew i'd found the third. After starting to buy them (marvel due to my love of the flms) i began reading more comics, and that in turn fueled my collection even further

2. How do I enjoy them? well I have the benefit of having started my collection when I was 10 and seeing it grow as i turned 18, so when I was younger my and my friends would pick them up and play with them like any other toy, we even organized wars between the figures. When I hit highschool, i did less of that and more setting up scenes with them posed in battles and such and thats really the way I enjoy them. Ill pick them up, look them over, and then set up another extravagant fight scene.

3. Babble, at times yes, but I guess i've never really had the issue of the "end game" because, like with comics, i am not worried with the figures value, but the joy they bring me

4. Gh was a great dude, and seeing him go was tough, but as BHM says, it was for the right reasons. I do think we will see him here again (not that he'll "relapse" but that he'll come by to say hi) I think he always has a place in this community, whether he collects anymore or not

[fatcow]

These replies have really help put some of my thoughts in perspective. Its good to know that there are other people who sometimes take a look at their, for lack of a better term, minimate addiction. MMMV does make me feel like much less of a misanthrope. Woop.

[Shogi]

Why do I collect Minimates? Because a friend pointed out I could easily make Doctor Who customs with existing parts.....it then spiraled from there

I set them up from time to time and sometimes take pictures of them. When everyone in my facebook newsfeed were posting bitstrips, I decided to be different and made my own using custom minimates of me and my wife.

I do sometimes wonder what I'm going to do with all this stuff (I collect much more than just Minimates and some of the toy lines are pretty big) I try to ignore such introspection though as it leads to me selling off collections, then a few years later buying them all back for inflated prices than when I sold them.

I've seen many other toy collectors leave after being around forever, many of them came back, some I've never heard from since. Such is the toy collector life

[bigvis497]

I collect them because I like Marvel and currently this is the only Marvel toyline that's worth spending money on.

[battlecat]

I definitely have moments of ambivalence towards all the "stuff" that I have amassed. The Minimates, at least, can all be on display; the various other toys in closets and boxes, waiting for when I move someplace with more room, are not really being enjoyed much in the meantime, but I still buy new ones all the time and do enjoy that, so I don't know.

And I definitely do just like having a room full of toys on display, without really playing with them or sitting there and staring at them or anything, so yay materialism I guess? My brother is a travel nut and hardly owns anything, so maybe that evens things out. If all this collecting actually started to negatively impact my life/relationships in any way, I would hope I'd have the guts to just walk away like Groundhog.

[buttheadsmate]

Really regretting the 'massive' comment I made It matters not what ya got as long as you love 'em.

My apologies.

[fatcow]

Really regretting the 'massive' comment I made It matters not what ya got as long as you love 'em.

My apologies.

...too nice. Stop it.

Edited January 1, 2014 by fatcow

[homestar17]

I "collect" them because they are on the small end of action figures & they are easy to store (I basically shove them in boxes/bins when I'm not using them). I started for 2 reasons (tho I am a grown child & have collected toys forever):

1. I have been a photography dork for years, but I greatly dislike people (see comment about toys). Toys will stand still forever without the whining & complaining -- no matter how many retakes I shoot.

2. As a girl, minimates offer the most widespread female characters (besides dolls). Growing up, if I wanted to play, it had to be as a girl character. (As such, WW is my all-time, absolute favorite -- she'll kick all y'all's asses. ) It was a fondness of Palz figures that led me to minimates.

I buy what I like, or what I think I can use for photos (to mainly amuse myself).

I've said it before, but I do miss my Bro (A LOT). What helps is that there are still so many people on this forum that I appreciate soooo very much.

[VulcansFury]

To me, Minimates aren't toys, they are Art. And they are the most interactive pieces of art available. There's something incredibly special about the entire Minimate aesthetic. Other companies have tried the "cutesy" interpretation of the same characters and they frequently fall far short of capturing that characteristic quality and attitude that Minimates have. To me, Minimates have that special balance of detail in their sculpting (which has come a long way and I love them for it) and the chibi-esqe face designs. But why did I call them the "most interactive pieces of art available"? Because they lend themselves to customization far better than any other thing on the market while retaining their aesthetic that helps them fit in with the rest of the collection. Swapping parts is great and a lot of companies allow you to do it. But even if you have the lowest of artistic ability, you can still make a better "go" of customizing a Minimate than you can a Lego figure. I can make a decal adhere better on a Mate's head than a Lego head while appearing seamless. And if you over-detail your minimate decals, they still fit in well. Lego, it takes a very special effort to make a custom design fit in well without looking like a custom due to such a tight artwork aesthetic. I don't want to enrage any Lego fans here, but their prices are quite high, and their poseability just plain sucks. They are like Vintage Kenner figures that have failed to adapt to modern times, and they have such a limited selection available. For Minimates, let's look at how "deep" their catalog goes. I never get a big mental block when either wishlisting or thinking of customs. It's more a matter of "do I want to make that character" instead of "who do I make next?". Also, their size is a great thing, since I can amass and display a ton of them without needing a ton of space.

I grew up on Star Wars. Kenner had a "Collect Them All!" mentality that they fostered by making them inexpensive and readily available. The current market with all the exclusive nonsense and high-priced "collectible" mentality turns me off a lot of stuff. DST seems to be (to me at least) the spiritual successor to that age old mentality of making it possible or at least (relatively) easy on fans to be able to "Collect Them All!". Sure, there are some hiccups along the way (a few TRU exclusives, etc), but nothing to make me want to rage-quit like what Hasbro or Mattel does with their unfriendly policies and assortments. I gave up on Hasbro's Marvel Universe when they started repacking old figs with new in the comic 2-packs and other funny business like one-per-case shenanigans. DST, if they are going to repack, 99.9% of the time there's something different enough about the rehashed character packed with the new one that I have no complaints whatsoever.

Minimates are just the "perfect storm" of toy/collectible. DST actually cares about the fans and the market, and doesn't rely on cheap gimmicks. Their "variants" are available in different case-packs so the e-tailers like Luke, etc, can get multiple full sets in each case to sell to us without needing to gouge us like other companies do (Hasbro, Mattel, etc). I never worry about missing out on the variant, and to me that is the number one reason I continue collecting any line. I started for their awesomeness, I continued because the company treats me well (and the awesomeness has markedly improved!)

Geez, man! Great topic! I don't think I've ever typed so much that I wasn't getting graded on! Happy New Years! Bring on Toy Fair 2014

[fatcow]

This has thus far gone much better than expected. Has anyone thought about a MMMV member interview series? I would watch/read it.

[Zombie Shakespeare]

1.Why do you collect minimates? Especially people with massive collections.

Collecting in general for me is about recapturing childhood memories. I collected a lot of different lines as a kid with my brother and my same-age cousin. Those were great times and buying toys takes me back to that in some small way (I also have the power and ability to buy what I want, when I want that I did not have as a kid). A big part of the appeal of minimates for me is that the Marvel character selection is awesome and there are so many different licenses. I always wanted to have my different toys interact, but they were in different scales or styles and didn't often make sense. Minimates allow me to have Wolverine hang out with Chuck Norris. I don't have a massive collection, but it over the last 2 years it has expanded substantially.

2.How do you enjoy them? Do you play with them, stare at them or customize them?

Unfortunately, they're currently occupying several shoe boxes in plastic bags separated by license or section of the Marvel universe. I'd love to have some space to display more of them, but I live in a small house with a 4-year-old. Currently, Tribble Kirk is displayed in the Enterprise on a book shelf at home. I have a Spider-Man swinging on a corkboard and Hulk tending a mini zen garden at work.

I have found a number of different ways to get them out and enjoy them. They substitute playing pieces for several of my daughter, board games when we play. (They work great with Chutes & Ladders and Candy Land) We also use them to play math games. (If I have 5 Hulks and you have 7 Hulks, how many Hulks do we have together?) I'll set them up and take pictures occasionally if something strikes me and I review all of the Walking Dead and zombie-related mates on my zombie-themed blog.

3. Do you ever have feelings similar to the inarticulate babble I have posted above?

Absolutely. Especially when impulse causes me to spend more than I planned on or when money's a little tight and I know I have some stuff on pre-order. I justify it in my mind, by telling myself it's a relatively cheap hobby compared to other things (excessive drinking, elicit drug use, high-end prostitutes, etc.)

4. Did the loss of gh freak anyone else out, I know a lot of you were great friends with him, but I wasn't and it still bothered me in way I'm not sure how to describe.

I didn't have much interaction with gh, but enjoyed his presence. Sad to see him go, but understandable. There are certainly more important things in life. For me the pros of collecting still outweigh the cons, if that ever changed or if my wife stopped tolerating my hobby, I would miss it, but minimates and toys would be gone.

[buttheadsmate]

In days gone by I got various PMs from more than one incensed member telling me to " lay off " 'Hog .......poor little guy

Zombie Billywaggledagger...... I'm still working on how many Hulks you both had

[Zombie Shakespeare]

fatcow, on 01 Jan 2014 - 13:54, said:

This has thus far gone much better than expected. Has anyone thought about a MMMV member interview series? I would watch/read it.

I like this idea a lot. I would definitely read it. We have a lot of interesting people (read: weirdos) on the board. Back when I was collecting Simpsons figures, there was an interview series on the board I frequented. Every month 2 members would answer a set of 20 questions about themselves and their connections to the show and the toys and then they would be highlighted on the website.

[buttheadsmate]

Weirdos ????

[VulcansFury]

[SlushyFrog]

I get asked the first question a lot by friends / family. I have plenty of friends who are into geek culture, but I am the only one among my close friends who collects toys.

The short answer is I enjoy it. The long answer is I don't know. I consider myself fairly rational and practical, but when it comes to collectibles I make completely irrational decisions. I don't go overboard, but I won't hesitate to spend money on something I really want.

My collecting really first became extensive with Marvel Legends. The combination of sculpt and articulation was something I had never seen before -- and I loved Marvel. I was also at the age where I was just old enough to spend money on frivolous things at my leisure. I remember when Minimates came out and thinking they were cool, though a bit too simplistic for my tastes. But I also was afraid to start an entirely new collection. Years later, as Marvel Legends was waning, I bought the Wolverine / Deadpool set. I was hooked. Minimates had gotten to the point where I could appreciate both the simplicity of the design and they had just enough amount of sculpted parts to really capture the individual characters.

So why do I keep collecting? Part of it is purely aesthetic -- I like seeing my favorite characters assembled in 3D form in a clean, consistent design. Part of it probably pathological. My dad used to collect stamps / coins -- maybe there is some collecting gene, but otherwise Minimates are basically plastic crack for me (but harmless and relatively inexpensive). It's something fun and stable to look forward to with just a small amount of stress in trying to obtain everything to make things a bit interesting. The variety (at least for Marvel) is unparalled. I love opening the packages, but it's not long before I put them into those tiny ziplock bags and put them into storage containers. At least they're small and cheap compared to 6" figures, which is why Minimates is pretty much all I collect now (and the occasional Hot Toys figure). I usually only keep a handful on display on my desk and "stare at them," but that's pretty much all I do with them.

And although I'm primarily a lurker, I also enjoy reading this forum consisting of fellow collectors enjoying a fairly niche product.

Edited January 2, 2014 by SlushyFrog