State of the Hobby

[murderofcrows]

Toy Collecting has always been an Up and Down hobby for me.

When I was a kid I collected everything i could get my hands on...star wars, gi joe, transformers, he man you name it

As I got to be a teenager, i focused all of my spending dollars on GI Joe.

In college I got out of collecting all together.

After college, I was drawn back into action figures with Star Wars and my collection was HUGE....until one day I just got tired of it all and walked away cold turkey.

One day I decided to buy a GI Joe for the new line, and I got up to around 20...and stopped again .

I bought one Marvel Legend (captain america) to sit on my book shelf. That spiraled into collecting all legends I could find.

From the legends spawned the Minimates...so for a few years solid I collected both lines, until Habro took over the legends, it soured me and I stopped collecting them, but minimates continued to be a collecting presence roughly 500 minimates .

I decided a few months back to clean house again and all legends are gone, and only 88 minimates remain in my collection.

While I will continue to collect minimates it is not ALL and only a few here and there

I guess the point of this long winded discussion is that of all the toys i have collected and let go, I just can not bring myself to completely let go of minimates. I am not sure why, is it the fun cute design maybe? is it the fact i like to use them for web comics....? I do not know but I do know that as long as I have breath in my body i will always have at least one minimate.... but I do not know if I will (never say never) ever collect a toy line again...

what is your story>?

[TM2 Dinobot]

I'd like to say I'm collecting more, but I'm not. I can't decide if that's good or not. Perhaps a bit bitter sweet. I was doing Halo 3 but quit (if anyone can get me the wave 1 blue Mark VI I'll call it quits) Perhaps the saddest thing of all is the complete and total death of Transformers. I love Animated. I still do it. But nothing else. I don't even remotely want anything else.

Other things have taken their place. I find it hard to be a collector of japanese stuff, but I like the occasional figure.

Maybe thing will pick back up when I get a job again? :/

[buttheadsmate]

I joined the MMMV 2 years ago almost to the day , I owned one Minimate & kubrick was a 'film director'. Two years later & .......you wouldn't believe me if I told you Well perhaps one or two members here would :biggrin: .

[Shanester]

I only ever wanted one minimate... the green Hulk. He used to be a flash graphic over at RTM and I loved the figure. I was sold immediately.

I then decided to "maybe get a few more". The rest is history...

I have not been a big collector. As a kid I had 12" GI Joe, Mego figures, and finally Star Wars. I had some experience with the small GI Joes and MOTU figures, from playing with my younger brother, but didn't collect. I kept all my old toys that survived, but I had a habit of giving them away over time, to younger family members. I still have 2 12" GI Joes, a slew of Mego figures and most of my Star Wars figures. PLUS, an entire wall of Hulk stuff, many statues, and way too many minimates.

[karamazov80]

I only ever wanted one minimate... the green Hulk. He used to be a flash graphic over at RTM and I loved the figure. I was sold immediately.

I then decided to "maybe get a few more". The rest is history...

Substitute "Blue Beetle" for Hulk, and you have my Minimate story. I collected Joes, Super Powers, Secret Wars, He-Man, Ninja Turtles, and some others as a kid, and then when I got a little older, some of the crappy Toy Biz Marvel figures from the early 90s, and the awesome Batman: the Animated Series guys. I got out of it in middle/high school when my friends stopped wanting to play GI Joe for some incomprehensible reason, and stayed pretty far away through my undergraduate days, until I started picking up the JLU figures around 2003 or 2004, after receiving the 10 inch Batman as a gift. It stayed pretty modest though, until I got back into GI Joes and Transformers in late 06. Now, it is completely out of control, but my Minimates are the pride of my collection.

[buttheadsmate]

I only ever wanted one minimate... the green Hulk. He used to be a flash graphic over at RTM and I loved the figure. I was sold immediately.

I then decided to "maybe get a few more". The rest is history...

Substitute "Blue Beetle" for Hulk, and you have my Minimate story. I collected Joes, Super Powers, Secret Wars, He-Man, Ninja Turtles, and some others as a kid, and then when I got a little older, some of the crappy Toy Biz Marvel figures from the early 90s, and the awesome Batman: the Animated Series guys. I got out of it in middle/high school when my friends stopped wanting to play GI Joe for some incomprehensible reason, and stayed pretty far away through my undergraduate days, until I started picking up the JLU figures around 2003 or 2004, after receiving the 10 inch Batman as a gift. It stayed pretty modest though, until I got back into GI Joes and Transformers in late 06. Now, it is completely out of control, but my Minimates are the pride of my collection.

It's your story but.........not a mention of kubricks? The end of the affair?

[karamazov80]

It's your story but.........not a mention of kubricks? The end of the affair?

Honestly, they are taking a bit of a back burner to Minimates and 12 inchers, but only because there isn't much for me to get that either: a) I can afford (no point in hunting for those I can't afford); or has been released yet. I expect my interest to go way up again when the Ghostbusters come out.

My current displayed collection mainly includes Minimates, Kubricks, Palisades Muppets, GI Joe (ARAH and 25th anniversary), Transformers (mostly Alts and MP), and my growing 1:6 figure collection (got Sideshow Indy yesterday! He is my favorite single toy at the moment).

[TBT!]

Toywise I'm purely a minimate man, I've a few other toys scattered around including some kubricks but it's mostly just minimates and probably a good job too! I'm having issues keeping up with everything that is being released and for the first time since I initially caught up and obtained "completest status" with the little buggers I have gaps in my collection. This is partly cos I've run out or room to display them and partly due to financial issues.

My other weakness is board games and I have a fairly modest 40-50 game collection that is growing slowly but steadily as I find funds to pick up all those great games that I've missed out on! Board games (especially thise with shiny bits) are every bit as bad as minimates for addiction and there is a long list of I must get games out there waiting for me to get hold of.

T.

[luke314pi]

I got back into collecting as an adult through the Movie Maniacs figures by McFarlane. I love horror movies, so I couldn't resist having an evil little Freddy and Jason on my shelf. From there I moved to the Simpsons Figures. I also got back into comics around this time, so the new Marvel Legends figures caught my eye. A few years later, I bought my first minimate pack, Spidey vs Carnage. Like many people here, I told myself it was only going to be one pack.

I was unhappy with how much space my collection was taking up, so I sold the Movie Maniacs and Simpsons Figures. Right around this same time, I spotted this beauty online. I sold all of my Marvel Legends the next day to fund my statue collection. From then on I have stuck with only statues and minimates. I have eight statues right now, and about 320 minimates.

My sister-in-law just told me she is getting me a Mighty Mugg for Christmas, so I expect another obsession to begin soon...

[Jatta Pake]

I started Minimates collecting four years ago. Nostalgia really got me into Minimates. Minimates combine nostalgia for Lego, Comic books, action figures, and small Warhammer paintable figurines into one neat little package.

I collected GI Joe RAH, Star Wars, He-Man, Warhammer, comics, board games and other toys as a kid. All were passed on to my little brother who destroyed them (with the exception of the board games and comics - I recovered these). Minimates seemed to offer the "Holy Grail" of my childhood collecting: All my favorite characters in the same multi-articulated format. If DST can ever swing GI Joe and Star Wars Minimates, I will be happy forever.

I recently fell in love with "Euro" style boardgames and built a collection of these. Minimates also were a gateway drug back into comics and games like HeroClix. Like TBT, I am no longer able to be a "completionist" collector of Minimates but it remains my first love.

[Trekker 42]

I used to do Star Wars and I used to do Marvel Legends (If ML wasn't such a POS now, I'd still be collecting them. Damn you Hasbro! Damn you to HELL!)

Now, it's just Minimates with the occasional something-or-other here and there, like the McQuarrie Star Wars stuf. That was too cool to resist.

[Twisted Two-Face]

Well, let's see.

I started out way back when with Legos. Pride and joy of my childhood, and i got to spend time with Daddy-dearest. Then i somehow abrubtly stopped. I Never actually bought a Marvel Legends, though i stopped Legos hoping to buy one. That changed when i saw my first Minimate pack sitting there. I remember it vividly: The Torch/Mr. Fantastic and Iron Man/Dr. Doom Target sets. I was still prone to buying tiny figures, so i ignored the Legends (more sepcifically Phoenix, who is now making me kick myself for not getting her.) and promised to only buy those two minimates.

That didn't work out too well, did it?? As all of you have said, the rest is history.

Oh, and for Christmas i'm getting my first Mugg, so that may be the start of a beautiful friendship...or a reason to buy more minimates instead.