What other toy lines do you collect? How come?

[Tycho]

I've recently crossed over to collecting several toys I never thought I'd buy - but am quite happy with myself as well.

Here's what I collect and why (this is sort of therapeutic for me to rationalize it, OK?):

Star Trek: I collected SW since I was little, and liked Star Trek TOS since back when I caught the first adventures of Captain Kirk in re-runs. So I got into TNG and when Playmates started, there were only 10 figures and it felt like collecting SW (which was not available in 1992 when Playmates launched). I limited myself to the basic figure wave size, and save for DS9's larger figures in all-plastic, I never went for First Contact or any ST size changes. ArtAsylum prompted me to continue collecting to this day due to their superior quality. I'd buy more if only the line didn't struggle so and they could profitably produce it (especially DS9 figures). So Star Trek began all my modern collecting. I buy what I like and am not a completist.

Star Wars: self-explanatory. I started with mass-quantities of the basics for dioramas. I got into 12" when the Han TaunTaun showed up, and I went back and got everything I liked from this collection. Playskool, CW Animated, Unleashed - they've all prompted me to buy sideline collections. I'm very happy I did. Star Wars is by 4 times or more my largest toy collection.

Terminator - probably one of my most favorite movie series, McFarlane's figures from the last few years were superb. I am not a completist, but only bought the ones I really liked, including some of Arnold with his sunglasses off (the harder variation). I have Sarah Conner and the Termamatrix. I only wish they'd go back and do Kyle Reese with his shotgun on a rope under his trenchcoat to fight my Exoskeleton Terminator. I didn't buy all of the T3 line, but I got 2 T-1000's to display normal as well as blown apart.

Transformers - only this month I purchased the 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime and right now I have to say this is like my most favorite toy I own! I will be collecting just the Alternators - Smokescreen, Sideswipe, Hound, and one other Hasbro recently announced. They're the super-realistic cars all on scale to one another. I only hope that Hasbro will do the same with the Decepticons and make to scale a Starscream jet - I know it'll be like another $65 or something like how Optimus Prime was - but it'd be worth it. These "figures" - because they are figures are every bit as poseable as Star Wars or GI Joe, plus they transform into super-realistic automobiles. That's the catch. I'd never buy most of the other stuff Transformers puts out - but they caught me with the good stuff.

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Stuff I would have collected:

GI Joe - I'd buy their most realistic stuff, at the small scale and build fleets and squadrons, and I'd pay out a lot for a complete USS Flag aircraft carrier for a base ship. But I don't have the money nor the room - nor do I think I ever would! It'd take a 2nd house!

Waterworld - I actually tried to buy a complete collection off E-bay. I mostly want to set up a trimaran fighting off smokers on waverunners because I love the water and have been an amateur jet ski racer for 7 years. I love this movie since it's so in touch with one of my other favorite past times (only I just shoot people with a super-soaker tied to my handlebars and don't make the game quite so lethal). Anyway, at some point I might do this because making dioramas with waves (using model railroad "fake water") looks really cool and challenging, and I'd try to make the water deeper than in any model railroad. With some stuff I want to try for Star Wars with Naboo and Kamino I'll get my chance, but Waterworld will afford me a chance to make something that looks closer to my hobbies and interests in real life.

Universal Soldiers / 21st Century Soldiers - again, I'd love to do realistic full battlefield dioramas with these forces which custom brands afford you the opportunity to have figures of MacArthur, Rooseveldt, and even Adolf Hitler. I'd do:

The Last of the Mohicans

The Revolutionary War with General Washington and many characters as close as possible to the heroes from "The Patriot."

The Civil War with General Lee, Colonel Chamberlain, and many characters from Gettysburg!

The Lincoln County War with Billy the Kid and the Regulators.

The Shootout at the OK Corral with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday vs. The Cowboys.

World War I with machine guns being towed on wagons pulled by horses, and the turn-of-the-century warfare exhibited.

World War II with both the European and Pacific theaters.

Vietnam complete with The A-Team and Rambo probably.

The Persian Gulf War / Operation Iraqi Freedom with Colin Powell and George Bush even (with a John Kerry figure fighting him!)


The Dominion Wars - with Captain Sisko and ....oh I forgot that I'm making that already and it's not part of the history of warfare in reality....is that right? Oh. OK.

Anyway...

That's why I like this stuff - to build massive battles. Don't tell anyone, but I'm trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction to make my mushroom clouds look more realistic and have some practical use for GI Joe figures with gas masks...


Oh. I'd get

The A-Team
The Dukes of Hazzard
Knight Rider
Miami Vice
The Shield
Smallville (but better ones than what they made - only Clark looked decent)

and possibly a few others.

Alien and Predator interests me, but not yet so much to start collecting them. They (Kenner) did make some awesome products though - and McFarlane has been doing a great job as well.

I could be really sick in the head or I could just know how to have a good time if I had large amounts of real estate and a lot of money.

How about you?

What do you collect?
What would you collect?
What would you do if you were unrestricted with your hobbies in the extreme?
How close to coming to that in reality will it be possible?

[Hellboy]

With Star Wars collecting being rather slow of late I've been spending more $ elsewhere than usual. Other than Star Wars I collect....

-Kill Bill: These are probably some of the coolest movie figures I've ever seen. The likeness to the characters in the film is amazing and some of them even come with "blood spraying action", how cool is that? Now we just need the rest of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad to get produced and I'll be very happy.

-Hellboy: Well I absoulutely love the comics and the movie was awesome so how could I pass up these cool figures. They're quality all the way and I'm looking forward to picking up future waves. Hopefully this line will continue.

-Justice League 4": I pick and choose with this line. I'm only interested in the main characters and pass on most of the gimmicky armor type figures. Overall the line is pretty weak and I would collect more of it if they gave us a better variety of heros rather than multiple versions of the main charcters in ugly outfits.

-Justice League 10": Overall I like this line better than it's smaller counterpart. Sure they're basically statues but they look great and appear exacty as they do in the cartoon.

-Batman: Again I pick and choose with the Batman lines. I'm not interested in an underwater or arctic Batman or whatever else they imagined up so they can milk the main character to death. Give us more of the supporting cast and/or villains and I'll spend more. The upcoming Hush and Dark Knight Returns lines look promising.

-The Incredible Hulk: I only buy the figures I find to be really cool looking and the villains. Unfortunately the villains always seem to be short packed.

-Marvel Legends: I've been picking up a few of these here and there. Mostly the figures of charcters I love from the comics. It boils down to whether I think the representation of that charcter is good though.

[sith_killer_99]

Well, I used to collect the Movie Maniacs and a few others. That was back in the day when my wife and I were DINKS (Double Income No Kids). Now that she is a stay at home mom I have cut out collecting anything Non-SW. I still have a few DC Direct figs that I will never get rid of and I bought my wife a few Buffy figs. But it's only Star Wars for me. I suppose I could always get a second job, but then I wouldn't have time for the hunt. On a side note I sold off most of my Movie Maniacs figs a while ago.

[B'Omarr Monkey]

Obviously, SW, which I started with the early bird special way back in 1977. When the modern stuff hit in 1995, it wasn't hard to collect everything, but now I'm concentrating on the 3 3/4" line including vehicles, etc.

Anything related to monster movies: Universal, Hammer, Godzilla & kin, focusing mostly on the Sideshow 12" line (now that the 8" line is kaput) but buying the occassional vintage toys when the price is right. I haven't bought many of the modern horror characters, because they just don't appeal to me in the same way, though I'm sure that eventually I will get some of them. The only modern horror stuff I've been snapping up is Hellboy, which I loved from day one. I've bought a few of the Van Helsing toys, not because I thyink they're great, or that the movie was anything better than okay, but because they're dropping into clearance prices, and i know that in 5-10 years, i'll wish I had picked them up. I don't have any of the Hellraiser figures yet, either, but plan to get them. Both waves hit when I was in a freelance income lull, so I had to let them go.

Between these two areas, dvds and books, I'm spread pretty thin. I do occassionally buy other old pre-1980s toys more for nostalgia and or design considerations. I've recently taken an interest in the old Marx army men, etc., but even on ebay, they are not cheap, so my collecting is more representative, than serious.

I used to collect the Marvel comics action figures that came out in the early-mid 1990s, but stopped once the SW stuff really took off. I gave all of those to my kids. My son is loving them now. I'd collect the new Marvel figures--I'm forgetting what they're called (Ghost Rider, Namor, Nick Fury, Colossus--that line)Ultimates? But don't want to start up with anything new again.

I also collected the Batman the Animated series line when it started, but concentrated on the representative versions of Batman, Robin, and then whichever villains they made before it devolved into "Soup Kitchen Armor Batman" and the like. I stopped and then resented not picking up the sets that had Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, etc., but not enough that I regret it. These I have not passed on to my kids.

That's mostly it. There used to be more sporadic sets in there like "Where the Wild Things Are," but when my comic book store never bothered to get me the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon set I pre-ordered, this sort of thing has pretty much stopped with me. I love the Kill Bill toys, but I'm not buying them. The last individual figure from a line I bought was the demon from "Big Trouble In Little China," but that fits in with my monster movie toys.

[Tycho]

Well, I'm learning from you guys that I don't really know my Superheroes that well.

B'Omarr: Big Trouble in Little China (w. Kurt Russel) was one of my favorite films in the olden days. I'm going to have to see if I can buy that movie on DVD! (heck, I'll get it on VHS if they don't make it). That film was a classic!

HellBoy: who are the Justice League characters? Is that Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, etc. or is that X-men, Spider-man, Hulk, and so forth? I guess one is DC and the other is Marvel. I don't know other characters as well as the ones that really took off - like I couldn't tell you about the SilverSurfer or Aquaman that much. They'd probably be cool to learn of, but it's so hard for new super heroes to break out after you've got characters like Spider-man that stole the genre. X-men's heroes and villains just about cover anyone and everyone who's powers you could possibly imagine.

Do you guys like anything from the Spiderman toy line, BTW? I've glanced at it (love the movies) but it seems like a lot of junk but where you could pick a few good items out of it. Is The Hulk staying strong, or are stores just conned into carrying that line long past the time the movie's been out of theaters? It seemed to me that before the movie, Hulk was sort of quietly in retirement.

[Ji'dai]

McFarlane - I buy whatever catches my eye from time to time. They make some of the coolest figures I've ever seen, but I'm only a casual collector. My first Spawn figure was a Series 2 Angela from '95. If Kenner hadn't released Star Wars figures that summer, I'd probably be a full-time McFarlane collector today. I'll probably pick up some of the Monsters 3 and the Infernal Parade this year.

LEGO - I started collecting LEGO again just before they got the Star Wars license. I was buying older sets on eBay that I missed or wanted when I was a kid. I wish I had the room to do a huge town layout.

Simpsons - I love this show, it's probably the greatest animated series on television, but I decided not to collect the figures when they first came out. I did buy the Halloween playsets, however; and a few figures here and there that I thought were cool. The line is now cancelled, but I've heard that Playmates is going to re-release the original core figures this year for those that missed out the first time. I will probably get them.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - I got hooked watching the syndicated re-runs and then went out and bought all the figures late last summer, mostly on eBay. I probably wouldn't have done this but I was suffering from major toy withdrawal since Hasbro's SW distribution had been way off kilter in 2003. (I didn't start finding new Star Wars figures until late Autumn). The Buffy action figure line was cancelled last summer, but it was resurrected by Diamond Select and new figures were released this year. It's a small line though, two waves this year, about a dozen figures.

Charmed - SOTA Toys got the license for figures based on the hit TV show. I'm only a very casual viewer of the syndicated reruns, but the figures were pretty cool and are the same scale as Buffy. The four Charmed figures each come with a highly detailed section of their house's attic which connects to form a large diorama.

Hellboy - Never read the comics, but loved the movie. The figures are very cool. I passed on them when I first saw them since I hadn't seen the movie yet, but was able to get Hellboy with Corpse, Rasputin, Abe, and Sammael. The Hellboy variants in this line are ridiculous and I didn't bother tracking them down. I've heard rumors that series 1 figures will be repacked with series 2 so maybe I'll see them again

I've collected other crap here and there over the years, especially after Kenner cancelled the vintage Star Wars line. I read and collected GI Joe comics in the 80s until the storyline got strange - Cobra-la(?!). I concentrated mostly on the Cobra stuff, but have a few of the cooler Joes and vehicles.

New Obssessions:

Kill Bill - After finally seeing Vol. 1, I will probably pick up the figures now. They are pegwarmers here so hopefully I can get them on sale or clearance soon.

Ghostbusters - Loved this movie and the figures look sweet. These are a must buy.

Pirates of the Caribbean - Loved this movie too, hopefully NECA does a good job with the figures.

I just finished building a couple of wall-mounted display cases for my Star Wars figures. So far, I've got my POTF2/Episode 1 loose collection in them. Now to open the POTJ, SAGA, and Clone Wars figures

[B'Omarr Monkey]

Well, I'm learning from you guys that I don't really know my Superheroes that well.

B'Omarr: Big Trouble in Little China (w. Kurt Russel) was one of my favorite films in the olden days. I'm going to have to see if I can buy that movie on DVD! (heck, I'll get it on VHS if they don't make it). That film was a classic!

HellBoy: who are the Justice League characters? Is that Batman, Superman, Wonderwoman, etc. or is that X-men, Spider-man, Hulk, and so forth? I guess one is DC and the other is Marvel. I don't know other characters as well as the ones that really took off - like I couldn't tell you about the SilverSurfer or Aquaman that much. They'd probably be cool to learn of, but it's so hard for new super heroes to break out after you've got characters like Spider-man that stole the genre. X-men's heroes and villains just about cover anyone and everyone who's powers you could possibly imagine.

Do you guys like anything from the Spiderman toy line, BTW? I've glanced at it (love the movies) but it seems like a lot of junk but where you could pick a few good items out of it. Is The Hulk staying strong, or are stores just conned into carrying that line long past the time the movie's been out of theaters? It seemed to me that before the movie, Hulk was sort of quietly in retirement.

Big Trouble In Little China is available on DVD and very cheaply. I bought it about a year ago for under 10 bucks at Best Buy. There aren't any extras though.

The Justice League in the comics has a rotating cast, but the newish cartoon and the toys based on it revolve around Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and Hawkgirl. These are essentially the big guns of DC Comics, though Hawkgirl is more second string. It would be like Marvel's Avengers with a roster of Spider-Man, Hulk, Captain America, Wolverine, Thor, Iron Man, etc.

I don't know much about the 6" line of Spider-Man toys, other than the fact that my son is drawn to them, but always ends up picking something else over them when decision time comes around. He does have the 12" super articulated one, which is a really nice figure, though more complicated poses seem to involve the same skills necessary for solving the rubicks cube, so his gets much more limited posing. The 24" one looks really good. My son is also drawn to a a humongous 3 ft. version that seems to be a Wal-Mart exclusive. I think the appeal is that it's the same size he is (just about) though that might make it hard to play with. It's only $30, so he may end up with it on his birthday in September.

[evenflow]

Well....

1. Star Wars - all the figures (not into vehicles unless they come with exclusive figures)
2. Kubricks - mainly Star Wars, but also Back to the Future
3. Marvel Legends
4. Spider-Man Classics - just the Villians to go with the Legends (no Ultimate Universe stuff)
5. Marvel Minimates - no ultimate stuff
6. LOTR minimates - (have not found any yet, but will be buying them)
7. Masters of the Universe - well what can i say, I will be trying to get the new figures from Europe

[Kidhuman]

None, I cant afford them.


I did try to get all the Robotech action figures on Ebay at one point, but after two years I sold them becuase I needed room for my SW collection.

I do have some Simpsons figures as well as all the Yellow Submarine figures too.

[B'Omarr Monkey]

I bought the first wave of Yellow Submarine figures as well. I never saw the second wave, and kept waiting for them to show up at KB, but to no avail.

I do wish I had picked up the Bob and Doug MacKenzie figures. They had tons of them at KB, more than everyone possibly interested in them in the area I was living in at the time could possibly need. I kept putting them off. One day there were dozens. Literally, the next day, there were none. i don't know where unwanted toys end up if they don't sell at KB. Is there a lower circle of toy Hell for them to languish in?