Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Time for the purge

It's time for a collecting state of the union.

In 2007, I found that I wasn't keeping on top of the latest releases in the Star Wars world anymore. I posted a few of the reasons in this blog, but for the most part...I just slowed down a lot from my record setting collecting the year before. By 2008, I had intentionally begun cutting back on all things Hasbro, partly because I was running out of room in my collection room. The white shelf in the center of the image is really the only shelf in this entire room that isn't totally full of figures right now. The other shelves are bursting to the point where if a door were to be slammed, a few might fall off.



The other reason I stopped picking up every single toy Hasbro was churning out for the last few years was because a lot of it was based on the Clone Wars. Frankly...I didn't like the movie and I haven't really watched the TV show. For me, these toys are equivalent to the vintage "Droids" figures that are now highly prized, but back in the day...were part of a stupid cartoon that I didn't watch. I was already feeling like slowing down on collecting, and these figures were a great help, because I didn't want them anyway.

For awhile, I missed the classic Saga stuff, or even the prequel figures. From time to time...I'd go to the store, see a "Classics" figure....get excited about it, but for whatever reason...I didn't buy it. I just left it there. In 2009, I actually made a New Years resolution to see if I could go an entire year without buying any Hasbro toys. I was successful.

Here we are in 2010. I have not quit collecting, but I have slowed about 95% down. I buy the occasional piece from Sideshow or Gentle Giant, but Hasbro toys no longer interest me. For better or worse, I seem to have fallen out of love with the 3.5" figures that started it all for me. They sit in my collection room, lined up in rows...and occasionally when someone who hasn't been to my house comes over, I walk them down and find out whether they think my collection is awesome or insane. The TV show "Hoarders" hasn't helped my own perception of it very much. :-)

For the past several years, I've thought about trimming the collection down a bit. I wasn't actually thinking about selling things that are currently on display. Instead, I was thinking I'd start by selling all my "spare" stuff. I have two rooms devoted to my collection right now, both filled with display cabinets...and then there's the closet. The closet is filled floor to ceiling with "extra" stuff I have no intention of ever displaying. Here's the best picture I could capture of it, because you can't really step inside.



Inside these boxes lies endless "doubles" of figures I already have opened and on display. Some boxes are filled with convention exclusives, or other figures I wanted to keep carded for one reason or another. In the back of the closet, there are stacks of vehicles that I didn't have room to open and put together. There are easily several hundred, (and probably closer to a few thousand) different items in this closet.

Today, I thought I'd grab a random box, open it up and take some pictures of whatever I found inside. I thought maybe I'd even put them up for sale on Rebelscum. What follows are a few of the pictures I took today:

Here are a couple of packs of Attack of the Clones cards. I think these are trading cards, or possibly part of a card game. I never opened them, so I'm not sure...and now I don't care to anymore.




Here are two full bags full of identical Mace Windu figures. I actually remember what these were from. They were part of a two pack you could get at Target and unfortunately, there was only so much room on my display shelves for Mace Windu figures. Eventually, I had to start putting them in baggies like these two.



The other figure in the two-pack was an awesome purple clone. Now you can understand why I bought all those extra Mace Windu figures. Maybe.




From that same box, I pulled another sandwich baggie out, with two figures in it this time. These two guys were also packed in with clones at Target I think.




I do like clones:




Here's a blast from the past. This was the first modern Star Wars vehicle I ever bought, right before my first X-wing and Tie-Fighter. Then, for some reason, I bought an extra one and left it in the box.




The rest of the space in the box I opened up was most filled with these things:






Any idea what they are? Unless you're a hardcore fan...you probably have no idea, and that's ok. These are imperial senate pods. The were packed in a set with two red clone commanders, one Yoda and one Emperor. I have two bags full of the Yodas and Emperors and six of these things. When you stick some figures in them, they look pretty cool. Observe:





Anyway...these were just some of the contents of one small box out of more than 100 crammed into that closet. I've only posted half of the pictures I took. There were about 20 other figures that I didn't think were interesting enough to use as examples. It took me about 30 minutes to photograph and catalog everything that was in the one box I opened, and another half hour to upload the names and descriptions of everything I cataloged.

Before I can even THINK about selling any of the stuff in the closet, I have to do this for each and every single thing I decide to part with. When all that is done, what will I actually have to show for it? Well, if you combine the values of everything I pictured above (not counting the clones, which I'm keeping)....the sale prices probably won't exceed 50 bucks without counting shipping. Actually, that might be a generous estimate on my part.

This is the dilemma of the modern collector. I have a lot of plastic I wouldn't mind exchanging for some paper, but the amount of paper I'm going to get for it doesn't really make the effort of the exchange worthwhile to me.

Stay tuned for more. Hopefully soon. I'm planning on figuring out what I'm going to do with all of this extra stuff. Perhaps in my next post, I'll show off a little of my Simpsons collection, which I've never posted pictures of yet. I'm thinking about getting rid of that as well, not just because I've moved on from collecting Simpsons figures, but because it takes up an entirely different closet in our house. Spring cleaning has begun. :-)

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Long time...

I'm only updating this to test the functionality of the blog (it's been dormant for awhile).

Soon though, I shall have an actual, real update with some pictures!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Halo 3 toys on display

Right now I'm leaving my Halo 3 figures in the package, but I will probably eventually open them as I grab more and shelf space gets scarce. I had no idea how hard series 1 would be to track down (it's probably because I'm so close to Microsoft and Bungie employee headquarters here in WA). I only found about 6 of these at retail and the rest I had to buy on Ebay. I already pre-ordered series 2 and 3 from various e-tailers and I'm tracking down the last three figures I need either locally or eventually on Ebay. For what it's worth, I'm looking for both Grunts and the Wal Mart Spartan CQB. Woo!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Halo toys

So far this year, I haven't bought a ton of items. Everything I've been picking up from the Star Wars lines I collect is all pre-orders, and the only new releases I'm really buying right now are Halo toys?

Pics? Well...ok...I guess I could take some pics. Stay tuned.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

The holy grail has arrived

I pre-ordered this last year at C4. Yesterday morning, FedEx arrived with the giant box. I would have ripped it open right then and there, but I was headed out to help a friend move. We didn't get done until late last night, so I decided to save the grand opening for this morning when I was wide awake and eager. It was like Christmas in March.






For right now, I'm displaying right it in the middle of the original Star Wars room, so I can walk around it and appreciate it from all angles. Eventually, I think it's going into the new room with the rest of the Sideshow and Gentle Giant stuff, in one of those glass cabinets.

I want to look at it for awhile first though. :-)

Monday, February 18, 2008

An update is warranted

I haven't been purchasing a lot of collectibles lately. At first, I'd blame this on the fact that I had a lot of bills after Christmas and I was pretty "caught up" as far as what was released that I wanted to buy anyway. It's February now and I've only bought a handful of things this year, most of which were pre-orders placed last year sometime. There is all sorts of new product on the shelves, and I'm leaving it there.

Why is this?

I think there are a few reasons. For one, I've got too much stuff and not enough room to display it in. In order to get stuff onto the display shelves at this point, I have to start picking and choosing. Rather than do that, I've just stopped buying new things.

Another reason I'm not buying is there is a lot of non-Star Wars related stuff on my "to buy" list right now. I just bought a new digital camera and waterproof case for the upcoming vacation and some car audio equipment. There was the new hot tub I bought in December. "Big boy toys" are winning out over the kid stuff right now.

Not sure how permanent this will be....but for now, collecting is slow.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Opened some stuff tonight...

Ok, not really "opened", but I did take some recent online purchases out of their shipping boxes and look at them. I opened three Gentle Giant busts (Dengar, the Jawas and Leia) then took a look at my recently arrived Gentle Giant Premiere Guild gifts. It consisted of:

  • A very flimsy messenger bag (that is too small for a laptop, but might hold some messages in paper form).
  • A Star Wars bust up I already have.
  • A set of Simpsons bust ups. I've never collected these, but they're damn cool.
  • A Gentle Giant Mouse Pad.

Not bad, considering they've also sent out a poster and the Boba Fett Silver Bust Up to me. I'm not sure if that's worth 50 bucks, but when combined with the fact that I won the raffle for the Clone 5 pack....it's not too shabby.

On Christmas break, I'm going to do some mad opening and picture posting. Watch for it.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

The Christmas spending embargo

Well, it's that time of year. I'm not supposed to buy myself any toys whatsoever. This is a self-imposed annual tradition that I do. In the spirit of the holiday, I try not to buy anything for myself and simply focus on others. The disclaimers include pre-orders (I have a Sideshow figure on the way I ordered during the summer), and things I've asked friends to buy for me and pay them for during the month.

Other than that...no buying, all month. 30 days to go. This is day ONE. :-)

Sunday, September 23, 2007

100th post celebration

This weekend I picked up a few of the new Galactic Heroes, because they were "buy 2 get 1 free" at Toys R Us. I also got a free character wheel thing, although I'm not sure why I needed it. The power of free is an amazing power.

I just noticed that this would be the 100th update to this collecting blog, so to celebrate, I posted pictures of my Star Wars room!

Check them out at www.josheee.com

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Commander Bly has arrived

I got home very late tonight to find that I had a package from Gentle Giant waiting for me. The Commander Bly bust I won in the raffle (my first win in 11 or 12 entries) has arrived. Tomorrow, I will open him up and put him on display.

Perhaps I'll take a picture!

P.S. In other news....this Sunday we finished the Star Wars room!