Another year in the life of a Star Wars collector

Time for the purge

2010-03-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

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. :-)

Long time...

2009-02-04T14:53:00.001-08:00

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!

The Halo 3 toys on display

2008-04-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

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!

Halo toys

2008-04-14T22:45:00.001-07:00

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.

The holy grail has arrived

2008-03-02T10:21:00.001-08:00

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. :-)

An update is warranted

2008-02-18T15:32:00.000-08:00

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.

Opened some stuff tonight...

2007-12-04T23:23:00.000-08:00

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.

The Christmas spending embargo

2007-12-01T22:03:00.000-08:00

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. :-)

100th post celebration

2007-09-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

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

Commander Bly has arrived

2007-08-22T00:12:00.000-07:00

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!

Everybody's working for the weekend

2007-08-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

When does opening toys become work? When you're doing it by the hundreds, that's when. Still, it's fun work...and Heather and I decided to make a day of it today. While she was setting up my Halo, Clerks and South Park figures, I was opening up every box of Star Wars toys in the closet and finding out exactly what's inside. Afterwards, I separated the stuff I wanted to put on display from the stuff that needed to be stored, then re-boxed those things and labeled every box with what was inside.

Neither job was a small task, but we each put about 7 hours of work in today and got a lot done. As of this evening, the Muppets, Clerks, Halo, Simpsons and South Park displays are finished. Yes....I collect a lot of toys. The closet is nicely organized, to the point where I now know where everything is and can actually get to most of it if needed. Check it:

Besides the stuff pictured above (which is going to be in storage for awhile until I find room for it), there are roughly 6 boxes (no more than 200 figures) left to open. We might be able to finish that tomorrow, but if not...certainly by the end of the week.

The Star Wars room is nearly done!

Sideshow Bespin Luke for 7.14

2007-08-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

This morning I ordered the Sideshow Bespin Luke exclusive edition. As I was going through checkout, I noticed the option to use the "rewards points". Sideshow has been giving me these points for every figure I buy and until now, I've done nothing with them.

Today, I said "What the hell?" and clicked on the checkbox to use them. My final total for this awesome figure is below. Sideshow is amazing.

--------------

Order Subtotal: $54.99

Reward Points Discount: $(54.99)
**Please note - since you used Points on this order, you will not receive points for placing this order.
Estimated S&H: $7.14
Tax: $0.00
GRAND TOTAL: $7.14

A little help from my friends...

2007-08-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we had a few people over to help make a big dent in the Star Wars room. With a project like this, the more people you have around, the better. Altogether, there were 6 of us working on opening toys, so even though we were only opening for a few hours, we got a lot done. I think if we work on it this weekend, all of the boxes that have been stacked around my house for over a year now....will be opened.

Lots of progress this weekend

2007-07-23T23:25:00.000-07:00

Heather declared this month to be "The month of Star Wars" and so far, well...it hasn't been that impressive. I had hoped to be completely done with all the stuff in boxes by now, and well...we're not exactly there just yet. There was some progress at the beginning of the month when I wired the lights into the new display cabinets, but until this week, that's all I had done so far.

On Saturday, we cleaned out the new cabinets in the new room, put the glass shelves in and spent all day filling them up with Sideshow, Gentle Giant, Koto, MR, RAH and Unleashed stuff. That opened up a lot of space in the old Star Wars room for some new stuff, but right now we're not sure what's going in there.

Aside from Star Wars figures, I have View Askew figures, South Park, Simpsons, Muppets, Halo and a few other odds and ends I'd like to display. Heather also has her Jem collection. All of these things should ideally be on display in our house, but right now...we're just not sure where.

At least progress was made though. Pictures? They come soon.

The week's arrivals

2007-06-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

This week was busy for me. Over the last week, I received the following things:

1. Gentle Giant Zuckuss mini bust. Bought it from a seller on Rebelscum for about 45 bucks shipped. Not bad, considering I saw it at C4 for 45.

2. Gentle Giant Slave Leia Statue. This arrived on Wednesday. I can't wait to open it, but will have to...as it's going into the new Star Wars room, not the old one.

3. An autographed picture of the 501st and George Lucas at the Rose Parade. That
was the biggest surprise of all.

4. Yesterday I got my 85 dollar C4 Medallion holder for all the coins I picked up at those collector's panels. I put it together and put the coins into it last night. Pictures will be coming someday soon.

5. Today I got my first Master Replicas helmet (probably my last too). 501st Helmet. I ordered this while in Texas for John's wedding. Total cost: 368 bucks. Being able to order a Master Replicas helmet I've wanted for a long time for better than retail (that was supposedly sold out as of last year): Priceless. Thanks go out to Jim for setting this up for me.

Score of the day!

2007-06-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

This morning I hit TRU and found one lone Hunt for Grievous 5 pack of clones sitting on the shelves. Those things have been gone since the fall and were 25 bucks when they were originally on sale.

Today's price: 12.00

NOT BAD.

The Scout has been ordered

2007-06-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

This was a rather busy week for Sideshow collectibles. They have just received a pre-order for their 799.99 Biker Scout. This will be my most expensive collectible ever, but after seeing it at Celebration 4, there was absolutely no way I would pass it up.
I guess it's being released first quarter 2008, so I have a nice long time to save my pennies.

Pre-ordered my Sideshow Obi Wan

2007-06-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot, but this morning...I pre-ordered my Sideshow Ben Kenobi figure. Saw it at C4, it looks pretty darn awesome. He'll be here sometime in the fall for 67.13

Painting the next Star Wars Room

2007-05-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

So, I thought we were all done with painting in the Star Wars room. Techincally, I guess we were. That was the old room, this is the new one. A few weeks ago, Heather let me know that I could take over yet another room in our house with Star Wars stuff (which also meant that we would need to paint yet again).

So, here are the pics taken as we prepare to transform our movie room into our second Star Wars room. Crazy? Indeed. Cool? Indeed as well.

First, Heather wanted to make the room totally white so we could use some design software to see what different colors might look like on the walls.

Next, she picked a color (no black this time). We began painting the room a nice light green.

Here's a panel of the finished product (Heather created a "faux finish"). I had nothing to do with that, I just used the roller.

Next, it was time to move the cases in. That was done easily with some cheap furniture moving disks. We pushed each one into the TV room, followed by the next...until all 6 were lined up against the East and South walls.

Next, I had to take out all the cabinet lights. They had these old, hard wired flourescent bulbs in them. I plan to replace those with little Halogen bulbs from Home Depot. Here those are:

I got about 10 of the Halogens installed (it's actually pretty tough work) before calling it a night. We'll work on that a lot more next month. One last shot of me inside the cabinet, with my two screwdrivers. 10 down, only about 30 more to go.

Goodies at C4!

2007-05-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite thing I've seen at the convention so far. Sideshow Collectibles Biker Scout 1/4 scale Statue.

800 bucks.

It will be mine. Oh yes, it WILL be mine.

Moving the Cases in

2007-05-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of business for COMP USA.

I called them up to see if I could come pick up the cases and they said yes. We needed a professional electrician to unhook them, so we hired Greg who was out in Bellevue for a job anyway. He said it was pretty easy for him to do, and we were happy to hire him instead of a stranger. He had them unhooked in the hour it took me to drive from the store to pick up a Uhaul.

John almost couldn't make it, but decided to come out at the last minute since I had already rented the truck. While we were waiting for him, Heather and I loaded all the glass and hardware from the shelves into her car. We tried to move one by ourselves, but it was a little heavy for just she and I.

When John got there, we had a better time of it and loaded all 6 cases into the truck in less than 30 minutes. When we got to the house, we started the unloading process. Here's the truck after we did the first two or three. It was TOTALLY packed beforehand.

Us taking one out of the truck:

Down the hill:

And into the house:

Including the drive, the whole process took us a little less than 2 hours. Not bad for 6 cases moved down a big dirt hill with only two people. Next stop, painting the living room and moving the cases in there!

Painting the Scout Helmet

2007-05-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

Not sure if this should be posted in my regular blog, since my new helmet isn't really a "collectible", but I'm going to go ahead and post it here anyway.

With less than a week to go until my costumes need to leave for Celebration 4, I need to finish my damn Biker Scout Helmet that's been sitting in my house since February.

First job: Paint it white.

I built a make shift stand out of an old Sideshow Collectibles figure box and laid cardboard down in the garage.

A can of Krylon Fusion (Glossy White) later, I was in business. My garage also got a little bit painted, but I don't think I have to worry about that much.

I let it dry for a few hours and then went back to inspect it. I saw some problem areas with drips and stuff (I held the can way too close to the stupid helmet) so I had to go back to Fred Meyer for more paint and some special sand paper that John Palmeri recommended I buy. I got 800-1000 grain sandpaper and went to work sanding out all the rough spots. I kinda like how it looks sanded and this made me want to weather it a little more.

Threw another coat or two of white on and let it sit over night.

Some new GG things

2007-05-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

Bought several Gentle Giant busts over the last week or so. Yesterday they all arrived at the same time.

Jedi Luke
Plo Koon
Royal Guard Statue

and these two guys:

Combined, all these busts were 331 bucks. That's well below retail and they're all busts I really wanted to add to the collection. Opened all 5 of them up today.

Saturday night's alright for opening....

2007-04-29T00:28:00.000-07:00

It was a lazy day today, filled with video games and TV. I tried to get outside to do some yardwork, but the mower was broken, so I was "forced" to play some more Guitar Hero.

Couldn't forget about "the pledge" today. Opened about 12 figures, mostly TAC stuff. This time, I thought I'd let the pictures do the talking.

Set up the new Mace figure in a little battle with you know who....

Added another Airborne clone or two to the army. I like this picture, because the Utapau clone seems to be saying "You talkin to me?"

Opened quite a few more, but no pictures of those right now. I did want to close with what will be the best picture of my Star Wars room to date. Of course....it's not a full view, just a little peek over the shoulder of my two newest Sideshow figures.

Buyin em faster than I can open em.

2007-04-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

This week I have purchased the following figures:

3 Commander Appos
3 packs of Galactic Heroes
6 Figures from TAC Wave 2 (a couple of doubles).

Today I also bought a Soundwave figure (my first Transformer in a long time). He's really awesome and I had to get him.

Meanwhile, today I only opened 2 TAC figures and 1 pack (2) Galactic Heroes.

Gotta speed up the opening or slow down the purchases! :-)