Why Collecting Toys is Like a Heroin Addiction.

[Tober]

- "Why did you get that Prime Airachnid?"

- "I don't know. Plastic crack is a hell of a drug."


Ummm... I don't tell my parents about it... Beyond that, it's just a hobby.


$300 for a gram of cocaine or Masterpiece Black Convoy, Soundwave and his minions..?

My question is this: What the f__k am I doing?

Yeah, okay. That I can relate to.

[Tober]

The table at the Fair looked like a mobile Transformers slab. We had two boxes of Wreckers, seventy-five pallets of Legions, five shelves of high-powered Dinobots, a container half-full of GeeWun and a whole galaxy of multicolored Universe, Classics, Henkei, Generations... also a pack of Gestalts, a stack of Alternators, a case of Titaniums, a bunch of raw Movieverse, and two dozen Mini-cons. Not that we needed all that for the Fair, but once you get locked into a serious toy collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. But the only thing that worried me was the GeeWun. There is nothing more irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of a GeeWun binge, and I knew we would be getting into Beast Wars sooner or later.

[Sky Shadow]

The table at the Fair looked like a mobile Transformers slab. We had two boxes of Wreckers, seventy-five pallets of Legions, five shelves of high-powered Dinobots, a container half-full of GeeWun and a whole galaxy of multicolored Universe, Classics, Henkei, Generations... also a pack of Gestalts, a stack of Alternators, a case of Titaniums, a bunch of raw Movieverse, and two dozen Mini-cons. Not that we needed all that for the Fair, but once you get locked into a serious toy collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. But the only thing that worried me was the GeeWun. There is nothing more irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of a GeeWun binge, and I knew we would be getting into Beast Wars sooner or later.

Nice.

[Ploughmans Lunch]

Ah, trying to find the right thing to write. I pretty much disagree with this article only in-so-much as it's trying to equate material obsession with substance abuse, which I think the latter is quite serious, but if you're genuinely unhappy with your life and thing that you're becoming a terrible person because of it, well, maybe you should see someone about it? It's hard but I guess admitting you have a problem is the first step.

Heroins not even that expensive either, it's just sometimes harder to get or messes up your circumstances/life so hard that it becomes expensive that way. But that's not taking into account things like functional junkies etc anojnwefhbrg.

[UltraMarginal]

There are certainly addictive qualities to collecting toys, and I currently have more packed a way than on display but that is an a vailable display space thing and the display changes.

I tend to restrict my collecting to transformers only and like Kup mentioned above if I don't think i'll like it I tend to avoid it.

If your collecting is effecting your life and relationships though, maybe it is time to seek a little help. at least getting up early for the toy fair only happens once every 3 months and part of the excitment is looking to see what "might" be there and most of it is spending tiem catching up with other fans from the board.

[liegeprime]

A good read. In some points I can relate or understand where he's coming from. Although most, if not all of what he's griping about his collecting habit I tend to conclude as a hoarding symptom of this guy. The guy has issues psychologically that his collecting is filling in for. Maybe not so destructive now but when he first put point 2- unhappy- that immediately rang bells to me. Something in his personal life is seriously lacking and the collecting aspect has took over to compensate for it. Maybe he is a collector way back so it is not an itself originally but now that he seeems to be so aware of the "pointlessness" of what he does at times in collecting, it's become the scapegoat. Oooor, it could be just collecting burn out. Which happens.

The part of winning rush I get. Every unhappy point he put up is symptomatic he's got personal issues he needs to sort that is showing in the way his collecting is . He needs to sort it so he can stop blaming collecting as a scapegoat as well to get balance and satisfaction in his collecting.

[GoktimusPrime]

I agree with #1 - it's expensive. And that's coming from someone who predominantly pays retail prices, and I already find it expensive. I cannot even fathom how f'expensive collecting toys off the secondary market would be.

I strongly disagree with #2 and #3 though. I love Transformers... if I didn't like them, I wouldn't collect them. I stopped collecting Marvel Comic toys after they switched from Toy Biz to Hasbro. Transformers on the other hand has never lost its appeal to me. And I mostly stick to buying toys that I expect to enjoy on some level (sure I've made a few mistakes, but on the most part I like the toys that I buy... hence why I seldomly post sales threads!).

Collectors Fairs, Conventions and annual midnight sales are the only times I line up to get toys... and even then, the former two are things that I mostly attend for social reasons rather than to obtain toys (getting toys at fairs and cons are things I see as a bonus and most of the time I walk away empty handed... I get far more satisfaction from just socialising with fellow collectors/nerds )

My priorities are...
Primary objective: Play with toys
Secondary objective: display toys
Tertiary objective: purchase/collect toys

It seems that this author's priorities are inverse to mine, which might explain why he may be unhappy with it and compares it with being a drug addiction rather than a fun and enjoyable lifestyle choice. It'd probably make me feel miserable too if my priorities were like that and I was still buying toys -- as the article says, in that case it's the getting, not the having. But for me it's the having, not the getting. Once I've gotten the toy, then opening it and playing with it is where the real thrill begins. But perhaps for this guy, that's where the thrill ends and he feels bad until he can get his next "hit" (toy purchase).

[liegeprime]

i blame matty collector, they f*%#&% up this collector that he's now gone on burnout symptoms ;p. I guess him writing about it in a way is therapeutic....

[Sky Shadow]

By number 2) in the article - I lost interest as I couldn't relate to what he was saying.

That's interesting, since to me point two sounds exactly like you! "As for Masters of the Universe Classics, I actually kind of hate them. I hate that they're mostly just bigger versions of the ‘80s figures instead of the awesome 2002 redesigns; I hate that they reuse parts like the classic line (even though they cost me $30 each); and most of all I hate that Mattel constantly assembles the toys incorrectly, meaning figures have mixed-up arms, legs, shoulders and more. And I'm paying $500 a year for these things."

Maybe your addiction is less like heroin and more like someone who moves from one drug to the next - you finished G1 and went on to Masters, you finished with Hasbro and moved on to third parties. (I don't know if they're necessarily 'harder drugs' or just different ones.)

I agree with #1 - it's expensive. And that's coming from someone who predominantly pays retail prices, and I already find it expensive. I cannot even fathom how f'expensive collecting toys off the secondary market would be.

For years, Australian retail has been more expensive than the secondary market for new Transformers. So maybe you still need that hit of finding the toys on the shelves.