I
guess you could say that my toy collecting habits go back to when I
was a child. The very first memory of seeing something and saying “I
have to have that,” is probably the original He-Man line. It was
absolutely my favorite cartoon. I loved the characters that inhabited
Eternia. So many wonderful villains with Evil Lynn & Skeletor
being at the top. Oh, and how good was Frank Langella as Skeletor in
that horrendous movie? Anyway, let's get back on track before I go on
a rant. When I was a kid, Orko was probably my favorite of the good
guys because I was his target audience. His figure was the coolest
with that rip cord that sent him buzzing across the floor. Some
really good figures in that line that did some innovative things that
my little brain had never seen in action figures.
As
I got older, my OCDs kicked in and I wanted all of my figures to be
mint on card or MOC for all you experts out there. That's right, the
figure needed to be safe and secure in their plastic cocoon while the
cardboard surroundings remained crease free. Never allowing the
figure inside to breathe a breath of air. To some it might sound dumb
but hey, we all have our quirks.
Around
the age of nineteen my obsession with professional wrestling had
increased greatly while having a job allowed me to focus on the Jakks
WWE wrestling figure line. At one time I had over 200 of them, all
mint on card, thumb tacked to the walls of my room. If I was at a
store and a figure was on the shelf that I didn't have, I instantly
grabbed it without thinking. Even if I had the figure and they
repackaged it, chances are I would still pick it up. Eventually,
after a few years that dwindled and I began phasing out of collecting
once again for a few reasons. I would still by figures every once in
a while but never at the rate that I once did.
When
Marvel Legends came out I could not resist buying these figures. What
a great line, I mean all my favorite (and obscure) comic book heroes
with amazing articulation for best optimal posing. At first, I kept
them in package as long as I could but eventually with the
articulation & just how friggin good the figures were, I caved. I
started a new process of opening figures and displaying them in
various poses. Because of how far figures came along I felt they were
too good to leave in their plastic bubbles. It wasn't easy at first
to open these things that I bought with my own money. Actually,
sometimes it literally wasn't easy; I mean, do you know how many
twist ties they used to put on those things?
At
the age of 36 I am still a collector although my bank account
dictates what I buy more nowadays. I imagine that the question you
are asking, is whether or not I still open them, or if I went back to
leaving them MOC. The answer is both. If it’s a really good figure
that has a nice package (ha, ha, I get the joke) than he may stay
safely factory sealed. But more often than not, I will remove the
figure to display on my desk or around the house. I just try not to
stress out about if it’s gonna be worth anything or if I bend the
card a little and actually have fun with it. I mean after all, that's
the intention, right?
I
don't buy a whole lot of toys due to lack of funds but when I do, I
make sure it’s something I will enjoy no matter what I'm going to
do with it.
-R.T.
Visit
my blog at: http://richardrants.wordpress.com
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