A diversion. Entertainment. Within reason it's fine.
Eh, I'd wager this is different. Me watching a flick I found on the "day's releases" or binging 6 episode once a year because a miniseries was great, is entertainment. This thing, where we follow around a property for decades, with no end in sight, and we're already speculating on which C-Lister we're ready to drop 300$ on is different. In some ways I wish I could derive genuine enjoyment from these things, and while the odd moment of such a hapenstance exists, it's far too rare. I look at my longboxes sometimes, and realise I've been steadily pulling Vader's comic for 6 years now. The moment the volume ends, another begins. I literally can't stop. I add other books to maintain a basic pull list for my LCS to keep servicing me. Granted, we're talking about a 15€ expense per month, but my point is that my relationship with something like SW is different from me being excited about Succession's new season and making sure to enjoy each episode.
Well, maybe some people. Not I.
I don't know, I haven't fell into the trap yet, but I'm feeling the pull. And that complicates display options. I started off wanting just the Sith SW-Wise, then expanded that to a shared display of Jedi & Sith. Now I'm debating both Mando Luke and TLJ Luke while also trying to break away from the Jedi/Sith display and wanting to go with mini-vignettes and... Bah, I don't know. I'll see as I go along. I wanted to stick to the one-per-character rule with some exceptions, but it's getting harder and harder as I don't have a concrete plan of how I want to display them.
Probably.
Eh, I barely got back into last year. It's just that all the studios are putting everything out these days and I have to juggle it all, which is impossible. Some nostalgia, some hype, some genuine interest; it's a whirlwind. I will have to choose. Lose some, wait later for others, pass on some entirely; such things. The MCU is ongoing for example, chances are the DS2 characters will appear again down the line, and Loki's getting a 2nd season. Battinson will propbably get a 2nd flick, and so on. So it's about looking for those one-and-done figures. The Raimi ones, whatever cameos from DS2, a Fate from Black Adam if he's released, any flashback re-releases from Kenobi. But the more you list, the more they pile up. And the next years look about the same in content. The problem is that sometimes the costume changes and you miss out on the best, in your opinion, look, so you have to settle or shell out the cash, while also dealing with your "current" POs.
I know it's borderline hoarding and inabillity to handle it, I just don't yet know how exactly to go about choosing. I put everything through a filter of past, present and future, and I find it hard to cut one over the other. What's more worthy to be in a collection; a current favourite or a nostalgic piece of a time long past? Are these dollies representations of specific moments, and if so how apart one from the other, or are they just a small, curated, aesthetically pleasing collection? Where is the line drawn? That bothers me a bit especially. Tech gets better and better. At some point the figures I put so much cash on could end up looking the same compared to those hypothetical future ones, as the early Iron Men look compared to the current ones. What will I upgrade then? There must be an ending, but where exactly do you draw the line?
Likely not.
I didn't sit down to count them, but let's give it a shot. Assuming all of these got figures (some confirmed characters, some rumours), and ignoring any surprises (ie the Bateman from American Psycho that went up for PO this year).
- NWH: Tobey-Man, Ock, Goblin
- DS2: Strange, Defender Strange, Wanda, Xavier, Reed, Cruise Stark, Jackman Logan, Cage Blaze
- MK: Moon Knight, Mr. Knight
- BP2: Black Panther, Namor
- Kenobi: CW/PT/Whatever Flashback Era Kenobi & Anakin, Tatooine Kenobi, ROTS Vader
- The Batman: Battinson
- Black Adam: Adam, Fate
- Morbius: Morbius
That's off the top of my head and not counting anything else. A Joker 3.0 will come out at some point. They've got to do some random PT stuff sometime. Considering they announce a figure a week, we've got ~50 or so, give or take. That's not counting any other companies. I listed 23. Some of these I can skip easily, like Morbius and Adam, or wait for another, sure to come version, like Battinson. Even if I cut them in half, it'd be about 10. ATM I've got 3 POs, plan to make another 2, and need to make my mind up on two others. I paid nearly 500€ for Kylo Ren, after taxes. Godfather's going for 380€. The basic HT figure costs me around 300€. Someone like Ock & Goblin, with all the bells and whistles, I can see going for 400€. So I don't know. It's too much, too fast. You put a figure in a glass case and sometimes it looks too empty. You put two, it fills up nicely. Three, it takes some challenge. Before you know it you're cramming them up and you've made your third-of-a-grand-a-piece dollies look like oversized Hasbros and your mini-museum looks like a dork's shrine to his loneliness. It's not like I only buy these things, I'm still curating my comic book/Omni collection. Those books cost pretty 100€/vol now. Something like FF alone will take me ~1K based on what's already release. And I've only got just the first vol on order.
You absolutely do not.
Yeah, but when I was a youngin I had this wicked cool Doc Ock toy, and if I don't get the new grail Ock then Tobey-Man will be all lonely and look at me disapprovingly. If I end up choosing between a Goblin and an Ock, my completionism will eat me alive. In that case a smart man would say "well, skip another 2 or 3 figures and get these guys". Problem is, I like some characters more than I like those two; but they've got nostalgia on their side. Take the new Big Chief Prestige or whatever Ultra-Super-Deluxe Edition Who figures. I've got both 11s they released, and the 50th Ann 10th with Tennant's Sig. I planned on getting just a 12, but I'm feeling a push towards 10 too. Early NuWho was pretty instrumental to getting me into the wider nerd world, as it was one of the few PopCult shows they aired here. Everyone has their Doc, and I consider Tennant mine, even if I followed 11 & 12 from the beginning till the end. So what do I do? Do I buy another figure I technically have, for some upgrades and the power of nostalgia, and sacrifice a new character?
I suppose I'm torn between what I want, what I feel as if I "need" and what I want this whole collection to even be. You know, this year I went back and tried to get some old videogames I was missing from my collection. I drew up a plan and everything. Must have written down like 100 titles; maybe more. I planned to get all the comic book ones, all the Star Wars, across multiple platforms and everything. I started buying and buying and buying, and at some point, when I'd covered the important ones, I got tired. Tired of searching for deals and ordering and waiting for them to arrive when I had 40 concurrent orders in the mail. Some arrived, some got lost, some turned up 2+ months later. I'm still waiting on some. Point is, after I got so fed up and I said "that's enough, I'm done", I was strangely over it. The obsession with filling up my "incomplete" collection was gone. So I know, with certainty, that if I resist the temptation on most of these, that 2, 5, 10, 16 months from now I won't care at all. Much less 7 years later when I'd have largely reached the endgame of this collection. I'll look at maybe 10 figures and be glad I own them; the rest will be filler. I know my character and I know I can't escape that. But I can't allow myself to just buy it all. It just pisses me off to have this nagging feeling in my head. I've resisted tons of POs last year, so it's not a problem per se; I just indulge in my fear of commitment by not clicking the PO button, and so time passes, I forget about it, some new shiny toy comes along and blablabla. There was a point where I was considering Infinity Ulton for an Annihilation display, then I totally forgot about him and got obsessed with... I don't know, must've been something. Guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing...
There can be only one! Never mind, we tried that.
Ugh, don't remind me. It's kinda sad in and of itself, isn't it? All this money, all this merch, this anxiety over the "perfect collection" and I can't even choose one above all others.
No one is. There is no trap.
Sometimes I go and tap the faucet 13 times to make sure it's closed. There is a trap, you just have to know when you're close to falling based on your tendency towards the completionist mindset. I'd drop 600€ on a great 1/6th Spesh Maureen immediatelly. But I see people paying ~30€ for a single plastic 4" figure, and then I see them get multiple packs of 4, so there is a trap of completionism. The only licensed 40K 1/6th figure is a Cadian Officer, who's pretty barebones and costs ~300€ minus shipping and tax. Come on now...
I wish I had a time machine. I'd go back and change all the stupid usernames I used on forums over the years. You can't believe how much it annoys me to have online accounts where the username is a reference to something I don't like anymore, and I can't change it or at least delete the account.
I might sell my Blitzway Fight Club set, I don't like the way they are looking at me.
You're right, Tyler fills with malice every time you click that PO button. It's okay man, I'll take them off your hands. You don't need to sell them, that'd be buying into the problem, trust me. Just give them to me, I'll take the load off of you. Come on, I'll help you.
