Do you miss toy hunting?

[The Ween]

I have a fun hunting anecdote too

I didn't exactly had a fist fight but I remember once that an old lady was trying to talk me out of buying a Turtles figure.

I was about 7 or 8 at the time and almost every Saturday I had to tag along with my mother and grandmother to the local town to go shopping. Luckily there were 2 toystores there so I could do some hunting.

So I finally found a Bebop, in the back of the shelf, I had to pull out 10 other figures or so to get to him and all of a sudden there's this old lady and her husband.
She starts talking all sad about her grandson who had his birthday the day before and who got some Turtle figures but he didn't get Bebop and that was his favorite. She said he was upset about it and that made her upset. She didn't exactly ask for it, but she tried to psychologically manipulate me in to giving it to her.

Well, that didn't work
I figured that kid just had a bunch of Turtles for his birthday and still wanted more, so he was probably a spoiled brat who didn't deserve this one. So I said something like: "Well, yeah though luck" ( I wasn't exactly good at witty remarks back then) and I walked away

But now lately I kinda miss the hunt. There are almost no 1/6 figs available in stores so online shopping is the only option.

I do let my figs arrive in a local store though, so I don't have to pay shipping costs and I can see the figure in hand before actually paying for it.
So that brings back the hunting feeling a bit

I've had that happen to me before. At Christmas time too you had to watch your cart because people would steal stuff right out of it.

 

[DinoLast]

I don't miss it.
Where I live, I used to have to travel to London to get cool stuff.
Now I can do it online.
I remember when I was a kid I made more poor Grandparents look everywhere for a Galen Figure.

 

[Balsquat]

When there was that Dark Knight Movie Masterpiece craze, I had a guy follow me around Toys R Us. He was waiting for me to put down my joker, when looking at something else so he could snatch it....People can be sick.
I asked him if there was something he needed, he just ran away...

 

[The Entity]

I've had that happen to me before. At Christmas time too you had to watch your cart because people would steal stuff right out of it.

Wow that is pretty extreme
I would be so mad when that happened to me.

Luckily I've never seen that happen before.

 

[Skiman]

Wow that is pretty extreme
I would be so mad when that happened to me.

Luckily I've never seen that happen before.

Today I would throw my cart on their heads if something like that happened to me.

 

[Mad Old Lu]

I never really did the toy hunting thing, I would find myself tolling for any good bargains at my local toy stores. I used to love a KayBee Toys at a strip mall next door to an AC Moore that my wife goes to. She would go there and I would take a quick stroll through the toys. I always managed to find some great bargains there, like a McFarlane Matrix Sentinel for about $10 on clearance. They closed down and I really miss it! Especially cos now I have to be in AC Moore for the whole time!

This weekend I was at TJ Max with my wife and I found a 12" talking Indy for $7 so I had to snatch it up! It's kinda fun finding these little things that I wasn't necessarily looking for, but for such a cheap price, why not?

 

[Darth Cruel]

No way. Not me. I thoroughly LOVE the hunt for the figures and still do hit the brick and mortars just to look now that I have stopped buying. The only thing I used to get on line were the on-line exclusives.

I also had no problem striking up conversations with other collectors that were hunting. Very frequently they would be closed and standoffish. But once I got them talking...there would be a lot of information exchanging and we ALMOST always helped each other out.

 

[Adoptedscot]

Never did it, don't miss it.
x

 

[Skiman]

Never did it, don't miss it.
x

 

[ProgMatinee]

I traded toy hunting for Chris Howes hunting.

 

[BuffyGirl]

I miss it very much. When I was first getting into it I was so excited. Now that I have pretty much all the pieces I want, there's not much more to get excited about. And SSC isn't making any more of what I want so, yeah, I miss it.

 

[Memnoch]

I don't miss it at all. Since I only collect 1/6 I don't even go to the toy section in stores anymore.

Just thinking back of searching for those "rare" Toy Biz X-men figures that are worthless now. Man, what a waste of time, money and gas.

Reminds me of my hunt for the Toy Biz Rouge. Never saw her stores, convinced my dad to pay $30 bucks at a comic shop. By the end of that line there were about 50 of them in the KB Toys mark down bins. Right now Im not actually hunting anything. I picked up my last most wanted Marvel Universe figure (which I was passively hunting for), my MOTU figures are on Matty, I've just been ordering Star Wars stuff by the case, and then the 1/6 stuff is all on line. Toy hunting was a waste of gas, waste of time and overall just frustrating.

 

[DinoDB1975]

I never really did the toy hunting thing, I would find myself tolling for any good bargains at my local toy stores. I used to love a KayBee Toys at a strip mall next door to an AC Moore that my wife goes to. She would go there and I would take a quick stroll through the toys. I always managed to find some great bargains there, like a McFarlane Matrix Sentinel for about $10 on clearance. They closed down and I really miss it! Especially cos now I have to be in AC Moore for the whole time!

The outlet Kaybee Toys were awesome. They always had old McFarlane figures I missed for cheap. I noticed that the McFarlane figures I bought from Kaybee had their packaging in Spanish.

As for the hunt, I don't miss it at all. In the late 90's/early 00's, when I was still collecting McFarlane/LOTR figures there was something to be said about the thrill of the hunt. Not so much anymore. Moved up from 1/4 action figures to PFs and comiquettes. I still have a bunch of stuff that I just consider clutter now.

 

[Shatterer of Dreams]

i miss the hunt, i loved going to the old Farmer's Market in LA (which is now just a normal mall) which was basically a flea-market and finding cool crazy stuff.

Hunting for toys (at least from my male perspective) satisfied my natural male urges to hunt and gather. I will not kills animals so we have thousands of years of hunting instincs in us and nothing to do to get it out. So i hunted collectibles and going on line and finding something is just not the same.

 

[ProgMatinee]

nice analogy, unfortunately for them i think toys are used to satisfy many a man's sexual urges as well.

 

[Shatterer of Dreams]

whatever works....

 

[automaton]

the hunt is very much alive, it is just online... where else can one find a sealed Clone Kenobi for $20 or a new Grievous Bust for $375? the Venom Bust... Patient Zero PF EX... no chance i am going to spot these on some rack in a store but online, anything is possible.