Omg how do you guys come to purge the collection.? Don’t you get sad after getting rid of them? I am a crack addict at heart and continue to strive for the 100% MCU completion goals.
Years ago around civil war time I recall selling my blue suit Captain America from CA TWS and then feeling such fomo for years that I’d given him up - especially when the suit made a cameo in Endgame that I ended up re purchasing one for a much higher price than I originally had! I also never forgive myself for giving away the no sunglasses agent Coulson head sculpt to trade for something at the time years ago.
Yeah this crack addiction is bad …. But I love it!
Oh, it took me a while to work up to it too, and I'm still not perfect. Money is, of course, always a factor, but it was mostly a space thing for me- I didn't have space for the new versions because I had every prior version of each character too. I suppose it helped because it got to the point where it was stressing me out not having room for things and either having to put some figures away that I really wanted to display.
So I really had to be honest with myself- which characters and versions brought me the most joy, and which ones would I personally deem the most "crucial". As cool as it is that these characters switch up costumes so often, I'm not gonna look at, say, the quantum suits from Endgame and go "Oh yeah, now
that's (insert character here)!" If you took the heads off, I needed to be able to tell what character and what movie they're from. So I had to ask myself why I was even buying a figure of them in the first place if it wasn't a look I really cared for, or looks that we're only gonna see once and then never again? It's easy to get swept up in the hype and excitement for something, but not at the expense of something better.
I made exceptions for characters that I really love like Spidey; I love seeing the transformation of the suit over the movies and on my shelf. But for characters that I'm either ambivalent toward or don't really care for like the older Thor (sorry, but I'm one of the ones who admittedly loves Taika/Russo Thor more than the overly serious early one), it's gotta be a look that I can look at and go either "That's
my (insert character here)" or "Remember
that iconic moment?" If it's a character we're never gonna see again or they'll never make again, like, say, Luis or Happy, that's one thing, but otherwise I try and limit myself to one look per character- 2 if I absolutely have to. I think I've kept most, if not all, the villains so far, but that may change here soon; after all, do I
really need Yon-Rogg, who was both kind of a Meh character, and an even more Meh figure?
Especially with all the advancements Hasbro has made in recent years, it felt silly to keep older figures which are clearly obsolete compared to newer ones- worse articulation, worse paint, worse likeness, etc. Unless that look or movie really spoke to me for whatever reason, but even then, there's a good chance they'll redo it with the upgraded tech (but seriously Hasbro, can you give us a freaking updated Nick Fury that isn't a traffic cone? My Avengers Fury has looked like he's about to take flight for over a decade now).
I had to gather up all the ones I wasn't wild about, just kinda pluck them from the shelf like ripping off a band-aid, and I let them sit in a pile/bag for a couple days; if I ended up missing them in the display, I put them back, but otherwise, I sold them. I did end up putting a couple back, but for the most part, I didn't miss them once they were actually gone, and with the new space, actually learned to appreciate the existing ones a bit more. I've kinda had a second awakening like that recently, when I started getting flight stands, or freeing up shelf space by putting some of the flying characters on the wall. Go figure- they look so much cooler when they're not being covered up by another figure! And by selling what I don't want/need, I have more money and excitement for upcoming releases, because I can see that there's room for them and can plan on where I want to put them. It's been really fun sorta sculpting my collection and moving things around and posing them and everything; it's helped it feel fresh and new. I don't even worry about making money, per se, on selling them- I know I won't get much for most of them loose, it's more about freeing up space, and if I happen to get enough money for a couple new ones, that's a bonus.
I'm down to, what I feel is, the last couple stragglers that I'm not sure on, hence asking about Killmonger, etc. Far be it for me to tell you how to do your collection, though, AP; I wish you luck in cultivating it as you see fit, whether that's lots of extras or a a small, tight collection. Oh, and I think I found my no-sunglasses Coulson head the other day if you're still looking for it. Let me know!
