This is why I think Todd insists his DC line isn't dead. Once people realize he can't complete the teams they want, sales will crater.
Quitting/putting collecting on pause
- Thread starter akajomiha
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yojoebro82
Considerate
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2025
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- 791
I have a certain contentment seeing a collection that doesn't grow. I mentioned this back on the Fwoosh a while back: My Power Rangers and LOTR collections are done. I have the complete MMPR team for Lightning Collection which is my main love, and handful of their choice villains to fight on the shelf (I even have the alt heads for ALL of the various actors who played the rangers, some of which can be hard to find, so that's an extra feather in my cap). Then they canceled the line. That's OK with me, I have all want. Toybiz went nuts with LOTR, but I limited myself to the Fellowship, Sauron, Saurumon, and a couple of horses. That's it, that's the strict limit I set for myself. So one line is done because it's canceled and out of my hands, the other line is done because of a self-imposed limit. Looking at both brings me a lot of peace and joy. I want to chase that feeling with my Marvel and DC stuff.
yojoebro82
Considerate
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No Zatana and no Black Canary are two big holes, IMO, so big I may not be keeping my Todd stuff. Had he made them it would be a different story. He dragged his feet too long on the ladies and now time is just about up.
Justice
for Starhawk!
This is definitely partially my issue. The first step is admitting the problem and all that... but I also like to do dioramas and a big thing that keeps me from doing them with every line is the fact that the line keeps outgrowing my dioramas. Once I know a line is done it is much easier to commit to the shelf size I need and get to working on what I want to build. That's why I'm really hoping to pare down some lines I'm losing interest in. I'd like to get them down to just the major characters of the property and build some nice surroundings for them to hopefully rejuvenate my interest in those lines.
EnigmaticClarity
Studious
Yes, and it could be anything. An example my diagnosing therapist gave was that people with autism often hate noise in crowded places, so one support those people adopt is that they wear headphones or earbuds in crowded places to block the noise out.
I think I have the hypervigilance/hyperfocus many people on the spectrum have, and that's probably why I've landed on weed as a way to chill that out. I don't have much trouble chilling out without it thanks to Zen, but I do enjoy it quite a bit. I've never really had anything I could call an addiction at any point in my life, but I've got plenty of relatives who have had all of the usual ones. I love my nervous energy, but it's a nice change of pace to suppress it with THC.
I really don't fully get why some of these traits place you on the spectrum. I've always looked at the character traits that I have that are now being cast as autistic as gifts that contributed to success at school and work, so to have them now grouped into a "disorder" baffles me. My nervous energy drives me and my focus gives me the rational clarity that inspired my username long ago. I mean, I get why it's considered a disorder--because the level 2 and 3 people definitely do experience significant social challenges and their friends and family who have to help them deal with it certainly are faced with what is clearly a disorder--but grouping them with the completely functional folks is confusing.
Plenty of celebrities think they may be on the spectrum or have others thinking they're on it. The only two I've heard that were diagnosed are Anthony Hopkins and Elon Musk, but Dan Aykroyd, Adam Carolla, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Gates, and Ellen DeGeneres have all said that they've had others think they're on it or that they think they may be on it but have never been diagnosed. Men are diagnosed at a rate 4 times that of women, but it's thought that women have it just as much but learn to compensate for it earlier and more often than men do so aren't diagnosed nearly as often.
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Elon Musk is self-diagnosed.
And in his specific case, I won’t believe it until a professional signs off.
Not to derail this with a downer, but my professional suspicion is that Musk is using the “benign shield” of autism to hide what he *really* is: a psychopath.
[disclaimer: “psychopath”, or, more specifically, Anti-Social Personality Disorder, is not code for “evil”, and just because you deal with ASPD doesn’t make you a monster like Musk]
I believe Musk has done great harm to the autistic community by insisting on identifying with it. It’s also ironic that he hides behind that self-diagnosis, since as a “saying the quiet part out loud” full-tilt Nazi, he’s buying into an ideology that would have had him in a camp and/or an incinerator.
Elon Musk can fuck right off.
And in his specific case, I won’t believe it until a professional signs off.
Not to derail this with a downer, but my professional suspicion is that Musk is using the “benign shield” of autism to hide what he *really* is: a psychopath.
[disclaimer: “psychopath”, or, more specifically, Anti-Social Personality Disorder, is not code for “evil”, and just because you deal with ASPD doesn’t make you a monster like Musk]
I believe Musk has done great harm to the autistic community by insisting on identifying with it. It’s also ironic that he hides behind that self-diagnosis, since as a “saying the quiet part out loud” full-tilt Nazi, he’s buying into an ideology that would have had him in a camp and/or an incinerator.
Elon Musk can fuck right off.
I don't want to sound like a psychology skeptic, but I think self-diagnosis is a bit out of control these days. The number of times I've seen a meme that reads something like "the autistic need to check my phone during a movie" or "the neurodivergent urge to check up on my friends and family." Like, no, you're just a normal person living in the 21st century. You could just as easily substitute "neurodivergent" for "feminine" or "Libra." TikTok is a culprit. Ten years ago, I would've said the same about Tumblr. They've romanticized mental disorders.
EnigmaticClarity
Studious
How do we know that--did he say that? I just tried searching for whether or not he was professionally diagnosed but couldn't find anything specific. I definitely have no idea myself.
The extent of my knowledge on him is that he first publicly disclosed he has Asperger's during a 2021 Saturday Night Live monologue linked below. I've also heard that he's discussed it in a few podcasts and interviews, but I never went looking for what he said about it in those interviews. I only asserted he was diagnosed because he stated it as if it were fact on SNL, but who knows, maybe he's guessing.
EnigmaticClarity
Studious
The history of my own experience with autism is that I never had any reason to think I had it until 2015. That's when I first saw my level 3 autistic 10-year old step-cousin punch his mom (my step-cousin) in the face at a museum and proceed to verbally berate her for 20-30 seconds. I was pretty curious about it after that, so I did a deep dive on Hans Asperger and learned all about his research and the history of how it re-emerged in the 1980s and 1990s once it was translated to English. At some point I saw that quote about success in the arts and sciences requires a dash of autism and just broadly thought "I guess most college graduates must have it then" but didn't think about it beyond that.
Fast-forward to 2024. My significant other told me her mom thought I might have it, and she brought it up during couples therapy. The therapist told me she thought I had it, so I went and read the DSM criteria. I couldn't really see how I matched the criteria--and I'm still skeptical for reasons I could list somewhere else--so I asked the therapist to review the criteria and how I matched it. She wasn't a specialist and really couldn't speak to the criteria, so I went looking for a specialist. I found one in late 2024, got tested last month, and she diagnosed me with level 1 autism. She gave me a lengthy report I haven't read in full yet. The diagnosis was fairly expensive at around $2000 which I've heard is fairly typical for adult diagnosis of ADHD, autism, etc.
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EnigmaticClarity
Studious
Oh, and I'm very much a psychology skeptic. Back when Trump first ran for president I went looking for the DSM narcissistic personality disorder criteria to see if he met it, but what I found was that the diagnosis had been removed from the DSM as of the 5th revision. So before 2014 you might be a diagnosed narcissist, but after then I guess you can ball that diagnosis up and trash it.
Diagnosis criteria can change quite a bit over time, and I won't be surprised if my current diagnosis changes or is just no longer valid at some point in the future. That doesn't mean I discount it at all; just that I'm skeptical until I've thought about the whole topic and how it applies to me for another few months or years.
All of this is why the whole "vaccines cause autism" idea baffles me. The reason autism diagnoses have changed has nothing to do with objective reality; it has to do with the fact that the diagnostic criteria have changed dramatically over the past few decades. Trying to look for some tie to a cause confuses me given the way that DSM diagnostic criteria changes so much over time, particularly for autism which was largely unknown outside of the psychology community before Rain Man brought it mainstream in 1988.
Diagnosis criteria can change quite a bit over time, and I won't be surprised if my current diagnosis changes or is just no longer valid at some point in the future. That doesn't mean I discount it at all; just that I'm skeptical until I've thought about the whole topic and how it applies to me for another few months or years.
All of this is why the whole "vaccines cause autism" idea baffles me. The reason autism diagnoses have changed has nothing to do with objective reality; it has to do with the fact that the diagnostic criteria have changed dramatically over the past few decades. Trying to look for some tie to a cause confuses me given the way that DSM diagnostic criteria changes so much over time, particularly for autism which was largely unknown outside of the psychology community before Rain Man brought it mainstream in 1988.
Chooch555
Thoughtful
The DSM seems inherently limited in that it's trying to put a label on behaviors that are malleable by nature. I'm not saying diagnoses can't be useful, but our need to code everything for billing has led to a need to label things that don't necessarily benefit from labels.
joshsquash729
Born on the cob
I certainly agree that the self-diagnosing is a bit of an issue nowadays. Just hearing about my niece and their classmates through my sister, they seem to trade diagnoses like Pokemon cards nowadays. My niece and a lot of their friends are kinda those socially awkward nerds like myself, only they're big into anime, and certainly love emulating characters that are larger-than-life. Teens are angsty and emotional enough, and I get the comfort in seeing or reading about something that matches what you feel inside and think you need to settle into that niche. It can be very comforting to finally put a name to a certain thing plaguing you, but I think a lot of folks, especially the younger ones, seem to think that with a diagnoses comes a "fix", so to speak. That once you're diagnosed with something, it won't be an issue for you anymore. And for some it isn't, I suppose, but there are many things without a cure (nor do they need to be cured), like autism, etc. Or some things are only an issue for folks as long as they're not medicated, but once they find something that works, they're more or less "normal" (whatever that means).
It's an odd sort of 360 from when I was growing up, where you didn't really talk about a lot of the health things- mental or physical- you're struggling with, to not stray too far from the norm. Whereas now, where so many things are openly talked about in entertainment and mental health is such a priority, it can certainly feel odd to not be struggling with anything. Some folks might think you're boring or this or that, etc. People- especially kids- use these medical things as a means to connect with others and feel comfortable around like-minded people who get what they're going through.
My niece also currently identifies as trans/non-binary (we're not entirely sure which), and we kinda treat that in a similar way- we obviously love them no matter what. Doesn't matter if they're gay, straight, man, woman, autistic, etc., as long as they're safe and happy. But we also make it a point to not feel the need to go around telling others something unless it gets brought up. It's totally normal to identify as one thing when you're still figuring things out, but realize that it's not a permanent part of you a couple years later. We're all allowed to adjust and try things, etc. But to put all your eggs in one basket, tell everyone you know you're this or that, only makes it harder for everyone (yourself included) to be open to change later. We also feel that way regarding short-term ailments. Nobody knows your body but you, so even if you go to the doctor and are told you're perfectly healthy, if you feel something is off or you're sick or whatever, then act on it accordingly (within reason, of course). But we treat diagnoses and ailments, etc. as we would any extended warranty or "try before you buy" thing- try it out for a bit, see how it fits you, and if, as time passes, it still feels right to some degree (after doing research, etc.), then you can consider it part of you, but still be open to change. With new experiences and knowledge, we all grow and evolve and shed different parts of ourselves and adopt others.
It's a tricky thing to navigate. My family has about every medical ailment you can think of in our family history, so it's not uncommon to be told we are or we have a certain thing. But we also don't want to give ourselves those things by thinking we're doomed to get them, if that makes sense, and we certainly don't want to cause ourselves distress because we've built our lives around a certain belief, and now have to adjust everything we know. There is a strange comfort in not knowing things and having that wiggle room that you may or may not have/be something. It's just when it really starts to negatively impact you and/or others that it needs to be addressed.
It's an odd sort of 360 from when I was growing up, where you didn't really talk about a lot of the health things- mental or physical- you're struggling with, to not stray too far from the norm. Whereas now, where so many things are openly talked about in entertainment and mental health is such a priority, it can certainly feel odd to not be struggling with anything. Some folks might think you're boring or this or that, etc. People- especially kids- use these medical things as a means to connect with others and feel comfortable around like-minded people who get what they're going through.
My niece also currently identifies as trans/non-binary (we're not entirely sure which), and we kinda treat that in a similar way- we obviously love them no matter what. Doesn't matter if they're gay, straight, man, woman, autistic, etc., as long as they're safe and happy. But we also make it a point to not feel the need to go around telling others something unless it gets brought up. It's totally normal to identify as one thing when you're still figuring things out, but realize that it's not a permanent part of you a couple years later. We're all allowed to adjust and try things, etc. But to put all your eggs in one basket, tell everyone you know you're this or that, only makes it harder for everyone (yourself included) to be open to change later. We also feel that way regarding short-term ailments. Nobody knows your body but you, so even if you go to the doctor and are told you're perfectly healthy, if you feel something is off or you're sick or whatever, then act on it accordingly (within reason, of course). But we treat diagnoses and ailments, etc. as we would any extended warranty or "try before you buy" thing- try it out for a bit, see how it fits you, and if, as time passes, it still feels right to some degree (after doing research, etc.), then you can consider it part of you, but still be open to change. With new experiences and knowledge, we all grow and evolve and shed different parts of ourselves and adopt others.
It's a tricky thing to navigate. My family has about every medical ailment you can think of in our family history, so it's not uncommon to be told we are or we have a certain thing. But we also don't want to give ourselves those things by thinking we're doomed to get them, if that makes sense, and we certainly don't want to cause ourselves distress because we've built our lives around a certain belief, and now have to adjust everything we know. There is a strange comfort in not knowing things and having that wiggle room that you may or may not have/be something. It's just when it really starts to negatively impact you and/or others that it needs to be addressed.
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2025
- Messages
- 2,109
I felt that way about some characters with DCUC -- there were a few that were just so important to me that the entire collection felt wrong without them and I couldn't keep them. I'm so upset that someone finally made Nightmaster and it was Todd, and he decided what Nightmaster really needed was a right fist and possibly the worst decision on deco in the entire Multiverse line.
joshsquash729
Born on the cob
Had another little "why did I choose this life?" moments this past weekend. Was visiting my boyfriend's family in Mass; my boyfriend is very nerdy like me, and while my mom is quite supportive of the collecting (and even has a collection of her own), my boyfriend's parents are still very much of the belief that all this is a bit silly and childish. They support it to an extent, but there's always that part of them that just doesn't get it and would probably prefer we stop, especially the older we get (don't get me wrong- they're very kind and loving people).
Anywho, can't remember how it got brought up, but my boyfriend mentioned something I was looking for in the area and the YouTube channel I started and his mom sighed and rolled her eyes (as lovely as she is, she's not always the best at hiding her displeasure). She kinda went into the whole "Do people actually watch videos about toys? And they're adults?" thing, and after a super brief discussion, we just kinda concluded things with the ol' "Well, alright then." At least I won't have to worry about her ever watching the channel and finding out just how much stuff I have, so that's a silver lining, I suppose.
Again, she's quite lovely, but definitely a traditional "Mom" as far as the passive guilt goes. My boyfriend and I had very different upbringings; his family never hurt for money, whereas mine constantly did. Both his parents were kind and loving, versus my awful dad. We've been together long enough that she definitely likes and approves of me, but I'm sure she wishes I was a bit of a better influence on her son in that regard (and vice versa, I'm sure).
Don't get me wrong, nothing she could ever say or do would get me to stop collecting, but it's still just a little awkward. Me being me, I'm definitely one of those people who's constantly trying to win and/or keep the approval of people, so little jabs and disappointments like that certainly rattle me more than they should. Part of the whole reason I started the channel was to be more outward and proud about my love of collecting, to share it with others and to (hopefully) receive some love from like-minded people. I'm admittedly pretty terrible at it all; I've always been an old man stuck in a younger body in regard to technology, but I'm getting better. If nothing else, it's been a fun little side hobby for now.
Anywho, can't remember how it got brought up, but my boyfriend mentioned something I was looking for in the area and the YouTube channel I started and his mom sighed and rolled her eyes (as lovely as she is, she's not always the best at hiding her displeasure). She kinda went into the whole "Do people actually watch videos about toys? And they're adults?" thing, and after a super brief discussion, we just kinda concluded things with the ol' "Well, alright then." At least I won't have to worry about her ever watching the channel and finding out just how much stuff I have, so that's a silver lining, I suppose.
Again, she's quite lovely, but definitely a traditional "Mom" as far as the passive guilt goes. My boyfriend and I had very different upbringings; his family never hurt for money, whereas mine constantly did. Both his parents were kind and loving, versus my awful dad. We've been together long enough that she definitely likes and approves of me, but I'm sure she wishes I was a bit of a better influence on her son in that regard (and vice versa, I'm sure).
Don't get me wrong, nothing she could ever say or do would get me to stop collecting, but it's still just a little awkward. Me being me, I'm definitely one of those people who's constantly trying to win and/or keep the approval of people, so little jabs and disappointments like that certainly rattle me more than they should. Part of the whole reason I started the channel was to be more outward and proud about my love of collecting, to share it with others and to (hopefully) receive some love from like-minded people. I'm admittedly pretty terrible at it all; I've always been an old man stuck in a younger body in regard to technology, but I'm getting better. If nothing else, it's been a fun little side hobby for now.
akajomiha
Loves DDs
I get that, @joshsquash729 - as much as I admire (and advocate) people that "let their freak flag fly", I tend to be a private person and keep my obsession hobby close to the vest. I remember even trying to hide my comic and figure collecting from my wife (back when we were first dating). She acted like I was silly to try to hide it and supports my collecting. My parents-in-law are more of the eye-rolly type. I guess the best thing to do in these situations is what you and I both did- say "Well, alright then" and move on. I'm glad your boyfriend is supportive and equally nerdy. Do you feel comfortable sharing your YT channel with us? Would love to check it out!