Quitting/putting collecting on pause

The 'quality over quantity' isn't a fair argument anyway. Because for many of us it is also 'quality vs. price.' If, as I said above, a good Mafex figure is like 3 times the cost of an ML figure for me, does that mean it needs to be a 3x better figure entirely? Is it just being better -at all- enough to justify it because at least I'm getting the best version possible for my money?

What money is too much money to spend just to have the 'best' version of a character versus having one that is just... good?
And is it really worthwhile to do things like limit yourself to one of each character? What if I like this character 100 times more than I like that character? Why would I want one of each? Like, I have a bunch of He-Mans, Wolverines, and Conans. That'll never change. Those are three of my all-time favorite characters.

Really, I do think one of the problems -for me- is that I fall into the trap of 'I'm going to buy the better, more expensive figures because they're just better, but I'm going to buy fewer toys overall.' The trap in that scenario is that I do not actually end up buying significantly fewer figures. I just keep buying stuff like ML or Classified or SWB, AND I add a bunch of premium shit on top of that. Like a moron.
 
For sure.

My own thoughts on my initial response was Mafex Rogue. There was a time a few years ago she'd be the queen of the shelf for me, but Mafex delayed, and Hasbro improved. Are any of them perfect? No. Would I still want the Mafex. Yes. But times have changed, and rapidly, and the quality and price gaps are absurd for what each offers

And then yes, I say I want to go in on InArt and have Really Good Batmans, but I still impulse buy a McF Flash because I like The Flash and haven't had a basic ass Flash in years.

For my battle, I think it's just curbing the In Between pick ups and impulse buys. Impulse buying is even more painful these days when third party and imports become Impulse Buys when you see how good they are, or how limited the acquirement window is with the FOMO Pistol at your temple.
 
I dance with the whole "quality over quantity" thing, but I've also long since shaken my Marvel Legends impulse buying. I basically limit myself to 90s looks for X-Men and Spider-Man, but I'm rarely completely satisfied with a Hasbro offering so I'm often open to upgrades if an expensive import comes along. For them, I'm far more picky though and I need to feel like the release is near flawless to warrant the expense which is what got me to recently pony up for the new MAFEX Gambit. It's also why I have a grand total of 4 Medicom figures going back the last five years or whatever. And I think this works for me with Marvel, though with Hasbro prices creeping up I should stop treating them like inexpensive things I can casually throw money at for an incomplete experience.
 
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Alt said:
For my battle, I think it's just curbing the In Between pick ups and impulse buys.
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This is exactly it. It's always why I've grown to be okay with long pre-release windows as long as you're not required to buy it up front. So stuff you have to pre-order 2 years before it comes out? No thank you. Stuff like Classified or Marvel Legends, where we see renders and prototype reveals a year ahead? LOVE it. Here's why....

I save pictures to my computer of every toy I want to buy. When Classified drops some new render reveals - I save the pics of the ones I like. Everything. And then I go into my toy folder every couple of days and look through all the pics I'd saved. It kills the impulse of it. It makes me really think about why I want something, and gives me a chance to get tired of that thing before I ever even buy it. I can't tell you how many things I didn't buy because of this. And it's so satisfying to delete a picture. It's like you can feel yourself saving money by saying 'I actually changed my mind and don't need this.'

It doesn't STOP impulse buying, but I found it really curtails it for me.
 
Alt said:
Damn that's clever. I'm going to try it.
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I'll tell you, deleting pictures out of that folder feels like such a weird accomplishment sometimes and can be kind of addictive. You get to actually watch a visual representation of you changing your mind and deciding to save that money/space. Staring at toy pics is something a lot of us do ANYWAY, so just condensing that into a legitimate process of forcing myself to get inured to the 'new thing' until it's not new to me anymore has been so helpful.
 
Sometimes I think the best answer, at least for me personally, would be to decide how many figures I want in my collection. What’s “manageable” for me? Is it 10 figures? 100 figures? 1,000 figures? Maybe I just need to settle on a number and go from there.
 
Xavion2025 said:
Sometimes I think the best answer, at least for me personally, would be to decide how many figures I want in my collection. What’s “manageable” for me? Is it 10 figures? 100 figures? 1,000 figures? Maybe I just need to settle on a number and go from there.
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That definitely seems to work for some people, so it could be worth a try.

I find that I don't have enough self control to make hard 'rules' for myself like that. Because if I make a rule, I can break a rule. There's nothing behind it -except- my willpower. If I think 100 figures is a good number, I'll end up with 105 easily, because.. well.. what's 5 more figures? Look, there's space for them right there.

For me, the only thing that has ever worked is convincing myself I don't need the thing at all. That takes a lot of forms, but it's the only way I can get my brain to detach from 'must have thing.'
 
My biggest issue these days is my ever-worsening hyper-focus. Maybe it's the autism, maybe it's the adhd, maybe both, but I get hyper-focused on something (say, a hobby, or a type of figure) and it's to the extreme detriment of everything else.

In January, I picked up a Hot Toy Batfleck figure, and fell in love all over again with 1/6. DC is my favorite property, so I started buying up all of the 1/6 DC I could get. Batfleck, Cavill Superman, Corenswet Superman, etc etc. I came across a Hot Toy of Darth Vader that was an extremely good price, so I picked him up and suddenly I'm buying Star Wars Hot Toys like they're going out of style and completely ignoring DC. Next, I find a Hot Toys Iron Man I had been looking for, again a great price, so I pick him up and suddenly I'm forgetting about Star Wars and looking at the MCU. The last few weeks I've been looking more at DC again.

Meanwhile, I have a toy show coming up next month and I'm getting things ready to sell. I have tons of 1/12 and Mc/12 (that's my made-up name for McFarlane scale) getting priced and put in the bins to sell and Mrs. Smallville sees this. She's all "why are you selling _____, you love that one." And it got me thinking, I was about to shitcan a bunch of things I genuinely enjoy because I'm currently hyper-focused on Hot Toys. And, knowing me, I'll lose the flavor for HT soon enough and I'll be back with Mc/12 or 1/12 offerings.

Does anyone else just look at themselves sometimes and say "you know what? I fucking hate you, brain. You wrinkly fuck." Because that's where I'm at.

And it's not just with toys. I went through a period last year where I neglected all toy stuff to hyper-focus on my physical media (4K's, Blurays). Sometimes I forget everything to focus on omnibus and other comics. As you guys said, the hobby is collecting hobbies but sometimes it's hard to just stay on track with any of them for long.
 
Damien said:
That definitely seems to work for some people, so it could be worth a try.

I find that I don't have enough self control to make hard 'rules' for myself like that. Because if I make a rule, I can break a rule. There's nothing behind it -except- my willpower. If I think 100 figures is a good number, I'll end up with 105 easily, because.. well.. what's 5 more figures? Look, there's space for them right there.

For me, the only thing that has ever worked is convincing myself I don't need the thing at all. That takes a lot of forms, but it's the only way I can get my brain to detach from 'must have thing.'
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God, that happens with me with money lol I'll set a budget - "I can spend $300 during this convention" - and I'll get to that number, see something, and think "well, it's only $10 over. That's fine." And before I know it, I've had that conversation with myself 6 times and now I'm $60 over.

I'd be a shitty Green Lantern.
 
TheRealSmallville said:
God, that happens with me with money lol I'll set a budget - "I can spend $300 during this convention" - and I'll get to that number, see something, and think "well, it's only $10 over. That's fine." And before I know it, I've had that conversation with myself 6 times and now I'm $60 over.

I'd be a shitty Green Lantern.
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Oh yeah, I tried to do toy collecting on a budget several times. It never works for me. There's always an excuse. Whether it's 'just this one more 20 dollar figure isn't a big deal' or whether it's 'I have to get this now or I'll never be able to get it, so I HAVE to go over my budget this month, don't I?'
 
Damien said:
I save pictures to my computer of every toy I want to buy. When Classified drops some new render reveals - I save the pics of the ones I like. Everything. And then I go into my toy folder every couple of days and look through all the pics I'd saved. It kills the impulse of it. It makes me really think about why I want something, and gives me a chance to get tired of that thing before I ever even buy it. I can't tell you how many things I didn't buy because of this. And it's so satisfying to delete a picture. It's like you can feel yourself saving money by saying 'I actually changed my mind and don't need this.'
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Yeah I think this is a great idea, and I do a similar version of it just minus saving the pics.
Xavion2025 said:
Sometimes I think the best answer, at least for me personally, would be to decide how many figures I want in my collection. What’s “manageable” for me? Is it 10 figures? 100 figures? 1,000 figures? Maybe I just need to settle on a number and go from there.
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I have a number in mind, but it's not a hard limit, it's a "if you have this much you need to cull through and see if there's anything you can drop". Just putting my collection into a spreadsheet so I always see the number when a new figure comes in has helped curb a lot of impulse buying.

I know for a lot of you that would be a ton of work, my collection is one of the smaller ones here, but I think it was worth it. I did the same for my comics, movies and novels too. Just knowing what the numbers really are keeps it in perspective.
 
TheRealSmallville said:
In January, I picked up a Hot Toy Batfleck figure, and fell in love all over again with 1/6. DC is my favorite property, so I started buying up all of the 1/6 DC I could get. Batfleck, Cavill Superman, Corenswet Superman, etc etc. I came across a Hot Toy of Darth Vader that was an extremely good price, so I picked him up and suddenly I'm buying Star Wars Hot Toys like they're going out of style and completely ignoring DC. Next, I find a Hot Toys Iron Man I had been looking for, again a great price, so I pick him up and suddenly I'm forgetting about Star Wars and looking at the MCU. The last few weeks I've been looking more at DC again.
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I think that’s somewhat natural though, isn’t it? To my point earlier, collecting a new (to you) line that already has a plethora of previously released figures to choose from seems like a lot more fun than being completely caught up on a line and just hanging around waiting to cross another name off your want list. I can see how easy it would be to get caught up in that. It’s happened to me a few times as well.
 
Xavion2025 said:
I think that’s somewhat natural though, isn’t it? To my point earlier, collecting a new (to you) line that already has a plethora of previously released figures to choose from seems like a lot more fun than being completely caught up on a line and just hanging around waiting to cross another name off your want list. I can see how easy it would be to get caught up in that. It’s happened to me a few times as well.
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I am of two minds. Aka, an indecisive lil bitch. I've spoken about my extremes in the past. I go one way or the other and a lot of the time, it depends on how I see a line going.

If it's a line that I used to have and regret selling, it's fun to go back and collect. Just piecemealing these old favorites of mine. If I get them back, I am never selling them again. If it's a line I always wanted, and it's a grail, and I see opportunities to grab it, it's fun to collect. They will stay forever.

My biggest issue lies in active lines and this is where my biggest hangups come from.

One, I lose interest FAST when there is an end date, or an end in sight. Happens all the time with me. If I see that and line is winding down, my interest begins to go with it. As such, I tend to stop collecting that line prematurely, because "Why bother"?

Case in point, last summer, began collecting a shit ton of Masterverse. The plan was to be completely caught up by this summer, and I am indeed almost there.

But as we all know, Masterverse is gone, and Chronicles is the future. I look at this Masterverse collection and think "why bother"? I know there's an end, I know the line won't continue. I have moved on. As close as I am to the end.

I am actively watching myself head that way with NECA's Turtles.

Or two, I am knee deep in a line, and pray for an end because I know I'll never stop collecting, and I need that release.

And at some point in the collecting of a line in that situation, I need a way out. I am an all or nothing kind of guy. So, again, as an example-- GI Joe Classified. I can't just keep a Duke and Snake Eyes and call it a day, but dear God...who the shit is FootLoose? I don't know ALL of these characters, but I will continue to buy them because. Just because. And that is money could be saved or spent on something I actually care about, but I'd spend it on Joes because I've made this imaginary contract and commitment with myself to buy them. So they ALL have to go to unburden myself. So I unload everything.

Because it's all in or all out with me.

So there are times that I actively have to talk myself out of collecting certain lines because it's too late in the game, and there is so much of a backlog (and the money just isn't worth it) and then how much to collect in the future?
 
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