You Ever Get Tired of This?

JakeEkiss said:
.....

I just haven't done it YET.

*shifty eyes*

(I will say, part of my plan for 2026 is to actually start executing the displays I've been thinking about for forever for exactly this reason)
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Haha!
There's this expression us old-timers use that goes 'shit or get off the pot.' Either you gotta do it, or admit you're just not gonna do it. That was a really hard one for me. I mentioned on Zoom the other day that I had to go through this with dio-building as well. So many plans, so little action. For years and years. At some point it's just like 'I'm not actually going to do this, am I?'

OR.. 'by the time I ever get around to this, I'll probably be doing it with a totally different collection because all of these things I have now will be outdated by two toy generations.'
 
Damien said:
Haha!
There's this expression us old-timers use that goes 'shit or get off the pot.' Either you gotta do it, or admit you're just not gonna do it. That was a really hard one for me. I mentioned on Zoom the other day that I had to go through this with dio-building as well. So many plans, so little action. For years and years. At some point it's just like 'I'm not actually going to do this, am I?'

OR.. 'by the time I ever get around to this, I'll probably be doing it with a totally different collection because all of these things I have now will be outdated by two toy generations.'
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Oh absolutely. I finally started making my lasercuts for the exterior boxes for my dios this past week and I've blocked out 2 days of my winter vacation to come into the office and commandeer the laser cutter and foam cutters for more. 2026 is my dio-making year. Less figures added, more cool places for them to live.

I'm actually really pumped to finally execute some of these ideas. I'll be posting them here too so folks can see what I'm getting up to.
 
I used to collect micro clone wars stuff thinking one day I would make a six foot long version of one of these:

images


with an opening hangar full of gunships, ARC-170s, AT-TEs etc, but finally accepted by the time I had the kinds time necessary for such a project, I'll be dead or at least too feeble to be trusted with a jigsaw and sold all the ships I had gotten intending to make molds of to mass produce.

And now I could just 3D print that shit like crazy... Huh...
 
So, I was greeted this morning by wife having tallied up our expenditures. From us deciding to eat out at restaurants, her Starbuck's trips, and of course...this little hobby here.

Between the two of us, 4k. Of course, me being the highest spender with figures.

Four fucking thousand. In two months.

I gotta rein this in.
 
RicksNerdLife said:
So, I was greeted this morning by wife having tallied up our expenditures. From us deciding to eat out at restaurants, her Starbuck's trips, and of course...this little hobby here.

Between the two of us, 4k. Of course, me being the highest spender with figures.

Four fucking thousand. In two months.

I gotta rein this in.
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As someone who has first hand experience with all three of those habits, I’ve found that the only true antidote is to have very specific (and achievable) financial goals. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you spend your money on those things? Food, frapps, and figures rock!
 
Damien said:
I think the only way I can just stop having this issue is to stop altogether. All of it. Sell every action figure I own, delete all my toy-related bookmarks, start a new Instagram without toys all over it, and cut myself off from the toy community stuff. I could never be one of those guys that sells all my stuff but still pops in to see what's up and chat with the boys. I would HAVE to cut it all out to keep from falling back in. I know I could do it. Probably pretty easily, if I'm being honest. But I don't -want- to. But I also don't want to be fighting my own brain all the time anymore. It actually kind of sucks.
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Speaking to this...in 2024, during that big Fwoosh outage (or was it '23? It all runs together), I didn't have anybody to talk toys with or to read about toys from. I had youtube, sure, but I don't do instagram and I don't really look at toy stuff on FB or any other social media platform. I don't even troll websites to see what is new for preorder, I have always just waited to come across news. I discovered that I unintentionally bought far fewer things during that outage, and it was because I was only really seeing whatever I came across on a store shelf. In essence, I was more or less cut off or at least cut back from being exposed to it every day, and my purchases fell off as a result.

I agree with your point that the only real way to stop is to literally stop it all. Stop scoping out the toy aisles, get rid of the websites, delete the message board account. Going back to my example of smoking, I tried a couple times half-heartedly to quit in my 20's but my significant other at the time was still a smoker then. It wasn't until after I met Mrs Smallville that quitting smoking became easy because I wasn't around it.

I guess I don't really have much of a point, I could have just said "I agree" lol
 
TheRealSmallville said:
I guess I don't really have much of a point, I could have just said "I agree" lol
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To your point, during the last outage I was -mostly- out of Joe Classified. Since AT started up, I've actually purchased probably 85% of all the Classified figures I own. The sickness is definitely far worse when you're sharing it with others.
 
Damien said:
To your point, during the last outage I was -mostly- out of Joe Classified. Since AT started up, I've actually purchased probably 85% of all the Classified figures I own. The sickness is definitely far worse when you're sharing it with others.
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100%!

I have branched out to a lot of 3rd party and indie lines I didn't even know existed simply because I saw someone talking about them here lol "There are giant tiger men that look like kung fu monks, and not based on existing IP? Yes please!"

I'd never find this shit if yall weren't peer pressuring enablers, I tell ya.
 
RicksNerdLife said:
So, I was greeted this morning by wife having tallied up our expenditures. From us deciding to eat out at restaurants, her Starbuck's trips, and of course...this little hobby here.

Between the two of us, 4k. Of course, me being the highest spender with figures.

Four fucking thousand. In two months.

I gotta rein this in.
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I got into 1/6 collecting lightly in '23 and more heavily in '24. I didn't have anywhere to display them at the time, but I knew that the day was coming soon that I would.

One day, I counted the boxes piled up and I was at 28 figures. Probably 50/50 Hot Toys and 3rd Party. 3rd party are cheaper, but if you average that out then the average cost for each figure I bought is probably around $200? Maybe $250? Multiplied by 28...

Things add up fast, much quicker than we notice sometimes. So yeah, I definitely feel you about reining it in. I've tried to refocus on 1/12 (and thereabouts) scale, it's a lot cheaper lol
 
RicksNerdLife said:
So, I was greeted this morning by wife having tallied up our expenditures. From us deciding to eat out at restaurants, her Starbuck's trips, and of course...this little hobby here.

Between the two of us, 4k. Of course, me being the highest spender with figures.

Four fucking thousand. In two months.

I gotta rein this in.
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I think it depends on your financial situation. If you're covering your expenses and putting money into savings, spend away.

My grandfather, a child of the depression, drilled financial austerity into me. It worked, too. I used to get the full-body sweats when my wife wanted to order dessert at a restaurant. I've been in Tuscany, nearly hyperventilating, because the trip was costing more than I expected. With help from my therapist, I finally conquered it. It didn't hurt that I started making more money, either.

Unfortunately, we're all one bad accident or unlucky health scare away from being totally destitute. Sadly, I could save every dollar I made, and that would still be the case. I pay my bills, save some money, and don't sweat the rest.
Justice said:
That old saying comes to mind, can't see the forest for the trees. You get so bogged down in detail that you don't see the whole picture. For me collecting is definitely about the whole forest more so than any one tree
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I hear that. There are figures in my collection that I handled for less than two minutes. Hasbro's Avalanche, the Marvel Select Loki, etc. Their core function is completing a team or display. I couldn't care less about the figure.

When I sold my adolescent collection, I didn't keep anything. I didn't see any value in keeping Captain America if I couldn't display him with Thor, Iron Man, and Hulk. The same for my beloved X-Men. Many of these ensembles don't work with just two or three figures. I could probably assemble a 25-figure collection that I'd be reasonably happy with, but that's still a sizeable collection if my starting point was "get rid of it all."

If my collection were destroyed or lost, I often think I'd replace it with the "bare minimum" rather than a 1:1 replication of what I have now.

Funny enough, my current collection started as the bare minimum. I was fine with just those four Avengers. Then I needed a villain for them. Then I needed an individual villain for Thor, Cap, and Iron Man. I needed Doctor Doom, but can you really have him without the FF? It snowballs.

This might be worth its own thread, but I'm curious what the "bare minimum" would look like. The X-Men are where I really get into trouble. Theoretically, I could stomach a display of Cyclops-Jean-Storm-Wolverine and Magneto, but it feels wrong to have an X-Men display without Beast, Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Kitty. Even then, Psylocke, Colossus, Gambit, Emma, and Iceman are difficult cuts.
 
TheSameIdiot said:
This might be worth its own thread, but I'm curious what the "bare minimum" would look like. The X-Men are where I really get into trouble. Theoretically, I could stomach a display of Cyclops-Jean-Storm-Wolverine and Magneto, but it feels wrong to have an X-Men display without Beast, Nightcrawler, Rogue, and Kitty. Even then, Psylocke, Colossus, Gambit, Emma, and Iceman are difficult cuts.
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I think it depends on your era. A bare minimum X-Men display for me would be Cyclops, Wolverine, Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler. They were the mainstays from GSX 1 to Uncanny 143.

Now if you want to add every character that appeared during that run that has a semi-accurate Marvel Legends figure, you can quickly bump those five up to well over 20, 30, or perhaps even 40.
 
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Damien said:
To your point, during the last outage I was -mostly- out of Joe Classified. Since AT started up, I've actually purchased probably 85% of all the Classified figures I own. The sickness is definitely far worse when you're sharing it with others.
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This has been in the front of my head lately as well. I have to actively remind myself that I don't have to buy something just because I said I wanted it, or because I said it was good, or whatever stupid excuse that will bite me in the ass later when I realize it wasn't worth it. Nobody cares what I do except me and my family. Nobody is going to show up at my doorstep and say, "BUT YOU SAID YOU WANTED A ELECTORNIC SUPER SONIC FIGHTERS v2 MAJOR BLUDD FIGURE!" if I don't pre-order it.
 
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