How your hobby evolved

[The Riddler]

I'm curious of how everyones hobby of collecting evolved into what it is today....step by step....heres mine...

It started in the late 80's with my grandfather, collecting star wars, gi joe and star trek figures....he would buy my toys from me or trade me things that I wanted in return for things he could make money on(a collector of everything)...what a shesister ...lol....when I was older and started a collection of my own in the mid 90's he would give me my old stuff back to me..what a saint.,,,,when he died when I was 17 I just felt this need to collect in his honor(something I fell in love with), as this was his life for forty years. I started with hear no evil see no evil monkeys as he did, starting my collection with his leftovers.....I then began collecting comic books...I did ths for about 4 years...after my boredom with comic books I began collecting comic book figures...this lasted only a year or so until I finally found my niche'.......It brought me to comic book action figures which ultimately brought me to loving anything pop culture related for the 70's 80's and 90's(mostly toys and games). i guess I became a new age version of him...but instead of buying and selling treasures, I fell in love with the collecting aspect of the game.

[cyberwolf76]

I used to have a pile of mismatched toys when i was a kid they were from garage sales older cousins etc I was quite poor when i grew up but that made me appreciate everything I had (even if it was a naked mego hulk or a starscream with absolutely no accessories). About 15 years ago I tried to work out what toy lines everything I owned were from . I discovered I had a Griptog so I collected powerlords, i discovered i had a Galaxy Warriors Spikes so i'm trying to collect the galaxy warriros line. I had a Sectaurs Skito and Toxid...so i collected the whole sectaurs line. After a while I just started collecting everything from the 80's even some toy lines that we never had here in Australia or that I never knew existed at the time . I just love everything 70s,80s and I discover new lines all the time . I read up on each toyline thoroughly and I try to collect everything loose mint if possible as It means I can collect more as its cheaper and you don't have to worry about keeping boxes in pristine condition. I'm currently trapped in my house surrounded by boxes of toys wondering when it will all end.

[mrjayberry]

I couldn't tell you for sure, I think really I'm a bit of a pack-rat and in order to order the insanity I "collect". It has helped me to not want to keep everything and be able to shift out things I've lost interest in. I've always been very attached to my toys though. I remember getting a new G.I. Joe in preschool slipping him in my pocket and carrying him everywhere for about a week until I lost him.

[3 3/4"collector]

well im not sure why i started collecting. im still not certain why i collect them, why they interest me.
but as a child i grew up playing with all the 70s and 80s 3 3/4" figure lines, i had maybe 2 MOTU style figures and maybe 1 or 2 each of any mego 8 inch style figures or any 12" figures. so in 90 i stumbled on a toy collector store hidden way in the back of a local flea market, and i was sort of suprised because i didnt know any such thing existed. i remember at times in my youth being annoyed because i could no longer buy the early g.i.joes or other figures i liked that were lost or just wrecked. so i was walking around this store i found in the flea market and it was just full of figures i had worn out or could never get or never even knew existed and they were in pretty nice shape and mostly no more expensive than they started out at. so i started going there and spending hours digging through the g.i.joes getting all those first few years joes. and then i started getting into other more obscure 3 3/4" figures. then i started getting into pop culture character figures, like vintage happy days figures and welcome back carter figures and the big mr.t figure and stuff like that. then i started getting into 12" real people music star figures, like mc hammer and vanilla ice and the new kids, or the old kiss figures and michael jackson. unfortunately of course they only really made 12" figures of pop rock starts i dont actually like. then in 95 they started the new star wars line and through the rest of the 90s it seemed like more and more new lines and old lines were popping up in all different sizes and it was just impossible to keep up or afford it all. so around 2000 i decided that all my good memories of playing with toys involved 3 3/4" figures, plus it really annoys me having figures not in scale with each other all standing around next to each other. so i decided i was going to only collect 3 3/4" and get rid of everything else.
and it makes me really happy thinking of all the stress i miss out on by not collecting those other scales, and how much time and money i saved by not collecting those marvel legends and all these 12" sideshow figures or legos. not having some sort of focus will drive you mad.

[victoryleo19]

I started with Thundercats/He-man as a kid. I used to go to a friends house, well he was actually a friend of my older brother, and he had this MASSIVE box of 80's toys with castle greyskull, the fright zone, and all kinds of other stuff. He had a lot of random figures in there, Starcom, Spiral Zone, Centurions. I basically just became amazed at how intense and varied the storylines from the 80's was. I haven't looked back since, but I do slow down from time to time.

I have shifted interest though, and I've only kept some of my thundercats and some other unique figures I really like. I am really gearing up for the new Thundercats launch and trying to clear out some room for it all.

[bowheadwhale]

Let's say, in the beginning, that I kept everything I had in my childhood. In 1989, at the age of 12, I bought from my former playmate one of his Battle Cats (he had two). Never regretted that move! A few months later, it was an Imperial standing Frilled Lizard that came into my room, from the flea market; I had missed a two-headed standing monster one week earlier, so, I wanted that one. In 1993, three unidentified crystal-like horses entered my room, from the flea market again (to be identified as Princess of Power horses thirteen years later). In 1993 again, in the Biodôme, I got myself an AAA right whale. In 1998, it was two Safari ltd Montery Bay whales to come into my life. And, in 2006, found a huge lot of MOTU figures in the flea market. And everything went on after that.

[BoogDoc7]

I LOVED Super Powers as a kid, and those (along with a small handful of Joes and TF) I kept in my parents attic. Got into the ebay game about 7-8 years ago (has it been THAT long?) and hitting garage sales and such, found that I really liked collecting and finding good deals. Most of my collection is either kept from the past or garage-sale/good ebay deal scored.

[victoryleo19]

My parents got rid of all my stuff, and when I hit about 5th grade I realized I wanted it all back. I have pretty much been on a quest since to find the stuff that interests me the most. I think I've become focused on D&D and transformers the most, which a lot diferent than my original "gi joe" collecting. I like how things change and my interests change. Latly I've been on a megaman / captain simian kick which is going in an interesting direction.

[else3573]

I started by riding with a comic collector to Portland everyday, he'd always stop in comic stores on the way home and I really liked the comic figure busts and statues. Then, one day, we went into a store an all their toys were 75% of, so I picked up a Harry from the Muppets line for like $2. That was the first figure I bought as an adult. Later, when I was living in a homeless shelter, there was a free store supplied with donations attached to the shelter. I started collecting happy mean toys, etc. When I got on my feet, I started collecting new lines like SHS, JLU, Teen Titans, Marvel Legends, etc. then got into wind ups and thos became my passion, because there's so many different vintage white know windups out there, and when I get a loose one, I then want a carded one. I picked up a carded Q Bert windup which started my Q Bert collection and a loose Cave fisher wind up which started my AD&D collection, the Magic Screen, Pterri and Conky wind ups started my Pee Wee's Playhouse collection and the Madballs Windups started my Madballs collection, I started collecting Starriors and Zoids because they have windup motors or wind up weapons.. I am eventually going to try to trade and sell off newer lines I don't collect anymore and picke up some more vintage lines I would like to get int, like Rocklords, Powerlords, Crystarr, possibly Armyu Ants or Battle Beasts eventually.