Confessions of a Former Toy Collector

[Chad Rushing]

Well, this post has been a long time coming, but I wanted to finally get it out there. I have sold off my entire Transformers toy collection, probably thousands of figures, although I never calculated the exact number. I still have a single reissue G1 Bumblebee keychain somewhere as a reminder of my toy addict days, but that's it.

I originally started with selling off my non-Transformers toys (TMNT, PR Megazords, MOTU, DBZ, Gundam, Disney, Machine Robo, transforming knock-offs, etc.) so that I could free up space and funds for more Transformers. Then, I started selling off the duplicates, triplicates, quadruplicates, and so on of my Transformers toys; one of each was really enough. For example, I had six CYB Supreme Starscreams and like five ALT Shockwaves. I'd often buy a Deluxe/Basic for the Nth time just because it was on clearance.

Then, I stopped buying them altogether before the last season of Animated (the end of 2008?), because I was doing it more out of sheer habit and momentum than because I was actually enjoying the new toys. Collecting them had become just work, not fun. I remember seeing some new Transformers in the stores (CYB redecos as Target exclusives) and feeling weird for not buying them for the first time since Beast Machines (when I started collecting again).

Then, I started selling off all of the non-show toylines (ALT/BT, UNIV, BotCon), then the Japan-only toylines (BW2, BWN), and the first movie's toys. I also sold off the non-toy TF items like the Hard Hero G1 busts. I was going to keep only the toys from the various animated shows (including the G1 reissues), since those were my favorite part of the franchise. Finally, I decided that I could live without those, too, and just sold off all of the rest of them.

It literally took me years to sell them all, and that was with me often selling the smaller toys in large lots of ten or so, not just individually. I probably finished selling them all about a year ago, and my desire for toy collecting (or collecting in general) is basically gone now. In fact, I really started to hate them at some point after spending hundreds (thousands?) of hours on the process of photographing them, listing them, packaging them, shipping them, etc. There is no telling how much money I lost overall (hundreds of dollars just on shipping supplies), so that just added insult to injury.

I'm still a Transfan, but it is now limited to the animated shows. I really enjoyed PRIME, and I hope to see more TF shows over the years or rewatch the earlier ones, but I don't plan on ever buying any more Transformers toys--or really toys of any kind--ever again. That chapter of my life is closed, and I've since started selling off the non-toy collectibles I own, too (cards, comics, games).

I know it is a cliché, but there really does come a point where your possessions start to own you rather than the other way around. Having to move everything I owned twice in one year really brought that point home. So, I aim to be content with far less stuff in life going forward and would encourage others to do so, too.

- Chad

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, April 29, 2014 6:03:17 PM UTC-6, Chad Rushing wrote:

> Well, this post has been a long time coming, but I wanted to finally get it

> out there. I have sold off my entire Transformers toy collection.

I remember seeing your posts about your eBay lots on a pretty regular basis, back in the day. It must have taken you forever to unload it all. I'll bet you're relieved it's finally over and done with! (I could probably make a few hundred dollars if I sold off the stuff I don't care about and would never ever miss, but I am an inherently lazy creature. Selling stuff is hard work!)

> For example, I had six CYB Supreme Starscreams and like five ALT Shockwaves.
> I'd often buy a Deluxe/Basic for the Nth time just because it was on
> clearance.

Did you say at some point that you had those six Starscreams because you were going to paint the other five into the remaining 1984/85 Decepticon jets? That's not redundant; it's just good planning.

> Then, I stopped buying them altogether before the last season of Animated
>(the end of 2008?), because I was doing it more out of sheer habit and
> momentum than because I was actually enjoying the new toys. Collecting them
> had become just work, not fun.

As Onslaught Six used to say: THIS. That was totally where I was at around the final days of Armada, which I guess puts it at around 2003-04 or so. It took the sheer craptitude of Armada to make me realize I was buying all these toys that I did not want. I don't think anybody starts off buying toys and says to themselves, "Gosh, one day I hope I start to really hate this!" but somehow it happens.

Unlike yourself, I do still buy toys, but I only get the ones I want. That seems like such an obvious and self-evident thing to say, but it's enormously freeing. And I really do enjoy the ones that I've continued to buy.

> I remember seeing some new Transformers in the stores (CYB redecos as Target
> exclusives) and feeling weird for not buying them for the first time since
> Beast Machines (when I started collecting again).

Also THIS. I can totally relate. When I first began to break my completist habits, it was a very strange experience for me to see new toys and not get them... even if the "new" toys were just redeco versions of toys I already owned, like Energon Tidal Wave. Somehow I felt like I was missing out, even though it was the exact same damn toy as Armada Tidal Wave. Energon was the first toy line for which I never had the completist mindset, and it bugged me so much that people on ATT were talking about toys like Scorponok that I had absolutely no first-hand experience with. I got over it, of course.

> In fact, I really started to hate them at some point after spending hundreds
> (thousands?) of hours on the process of photographing them, listing them,
> packaging them, shipping them, etc. There is no telling how much money I
> lost overall (hundreds of dollars just on shipping supplies), so that just
> added insult to injury.

I don't mean this in a bad way, but did you not charge anybody for shipping? I remember looking at a lot of your auctions and thinking that your prices had been fairly reasonable. (I usually just didn't need any of the stuff you were offering.)

With that said, I find myself in agreement with you. Selling toys is a royal pain. I actually do hate it. As we speak I am sitting on a couple of Hot Wheels cars that are probably worth about $50 but I have not sold them because I hate listing stuff on eBay just that much.

> I know it is a cliché, but there really does come a point where your
> possessions start to own you rather than the other way around. Having to
> move everything I owned twice in one year really brought that point home.
> So, I aim to be content with far less stuff in life going forward and would
> encourage others to do so, too.

That's a good lesson to have come away with. I think on some level, I recognize that I gobble up toys because I'm trying to fill some kind of emotional void. Maybe it's because my parents divorced when I was a kid; maybe it's because I'm emotionally stunted and part of me is still nine years old. I don't really know. I don't forsee myself letting go of my collection any time soon, so the fact that you were able to do so, Chad, speaks towards your maturity and stability.

I'll bet that little keychain Bumblebee considers himself pretty damn special! :)


Zob

[Chad Rushing]

On Tuesday, April 29, 2014 7:55:49 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
>
> I remember seeing your posts about your eBay lots on a pretty regular basis, back in the day. It must have taken you forever to unload it all. I'll bet you're relieved it's finally over and done with! (I could probably make a few hundred dollars if I sold off the stuff I don't care about and would never ever miss, but I am an inherently lazy creature. Selling stuff is hard work!) <

Yes, I was very relieved in the end, a real weight off of my shoulders. Except for a few bookcases left for displaying new figures, my entire living space had become a giant warehouse (although a very clean and orderly one) with plastic containers and banker boxes literally stacked to the ceiling in places. I read up a good bit on compulsive hoarding at the time, and the signs just couldn't be denied.

> Did you say at some point that you had those six Starscreams because you were going to paint the other five into the remaining 1984/85 Decepticon jets? That's not redundant; it's just good planning. <

Wow, you've got a great memory! That was my intention, but like so many other one-day-I'll-get-around-to-that plans of mine, that one never came to fruition. (I'd also wanted to repaint extra Playskool Go-Bots into G1/BW characters.) Honestly, I was often doing well to just open, transform, and display all of the TFs I bought, much less kitbash them. I remember having a stack of unopened packages by the front door one time, all of them full of preordered toys. It really became ridiculous.

> As Onslaught Six used to say: THIS. That was totally where I was at around the final days of Armada, which I guess puts it at around 2003-04 or so. It took the sheer craptitude of Armada to make me realize I was buying all these toys that I did not want. I don't think anybody starts off buying toys and says to themselves, "Gosh, one day I hope I start to really hate this!" but somehow it happens. <

I think it was the frustration of the 2007 movie toys that finally pushed me over the edge. I remember sitting with the instructions to Leader Brawl for like 30 minutes, trying to figure out a few steps, and I was fighting the urge to chunk it into the parking lot outside. It just wasn't fun anymore.

> Unlike yourself, I do still buy toys, but I only get the ones I want. That seems like such an obvious and self-evident thing to say, but it's enormously freeing. And I really do enjoy the ones that I've continued to buy. <

I don't really collect anything anymore, but if I did, I wouldn't be a completist anymore, only buying those things I really wanted.

> Also THIS. I can totally relate. When I first began to break my completist habits, it was a very strange experience for me to see new toys and not get them... even if the "new" toys were just redeco versions of toys I already owned, like Energon Tidal Wave. Somehow I felt like I was missing out, even though it was the exact same damn toy as Armada Tidal Wave. Energon was the first toy line for which I never had the completist mindset, and it bugged me so much that people on ATT were talking about toys like Scorponok that I had absolutely no first-hand experience with. I got over it, of course. <

I also felt like I missing something if I didn't collect them all (except for those Japanese tennis shoe ones which were just dumb). There was a character/deco of the Transformers universe that I didn't own, and that would bug me to death, so I'd drive all over Dallas until I found it. Then, I'd find it, and it would have smudged paint or a bent-up cardback, so I'd have to keep looking. Call it that obsessive need for completion of sets or what have you, kind of like missing pieces from a jigsaw puzzle. In my mind, I was collecting a toy SERIES, The Transformers, not individual toys, so none could be left out.

> I don't mean this in a bad way, but did you not charge anybody for shipping? I remember looking at a lot of your auctions and thinking that your prices had been fairly reasonable. (I usually just didn't need any of the stuff you were offering. <

Whether I charged for shipping separately or included it in the actual sale price, I still had to buy hundreds of cardboard boxes, miles of shipping tape, packs of shipping labels, and hundreds of cubic feet of styrofoam peanuts over the years. Fortunately, there was a local box store that gave a discount to loyal customers. It costs a lot to just package a Supreme-sized toy or one as big as Car Robots Brave Maximus (I had two of those!) so that it would not get damaged when shipped cross-country or overseas. Then, there were all of the eBay/Paypal fees, insurance/tracking costs, and gasoline costs that couldn't be charged to the buyer.

> With that said, I find myself in agreement with you. Selling toys is a royal pain. I actually do hate it. As we speak I am sitting on a couple of Hot Wheels cars that are probably worth about $50 but I have not sold them because I hate listing stuff on eBay just that much. <

Imagine retying every boxed Transformer you own back into its tray ... not fun! My hands would start cramping after a few hours of that. I'm just glad I kept all of those wire ties with their boxes due to never throwing anything away (except plastic bubbles for carded figures).

If I were to ever collect things again, it would be with the intention of just giving them away (literally or practically) if I ever decided to part with them. It is very frustrating to have something you no longer want keep taking up space and even more of your time.

> That's a good lesson to have come away with. I think on some level, I recognize that I gobble up toys because I'm trying to fill some kind of emotional void. Maybe it's because my parents divorced when I was a kid; maybe it's because I'm emotionally stunted and part of me is still nine years old. I don't really know. I don't forsee myself letting go of my collection any time soon, so the fact that you were able to do so, Chad, speaks towards your maturity and stability. <

Toys can still be fun, but I realize now that the enjoyment from them is ultimately fleeting (as with most things) and that it takes more and more to achieve the same "hobby high" as before. I could probably write a treatise on the biblical reasons why we are all searching for something to give us a sense of purpose, to fill that innate void in our lives, but let's just say that I'm slowly but surely trying to shift my focus from the things of this world to higher things that do bring real, lasting contentment (PHIL. 4:11-13).

Oh, and when I was about 90% done with selling the toys, my apartment building caught on fire. I was only able to get out with my laptop and the clothes on my back before the rescue workers blocked it off. The fire spread up to my neighbor's apartment before it was put out, and my apartment smelled like smoke for days. That was a real wake-up call regarding "storing up one's treasures on earth."

> I'll bet that little keychain Bumblebee considers himself pretty damn special! :)

LOL, I guess so. :) He's actually slightly defective in that his head piece won't tuck in completely, but I decided to keep him as a reminder of life lessons learned the hard way.

- Chad

[Cappeca]

Em terça-feira, 29 de abril de 2014 21h03min17s UTC-3, Chad Rushing escreveu:
>
> I know it is a cliché, but there really does come a point where your possessions start to own you rather than the other way around. Having to move everything I owned twice in one year really brought that point home. So, I aim to be content with far less stuff in life going forward and would encourage others to do so, too.
>
>

As much as I enjoy when people show off their collection and post about their new acquisitions, it's always great seeing someone recovering from the addiction just as well. Deep down we know how bad it can get. I've sold my own share of toys and downsized my own collection in the past, though right now I don't see myself not buying them anymore - I'd end up stealing toys from my kids, honestly. But it's a good feeling and I'm happy for you.

[Cornholio]

On 4/30/2014 11:02 AM, Cappeca wrote:
> Em ter�a-feira, 29 de abril de 2014 21h03min17s UTC-3, Chad Rushing escreveu:
>>
>> I know it is a clich�, but there really does come a point where your possessions start to own you rather than the other way around.

> Having to move everything I owned twice in one year really brought that point home.

> So, I aim to be content with far less stuff in life going forward and would encourage others to do so, too.
>>
>>
>
> As much as I enjoy when people show off their collection and post about their new acquisitions,

>it's always great seeing someone recovering from the addiction just as well. Deep down we know how bad it can get.

>I've sold my own share of toys and downsized my own collection in the past,

>though right now I don't see myself not buying them anymore -

>I'd end up stealing toys from my kids, honestly. But it's a good feeling and I'm happy for you.
>

Congrats on the new outlook on life and all that. I don't think I'll
stop collecting anytime soon myself. I've never been a completist or
felt I "had" to buy a certain toy. Probably a good chunk of the reason
for this is as long as I've been collecting as an adult I've had bills
to pay that are way more important than toys rather than extreme self
control on my part. I just buy the toys I like and skip the rest I
currently have 1 room in my basement dedicated to my collection and I
don't think it'll ever expand beyond that. I also only very occasionally
sell or get rid of pieces because 95% of the time I love the toys I get.

[banzait...@gmail.com]

I think I am going to be the minority opinion here, but I am not "happy" for you, or going to "congratulate" you for selling off your toy collection. Collecting toys is not a disease or disorder that you have "conquered". You lost interest, cool. Perhaps you wanted/needed the money more than you wanted/needed a bunch of plastic robots, cool. That's totally rational, but not a major accomplishment.
Your possessions only own you if you spend all your time/money to pay for them. I have friends who live in houses that cost 4-5X their annual salary. That type of possession does own you, it effects your decisions. Unless you bought all your toys on a credit card, and are struggling to pay the bill each month, they don't own you. You sir, own them. No one is going to argue that Jay Leno's car collection "owns" him. However, I do know people who's car is WELL beyond their means, and it does own them.
Anyway's, with that off my chest, I do have a serious questions for you. You mentioned the high cost of selling off your toys, which I can totally understand. However, didn't you have checks just ROLLING in? I could easily see a large collection bringing in somewhere around $50K?

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 6:51:20 PM UTC-6, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> Collecting toys is not a disease or disorder that you have "conquered". You
> lost interest, cool. Perhaps you wanted/needed the money more than you
> wanted/needed a bunch of plastic robots, cool. That's totally rational, but
> not a major accomplishment.

I feel like I can really appreciate where Chad is coming from because his collecting experience mirrors my own. I know how it used to feel when I felt compelled to buy toys just because I didn't own them yet. This had nothing to do with whether I liked the character or the color scheme or the toy's design. If I hadn't yet acquired it yet, I bought it. Chad took it to a slightly higher level and was buying multiples of the same toys.

For him to finally realize he was continuing to do this only to satisfy a sense of completism, and not because these were possessions he was enjoying, that really *is* a major accomplishment. No, collecting isn't a disease, but it *can* be a disorder. If you are a functional completist, then you don't have a choice whether you buy a given toy or not. If it exists, it follows that you must own it. I did that for Transformers: Generation 2 and Beast Wars and Beast Machines and Robots in Disguise and most of Armada. I enjoyed the completism substantially less with each passing series. It was very difficult for me to break free from that mindset.

> Your possessions only own you if you spend all your time/money to pay for
> them.

I remember Chad saying something once about how he was living in a place with extra bedrooms just so he would have the space to house his boxes of toys. He's also mentioned in this thread about how much of a pain it was to have to box up and transport everything when he moved. Sometimes owning a substantial collection has hidden expenses. It's not just the cost of the toys themselves.

Me, I bought a $1700 storage shed a few years ago. I keep Christmas decorations and things in it. The reason we needed it, though, was because literally every cubic foot of indoor storage space is devoted to housing my 3700+ toys. If I didn't have so many toys, we could have put the artificial tree and ornaments in the closet under the stairs like normal people. Just sayin'. (That $1700 would have bought a lot more toys. Of course, I'd have had nowhere to put them!)


Zob

[banzait...@gmail.com]

That's fair, and I am really not trying to be a jerk (even though I am kinda sounding like one). I just think our generation has turned into a big joke. You used the clinical term "functional completest". (I must admit I like the term). Imagine if you went back in time to your grandfather, or even father, who had to fight in wars (i.e. drafted, not enlisted) and live in much tougher times, and tried to explain this "disorder" to him.
"So pops, you see... I have this disorder where I HAVE to buy every toy that comes out. I'm up to 3,000. It's very hard on me.)" He wouldn't be able to comprehend how pathetic we have become. I yearn for some good old accountability. I once had an employee tell me he couldn't get his work done due to his Restless Leg Syndrome. (It took every ounce of self restraint to not say "RLS? I thought that was a disease Pfizer made up to sell more drugs)".
I too was a completest, so I do know the feeling. Yes, the first time I passed on a toy was hard. But come on, if that is our generations definition of tough problems or disorders, were are truly doomed.

-Banzaitron

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 8:50:29 PM UTC-7, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 8:18:05 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
>
> > On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 6:51:20 PM UTC-6, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:
> > > Collecting toys is not a disease or disorder that you have "conquered". You
> > > lost interest, cool. Perhaps you wanted/needed the money more than you
> > > wanted/needed a bunch of plastic robots, cool. That's totally rational, but
> > > not a major accomplishment.
>
> > I feel like I can really appreciate where Chad is coming from because his collecting experience mirrors my own. I know how it used to feel when I felt compelled to buy toys just because I didn't own them yet. This had nothing to do with whether I liked the character or the color scheme or the toy's design. If I hadn't yet acquired it yet, I bought it. Chad took it to a slightly higher level and was buying multiples of the same toys.
>
> > For him to finally realize he was continuing to do this only to satisfy a sense of completism, and not because these were possessions he was enjoying, that really *is* a major accomplishment. No, collecting isn't a disease, but it *can* be a disorder. If you are a functional completist, then you don't have a choice whether you buy a given toy or not. If it exists, it follows that you must own it. I did that for Transformers: Generation 2 and Beast Wars and Beast Machines and Robots in Disguise and most of Armada. I enjoyed the completism substantially less with each passing series. It was very difficult for me to break free from that mindset.
>
> > > Your possessions only own you if you spend all your time/money to pay for
> > > them.
>
> > I remember Chad saying something once about how he was living in a place with extra bedrooms just so he would have the space to house his boxes of toys. He's also mentioned in this thread about how much of a pain it was to have to box up and transport everything when he moved. Sometimes owning a substantial collection has hidden expenses. It's not just the cost of the toys themselves.
>
> > Me, I bought a $1700 storage shed a few years ago. I keep Christmas decorations and things in it. The reason we needed it, though, was because literally every cubic foot of indoor storage space is devoted to housing my 3700+ toys. If I didn't have so many toys, we could have put the artificial tree and ornaments in the closet under the stairs like normal people. Just sayin'. (That $1700 would have bought a lot more toys. Of course, I'd have had nowhere to put them!)
>

> That's fair, and I am really not trying to be a jerk (even though I am kinda sounding like one). I just think our generation has turned into a big joke.

There are physical addictions and psychological addictions. And there are compulsive behavior problems. Dopramine reward cycles and all that.

I'm not going to guess whether Chad did or did not have a real problem.

> You used the clinical term "functional completest". (I must admit I like the term). Imagine if you went back in time to your grandfather, or even father, who had to fight in wars (i.e. drafted, not enlisted) and live in much tougher times, and tried to explain this "disorder" to him.

I'm not sure the times were tougher back in the olden days.

There's much less of an emphasis on communities and society as a whole, and a lot more on the individual. There's an entirely different set of stresses, and since man is generally a social animal, it may well be a much worse environment.

At the same time, people are much more connected, and unable to step away from their work and social obligations. 60 years ago, a lot of people didn't have phones, and there were never answering machines. Now, cell phones, email and messaging are ubiquitous. It cuts down people's ability to relax.

We also attempt to integrate the disabled into our society now, where often in the past they would never be able to be self-sufficient. It used to be that nearly every family had a crazy aunt in someone's attic, for instance.

> "So pops, you see... I have this disorder where I HAVE to buy every toy that comes out. I'm up to 3,000. It's very hard on me.)" He wouldn't be able to comprehend how pathetic we have become. I yearn for some good old accountability.

He also wouldn't comprehend smart phones, or interracial marriage.

> I once had an employee tell me he couldn't get his work done due to his Restless Leg Syndrome. (It took every ounce of self restraint to not say "RLS? I thought that was a disease Pfizer made up to sell more drugs)".

Actually, it is a real thing, a neurological disorder, and is likely to be covered under the ADA. If there are reasonable accommodations that can be made so he could successfully do his job, you would likely have been legally obligated to.

And the reason that we have to have laws like this is because employers will scoff "restless leg syndrome? that's not a real disease!".

You're not obligated to keep an employee who cannot perform the job, but you are obligated to give them the support they need to perform the job, if possible.

> I too was a completest, so I do know the feeling. Yes, the first time I passed on a toy was hard. But come on, if that is our generations definition of tough problems or disorders, were are truly doomed.

I think the problem started when we started telling people to be themselves. All too often, people are irresponsible slackers, and if they are being themselves, they aren't doing anyone any favors. Previously, you would take a role model, and try to emulate them. Worked out better, assuming your role model wasn't an irresponsible slacker.

[Chad Rushing]

On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 7:51:20 PM UTC-5, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> I think I am going to be the minority opinion here, but I am not "happy" for you, or going to "congratulate" you for selling off your toy collection. Collecting toys is not a disease or disorder that you have "conquered". You lost interest, cool. Perhaps you wanted/needed the money more than you wanted/needed a bunch of plastic robots, cool. That's totally rational, but not a major accomplishment. <

I posted my story more as a warning to those who are tempted to pursue their collections (whatever those may be) to an extreme degree, not for "congratulations" or group affirmation. That is, I hope others learn from my mistakes.

Collecting is ultimately a subset of materialism, the pursuit of personal fulfillment through the acquisition of non-essential possessions (toys, cards, antique cars, painting, jewelry, etc.). Some people may be able to do it in moderation due to external (available funding) or internal (self-discipline) considerations, but many people simply can't. It can become as pathological as, say, compulsive gambling or alcoholism and really interfere with quality of one's life. If a person finds himself getting very defensive when his family or friends hint that there might be a problem (like I did), then that should really be a red flag.

I agree that some people are "owned" by their expensive houses. And, for the record, I didn't buy my toys on credit.

> You mentioned the high cost of selling off your toys, which I can totally understand. However, didn't you have checks just ROLLING in? I could easily see a large collection bringing in somewhere around $50K? <

Some of the Japanese exclusives sold fairly well along with the G1 reissues, ALTs, and some of the convention exclusives. However, anything that originally could have been purchased at normal retail sold poorly. Toys sold for 50% of MSRP or less in most cases. Note that 95% of what I sold was already opened, not MISB. Even if I broke even monetarily on something, I still lost the irreplaceable time involved in acquiring and then later selling it.

- Chad

[Chad Rushing]

On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 8:18:05 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
>

> Chad took it to a slightly higher level and was buying multiples of the same toys. <

I actually broke the two-of-everything pattern the year before I quit buying altogether, as I only bought one of each ANIMATED toy and one of each Movie 2007 toy. That seemed pretty radical to me at the time, only ONE of each TF toy. :)

> For him to finally realize he was continuing to do this only to satisfy a sense of completism, and not because these were possessions he was enjoying, that really *is* a major accomplishment. No, collecting isn't a disease, but it *can* be a disorder. If you are a functional completist, then you don't have a choice whether you buy a given toy or not. If it exists, it follows that you must own it. <

It was certainly a disorder in my case, and I would actually get a "buzz" whenever I would finally find a toy for which I had been searching for weeks or even a whole cartful of them (the jackpot) on rare occasions. It's like the thrill of a never-ending scavenger hunt coupled with a sense of perfectionism. If I couldn't find something I wanted for my collection, it bugged me to no end; it would literally keep me awake at night. When there was a lull in new products between toylines, that would bother me, too.

I know that a lot of people can't relate to any of that AT ALL, and I understand that, because I can't relate at all to binge-drinking, sports mania, hunting fever, thrill seeking, etc., all of which ultimately serve the same purpose in different people's lives.

> I remember Chad saying something once about how he was living in a place with extra bedrooms just so he would have the space to house his boxes of toys. He's also mentioned in this thread about how much of a pain it was to have to box up and transport everything when he moved. Sometimes owning a substantial collection has hidden expenses. It's not just the cost of the toys themselves. <

Yes, my first apartment became so packed with toys that I really didn't want people coming over anymore, partially due to the shocked reactions and partially due to people always wanting to pick up everything I had on display which I hated. (For some reason, the more expensive a toy was, the more people felt compelled to pick it up.) I eventually moved to a much bigger, more expensive apartment, but it quickly filled up, too. So, merely housing my huge toy collection was ultimately costing me like an extra $400/month in rent alone.

- Chad

[Chad Rushing]

On Thursday, May 1, 2014 1:30:46 AM UTC-5, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> There are physical addictions and psychological addictions. And there are compulsive behavior problems. Dopramine reward cycles and all that. I'm not going to guess whether Chad did or did not have a real problem. <

I had a problem, plain and simple. I won't deny it in the least and hope that it is gone for good.

> There's much less of an emphasis on communities and society as a whole, and a lot more on the individual. There's an entirely different set of stresses, and since man is generally a social animal, it may well be a much worse environment. <

This. When you're worrying about just the daily survival of you and your family, these kinds of things don't even make it onto your radar. However, if you find yourself at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs with all of the essentials taken care of, lots of money, and lots of spare time, then you are open to a new whole set of potential problems.

In retrospect, if I had settled down out a young age and had had a family to support rather than have been a well-off bachelor, I doubt I would have ever ended up a compulsive collector. That simply wouldn't have been feasible (or responsible), given the constraints.

> I think the problem started when we started telling people to be themselves. All too often, people are irresponsible slackers, and if they are being themselves, they aren't doing anyone any favors. Previously, you would take a role model, and try to emulate them. Worked out better, assuming your role model wasn't an irresponsible slacker. <

This is also an important point. I've come to realize that radical individualism in a societal sense isn't all its cracked up to be. Yes, I had a job and was fully supporting myself and my hobby. However, if I had been more involved in a family and my community on top of that, it is highly unlikely that I would have ended up in the self-absorbed situation that I did.

- Chad

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, May 1, 2014 11:45:52 AM UTC-6, Chad Rushing wrote:

> If I couldn't find something I wanted for my collection, it bugged me to no
> end; it would literally keep me awake at night. When there was a lull in new
> products between toylines, that would bother me, too.

This really strikes a chord with me. I would say the height of my collecting mania was probably around 1997 or so, during the second year of Beast Wars and also when Kenner's second Star Wars toy line was in full swing. I was determined to own every figure released but I also had really limited disposable income.

I used to have mild panic attacks when a new wave of toys was released (crap, now there's Manterror and Drill Bit and Airazor in stores PLUS Lando Calrissian and Yoda and R5-D4?!) but once I got caught up, I got all antsy and impatient (why haven't they gotten around to releasing Oola or Yarna D'Gargan?!).

Learning to moderate my collecting has helped me a lot. I may possibly collect a greater number of toy lines than some people (I don't think I know anybody else who is into Transformers and Star Wars and Ninja Turtles and Disney/Pixar Cars) but I'm extremely selective about what I buy. My new mental filter almost always files new toys under "No Interest" or (less frequently) "Must Have" and there is very rarely a middle ground. There were thousands of toys at ComicCon but literally only about ten toys that I wanted to spend money on.

I think that the advent of online commerce has also really helped me to relax. It used to be that once something was released, there was this very narrow window of maybe two or three months when you could reasonably expect to find it at retail. The only post-retail outlets in existence were conventions or toy dealers. Thanks to eBay, that sense of panic I used to experience is basically non-existent. I can wait six months or six years and still feel assured that I can find something that I missed the first time around.

Unless, you know, it's something like Jabba's Palace Court Denizens. Good luck finding one of those for less than fifty bucks. Zob still kicks himself over that one. Still, live and learn.


Zob

[Cornholio]

On 5/1/2014 2:19 PM, Chad Rushing wrote:
> In retrospect, if I had settled down out a young age and had had a family to support rather than have been a well-off bachelor,

>I doubt I would have ever ended up a compulsive collector. That simply wouldn't have been feasible (or responsible), given the constraints.

This is definitely the case for me I got married the first time at age
22 got a house a year later so my budget for toys was never huge. Hence
why I've always bought only certain toys. I'm more or less forced into
moderation since I refuse to go into debt to buy toys. If I had more
funds and was single I could see myself possibly spending a few hundred
a month on the hobby especially 3rd party items. But as it currently
stands I think I spend under $1,000 a year and sometimes I go months
without buying a toy.

[Travoltron]

On 4/30/2014 8:50 PM, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:
> I just think our generation has turned into a big joke.

While I can agree with that to a certain extent, my Grandma is 95 and is
part of that great generation you speak of and she has the same kinds of
problems that Chad had. She is a hoarder and collects Franklin Mint
coins and all kinds of other stupid crap. She's gone completely broke
due to all her purchases in addition to all the con artists that took
advantage of her because this country does absolutely nothing to protect
the elderly from that sort of thing. (end rant)

One theory on hoarding is that it originated from people of her and her
mother's generation. In the Great Depression and WWII, people would
hang on to old things because they couldn't afford new things. They
were taught never to get rid of anything and these bad habits were
passed on to subsequent generations.

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, May 1, 2014 6:15:21 PM UTC-6, Travoltron wrote:

> One theory on hoarding is that it originated from people of her and her
> mother's generation. In the Great Depression and WWII, people would
> hang on to old things because they couldn't afford new things. They
> were taught never to get rid of anything and these bad habits were
> passed on to subsequent generations.

That's one theory. Me, I tend to think there are certain behaviors that are strongly hard-wired into human physiology, stuff that's left over from our days as hunter-gatherers. For instance, we eat food whenever it's available and our bodies are designed to store fat. This made sense for early humans when it might be days before they took down their next mammoth, but not much sense nowadays when there's a McDonald's on every corner. It's hard to deliberately lose weight because we are biologically inclined to keep it when at all possible.

Along the same lines, a collecting mentality might have made sense for early humans who had a storehouse of firewood, flint rocks, sharp tools, etc. that would potentially get used up or lost or broken and might be difficult to replace. Humans who had the largest reserves of tools and supplies were the most likely to survive and pass on their genes.

In some ways, our biology is so utterly outdated because society has changed so significantly. We still have a fight-or-flight response that would have served us well in encounters with saber-toothed tigers, but instead we get that furious adrenaline rush when somebody cuts us off in traffic or when somebody on the Internet fires off an insult. Our bodies are designed to produce melatonin to help put us in a sleep state after dark, but evolution never figured we would have artificial light sources like lamps and computer screens to disrupt that.

Maybe it's time for Humans 2.0?


Zob

[banzait...@gmail.com]

I wonder if what we are talking about here is not toy collecting, but full blown hoarding? Once it elevates to hoarding, whether it's toys or dead cats (true hoarders episode), I think there is a difference. I am not sure where you draw the line though. It seems hoarding is when the stuff becomes not just an obsession, but becomes a PHYSICAL obstruction to your life. You can't live a normal life because there is just too much damn stuff in the way, literally. There is absolutely a mental aspect to it as well, which I think we all experience to different degrees.
If your obsession/hobby was photography, and not toys, would it be any different? Supposing you spent the same amount of money/time/energy/worrying buying new camera equipment (and selling your old stuff so it doesn't become a physical obstruction), or travel costs to go to places to shoot photos. Would you feel the compelling need to stop? Sure, photography is FAR more socially acceptable than adults collecting plastic robots, but um, lets ignore that.
I guess what I am asking is this: is the real issue just the amount of MASS the toys take up, and not really the money, time, worrying, etc.?

-Banzaitron

[banzait...@gmail.com]

I used to read a lot of Stephen J Gould books (before he died). He wrote that Humans are the only animals that have stopped evolving. His thesis was that we evolve(i.e. change) our environment to suit our current needs, so there is no reason for us to change. If he is right (and I would never bet against the man), we are probably stuck on Humans 1.0.

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, May 1, 2014 8:00:18 PM UTC-6, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> I wonder if what we are talking about here is not toy collecting, but full

> blown hoarding? I think there is a difference. I am not sure where you draw
> the line though.

I think the precise point where "hobby" ends and "problem" begins would be different for everybody, and it's very difficult to quantify. There are some aspects that seem obvious to me; if a collection has taken over your home, is a potential health risk (because boxes can topple over and kill you or because there may be things living inside those boxes) then, yes, it's a problem.

My own collection is almost unmanageably large, but its physical presence is restricted to a single room. Also, roughly ninety percent of it is stored in boxes; I only have two or three bookshelves devoted to toy displays. Everything else is neatly tucked away in a storage closet under the stairs or storage shelving in the basement. To me, cardboard boxes do not display well. They're so brown and cardboardy.

> If your obsession/hobby was photography, and not toys, would it be any
> different?

I would say organization would be the biggest difference. If there were broken cameras laying everywhere and boxes upon boxes containing thousands and thousands of photographs, that's a problem. If everything were neatly filed and arranged by year, that's a different story. (Of course, you can store photographs digitally now, so there's no reason why they should physically take any space at all. It's a little harder to store your Transformers in the cloud.)

> I guess what I am asking is this: is the real issue just the amount of
> MASS the toys take up, and not really the money, time, worrying, etc.?

I think it's a combination of factors. Yes, a large collection can take up a great deal of space, but how and where you store it will determine how much of a problem that can be.

The monetary cost of a collection can be a problem if you don't manage your finances wisely. I'm not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but I have a taste for expensive toys so I make other sacrifices to make that happen. I can certainly see how people could easily put themselves into debt in this hobby, since it can be an extraordinary expensive proposition. (There is probably a reason why I am wearing the same pair of pants I wore yesterday.)

Time can be another huge factor. People on ATT used to talk about how they would spend all weekend on toy runs, going from store to store to store, trying to find their latest acquisitions. If that's fun for you, then I say go for it, but I hate going shopping and it makes me mad when I waste an entire afternoon doing so. I like writing toy reviews (analyzing toys in detail is one of the ways in which I "play" with them) but it is a time-consuming process (at least an hour or two per review; much longer when I used to contribute to Jim Sorenson's blog and took accompanying photos). Then there's the time you spend packing them away if you have to move, as Chad mentioned in his original article. The most recent time I did that was in 2005, and think of all the toys that have been released since that time!

Worrying is one thing I used to do constantly but which I refuse to do now. Toys that I want to own will eventually come into existence. If I don't find them in stores, I will create them myself. (As we speak, I'm finishing up two action figures of Rydia from Final Fantasy IV, one as a child and another as an adult. They are among the rarest of toys because only one exists of each, and I have them both! Mwu ha ha ha!)


Zob

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Thursday, May 1, 2014 8:44:37 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Thursday, May 1, 2014 8:00:18 PM UTC-6, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> > If your obsession/hobby was photography, and not toys, would it be any
> > different?
>
> I would say organization would be the biggest difference. If there were broken cameras laying everywhere and boxes upon boxes containing thousands and thousands of photographs, that's a problem. If everything were neatly filed and arranged by year, that's a different story. (Of course, you can store photographs digitally now, so there's no reason why they should physically take any space at all. It's a little harder to store your Transformers in the cloud.)

Of course, without hoarding, we wouldn't have Vivian Maier, possibly the best street photographer ever, someone whose entire work was discovered after her death. Hundreds of rolls of undeveloped film in storage bins. And truly amazing art.

So... um... hoard awesome things you create yourself?

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, May 1, 2014 at 12:49:59 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> I can wait six months or six years and still feel assured that I can find
> something that I missed the first time around. Unless, you know, it's
> something like Jabba's Palace Court Denizens. Good luck finding one of those
> for less than fifty bucks. Zob still kicks himself over that one.

Just got one for $22.50 plus a few bucks for shipping. I am ASTOUNDED.

Let me explain just how big of a deal this actually is. The set was originally sold as a three-pack and contained Bubo (the little alien on a chain that barked at people when they walked into Jabba the Hutt's throne room), Wol Cabbasshite (a little suction cup alien with a long tongue... I think he licked C-3PO) and a B'omaar Monk (the brain spider that was previously made available as a Hasbro online exclusive).

Sometimes sellers try to break up the three-pack and sell the aliens individually. Bubo ALONE tends to go for about $30. I've seen Wol Cabbasshite go for $20. Those are the two I really want, since I actually already have a B'Omaar Monk (which is the main reason I passed on the set when I saw it at retail). Since it had been made previously available by Hasbro, it can be had for around ten bucks on the secondary market.

So, again. Amazed.


Zob (now if I could just get my left ear to stop ringing, my life would be perfect)