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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

2010 Collecting Achievements and Goals

I was just checking out Doc Atomic's Attic of Astounding Artifacts as a usual start to my day. Oh and if you haven't checked out his new blog Galactic Awesome you are truly missing out on some great posts. I won't get into that here to much, but man I would love to see his entire Star Wars collection (I have a feeling we just might). So, anyway, Doc has taken an idea he has seen on the RebelScum boards and listed his Achievements and Goals, with the hopes others will do the same and also revisit them at the end of next year. This to me sounds way better than the budget driven goal I started in January, lets face it by March I was already tired of tracking my toy spending, I kept all my toy receipts, but plugging them into the spread sheet month after month was a drag. I still want to total my spending and see if I kept it under my goal. I have a feeling I didn't.

So I am throwing my hat into the ring for the Collecting Achievements and Goals for 2010, and hopefully more will join in. My goals are somewhat different than most, but if I learned anything from reading Doc's blog it is follow your heart when it comes to collecting. My cup of tea may not be everyone else's, and it's the diversity of the collecting world I think I find more fascinating than the actual collections.

That said here we go!



Collecting Achievements for 2010
The year brought about a change in the way I collect or see my collection. I have always been a little all over the board, you might say when it comes to collecting toys I am like a little like a puppy with a short attention span. I decided that it might be best to focus on a few things I really like and to that end started a process to purge my collection and re evaluate my current needs list. Okay, you might be thinking now "Purge, what? Were's the toys you scored or the grails you ended up with?" I had a few things I did pick up that I felt furthered my goal of a focused collection. I also will admit at times I went out of the range I was trying to stay within and that's going to happen. The real goal for me is to try to control the urge to just buy something for lack of something in focus. Like I said it's going to happen, but hopefully not as much.

Back to achievements. I made a good size dent in my storage of my collection and during the purge weeded out some items I really had no desire for. Started a process to better organize my collection and stated my focus, may still seem eclectic, but I narrowed it down to Star Wars Classic including vintage, my main focus is Stormtroopers and my "Original Modern Twelve", Star Trek I have been focusing on building a nice little Mr. Spock collection, DC Comics I think it's safe to say I have began to concentrate more on Batman and the Batmobile. Like I said a little slipping into the Marvel Universe and others will happen and I expected that. I finally made it to a San Diego Comic Con, it was a blast and ended up with a few pieces for my new focus. reducing my toy budget, while I may have gone over my resolution budget I set for myself, I feel I have cut my budget back, that's an achievement in my book. I have made a pretty good group of blogging buddies and am thankful there are other "Toy Junkies" out there. Last I was actually invited to participate in a group art show about the love of toys. Now, my toy highlights.

Star Wars
The Gentle Giant Large Scale Vintage Style Stormtrooper, The new Rocket Firing Boba Fett (I know big deal), A Lego X-Wing (While not scarce, it seemed hard to find for a while), Concept Chewbacca and Concept Vader figures from 2007 (Another meh, but it was a big deal for me to finally get these), the new ESB Boba Fett (never thought I would see this on the pegs). Oh and my rediscovered love for Vintage Star Wars (see my goals).

Star Trek
Vintage Mego Star Trek The Motion Picture Mr. Spock (Carded), Playmates Toys Assorted Spock Figures for holes in the Spock collection (Thanks James), and a Playmates Toys Transporter Series Mr. Spock.

DC Comics
Mego Pocket Super Heroes Batman (hee hee), Retro Action Superman (and Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern... okay these may be meh as well, still cool by me), an open version of the BTAS Batcycle.

Miscellaneous
Vintage Mego Hulk (Rrrraaaaaaargh)

Collecting Goals for 2011
I am going to buy one of those freaking huge Super7 Stormtroopers, I don't care if it's not sensible and what others may think. I am getting one of those. Now that that's out of the way... I also want to continue to re define my space where I house my collection, continue to organize and purge where necessary, to continue to build friends in the hobby, hopefully to continue to design stuff people will want in their collections, and finally my more specifics:

Rebuild my loose Vintage "12" Star Wars collection starting with a complete Small Head Han Solo • A working vintage R2-D2 • a vintage original bow caster for my Chewbacca • Vintage Ertl Mr. Spock • 9" Playmates Toys Amok Time Spock • Regular Size Stormtrooper Mighty Muggs • Vintage Death Star Playset (at least a start to one) • Vintage 12" Stormtrooper • The Flash Retro Action Figure • A good start to building a loose vintage Star Wars figure collection through the Empire Strikes Back figures.

Like Doc said "Will it happen?" Man I hope so! My goals may seem small, but I think they may be obtainable. I am looking forward to 2011 being a rewarding and challenging year as far as my collection goes, lets see if I can stick with the goals and a little less of the off track spending.

Join the fun here!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Chunky i like this ideal and i think i will follow and post the the same on my blogs....One with video games and the other with toys.

Super-Duper ToyBox said...

okay... i'll do it. ...gotta do a post for my new Iron Man i shot last night too, though :D

chrismandesign said...

nice shot CB !!! & that of "i need a focus in my collection" is something i will never do, for my own sake HAHAHAHAHAHA... i mean, is quite respectable from my estimated collector colleagues (& i hope to b one of those blogging buddies/toy junkies) to concentrate their efforts on a few lines, kinds, series, brands, sizes of toys & that makes a lot of sense & gives u a sort of "yep, i know exactly what i’m doing" feeling LOL... but the only focus in my collection is: "this is rare, is hard to find, is pretty well manufactured & above all, i like it... then, it deserves to b in my collection"... as u, i thank GOD that i’m not the only insane collecting in the whole world & that there r a lot of flavours in matters of collecting as every single person is different & that’s fine =D

Anonymous said...

This is a great idea! I'll try and post mine tonight(there is a Rangers game on tonight, so we'll see). I've checked out Jboypacman's, and I'll be at Galactic Awesome's soon. I have a feeling that my list will be all over the place. :)

chunky B said...

@ chris - of course I consider you among my blogging toy junky friends, and you said it, there are a lot of collecting flavors out there and that's what makes it fun!

@jason, I read SDTB's list and look forward to JBPM and yours.

Doc Atomic said...

Good stuff! I agree, purges and collecting focuses are important. It's too easy for the noise to overwhelm the signal, so to speak. Every once in a while I go through and sell a bunch of stuff -- toys that no longer interest me, or that I only bought for a quick "fix." I think I've become pretty good at staying focused, but sometimes it's a struggle.

That said, there's nothing wrong with being sidetracked now and again. Sometimes a cool toy is a cool toy, whether or not it falls in your focus.

Good luck on that Super 7 Storm Trooper. I think it's an awesome toy, and I've thought about picking it up myself.

Happy collecting!

Anonymous said...

Posted my goals last night. Long list, but only my most wanted. Let me know what you think Chunky. As a seasoned collecting veteran, your input is much appreciated! :)