Holidays, Eclectorama Style!

This is going to be a quick post with just some teasers for the new year and an update or two, I am swamped this week at work, having fun with a cold and this limbo week between Christmas and New Years is always sort of weird. That all said I felt it would not be right if I just didn't share in some of my holiday cheer from this past week/weekend.

So first up I decided to bite the bullet and order this guy, I promise I will do a more detailed post on him in the coming weeks. This really isn't a Christmas present, it was more of an opportunity presented itself and I just took it and pressed the add to cart button. The Super 7 Stormtrooper arrived a couple days before Christmas , so my 2011 goals are off to a grand start.



Next was a quiet little Christmas Eve Dinner planned and prepared by my wife, those were the best potatoes I have ever had by the way.



Followed the next morning by an awesome breakfast, it's a tradition to have piggies in blankets and fruit salad on Christmas morning in our house, this year a new sausage roll and some home made pastries joined the festivities. No room left for lunch or dinner after these.



Then we watch "the girls", our two Bassets and one English Bulldog open their presents. Yes we get them presents. Lulu is quite good at opening presents, I think she enjoys this more than the toy inside. Then everyone else opens theirs.



Here we have my Christmas morning haul. I think I did pretty good. This year seemed to be a Star Wars themed Christmas! These were gifts from my wife and son, pure awesome. As long as I live there will always be a toy under the tree, period.



Next my good blogging buddy, James from A Piece of the Action sent me a little surprise. I guess little isn't a good word to describe it. What could it be?



WOW! it's a Empire Strikes Back Action Figure case! Wait it's a little heavy...



Holly Cow! That is right it is filled to the brim with Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back figures! This is another thing I am going to do a more detailed post about in the coming weeks as this was another one of my 2011 goals and this little blurb does not do it justice. I just wanted to make mention here so I could send out another thank you to James, I can't thank him enough.



So, I think I have had a pretty good Holiday so far for not taking anytime off from work and having a head cold. Sure I bought a few little things in the days leading up to Christmas and one at a sale afterwards, but that is all filler compared to all that Awesome stuff above. I hope everyone is having a great Holiday and I should be back and going with more in 2011!

Candid Toy Pic- 12.24.2010

Twas the night before Christmas... Happy Holidays Everyone!



...and yes I was allowed to decorate with a Robot this year.

Smugtrooper

Well look at this little trooper, finished his holiday shopping, presents all wrapped and possibly has checked one of his goals off the 2011 Collecting Goals list. I say possible because it is in route to the Eclectorama headquarters and I won't really believe it till it is in hand. More on this after the Holiday.

Candid Toy Pic- 12.17.2010

Not sure I would be smiling

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!