how do you decide what to collect?

[Kanedas Bike]

From a man greater than me :

"The geek is someone who paradoxically drives fun from taking an activity that is already designed to be fun, like a hobby, and turning it into an activity that is not fun, like a job or a religion.

For example everyone likes to get stuff that they like. The geek collects stuff that he likes and stuff that he doesn't like or only kinda likes because is all connected somehow."

(Full quote after the spoiler tag)

*snip*

I definitely feel the urge to collect everything. Like every model with every add on set and every tiny bit of exclusive stuff I can get. I can see me definitely buying a toy I don't like just to get an exclusive effect part. As an example for the VF-25F I would buy 12 pieces. 3 Super Messiahs, 3 Armored Messiahs, 3 Tornado Messiahs and 3 plane ones plus one Valkyrie and one of each add-on set for storage in case something breaks. And I would display them all in a giant room dedicated to them. And I'm not even liking the Tornado variant of the VF-25F.

And while this sounds really awesome to me it is just not viable for me because of funds and the room to display them all. So I enjoy pictures of Kickers and MasterofMarcoss' collection and also enjoy my small collection of Valkyries that I like. On the other hand having five VF-25s is already kinda obsessive. But I need them to display all the variants of the Messiah and Bandai forced my hand to not only buy the VF-25A but also Lucas and Michaels Super Packs because they decided not to release the Ghost drones separately and no word for Michales Tornado Parts..... *shakes fist in anger*

Ah, I see. That was an interesting read on how the label "geek" is, or could be defined. I don't necessarily agree with it, even if that's the correct definition of the term (too tired to look it up).

As I read the full quote all I could think to myself is this sounds like the speaker is describing someone as very obsessive and while I consider myself a "geek" I don't think I obsess (at least not over Macross).

Either way I respect that you and/or the author see geek in terms different from me and thanks for taking the time to articulate your reasoning.

PS - yeah, those collections you mentioned are pretty awesome

-b.

[Vifam7]

I collect what I want to collect. It's not a matter of quantity or quality. Nor investment value. It's whatever that I fancy or whatever that brings joy to me. Even if it happens to be the crappiest toy ever, if I feel it's going to be fun to have, I'll buy it. I don't restrict myself to any one subject, scale size, manufacturer etc. The only thing that restricts me is my budget and/or desire. And perhaps storage/display space.

[M'Kyuun]

Same here.

Moreover, I don't care about story connections, as many collectors do. If I think the toy is cool, and I can afford it, I buy it.

Edited December 26, 2013 by M'Kyuun

[anime52k8]

I buy whatever I like and I can afford. I've got some really weird crap in my collection.

[dapro]

I buy whatever I like and I can afford. I've got some really weird crap in my collection.

What camera you use? The quality is great!

[anime52k8]

I've got a Canon 50D.

[close313]

In terms of my macross toys, my collection is always changing, governed by my budget(saving allowances) and whether I really like the toy. My fickle preferences is always changing, right now i am starting to have lots of interest in CF schemes, hence stopped selling my SV-51 CF (it had to grow on me and now im most fond of it!)

I need to sell stuff to buy stuff too, so the ones I got tired of (ahem*25*ahem) will fund new opportunities!

[charger69]

Deciding what to collect needs time; in the early 2007 when I started collecting Macross and Gundam, I was picking up whatever I like as far as its design impresses me...

Then range of anime series I collect started to grow exponentially and at some point I was trying to pick up a figure from every series I have watched...

This habit, of course, was not sustainable

However I'm really glad that I have Yamato's AV-98 and Bandai's Swordfish even Idon't have any other figures from these series...

Now I'm limiting myself to specific franchises (Unicorn Gundam, L-Gaim, Tekkaman Blade).

In terms of Macross, I started with "One of each kind" and evolved to "Get one of every release as fas as price is not enormously inflated"