Before you read the rest of this, understand that it’s not one of those “I’m quittin’ the hobby” style posts. It’s also ridiculously long (even a bit non-sensical at times. YAY!!!)
First off, beginning in the early ‘90s ‘til recently, I’ve been a huge collector of a lot of different things: Comic books, Star wars toys, Most any Marvel / DC figure line, Transformers, G.I. Joes, etc. Well, in the last couplea’ years, the perfect storm hit.
Comic books got prohibitively expensive. I don’t have the numbers, but I know the reason I have such luxuries as food, clothing and shelter is because I no longer collect comic books. Plus, the stories were getting redundant, with writing that was, with few exceptions, not that great; and I could barely stand to look at a lot of the art.
So, comics, I pretty much quit cold turkey.
I was excited to see the Star Wars prequels way back when, and even got a bunch of the figures the day they were released. For me, the movies were pretty disappointing, and the toys didn’t even have the playability of the G.I. Joes I had back in ‘86.
I’ve always loved Yoda, and have a decent collection of the little guy. Other than him, I might pick up a Star Wars figure here or there, but that’s mostly for LBCs. I’ll probably always keep the guys from the original trilogy, though.
Marvel / DC toys have always been decent. Nothin’ great, but decent - until Marvel Legends, that is. Since MLs have been around, I’ve never really seen the point of picking up a DC figure. Before them, I picked up the Total Justice line, and the Batman figures from the two Keaton movies; but Marvel Legends made it a whole new ballgame. Toy Biz was great for MLs; I don’t think Hasbro’s ever done ‘em right, though. But now, we’ve got the Marvel Universe 3 3/4” line, and all my MLs are lookin’ pretty obsolete. But even with MU and the new Wolverine line, I’m still gettin’ pretty choosy.
Transformers have been my greatest collecting “heartbreak” these last few years. I’m not one of those people that can’t accept change. I can deal with it, I just want it to be change I like
That typed, I LOVED me some Beast Wars! I thought the nods to my old school TFs were cool, and to this day see the show as the best TF fiction out there. The early toys were kinda’ “meh”, but when TransMetals hit, they were fantastic; and I bought ‘em in droves.
Then Beast Machines hit.
I thought Beast Machines was SO bad, both toy and show-wise, that I tried to quit TFs altogether.
RID was okay. I loved bein’ back to cars, Prime, Scourge, and the Autobot Bros., but over-all, I really wasn’t as impressed as I’d hoped to be.
Armada came later and I hated the show, and felt the same way a lot of other people did about what we thought of as the “Playskool” look of the toys. But then I went back: picked up some Armada toys. Whereas I was a completist before, however, I was now avoiding repaints.
Then Energon hit. I think Energon is where I first realized I really had a “problem”. I was picking up toys I KNEW I wouldn’t / didn’t like just so I could get the “whole collection” (minus repaints). Energon had a few decent figs, but most were, in a word, horrible.
On the plus side, it was during Energon that I got MP Optimus Prime; still my fave TF.
I was incredibly wary of Cybertron. The show had nice graphics / animation, but I was never a big fan of it. The toys were a huge improvement over the past few lines, though. Again, I excluded repaints from my collecting, but still got the whole line; an admittedly fantastic one (I truly think it’s the best TF line ever), but the whole line nonetheless.
I could go on forever about Transformers. The long and short of it is, since Cybertron, I’ve only really been interested in Classics and Universe, and I’m lookin’ at those as being pretty cheap over-all. And the insanely expensive Thundercracker and Skywarp exclusives leave a bad taste in my mouth to this day - it was the first sign of my feeling abandoned by a brand I’d enjoyed incredibly since 1984.
As for the movie toys: well, they’re an example of change I DON’T like, but I still bought the stinkin’ things (but just the ones in the movie, this time). And the movie itself killed a lot for me (besides what I see as bad design by the artists on said movie). There was no need for “Happy time” or Bumblebee’s peeing. I saw those as insults to the brand, and realized this was no longer my Transformers.
And I don’t view any of that as a sense of entitlement; I view it as a sense of disgust. I’m disgusted by a brand I’d loved for so long.
Then, there’s G.I. Joe.
I pretty much quit Joe around ‘89. I didn’t see design I liked figure or vehicle-wise (I’m in the realism over sci-fi camp), and had enough “cool” Joes where I didn’t really have to give it a second thought. When TRU brought them back, I thought they looked like crap and stayed away. Then, with Joe vs. Cobra and Spy Troops, I collected the whole stinkin’ line, figure-wise. And I didn’t like most of them at all.
Venom vs. Valor came, and then Sigma 6, and I was prepared to forget about Joe all over again. Then the 25th hit.
The 25th is everything I could ask for in a Joe line. I’m usually astounded by what Hasbro sends our way, though think they should be beaten for the endless re-paints. But, I’m even going through the 25th and realizing a lot of what I have is for completeness’ sake. I have no room in my collection for things like Nemesis Enforcer, Serpentor, or a horribly-designed Falcon. I don’t have room for a ton of CCs, SSs, Dukes, SEs and Destros, but I’ve still got ‘em. Or Tiger Force and Python Patrol...
I guess the long and short of this poorly written, late-night, wanna-be essay, is that I’m gettin’ pickier. I’m definitely beginning to see what people mean when they say things that seem to mean, “a small collection is a happy one”.
Of course, I’ll still be army-building, just not “10 COBRA Flints” type army-building
Have fun, everyone!!!