In the Mind of the Collector: What Drives Me

1:00 PM on 04.03.2009   |   Pedro Cortes

Looking around my room, I see all manors of things that reflect my interests. From the photos I've chosen to frame to the movies bought and re-watched dozens of times, these give a glimpse into the kind of life I live. Next to these glimpses are smaller reflections of me, tiny mirrors made of paint and PVC. Each one is a direct lesson in my favorite things: trends, shows, colors, characters, and even fetishes. Together, these beg bigger questions that must be asked.

Why have I spent all this money on things that add up to nothing in the end? Why do I ‘invest’ in dust collectors that I can’t even get the enjoyment of playing?

With these articles, I hope to able to answer these questions about not only myself, but about our community in general. What goes through the mind of a collector? Follow me after the jump to get a peek at what got me started.

I started young in my urge to collect. Like any child exposed to cartoons and movies, I had to own every single damn toy from any property that I loved. Everything from Robocop and The Real Ghostbusters, to GI Joe and perennial favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were collected and played with until the toys literally fell apart at the joints. In fact, there are legends in my family that some hag attempted to take a particularly rare April O'Neal figure away from my father's grasp and received a punch to the face for her efforts.

This went on from fad to fad until a little show called Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers hit the airwaves. Much like all my previous fads, I asked for any and all Power Ranger toys for Christmas and my birthday. As if history repeated itself, my amazing parents resumed their insane hunt for all this Mighty and Morphin’, resulting in a slow trickle of figures over several months that culminated in the (probably illegal) birthday acquisition of Titanus, which turned out to not be quite as awesome as pictures made him out to be.

Unlike all the other fad-based obsessions, I didn’t get bored of my figures in a few months. I kept playing with them, finding new ways to pose them and use them according to my imagination. When it came to the robots though, that was were I started changing how looked at toys. Being so damn cool looking, I would often just leave the robot combined, looking bad-ass my desk. I took pleasure in its design and really liked how the figure looked more than how I played with it.

At that young age I began appreciating toys as more than just something to play. They could be set pieces that I enjoyed looking at and having. I didn’t need to play with the toy itself to gather enjoyment from it. It was a train of thought that chugged along despite my interest in toys waning in the following years. I kept some of those toys displayed, just because it made me happy to look at them as I did my schoolwork.

Looking back at it now, I never stood a chance when I started collecting anime statues. Besides looking a lot nicer than the typical plastic, mass-produced fare, the average gashopon or trading figure packed a ton more detail and came in dynamic poses that reflected the characters personality. I eventually stopped caring about playing with my figures and focused more on how bad ass or cute they looked in relation to the rest of my collection.

That train of thought continues to this day, where I don't value a figure because of it's playability, but rather for how it looks displayed on my desk (though things like Revoltechs are appreciated for their balance in playability and display potential). You figure that paying upwards of $40 or $50 would make me want more from a piece of PVC, but in reality, all it has to do is look pretty and appeal to one of my many fetishes.

So now I ask you, loyal Tomopop readers, on what makes you love toys? When did your obsession with all things plastic, PVC, and resin begin? Are there any specific toys or series of toys that sets off fangasms in your mind?