Thankfully, I have a rather immutable "list" of characters - existing and not yet created - and I don't intend to deviate from that.
... Said the naive man before putting down his next pre-order.
I used to be like you. I needed just a Spider-Man, just a Batman, just a Vader, just an Indiana Jones. One-And-Done representations of the very cream of the crop of my pop culture interests, so to speak. I had rules, such as "no 90% plastic figures". And here I am, with my half-a-grand-entirely-plastic-Thanos and my wishlist of 30 X-Men... I remember when that Samurai Predator went up for PO, and it seemed like such a far-out figure, both in price and quality. I look at it now and it looks like a McFarlane toy. And it makes me wonder, how the things I buy now will look in a decade. I buy these things as the "ultimate representation", but just how true is that?
I've stopped trying to contain it to this fantasy of 30 "Greatest Hits" figures, and do my best to just make the best decision every time (avoid doubles, wait more for the best version, disregard FOMO, etc) and follow a general blueprint. But I know I'll never be a minimalistic collector. I just hope that, as time goes on, I'll trim the fat before making "useless" Pre-Orders. Ah, it is what it is, this "hobby" of ours...
PS: I went back and found the MWC review of that Samurai Predator, since I was reminded of it. You can read it here if you want, but let me post this bit:
Here is where things get tricky. At around $320 - $350 at most retailers, this is a VERY expensive figure. There's no light feature, no sound feature, and he's not a well recognized character.
The quality is absolutely there - you can tell it's not the usual figure, even for Hot Toys standards, before you even open the box.
This is a figure that will only bought buy a) the serious Predator fan or b) the serious Hot Toys completist. Even they will feel the serious pinch.
Now the average figure costs 285$. The recent MK doesn't have a headsculpt, doesn't even have a cloth hood, and his accessories are four (?) moonarangs. And we build entire displays with these. We double dip. Taxes are up, shipping's up. And accessories and bang for you buck go down, too. More movies, more shows, more companies, more 'tiers'. It all just keeps getting more and more expensive, and at some point you wonder what's even the point of plastic figures that will get updated by the time you're "done", starting another cycle...
Whatever...
WHAT A 1/6TH LIFE!
