Question: When does a "collection" become "clutter"?

[King Darkness]

Thats just ****ing ridiculous!!!!

And Shai, Nash and Dannie

Your comments were funny as hell!!

 

[Boba Fett]

Sorry, but in my opinion, that is clutter. Nothing is organized.

This is exactly what I try to avoid, which is why I invest in glass cabinets and displays so at least my room has a museum feel to it.

 

[Smudger9]

This is the exact reason I ditched the 3 3/4 inch line and went into Sideshow and Medicom.

 

[IrishJedi]

Seriously, what if there was a fire, flood or tornado and this stuff was all destroyed? I don't think this guy could cope. It's pretty clear that this stuff dominates his life (his further posts in that thread bear that out). And, to me, that's NOT a good thing no matter how sanctimonious you want to get about it.

Look, I used to have a SW collection that consumed the entire basement of my previous house. And though I was married to a hot blonde, had kids and a "real" job, etc. it ultimately became just too much. One day I went down there and just realized that it had become a bunch of clutter and I was sick to death of seeing it. The individual items were always over-shadowed by The Collection and I just decided that enough was enough. Total BURN-OUT. I got rid of a bunch of "junk", put the rest in storage (which I am still selling or giving away piecemeal) and never looked back. This was 8 years ago. I have been a selective collector and not anywhere near a completist since then and, to me, this has made collecting much more enjoyable and the actual individual items I have more meaningful.

Now I know that's just me and that mileage varies. But I sorda feel like the ex-smoker who wants to come down too hard on someone he sees lighting up. I personally think that this type of obsessive collecting is as much an illness or mental condition as drug addiction and can also affect one's personal and financial life in profound ways. It's wrong to make fun of this guy... but it's also not necessarily right to give people who may be overly obsessed a mulligan because they're "just toys". If you can't even get out of your bed to go to the bathroom without having to dodge stored and displayed toys there is something a bit deeper going on than some here would care to admit.

Just my 7 cents.

 

[IrishJedi]

This is the exact reason I ditched the 3 3/4 inch line and went into Sideshow and Medicom.

Same here, except I also do the prop replica thing as well.

 

[PosterBoyKelly]

Sorry, but in my opinion, that is clutter. Nothing is organized.

This is exactly what I try to avoid, which is why I invest in glass cabinets and displays so at least my room has a museum feel to it.

Again, I know I'm in the minority, but I hate glass cabs and museum-esque collections. They're so cold and leave me unimpressed. Not attacking anyone, just chiming in. Clutter gives a good "lived in" feel to me. As long as everythings clean and you know where to find it.

 

[KitFisto]

Again, I know I'm in the minority, but I hate glass cabs and museum-esque collections. They're so cold and leave me unimpressed. Not attacking anyone, just chiming in. Clutter gives a good "lived in" feel to me. As long as everythings clean and you know where to find it.

One thing about me for good or bad is that I am just as obsessive compulsive about a neat, organized and CLEAN house as I am about my collection.

I am not as bad as the guy on the show "Monk", but I am not far from it LOL. I know that it's obsessive compulsive, but I can't STAND having things out of place or disorganized in any way at all. I can't leave a single piece of laundry on the floor at night or even for a min. It HAS to go i nthe hamper right away. I leave NOTHING on my kitchen counter tops at all. I leave NO dishes in the sink.....EVER. If I see a piece of lint on the carpet I have to pick it up. Everything has to be neat and clean and in it's place.....to me living this way is relaxing. Clutter anywhere makes me feel out of balance and crazy.

So when I see a collection like this I think "OMG, what a freaking MESS" while at the same time I try to understand it's what he likes.

 

[Amanaman]

Again, I know I'm in the minority, but I hate glass cabs and museum-esque collections. They're so cold and leave me unimpressed. Not attacking anyone, just chiming in. Clutter gives a good "lived in" feel to me. As long as everythings clean and you know where to find it.

No, you've made a good point. Some people DO take the museum thing a little too far and will encase everything behind glass. I like to be able to approach my stuff, and be able to put it back to its designated spot. You won't see any toys in my kitchen, lol. I guess you can call it "organized clutter."

There's nothing wrong with Hasbro, either, but if you're like many people with hundreds of figures, it becomes a VERY difficult task to display them nicely. I broke mines up into logical units - now my troopers are on display, with everything else in storage. Once in a while I scan my Hasbros to get rid of inferior versions of figures and keep my favorites. I have less than 100 figures now, that I like!

 

[Boba Fett]

Seriously, what if there was a fire, flood or tornado and this stuff was all destroyed? I don't think this guy could cope. It's pretty clear that this stuff dominates his life (his further posts in that thread bear that out). And, to me, that's NOT a good thing no matter how sanctimonious you want to get about it.

Look, I used to have a SW collection that consumed the entire basement of my previous house. And though I was married to a hot blonde, had kids and a "real" job, etc. it ultimately became just too much. One day I went down there and just realized that it had become a bunch of clutter and I was sick to death of seeing it. The individual items were always over-shadowed by The Collection and I just decided that enough was enough. Total BURN-OUT. I got rid of a bunch of "junk", put the rest in storage (which I am still selling or giving away piecemeal) and never looked back. This was 8 years ago. I have been a selective collector and not anywhere near a completist since then and, to me, this has made collecting much more enjoyable and the actual individual items I have more meaningful.

Now I know that's just me and that mileage varies. But I sorda feel like the ex-smoker who wants to come down too hard on someone he sees lighting up. I personally think that this type of obsessive collecting is as much an illness or mental condition as drug addiction and can also affect one's personal and financial life in profound ways. It's wrong to make fun of this guy... but it's also not necessarily right to give people who may be overly obsessed a mulligan because they're "just toys". If you can't even get out of your bed to go to the bathroom without having to dodge stored and displayed toys there is something a bit deeper going on than some here would care to admit.

Just my 7 cents.

Well said, Irish. I went through the exact same thing you did 10 years ago in my old house and finally went your route after I divorced 5 years ago. All my Hasbro toys I now sold off and I only remain with just a handful of them.

All I collect now is Sideshow, Weta, and Medicom.

 

[Brent72]

Personally, I think it would make me a huge hypocrite to rag on this guy's collection and then turn around to gush all over Sansweet's Rancho Obi-Wan as it's pretty much the same mentality just on much different scales price-wise. Collecting anything(toys, sports memorabilia, stamps, cars, etc) can become an obsession and some people are way more obsessive than others about it. While I do think the guy that's the subject of this thread has gone a little overboard, my view is that it's his life and he can live it any way he wants. I just wonder if he'll wake up one day and go "what the hell am I doing with all this stuff?" because if he does there's gonna be one helluva yard sale at his house.

 

[The Josh]

Seriously, what if there was a fire, flood or tornado and this stuff was all destroyed? I don't think this guy could cope. It's pretty clear that this stuff dominates his life (his further posts in that thread bear that out). And, to me, that's NOT a good thing no matter how sanctimonious you want to get about it.

Look, I used to have a SW collection that consumed the entire basement of my previous house. And though I was married to a hot blonde, had kids and a "real" job, etc. it ultimately became just too much. One day I went down there and just realized that it had become a bunch of clutter and I was sick to death of seeing it. The individual items were always over-shadowed by The Collection and I just decided that enough was enough. Total BURN-OUT. I got rid of a bunch of "junk", put the rest in storage (which I am still selling or giving away piecemeal) and never looked back. This was 8 years ago. I have been a selective collector and not anywhere near a completist since then and, to me, this has made collecting much more enjoyable and the actual individual items I have more meaningful.

Now I know that's just me and that mileage varies. But I sorda feel like the ex-smoker who wants to come down too hard on someone he sees lighting up. I personally think that this type of obsessive collecting is as much an illness or mental condition as drug addiction and can also affect one's personal and financial life in profound ways. It's wrong to make fun of this guy... but it's also not necessarily right to give people who may be overly obsessed a mulligan because they're "just toys". If you can't even get out of your bed to go to the bathroom without having to dodge stored and displayed toys there is something a bit deeper going on than some here would care to admit.

Just my 7 cents.

Actually to comment on the first part of this post. Forget the guy coping with it if that happens it's a health/saftey hazard. He could be in some deep **** if something happened.

As far as the collection goes you have to know where to draw the line on collecting. Find what fits best with what space you have and call it a day. If you want to get more you might have to store some of it till you get a bigger space.

 

[JABBATHERIDGE]

There's nothing wrong with Hasbro, either, but if you're like many people with hundreds of figures, it becomes a VERY difficult task to display them nicely. I broke mines up into logical units - now my troopers are on display, with everything else in storage. Once in a while I scan my Hasbros to get rid of inferior versions of figures and keep my favorites. I have less than 100 figures now, that I like!

That makes sense and seems like a good way to keep your collection in line, rather than having 14 farmboy Lukes

 

[JABBATHERIDGE]

Actually to comment on the first part of this post. Forget the guy coping with it if that happens it's a health/saftey hazard. He could be in some deep **** if something happened.

As far as the collection goes you have to know where to draw the line on collecting. Find what fits best with what space you have and call it a day. If you want to get more you might have to store some of it till you get a bigger space.

You see I still don't get why anyone would keep collecting if they had to put stuff in storage just to hold onto it. To me if you've got too much stuff to fit in your house/apartment then sell or get rid of some of your older stuff to make room for new stuff.

I really don't see the point, unless it's long term investment, to hanging onto items in your collection that can't fit in your home.

Again just IMHO

 

[The Josh]

You can do that as well. I'm just saying if you want to rotate stuff or whatever you can store it. There are pro's and con's to both ways and neither is perfect that's for sure.

 

[JABBATHERIDGE]

I use one wall of my collecting room for display space, which is made up of bookshelves and display cases etc.

The other wall of the room is used for storage for boxes, MOC figures and other items like my comic collection.

I usually rotate the items that I have on display, keep some figures MOC and others I take out and display on shelf.

 

[The Josh]

Yeah, I've got some of mine here and some of mine there type of thing. The boxes are more of a pain than items themselves.

 

[JABBATHERIDGE]

Yeah, I've got some of mine here and some of mine there type of thing. The boxes are more of a pain than items themselves.

90% of my mass market figures I take out of the packaging, unless they're really rare or exclusives or something.

The only ones I've kept MOC from the 30th Anniversary collection are the McQuarrie ones, the rest are on display.

Throwing away the packaging saves me loads of space, but of course you can't do that with proper collectibles like PF's.

I keep the boxes to my busts etc, although I also display them, but leave my Medicom figures as MOC pieces.

 

[MaulFan]

My plan is to have a professional-looking entertainment room to display my goodies in, like Gruson's awesome room. I have Wal-Mart drawers full of my 3 3/4" inch figures as well as my 12" / 1/6 figures for now since I still live at home and don't have much room for display, but I also like checking out and posing my figures, so displaying for me is usually for doubles or solid statuesque pieces for the most part, it's not worth it to me to pose a figure for a nice display then take it down a week or two later and play with it a bit and have to put it back, and I happily admit I play with my figures, not like I would as child, but I like to pose them around and imagine I'm being drawn into whatever film/story they come from, that's the fun of collecting for me, I can pick up a collectible and be taken away to some place I enjoy, and everyone needs escapism, the trick is to not let fantasy become your reality. Thankfully, I keep them separate, but too often, reality gets to me and my "toys" help me get away from things and come back to my real problems with a refreshed mind. They also help with creativity in my artwork.

 

[vespagirl]

thats a lot of stuff. its cool if you dedicate one area to the hobby, but almost every room is too much

Up to and including....THE BATHROOM!
I think it becomes clutter with the willy nilly sprinkling of plush toys here and there also. Kinda makes it look like a cluster fornication.

 

[The Josh]

The only things I still have boxed are the Convention Hasbro items from the last couple of years. I don't have any other Hasbro items boxed and just a couple of opened clones in my room. Those will go with me next year to my classroom for my students to see.

The SS and GG stuff I open and display. Though some items may have to stay boxes but there are a few items I'm considering selling.