This is not necessarily a self-proclaimed stage. It will come naturally because by now, the toy collector would surely have gathered quite a substantial amount of experience from the toy collecting hobby to qualify as an expert. At this stage, the toy collector is usually recognised and looked upon by Newbies as a Guru because he or she has been there and done that, and is like a senior and consultant to those in his or her toy collecting community.
In the My Little Pony collecting community which I am a part of, we call the ultra rare and extremely hard to find/get ponies ‘Nirvanas’, simply because they are so ‘up there’, like almost ‘out of reach’. This is the highest and the most ultimate level of your toy collection.
This is usually the stage the toy collector’s logic thinking fly out the window and ‘uncontrolled’ emotions take over the head. Nothing can stop the Rapid Growth collector from getting the toys on his or her want list. This is when the learning curve is the steepest, and yet it is no sweat for the Rapid Growth collector because the more information there is, the merrier. The ’sponge’ in their ‘highly obsessed mind’ is all ready to soak up every related information that is available.
Every collector goes through the Newbie stage, much like a freshman. The Newbie is most curious about his or her new hobby and this is also the time of the most confusion. Without proper ‘guidance’ from the more experienced Guru collectors, the Newbie can also end up being overcharged or going through ’extra’ steps just to get something simple done, like buying toys from overseas.
Upon reviewing my toy collecting experience, I identified 5 stages of collecting toys and they are:
Newbie, Rapid Growth, Nirvana, Guru and Casual.
These 5 stages can also apply to other collecting hobbies and many other things we do.
To be continued……
Some people collect toys because of childhood memories of; or ongoing interests in certain cartoons, comics, books, movies and TV shows. Other collectors have a penchant for things like specific animals (e.g. Breyer model horses), cars models (e.g. Bburago), army dolls (e.g. Action Man) etc.
You need to understand your emotions behind collecting toys. It is about anchoring certain states or emotions to the toys because of what they mean to you. It could be based on your childhood memories of the toys (e.g. He-Man) you had played or never got to play with, or the cartoons and movies (e.g. Care Bears, Smurf, He-Man, M.A.S.K., Transformers, Bionic Six, Thundercats, Silver Hawks etc.) that you loved as a kid.
Collecting toys, like many other hobbies, can help to provide work-life balance. It brings happiness and like-minded new friends into your life. The experience also guides you to learn more things and develop new skills that are seemingly and initially outside the scope of your hobby (e.g. internet knowledge, online shopping, website building, using and managing forums, artistic and writing skills, social and even business skills).
It was a long and difficult process to set up this toy website despite the seemingly clear instructions given in the Wordpress manual that I purchased 3 months ago. I actually started following the manual in September 2007 to build my Wordpress website but as I was using a hosting plan that was not compatible with Wordpress and it also had no C-panel, I basically hit a brick wall. I stopped for the next 2 months to focus on work matters and it was only in the last week of November 2007 that I resumed this project.
As mentioned in my earlier post, I had to get this website set up to meet the goal deadline that I had set to accomplish by the end of this year. After much perseverence, I am thankful to the universe for guiding me all the way despite the setbacks that popped up so frequently to block my efforts and deter me from succeeding. Now that the basic website format is up and running, there are still many loose ends to tie up before I consider this toy website fully functional.
At last, after much ‘trials and tribulations’, my Wordpress website is finally up and running! Now to flesh it out with the necessary pages and links that I have planned and to make them online. Once these are done, I would have achieved one more goal for this year 2007 before it ends in a month’s time. Oh how quickly time passes, the year 2008 is already at our doorstep!
I am Juliana Heng, a toy collector in Singapore. Click Here to learn more about my toy collecting story>>
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