The first month of 2008 is coming to an end and it still scares me how fast time really fleets past and waits for no one.  I am still on schedule with my work tasks and goals progress.  Nevertheless, there is still more room for further improvement and I will fine tune my strategies along the way until they are more perfect and more aligned with my plans.  Putting myself in the right states of mind to work towards  my goals consistently is also extremely important. 

Learning is a lifelong process and it is also a valuable skill.  Once we know how to use the correct strategies to learn effectively in a shorter time, there will be no limit to the things we could achieve in our lifetimes.  Most importantly is never give up whenever we encounter obstacles.  Find a way around these obstructions and always stay focused.  Even if we did not eventually reach the goals we set, we are at least a lot more better off than than having no goals at all to start with.  Hence I move on to February where there are more opportunities for me to apply the vast new knowledge that I have picked up in January and especially during the past 6 months.

Every time I visit the toy sections of departmental stores to check out the latest My Little Pony stock there, I will also check the Justice League, Transformers and Lego sections.  I collect Justice League action figures and Lego knights series  too.  I do not officially collect Transformers toys but I do own some mini Transformers Legends figures based on last year’s movie, and a few other similar matchbox-sized Transformers figures that I bought some years ago.  Whenever there are new toys available for sale at the stores, I find myself torn between the ‘to buy’ and ‘not to buy’ emotions. 

I know that the best solution is actually to stop visiting the toy sections ever again and just get a new hobby or interest.  However this is easier said than done.  As I have been collecting toys and shopping for them for the past decade, it is not like I can stop doing these things suddenly.  My friends tell me to “get a life” and I reply them that “this is my life”.  Now I even blog about toys.  How more ‘obsessed’ with toys can I get?  I really do not know and only time will tell….

During my years of frequenting the toys sections of departmental stores, I occasionally noticed that the cards of some popular collectible action figures were creased or have been bent.  It happened to every piece of the same character that were available at the store.  I have heard stories that some collectors deliberately ‘ruined’ the remaining ‘popular’ pieces that they could not afford to buy up to reduce their resale values and prevent other collectors, traders or speculators from buying multiples of those toys to make a profit from. 

At other times, I have found some toys that had been hidden in sections far from their own sections.  I was told that some collectors did it to hide their prized finds so as to return later to buy them.  I left them there unless it was a toy that I was also looking for.  Fortunately, I never had to touch those because it always happened to Star Wars toys, which I do not collect and I have no interest in.

Most toys are packaged in a plastic bubble and pasted on a card (mint-on-card, MOC) or packed in a box (mint-in-box, MIB).  MOC toys are usually hung on racks while boxes are stacked on the shelves in the toy shops or the toys sections of departmental stores. 

When buying toys, it is good to practise some ‘toy etiquette’.  Some people are rather ‘rough’ when searching through every piece of toy hanging on the racks or placed on the shelves.  After they have rummaged through the toys, they leave everything in a mess.  That is most irresponsible.  It is basic courtesy to leave the racks and shelves in the original state as much as possible when you are done.

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I was pleasantly surprised to pick up the Justice Lord Hawkgirl action figure at Toy ‘R Us on this weekend, and at a sale price too!  I thought that I would not be able to complete my Justice Lords collection as I did not think that the Hawkgirl action figure will be sold in the retail stores here in Singapore (I was reluctant to pick her up at China Square Central resale toy market or import her myself). 

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The weekend’s here once more and shortly, I will be going out to stock up on my basic necessities.  I will also be heading down to Orchard Road to check out the newest toy stocks in the retail malls.  Economic slowdown is already looming in Asia but it usually does not deter the ‘rapid growth’ toy collectors much.  I have long passed the ‘rapid growth’ stage but since I have developed this habit of always checking out the toy departments whenever I visit shopping malls, it has become a kind of second nature to me.

In Singapore, most retail stores bring in new toy stocks on a weekly basis.  Hence I usually use the weekends to check out their latest toys.  I normally check out the My Little Pony, Justice League, Transformers and the model toy cars (E.g. Bburago) sections.  As many of the major departmental stores are located along Orchard Road, it makes my almost weekly ‘inspection trips’ much more convenient. 

Come back again tomorrow to read the updates of my weekend toy trip.

Also read: The 5 toy collecting stages.

10 more days have passed since my last update on my goals achievements.  Sometimes it really scares me how fast time flies by and now the end of January is already round the corner.  Soon we will move on to February and subsequently to the months beyond.  I have not been able to keep up to my goal schedule over the past week and I feel bad aout it.  Now I have less than 1 week to kick myself into on-time actions or else the goals schedules for the rest of the year will surely be affected. 

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After buying and removing toys from their packaging, most collectors would keep the back cards or fold the boxes flat to store aside because of the nice pictures or photos on them.  Should you decide to discard your toy packaging, do keep in mind that most of it can be recycled.  Hence before you toss your entire toy packaging into the refuse bin, do check if any parts of it can be salvaged for the recycling bin instead. 

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This week, I saw some newspapers ads and also received some brochures that the departmental stores here are having sales during his period leading to Chinese New Year.  Hopefully they also stock up on new toys for me to check out on and that these new toys will be on sale.  I will post updates when I visit the stores at Orchard Road this weekend.

When your toy collections grow to a massive super size, you really need a very organised way of keeping and storing them.  A fine example is the giant collection of Breyer model horses seen here.  I was comforted to know that my toy collection is considered small when I saw those photos.  I used to collect such Breyer model horses until the local weather ‘killed off’ my collection…

Also read: The weather can affect your toys.