Yes I’m now officially a “Mrs” after being used to years of being called a “Miss”!  The horses above are my ring bearers during my marriage solemnization at the Registry of Marriage (ROM) today - the white and brown stallion represents my husband who is born in the year of the horse, while the brown mare represents me who love horses.  The 2 horses are still tied together till now!

I will be going for a short honeymoon in Australia (Gold Coast) next week.  Perhaps I might bring a toy along this time for photo taking at the various places of interest that I’m visiting, or I might do some toy shopping and bring home even more toys from there, LOL!  I can’t help it, after all looking for toys wherever I go is a habit I have developed for many years already.  I shall take photos of my trip and post them here when I return!

Meanwhile, happy toys collecting everyone!

Army building toys is not for the faint hearted and cash particular collectors - Yes in summary, these are really the main points to note if you are still at the stage of thinking about going into this line of toy collecting.  

Some collectors ‘army build’ soldier action figures and military vehicle toys because these “have to be” displayed in great numbers to be ’impressive’.  Other collectors collect multiples of the same action figures because certain characters (e.g. Marvel Universe Multiple Man above) have the power to replicate themselves in the comics, cartoons and movies etc. 

Storage space constraints, being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of your toy armies and high replicated costs of buying multiples of the same toys are your main concerns before you decide that this type of toy collecting is for you.  Happy army building!

What every newbie should know about toy collecting - You can read them all in my previous blog posts in the Toy Collecting Tips Series to get an overview of this hobby that is so easy to get into, but takes up to a lifetime or more to quit!  They are now archived for easy reference and reading in my “Articles” page.

I’ve written this blog for nearly 3 years and have been collecting toys for almost 2 decades.  Everyday I tell myself that I should slow down and eventually quit this hobby, but it hasn’t been successful.  I’ve begun to explore other suitable hobbies to take the place of toy collecting, and one recent new hobby seems quite promising, but it’s ultimately not a total solution.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love my toys, but I just want to be less obsessed with this hobby than before.  Now I wish to be more of a casual collector, according to the 5 stages of toy collecting!

Don’t encourage your friends and loved ones into any sort of collecting hobby.  Haha, that is if you care for them.  If you don’t then I’ve got nothing more to say, LOL!  Collecting hobbies are easy to get into, very addictive, heavy on expenses (mostly money spending and rarely money making), very time consuming; and worst of all, they are usually lifelong for nearly all collectors!  

Most collectors can never ever get out of their hobbies voluntarily (because they have become too emotionally attached to their collections and collecting lifestyle), unless *touch wood* something drastic happens in their lives that makes them quit the hobby for good. 

While some moderate collecting is fun and enjoyable, and even serves as a bonding topic with other people, too much of anything is never good.  The trouble is that most collectors will eventually end up over collecting.  Hence, don’t ever get into collecting anything if you can help it!  For the people who are already collectors like me, we’ve got to live with the choice that we had made and the issues that come with it!

Check your exposed Mint-In-Box (MIB) and Mint-On-Card (MOC) toys regularly for possible deterioration from direct sunlight exposure, insects infestation and dust etc. I believe that most toy collectors have long ran out of decent storage space for their toys such that many boxes and packages are kept outside cupboards and carton boxes.  As a result over time, some toy packaging can possibly deteriorate in the above mentioned unfavourable conditions, especially in our tropical climate. 

I have heard of fading colors from prolonged direct sunlight exposure; ants, termites and silverfish eating away cardboard material and making nests in the boxes and packaging; and dust layers so thick that they caused health problems for the room occupants!  Toy boxes stored and stacked up on the floor also tend to impede thorough housecleaning by mothers,  wives, housekeepers; and eventually leads to nagging from them or worse.

The above are the direct and inevitable results of over collecting toys, where we want to collect too many toys but have very little proper storage space at home.  Other than having proper and dust-free storage space for your toys collection, you also need to practise the “one-in-one-out” toys culling method periodically to sustain your hobby.  If not, your toy population will spiral out of control and make you feel frustrated and overwhelmed by this originally enjoyable hobby. 

Hence do take the time to review your toy collection from time to time, instead of always going online and to toy stores to check what’s new there.  Happy toys collecting!

Buy toys at warehouse sales only if you have time to kill.  They can take hours to queue to get into the venue and be squeezed into a pulp with many other like-minded shoppers, and then at least another 1 more hour to queue for the cashiers!  Having been to a couple of “madness” toy warehouse sales before, I can tell you that the “chaotic” scenarios there are not for the fainted hearted, the meek and the ultra polite people. 

Toy warehouse sales may sometimes slash as much as more than 50% off the original retail prices, but after having spent hours at some of these sales before to enjoy those discounts, I find that it’s still much more worthwhile to buy toys at 20% discount during normal store wide sales in departmental stores, and save lots more time and effort. 

Well this is my view.  You’ve got to have been to both types of sales before to compare and draw your own conclusions.  For me, I much prefer hassle free purchasing and not feel pressured to buy something in a frenzied environment.  Happy toys shopping!

As added info if you are still keen on going for warehouse sales, here are 7 useful tips to “excel” in a toy warehouse sale for your reading pleasure!

Know the fair market prices when buying toys at resale - There will be times when a toy collector buys certain toys from the resale market.  This is usually the case for older toys that are no longer available at the mass retail stores.  Sometimes it also happens for new toys that are sold out.  Other than the flea market where lots of old toys tend to appear every now and then, the more common toy resale market platforms are online like on Ebay and in toy forums. 

If you have to buy your toys from the resale market, do some online research (e.g. using Ebay’s completed auctions list) on past and present selling prices of your targeted toys before you purchase.  Of course the prices also vary according to the toy conditions.  This can minimize the chances of overpaying for some toy when other sellers are selling it for much lower prices.  Hence some level of patience in your toy hunts usually pays off well for you!  Happy toys shopping! 

Learn to let live if you can’t get certain toys - Yes, none of them are really worth overpaying and fighting for.  In our lifetime, we don’t actually own anything.  Physical possessions are ours for as long as we live.  We are merely temporary keepers of things until they pass from us through selling, giving or when we finally leave the mortal world.  So focus more on the enjoyment of the hobby rather than on the frustrations of not being to get hold of certain toys.  Like a wise person once said about looking at a piece of clean white paper with a tiny dot on it: Do you focus on the cleanliness and whiteness of the paper, or get distracted by that tiny irritating dot on it?  We can choose our views.  Happy toy collecting! 

Beware that over collecting toys can wreck relationships - Yes, this is true when the toy collecting hobby becomes too overwhelming for other people living with you.  Remember that one person’s treasure isn’t necessary the same for another person who doesn’t share that same passion with you.  To the non-toy collectors, these toy things are not just a waste of money but a waste of precious home space as well. 

Most of us live with somebody who are not toy collectors, hence we tend to get nagged at for bringing back more and more ‘junk’ nearly every time we come home.  It sort of spoils the good mood we have from the so-called ’successful’ toy hunting trip that day.  Then you would think that having a supportive spouse, partner or family members who share your toy hobby is a blessing.  Well it isn’t.  One person in the household being ‘poisoned’ is bad enough, not to mention more members being in the same boat as well! 

Hence overall, I still think that having non-toy collectors in the house nagging at us periodically or frequently, is a kind of check and balance method to ensure that we don’t go overboard in our toy collecting too easily or rapidly.  Hobbies are best done in moderation.  Being sensitive to the feelings of other people you share your abode with is also crucial, especially if you want your toy collecting hobby to always remind you happy things in life!

Always check your toy conditions before buying - This is especially so if you are buying action figures where you are able to view their paint jobs through the transparent plastic packaging.  It has been observed that many mass market toys like the Marvel Universe 3.75-inch action figures (such as Iron Patriot above) are being churned out in poorer and poorer qualities with each new batch.  It’s usually 1 or 2 in as many as 10 of the same figures that spot some decent level of paint job which is ‘worthy’ of a toy collector’s standards.  Hence do take note before your every purchase instead of hurriedly making your way to the cashier.  Other than the paint job, there are other criterias to take note of when buying such action figures.  Happy toys collecting!