Well, this usually happens for toylines that you are really into collecting.  But sometimes so many purchases of these “too fantastic to miss out” goodies all happening at around the same time, you suddenly feel kind of remorseful for spending quite a sum of $$. 

However, you know that if you don’t strike while the iron is hot and secure those toys at the special prices before you, you’ll regret it even more when they are sold out.  So in way, both buying and not buying the toys make you feel bad, but you can’t help it.

Has this kind of “guilty of spending too much on toys” feeling happened to you before?  Feel free to share your toy buying experiences here!

This blog post is a follow up from an earlier one that I posted a few days ago - “Did you ever regret from delayed buying of toys?”

What I mean is that at some stages of your toy collecting hobby, you tell yourself that you want to take a break or stop collecting a toyline altogether.  Then some months or years later, you suddenly feel that you really want those toys (that you had intentionally skipped) after all.

This happened to me for the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) 2007 Exclusive Super Hero My Little Pony (left).  She was available for sale at a local toy shop for a reasonable price that year but I skipped her, thinking that I didn’t wish to collect so many ponies anymore. Then I regretted my decision in the following year and I had to import her myself for a slightly higher price, and with some hassle.

Another scenario is when you see the toys you want at great abundance in every retail store you go, that you feel no hurry to get them.  You assume that the toys will still be there when you have the time to go back and buy them, or perhaps after you clear some space at home first before buying it.  You even procrastinate for months and even years, or forgot about it.

Then the inevitable happens - the toys you wanted were sold out or no longer available in all the retail stores, except in the resale market for much higher prices.  But you want those toys so badly that you put in last ditch efforts to hunt for them, and hopefully find them in some isolated store at the original retail prices or less.  If not, you’ve got to buy them at resale prices for $x more, but you will get them, at last.

So do you catch up on missed toy purchases too?  Or are you able to really totally forget them and just move on, never to ever turn back and hunt for them at all?  Do feel free to share your comments here!

Following my first blog post on “toy collecting peeves - 1″ yesterday, let’s move on to another one - unkind remarks from the non-collectors or laymen.  The first typical response they tend to give you is that toys are for kids only, and they also wear that kind of expressions on their faces, as if to say that toy collectors are weirdos. 

Hey, it’s my life and I am responsible for making myself happy, not them.  If I spent my lifetime pursuing interests conforming to other people’s standards and if I regret it when it’s time for me to go, will those people be responsible for my regrets?  No they won’t!  They will claim that it was my choice.  So it is, I make my choices now while I still can.  Those people can beat off, and go do what they like and don’t bother to influence me to being like them.  Why should I?

I guess that’s one reason why many toy collectors here feel more at home at the Sunday Toy Market (at China Square Central), or online at forums and blogs with other like-minded people to discuss about this hobby.  For most of us, our immediate circle of friends and people we meet nearly everyday aren’t collectors.  So this hobby can get kinda lonely, if not for the internet that lets you know that you are actually not alone and there are in fact many of us around.  All hail to the internet!  LOL!

How about you?  Did you face the above toy collecting peeves before?  How did you, or would you deal with them?  Please feel free to share them here!

So far I’ve blogged about many technical aspects about toy collecting (e.g. what to collect, how to collect, toy budget, toy storage, etc.).  I decide to blog a series of posts about some toy collecting peeves that I’m sure many collectors have encountered before.  Let’s start with this one: 

Have you ever painstakingly chosen a mint-on-card (MOC) or mint-in-box (MIB) toy at a departmental store with the best packaging, and then brought it to the cashier, only to have the cashier manhandle your precious purchase in front of you?

In Singapore, some of our departmental stores use clear tape to stick a piece of white plastic bar code tab onto the the toy packaging.  When you pay for the toy at the cashier, they will remove it.  It is very disheartening, and sometimes heart wrenching to see the cashier flip over your toy and ’smacking’ it roughly onto the counter table. 

Then as they use the scissors to cut out the tab in a non-chalant manner, you cringe when you see the blade scrap against the box or card packaging.  If you weren’t living in a law abiding nation, you would have felt like reaching over and personally strangling the person for doing those heinous deeds before you!

As a finale, your newly purchased toys get tossed like garbage into a large plastic bag, without effort or common sense to pack them in properly.  The bag ends up looking so bulky to carry like Santa’s sack, when a little re-arranging of the contents will do the trick.  Don’t retail stores ever train their staff do simple packing of customers’ purchases into the shopping bags.  It projects a good image on their part if they do, but no they don’t care. 

The whole experience is likened to having a fishmonger at the wet market slaughter your selected live crabs or live fish, and then toss the slaughtered or dying seafood into a plastic bag for you to bring home.  OMG!

The laymen will tell you to get over it, for those are only toys.  You were likely to open them anyway so what’s the issue.  And then you wonder if you are really going nuts to feel so upset, and perhaps it’s time to get a new hobby and move on with your life. 

Overall, life as a toy collector, like everything else in this world, can have its peeves as well.  How about you?  Have you encountered such incidents of the cashier manhandling your toy and other purchases?  How did you feel and react?  Feel free to share them here!

An observation I’ve made about some toys collectors’ buying patterns is that when there is some sort of toys clearance sale, they will first do the usual of buying all the pieces that they have wanted all along. 

Then the sale items are sold out or they get restocked at much lower rock bottom clearance prices.  Those who had held back at the previous sale now enter the buying frenzy.  These are the patient yet very lucky ones who took the right “gamble” by waiting for further price reductions.  Most importantly, they are able to be at the right places at the right times. 

Among this round of buyers are those who had bought at original retail prices during the hype of the toy fad, and those who already bought at the higher clearance prices at the earlier sale.  Seeing how much cheaper the toys have become tempts them to buy some more of the same toys to keep unopened, or to open up for play and display.  Sometimes it’s to replace faulty or imperfect pieces that they already own.  Maybe there’s this fear that the toys may deteriorate over time, so it’s good to have another piece, or multiple pieces on stand by.

Once a clearance toys buying frenzy starts, it can get out of hand in the minds of some toy collectors.  It’s like some sort of rare opportunity not to be missed, even if you have those toys already.  This feeling is very similar to the emotions felt during the “rapid growth” stage of toy collecting.  Logic thinking flies out the window while emotions rule the head.

The other resulting type of toys buying frenzy happens to the toy collectors who for some reason, are always on the tail ends of the clearance toys hunting parties.  This is one very anxious, stressed and frustrated lot of buyers.  Everywhere they go, the clearance toys they want are all sold out.  Tough luck.  At the end of the clearance sale, they wonder why they acted like that.  I have no clear answer to that except for a sudden unexplanable wave of obsession that swept into their minds then.  Again, emotions win over logic.

Some of them end up buying loads of toylines that they didn’t think of collecting in the first place, but the attractive toys clearance sales gave them the opportunities at the right prices.  These are the lucky ones who scored a bargain.  For others, it is simply “impulse buying” and “herd mentality”.

There is no right or wrong in these emotions.  Many of us go through them at some stages of our lives.  Even if it is not toys, it can be other items that we use in our everyday lives.  All consumer goods go through clearance sales eventually, and our buying frenzy gets activated into bargain hunting modes.  It’s just that for some people, there is “after impulse purchase regret”.  Good luck on clearing those impulse items!  Humans are ruled by emotions much more than logic.  Life’s just like that!

Since I started blogging about toy collecting around 2 years ago, I’ve received emails and blog comments from fellow toy collectors sharing their similar predicaments during the course of their toy hobbies.  One of the most common result of collecting toys is having your room or most parts of your home overrun by your massive toy collections.

Buying toys feels great, both during the act of buying and during those few days following the purchase.  Then the interest in that new toy fades over the subsequent weeks and months.  It is then stored aside and you embark on your next hunting expedition for another toy that catches your fancy.  And so the vicious never-ending cycle repeats itself over and over again. 

At the end of the day, you might wonder why you bother to collect something that you would lose interest in so quickly after acquiring it.  I can only explain in short that a lot of us actually enjoy “the thrill of the hunt”, rather than owning the actual “toy trophy” itself.  Then when your “toy conquests” build up to a huge size that is not comfortable to handle, disillusionment with the hobby sets in.

Having been in this hobby for many years, I’m not surprised by the various states of psychology that toy collectors share with me in their emails and blog comments.  I’ve blogged about the different kinds of emotions I had personally felt, and still feel.  You know what you’re getting yourself into, but you feel seemingly ‘powerless’ to rectify it, or you simply just ’surrender’ to it.  Doing the latter is usually the more popular option.

Then when toy collectors finally ‘open’ their eyes and start to ‘really look’ at their enormous toy collections, they begin to wonder what they have done with their lives for the past x number of years.  I guess people all go through different stages in their lives.  When some toy collectors begin to feel “disillusioned” with their toy hobbies, it’s usually either they collected toys based on hype or trends, or it’s really time for them to move on in their lives.  We’re all different, so we subsequently make different decisions about our toy hobbies.

Some toy collectors tell me they don’t why they were so obsessed with collecting certain toylines during a particular period of time.  They were very sure that they did love those toys and the comics / cartoons / movies that the toys were based on, a long time ago.  Then for no good reason, they now feel that they no longer want to keep their toy collections etc., anymore.  They just know that they want to get rid of those items and there is no more attachment to the toys anymore.

So what are my responses to such toy collectors who have become disillusioned with their toy hobbies?  Well you’ve got to ask yourself why you collected those toylines in the first place.  If the reason no longer applies, then go ahead and sell or clear the toys away.  Make space in your home for newer things to come into your life and enrich you.

Sometimes, the toy collector still likes the toyline, but not the entire range of all the toys ever made and released.  They somehow just bought everything in the toyline so as to “complete the sets”.  In the end, the toy collector only likes certain characters and vehicles etc. only.  Hence trimming the collection of the unloved pieces and keeping only the well-loved pieces usually does the trick.

I hope this article has been useful to you.  For ideas on how to sell your collectible toys, you can read my previous blog posts about this topic:

How to quit your toy hobby

How to sell your toys online

How to sell your toys offline

How to manage your toys population

Happy toy collecting and managing!

I chanced upon this article on Seibertron.com some time ago and found it interesting.  It covers money matters, where to buy toys, discusses the emotions behind buying and collecting toys, more ultimate levels like toy fairs, methods of collecting, and coming to an understanding with your family members about your toy hobby. 

These are all topics I had covered  before in some way or another on my blog.  Now you get to read them from the perspective of collecting Transformers toys!  

Do you like to read more of such articles about toy collecting?  You see, most toy collectors go online to search for information of where to buy the latest toys they want, or to view photos of other people’s toy collections. 

If you want to read more articles about how to collect toys, or how other collectors manage their massive toy collections, do let me know.  I’ll post their links here to share with you whenever I come across them! 

Happy toy collecting!

I was at OG Orchard yesterday to pick up some of the heavily discounted G.I.Joe movie toys for an overseas collector.  I thought that it was going to be a quick toy shopping trip (I wanted to leave before the impending rain outside) until I encountered the Hasbro delivery guy busy unboxing all the newly supplied G.I.Joe movie toys there.  

There were some other adult male collectors ‘hovering’ around the delivery guy.  Some were in a clique, while the others were “lone rangers”.  It was interesting to observe how some of the very eager collectors ’swooped’ in for their ‘kills’ as soon as the G.I.Joe movie toys were unboxed and placed on a surface (e.g. on top of other merchandise, on the floor etc.) by the delivery guy.

For me, I was more like a ‘jackal’ who lingered along the fringes until the main ‘hyena pack’ had dispersed, before I could go in to pick at the ’scraps’, LOL!  For the G.I.Joe movie toy collectors who weren’t there yesterday, there are indeed new stocks, and not re-stocks! 

1) G.I.Joe movie 3.75-inch figures - Bench Press & Snow Serpent @ SGD 10.00 each.

2) SDCC 2009 G.I.Joe movie Destro-McCullen 2-pack (above) @ SGD 15.00 each.

3) G.I.Joe movie Senior Ranking Officers 3-pack - Cobra & G.I.Joe Teams @ SGD 14.90 each.

4) G.I.Joe movie Attack on the G.I.Joe Pit HQ boxset - containing 5 x figures & a repainted Mole Pod @ SGD 24.90 each.

5) G.I.Joe movie assorted Accessories Packs - the most notable are Snake Eyes & Storm Shadow on Bikes @ SGD 14.90 each.

Updates on previously reported G.I.Joe movie toy stocks there:

a) Night Raven, Steel Crusher APV & Cobra Gunship @ SGD 29.90 each, are still available, even after a customer called in to reserve 10 pcs of Night Ravens.

b) Smaller vehicles like Mole Pods @ SGD 17.90 each, have diminished to less than 10pcs.  But with the new availability of the glossier repainted and cheaper Mole Pod in the Attack on the G.I.Joe Pit HQ boxset, the single pack Mole Pods may not be as popular for now.

c) One of my blog readers asked me to name all the 3.75-inch figures (@ SGD 10.00 each) I saw there.  (Wow, he wants to test my memory skills is it, LOL?).  I’m new to this toyline, and I am still dazzled by the new stocks that came in yesterday.  Still, I do my best in what my memory could afford me:

- Neo Viper (Attack on the Pit)

- Cobra Viper (Desert Ambush)

- Duke (in brown army uniform)

- Heavy Duty (in army uniform)

- Zartan

- Cobra Commander

- Destro

- Bench Press (arrived yesterday) 

- Snow Serpent (arrived yesterday)

- Storm Shadow (Ninja Mercenary, just 1 pc but with bad face paint job) 

- Abel ‘Breaker’ Shaz (the techie guy)

- Duke (Reactive Armor Suit)

- The Baroness (Attack on the Pit)

- Ice Viper

For collectors looking for Storm Shadow (Paris Pursuit) and Snake Eyes (Ninja Commando), there are a few pieces left at OG Chinatown.  But their backcards are all badly folded.  Most of the stocks there are like that.

That’s all folks, happy toy shopping!

Update: The above toys are indeed there on sale as of 12 January 2010.  On any date after that, I cannot guarantee.  You’ve got to go there and find out yourself.

While browsing at OG Chinatown today, I chanced upon the 2009 G.I.Joe movie toys on further clearance sale (at last!).  Their prices have gone lower than the first round of discounts during the 2009 Christmas period.  I don’t remember all their exact original prices already, but most of them are now on sale at close to, or more than 50% discount!

The basic 3.75-inch action figures (above) are going for SGD 10.00 each.  The 2-pack Combat Heroes figurines (non-poseable) are selling for only SGD 3.00 each.  The 10-inch action figures are at only SGD 14.90 each (unbelievable!).  The 12-inch (I think he’s around this height) electronic Snake Eyes action figure is now at SGD 19.90 each. 

The following G.I.Joe movie vehicle toys were also spotted on sale and there were plenty of stocks when I saw them.  However, I can’t guarantee if there will be many left now.  There are fans and collectors who like to collect multiples of the same vehicles, and of certain ”troop” figures to ‘build up’ their ”Cobra” armies especially. 

G.I.Joe movie vehicle toy - Mole Pod @ SGD 17.90

(It still amazes me how the Cobra Mole Pod squad could drill their way undetected into the underground G.I.Joe pit headquarters in the movie).  Anyway, the rest of the vehicle toys in the same wave were also available.

I found some relevant video reviews on YouTube to help you decide if you want to pick up these discounted G.I.Joe movie vehicle toys or not, especially if you still sitting on the fence, like me. 

And notice that these vehicle toys come with stickers for you to stick on the specific parts of the toys.  It reminds me of some playset toys I used to have during my childhood!

G.I.Joe movie vehicle toy - Steel Crusher APV @ SGD 29.90

Note: The side missiles are indeed removable, as shown in other video reviews of this toy.

I deliberated on whether to pick up this vehicle for my small collection of 3.75-inch G.I.Joe movie action figures, some of them are the “Paris Pursuit” ones.  I know I don’t really have much space at home for it but the price is so tempting that the dilemma just tore my heart in 2 directions!  It was awful standing there holding up the box to read every word and scrutinize the pictures on it, while hoping that I would have made up my mind to buy it or not.

Then I had this great idea to go buy some pillows and cushion covers for my home first, and then return to the toy department later to decide on buying this toy.  It was a ‘brilliant’ move on my part.  I completely forgot about the toy until I was on my way home.  And then I spent the rest of the day at home sort of ‘regreting’ not being decisive enough on the spot. *Shakes my head in disbelief as I type this post*

G.I.Joe movie vehicle toy - Cobra Gunship @ SGD 29.90

Note: All the Cobra Gunship toys I’ve seen locally come with the red helmet pilot figure.

I’ve seen and ‘played’ with a loose piece of this toy before (I borrowed it from someone) and I must say that the toy is a disappointment compared to the APV Steel Crusher above.  The interior behind the side doors are ‘wasted’ by not making it hollow to fit in more figures, or at least contain some accessories.  The color of the actual toy is also a little dull.  But for display purpose only and at this price, you wouldn’t want to fault its shortcomings too much.  Just get it if you like it.

G.I.Joe movie vehicle toy - Night Raven @ SGD 29.90

This baby’s a steal!  I was shocked by the price and I thought that my eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw its discounted price tag.  Other than the landing gear wheels not being able to roll, I can’t find anything else to criticize about this toy.  Its dual design as a toy jet and as a “toy gun” is cool!  I like the fact that all the side missiles can be rotated and fired in turns.  Genius!  The electronic sounds are awesome as well!  If you have the space at home, I’ll recommend this toy! 

Last but not least, the Mobile Pit Headquarters playset is now going for SGD 99.90.  If you have the budget, plus the space at home, and also the strength to lug it home (the box is huge, and the playset can be ’expanded’ to become larger than the box!) , by all means go ahead and get it.  However I do expect the price of this ’giant’ playset to be further reduced in the coming weeks.  It seems to sell very slowly because of its price, and of course its sheer size!  Nevertheless, its hollow interior makes a great storage space for the rest of your G.I.Joe movie figures and toys!

So there you have it, my toy observation for the weekend.  Happy G.I.Joe movie toys shopping!  Go ‘flood’ your homes with even more discounted toys.  Buy, buy, buy!  While I regret, regret, regret (LOL!)…

Update: The above toys are indeed there on sale as of 10 January 2010.  On any date after that, I cannot guarantee.  You’ve got to go there and find out yourself.

The remaining Marvel Universe figures are on sale in my Toy Lockers at Toy Outpost.  Currently there is a 20% discount for them there, while stocks last and till further notice at my blog!