What do you do during a toy ‘drought’?
It’s toy ‘drought’ time for me again as I go through a period of time where I have not not spotted collectible toys of interest to me at the local departmental stores for several weeks. This is a time where many toy collectors feel some sort of ‘withdrawal symtoms’, from being denied the thrill of toy hunting, and the act of buying more new toys (as trophies of the successful toy hunt). The layman would understand this emotion better as “boredom”.
Some collectors have other hobbies to ”fall back on”, like playing computer games, catching up with watching accumulated DVD collections, doing sports (which I think is rare among toy collectors) and tidying up the home, especially where the toy collections are stored (which I think is even rarer among toy collectors).
For some collectors, they spend more time with their families. For the families of the ‘bored’ toy collectors, this could be the time when the “prodigal”, “estranged” or “toy possessed” spouse, sibling, parent, child and friend; has finally come “home” (aka to their senses)! Ah, thank the heavens above, they think!
For me, I take out some of my DVDs to re-watch or (gasp!) watch for the first time. I also tend to clear clutter, tidy up the toy acculumated areas of my home and even trim my toy collections. However I do understand that for collectors who have collected a vast amount of toys, it can be extremely tedious and overwhelming to re-organise or trim their collections. ‘Culling’ some of your toys is like cutting a piece of your flesh from your body, It’s already “very painful” to even think about it, much less do it.
So how about you? What do you do during a toy ’drought’? Feel free to share your comments here!
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Hello Juliana and to all others who ar subscribed to this channel/site,
There are many ways to get through this “drought”. some of the ways that i get through with this are the following:
1) since most toys come in waves, i search for the prototypes or sneak peaks of the upcoming toys. you can visit them to fan sites related to your figure.
IN my case, im mostly transformers, and the sites you may go to are:
http://www.tfw2005.com
http://www.cybertron.ca
http://www.procustomizers.com
and many other sites. These sites post pics of upcoming figures to be released. While waiting, i save up for the next wave.
some pluggging also here: leader class Starscream is on the way
2) i go back to the collection that i have and study them. or play with them. taking the case of some transformers figures, i retransform them again or re arrange the figures on my shelf: either all alt modes or all robot modes.
3) You can go into customizing your old/ or recent acquisitions. It’s fun too! i for one am a toy customizer, and i do a lot of kitbashing, and customizing. IT’s pretty good to do customizing because if (ever) you do mess up one of your figures, then the figures now are on sale which you can now get at a much lower price due to the dropping of the SRP (suggestd retail price).
you can check out http://www.tfw2005.com/radicons or http://www.procustomizers.com and see some of the best customs there,. not just transformers.
4) lastly, we organize toy confernences and events. we keep ourselves from being bored, or stagnant and organize eyeballs, toycons, and exhibits. This is one thing that we do here and this keeps us alive. You can swap, trade, buy or sell some other figures you want.
thanks for the article Juliana.
best regards.
Ryan
No drought for hippo yet. I am drowned by big flood. LOL
That’s why I don’t open all my toys right after I buy them, that way I can have a “buffer” LOL! During the toy “drought” I can open some toys to relieve my boredom. Other than that, the rest of the time is dedicated to school.
during toy droughts i do the usual stuff i like, like reading, surfing the net, watching dvds, etc.
toy droughts are actually beneficial since it is an opportunity to save money…
… to buy more toys, haha!
Hi Ryan,
Wow, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this subject!
1) For latest TF toy news, I usually view their photos at:
http://www.seibertron.com
I also use http://www.entertainmentearth.com to check out the wave assortments and estimated arrival dates at retail stores.
2) I rarely play with my TFs. Besides, transforming them too much tends to loosen their joints, and I dislike my action figures to have loose joints
3) I’ve seen online photos on customs of various TF toys, though I’m only interested in the movie ones. Some of my readers have posted links of their customs at my blog. Hmmm, I think I should search them out and post the permanent links at the side bars for easier access..
4) Weekly visits to the local Sunday toy and flea market is another favourite past times of toy collectors here
Hi Hippo,
Do you need a lifeline?
Hi Jcee,
Great idea! Actually, you reminded me that I also have some backlogged toys waiting to be removed from their packaging. I just need to find out where I have stashed them to
Hi Bany,
Come to think of it, toy droughts gives us a change to get a bit of “life” outside toy collecting
During this period, I will focus more on DVDs, TV and surf internet..
Hi deSMOnd,
Same here
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