Sideshow's announcment

I hate collectability. I don't understand why people feel the need to have something that has only been pressed 800 times. I guess it all boils down to bragging rights. Some little fanboy will wet himself over the fact that I have a signed, mint condition, uncut, first run, 3,000 pressed, limited edition, collector's club, Budweiser edition of my new Ghost in the Shell doll. I only paid $350 dollars for it, too. How lucky am I?

Call me old fashioned, but I liked the days of G.I. Joe when I could go to Target and pick up Quick Kick, Duke, or Snake Eyes all for the same price. The only question of availability was who was more popular, but it still wasn't even hard to get the best ones. Two or three trips and you would eventually find that Storm Shadow hiding in the back of one of the top pegs.

Don't get me wrong, I have things that I am proud of owning also, i.e. Platoon, AoD, or PS2. But really, I could care less if everyone on my block had them.

The collectors of this world are destroying the toy market. It is too expensive and too difficult to be a toy collector in today's toy-world and I really think that will turn some people off, it did me. I used to have somewhere in the vacinity of 130 Mcfarlane figures. But I needed to get out. I was spending all of my money on toys and I shouldn't of been having to.

How many of these people are actually going to go back one day and sell these figures for what they think they are worth? Why can't I go into the store and buy a set of the Simpsons figures just because I love the show. Why? because some Collector has already gone through and weeded out all the good characters before any one else could get there. He's sitting at home with twenty Milhouses and 18 Barneys and I still haven't found a single one. Fuck them!

Us true collectors are shooting ourselves in the foot in this market. If things were not collectable we would be able to get what we want a lot easier. The only people who are profiting at all from all the rampant collectability out there are the fucking scammmers who know people who work at Toys R Us or who buy whole boxes at price and then go to your local flea market and sell them second hand for a 250% price increase. It irks the shit out of me. So I got out.

I got so fed up with the bullshit of having to go to ebay for every action figure I wanted that I just gave up. Call me a quitter if you want, call me a whiner, Hell, call me a dumbass. I still pick up a Simpsons figure now and then when I see one I don't own but that is truly few and far between.

I can't change how peole think, and I can't change the whole toy market, but I can sure as hell bitch about it.

I don't call you a quitter, Brian.

I call you a hero.

Every single thing you said is right on the money. Remember when speculators and McFarlane's gang at Image killed comic books in the mid 90's? Same thing is happening to toys for the exact reason you said in your post.

Every single toy line I used to collect I've been forced to give up save for the Movie Maniacs which I gave up voluntarily. I got tired of going to Toys R Us and seeing only Bart and Homer, not to mention getting pissed off that I had to shell out $20 for a bullshit playset I'd never use just to get a Skinner or Apu figure if I actually found one with a decent paint sheme that is. Sure, I found tons of the Treehouse of Terror sets (bought one and opened it) and I got that Radioactive Homer from Toyfare, but when the exclusives are easier to find then the regular run figures, something is seriously wrong.

Same goes with f-ing Star Wars. First I can't find shit from the last wave of Episode 1 and the Commtechs, so I end up getting them from Ebay. Now nearly two years later not only do they show up at Toys R Us, but so does Wuher the Bartender, a figure I had to order for FOUR TIMES THE COST from the fan club.

Now the situation is repeating with the damn Biker Scouts, only Hasbro has ALREADY REPLACED them in the case assortments. I never saw one of the anywhere at retail and now they're gone.

Course now TRU are getting shipments of those Road Warrior figures, including the Mad Max with his dog that I paid $20 for new at the comic book store.

So Brian, I aplaude you for actually having the willpower to quit putting up with this shit. I truly do.

As for Sideshow, I'm still pissed off that the only way I can get a Rose McGowan Big Head is to somehow located and buy the Monkeybone boxed set. So much for a little head I guess...

thanks Django, I'm glad someone sees where I'm coming from.

And its true, it doesn't have to be an addiction. I kept some of my favorite Mcfarlane toys like Ash, Patrick Roy, or Ninja from MGS, but i haven't bought a single one since.

I mean, the toy market is actually at a great time if you can remain a leisurely collector. For some reason though, the more I bought the more I wanted to complete every little set. And for what? To own a mound of figures that I don't even like, just to have that feeling of completion. It happened with many Mcfarlane toys. I had so many figures that I thought were retarded......BUT I HAD THE WHOLE SET. I get sucked into things easily though.

I say, "More power to you." If you can excersize the self discipline that I couldn't you will be in for a treat when it comes to the design, articulation, and sculpt of toys these days.


I still have a deadly soft spot for Dragon Action Figures, though...but I will overcome.

P.S. ebay is the devil. It is so easy to find something you really want and bid on it, then when you are outbid say, "well, I wouldn't mind paying 3 more bucks for it." and soon you're buying a long-arm Chucky for $25 when you could have gotten him at TRU for $7.99.

The movie maniacs stuff I never seem to have a hard time finding around here. Granted, after about the first month or so but about then you'll find most if not all of the McFarlane stuff on pegs at both of my local Toys R Us.

So that isn't my problem with them. I just got tired of looking at the damn things or moving them everytime I wanted something on my book shelf. When you get down to ideas such as that, it's time to hang it up.

Will I get any of the new ones? Most likely, but just Evil Ash and even he won't get my ass out of the house on the first week.

But I'm afraid I'm f**ked when it comes to The Simpsons and Star Wars. Sure, I talk big but when it comes down to it I'll be buying any of them I see in store.

As long as I'm not looking for something else that is...