State of the Collection 2012
Feb. 3rd, 2012 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
polychrome_penI haven't rambled about my collection in quite awhile, so I thought I'd detail a few bits here.
First off, I have finally taken the plunge and picked up some glass shelving units! It all started when my brother gave me an awesome display case for Christmas. I pretty much immediately earmarked it for my Masters of the Universe Classics collection, as the shelves are only around 12 inches tall. Perfect for action figures, but most doll lines (including Monster High boys) would have trouble fitting. Unfortunately, the shelf is still at my parent's house because it was too large to fit in my car (aside from the fact that I'd have a hell of a time moving a glass shelf by myself - can anyone say shattered glass mess?) But after that, Mom, Dad, and I made a little trip to IKEA, where I finally had the chance to see a display case that they sell in person. At only $65 a piece, I picked up two of those. They have at least 16 inch high shelves, which will even fit a Gene or Tonner sized doll! All three shelves should be arriving the last weekend of February when my family plans to come up and visit.
I'm not sure what to use the two IKEA shelves for yet. I'm thinking about one for my Winx collection (finally an excuse to debox my Simba Winx!) The other will probably go two Monster High, at least in part. I have a ton of MH stuff still in the box simply due to no display space. However, I'd still like somewhere to display my Jewel Riders and/or Dragon Flyz. Maybe I should have bought a third IKEA case. XD Well, once I get everything situated, I'll be sure to snap a few pics.
In terms of overall collecting trends, things are looking pretty much the same
Action Figure wise, I subscribed to Club Eternia, so it's monthly MOTUC for me, yay! The only problem there is that it's becoming a space issue, and I haven't even deboxed everything yet. Other lines include Young Justice (I WILL get everything to build that Collect and Connect Hall of Justice. It's going to be awesome), adding Justice Leaguers off of Ebay here and there, and continuing the new Thundercats 2011 line. I saw they released a six inch Cheetara, so now I'm tempted to get that scale as well, but I need to draw the line somewhere, and the 4-inch line simply has better character selection (I just picked up King Claudas!) I pick up the occasional DC Classics character, but now that that line is basically defunct, I'm not sure what's happening there.
Doll wise, things are in a bit of flux. I've decided to scale back my Barbie collecting a good deal. I'd like to try and keep to to Ken stuff as much as possible, but of course I enjoy the media tie-in dolls like Star Trek as well. I just think I'm going to have to attempt being a bit more ruthless in what I pick up that's Barbie related.
I'm anticipating the new Winx from Jakks Pacific to be out this year, since the show has been revived in the U.S. on Nickelodeon. Hopefully the upcoming Toy Fair will have a bit more information regarding this. Whether or not I end up getting them is really going to come down to character selection and sculpt at this point, however. I own Winx dolls in three different scales from three different manufacturers. Do I really need to add a fourth series of Winx dolls? If they produce more of the boys than Sky and more of the Trix other than Icy, I'll probably be sold even if I don't like the sculpt as much as the other three lines. If it's mostly retreads, I'll probably pass though.
Monster High. Oh, Monster High. I love this line, but it drives me crazy at the same time. Half of 2011 was basically a crapshoot in terms of finding anything, so I'm hesitant to jump in again full force. I actually never picked up Dead Tired or the Classroom dolls because there was so much coming out, and I didn't think I'd have time to hunt for everything. Go figure those were the easiest dolls to find. It eventually just started to become a bit of a chore and really not fun (can anyone say still trying to find a basic Abbey without resorting to Ebay scalpers? Thank goodness the word on the street is that they're doing a second run of her to drop around May). That feeling was mollified a bit when I was able to snag Skull Shores, the three new girls (Toralei, Nefera, and Operetta), and part of Sweet 1600 in January. But still, I want to be able to walk into a store and find a reasonable selection. If Mattel can do this with Barbie, they should be able to do it with MH.
So I'm thinking of scaling back on what I pick up going forward for this line. New characters are an obvious must buy, and anything of the guys I'll continue to get, but I'll probably be evaluating each sub-line going forward more stringently. My general rule has been all or nothing with each sub-line, but perhaps I'll start breaking that if there's only one or two dolls in a sub-line that I really like.
Actually, scaling back will hopefully happen a bit across the board. I simply need to be more choosy in what comes home with me. Not only for space issues, but I have tons of stuff from 2011 I haven't even deboxed yet. I almost need time to process all that before I move forward with getting much of anything this year.
Anyway, hopefully I can do a non-toy related post soon!
First off, I have finally taken the plunge and picked up some glass shelving units! It all started when my brother gave me an awesome display case for Christmas. I pretty much immediately earmarked it for my Masters of the Universe Classics collection, as the shelves are only around 12 inches tall. Perfect for action figures, but most doll lines (including Monster High boys) would have trouble fitting. Unfortunately, the shelf is still at my parent's house because it was too large to fit in my car (aside from the fact that I'd have a hell of a time moving a glass shelf by myself - can anyone say shattered glass mess?) But after that, Mom, Dad, and I made a little trip to IKEA, where I finally had the chance to see a display case that they sell in person. At only $65 a piece, I picked up two of those. They have at least 16 inch high shelves, which will even fit a Gene or Tonner sized doll! All three shelves should be arriving the last weekend of February when my family plans to come up and visit.
I'm not sure what to use the two IKEA shelves for yet. I'm thinking about one for my Winx collection (finally an excuse to debox my Simba Winx!) The other will probably go two Monster High, at least in part. I have a ton of MH stuff still in the box simply due to no display space. However, I'd still like somewhere to display my Jewel Riders and/or Dragon Flyz. Maybe I should have bought a third IKEA case. XD Well, once I get everything situated, I'll be sure to snap a few pics.
In terms of overall collecting trends, things are looking pretty much the same
Action Figure wise, I subscribed to Club Eternia, so it's monthly MOTUC for me, yay! The only problem there is that it's becoming a space issue, and I haven't even deboxed everything yet. Other lines include Young Justice (I WILL get everything to build that Collect and Connect Hall of Justice. It's going to be awesome), adding Justice Leaguers off of Ebay here and there, and continuing the new Thundercats 2011 line. I saw they released a six inch Cheetara, so now I'm tempted to get that scale as well, but I need to draw the line somewhere, and the 4-inch line simply has better character selection (I just picked up King Claudas!) I pick up the occasional DC Classics character, but now that that line is basically defunct, I'm not sure what's happening there.
Doll wise, things are in a bit of flux. I've decided to scale back my Barbie collecting a good deal. I'd like to try and keep to to Ken stuff as much as possible, but of course I enjoy the media tie-in dolls like Star Trek as well. I just think I'm going to have to attempt being a bit more ruthless in what I pick up that's Barbie related.
I'm anticipating the new Winx from Jakks Pacific to be out this year, since the show has been revived in the U.S. on Nickelodeon. Hopefully the upcoming Toy Fair will have a bit more information regarding this. Whether or not I end up getting them is really going to come down to character selection and sculpt at this point, however. I own Winx dolls in three different scales from three different manufacturers. Do I really need to add a fourth series of Winx dolls? If they produce more of the boys than Sky and more of the Trix other than Icy, I'll probably be sold even if I don't like the sculpt as much as the other three lines. If it's mostly retreads, I'll probably pass though.
Monster High. Oh, Monster High. I love this line, but it drives me crazy at the same time. Half of 2011 was basically a crapshoot in terms of finding anything, so I'm hesitant to jump in again full force. I actually never picked up Dead Tired or the Classroom dolls because there was so much coming out, and I didn't think I'd have time to hunt for everything. Go figure those were the easiest dolls to find. It eventually just started to become a bit of a chore and really not fun (can anyone say still trying to find a basic Abbey without resorting to Ebay scalpers? Thank goodness the word on the street is that they're doing a second run of her to drop around May). That feeling was mollified a bit when I was able to snag Skull Shores, the three new girls (Toralei, Nefera, and Operetta), and part of Sweet 1600 in January. But still, I want to be able to walk into a store and find a reasonable selection. If Mattel can do this with Barbie, they should be able to do it with MH.
So I'm thinking of scaling back on what I pick up going forward for this line. New characters are an obvious must buy, and anything of the guys I'll continue to get, but I'll probably be evaluating each sub-line going forward more stringently. My general rule has been all or nothing with each sub-line, but perhaps I'll start breaking that if there's only one or two dolls in a sub-line that I really like.
Actually, scaling back will hopefully happen a bit across the board. I simply need to be more choosy in what comes home with me. Not only for space issues, but I have tons of stuff from 2011 I haven't even deboxed yet. I almost need time to process all that before I move forward with getting much of anything this year.
Anyway, hopefully I can do a non-toy related post soon!
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-04 06:46 am (UTC)Don't blame Mattel for the MH shortage. It's the fault of the line's massive popularity combined with the amount the retailers allow themselves to order. Consider this. A couple weeks ago, I saw an endcap in Walmart loaded with MH. 6 Toraleis, 3 Abbeys, 5 Spectras, 5 Clawdeens, multiple SS Ghoulias, 1 SS Abbey, several Create-a-Monster sets, 3 Cleo vanities, and an assload of 1600s. I went back 2 or 3 days later and what was left? 2 SS Ghoulias and a handful of CaM sets. That's neither Mattel nor Walmart. It's the collectors, the kids, the parents and the scalpers. The regular customers, not the big companies. MH is just that popular. The reason Barbie's so easy to find? A) She comes with the same doll in the case multiple times. B) She's still popular, but not nearly as much as MH. They're two very different lines and can't really be compared.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-04 06:06 pm (UTC)Holy cow! That's some fast moving merch! And you're right - it's not Mattel's fault, and I am actually very grateful they'll be reissuing Abbey come May. I think the real problem is just that almost two years into this line we're still dealing with the spotty distribution issue. Or maybe it only seems spotty still due to the way it flies off the shelf?
no subject
Date: 2012-02-04 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-04 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-07 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-08 05:51 am (UTC)If you'd like, the next time I'm out I'll look for a Tygra for you.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-08 06:03 am (UTC)