Aqua Regia

I 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!

For those who don't collect toys, Masters of the Universe Classics (MOTUC) is a line of new MOTU figures produced and sold exclusively by MattyCollector.com. They're a nice blend between the old 80s figures and the line produced in the early-mid 2000s (200X). They're very popular among collectors, and some of the figures have been known to sell out in less than TEN minutes on the site.

The real problem is that the site has the most FAIL-filled ordering system I have ever seen.

Now, I logged on around 9:30 PST (the figures release at 12:00 EST), fully suspecting that SDCC Prince Adam and Orko would be gone already. First off, because the traffic was so heavy, just getting to the main page was an ordeal. It sends you into this White Screen of Death for several minutes before you can even see if the figure is still in stock or not. Once I found that it actually was, I added it to my cart - sending me back to the White Screen of Death for a while. After putting in my address/email/password, it was back to the White Screen until you could put your credit card info in. Finally submitting your order, you get sent - guess where? - back to the White Screen of Death until you know it went through and you get a confirmation email. I was shocked to actually get these.

Interestingly, when I went back to the main page it was close to 10:00 and the figures were sold out! I must have gotten one of the last ones!

But that was seriously one of the worst buying experiences I've ever had. Black Friday has been better - at least there are people to talk to in line. Let's hope the figure is good!

Ever since I've been done with school and studying for my boards, I've been buying toys and dolls like crazy. I don't know if it's three years of pent up stress or what, but I've been doing serious retail therapy lately.

( The hoard...it GROWS )

I'm leaving at 6 am tomorrow morning for Seattle and the San Juan Islands for about a week. It's seriously been three years since I had a real vacation. Note: I consider a real vacation to be longer than a week.

Also, I was supposed to take the first part of my board examinations today, but ended up paying a fee to postpone it. I'm pretty sure I wasn't ready to take it, and really didn't want to have to wait the three month penalty period if I didn't pass.

Anyway, I will see you all in a week!

I know I'm horribly (not fashionably) late with getting these pics up, but I still wanted to share them. I really love my Italian Winx more every time I look at them, and I can't wait for Musa, Tecna, and Layla to arrive. I think Darcy will probably be joining the family soon as well!

Also, there's a pic of the first member of my newest toy obsession, who arrived yesterday. Prince Adam is here! :)

( Is there any wonder why I love Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium? )

In completely unrelated news, the event that my committee put on last evening was fairly well attended (there were about 50 people there, and I - in a pessimistic attitude - expected no more than 10). It gives me hope that future events can be advertised better though!