How many did you end up with?

I was looking at my collection and realized that there are some figures that I didn't intend to own. It got me thinking about those figures and how I ended up with them. I currently have 31 figures. Of those, 2 were actually gifted to my husband who's not into this hobby. Two were gifted to me, and I acquired one from my daughter when she "out grew" it. Most of the rest were on my Want List. My want list consists of characters that didn't exactly exist ready-made.

Then there are some figures that fall into their own category. These are the ones that came to be because I had an extra body or head sculpt that didn't work for the initial project I bought them. For example, I created a Wonder Woman before any decent ones were made available. Soon after, I think it was DC Direct that came out with the first that had potential. Later, Hot Toys came out with one I wanted. So I got her and changed the one I had into a Time Traveler character. I didn't want to toss the Wonder Woman outfit I created, and I had an extra dark skinned body for another doll I was hoping to work on (but didn't work out), so I created Nubia, Wonder Woman's long lost fraternal twin sister. Two unexpected figures are in my collection because one pre-made figure I wanted was made available.

I have 5 figures that were created from parts that didn't work out for figures I actually wanted! How many do you have in your collection?

Too many. At this point, I can’t even count how many figures I have — somewhere in the neighborhood of about 500 would be a rough estimate. But I’d have to really start digging to find out for sure.

Stryker2012 wrote:Too many. At this point, I can’t even count how many figures I have — somewhere in the neighborhood of about 500 would be a rough estimate. But I’d have to really start digging to find out for sure.

 Oh wow!

The main thing in a collection is to have the figurines that you like. Some universes will be limited to a few figurines, while others, very rich, can contain hundreds.


As my wife tells me, to console me, “it’s not the size that counts”

French wrote:The main thing in a collection is to have the figurines that you like. Some universes will be limited to a few figurines, while others, very rich, can contain hundreds.


As my wife tells me, to console me, “it’s not the size that counts”

 I was wondering more along the lines of how many figures that weren't intentional have people ended up with. I ended up with 5 figures that I never set out to have...simply because I had extra parts that I didn't want to sell, give away, or store away in a forgotten box.

I'm happy with my small collection.

At the moment I don't have a figurine that I didn't want.
The things I've already done is buy a figurine and change the head because I preferred another one.

Stryker2012 wrote:Too many. At this point, I can’t even count how many figures I have — somewhere in the neighborhood of about 500 would be a rough estimate. But I’d have to really start digging to find out for sure.

The closest I ever came to that number were my Airfix 1/72 soldiers in the 1970s.

I stopped counting after 11 hehe

I'm currently at 30 1/6-scale figures. I'll probably stop collecting soon, as I'm almost out of space.

I sold off the figures I didn't really want. I don't like storing figures and would much rather sell them off if I don't have room to display them.

Zes wrote:I'm currently at 30 1/6-scale figures. I'll probably stop collecting soon, as I'm almost out of space.

I sold off the figures I didn't really want. I don't like storing figures and would much rather sell them off if I don't have room to display them.

I'm also running out of space. Perhaps I'll sell some if others that I TRULY want come to mind to create or to purchase.

I often ask myself when I will stop collecting figures. The answer is always: Just this one more...

As I only buy basic bodies and TBleague hasn't produced anything new lately the only figures I buy are spares for the ones I already own. To avoid wear and tear and I need them for my massed clothing scenes also.

I've stopped buying TBLeague bodies altogether. They no longer interest me. Lately, I've only been buying WorldBox bodies or niche bodies like LDDoll/UDDoll.

It is much more expensive to create your figurine than to buy a ready-made one.
Accessories and clothing cost more than the body and head combined. But you can't display a nude figurine.

French wrote:It is much more expensive to create your figurine than to buy a ready-made one.
Accessories and clothing cost more than the body and head combined. But you can't display a nude figurine.

That hasn't been the case for me, but I can see where it generally would be more expensive. One set will do. I don't do anything with them except display them, therefore I don't need many accessories. I don't change their positions, so I don't need different hands or feet. If I can make anything (to the degree of quality I want) for less money than buying it, be it clothing, hair, face or accessories, I tend to do that. Last night I completed a figure that had been on my To-Do list for nearly 10 years! I had a head and body in storage that entire time because, you're right, you can't display a nude figure. When I finally gathered the time, skills, and courage to move forward on the project, a better head and body became available on the market. That gave me the extra incentive to get it done. So I dressed the figure I had in storage and displayed her, but she was never intended to be in my collection as she is.

I guess it depends on how complex your outfit is. Let's say you buy a $40 TBLeague body and a $40 i8Toys head sculpt for a total budget of $80. You can build plenty of outfits at that price point or less.

French wrote:But you can't display a nude figurine.

Well, you can, but you can't post them here

I have one figure displayed nude only because it would be a waste of money to put clothes on the body due to how much I paid for it.

JulietD wrote:Last night I completed a figure that had been on my To-Do list for nearly 10 years! I had a head and body in storage that entire time because, you're right, you can't display a nude figure.  When I finally gathered the time, skills, and courage to move forward on the project, a better head and body became available on the market. That gave me the extra incentive to get it done. So I dressed the figure I had in storage and displayed her, but she was never intended to be in my collection as she is.

Oh, wow, congrats! I'm very curious to see the figure if you ever want to post about it!

Zes wrote:Oh, wow, congrats! I'm very curious to see the figure if you ever want to post about it!

Thanks! I will share soon. I was JUST reading Randam's thread where a simple photography method was shared, so I have hope I can take good pictures.

Zes wrote:
Well, you can, but you can't post them here

I have one figure displayed nude only because it would be a waste of money to put clothes on the body due to how much I paid for it.

It depends on what we have created, if they are animals, dressing them will be ridiculous, except in very special cases.
For a human, I imagine she's a pretty woman, or man, but with a plastic articulated body it looks ugly, you need a silicone body.
I would like to see this body naked in Message, it would be interesting to see what it is.

I used to have A LOT more than I do now. I had to streamline the collection quite a while back. That being said, I probably have about 30 that don't fit any real theme, era or style. But kept them, or made them because they were something a bit different, and I couldn't get rid of them at the time.

I still have a LOT. Some that have never been on display (like the early Six Million Dollar Man, Lone Ranger & Silver, early Sideshow James Bond, can’t remember who made them but Steed & Mrs. peel from The Avengers TV show, Ralphie & The Old Man from A Christmas Story). When I got back into collecting thanks to HT’s Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and Black Widow from The Avengers I went absolutely crazy due to how super real these things had become. I about lost my mind when I saw the Hot Stuff and TBLeague (Phicen at the time) bodies; I never thought I’d see the day that seamless, posable bodies would be a thing, and I completely jumped the shark. I bought several of those early sets and bodies from Phicen (sadly with the extremely fragile plastic skeletons) and made many (too many) “sexy girls”, and even more when they came out with the steel skeleton bodies, and then the male bodies. I was so enamored of the technology and “realism”, I felt it was a shame to cover them up with too much clothing. As time has gone on, I still buy TBL bodies and sets, but I’m not afraid to cover them up (like for my Old West figures), just because 1. It wouldn’t be practical for them to be running around half naked and 2. They still have better articulation  than most of the bodies on the market (though World Box is certainly changing that). I also don’t change outfits on my seamless figures. So I have bought multiple bodies for some characters just so they can have different outfits — the fact it’s an absolute pain in the ass to put clothes on these seamless figures has a lot to do with that.

As far as displaying them naked, I have a few (3 rotting “zombie” girls for the Death Dealer, one naked Arnold Schwarzenegger “boy toy” that I gave to Lady Death — to make it fair — and a Dejah Thoris since that is how she is described in the books, as are all the other humanoid characters including John Carter — who I should probably get around to making at some point). 

My collection is all over the place to say the least, and due to space issues, a large chunk are in storage containers (I just can’t bring myself to part with most stuff — partly due to the headache of selling, I don’t keep the boxes, so all the extra bits are in storage bags, I don’t have the patience to search SleazeBay for “current value” — I’m a firm believer in once you take it out of the box it should lose some value, not gain — like buying a new car: once it leaves the lot it’s already lost value — and I don’t want to screw other collectors over to make a massive profit; it’s just not who I am. The few things I have sold to other collectors, I like to think I gave a fair price too — there are some here who can correct me if they feel I’m wrong).

I tried in the beginning to keep my collection to only getting figures that (despite perhaps having a mask or helmet) came with an unmasked head sculpt; that went by the wayside thanks in large part to all the many cool Star Wars figures. So my collection grew even larger once I thru that rule out. And don’t get me started on “double dipping” (or in some cases triple, quadruple dipping — for example I have 5 different Black Widows [or will once the Artisan IM2 version arrives], and 3 different Scarlet Witch figures; I have the SS General Grievous, but didn’t hesitate to PO the HT version). Droids, Clones, and Sith started the trend toward moving away from only unmasked head characters.

I could go on and on, but I’m sure I’ve already bored folks with this wall of text.

cdn_rhino wrote:I used to have A LOT more than I do now. I had to streamline the collection quite a while back. That being said, I probably have about 30 that don't fit any real theme, era or style. But kept them, or made them because they were something a bit different, and I couldn't get rid of them at the time.

Oh, sounds like I'm in good company.

Stryker2012 wrote:I could go on and on, but I’m sure I’ve already bored folks with this wall of text.

I read every word was not bored one iota! It's nice to hear how others ended up with their collections.

Zes wrote:
I have one figure displayed nude only because it would be a waste of money to put clothes on the body due to how much I paid for it.

I recommend buying your figure a sheer (laced) nightrobe from one of the fashion dolls and draping it loosely so that most of her body will still be visible. It adds "something" to a plain nude figure. It's a photographers trick.

DarthJ wrote:

Zes wrote:
I have one figure displayed nude only because it would be a waste of money to put clothes on the body due to how much I paid for it.

I recommend buying your figure a sheer (laced) nightrobe from one of the fashion dolls and draping it loosely so that most of her body will still be visible. It adds "something" to a plain nude figure. It's a photographers trick.

Oh, that's a pretty neat idea! I might try that when I buy another one of those expensive bodies.

I always keep the spare parts in their respective boxes to make sure I don't lose track and protect the value of the complete box set in case I want to ever sell it. So I don't tend to end up with figures made from parts. Having said that...

I ripped the pants of The Explorer, so her stuff was fair game.

1. Her pants and bow went to my archer (YM Toys Ming) and
   
2. her top went to my bass player (with KT010).
   
3. I tried out a cute new crop top on an S33, which is a body I don't particularly like, but somehow it worked and with that blonde grungy Kimi Toys head (kt009) she turned into a moody little tall person, so she is with my archer now. Them and Painkiller Jane are a team.
   
4. I could also never really shake that Jessica Jones/S29 combo (see avatar), so that head ended up on the TBL Nancy body. Not much of a kitbash, but I like it. (The original head is too sexy and doesn't go well with the group.)
   
5. I tried some black clothes on my S06, gave her a couple of samurai swords, and none other than the original long black haired YMToys Xiu made that look complete. I didn't really intend to keep her, but she has grown on me and dismantling her would feel completely wrong. ^^
   
6. -9.: Works STILL in progress. The actual project of four characters that are my own. I have waay too many heads and stuff that I initially bought for one of these and then replaced or deemed unworthy. I've lived in limbo all year, but I expect to settle down again by the end of the year and then I hope to set up station and work on these figures again.