Different styles of collecting

[Libraraptor]

When I look at all your collections I think I see two kinds of collectors: Some seem to collect planfully with lists to check and probably lots of money to invest. Some take what they come across before putting it on the shelf and by that building a huge collection over the years.
Due to lack of money I can´t afford checking lists of high quality models. Once in a blue moon I sin buying an expensive model, but most of the time I collect what I come across - in real life and in virtual life (that is ebay).
Unfourtunately on ebay as well as car boot sales you are often only offered Chinasaurus.
What kind of collector are you? Would you say you collect by accident or do you collect concertedly, hunting down certain lines?
I´m looking forward to reading your answers.

[dinoboy]

I have collected eclectically. If I like it- I get it. For instance with the Carnegie T-Rex series. I bought several of the first. Even though I didn't really like them. When the re-do appeared I basically gave away all the originals to little children I knew (no, that is not child cruelty) and bought several of the new figures.

As time passed and the T-Rex has become even more varied and detailed I have bought others- not in order, the Battat, Bullyland, JP.09 (which really, really spoiled me), Safari(s), Papo et al. The same with the Allosaurs- I buy the newest and unless I really like a mold I sell the old as best I can the older figures.

I have sold most of my Battats, older Carnegies, etc.

I also collect and sell MARX. They are pretty much in a class by themselves though. Combining nostalgia with some figures that I am just very attached to.

I like detail and whatever passes for accuracy at the time. Today, for instance I find the Papo figures to be quite high on the detail side and since I think that accuracy is still largely a matter of aesthetics I really like the new Papo Allosaurus. I mean REALLY....

They are basically in their own, separate class I think.

I currently am holding Invicta Sauropods & Stegosaurs; Battat T-Tops and Styracosaur, plus a few Stegosaurs; Bullyland Allosaur and T-Rex; Papo Predators, and a great variety of Safari, Carnegie, obviously MARX and several others as well.

[bokisaurus]

I started collecting just sauropods and ceratopsian (my favorite group of dinosaurs) museum quality figures (the Battat line inspired me! ). I concentrate mostly on the higher quality figures that's why I don't have many JP figures. I do have the marx, Timme, ROM, and other vintage figures as part of my collection since they are the first, nice to have some history. Other than the Battat and WWD, both I am missing only one figure to complete (Acro Battat and the little leaellynasaurus WWD) I really don't have a checklist. I buy what I can afford and what I find interesting.

[tomhet]

I collect only the figures I like. The Battat series was an exception.

[sid]

Like Tomhet,i collect what i like


Too bad i can't spend too much money for this hobby of mine...The maximum i spent on dinosaur toys was 100 or so Eu,some months ago,but bear in mind on that occasion i got something as 12 models,including the Safari Mamenchisaurus and many other critters ;D

[Dinotoyforum]

I collect marine reptiles, its sort of an addiction.
I have a list that I am slowly but surely shortening.

But I also get the occasional dinosaur if I really like it - but there is no strategy there.

So I have two different styles of collecting.

[richard]

because of my location (and my odd tastes) I collect the figures I like and the ones I can buy... I mean if I see a good toy then I buy it 'casue it's really hard to get stuff here

[Libraraptor]

A feeling I know too well. As Luke Skywalker once said: If the universe has a big, bright center, this is the place that´s most far away from it.
I miss the feeling of going into a shop without a dinosaur and going out of a shop with a dinosaur. I hence need the mailorders, but wrapping out a dinosaur from a post package isn´t the same as discovering a dinosaur on a shelf, taking it, holding it in your hands and eventually buying it. It´s simply not the same kind of , well, let´s say "father feelings".

[sbell]

Jul 25, 2008 9:43:46 GMT Libraraptor said:

A feeling I know too well. As Luke Skywalker once said: If the universe has a big, bright center, this is the place that´s most far away from it.
I miss the feeling of going into a shop without a dinosaur and going out of a shop with a dinosaur. I hence need the mailorders, but wrapping out a dinosaur from a post package isn´t the same as discovering a dinosaur on a shelf, taking it, holding it in your hands and eventually buying it. It´s simply not the same kind of , well, let´s say "father feelings".

I have to say, sometimes one of the greatest joys is getting a parcel full of stuff and unwrapping it--it's like a birthday I ordered for myself!

[[][][]cordylus[][][]]

I collect what I like, and that is mostly Jurassic park and theropods. Of course, I collect all the newer models, too.

[giganotoigauana]

i buy when im angry or borred. Last week i bought a big box of dinos just to see what i would find new since its hard to find unique stuff to amuse me now days. I spend a lot of money sometimes 500 or more a month.

[stoneage]

We'll by looking at your massive collection you must be either angry or bored most of the tijme.

[therizinosaurus]

I have a few styles of collecting:
I am an extreme completist of Carnegies, collecting every mold variation ever (even if it's I word different)
I collect whatever Battat's I can, and eventually I hope to finish my collection (I have 4 of the rarest: Dilophosaurus, Diplodocus, Acrocanthosaurus, and Ceratosaurus)
For Bullyland and Schleich, I get whatever I like, and again I hope to finish my collection some day
I collect Dinotales a lot, although being in the US this is hard (prices on ebay are a joke)
I also collect other figs that I *really* like, such as the procon nothronychus

So pretty much, museum lines, japanese small models, and an occasional special fig

[EmperorDinobot]

I collect depending on what I see. Y'know, one day I'm out, shopping, and suddenly spot a dinosaur I really like (Like yesterday's chance encounter with the big Albertosaurus). I buy it.

Other days, they're planned hunts, online, or outside...But I'm starting to stick with buying things online, because dinosaurs aren't sold much 'round these parts...so...yeah.

[Libraraptor]

Looking at my collecting habits for over a year after this thread started, I have to say they didn´t change very much.

--> Still I don´t collect systematically. I take what I like or figures I have mercy with, but not every chinasaur I come across.

--> Sometimes I buy two or three of the same figures to sell them on here or give first-class dinos to my nephew.

--> Still I browse ebay for rare opportunities, when German sellers underestimate the worth of a figure, packing them in a lot with many chinasaurs.

--> Still I don´t often buy really new dinosaur figures.

--> Still I browse flea markets for figures and books.

--> Still I spend some money on my hobby.

--> Still I wait for those magic moments like the one I had when I met "Cora".

--> Still I complain about lack of space.

--> And still I am happy to be around here and share my hobby with you.

[kuni]

I collect species exemplars, ie. the best figure of a given species that I come across. I also prefer 1:50 and 1:60 scale to 1:40, so I will sometimes specifically collect figures in that scale if I can. I also seek out suchomimus/baryonyx figures, and to a lesser extent spinos.

The reason I collect 1:50-60 scale dinos is because they work well in RPGs with 28mm figures Why have your party of adventurers fight dragons when they can fight allosaurs? I focus on theropods over other dinosaur groups because they're more interesting for players to encounter, but I do have exemplars for some others, like the Procon Olorotitan.

I mostly collect Japanese dinos, not because there's anything super special about Japan, just that standards of accuracy are higher in some of their lines. The Japanese lines that aren't super accurate I tend to avoid.

I collect crustacean, fish, insects, reptiles, and amphibian figures (also from Japan) more than I collect dinos. I love prehistoric figures that fit into the above categories too, but there are not many of those.

[Horridus]

I'm in the 'collecting figures I like' camp. These include JP and Invicta for childhood nostalgia purposes ;D.....although I now have more Invictas than I had when I was a kid (just not that cursed Troodon or Scelidosaurus...excuse me while I kick myself). I get everything by mail order as England seems to be overrun with rubbish Schleich figures. It's all lumpen sauropods, tail-dragging tyrannosaurs and knuckle-scraping spinosaurs...aarrghh! I wish I could walk into a shop and buy a Carnegie, the way it was back in the '90s. I seem to share this sentiment with Libraraptor, which makes me wonder if all of Europe has succumbed to Schleich dominance...

[Griffin]

When I was a little kid I had a lot of JP dinosaurs and spent hours upon hours playing with them on a sweet paper mache dinosaur landscape my aunt made for me on my 6th birthday. Because of that I am a sucker for JP figures.

As for the museum lines, I will buy a figure if I really like it. I wont just spend money on something simply because I don't have it yet.

[sbell]

Oct 21, 2009 16:33:28 GMT kuni said:

I collect species exemplars, ie. the best figure of a given species that I come across. I also prefer 1:50 and 1:60 scale to 1:40, so I will sometimes specifically collect figures in that scale if I can. I also seek out suchomimus/baryonyx figures, and to a lesser extent spinos.

The reason I collect 1:50-60 scale dinos is because they work well in RPGs with 28mm figures Why have your party of adventurers fight dragons when they can fight allosaurs? I focus on theropods over other dinosaur groups because they're more interesting for players to encounter, but I do have exemplars for some others, like the Procon Olorotitan.

I mostly collect Japanese dinos, not because there's anything super special about Japan, just that standards of accuracy are higher in some of their lines. The Japanese lines that aren't super accurate I tend to avoid.

I collect crustacean, fish, insects, reptiles, and amphibian figures (also from Japan) more than I collect dinos. I love prehistoric figures that fit into the above categories too, but there are not many of those.

I have gone through several phases--but mostly, I am interested in having examples of different animals. My collecting tastes actually veer away from dinos in favour of mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians. As such, I try to collect only the ones I like, or that I don't have represented. I used to do this with modern animals too, but they interest me a lot less now (other than carnivores and antelopes).

The only exception to this, like Kuni, is the Japanese figures--I have all of the Dinotales sets, for example, and they are still among my favourites; it helps that many Kaiyodo figures were the first (or are the best) representations of many prehistoric animals.

And in the third collecting style, I also try and have figures that my kids can learn from and enjoy--they are interested anyway, so if a figure is different, or more 'interesting' or cheaper (!) then I will pick it up--like my recent black Suchomimus.

[foxilized]

I chosed a thematic collection, so I collect retro figures based on art of Burian, Zallinger and Knight. I think I do it driven by nostalgia because these were the designs that cautivated me as a little kid, and the kind of beasts I imagined when heard "Dinosaur". King Kong totally got me when I was 4 or 5.

I organize the figures by date, based on the year the artwork they are based on was painted. I try to find a good postcard or print of the artwork and put it besides the figure. In some cases I'm able to create a little diorama.

Organized that way, I achieve a lovely "history of paleoart". Though my collection stops in the 60's, as I prefer not to collect scientifically acurate figures. Guess that makes a weirdo out of me, in a site like this were everybody hunts for the most accurate ever and so... I do collect JP designs, though, and recently I bought 5 Papos for about 60 bucks or so.