I deliberately had a ‘dry January’ (no toy spending) so didn’t buy anything, and apart from having to wait to get some Lego parts, it’s been fine! Deszaras and Lego Avengers Tower may have helped. Desz is great, one of my favourite toys since Earthrise Scorponok. Big and chunky version of one of my favourite characters, it has tapped into my nostalgia for the time I first became nostalgic for Transformers - when I first watched the Japanese cartoons. I think the only thing I would have appreciated would be silver chrome on the beast head.
I’ve been thinking about my most wanted for each line I collect for the year. Main Transformers it’s the Throttlebots, other Transformers is Thunderclash (sort of cheating having two Transformers I know!), Thundercats is Snarf (bit pointless since he’s out but still), Marvel Legends is Carol Danvers Ms. Marvel, Star Wars Black is prequel Yoda, Ghostbusters is Real Ghostbusters, and Lego is the X-Mansion. I’ll have at least one of those by the end of year but how many others?!
I’m not sure whether dry January is causing me to just take a more casual approach to collecting or I’m just losing a bit of interest, but it really feels like I now have the mental space to take on a few other (non-toy collecting) things in life now.
This thinking has in turn caused me to become interested in the idea of minimalism again. It’s somewhat at odds with collecting toys but over the last couple of years I’ve watched videos on it, and admired it from afar without really subscribing to the principles. I think that’s changing. I don’t have any real storage space and so my office has turned into a bit of a dumping ground (I had a family member pass away so have lots of stuff from their house), which is probably because it’s the room visitors are least likely to see. My collection is well organised though - by line and year it is stored in IKEA boxes. Mentally it doesn’t really trouble me and now the amount of stuff I’m buying is dropping, it takes up less time to maintain it. It’s all the other stuff I own that feels like the problem.
There are a few ideas that can apply to all possessions though: if you don’t use something for a certain amount of time (say, 6 months), get rid of it. Thinking about the purpose of each room, do the items in the room help or hinder this purpose? Have a ‘home’ for each item in the house (not on the ‘side’!). I have made a good bit of progress getting rid of some long term storage items by simply putting them out the front of the house with a note saying ‘free’ (I live in a high foot traffic area). I’ve had my Nintendo DS and games on a shelf next to my desk for years and not played with it once. I’m not quite ready to get rid of it yet but it doesn’t need to be that close to where I work.
Although I’m happy with my collection, I am re-thinking it a little. In particular my 3.75” stuff - I’d like to have it on display one day but it’s not going to be diorama style - if anything it will be in a display box, hanging like pictures on the wall. Lego has superseded quite a lot of stuff - I probably don’t need an Iron Man armoury display with lights, I don’t need a Quinjet if I also have it in Lego form. Actually, I have two Lego Quinjets now thanks to Avengers Tower - was a special moment when I assembled the top stage and placed one on the landing pad.
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Well, I’ve managed to clear out the dumping ground that is my office, I’ve got one more box to go through but my desk is a picture of calm (just Avengers Tower and Deszaras next to me). Minimalism isn’t necessarily getting rid of everything but being more selective about the things you do have. Despite having a large collection of toys I am very selective about the figures I have. I need to apply this logic to everything else in my house. The main problem with this is also remarkably similar to getting rid of toys - it then requires selling (or donating), which really doesn’t help with the procrastination.
I wrote a list of things I expect to get/buy during the year expecting the Haslab to be something I wasn’t interested in. Not quite sure why, of course I want an Omega Prime given my previous thinking about Car Robots. Will be good for my collection of leaders as much as anything. (We’ll need a Megatron as well now!)
Finally finished Avengers Tower on the 39th day of Christmas! Quite the milestone. Amazing build, and some great little details. Think will stick with the Lego for the time being and now January is over I can get a few bits I want. I had a little (Lego) blow out but I think I might stick with the pattern of making myself wait until the start of March to buy anything else (except for pre-orders as don’t have any control over those). Have also started on another little project.
I’ve actually had a really good month across all spheres of life, there’s lots of work to do but feels like I’ve made a good start.
