How has your collecting developed?

Ironically I was too young to enjoy them first time round as I was born in 1983. I had them as hand me downs and car boot buys. I would say the majority of my memories are about the collecting rather than the playing.
 
I started collecting in 1999, when I went to a local collectors shop and bought a Kenner ROTJ 8D8 MOC.
I Saw some Kenner 12 backs and at a local collectors fair and thought it would be good to have a 12 back MOC.
I then saw a Palitoy 30 back C3PO and decided to try and get a 12 back Palitoy instead of the kenner.
My first Palitoy 12 back was a R2D2 which i bought from Jim Stevenson.
I decided to collect the first 20 Palitoys, when I saw an Advert in the model collectors mart for a auction of a complete set of 20 Palitoys. It seemed like a good idea at the time so I went for it.
I managed to complete the set a couple of years ago and haven't bought a single item since.
I have thought about doing a character focus but recently became a dad and in the process of moving house so I think it may be many years if ever that I continue collecting.
 
spoons said:
Don't buy a lot these days, but a couple of recent deals have made me think about packing it in but It would be hard to see it all go.

What happened Iceman?
 
i kept a childhood promise to myself that one day i would have every single figure! i had about fourty or so loose figures when i was kid which i still have and made my first purchase as a collector back in 1998 when i hopped on the the 12 bus aged 17 to sunny rhyl and bought 4 loose figures for a £5. I then bought a tusken raider that summer in a paris comic book store, a year later i discovered yahoo auctions on the net and a bought lando skiff guard mint for £7 my first purchase on the net, then i joined ebay a year later as yahoo auctions ceased too exist. i now have every single figure in mint condition and complete with original weapons. collecting variants, cardbacks and beater mocs now and misc bits and bobs
 
Like most I had the toys as a kid (v early 80s), mum used to buy me one figure a week when I went shopping with her on Sat mornings. Didn't have anywhere near everything, just about 35 figures and the only vehicals/playsets I had were the Snowspeeder, the AT-AT(my most fond Christmas memory) Jabba the Hut and some mini-rigs. I rem alot of the other pieces as my school mates had alot of them-such golden boyhood memories-a big part of the magic that makes me collect today!

In 1995 when episodes 4-6 were re-released on vhs for the last time digitally re-mastered, my love for SW was re-vamped when I saw the Hasbro ad leaflet inside the vhs cover which previewed the new 'POTF 2'
figures! However it wasn't the figure pics that got me going, it was the vehical pics because they were using the original vintage moulds which just had more detail and the pics of the Landspeeder and X-Wing were shot with vintage Luke, Ben and Luke X-Wing 8) !! Started to think about my original SW toys and really wanted to get some mint boxed originals but never thought I would be able to, so went out and bought the new Falcon, X-Wing and Landspeeder(didn't like the new Landspeeder colour lol)

Anyway found a little curiosity shop near me (Southgate, North London) that had vintage SW toys and that was it, was totally hooked on collecting vintage SW toys in their boxes!

My eyes were really opened when I went to my first toy fair in Pickets Lock leasure centre in 1996 and saw a table by 'Modellers Loft, that really showed me what was out there and the rest is history!

At first I didn't discriminate between Kenner and Palitoy and rem seeing a load of MOCs in Offworld Romford and thinking why should I pay £145 for a Palitoy SW carded Greedo when I can have the Kenner one at £115 ha ha!

By the late 90s I had collected the first 21 MOC by going to toy fairs such as Cheshunt, Mem, collectormania and some up town. Got the 12 backs and the 9 21 backs including the Vinyl Jawa and Boba Fett. Three of my 12s were Palitoy, Vader, DSC and Stormie. Had some Empire MOC including a Palitoy 30 back A Luke Bespin that I paid £80 for at ML-and sold a year later boohoo!! Saw it with bout 15 other 30 backs all mint priced between £70-90 each-if only I knew then what I know now!!! Anyway sold the 12s and 21s in 2002 as I had an offer for the set which I couldn't refuse.

Collecting MOC calmed down for a while after my big sale and was just picking up a few unused/sealed vehicals/playsets (before AFA really kicked off so cheap!)

Anyway in March 2009 had a big break and managed to amass a mint set of Palitoy 12 and 20 backs over the following 18 months including a large head Han!!! Am now focused on Empire Palitoy logo MOCs, a real challenge I know but have had considerable success so far so v happy.

Do miss my early collecting years, there is nothing like the old toy fairs now and sitting in front of the net is no where near the buzz of actually going out looking for the toys, holding them in your hand and meeting fellow collectors. Memories almost as good as my golden childhood SW days.......... but not quite!! :p
 
I started collecting in 1988 through a good friend of mine. I first found a large size Darth Vader on a carboot sale and it bought a flood of memories back as Vader was one of my favourite toys as a kid. My friend then showed me his collection and I was blown away - I had never seen a Luke, Ben, Han or many of the others. I started hitting the boot sales with my late Dad who helped me to buy and pay for stuff - bless him. I then started going to toy fairs first meeting Jim Stevenson when I was aged 14 years old and annoying the crap out of him asking him loads of questions. I remember my first "expensive" purchase which was from Jim which was a large MIB Chewbacca for £75 - its probably not worth much more now! ahahahaha I started going to Donington, the NEC and Cheshunt - I remember having the pick of three packing cases of MINT Clipper Luke 12" MIB and paying £80 for it! I swapped a bag of knackered junk ships and £5 for a mint palitoy 12 back C3PO, I ended up with three complete sets of last 15 from carboot sales and finding dozens of ROTJ MOC for £1 each as late as 1992 in local toy shop - thanks again to my Dad helping buy that lot.

Fast forward to 1999 the collection stepped up a gear with a goal to get all of the large size figures MIB - I did that taking my time in 3 years and then I started to research all of the different box variants released throughout the world numbering 64 at this point. I am about half way there now at 30 MIB and 5 vintage-era bootlegs and knockoffs. I spend a lot of my time now researching and curating my collection - acquisition is more a secondary concern these days unless specific pieces surface. For me the face of the hobby has changed 24 years on - I love my collection but now the social, curation and research aspect has taken a much more promenent place. I aim to fill some large gaps and iconic pieces in my large size figure collection but the frequency of purchase has slowed considerably.
 
This is a cool thread and it got me thinking,,, i am still such a newbie compared to the others,, especially those collecting back when there was no internet.

My collecting was always there but it went from my childhood toys which i played with being taken out of the attic when my family home moved.

Once i had them unpacked and in the light i was transfixed by them.
And honestly i wanted to play with them,,,,,,kinda :oops:
But then i thought naaah i not a kid anymore.

Then i was in my local town and i saw a DvD store that had vintage SW for sale (later i found out it was Dermot O Toole's shop)
In there i bought one At-At commander,, the one figure i remember loving as a kid but couldnt find in my childhood collection box.

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My origional childhood figs i got posted from relations in Canada

Then i logged on here wheni found it and was in two minds ,,,get what i had valued or find out about what i had,, but once i had read some posts and looked at limelights,,,,,i was hooked.
The memories flooded back and i wanted to know more.

My first driving force was to buy one of everything i either had when i was a kid or wanted and never had.
And mostly just hold it ,,look at it and move on to the next one,, displaying wasnt really anything that appealed to me.
For me the excitement was in the hunt for it,, the wait for delivery the opening then the memories,,, then usually it was packed up in a box and stored away.

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And sometimes i would take pics of things set up en masse to limelight it like below

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The Gary (sith-smith) posted a pic of 6 shuttles and about 100 stormies lined up and it reminded me of my favourite scene in all of the films, the emporers arrival in ROTJ and i new i had a focus.
But my childhood army was eh,,,,,,kinda small.

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So no sooner than i had found the focus i sold all my normal NON IMPERIAL star wars only keeping the ones that i had the most attachment,, my origional few.
then the imperials started coming.

first a few

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then more with the first set up

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and then even more,, the never ending focus

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Then a new girlfriend,, house move,, exploding car,, loans etc etc etc,, mean i needed cash,, and the first non essential thing to go was,, yup the army.

that was 6 months ago and i went throught at least 3 months of having no interest in SW ,, absolutely couldnt give a monkeys about anything starwars related.

Then one day while browsing ebay i saw a cheap stormtrooper MOC and bang i bought it..which was my fist MOC
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Actually it wasnt Tigerham had made me a special order one for me when wanted a certain variant :mrgreen:
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So now i am carefully creeping back in but with a strict budget per month and clear set targets for imperial recruitment and a goal of 500 imperials,, then 500 stormtroopers,,, after that i am done. :lol:

cheers for all the help and the banter.
 
Great thread guys, like most started off as a kid. Started with ROTJ figures in the 80's collecting quite a few at the time. I remember thinking that the gamorean guard was a cool figure. Hence he was my recent purchase of a vintage carded figure, more of that later...
I remember getting a few figures of older family friends from the earlier films as I was to young when they were initially released, born 1976 :wink: I then lost interest in the whole star wars thing and can still remember to this day being brought to car boot sale by my mum and selling the lot off for pittance.... :cry: oh well, hindsight and all that.
I really got back into collecting a few years ago after attending Invasion Dublin which was a Star Wars convention run over here. I picked up a few loose figures and went from there. I dealt with members of this site at the time, thanks Iain, and built up a nice collection only to be forced into selling it again about a year ago.....cue cry number 2 :cry: ...kept my loose 12 backs though, I was a bit wiser this time not to let it all go.
So up to present day now and I have started back into collecting. I have decided to focus on some carded figures and as I posted on the recent purchases thread, picked up my first carded figure since childhood, a gammorean guard, this has been followed by a tri logo biker scout on order from Iain :wink: and a few other impulse eBay purchases...
Glad to have found a site like this with all the advice and great photos, thanks again Iain and all the welcoming board members, cheers, Jeff.
 
It's been fun to read everyone's stories and learn how we all made it into the world of SW collecting.

I've posted my lengthy history up on my site if anyone cares to give it a read. I need to update the final display picture at the bottom though. :)
 
:lol:
Jeff I just read your post and I was wow this guy is Irish cause look it says Dublin in the post.,,,,,, then I saw your forum name and went duuuhh. :roll:

Now there are officially 2.5 Irish guys on here. :mrgreen:
 
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