Toys have been around much longer than any kind of geekery in the world. In fact, toys are as old as human civilization. Even the most ancient of literature mentioned toys and other playthings. Early toys were made out of clay, rocks, pinecones, sticks, stones and whatever material readily available then. If you think about it, this is the great, great, great grandfather of all geekeries that have ever existed or will ever exist. Besides, it’s probably natural for people to just collect things that make them feel good. And nothing can make people feel better than toys, yeah?
Toy collecting has evolved to the point where organizations, websites, rules, conventions, terminologies, and such other sophisticated things revolve around it. For people who want to jump right into the hobby, it might come off as a bit of a shock because the hobby has been progressively getting larger locally. Let’s say you want to collect toys. So you show up at the local toy store or mall, and you can’t find that toy you like. Why isn’t it there? How come others have it? If you’re a toy collecting newbie and you want to get serious, maybe this article can help you out.
Let’s start off with the basics, shall we?
Know what you want:
There’s a myriad of toys out there to collect, and unless you’re Steve Jobs, odds are you can’t afford every single thing out there. You have to ask yourself what you are a fan of – comic book characters? Video game characters? Cartoon characters? Revoltech? Anime figures? WWE or UFC fighters? Transformers? Cars? Mechas? Seriously, there’s a bunch to pick from, but the most popular ones to date are Marvel Universe, Marvel Legends, Todd Macfarlane’s line of practically everything, DC Universe Classics, G. I. Joes, Transformers and Star Wars. Everything else comes and goes.
My suggestion would be to zero in on one or two toy lines. You wouldn’t want to spread yourself too thin, would you?
Learn the terms and acronyms
When I first started collecting, there were acronyms that made no sense to me, though people online, especially in local communities, keep using them. I had to learn through experience. Let me do you a solid and give you a quick run through:
MOC- mint on card; synonymous with NRFP or never removed from packaging
MIB- mint in box; synonymous with NRFB or never removed from box
LOC- loose on card; means the packaging was opened but the figure was never removed. This happens when there are multiple figures in one packaging. Be wary of people selling LOC singles figures. They could just be passing it off as LOC, but they figure has already been played with.
LIB- loose in box; opened the box but the figure was never removed
Loose- The figure has already been liberated from its packaging. It does not necessarily mean that the joints on the figure are loose.
BOTO- buy one, take one; even though the acronym stands for grammatically incorrect marketing jargon, it has also come to mean items on clearance or on sale.
HTF- hard to find; rare figures.
TRU- Toys R’ Us
TK- Toy Kingdom
Sculpt- This terms refers to the actual mold and look of each individual piece of the toy
Articulation- Refers to the joints that allow for a range of movement
Butaw- Refers to figures that do not sell well either due to lack of popularity or inherent undesirability of the figure; also known as peg warmers.
GB- group buy; for multiple figures being sold as a set, people get together and buy the set but divide the spoils individually.
Each toy line has its own acronym (MU, ML, TF, SW, DCUC), but that should keep you set for a while.
Join forums
If not for these forums, I would never have had the courage to venture into the toy collecting realm. Honestly, toy collecting isn’t as relaxing as it should be. In fact, when people go on toy runs, they call it “Toy Hunting.” I, for one, believe it’s because hunting is stressful, it involves a lot of waiting, a lot of skill and some luck but it can be very rewarding, too.
Forums will keep you informed with the current waves, trends, sales, events and other such information you can’t live without. That information is invaluable, or you’d miss out. Some forum members come up with great toy reviews, too, which will help you when making a decision.
Another great feature of forums would be the For Sale threads. It’s a great way to look for bargains and rare items. You just really have to be quick, not to mention vigilant. Wouldn’t want to miss out on good deals, would we?
To get you started, maybe you can check out PTK at http://ptk.14.forumer.com or Cybertron Philippines at http://www.cybph.com/.
Be kind to fellow collectors and make friends
It really isn’t enough to join forums; you will need to find yourself some allies. You should help them out once in a while; give them a heads up on upcoming events and deals. They’ll be more than happy to do the same for you. Besides, any hobby isn’t much fun if you have no one to share it with.
That’s it for Part 1. Check back here for Part 2, which will have more pictures!