And no, I’m not talking about Pokemon here, heheh.
One of the things I’ve noticed as an emphatic collector of things that relate to my most loved fandoms is that my collections tend to evolve, especially the longer I end up in the fandom. When I’m building my collection, I tend to buy anything and everything relating to my favorite show or game. Sailor Moon hairbrushes? Sure, I’ll buy six! Twilight Sparkle toothbrush holder? This would be amazing in my bathroom! Princess Peach change purse? Doubt I’ll ever use it, but Princess Peach stuff is so freaking rare that I’ll buy anything I see with her face on it! Toothless coin bank? You’re coming home with me, buddy. Anything with a scooter on it? I MUST HAVE IT. And so on.
But after a while, I get overwhelmed with the largeness of my collection. At one point, I must have had about fifty little brushable My Little Ponies. And my Sailor Moon collection, back in its heyday, was absolutely ridiculous. I had such silly things like a Sailor Moon birthday party set – cups, plates, etcetera – still in its original packaging. And six Sailor Moon hair brushes. I’ve got a couple pictures below of the Sailor Moon collection, circa 2005, along with other assorted anime goodies – forgive the quality, the photos were taken on a digital camera that was old in 2005…
-
- There are some of those hairbrushes I was talking about…
-
- Another hairbrush! I still have most of those plushies.
-
- There’s the birthday party set. I don’t think I ever used it…
-
- And some mini Sailor Moon dolls. I still have Luna!
I also used to own a Princess Toadstool cookie jar. (Oh, the stories I could tell about wanting that silly cookie jar, and my excitement when I finally got it…)
The Princess Toadstool cookie jar, with me in my first foray into costume-making, circa 1997.
And don’t even get me started on the My Little Pony collection…
And that’s not even anywhere near the whole collection, at the time this picture was taken…
Now, though? My collections are much smaller. My Sailor Moon collection, for example, fits on one shelf, for the most part, even though I love the show as much as ever…
No more hairbrushes, haha.
And my My Little Pony collection has to be split up onto two bookshelves, mostly because the Build a Bear ponies take up so much space – again, there are other parts scattered all over the house, like a bunch of tiny ponies wedged into the Christmas Tree and a Twilight Sparkle strapped to the top of it, but here’s what remains of the ponies…
Don’t mind Hitomi hanging out down there with Spike – she needed a place to sit!
More ponies, with bonus Jadzia Dax in the back there as well as some other friends.
It’s interesting, how my collections have changed over time. I start out trying to get one of everything, but end up eventually winnowing out the things I didn’t really want to make room for the stuff I do want to collect. Some of the more oddball things end up sticking around, like a pair of Sailor Moon slippers I bought during my freshman year of college, or the matching Twilight Sparkle toothbrush holders Ross and I have, but in the end, things get culled, passed on to other collectors, to make room for new things or to focus my collection more. And it’s nice to have that focus – instead of having an unwieldy and hard-to-display collection, I have one that’s fun to display and look at. The biggest things I’m collecting now are the fancy Figuarts Sailor Moon figurines, the Build-a-Bear ponies, and the nice Funko ponies. I also collect Funko Pop figurines – I’ve got a random collection of my favorite characters over a number of different fandoms.
What kind of things do you guys collect? Tell me in the comments – I always love hearing about what others are passionate about.