[Kurona]

SO-DO/SHODO/Yu-Do is definitely something I can recommend for this type of thing for multiple reasons:-

- For one thing, the price is a big factor. Like, I love Saber Dragonic Knight; it's easily one of my favourite Kamen Rider forms ever. But do I like it for its story relevance itself, or even the character that much? Absolutely not, and not particularly; respectively. I mean I like Touma well enough, but... anyway, the point is that it really wouldn't be worth paying like 7000 yen or whatever for a figure of a suit that doesn't mean that much to me. But a great design for 700 yen? Literally a tenth of the price and basically just pocket money that I could chuck onto another order or something? Yeah, that works!

- Playability. Like... like the thing with Figuarts is that they're high-end collectors' figures, right? So while it's not impossible to play with them or anything, I'm much more careful with them and I often find that I leave them in a certain pose for a while as a display. With candy toys? Yeah those things are basically desk toys that I get out of my drawer and fiddle around with a bunch! YU-DO Kiramei Red has been a joy even without his accessories!


These days I do collect some Figuarts, but I limit it heavily to characters and forms that mean a LOT to me; which generally just means two characters and a final form at most from a season I love. Build is my second favourite Toku ever and meant so much to me, and the only SHFs I have for it are RabbitTank, Cross-Z base and Cross-ZBuild, and I'm never ever getting another one. I DEFINITELY do not want to base it off just liking the design... though I guess I'm kinda lucky that certain top 10 designs for me like Tajador, Rampage Gatling and Cross-Z are also top 10 characters for me as well!

That's the pattern I've been keeping to: splash out only for your absolute favourites, make that purchase decision one you REALLY ruminate over for a while and make sure you absolutely 100% absolutely honest to god do want before you click buy (I personally think the "give it two weeks; if you've forgotten about it don't bother" method is a pretty good one!), and for anything else? Just go for the cheap easy desk options at most. It makes this whole business so, so much easier. Beyond candy toys there's also stuff like RKFs, cheap older figures no-one wants anymore like Souchaku Henshin, or a bunch of mainline DX noisemakers that go for 500 yen for your favourite legend rider. FRS, as well, is pretty much perfect if you ever get the inclination for a certain Heisei Rider but don't want to go through the downright depressing state of getting their SHF.



This is all meant as general advice, and with that out the way... yeah, kinda agree with every word you've said! Consumerism is a hell of a brainrot and has only gotten worse in recent years where companies have realised they can tack on all sorts of extra prices and subscriptions and exclusivities which also happened to coincide with multiple economic disasters (both crashes and disgusting governmental & corporate decisions) that have wrecked so, so, so many normal working peoples' wallets and made it so they can't afford as much as before. Like you I've spent a lot of the past half year or so downsizing my collection and wants and it seems like globally a lot of people are deciding they've had enough of a lot of negatives in our current economic system. I don't really have an elegant way to end this as this is basically just a bunch of collected points, most of which are "I agree", and... uh, yeah! I agree! Hope things continue to go well on your side!