[Kurona]

I kinda feel like a broken record saying this again, but whenever this topic comes up I always do feel the need to bring up how important it was for me to question why I want to buy things and how much fun I'll really have with them.

Like, so, for instance. I've got a friend who's super into collecting, and the other day I was talking to him about the few human figures SHF has done like Takeshi Hongou and Ankh. I was thinking about getting one of the Kurotos as it seems INSANELY fun even though it breaks what I'm usually collecting, and he said to me "sometimes it's good to get something completely off the wall like that to break out of the monotony of collecting."

And, the thing is I just didn't get that too much, because I... don't... really feel a monotony?

Now admittedly what I'm about to say does partly come from me not being in the financial situation to just throw money at a toy whenever I feel like it without planning things ahead of time, but just looking at my remaining pre-ordered toys for this year that I've got coming up? SHF Seihou Tajador; FRS Amazing Mighty; SHF Seihou Momotaros; SHF Cross-ZBuild; SHF Geed; SHF Z. All of which were in some way very important characters for me and ones I wanted to focus on above all else -- it's not like I'm picking up SHF Horobi or Ginga Strium on a whim just because I'm capable of it. The way I collect means that every figure is an event for me, because:-

A) They're so far apart anyway; the most I get in a month excluding very exception circumstances is like, maybe 3 figures and those would be cheaper ones like FRSes
B) All of them mean something to me and are ones I've considered over time and know that they're something I really really want

A smaller collection like this also means a smaller shelf display. With a huge collection of figures it's easy for them to blur into each other, but right now my main display area consists of about 9-12 figures which are the main characters of W/OOO/Fourze/Build; then FRS Den-O off to his own at the side; then Ohma Zi-O off to the side again because I'm still so chuffed I won him and he looks goddamn awesome.

Everyone is different and I'm not saying this to say that everyone should follow my example or anything, but if you are feeling that sort of fatigue, I think it is good to step back and consider if this might be good for you.


That said it is of course a very different tale for So-Dos, in large part because they are so cheap and take up so little space! At that point it's really not as bad to pick up a lot of them and lower your standards a bit if you know you'd have fun with them. And to a degree? That's kinda what I want to do! I've been considering my wants when it comes to them, and it comes down to...

- Zi-O's armours of my favourite Riders (OOO, Build, Kuuga, Den-O, Fourze)
- The Another Riders of OOO, Build, Den-O, W and Fourze
- Build SameBike
- Kuuga Mighty
- Trychaser

Some of that is for bigger reasons, some of it is for smaller ones. I want the last two because Kuuga's bike (either of them) is so much more important to the character I feel than most bikes and it'd just be wrong for me to not have a Kuuga on a bike -- aaaand the SHF bikes are ridiculously expensive, so this is my next best bet. After that? I like the idea of having Zi-Os representing my favourites in a nice simple way, and it helps that those are also some of my favourite armours. Similar thing for the Another Riders, who have amazing designs! ... and then SameBike because it's just awesome.

Expanding out from that, I think I'd be happy at some point to pick up other SoDos if I just like them enough! But I would never want it to get to the point of a display that demands a lot of space, y'know? It needs to be tight and compact, otherwise it loses the point of me getting them to begin with -- why did I get Another W in the first place if he's just gonna be in the background, barely visible behind a bunch of Saber dudes? Or the opposite -- if I decide that I don't care for the Saber dudes I picked up on a whim that much and just put them behind some other SoDos, then why did I press add to cart?


And that all comes back to the thing I said before -- that I don't feel a monotony in collecting. I think if you are doing it, each figure you get has to be something that you are excited for on some level. Not necessarily jump-off-your-seat-over-the-moon excited -- it's not even like all the figures I'm getting are incredibly overly important to me! Geed's my favourite Ultra so far and Cross-ZBuild is so important to everything I loved about Build, but then also I'm getting Momotaros because I think he'll be a VERY funny figure even though I already have a Den-O Sword Form, and I'm keeping Ohma Zi-O because I really like looking at him! In a similar vein, I eventually want to pick up Lightning Collection Lord Zedd because he's an awesome design even though he hardly means anything significant to me beyond having a blast with him in a fighting game. But my point is that there has to be something more there than "I've completed Zero-One's collection of forms even though I don't care about most of them", y'know? Because otherwise it's going to start feeling less like a joy and more like a chore.