What category of odd, cool little thing just always ends up attracting your hard-earned moneydolars and/or magpie reflex?
For me it’s backpacks, usually either vintage or military surplus but there are a hearty number of just good practical bags in there. I don’t have too many, somewhere around ten, but it’s nice having a way to put stuff into stuff and move it around eh?
My daily is a Tom Bihn Smart Alec, which is an incredibly efficient and well-built cavernous pit that is also tremendously ergonomic (I got mine lightly used, but if you google that and like it but also find the price steep, Patagonia also makes a knock-off of reasonable quality called the Black Hole 25, which REI currently has at clearance prices). I’m also fond of the British WWII rucksack as seen in Dunkirk - once you finagle the straps into working without the full webbing, it is a handy surface to affix patched to and I’ve even used it as a light travel pack before.
This is a great topic idea. I’m not much of a collector (combination of stingy and too used to packing things up in smaller containers), but I do like collecting international coins if people have them to offer. I’m not interested in getting them for their own sake, but I like the idea of having a coin that serves as a springboard for “oh, I got this one from my friend, who lives there…” type of conversations.
I do have a fairly large collection of dragon figurines that other people bought me when I was younger because they thought I collected them? It became a self-fulfilling prophecy of “well, they have this many, so they must collect them and would like another”.
Bionicle, yo. I’ve plenty of snaps of my collection over in the Gunpla and other plastic models thread, but I’ll take nay excuse to admire my bionic children. Just some highlights, mind. I’m reorganising them all today and a full rundown would take ages:
They’re super satisfying to build, and unlike other buildable collectables I can constantly pose and re-pose them, so they don’t just sit there gathering dust. My favourites are probably the first wave of the short-lived 2015 reboot, the first two pics and the last two pics. Lots of variety in body shapes, and cool Bloodborne style trick weaponry. But the Star Wars ones have been killing it lately. I hope there are more vehicles like the Speeder Bike. The dream would be one of the Fish Headed clones on those mini-walker things.
If only I had the foresight to pick a hobby as useful and cheap as bag collecting.
They’re a great souvenir from a lot of destinations, but you can also find plenty of interesting examples at yard sales and thrift shops that have weird custom sayings on them, or escaped from a corporate breakroom and have an obscure logo on it.
I collect international currency as well as tickets and maps from all the places I’ve been - plane tickets, subway tickets, bus passes, maps of all the above, etc.
Rare music and samples, via the Internet (actual crate digging is not affordable or viable for me). I’m approaching a terabyte of rare grooves, drum and instrument samples this year.
oh dang I didn’t even think about international currency, but yeah I totally have a stockpile of that
I also have a ton of Yoshitoshi ABe indie comics, including some of his rarest and a few signed issues. one of the rare doujin authors who doesn’t do porn stuff, too, which is neato
I collect retro games and systems. Though I’m generally interested in systems from the fourth and fifth generations, I’m currently focused mostly on the Nintendo 64. I’m about halfway done with the North American N64 library.
I made cases for some of the Sega Saturn games I have that didn’t come in box.
This also feeds into another hobby of mine, which is repair and modification of older games and systems. I’m absolutely an amateur at modding, but it’s been a fun way to develop new skills. Most recently, I installed a backlit screen into my original Game Boy Advance.
Nothing really, besides maybe too many sketch books I barely ever fill out.
I used to be better at just using the ones I have, but in the last few years I’ll be tempted to just purchase new ones whenever I’m around book shops.
It’s not really a collection though, so I guess it doesn’t apply.
Collecting stuff has been a huge passion of mine for as long as I can remember.
When I was a kid I was way into picking up my favorite Happy Meal toys and Pokemon merch and I think that kind of stuck with me. Then from about my Sophomore year of high school through my first year of college I collected sneakers…and then sold them all.
Now collecting figures is my jam. My collection got started with the original Kid Robot Street Fighter series (as seen in the first pic below) and then grew exponentially when the local Kid Robot store shut down and had a massive sale.
Since then I started collecting Amiibo, Nendoroids and larger Kid Robot figs, as well as game related art.
I collect fashion dolls! Specifically, highly-articulated ones in the ones in the play/“for kids” price range, not the really fancy $100+ ones. If I could afford those, I’d maybe get them, but right now that’s just a pipe dream. I started with the Monster High dolls, because the designs were weird and creative, and then I looked at the Ever After High dolls, but now I have a whole bunch of them from various franchises - Barbie, Ai, Lottie, and some weird ones they don’t make any more.
Unfortunately, I’ve had to stop because I don’t have the space for them anymore, and might not have any more space in a long time. Furthermore, the new Monster High relaunch dolls lack the charm and creative weirdness of the original dolls, so I don’t have any interest in getting them anyway.
It’s not so much a collection as it is a vice, impulsive thing. But Pokemon cards. I’ve got 10 or so full 3000 count boxes. Had to get rid of actual books to fit them somewhere. I’m not even particularly big into Pokemon or collecting them for value or anything. It just gives me an excuse to wake up early on the weekends when I’ve got nothing to do and drive out to garage sales a hundred miles out. Nothing like a nice, quiet morning drive with some misprinted pikachus at the end. Catching up with news on the drive is a plus.
I used to collect books, in particular Arkham editions (Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, etc.) and I almost have a complete collection of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.
Books really are a wonderful thing to collect–and to read as well obviously–but wow buddy do they take up a lot of space and I had to move across state lines this past year and they made that move all the more difficult, and heavy.
I know! I love holding books and the feeling of turning pages (and smelling them like a weirdo), but I recently got myself a Kindle and really haven’t looked back. Less eye-strain, more comfortable in bed, super portable. There are still a special few books I’ve been holding onto and probably will continue to for a heckuva long time, but, hey, the future is now I guess.
Synthesizers and drum machines I guess, though a big collection there is about 15-20 instruments, and not in the hundreds/thousands like it is when it comes to my collection of physical video games. I do have almost all the games I feel I need to have though, maybe another 20-30 in total I’d want to own, mostly consisting of From Software’s PS1 and PS2 output, so I’m not sure I’d say I’m actively collecting games anymore.
Oh, and I collect music too, but that’s mostly because it somehow is cheaper and more convient to buy CD, vinyl and cassette releases than downloads of most of what I’m into. I’ve bought some downloads when it’s made economical sense, but as an album on Google Play Music often goes for like 15-20€ in my region and I can get the physical album for less than half of that, I go for the physical release.
