Topic: Gaming Tat (...Return of the Tat!)

@Werehog It's strange how memory works, I never opened any of those Buffy things I just put them in boxes and off to went to the vault so to speak. But I did look at the packaging etc and I've noticed by looking at company catalogues (if you ever heard of Kenner?) that a lot of companies use the same molds and mix and match to create different toy lines. Barbie was the first obvious 'it's the same thing', because I was a major collector, the same for My Little Pony. I've since slowed down, it was getting really addictive and I wouldn't play with them just keep them boxed and look at them. The more I looked the more I realized I was basically just collecting the same thing over and over again with slight differences to outfits and accessories.

Then I looked at other toy-lines and once again there were the similarities. With Batman I got very curious and sourced old employee renders/sketches and things. They released the same Batcave three times over maybe two decades and the only real difference was the box and some of the paint/colours. It's similar with StarWars too, I've read some of their toy reference books and figurine encyclopedias. The same for a bunch of books on the history Legos, those are more coffee table than catalogue. Kenner seemed to do a lot of product catalogues for each line, there's a bunch for Jurassic Park too. There's something really interesting about licensed toy lines, there's the connection to the actual movie but the creative license that the toy sculptor/designer takes themselves. It all adds to the original content and some designers are really clever. I haven't read up much on Transformers, I tried with a 80's to 90's toy book on them but gave up early into it. I read 'Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel' not too long ago too, it's about the gritty business side of the company.

Silver Sonic is a much better name than White Sonic. I'm going to eventually watch the movies, but did catch some of the cartoons about a week ago, they weren't bad just very dated. I also picked up something called 'Sonic the Hedgehog Encyclo-speed-ia' DarkHorse published it and since they publish a lot of really good graphic novels I figured they would do a good job on it. If you like Sonic you might find it interesting, it's three hundred pages and I've provided some samples. It's one of the best looking collections/reference books I've seen. It covers thirty years of the franchise.

All thumbnails so they don't choke anyone's connection. It also details each level, enemy type, boss etc. It's on Amazon if you're curious, it costs double through DarkHorse.

@FuriousMachine Yeah, after I replied, I thought, "What's the betting Horizon 3: Nemesis comes with a really cool and affordable statue?" My over-stuffed shelves hope it won't, though!

***

@GirlVersusGame I have very much heard of Kenner, yes! I'm a huge Star Wars fan, so often fall down rabbit holes exploring the history of its merchandising (and I'll be repeating this in a moment, but I have the Star Wars action figure encyclopedia I think you're referring to). That's where I first noticed the prolific re-use of moulds and re-release of re-painted models. There was a specific "sand skiff" vehicle I remember having as a kid which I've seen crop back up every decade or so, each time called something slightly different and packaged with a different character!

The wild flights of fancy were certainly more of a thing back in the 90s. Nowadays, with the rise of the adult collector market, things tend to stay a little more grounded / anchored to the "realism" of the source material. Batman was famous for its frankly bizarre toy lines, with dozens upon dozens of batsuit variants and vehicles spawning from films in which poor ol' Bruce wore one, maybe two suits and drove one, maybe two different vehicles. I never liked the outlandish ones as a kid (my OCD was strong even then, so I wanted accuracy over anything else) but they really make me smile today!

And thank you for sharing those snippets from Sonic's Encyclo-speed-ia but (and here comes that repetition I promised) I have that book on my shelf already! It really is excellent, though! I should make more time to read some of the art books and encyclopedias I've collected over the years.

I know you said that you've slowed down your collecting habits lately, but do you still dabble?

@Werehog I think it depends on your definition of dabble. I collect a lot of things but it's all mainly to preserve, I reached six hundred Barbies and realized I had a problem. It was an intervention of sorts and lead to a kind of less materialistic outlook on life. The resources are there to keep going indefinitely, there's no problem there. I've come to the realization of just because you can it doesn't mean you should. I've collected everything from licensed toys to movie props, firearms, shoes, then leveled off with books, retro games and some other much bigger things. I honestly don't know what I have anymore, that's not bragging, it becomes complete confusion. There are different addresses and each one has different things. I thought that was normal. I didn't know anyone my own age and had zero contact with any normal people (hence I'm here) now I know otherwise. PS4 was a wake-up call, I'd collected up almost every game from that generation and played so few of them. Now with PS5 I've slowed down considerably and use the physical market to support Indies over Triple A studios.

It's really easy to be defined by things, I see it offline all day long, cars, boats, etc, they define a person's identity but I don't think it means all that much. It's more interesting to see a couple of shelves full of collectibles and items that mean something to that specific person. I've never been able to do that because excess means no one thing gets to really shine. I've been looking around this current room as I replied and I'm surrounded by things and half the time I don't even remember buying them. I heard a comedian before called Dara O'Briaen talk about having a day off work and he said how he had all of the things, movies, games, music etc but he'd bought so much that he spent half the day trying to decide what to do. It's sort of like that but twenty four hours a day every day, I never heard anyone else describe it any better. The last ten games I played came recommended by people on here. The ones before that came out of a hat, I wrote them on paper and jumbled them up, too much choice.

I did collect special editions and things like your Silver Sonic for a while but I had a rocky start on the internet/online gaming/mixed with the wrong people while very under age and my Dad sort of turned that room/collection into a shooting gallery. Russian Fathers are what you might call protective. I stopped buying statues after that and haven't put a gaming room together since then. Mainly just movie rooms. I probably should, before things get boxed it becomes a kind of towers of Jenga thing and one of them fell on me this week. I don't really know what to collect anymore, I like collecting memories more if that makes sense, they mean more.

I suppose if I really had to choose one thing it might be my first ever gaming plush. It was Sackboy from Littlebigplanet, I still have him. That was my first game too. He survived what I said above. Nothing else really stands out as thoroughly important. He's small, durable and he's still here. That means a lot.

And that's one of my movie rooms/collections. Those black shiny things are 35mm cinema reels/trailers. I should put them in tins like the rest, I don't know many people who collect those. Those big boxes at the top are factory sealed Horror VHS, I love to preserve VHS and if it's not sealed to watch it too. Those people beside them are Horror movie statues like Ash from Evil Dead, I bought doubles and unboxed some of them for display (I can't reach them at the moment, they are high up) They might be toys, I'm not sure, they are very adult. I'm sure I have some similar ones for gaming but I'm not sure where they are, I bought a Metal Gear Solid line not that long ago. I might have some Tomb Raiders, it feels like I do but like I said above it begins to own you instead of you owning it so I don't know.