What to do, what to do? This hobby is so much a part of me. I can't ditch it. But I can't feed it like I did as a younger man. I find myself more often than not thinking up a reason to not buy something. Mentally trying to disqualify a toy from being good enough to earn my hard earned $. Why is that? I used to buy with reckless abandon... well, always within certain financial constraints. But I never used to berate a toy before I even had it. Now I scour the net for pics and reviews, nitpicking everything.
I can think of a few reasons.
1. Overwhelming collection. I have a lot of stuff. My childhood room at my folks place does not contain much in the way of clothing or anything really, other than toys and toy paraphernalia. When considering to buy something, space is always gonna be a consideration...
actually I take that back. Space is never a consideration. I always buy thinking 'I'll find some place for it'. Well, I don't know how much that is going to hold true. A Flagg is stashed between cupboards and drawers, and I have been on ebay looking at Defiants...
2. Been there; got that. I have a problem with the rampant re-release of certain characters. In spite of this, I of course have about five no-ring style Snake-Eyes'. With the greatest of respect to the later, greater versions, my clear and unassailable favourite is still the first one I got in the original 25th Anniversary 5 Pack. And I have justified its superiority over the recent POC wave 3 version many a time before falling asleep. So when new versions of old characters get announced, I immediately try to determine whether it will usurp my current favourite or not. Case in point: POC Stalker. Dreadlocks=fail in my eyes, but the rest of his sculpt (being the same as POC Snake-Eyes) is win. And frustratingly the 25th anniversary Stalker head sculpt fits on the new one's body, so the dreadlocks can easily be dealt with. That leaves two more possible detractors. The crap hands that only grip between the thumb and forefinger; and the loose holster for the silenced pistol. Neither of which have been improved, if the new Cobra Trooper (who also uses those parts) is anything to go by. The hands can be remedied with a parts swap. The holster not so much. But there is I suppose a fine line between too tight and too loose. Yeah I said that. Too tight damages the gun (as it does on the 25th Anni Fireflys and Beachheads), too loose and the damn thing keeps falling out. So do I drop dollar on the toy, knowing full well that if it fails to beat my current fave Stalker, it goes into the box, never to see light of day again.
So what to do...
I can think of a few reasons.
1. Overwhelming collection. I have a lot of stuff. My childhood room at my folks place does not contain much in the way of clothing or anything really, other than toys and toy paraphernalia. When considering to buy something, space is always gonna be a consideration...
actually I take that back. Space is never a consideration. I always buy thinking 'I'll find some place for it'. Well, I don't know how much that is going to hold true. A Flagg is stashed between cupboards and drawers, and I have been on ebay looking at Defiants...
2. Been there; got that. I have a problem with the rampant re-release of certain characters. In spite of this, I of course have about five no-ring style Snake-Eyes'. With the greatest of respect to the later, greater versions, my clear and unassailable favourite is still the first one I got in the original 25th Anniversary 5 Pack. And I have justified its superiority over the recent POC wave 3 version many a time before falling asleep. So when new versions of old characters get announced, I immediately try to determine whether it will usurp my current favourite or not. Case in point: POC Stalker. Dreadlocks=fail in my eyes, but the rest of his sculpt (being the same as POC Snake-Eyes) is win. And frustratingly the 25th anniversary Stalker head sculpt fits on the new one's body, so the dreadlocks can easily be dealt with. That leaves two more possible detractors. The crap hands that only grip between the thumb and forefinger; and the loose holster for the silenced pistol. Neither of which have been improved, if the new Cobra Trooper (who also uses those parts) is anything to go by. The hands can be remedied with a parts swap. The holster not so much. But there is I suppose a fine line between too tight and too loose. Yeah I said that. Too tight damages the gun (as it does on the 25th Anni Fireflys and Beachheads), too loose and the damn thing keeps falling out. So do I drop dollar on the toy, knowing full well that if it fails to beat my current fave Stalker, it goes into the box, never to see light of day again.
So what to do...
I bought that Stalker in the end. The holster fits his pistol snugly, I swapped his head and hands with the 25th anniversary version and I lopped off that enormous knife sheath on his webgear. Now all he needs is to go a darker shade of green and he is numero uno.
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