Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I try and collect what I truly like. I'm not too interested in value or having something just because it's worth a ton of money. I don't like the look on alot of the older Marmits or Marusan figures.

I also don't worry about having every color of the same sculpt. I try and grab a little of everything that has been released, if I like the design.

I collect Godzilla and Gamera toys / items mostly

Started out with the 6" Bandai Line in 98. Then every movie figure made from 1999 - 2005 also Super Deformed, High grades, Trading or Candy Figures, and also Box sets. I then started buying older Bandais from the 90s films and Showa Stuff. I also collect any US Distributed Godzilla items I find, In the past year or so I have been collecting 1954 style Godzilla Figures in general.

I also have a few Movie Posters

I try to be as much of a completist as I can with Bandai figures. They were my first Japanese Godzilla figures and will always remain my favorites. As for anything else, I only collect what I like and what I can get my hands on (when it comes to the insanely rare figures).

I've loved Godzilla (or at least the concept of Godzilla) since I was a kid.

I didn't have any Godzilla toys when I was young but came across my first Yuji Sakai 'Godzilla Appearance' blind box at an anime shop on Pico Blvd in West LA about five years ago. I was mesmerized by the quality of the sculpt and the detail in such a small sculpt. Hell, I even loved the boxes.

I grabbed all the Yuji Sakai gashapon I could, and while waiting for the subsequent 'Complete Works' series to get released started buying a lot of Godzilla toys.

I eventually came to realize that most of that buying was really just an effort to recreate the joy I got from those small Yuji Sakai sculpts. So, I ended up selling off or giving away (usually to kids) most of the extraneous stuff.

I still have every single figure from the 'Godzilla Appearance' and 'Complete Works' series, including every chase. In a weird way, it took wasting a lot of money on toys I only half-wanted to really appreciate the ones that I loved.

Along the way I got to further endulge my near-lifelong love of Jet Jaguar and am only 4 figures away from owning every production Jet Jaguar figure ever made. And I've also got all the Bandai die-cast Mecha-Godzilla figuers, including the show limiteds (chrome, clack, etc).

That's about it, though. As a result of the year or so of binge collecting I was able to realize that focusing on what I really loved was a lot more rewarding than buying everything in sight that I thought was kind-of-cool.

Bottom line: collect what you love.

And be careful about letting your collection own you.

--
jJ

Its great to collect vinyl figures the only problem is that sooner or later you might run out of room to place your figures. I have three 6 ft tall display cabinets and all of them are full! Right now I am trying to figure out where I am going to put any future vinyl figures. Also I collect movie posters so those take up alot of space. I have just about every bandai figure anbd right now I am trying to collect marmits and M1 figures.

A lot of collecters are completists...in other words, they must not only have every Bandai (or insert Marmit, Bullmark, M1, etc) figure, but also every different color variation of each figure release. Not that I am knocking that or saying that's a bad thing...to each their own.

As for myself, I tend to collect what I like (sounds cliche, but it's true), regardless if it's Bandai, Marmit, Gigabrain, M1, or even Trendmasters. Usually, I focus on figures in the 8-10 inch range (I absolutely cannot stand the Bandai 6 inch line...bring back the 8 inch line damn it!!! ). I prefer figures that scale fairly accurately with each other...doesn't have to perfect. As long as I like a figure's interpretation of a particular monster and feels it captures that monster's look and spirit, then I'll buy it....as I said, I have absolutely no alignments with a particular toy company. As a result, my collection is really a "mish-mash" of Bandai 8 inch figs, Marmit Monster Heaven Figures, 8-10 M1 figures, a few GigaBrains, and even the occasional Marusan and Trendmaster figure...all them usually scaling very well with each other. Most completists would be aghast at the random-ness, but I for one am extremely proud of my collection and wouldn't trade it with anyone else's.

I also don't keep the tags on them or keep them in their bags/boxes. Some collectors buy a figure, often to never even touch it or remove it from it's packaging in fear it will hurt its "collector's value" later on. I try not to knock other people's collection habits, but I don't really don't like this approach/philosophy at all...I find it a little silly and prudish. One should enjoy their collection and not do it just for the hope of reselling them down the road when their value increases, but that's just me.

I have never gotten into the Imperials/Bullmarks (mostly due to price range and their often inaccurate interpretations of the monsters). But I think it's really cool that some collector's have them, because these toys are basically like stepping back in time as the earliest G figures released and have great historical value which you can't put a price on, which I think is awesome. Maybe one day when I become more financially inclined, I might give collecting vintage toys a try someday...

I don't collect the model kits, because I suck at putting models together, and I have a very bad habit of not finishing what I start.

In the future, I am considering on starting a collection of Gamera figures, as I have virtually no figures of the shelled one or his enemies. And in Nakano Broadway and Akihabara districts of Tokyo, there are tons of really great Gamera figures (even the supposebly "rare" 8 inch Guiron figure is usually pretty easy to find). One of the reasons I never got into collecting Gamera figures was because after the 1990s Gamera films, all of the vinyl releases, regardless of scale or company, look *way too similar* to each other and lacked a certain appeal/charm to me as result.

My first figure was a Trendmaster Godzilla that my family bought me for Christmas 1 year (still have it too). My 2nd figure was the Bandai burning Godzilla, and then I moved onto the Bandai 6" line and that was the beginning of my collecting frenzy.

I buy figures from different companies of various shapes and sizes. I like both realistic sculpts and more cartoonish ones equally.

I got figures in my collection from the Godzilla series, Gamera series, various Ultraman shows, Spectreman, Keiji-K Robot Detective, Johnny Soko and his Flying Robot, Space Giants and Fireman.

If it's a kaiju I like a lot i'll have multiple figures of it, such as Godzilla 68, Hedorah, Gigan, Baltan, Red King, etc.


Ricky

I collect figures in the 6 - 8 inch scale from several different companies, mostly Bandais of course, although I'm thinking of getting rid of them all and starting up with high grades and others in the 3 1/2 -5 inch scale instead, just for space and monetary concerns.