Obsessive Collecter Disorder...
It seems my creative ADD has kicked into full gear once again. Even though I pledged completion of the Mandarin Spawn Project, I seem to have shoved it off into a nether region of my workspace to focus on a new customizing obsession. Yeah, the Hot Wheels thing.
I get like this, and I am fully aware of it. I discover a new hobby, and it piques my interest. I then begin to devote time on the Internet examining it, and viewing works of others, and then I take it into my own hands. Such is the case with this Hot Wheels thing. I think part of it has to do with working in a new medium for me, metal, as well as the scale. Although, working in metal does require a lot more safety precautions... the microscopic metal shaving that is apparently imbedded in my left pinky finger can attest to that.
This whole Hot Wheels thing has forced me to examine a new culture - the "Hot Wheels Culture." Now, I used to play with Hot Wheels all the time as a kid (and I recently made a phone call to my Mom, who said yes, my duffel bag of Hot Wheels are still in the basement.) As a collector, I have never previously been interested in the world of Hot Wheels... too many variants, too many "exclusives," and the other collectors seem to be a bit too "fanatic." Recently, I have come to realize that Hot Wheels collectors are a very different breed of collector. More so than even action figures or comic books, it seems that Hot Wheel collectors can tend to be a bit obsessive, hanging out at the doors of stores to open, rummaging through the pegs, and fighting - yes, FIGHTING, over cars. Many stores, when you talk with the checkout folks and stockers, hate Hot Wheels collectors. The collectors are known by workers with their obsessive phone calls (asking when new stock is in,) leaving the aisles a mess after rummaging through the pegs (in their defense, the cars tend to fall off the pegs easily when looking... but at least pick them up!) and some get rather irate when their cars are mishandled in the checkout lane.
Yes... it is ridiculous.
Having primarily collected action figures for the past ten years or so, I haven't seen much of this type of behavior. If anything, every other figure collector I have encountered in stores has been nothing but cool. There is always the rogue scalper (who 9 times out of 10 look astonishingly like the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons) who does nothing but soak up "rare" figures to pawn off on eBay, but the majority of them are very civil.
When I attended "Midnight Madness" at Toys R Us earlier this year (the release of the Revenge of the Sith Star Wars figures), the fifty-plus geeks (myself included) got to open cases after cases of figures that were sitting out on palettes... and I witnessed a really cool phenomena that I have seen a lot of in action figure collecting: curteousy. People were opening boxes, grabbing the "rare" ones, and then putting them up in the air to see who needed one. Collectors were talking to each other, helping each other find characters the other was looking for, guarding each others' baskets, etc. It was cool.
Now I take you to another scenario - as described to me by a Hot Wheels collector (who himself, along with his wife, are very cool people and exceptions to the Hot Wheel collector stereotype): K-Mart "K-Day." A couple times a year, K-Mart has an event where they recieve some special cases of cars, and they have some exclusive repaints only found at K-Mart. In these cases, at a ratio of about 1 every 5 cases, there are the ever-sought-after "Treasure Hunt" cars. Very rare, very collectible... you get the idea. These events, as told by eyewitness account, have many times resulted in yelling, arguing, and fighting. Yes... FIGHTING. Over 99 cent toy cars. He has witnessed grown men snatching cars out of the hands of children. I'll say that again. He has witnessed adults... who want a car so bad for their collection that they will snatch the TOY... from the hands of a CHILD (who would actually recieve enjoyment from PLAYING WITH the toy). Sickening.
Granted, not all Hot Wheels collectors are like this, and I have witnessed a lot of generosity on Hot Wheels forums between collectors (I have been reading them a lot lately)... and there are elements of the coolness I witness in the action figure world. However, I have yet to witness this in person... I usually see these older guys rummaging through the pegs, becoming angry, and sometimes outright rude with cashiers for bagging or handling them wrong (god forbid you crease the flimsy cardboard!). I see collectors hiding their grabs from others, not sharing what is in their hands... even just to LOOK at.
I want to avoid this stigma. Yes, I have bought a lot of Hot Wheels recently (Meijer's had them at buy one, get one free... so basically, 44 cents a piece) - but mine are all getting cut up and repainted (eventually). Plus, I got a lot for Alex, who gets them as rewards when he does his weekly chores.
About five times in the last two weeks, the cashiers have asked me if I was a collector. I say "No, they're for my son." This comment is usually met with a sigh of relief... and then they toss the figures in a bag, usually with a story of a collector they had an encounter with in the last few days. I have never had that happen with action figures... never once in ten years. And I've bought a lot of action figures.
You do the math.
I get like this, and I am fully aware of it. I discover a new hobby, and it piques my interest. I then begin to devote time on the Internet examining it, and viewing works of others, and then I take it into my own hands. Such is the case with this Hot Wheels thing. I think part of it has to do with working in a new medium for me, metal, as well as the scale. Although, working in metal does require a lot more safety precautions... the microscopic metal shaving that is apparently imbedded in my left pinky finger can attest to that.
This whole Hot Wheels thing has forced me to examine a new culture - the "Hot Wheels Culture." Now, I used to play with Hot Wheels all the time as a kid (and I recently made a phone call to my Mom, who said yes, my duffel bag of Hot Wheels are still in the basement.) As a collector, I have never previously been interested in the world of Hot Wheels... too many variants, too many "exclusives," and the other collectors seem to be a bit too "fanatic." Recently, I have come to realize that Hot Wheels collectors are a very different breed of collector. More so than even action figures or comic books, it seems that Hot Wheel collectors can tend to be a bit obsessive, hanging out at the doors of stores to open, rummaging through the pegs, and fighting - yes, FIGHTING, over cars. Many stores, when you talk with the checkout folks and stockers, hate Hot Wheels collectors. The collectors are known by workers with their obsessive phone calls (asking when new stock is in,) leaving the aisles a mess after rummaging through the pegs (in their defense, the cars tend to fall off the pegs easily when looking... but at least pick them up!) and some get rather irate when their cars are mishandled in the checkout lane.
Yes... it is ridiculous.
Having primarily collected action figures for the past ten years or so, I haven't seen much of this type of behavior. If anything, every other figure collector I have encountered in stores has been nothing but cool. There is always the rogue scalper (who 9 times out of 10 look astonishingly like the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons) who does nothing but soak up "rare" figures to pawn off on eBay, but the majority of them are very civil.
When I attended "Midnight Madness" at Toys R Us earlier this year (the release of the Revenge of the Sith Star Wars figures), the fifty-plus geeks (myself included) got to open cases after cases of figures that were sitting out on palettes... and I witnessed a really cool phenomena that I have seen a lot of in action figure collecting: curteousy. People were opening boxes, grabbing the "rare" ones, and then putting them up in the air to see who needed one. Collectors were talking to each other, helping each other find characters the other was looking for, guarding each others' baskets, etc. It was cool.
Now I take you to another scenario - as described to me by a Hot Wheels collector (who himself, along with his wife, are very cool people and exceptions to the Hot Wheel collector stereotype): K-Mart "K-Day." A couple times a year, K-Mart has an event where they recieve some special cases of cars, and they have some exclusive repaints only found at K-Mart. In these cases, at a ratio of about 1 every 5 cases, there are the ever-sought-after "Treasure Hunt" cars. Very rare, very collectible... you get the idea. These events, as told by eyewitness account, have many times resulted in yelling, arguing, and fighting. Yes... FIGHTING. Over 99 cent toy cars. He has witnessed grown men snatching cars out of the hands of children. I'll say that again. He has witnessed adults... who want a car so bad for their collection that they will snatch the TOY... from the hands of a CHILD (who would actually recieve enjoyment from PLAYING WITH the toy). Sickening.
Granted, not all Hot Wheels collectors are like this, and I have witnessed a lot of generosity on Hot Wheels forums between collectors (I have been reading them a lot lately)... and there are elements of the coolness I witness in the action figure world. However, I have yet to witness this in person... I usually see these older guys rummaging through the pegs, becoming angry, and sometimes outright rude with cashiers for bagging or handling them wrong (god forbid you crease the flimsy cardboard!). I see collectors hiding their grabs from others, not sharing what is in their hands... even just to LOOK at.
I want to avoid this stigma. Yes, I have bought a lot of Hot Wheels recently (Meijer's had them at buy one, get one free... so basically, 44 cents a piece) - but mine are all getting cut up and repainted (eventually). Plus, I got a lot for Alex, who gets them as rewards when he does his weekly chores.
About five times in the last two weeks, the cashiers have asked me if I was a collector. I say "No, they're for my son." This comment is usually met with a sigh of relief... and then they toss the figures in a bag, usually with a story of a collector they had an encounter with in the last few days. I have never had that happen with action figures... never once in ten years. And I've bought a lot of action figures.
You do the math.
posted by pairadocs at 12:10
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