Miku's Guide to Toy Collecting

Hi Everyone! Miku here, sharing my own thoughts on Toy Collecting. Well, My current collection isn't much and aint hard to get but It doesn't matter. As long as I enjoy it, and I still can I'll keep on collecting.

Note: What is written here are all my opinions so it might be different from what other people's point of view and belief. Post will be updated and if you have any concerns don't hesitate to message me or post a comment here.

What is Toy Collecting?

Toy Collecting - the hobby of gathering a group of figures and toys.

Elements of Toy Collecting

• Seeking - trying to discover, search or locate and obtain.
• Locating - finding the right place for the right stuff.
• Acquiring - obtaining.
• Organizing - the art of arranging into an order depending in toy-line, genre, characters, etc.
• Cataloging - process of listing.
• Displaying - exhibiting or showing whether in private or publicly.
• Storing - keeping and securing item condition.
• Maintaining - securing each item is in excellent condition.
• Modifying - modification of item is necessary if enhancement want to be made or simply articulation or other feature is not met.
• Fixing - fixing a damage item to bring it back in condition.
• Customizing - modifying based on owner's design or simply modifying an item to create another item that doesn't exist.

Some Keywords to Remember:

• MISB [Mint in Sealed Box] - item still in it's factory condition, never been opened and still in it's original seal.
• MIB [Mint in Box] - item still in great condition, either taken out of the box for inspection or checking only- unsealed.
• LIB [Loose In Box] - item has been taken out either for display but still has it's original container and was put back in.
• Loose [No Box] - item can still be in good condition or in bad condition like loose joints and chipped paints.
• MOC [Mint on Card] - Item still intact on it's original sealed card container.
• LOC [Loose on Card] - Item already took out for display but still has it's original card container.
• Defective - item has been damaged. Damage can be loose joints, chip paints, wrong part - it can be caused by the previous owner or the manufacturer.
• Bootleg - are copies of a certain item from a third party manufacturer. Bootlegs are considered only as a bootleg when it has a certain item that has been copied from. Usually quality is bad.
• Class A - are sold items in which were not approve by the manufacturers QA and considered as rejects. Usually, commoners call them as bootlegs as well.
• Third Party - usually found in model kits, third party's are usualy created for modification or customization to copy or create a certain item in which the manufacturer didn't produced. Some Third Party are even recognized by some Manufacturers as well.
• Fodders - are loose parts coming in from various kits. Can be used as a spare, for modification or for customization.
• Limited Edition - are items usually sold in a given period of time.
• Web Exclusive - are items acquiring by ordering online. No worries a lot of independet sellers now a days accepts orders of items under this specification.

Some Kinds of Toy Collection

Classification for toy collecting is really big, depending on what you want. So, I'll try to classify those.

Collection	Focus	Sample
Model Kits	focuses on model kit's such as Cars, Ships or Mecha	Tamiya Cars, Gunplas
PVC Figures	focuses on PVC made figures mostly anime.	One Piece PVC's, Gashapons
Statues	focuses on movie statues usually in large scales.	Movie Statues such as Predator Head Bust, Game and Hero Statues
Single Character Collection	focuses on a single icon and collects every version from a simple gachapon to a statue.	Deadpool Collection, Wolverine Collection
Action Figures	focuses on mostly figures that has articulation that's why they're are called Action Figures.	Marvel Legends, DC Direct
Ball Joint Dolls	assembled dolls with ball joints as articulation, collectors usually focuses on one and collects clothes as enhancement instead.
Dolls		Barbie, Sylvanian Dolls
Kids Meal	Toy's from fastfood chain meals.
Retro Toys	Old toys, from old times - usually the classic one.
Mecha	various collection of robots.	Gundam, Transformers
Mixed	Mixed Collection containing various toy lines and most common of all.

Still, there are still more types of collection but still the bestest one is Mixed since your choices will always be limited.

Some Kinds of Collector

Yes, of course there are these kind of collectors and they can be classified and identifed too

• Mixed Collector - collects evrything that catches their eyes.
• Boxed Collectors - collects but never took items out to keep them in excellent condition - usually done to Limited items to increase price.
• Loose Collectors - prefer loos items.
• Bulky COllectors - collector large scaled items.
• Bootleg Collectors - appreciates bootlegs because he thinks it's more wise to buy than buying aithentic ones.

Well, no offense for the last one but yeah people like that exist. Am I right?

Tips on Toy Collecting

• Know What you want to collect.
• Know your budget and your maximum output to acquire one.
• Know your target.
• Budget your acquisition value - know whether the item is overpriced.
• Know where to buy - usually some of the good stuff is away from you, but finding legit and trusted sellers is a must.
• Be careful of whom you meet and shipping to avoid scams, investigate first before commiting to avoid lose or stuff like that.
• Research, research, research.
• Mingle with people with the same interest and Join groups, a lot can be found in facebook nowadays.

Bootleg

First of all, I not really against about Bootlegs just to make things clear.

The Advantage of Bootlegs are actually you can use it for modification and also use it as your testing grounds.

The Disadvantage - well it destroys the manufacturers itself. Why and How? IT lowers their sales since some people will choose cheap stuff than buying expensive authentic ones. So it means they will lose sales and targets will never be met - might lead to bankcruptcy. So, no offense guys. :)

So there you go, hope you guys had gained a little knowledge to my little guide. Happy Toy Collecting Guys!