jumbo emotional issues

[truecrud]

Does anyone else ever get a little depressed when you see how much someone is asking for one of your top two jumbo grails? I have a top four jumbo grail dream. If I can get those four I can never collect again and be happy or at least not sad. I love jumbos and have no plans to stop collecting or to give up on my grail quests , but I find it very hard to even think about buying a toy that costs thousands more than my car.

[rodman75]

What are your grails and what are they asking for them?

[1oldrobot]

nope, i dont get depressed over toy robots.

[Derik]

Its better not to be broke and still have your dreams. Who knows what could happen.
You may just find them yet

[bourno]

Okay, I am almost scared to ask which four are your dream jumbos. Am hoping Voltes is not one of them I am pondering about scaling up a papercraft version and then I can say I have him Maybe we need to get some super hi-res photos from others and make a nice print out, put him a cardboard stand in the back row. And voila!, most wouldn't realize from a distance that it is just a life-size photo. Trying to throw some humor in the mix there.

Good or bad, it does seem the last year or so, has been popular with buying jumbos. Hard to say if this trend will continue or decline over the next few years. I agree on some of the prices, but it is the old "supply and demand" issue.

We may get to the point like Mike Deco and print out our own jumbos. The tech for doing that is coming along pretty quickly on the home hobbyist scale.

[Dragonclaw]

I won't say I get depressed...There's only a few I want as well. But I actually LIKE having some really lofty goals. With so few pieces left that I truly want to add, most of those (some Popy vehicles and a few straggling ST figures I still want) can be snapped up quickly if I go for 1-2 a paycheck....so having a big gun out there to hunt is something that helps make the hunt still fun....the only real downside is just how rarely some of those big guns come up nowadays more than the price the command. (My own grails are currently Voltes V, Sun Vulcan, Leopardon, Tetsujin and an Addams Family pinball machine)

[luclin999]

Like Bourno and some others here, I enjoy both the thrill of hunting for my desired items as well as attempting to rebuild/restore less than perfect pieces back up into something worth displaying.

And while I expect that in another year or two 3D printers will end up being very useful in helping us with restoration projects I personally would be disinclined to want to produce a complete "Build your own Voltes" kit from nothing but reprinted parts.

I still want to have as much of the figure as possible be comprised of original parts.

Making a replacement wing for your incomplete Dangard? Sure! Producing an entire jumbo from a 3D scan of the original... For me, not so much.

[mikedeco]

You don't have to be depress about that. Of course if you want to have a full complete collection quickly or get all your grails right now, it will require a certain amount of money. But the fact that we call them grails, is because they're far from easy to get, and it all depend on the medium you use to get them.
A grail for somebody might look like an easy piece for somebody else, but there's sill a chance you can find one for cheap one day.
Patience is something that most people in this hobby have forgot today. A long time ago, way before I start collecting, YJP was not there, and most of the old time collectors had to travel to Japan to get some Machinders, then in the early age of YJP it was hard to get something rare as they didn't pop out so often.
Now it seem that most people want everything now and want to have theire dream piece straight after starting collecting. It's ok if you have the cash, but if you don't, just try to have some plan, like spare a lot for a few month or year to get your dream piece, look around and learn how to search on the internet, sometimes there's misslabeled items that will sell for cheaper than a regular auction.

As for playing with 3D print, it's a fun way of creating some missing parts to restore JM, and building a full jumbo is for me more like a way to mix all my passions, 3D modeling/Jumbos/Model making and use this to create the one that are insanely expensive and rare, but deep inside me I keep dreaming that one day I will be able to get the real one, and that is what is motivating me. I keep dreaming about finding them in a small toy shop somewhere in Japan during a little trip there. It's good to dream

[Mr. Ginrai]

I am not a jumbo collector but I will offer you some good advice as I know how you feel. Will post it up later as I am not home so I can't sit down and post with a clear head at the moment.

[magengar]

I'm not depressed at all; at least not when I'm not thinking about it.

There's lots of grails I want, besides jumbos, and many of them aren't
even expensive... I'm just watching my budget and putting my priorities
in perspective these days.

Two weeks ago I landed a slightly better-paying restaurant dish-washing job
(the Wine Bar & Bistro on Lark Street in Albany)...
I just moved into a new pad (a nice room in a house in Troy, in upper
Lansingburgh- - those of you in my region know the area)... it's too nice...
...so nice I'm not allowed to smoke inside! lol
Anyway, I'm still trying to settle into my new gigs and digs; so I gotta
watch my budget in the next couple months.
I'll sneak a few dollars into a jar in case I see anymore beat-up
jumbos I might want at eBay or here at RJ sometime down the road.

My only fear is that this Re-circulation of Jumbos could someday
fade or die off the map replaced by the D.I.Y.-at-Home Jumbos trend;
in which case I'll be forced to join shampoo bottles together to form
my own jumbos. lol ;D

Otherwise, as long as this hobby persists, I have nothing to worry.

zozo-mag

[Mr. Ginrai]

Every collector genre or toyline has its own grails. Then we all have our personal ones. You have to learn to balance things, remembering that your well being (and your family's, if this applies to you). Unless you have piles of money and you can just buy what you want.

You need to stick to the thrill of the hunt no matter how expensive some of the toys you want are. There is no fun in getting it all overnight. In most cases there will always be another one or a better one if you miss the next one that comes up because of bad timing, money going toward something else, etc. Believe me, you don't want to get into the endless cycle of upgrading to a better figure you already have and reselling the old one. You won't find absolute perfection especially with vintage.

Find the balance between price and condition and boxed and loose you are comfortable with and go for it. Collecting is about filling the holes of what you don't have. Ask yourself if you really need it, and do you want to do a whole line or just a few. A $4000 wall full of toys can be less impressive than a $4000 display case that holds two and vice versa, but it is about what YOU want. The idea is to really focus, and not get caught up buying the bullsh*t and/or additional merchandise that plagues modern toys and collectibles. To give you an idea from an expensive automobile perspective: you might want a Ferrari. You might never be able to afford a new one for $300,000 (just for the car), but there may be an older used Ferrari that you want and will be able to afford (say $80,000) and you can even cover the maintenance even though it costs thousands and thousands of dollars for a regular service. You could easily afford it and establish a budget that wont affect your money for necessities, but instead you have a house full of Ferrari memorabilia that you can't use or drive, you just display it. It makes you somewhat happy but you are still sad in some respects. I'm not saying you should have nothing at all, but if you had bought 75% less "stuff" than you had, you could have a little bit of cool stuff and most likely the car. Now apply that to toys.

Again, It's all about the focus and what YOU really want. Once you get that pinned down it doesn't matter if it takes days or years to finish collecting four or four hundred toys. What you don't buy now will probably continue to increase in value and get even crazier in most cases (has happened to alot of us) but if you budget properly for what you truly desire and lay off the extras, that insane cost won't matter and you'll truly be able to smile. Be patient, realign your focus and priorities, and stay on the hunt. And as always, good luck!

[truecrud]

I don't really get depressed when I see the prices it just hits me how I wish I was even older than I really am just so I could have got them at lower prices. ;D My jumbos don't have to be perfect. I love the little flaws and scratches that make each one unique. It is fun to see these jumbos come up for sale. I watch items that I have no hope of buying just so I can see what they go for and to know that some one some where just won an amazing collect able. I will never stop watching and collecting jumbos. I got Godzilla from a neighbor as a kid and my friends had Mazinga and Gaiking. These things have been an obsession of mine for years and I look forward to the day that we can make parts for them with a 3D printer.

Rodman I will send you a pm with my grails so I don't break the no talking about current auctions rule.

[luclin999]

Another thing to remember about "Grail" jumbos is that the original manufacturer (or whoever ended up owning their property if they were bought out) may always decide to reissue them again if they feel like it.

Bandai/U5 tried that 13 years ago and stopped due to poor sales however Bandai also has a tendency to try to capitalize on anniversaries and with the 40th anniversaries for the various jumbo releases coming up over the next few years I wouldn't put it past them to try to run off a commemorative batch of some of the Jumbos.

Especially since they probably still have the molds for at least Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, Gaiking, and Combattler V from the U5 run.

But even if that doesn't happen all it would take is a successful re-launch of any of the various anime properties that the Jumbos are based off which could also inspire a reissue of the classic figures as well.

[truecrud]

If all It takes is a relaunch. Then somebody needs to get their butt in gear and start a new Combattler and Jeeg adventure hour. We never got Jeeg in the US did we? I don't know..but it would be AWESOME!

[xiombarg]

Sept 30, 2012 23:26:01 GMT -5 Mr. Ginrai said:

There is no fun in getting it all overnight. In most cases there will always be another one or a better one if you miss the next one that comes up because of bad timing, money going toward something else, etc. Believe me, you don't want to get into the endless cycle of upgrading to a better figure you already have and reselling the old one.

So true...
Even with relatively scarce vintage, there's always another one.
A good rule of thumb for all collecting is to only buy something if you can afford it. And that's not just if you can manage to scrape up the cash, but can you really afford it? If not, you shouldn't even debate it. There will be another one, and it's not worth sacrificing your well being for something that looks cool on your shelf. Just wait until the time is right, or better yet, plan ahead, so that when the next one comes around, you will be ready and not have to fret about it.

Of course I'm speaking rhetorically about this, but whatever you decide, just make the choice that makes the most sense for your situation.

[magengar]

Mr. Ginrai said it best, he spoke of Focus
and "...there's no fun in getting it all overnight.".....

I miss the good ol days when I waited weeks between weeks
to get specimens in the mail. Back then my income was better;
and I enjoyed the look on my housemates' faces as they
watched me pull another package out of the mailbox
("...another robot this week, Tony?") lol
When I didn't have PayPal nor credit cards I used to set
money aside as Money-Orders for whatever I wanted.
Things like that were fun, and I miss it.

As soon as I joined RJ my collection grew within a few months
full of some known items from the '90s and forward, mostly with
Mazinger items because that was what I wanted to focus on.
Or, at least I thought so; when I realized I couldn't have Mazinger-Z
items without Great Mazinger and Mazinkaiser stuff to elaborate
upon the evolution of the Mazinger robot character... and then, of course,
I felt I haaad to have their "cousin" Grendizer in that mix. lol
I further strayed from focus by grabbing up items of other robot
characters from my childhood memories (Raydeen, and
Johnny Sokko's Giant Robot).

Meanwhile, I watched as other items began to appear in my vision,
such as the Fewter Gigabyte Mazinger bigger-than-jumbos figures.
Man, I'd rampage for one of those! That's one of my grails***
(***hard to get, because of finances and limited knowledge of
the mediums to get one).
I know someday I'll have one... I'm not depressed about not having
a Gigabyte Maz, because I don't think about it. I guess you can
call it "blind patience" -or- I'm easily distracted by all the other
eye-candies I see here at RJ and online, that I don't wake up
everyday screaming to have whatever it is I want.

Throughout my collection growth, I acquired additional items
that are just fillers for shelf space. They too intrigue me;
and even though they're just fillers, they are fillers I might
never see again. At least I'm happy to have them.

And then, there are things I want and would like to have,
but I'd have to make them from scratch or customized from
other toys... lately I don't have the time and the resources
to get those projects going; while others remain unfinished.
That kind of a "grail" is my own self-punishment for being
so lazy and unmotivated. lol

I guess I'll feel depressed someday later in life at a very old age
when I find myself saying "Damn, I shoulda gotten that, or done
that sooner when I had the opportunity".
I may not have the toy of my dreams in my hands, but I'll always
enjoy having the dream in my heart.

zozo-mag