Do you collect anything else?

[Cloud the Dinosaur King]

I forgot, I also collect dead praying mantids. I know it sound weird, but Entomologists do it too. Here is a picture of one(not mine). If you want to see mine, let me know.

Praying mantises are quite cool. That leafy one of yours totally looks like one of those Giger aliens with that head.

Like I said, this isn't my collection sadly. I will take pictures of it when I get home.

[Ravonium]

Like I said, this isn't my collection sadly. I will take pictures of it when I get home.

This can be made up for by the mantises you're probably getting as pets. Even then, I'll still look at your collection.

[OpalornisHuali]

I have always been a collector of many things, since I was very young. However in my mid teens I sold off almost all of every collection I had. One of my biggest mistakes.

My main collection is vintage talking and animatronic toys, my favourite in that is Furbies. Once I had over 100 Furbies and similar toys. I love robotic animals in general, and I also collect Teddy Ruxpin and other cassette talking toys. As of now I have more of those, including rare ones.

I collect vintage stuffed animals as well, and antique/vintage dolls..

Also I like retro game consoles and am going to start up my Tamagotchi-style virtual pet collection again.

I am an avid thrifter when I have the money to do so, and I love saving old things from the second hand stores and markets.

I used to be very heavily into oddities, such as taxidermy and other biological specimens. However I'm also a very very strong animal lover, and anti-hunting, so it seems hypocritical to collect such things even if vintage or claimed to be cruelty-free (you can never really know) . However I will pick up bones and feathers I find in the woods. I have a cat (domestic/feral) skull, but that's it for now. One day I hope to find reptile skulls somewhere out in the wild. There are many iguanas and other lizards where I live, so I have a good chance of finding a skull.

And of course, I love animal figures. But I'm new to collecting them.

[Newt]

Lizard and snake skulls are fragile and seldom found intact. If you are not too squeamish, your best bet for obtaining one is to find a relatively freshly dead animal and prep the skull yourself. I can give you some advice if you want to try it!

[Kaprosaurus]

I collect books and magazines.But the magazine i'm collecting is having it's last issue this month so I have to find a new hobby.Might as well go back to my happy meal toy collection,I have a large portion of my collection that consists of happy meal toys.

[OpalornisHuali]

Lizard and snake skulls are fragile and seldom found intact. If you are not too squeamish, your best bet for obtaining one is to find a relatively freshly dead animal and prep the skull yourself. I can give you some advice if you want to try it!

Oh, I'm not so sure I can do that myself...
How about burying the body, marking the grave and coming back to unearth it after about six months?

[stargatedalek]

Lizard and snake skulls are fragile and seldom found intact. If you are not too squeamish, your best bet for obtaining one is to find a relatively freshly dead animal and prep the skull yourself. I can give you some advice if you want to try it!

Oh, I'm not so sure I can do that myself...
How about burying the body, marking the grave and coming back to unearth it after about six months?

You'd encounter the same fragility issues, but you can probably find yourself some flesh eating beetles or the like to do all the gory parts for you and save you ever needing to watch it. If there are any local taxidermy shops you can always contact them and inquire if they would be willing to sell you any bones, typically with small animals like reptiles the skeletons aren't used in the actual taxidermy and get thrown out so they might even be willing to give you some.

[OpalornisHuali]

Lizard and snake skulls are fragile and seldom found intact. If you are not too squeamish, your best bet for obtaining one is to find a relatively freshly dead animal and prep the skull yourself. I can give you some advice if you want to try it!

Oh, I'm not so sure I can do that myself...
How about burying the body, marking the grave and coming back to unearth it after about six months?

You'd encounter the same fragility issues, but you can probably find yourself some flesh eating beetles or the like to do all the gory parts for you and save you ever needing to watch it. If there are any local taxidermy shops you can always contact them and inquire if they would be willing to sell you any bones, typically with small animals like reptiles the skeletons aren't used in the actual taxidermy and get thrown out so they might even be willing to give you some.

I don't think we have any taxidermy shops locally, but if there were, it would depend on where they got the animal (ie, wild/roadkill vs purposefully shot by humans) as I definitely don't want to support the killing of animals..

I suppose we'll see what happens, if I do find a dead reptile I can try just burying the body, it won't hurt to try even if it doesn't work out in the end.

[BlueKrono]

I found a roadkill snapping turtle once and took the head home, buried it in the backyard for a year (overwinter) and dug it up. All the flesh gone. Soaked it in bleach for a few hours. Presumably sterilized, but it still didn't get very white - it's kind of a yellowish hue.

[Lanthanotus]

I found a roadkill snapping turtle once and took the head home, buried it in the backyard for a year (overwinter) and dug it up. All the flesh gone. Soaked it in bleach for a few hours. Presumably sterilized, but it still didn't get very white - it's kind of a yellowish hue.

How yellow, grey or white bones will be after preparation seems to be related (next to other aspects probably) to the age of the animal aswell as the state of decay the corpse was when preparation began. Bones of animals in a advanced state of decay will never fade to a fine and bright white. However, also on fresh corpse of fully grown animals, certain bones are more calcified than others, so the overall composition of a single bone is also a matter. In varanid lizards for example the lower mandible is comprised of several different bones where the most front one (Dentale) is comparably dense and whitens fine, while the connecting Supraangulare (the one with the jaw hinge) stays yellowish no matter what you do (besides painting it ).

[OpalornisHuali]

My cat skull is almost completely white, and the flesh decayed naturally as I found it in the woods. Scavengers probably helped a lot with that. There were no other bones around.
I didn't do anything but wipe with hydrogen peroxide as it had really no flesh at all. It was just as white before cleaning as it was after.

Perhaps conditions like being buried vs being out in the open also affect the colour, as well as the climate. Flesh decays fast in the tropics.

Overall, I don't mind yellowing. I think it gives the bone an authentic, aged look.

[jack91]

Loved the site about crappy taxidermy, never really got into that stuff myself but I did launch a website selling similar stuff. Id love to hear your thoughts on it. you can find it at Skull Savvy . Anyway, awesome forum here. Keep up the awesome work! Looking forward to hearing some thoughts!

[FPP]

In addition to extinct animal figures, I collect model cars (mostly kits but also diecast), Christmas ornaments (mainly gold or silver plated), and hosta. I also have many CDs, records, and magazines, although I don't really call those collections. I used to collect stamps many, many years ago. I guess I'm just compulsive.

[Concavenator]

Can't say I collect these, but Naruto has always been my favorite series, so I figured I'd at least get some representative collectibles:



Just 3 volumes and a figure of Sasuke Uchiha. No plans for getting any more atm.

[crazy8wizard]

I hadn't realized we had this thread, but among other things, my favorite thing to collect aside from prehistoric models is chemical elements!
I have a box that has dozens of samples of either pure elements or compounds that contain said element. I typically like to find items that have a practical use for the respective element, but I'm all for it if I can find a pure sample.

Some I had to get crafty with since the element in question is deadly radioactive, illegal to own, or only exists for seconds at a time. A good example is Francium (not pictured in this photo unfortunately) you can't get Francium anywhere, BUT there's a mineral called Thorite that might occasionally have an atom decay into Francium. I'm also taking care to keep samples of radioactive elements small so the radiation levels are insignificant.

There are a few elements I acquired after taking this picture, so they are not featured here.

[bmathison1972]

I don't remember this thread either.

Visiting baseball stadiums is another big hobby of mine, everything from NCAA college to the major leagues, and I collect one scorecard and, if available, one ice cream helmet from each stadium I visit. I may get additional scorecards if the stadium or team names changes (or if I score something exciting, like a no-hitter) and likewise I'll get more helmets if the design changes.

I used to collect stadium giveaways (e.g., bobbleheads), but I gave most away and only do scorecards and helmets now.

[Lanthanotus]

I hadn't realized we had this thread, but among other things, my favorite thing to collect aside from prehistoric models is chemical elements!
I have a box that has dozens of samples of either pure elements or compounds that contain said element. I typically like to find items that have a practical use for the respective element, but I'm all for it if I can find a pure sample.
[...]

That is quite a nice collection. I think an article in xkcd`s "What if?" ist dedicated to the possibilities, risks, dangers and impossibilities of such an collection (in its pure form)

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

I have a decent sized collection of DnD miniatures, actually now that I think about it that's not too dissimilar from collecting Dino figures.

[Gwangi]

I might have contributed to this thread in the past but I can't remember. Anyway, in addition to dinosaurs I now also collect extant animals. I tend to be pickier with extant animals though, choosing one figure-per species and not really delving into vintage toys and action figures like I do with the dinosaurs. I also lightly dabble in other toys, like movie monsters and cryptids, but not enough to say that I collect them.

I have a large collection of books and movies but I wouldn't say I "collect" them. I get them for entertainment and educational purposes, I'm not buying them for display or to complete a set or anything.

My home is basically a natural history museum. It's full of skulls, fossils, taxidermy, animal pelts, natural history artwork, bird decoys, etc. but I wouldn't say I collect any of those things, that's just what I decorate my home with. Likewise, I have a lot of beer steins, decanters, coffee mugs, and baseball caps but they're not collections either.

So basically, I only collect animal and dinosaur toys and have a bunch of stuff that might appear to be collections but actually just represents several decades of slowly accumulating stuff that I like.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I also have a decent assortment of reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates that I keep as pets. Never liked the idea of "collecting" living things. It's just another hobby that some folks might regard as a collection.

[JimoAi]

I'm a pretty big Spongebob SquarePants collector and a pokemon card collector. Am a cosplayer but I've recently been called out for my attitude