Why And When Did You Start Collecting?

[Shonisaurus]

I began to collect seriously dinosaurs since the late eighties precisely in 1989 my first figures were the prehistoric animals of Invicta and Safari. Although I was interested in dinosaurs and prehistoric animals from my earliest childhood that is from 1975-1976. Every year I asked at Christmas (in my country Reyes Magos) those figures and I always woke up on the night of Kings without those dinosaurs. My parents told me that the Magi had no chance of finding them because it cost them a lot of money. I simply resigned myself with stoicism until the following year, but I can assure you that the experience of a child is quite frustrating.

My interest in dinosaurs, as I mentioned on one occasion, was born when I saw Wald Disney's "Fantasia" movie with four years at the Gran Via movie theater and I remember that my father had to take me out to the street at the end of that episode. When the dinosaurs died strangely because I started crying a lot, I was very sorry to see the dinosaurs fall one after the other. Since then I am in love with dinosaurs.

The prehistoric world as well as reading books or immersing myself in exotic places (adventure books) make me forget for a moment the sad daily, personal and human reality that happens in the world. It is like a lenitive to all my frustrations and pains.

The dinosaurs and prehistoric animals is like my cloth of tears before so many problems and pains that neither I, nor anyone or anything can solve both as regards me and in relation to the rest of humanity apart from that I am excited about collecting and the prehistoric and non-prehistoric animals that fortunately exist on earth, still among us and if it depended on me, I would not wish for any of the current species to become extinct.

[sauroid]

i've always had dinosaurs/modern animal toys since very early childhood because of my inherent love for animals (and since i cant keep the real thing), and surprisingly ive taken care not to ruin any of them even during that time. when i was in my teen years thats when i started collecting them seriously and been accumulating for the past 15 years. i think i may have several thousands already (but unfortunately, incomplete). there were ups and downs, but i usually get back to collecting (thats also the time when im not interested in posting in forums and groups hence my absence).

[Sauropelta]

It started when I was looking up dinosaur art online and found pictures of toys/ figures. Then I saw everyone getting excited about jurassic world fk toys by mattel. I'm new to the hobby but I've owned dinosaur toys as a kid. The quality of figures is far better now.

[JohannesB]

In the late Seventies I got a present for Sinterklaas (the original Santa Claus), namely a Dimetrodon plastic model kit. I may already have been a Mesozoic life enthusiast since I was four years old, but that present set into motion a small spree of collecting dinosaur toy figures with which I was pretty happy, even though they were the usual ugly chinasaurs, of which I own none anymore. When the Invicta figures arrived - the first real museum quality dinosaur toy models - I started collecting those, and I am now the happy owner of the whole (original unpainted) series. In the Nineties and first decade of the XXI Century I bought a few model kits, including the Tony McVey Tyrannosaurus. In the last ten years or so, I started to collect even more, mainly Carnegie and Safari figures, and some Rebor, PNSO, Sega, Bullyland etc. We are truly living in the golden age of dinosaur (toy) models.

[dyno77]

so iv always been interested in dinosaurs, monsters and even cryptozoology . Also the history of dinosaurs in flims,books and other media esp how they make dinosaurs in flims . Iv got alot more figures now than i used to have and im glad i kept the old jurassic park 1-3 figures . Also have a few replica dinosaur teeth and some smaller skulls along with a few sideshow dinosaur figures.

[Spinokaprogorgon]

My dad always liked animals and he wanted me to like them too, so he bought me lots of books about them. Among these books, were the groovy tube books from innovative kids. These books had a tube on their side with mini figures in them, and a board game on the back. His plan for getting me interested in creatures worked, and so I started collecting figures of them. My first "serious" figures were the collecta lourinhanosaurus and flamingo. Many times when my dad came home, he came with a bag of figures. Mostly collecta, but I had my share of the occasional safari ltd, papo etc. After that, my collection grew bigger and bigger. Right now, I have 400+ figures in my collection and I'm still adding, and I thank my dad for it.

Thats my story. What got you collecting?

[Trenchcoated Rebbachisaur]

I tried collecting Playmobil animals to replicate the childhood feelings I had towards them, but realized they just kept disappointing me, and decided to switch to something more worthwhile. Massively miss the shared scale, though.
Animal and dinosaur figures appealed both by their "Play value", and the fact that I am now old enough to appreciate the artistry that goes into them. Although I am in the whole thing moreso for the genera of animals and not so much individual takes on them, though I guess that might still come later; I am pretty new to collecting, after all.

[Torvosaurus]

I've always liked animals for as long as I can remember. According to my mom, a guppy jumped out of dad's aquarium when I was 2-1/2 and I picked it up and kept saying "fish" until she looked at what I had in my hand. I wanted to be a zookeeper at 5 and a zoologist at 7, and I had hundreds of smaller toy animals that I took everywhere I could, especially to grandma's, because she'd give me a bowl of water to put the hippos and crocs in. Picked up a few Britains zoo animals in there somewhere. I started keeping fish when I was 14, and had around 20 tanks when I graduated from college, with a BS in Zoology. Then the oil refinery hit. I couldn't pass up on the money, so my future in the sciences passed me by.

I did expand the aquariums I had to around 60 tanks by 2020, breeding mostly Rift Valley cichlids, but not exclusively. I always *had* to expand my collection of gaming miniatures with animals and dinosaurs, so here about ten or twelve years ago I started collecting the well known brands of dinosaurs because there were just too few metal dinosaurs available at the 28mm scale. A few fit into the scale roughly, but most are too large.

Anyways, that's how I began collecting dinosaurs. After four years of dealing with strokes and the recent problems with my legs, I also plan to get my aquariums up and running again, though I'm gonna cut back on the number of tanks to around 40 or so, and plan to keep some amphibians and reptiles instead of just fish. We also have 11 cats and three dogs, so I guess I still just love my animals.

Torvo

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I've always been interested in animals and natural history for as long as I can remember. I had a lot of cheap animal toys-- many of them knock-off Britains, as a kid. At some point I noticed the selection of Safari ltd toys at A.C. Moore. As for dinosaurs and prehistoric life, I didn't want to have much to do with them until second grade when we got to learn about them in school. One assignment I had to do was create a shoebox diorama, so for it I got my first four prehistoric Wild Safari figures: Triceratops, Utahraptor, Pteranodon, and Brachiosaurus. The brachiosaurus didn't quite fit, but I did end up with a scene with a utahraptor trying to take eggs out of the triceratops' nest, and a pteranodon flying by. I never stopped collecting after that. This year will mark 20 years since I've been collecting prehistorics, probably 21 or more since I got my first Safari figure--the Holstein cow. I never counted, but I estimate that I now have at least 1,500 to potentially 2,000 figures across modern and prehistoric animals.

[Libraraptor]

I merged "What started your collection?" with the already existing "Why and When Did You Start Collecting?" thread,  since they deal with practically the same topic.

[Spinokaprogorgon]

I merged "What started your collection?" with the already existing "Why and When Did You Start Collecting?" thread,  since they deal with practically the same topic.

thanks . Didn't know there was another thread for this

[Halichoeres]

It'd fun to read people's stories of how they got into this hobby.

Torvo, I'd love to see photos of your tanks!

[PrimevalRaptor]

For me it started before I even got into kindergarten cause one day my mum brought home some UKRD dinosaurs home that she had as decoration on her office table and that kickstarted this whole avalanche, I don't think she expected that

[Stegotyranno420]

For me it started before I even got into kindergarten cause one day my mum brought home some UKRD dinosaurs home that she had as decoration on her office table and that kickstarted this whole avalanche, I don't think she expected that

I remember and love this story.
Its so similar to my own. When I was very young, I was obsessed with stuffed elephants, so one day my dad brought a bag of those little cheaposaurs in a attempt to get my mind into something else, and thus began "the whole avalanche"

[Totoro]

I got hooked when I was about 4 or 5 when, within a year or so, my dad took me to the traveling Sinclair Dinoland exhibit and our family visited the prehistoric halls at the Field Museum of Natural History.  I still have wax figures from the Dinoland Mold-a-Rama machines.  I also remember a serial TV story running around that time on WGN (on the morning Ray Raynor Show, maybe?) about some young boys getting lost on a rowboat trip and ending up in a land full of dinosaurs.  That was all too much for my heart to resist and I rapidly succumbed to an incurable case of dinofever that I still labor under today.