A guide to new collectors (V.1) Do's and Don'ts

[RobinGoodfellow]

For sure I'm not able to give any advice about how a collection should be.
But I could give some strictly personal opinions about how a collection should NOT look like:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdv_NNC1e4w&t=786s


Tons and tons and tons of figures, one over other, no one clearly visible nor visually enhanced.


Take care and Regards

[Libraraptor]

Honestly, I love that eclectic stacking approach in this video as much  as I love the what I call the "minimalist - study and  ivory tower" - collection approach. The only taboo for me would be to stack resin or porcelain or brittle  figures, which do deserve space.

[BrontoScorpio]

yikes,
I was looking for the halfway sawed woman corpse to suddenly appear

[Libraraptor]

yikes,
I was looking for the halfway sawed woman corpse to suddenly appear

Made my day!

[Gwangi]

Yikes! Watching that video gives me anxiety. A collection is only as nice as how it's displayed, I prefer a quality over quantity approach. I'm familiar with crowded shelves but stacking? Never. The day I don't have room to display my collection is the day I start culling it.

[RobinGoodfellow]

yikes,
I was looking for the halfway sawed woman corpse to suddenly appear

.. even if I didn't want to say so, I thought the same..   

[DragonRider02]

This collection could be easily improved by simply buying shelf inserts at IKEA...
Lookng at the video thumbnail alone I can see lots of wasted space becouse of not using some kind of simple shelf risers...

[Antey]

in my humble opinion; which brands or scale or species etc. to collect; how to display or not to display them,... is the collectors own business. what to do or to do not is up to the collector and concerns nobody else.

I completely agree that the "guide" presented here is just a private opinion of a person. And this guide should contain universal and really useful tips. So I'm sorry, but the topic is not covered at all. The only valuable thing is maintenance and repair. But the author himself does not write anything about this and asks for help in this matter.

[Crackington]

I think you could say that about every single post on the forum, they are all just private opinions of individuals. I think the point of the thread is to encourage people to post their tips on collecting, to help new collectors in particular. It's not a set of strict rules as such.

Here's one from me, though admittedly not original. Try experimenting with using plastic and other packaging waste material to use as bases, "plinths" etc for your models. This can repurpose materials, save them from a landfill and save you some money. For example, the plastic bits from the middle of pizzas are great to show off Kaiyodos (but don't forget to give them a clean first!).

[Nimravus]

From my point of view, I will add some tips I do follow:
- Scale. I usually follow your rule, unless I really like the figure or it is the only one in the market under that scale. Moreover, I normally collect prehistoric animals with a standard scale of 1/25 -1/15.
-Buy figures. I just buy the figure when I have seen it from different  points of view and from different sources, and I check the threads from the forum to look for opinions about it. At the beginning, I rushed to buy some figures, that were not especially expensive, but some of them immediately disappointed me after unwrapping the package. There is RobinGoodfellow's phrase that I try to follow as much as I can:
Never judge a three-dimensional figure by a picture: see it first with your own eyes ! "

[Gwangi]

I think the most valuable advice I can give as a veteran collector is to worry less about the new stuff that's coming out and focus on what's being discontinued. I don't know how many figures I've let slip through the cracks because I figured I could just "buy them later". Granted, if you have the money to buy everything when it's new then it doesn't matter when we retire. But for budget conscious collectors, knowing what will be retired is critical. Don't take the current production status of something for granted.

Also, if you genuinely don't like something, don't buy it. Don't settle for less than you want just because it might represent a species you desire. For example, I wanted a Baryonyx for a very long time. For awhile, every company was releasing one and I was tempted by all of them. Papo, Mojo, CollectA. But I didn't actually like any of them. So I waited, and now I have the fantastic Safari Baryonyx. I'm so happy I didn't waste my time buying something I didn't want just to fill a gap in my collection. Chances are that if one company makes it, someone else eventually will too. Speaking of which, I should probably take my own advice with regards to Schleich's Nothosaurus. 

[stargatedalek]

I also recommend against using a pot of boiling water to fix bent figures. If the plastic touches the metal on the sides or bottom of the pot it will be damaged. Safer to pour the water into a mug (or microwave it in a microwave safe mug to begin with) and put the figure in that.

[Brontozaurus]

A guide for beginners is a great idea! I think though many of your do's are the kind of things you only learn after experimenting; for example scale is something you only really get an idea of when you've got a few different figures displayed together and you know how big these animals were in reality, and even then you might not care too much about it (I know I don't). Therefore an important 'do' might be just to have fun starting off with collecting whatever you think is cool, and from there figuring out how you want to collect.

Some other tips I think would be useful:
- DO consider how much space you have available for display and storage, particularly when it comes to larger figures. If your collection is eating into your available storage space for practical stuff, maybe hold off on that JP Legacy Brachiosaurus.
- DON'T feel obligated to buy specific figures/companies. Maybe everyone's raving about Wild Safari but do those figures appeal to you?
- DON'T feel like you have to hold on to everything you buy. If something's disappointing or you just don't feel like keeping it around anymore, consider passing it on.

[Libraraptor]

in my humble opinion; which brands or scale or species etc. to collect; how to display or not to display them,... is the collectors own business. what to do or to do not is up to the collector and concerns nobody else.

I completely agree that the "guide" presented here is just a private opinion of a person. And this guide should contain universal and really useful tips. So I'm sorry, but the topic is not covered at all. The only valuable thing is maintenance and repair. But the author himself does not write anything about this and asks for help in this matter.

@Antey, this reads to me like an accusation.  I find it strange that you don´t directly address "the author" in order to tell him what it was you have been expecting from a thread like this. And if you know, why don´t you give your personal advice or tell us about your own rules?

[Antey]

in my humble opinion; which brands or scale or species etc. to collect; how to display or not to display them,... is the collectors own business. what to do or to do not is up to the collector and concerns nobody else.

I completely agree that the "guide" presented here is just a private opinion of a person. And this guide should contain universal and really useful tips. So I'm sorry, but the topic is not covered at all. The only valuable thing is maintenance and repair. But the author himself does not write anything about this and asks for help in this matter.

@Antey, this reads to me like an accusation.  I find it strange that you don´t directly address "the author" in order to tell him what it was you have been expecting from a thread like this. And if you know, why don´t you give your personal advice or tell us about your own rules?

I would like to clarify the situation - is criticism unacceptable on this forum? In the topic, you can only contact the author of the topic, you can't contact others? Regarding my own guide - I, unlike the author, do not consider myself competent enough to advise local collectors, some of whom have been engaged in this hobby for more than half a century.

[Lynx]

in my humble opinion; which brands or scale or species etc. to collect; how to display or not to display them,... is the collectors own business. what to do or to do not is up to the collector and concerns nobody else.

I completely agree that the "guide" presented here is just a private opinion of a person. And this guide should contain universal and really useful tips. So I'm sorry, but the topic is not covered at all. The only valuable thing is maintenance and repair. But the author himself does not write anything about this and asks for help in this matter.

I hate to be rude, but this is a guide where it states this is an opinion, and you can choose your own style of collecting.
It also mentions that this is a work in progress, and if you actually read the guide instead of glancing over it, you'd notice this chapter is not meant to give tons of tips. You make it sound like this is completely finished, and it is not. The point of me asking for help is so I can make more chapters that the forum generally agrees with, like ideas for what to do with figure care. 
If you have ever read guides for games or drawing, you will know that some stuff will be opinion, and this guide states twice that the chapter it covers first is mostly opinion.
I am half convinced you have not read it carefully, for if you did you would notice details that you ignore in your ranting.

If you have this big of a problem with the guide, you can private message me about this and we can find a way to fix it to make it more helpful. I do not wish to cause even more arguments in these threads with you.  @Antey

The next chapter covers stuff like fixing warping figures and taking care of figurines, in general, more, but I am still working on it.

[Halichoeres]

If you have to put bipeds or narrow-gauge quadrupeds in storage for any length of time, keep the feet facing upward and be generous with packing material, or you'll warp the legs.

Also, if you genuinely don't like something, don't buy it. Don't settle for less than you want just because it might represent a species you desire. For example, I wanted a Baryonyx for a very long time. For awhile, every company was releasing one and I was tempted by all of them. Papo, Mojo, CollectA. But I didn't actually like any of them. So I waited, and now I have the fantastic Safari Baryonyx. I'm so happy I didn't waste my time buying something I didn't want just to fill a gap in my collection. Chances are that if one company makes it, someone else eventually will too. Speaking of which, I should probably take my own advice with regards to Schleich's Nothosaurus. 

I regretted buying the Papo Baryonyx for this reason, although I think there's a limit to this logic. Baryonyx is one of the more famous dinosaurs, and has a built-in fan base in a wealthy, populous country because of its provenance. But it's been a solid decade since anybody has made a Nothosaurus, and before that it had been another decade. Schleich's Dinogorgon isn't perfect, but it's very unlikely anybody will ever make another. Yowie's Strepsodus from 2000 is still the only rhizodont of any kind that anybody has made, and nobody has made a new Sphenacodon since the 1960s. Personally, I'll buy a never-been-made taxon from any company specifically with the intent of rewarding them for taking the chance, but I no longer buy 2% improvements on popular animals, given the inevitability of a 4% improvement a year or three later.


Back to the OP, a piece of advice that's maybe more about attitude than logistics: it's easy when you've been collecting a while to get the idea that your approach to collecting is the only right one (and to be clear @Lynx I am not accusing you of this). Sometimes I catch myself thinking that it's very silly that somebody bought X just because it had a bit part in a bad movie, or that somebody bought Y just to complete the set, or that somebody chased down Z merely because it is a rare variant. But this is an intrinsically silly hobby; there is no such thing as a rational collector.
@RobinGoodfellow said on this forum once:
"There are many reasons why a collector loves or hates a model.
As you can see on this forum, every collector has a different idea about collecting.
Halichoeres likes the  scientific accuracy; others guys like the hyper-realism in a model.
Some collectors like the rarity while others like vintage models.
There are guys collecting every single dino from a specific company ( as Invicta Plastics ).
Others collect all models of a specific species ( only Triceratops from different companies).
Someone likes only a model in a specific scale ( only 1:40 models ).
There are resin-kit fans while others like to customize pre-existing models.
And all of them are right  "

[Concavenator]

This guide might be useful for starters who have no clue on where to start or are simply looking for advice. I do agree with the part of maintenance being appreciated and valuable, but anything else from what models to get to how to display them, and so on, is totally up to the collector. Please, don't take offense (I can see the good intentions behind this thread), @Lynx  but if any other person from the forum had started this guide, we would surely give different pieces of advice, and that's perfectly fine, as @Halichoeres and @RobinGoodfellow said, there's nothing wrong or right in this hobby. As a hobby, you should enjoy it, and what better way to do so than collecting the way you like (or/and listening to some advice, if you wish). If you want to take some advice, then good, but nobody's opinion here should be more important than yours.

[Gwangi]

I regretted buying the Papo Baryonyx for this reason, although I think there's a limit to this logic. Baryonyx is one of the more famous dinosaurs, and has a built-in fan base in a wealthy, populous country because of its provenance. But it's been a solid decade since anybody has made a Nothosaurus, and before that it had been another decade. Schleich's Dinogorgon isn't perfect, but it's very unlikely anybody will ever make another. Yowie's Strepsodus from 2000 is still the only rhizodont of any kind that anybody has made, and nobody has made a new Sphenacodon since the 1960s. Personally, I'll buy a never-been-made taxon from any company specifically with the intent of rewarding them for taking the chance, but I no longer buy 2% improvements on popular animals, given the inevitability of a 4% improvement a year or three later.

I just want to make it clear @Halichoeres that although my advice might seem targeted at someone such as yourself, it is not. Your collecting strategy is unique, I get why you collect what you do and pass no judgement. Most collectors are far more casual and not out to get one of every prehistoric taxa ever made, and my advice is aimed more at them. And my advice is basically to just have patience. Obviously there are some exceptions. If you're really interested in Gorgonopsia specifically, then you should probably get the Schleich Dinogorgon. But if you're not, and don't actually like it, maybe give it a pass. I like prehistoric fish and collect them when I can but have no interest in the Yowie Strepsodus. If that means I'll never own a rhizodont then I can live with that.

[Lynx]

I've about given up on this guide as
1. I don't really have enough time to finish it, as I am working on other more important life projects
and 2. It really does not even match my own collecting style anymore, which is a fairly big problem when it will come to writing this if I were to continue.
Some of the stuff in here, is, yes, a bit too biased, or unreasonable. Beginner collectors are probably going to be casual, and I should have been a bit more aware of that fact.
Before I made this guide I should have finished at the very least two chapters, so that way it was less confusing to everyone.

Apologies.
- Lynx