How Long Have You Been Collecting Model Dinosaurs And......

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

Not counting stuff I had when I was younger for obvious reaosn, though most of them are probably still in the attic somewhere, I started collecting as an adult in summer 2016 or so. First thing I bought was the Papo feathered Velociraptor, which I finally sold in late 2021.
The oldest figure I have left from the Early days will be the CollectA Deluxe Therizinosaurus which was I bought after I originally bought the Schleich Therizinosaurus but it was awful, and that's when I started looking for companies other than Papo and Schleich. I that same Schleich Therizinosaurus was thee first dinosaur figure I sold as adult. Its also what eventually lead me to this place as a lurker for a few years before I joined.
I have a little under 500 figures at the moment not counting exant animals, but it will be over 500 when the Kaiyodo figures I've bought off Brett arrive.

[UK]

I've been a dinosaur aficionado since I was four years old and have been collecting for 32 years now. Serious collecting only kicked off when I had an actual income of my own, so early twenties. Since then, I've amassed several thousand dinosaur and prehistoric animal figures, somewhere close to 5,000 I would guess.

When you reflect on 5,000 figures how does that make you feel Jan? That's a lot of money tied up in the collection and an almost impossibility to keep track on. Not being disrespectful, just be interesting to understand the collecting drive.

I perpetually trim the collection down to feel as though I am in control of the collection not the other way round.

Hope you are well.

One point too for all of us with moderately valuable collections, are people insuring them?

[laticauda]

I've been a dinosaur aficionado since I was four years old and have been collecting for 32 years now. Serious collecting only kicked off when I had an actual income of my own, so early twenties. Since then, I've amassed several thousand dinosaur and prehistoric animal figures, somewhere close to 5,000 I would guess.

One point too for all of us with moderately valuable collections, are people insuring them?

Thats a good question.  I haven't yet. but it is something I have thought of doing.  Especially with some of the rarer things in my collection. 

[Mellow Stego]

I've been a dinosaur aficionado since I was four years old and have been collecting for 32 years now. Serious collecting only kicked off when I had an actual income of my own, so early twenties. Since then, I've amassed several thousand dinosaur and prehistoric animal figures, somewhere close to 5,000 I would guess.

One point too for all of us with moderately valuable collections, are people insuring them?

Thats a good question.  I haven't yet. but it is something I have thought of doing.  Especially with some of the rarer things in my collection.

I'd assume if you had homeowners/renters insurance, it would also cover you collection.

[Mellow Stego]

Double post... sorry

[stoneage]

My collecting started in 1959 with my first Marx playset, although I may have had an ajax figure before that.  In 1961 I got a new Marx playset.  After that I had Nabisco Prehistoric Mammals.  Eventually I got almost everything before 1970, Rotm Dinosaurs, Invicta unpainted and painted Dinosaurs, Laramie, Carnegie, Shleich Replica Saurus, Bullyland, All Dinoptails through 5 and one color Dinotails 6 & 7.  And so much more.  I'm sure I have over 1,000 figures and plants from all periods.  It kind of exploded once I got on the internet.  Now I have to be more selective as prices have gone up and there is so much out there.

[stoneage]

I got my first Marx Playset in 1959.  Since then I got almost everything available.  When I was able to get on the internet I've aquired almost everything I could want.  Now I have to be more selective because the availability is so much more.

[Crackington]

I wonder if you are the longest collecting member on the Forum S @stoneage? It must be a wonderful collection.

My own experience has been in two parts - collecting as a child in the 1970s (mainly Aurora, Invicta and, erm, Inpro  ). My original collection unfortunately no longer exists, unless in a landfill

Then a big break between teenage and early adulthood, to rediscovering the hobby accidentally in my early 30s. An old flatmate was typesetting a newsletter for the old UK Dinosaur Collectors Club and I got re-hooked attending a talk by its founder Dr Mike Howgate on Walking with Dinosaurs!

I've been collecting again now throughout this century and have managed to recover many of the old models I had as a boy. I think I have almost 500 models, but due to space they are mostly small, like tube figures, Kaiyodos, etc

[Duna]

I wonder if you are the longest collecting member on the Forum S @stoneage? It must be a wonderful collection.

Probably J @japfeif too.
I got my first 12 dinosaurs in 1992/1993, some UKRD, Danone, Panini ... when I was 10 and although I liked them a lot, I didn't get any more as presents (those were free promotional gifts), but a wonderful encyclopaedia. I've had them all this time and I had an "attempt" to start collecting 20 years after when in 2012 I bought some Papos (t-rex, velociraptor, spinosaurus, stegosaurus and triceratops).
And then, I consider I started collecting "seriously" in 2019, when I came across this forum.
I may have several hundreds but most are small. I focus in two different themes: the most accurate models of an species (specially the ones I have known since I was a child) and I also have a passion for small vintage figures, specially hard plastic and/or monochrome ones.  I tend to be a completionist, too in that case.

[japfeif]

I wonder if you are the longest collecting member on the Forum S @stoneage? It must be a wonderful collection.

Probably J @japfeif too.

Actually, I didn't begin to collect in earnest until about 15 years ago. As a kid I had lots of MPC dinosaurs my dad got for me, as well as a bag of the hollow Nold-a Rama dinos that he picked up for me at the local Sinclair station (this was way after the '64-65 Fair, and the machines had been farmed out to stations around the country, and our local Sinclair station was lucky enough to have one!!!).  I'd play with & take to school (Marx were a bit before my time!), and I also had the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes model kits!

But then college hit, and girls, and my various rock bands, and I actually I never really collected until my brother, who is a major vintage monster/sci-fi/super hero vintage toy collector & a major completest (he will pitch an entire series of figures/items if he can't get the entire set!) started getting me interested in the vintage stuff, and dinosaurs was an area a naturally gravitated towards (I majored in herpetology in college, and you can't really study reptiles without a passing familiarity with dinosaurs!), and I began to get interested in getting my own collection going!

So I basically used alot of his connections to start to acquire some rare pieces, and spent hours scouring the Toy Shop classified paper for dino items (primarily at this point the old Marx prehistoric playsets, and soon after a natural segue into the MPC playsets!). Then once eBay came around the world was wide open & I just got really diligent and researched out what all was out there and what pieces composed each line of dino items I was interested in, and it just grew from there. I became a completest as well, and just bulldogged my way until I"d get complete lines of a company or series, and then find another interested & move on from there! After the Marx & MPC stuff I decided to re-acquire the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes models (have a complete set now all in boxes!), and then branched out into Pyro models, and Airfix, Bandai, ...other vintage model lines I remembered as a kid. Soon after. I discovered Invicta, and branched out into the British line as well!

Then the "other small plastic guys" like Tim Mee, Ajax, Nabisco, etc., and from there the less common lines like Cherilea, Timpo, Linde, etc....things just kinda grew exponentially!
And just fairly recently (6-8 years) I began to get into some of the more modern lines...my first was Papo (I know they get alot of crap from the purists but I was just completely blown away the first time I saw a Papo figure....not whether it was 100% scientifically accurate (I always kind of prefer the look of vintage dinos myself...personal preference...so a lack of feathers, semi-pronated hands, a bit of shrink wrapping, a neck 4% longer than the fossil record shows, never really bothers me), but just how realistic the figure looked as a LIVING BEING. To someone who had focused on Marx, Aurora, & Ajax for 2 decades almost, Papo seemed absolutely ALIVE. So I started collecting Papo, getting all the back figures I had missed, and then branched out into CollectA (mainly for their huge variety in different genera of prehistoric animals, even though I really don't prefer them in terms of realism) and then Wild Safari (mainly due to their iconic position as the first attempt to accurately portray dinos realistically).
And it grows to this day!!

But no, compared to some of you guys here, I have not really been collecting that long but I just threw myself into it like a bit of a madman! 

[JPuggy]

I started seriously collecting about 4 years ago. The JW Fallen Kingdom line kinda kickstarted my return. Before that I had buckets of dinosaurs, and I still have most of them!

I actually counted a few weeks ago and I have about 457 figures.