What made you start collecting?

[cordylus]

I had always been interested in science, for as long as I remember. I remember having a fascination with the ocean (and sharks in particular), and I gradually learned to love all the non-fluffy animals throughout my young childhood. When I was about ten or so my obsession with dinosaurs became real; that was when I started using the internet to research animal figurines and the jurassic park line in particular caught my attention.

All of that would have been for nothing if me and some of my relatives hadn't gone into a KBtoys store when I was about ten (and unfortunately they are long out of business now), and I discovered my first jurassic park dinosaurs in person. I had to have them, and that really kick-started this whole thing for me.

When I was about 11 I discovered JPToys, which fueled my addiction for dinosaur toys. When I was 12 I was brave enough to not listen to my parents and join the various forums that were around (I joined both the JPToys and Dinotoyforum back in early 2008 when I was that young!) and my obsession with jurassic park quickly turned scientific and I moved onto more accurate models and depictions. It peaked when I was about 14, and collecting for me since then has been minimal.

Now, my collecting has all but stopped since in a matter of months I'm heading to oregon for college and thus, I have no room in my budget for dinosaurs anymore. Maybe when I'm out of college and have a stable job I'll really get back into it; for now, reading these forums every once in a while and seeing people post pictures of new releases tides me over

[Jetoar]

Ever I am a dinosaur lover and animal lover. When I was a child, I had a lot of chinasaurs figures and currently I have them  . But Dinoriders and Invicta was the origin of my collection .

My first figure are Tyco Dinoriders Monoclonius and Invicta Plesiosaurus. After of this other Dinoriders figures and Invicta figures arrived to my life as Deinonychus and Megalosurus and two years after, Tyco Dinoriders, Torosaurus, T-rex, Stegosaurus and other figures of this brand.

In 1993 Jurassic Park arrive to my life and my parents bought to me my the firts figure that is the Brown Velociraptor. Other figures of Kenner arrived later than this as Dilophosaurus and Pteranodon and for my birthday my parents bought to me the Young T-Rex.

In 1996, kenner Lost World figures arrive to my life. My parents gift to me the Giant Pteranodon an Trasher T-Rex and other figures arrive to my collection in the next years.

In 1998 I bought in a store a unpainted figures of Wild Safari T-Rex, Triceratops and  Utahraptor and it was my first contac with Safari. 

In 2000 I discovered Schleich and my mother bought to me the Quetzalcoatlus. They are the figures of my childhood  and the beggins of my collection .

[Ikessauro]

Great stories everyone. Nice idea for a thread.

My story is similar to those of TQ (the nostalgia part) and Patrx, since I grew up in the nineties, so dinomania was everywhere. Jurassic Park in 1993 brought to us an endless variety of merchandise and here in Brazil the food company Nestlé released a dinosaur card collection composed of 30 cards, which came in chocolate bars. They were not directly related to Jurassic Park, but dinosaurs were popular, so they chose that theme for the collection.
If you mailed the company's office with a few chocolate wraps they sent you an album to glue the cards with info on the dinosaurs. That was the thing that brought dinosaurs in my life for the first time at age of three.
I grew up loving dinosaurs and had lots of toys, but all of them were cheap chinasaurs and the like, which I either lost or broke at some point. By the age of 6 or 7 I got more interested in wildlife and extant reptiles, so I  left the dinos aside for a while. When I was 13 years old I  heard that my cousin and some other kids from my neighborhood were collecting dinosaurs.
That made me curious to see them, since I had not interacted with dino toys for a few years. I asked my cousin to see his dinosaurs and he showed me his collection. Since JP3 had been released just a couple of years before, JP3 dinosaur toy rip offs were the ones my cousin had. I had never seen such cool dinosaurs before, so well detailed and cool looking! I wanted them! Specially the Spinosaurus!
I can say that this Spinosaurus was my "spark" dinosaur at the time. It made me want to have dinosaurs again.
I started collecting every JP3 knock off I could find, since the originals never appeared here and even if they did I would not be able to afford them. I bought every toy I could find and magazines, etc. Literally, anything dinosaur.

I was happy that way, with  my little collection of chinasaurs, up to my 16 or so, when I decided to search for dinosaur toys on Google. I found out about auction sites and managed to buy a complete copy of that old card album made by Nestlé, so nostalgia kicked in hard!
What a curse! Online I discovered Papo, of which T.rex was my "spark" dinosaur among the "superior" stuff. I had to ask for someone to import a T.rex for me and it cost me about 4 times the original price. I then found DTF back in 2008 and decided to join, although I did not interact much because of my poor English skills. I also did not had anything cool to share, since even the humblest collection from DTF members were years ahead than mine. Since I thought that 4 times the original cost was too much for a dinosaur, I learned to buy from overseas myself and when I got my first job my collection of museum lines and other similar models grew considerably. Thus my participation on DTF increased and here am I sharing my story with you guys, I hope it wasn't much on the boring side.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

This was a great idea for a thread.
I have always been an enthusiast of animals, but, surprisingly, I never wanted any association with dinosaurs. They were mean, scary, creatures that were extinct. I knew little about them and ignored their non-avian existence entirely. Then, in second grade, our first science unit was dinosaurs, and I was almost instantly hooked. We were to do a 'Dinosaur Project' as the teacher called it, and build a shoebox diorama. I bought my first real dinosaur toys then. They were the green/gray triceratops, utahraptor, geosternbergia (labeled as pteranodon), and green giraffatitan (labeled as brachiosaurus) all by Safari LTD. Right after I brought them home, I took them out of their diorama, and then bought more: tyrannosaurus, spinosaurus, styracosaurus. Later, I discovered the Carnegie Collection, starting with their brachiosaurus and ankylosaurus, and my collections kept expanding, and they still are. My only regret was not starting sooner.

[Libraraptor]

What made me start collecting? An interesting question that is quite interesting to answer.
To be honest, I started collecting in a way I was really aware of four or so years ago when I entered this forum. No, that´s not completely true! I started collecting earlier, in 1990 maybe following a great urge towards the great Invictas which were so different from those silly toys I had been given before and which I could only avail at one bookshop at the Baltic sea where we spent our holidays. Invicta Diplodocus and Stegosaurus were the first couple I bought from my own money and with a certain earnestness.
When the bookshop closed in 1995 I had all Invictas except for the blue whale, which isn´t a dinosaur, ironically.
On my quest for the whale in 2009 I landed here. From 1995 to 2009 I randomly added this or that dinosaur to the Invictas, for example AAA Parasaurolophus and some chinasaurs, but precise and goal-oriented collecting was new to me.
It really seems I have been infected by all the other collections and collectors here. And you may be yawning at this in the meantime, but still my favourite figures are those made from monochrome plastics.
By the way: Telling this story again made me think that I am still happy to be here !

[tyrantqueen]

Looking back on when I first starting collecting, it's interesting to see how my collecting style has changed. When I was first started out, (I think I was about 17 or so) I would buy anything by Papo, whether it was scientifically accurate or not. I was very brand loyal.

I wasn't really very knowledgeable about dinosaur anatomy so I couldn't discern good from bad either.

Nowadays, I don't really care about brands, it's the sculpting quality and accuracy that matters more to me. I really hate deformed or badly sculpted anatomy (a reason why I don't like CollectA so much...)

And I'm never afraid to say if I don't like something

[Concavenator]

This is a great topic 
Well,I 'm going to tell my story:
Back in 2008,I liked seeing a TV channel called "Disney XD".In here,it was a series called "Dinosaur King"  .I began seeing the serie,and dinosaurs began liking me.Near Christmas 2008,when I was 8,I thought"You like dinosaurs.So,if you like dinosaurs,why not collecting figures of those?".The piece really made me starting collecting was the Papo Allosaurus.I was crazy for it.Imwas thinking on getting it until next year,in 2009,I bought in "dinosaurtime".I loved the figure and was the best piece of my collection.One day,I lost the Papo Allosaurus in a friend's home,and I couldn't find it.Since that year,I have been wanting to buy it again(since 2010,I don't play with them,I collect them),but there are a serie of figure have been interested me more,and I forgot it with new releases,etc.In 2011,I discovered CollectA.I liked some of their figures(Proceratosaurus,Australovenator,Liliensternus...),but I didn't like some(Concavenator,Dilophosaurus...).Last year,2012,was a big year for me.I liked all the releases,and I really was fascinated with some figures,such like the CollectA Deluxe Deinocheirus,the Carnegie 2012 Brachiosaurus and the papo Running T-rex).And I collected  7 2012 figures.Now,in 2013,I continue collecting.
Since February 2012 ,when I discovered the 2012 brand's releases,I am really excited about next year revelations,even if I don't have any year's releases.And...this is my story 

[Jetoar]

Beautiful history friend  .

[dinohunter24]

First off I'm new to this forum and knew to dinosaur collecting.

I have never had dinosaur toys as a kid at least not to my knowledge.  I grew up in a poor family so I would probably get 1 toy per year and that was only on my birthday.  I'm not good with story telling so I'm just going to say I have a decent amount of dinosaurs now and I will continue to collect as long as new dinosaurs come out. 

[brandem]

I guess I might wake this topic from the dead to share my story,
when I was younger, 8 or 9 I don't really remember, I had a ton of dinosaur toys but not really a collection, just chinasaurs that sat in a box until I wanted to play with them.  On my first field trip to the Lexington Children's museum I ended up alone in the gift shop somehow and for the first time I saw the Carnegie collection dinosaurs, and desperately wanted the parasaurolophus. I didn't have the money for it of course so I slipped the tag of the little old dimetrodon and put it on the parasaurolophus, not the most conscionable choice I know but who has always made the right choices? and when I got home rather than going in the box he when on the book shelf and that's where it all got started.

[SpittersForEver]

My story would seemingly be sad but something sparked.So here goes...

In 2006 when I was 3 yrs old I went to the Natural History Museum in London. I saw the big animatronic T-rex
and that I thought was real. Lol. Anyway I got scared and had many nightmares about me being hunted by dromeosaurus in tall grass after watching JP 2. So then I bought a schliech dinosaur (when they were a good company) and I loved it so much and still have half of it because of my dog chewing it. In addition I had a battat
version three T-rex missing one leg (dog). So yeah I liked dinosaurs because I was scared of them.....?     

Sorry for the quality of writing I've got homework to finish!!!

[stoneage]

My story would seemingly be sad but something sparked.So here goes...

In 2006 when I was 3 yrs old I went to the Natural History Museum in London. I saw the big animatronic T-rex
and that I thought was real. Lol. Anyway I got scared and had many nightmares about me being hunted by dromeosaurus in tall grass after watching JP 2. So then I bought a schliech dinosaur (when they were a good company) and I loved it so much and still have half of it because of my dog chewing it. In addition I had a battat
version three T-rex missing one leg (dog). So yeah I liked dinosaurs because I was scared of them.....?     

Sorry for the quality of writing I've got homework to finish!!!

Don't worry about your homework.  Just tell them your dog ate it.

[DinoLord]

As a toddler I loved dinosaur toys but only ever got a few good ones (a few JP3 toys amongst a bunch of Chinasaurs). However my love for dinosaurs remained with me throughout my childhood years. I remember seeing the Papo Spinosaurus on Amazon and being blown away by the detail as a preteen, which started a Papo dinosaur collecting habit. Eventually, searching on the Papo Allosaurus led me to the blog and made me aware of all the other great figures out there, which started my current hobby. Indeed, some of my collecting has been fueled by my desire to acquire some of the toys I was denied as a kid; I have multiples of the JP3 Triceratops I remember so clearly being denied as a four year old.

[Sauropodlet]

My mom took me to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC when I was about 6 and they had the Invicta BMNHs, which were much nicer than my Marx and MPC dinosaurs.

[Libraraptor]

My mom took me to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC when I was about 6 and they had the Invicta BMNHs, which were much nicer than my Marx and MPC dinosaurs.

The Invictas were highly inspired by Marx and MPC, but they were bigger, more detailed and more up-to-date back then. Yet, as much as I like Invicta Dimetrodon, I find the Marx one more inspiring. Sorry, off topic, but I need to give honour where honour is due 

[Sauropodlet]

My mom took me to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC when I was about 6 and they had the Invicta BMNHs, which were much nicer than my Marx and MPC dinosaurs.

The Invictas were highly inspired by Marx and MPC, but they were bigger, more detailed and more up-to-date back then. Yet, as much as I like Invicta Dimetrodon, I find the Marx one more inspiring. Sorry, off topic, but I need to give honour where honour is due 

I completely agree.

[Wellnhoferia]

The thing that probably got me collecting was walking with dinosaurs in 1999 which launched my fascination with anything prehistoric