Binge Opening

Compulsive behavior is a significant part of many people's collecting habits, certainly mine included. This manifests itself not only in what and how we collect but what and how we deal with those collections. One such rut I can get stuck into hoarding with the ultimate goal of having a "Toy Day" in which I'll binge-open a ton of stuff in one big rush.

I think it all started during days of large haulage during high school. My best friend and I would hit the stores and in some cases get very lucky with our finds and some rarer times we said, "Hey, let's go have an Opening Day!" This would involve about five pounds of chips and two pints of salsa from our favorite restaurant, a handful of movies and a bunch of toys. A good time was had by all and certainly it is remembered with great fondness by both.

One such ''Opening Day'' Haul - all from three local Tower Records just weeks before their demise.

Eventually, though, we ran out of display room and just started storing away figures. Initially I was fully against not opening toys, but after some paintloss and breakages I started just saving the figures carded to one day open when I have my "Dream House" and its proverbial Toy Museum. But this all changed in 2007.

I began hoarding up my Star Wars figures to have eventually have a whole Star Wars day in which I'd watch the Classic Trilogy and open these toys, because hey, how often do you watch a favorite movie and wish you had some like-themed toys to open and play with? Well, this little fantasy grew and morphed into some sort of bizarre conceptual project in which I did not open any Star Wars purchase in one calendar year.

And you know what? It was just as crazy as it seems. You know happens when you open that much stuff? Your fingers get really sore! And the whole thing takes forever - my recollection is that I finished the Trilogy about ⅔ of the way through the toys! Worst of all, though, as that as a result of all of this the sheer volume just turned it into a chore. I'm a fairly substantial Battle-Builder and there is very little more tedious than having to open 10 identical Stormtroopers. It just sucked the fun right out of the whole thing.

I am a strict Opener, if I want to keep something M.O.C. then I'll buy a second of it, but that still can't stop this Hoard'n'Binge thing I have going on. Even those the great Star Wars debacle of '07/'08 backfired on me I'm still at it. I have some 15 JLU. multi-packs to open, 25 Blackest Night figures from DC Direct and a whopping 46 MotU Classics items! Maybe one day I'll finally get around to those and wow you with some highly themed Spoils of the Week columns!

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4 Responses to Binge Opening

  1. Stacey says:

    That was a delightful read. How offensive is it if I say I like your neuroses? (That's right, I'm commenting now.)

  2. prfkttear says:

    collecting seems to lend itself well to obsessive compulsive disorder amongst other various neuroses... or is it those neuroses that make us collectors?

    i definitely hoard stuff to open now. something about having stuff just waiting there for me to open makes me feel all warm and snuggly inside. i have numerous Generations/RTS transformers waiting around, not to mention joes that i bought three years ago... i've even fallen behind on my MOTUC. i haven't opened Man-E-faces yet, and that was August...

    • Rustin Parr says:

      Yeah, my plan was to start opening MotUC as soon as the new stuff started arriving, but the November and Black Friday boxes havent even been opened let alone their contents

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