toy collecting as addiction

[Dominic]

This came up in another thread. After talking with the member who brought it up, and gettinghis okay, I decided to post this here.


This goes back to something that a (talented) indy comics publisher said to me after a convention many years ago.

"Collections are crack."

Objectively, toy collecting makes no economic sense, even by the standards of recreation. It takes time (to find and fiddle with toys), money (to purchase toys) *and* space (to store/display the toys). And the only benefit of the hobby is....having and fiddling the a given toy or set of toys.

Of course, a hobby making no economic sense does not make it an addiction.

I have personally felt evidence that collecting can have an addictive, as opposed to just habitual, component. It probably makes sense to define "habit" and "addiction". The definitions are my own, but not terribly revolutionary nor mutually exclusive.

habit: a routine, comforting or otherwise, that one may well engage in without thinking on it, despite the value of the act having been diminished.

addiction: being heavily adjusted, possibly requiring, a given act (often involving consumption). Even if there is no physiological requirement for the consumption, (as with smoking or drinking), the act may trigger the reward center of somebody's brain, creating a strong incentive, if not requirement, to continue with an action.

For example, I was addicted to caffeine. For some time, I could not function without it. I could actually predict the physical consequences, and the degree of those consequences, for skipping it. It took time, but I beat the physical addiction. Habit was a problem for a time, but I beat that as well. Now, I am falling back into habit, ("I need Mountain Dew when I....") But, even that is getting easier to work around.

For me, toy hunting was a habit. More than once, at various point, I would be walking some place and end up passing a store. Barring some outside reason, (such being short on time, or perhaps being with a friend), I would usually go into the store and check the toy aisle. (It was also not unusual for me to just hit the bathroom or water fountain, so as not to waste a trip. But, those are sensible habits.) If I were going in to the store anyway, I was less likely to check the toy aisle because I had other things to do. But, I may have started to drift towards the toy aisle if I was tired.

No, toy hunting is not a habit. The other night, I unexpectedly had ~1 hour to waste. Toy hunting was not one of my immediate considerations. (I ended up going to Target after long deliberation about finding something to do that would keep me in the general vicinity of where I was. But, it was not a reflexive action.)

But, I have noticed that toy collecting can be addictive.

As most everybody here knows, I have largely skipped the movie toys, especially starting in '09. Money was an issue. And, lack of interest in the second movie was another factor. I bought a few toys at secondary chains, largely for customizing purposes. But, I had little reason to check toy aisles, and less reason to buy anything. (I did stay current on listing sightings for this and other pages.)

Then, summer of 2010. "Generations" and "Power Core Combiners" were launched. Now, I can find more than enough to praise about the toys. But, when I first say PCC at Newbury, I got a buzz. No lie. No hyperbole. I got a happy little buzz.

Just seeing something new triggered the reward center of my brain. It probably ties in with the hunt/gather drive that David Willis once associated with toy collecting. Most likely, the buzz itself was nothing new. But, after going so long with out it, (I had not actually hunted for or purchased new figures for nearly a year at that point), it was very noticable.

I sorted through the toys that were coming out, and made decisions about what I would buy. (The criteria I used varied a bit over time. But, it was generally something easy to quantify and measure involving skip-rates, context and design.) For the most part, I did not buy anything that I ended up regretting. (There were a few PCC figures that did not live up to expectations. But, such is the way of things. There were also figures that were more fun than I expected. Again, such is the way of things.)

I set a goal of a 50% or better skip rate, and I held to it (contingent on how one counted duplicates for customizing).

I actually experimented with other lines. I noticed slight buzzes with "GI Joe". But, I applied standards similar to those outlined above, and only bought (very few) figues that I actually wanted. (It was actually an interesting experience in duology to be actively thinking about and even resisting a reflexive drive.) I noticed that my standards for Marvel figures actually went down if I had not found any TFs for a while. (I admit to picking up a few "Dark Avengers" figures that were sub-par and regretting it later.)


One thing that has helped me, especially in recent months, has been forcing myself to try and do new things. To prevent a new habit (possibly a vice) from replacing an old one, I force myself to run a quarterly review of what I am doing at any given time. How much is deliberate, and how much is rote?

Interestingly, I have noticed that the hunt drive gets more powerful after a week of not having tried one of "the new things". (For example, schedule conflicts have kept me from training as much as I normally would over the last week. I felt a need to go to a comic shop, despite having no compelling reason to.)

I am not sure how wise it is to purge an entire collection. If nothing else, there might be items in that collection that are worthy of being kept, Andm later attempts to replace them, (literally or metaphorically), could lead somebody right back to where they noticed a problem to begin with. (My current purges are aggressive, and often expand, but they are controlled.)


Dom
-hopes this is of use to somebody.

[Shockwave]

The main difference between habit and addiction is self control. My skip rate on the movie line was not as high as it should be. Case in point: DOTM Starscream. I really don't care for the "movie seeker" design and yet, I saw this and bought it anyway. And I was fairly disappointed by it. It's also nothing short of miraculous that I don't have every damned Kreo figure, my self control is that bad. In this case, purging the collection would be akin to an alcoholic dumping the booze down the drain. Sometimes we need that purge to be free of the addiction. About 4 years ago, I came close to being an actual alcoholic. I had started drinking as a way to relieve stress. When this was pointed out to me, I quit drinking. Mostly. I have had the occasional drink but have not been actually drunk since. For me, the toy addiction is similar. Only worse. I have consistently not been able to stop myself from buying toys even when I knew it would be financially detrimental to do so. This recent tragedy served as the wake up call to that revelation. I need to experience a life without toys. And to realize that I can still enjoy the hobbies of those various franchises without destroying my life for them. Part of this is that I have an addictive personality anyway. By that I just mean that I don't do anything small scale. When I go, I go all in. All or nothing all the way. It's probably why it would bug me to have parts of a comic collection around.

[annhell]

i've often found that a simple, preliminary measure to distinguish the two symptoms is simply ask, "Can I stop?"
If stopping is hard - harder than initially thought - then I'm likely beyond just "habit" and further down the "addiction" path.

Personally, I started on this hobby in a not-so-glamourous way. Some heavy life-shit had hit hard, and was beyond anyone's control such that I had no choice but to wait things out. So, I needed a distraction in that time, and it was either cool plastic robots or alchohol. Robots were cheaper and less detrimental to health. But, when I asked that quick-check question back then, it was definitely an addiction. I might've been able to stop the hobby, but the need for a distraction was still there, and quitting toys would only have led to a substitute.

When things got better, it was an addiction of another type - the comfort and security from having a predictable, safe routine/habit. Breaking the habit meant having to adapt to change and it was easier not to, even when finances at the time dictated that it was the rational thing to do.

So, I can sort of relate to Shockwave's rationale for doing what he's doing. Toys are not as detrimental an addiction as alchohol or some such, but addictions of any sort, by nature, robs you of control of a part of your life. And if he's decided to take that control back, good on him. Extreme measures provide a lot of momentum to ride on, and hopefully when the momentum finally dwindles, you'll find yourself so far down that road that it becomes easier to continue on your own strength. So, I say good luck with that.

Face that change, embrace it, adapt and move on with the terminal disease called "life" that everyone eventually dies from.

[Shockwave]

That's right, I should be addicted to LIFE!! Seize the day! I'll seize the day, week, month, even whole years at time! Ok, just kidding, but I get your point and you're right.

[Onslaught Six]

I said this to Dom at one point in a PM but it bears repeating: For me, addiction is the point where a habit is becoming detrimental to functioning properly in life. For example, I'm pretty sure I have an addiction to the Internet, which negatively impacts my work habits. (The fact that I can generally get away with doing the bare minimum or worse at work without fear of major repurcussions probably doesn't help.)

I'm sure I could stop buying toys. In fact, in a few months, I'm probably going to have to severely trim down my buying habits for a while. (My girlfriend is going to cosmetology school and had to cut her work hours because of it.) But it wouldn't be the first time I stopped buying toys for a while--there was the Cybertron bit, for example. I've also gone entire stretches where I didn't buy any GI Joe figures (and my renewed interest in the line mostly stems from there not being much in the way of TF to buy) and I rarely buy Marvel figures. I also started getting an obvious DVD-buying habit when I moved in and found myself much without much entertainment, having no cable. (A lot of the DVD buying slowed down once I got a membership to my local video store. Half their older library is VHS so it's useless to me, but I still get lots of cheap entertainment because they offer most back stock DVDs for $1/week. So now I only really buy something if it's not at the video store.)

It's a question of how badly, financially or emotionally, it's taking its toll on me. Financially, my toy buying habits are actually probably negatively impacting me from time to time (but I'm slowing that down...a little at a time) but emotionally I don't think it's really affecting me that much. I don't get entirely stressed when I can't find a new toy I've been looking for, or when I realize I still don't have RTS Tracks. I didn't have an emotional breakdown whenever I thought about how I didn't have Classics Skywarp...because he was hugely expensive on the secondary market, and it was only when I could find him for a very reasonable price that I bit the bullet and bought him from ShockTrek.

That said, I don't think I've really gotten the "new toy buzz" in quite a long time. The last major time I felt that was...well, when I finally got in that GI Joe lot with Grunt in it, because I wanted Grunt since like 2008. There's been toys I bought recently and didn't even 'open,' like Warpath or Laserbeak. I only just opened Laserbeak the other day; I bought him the day I saw DOTM. So this is either evidence that simply owning the toys isn't even what gives me a rush anymore, but finding and buying them, or that I'm somehow content with 'not' buying the toys so long as I continue to have new stuff to open. But it's hard to say that, because in the interim from buying Warpath and Laserbeak, I also got several GI Joe toys from eBay and also my TFCC Sideburn came in. So it's...a tricky thing.

Am I addicted? I dunno. I don't think it's negatively impacting my life right now. My girlfriend, or others around me, aren't openly going, "You need to stop buying toys because this is a problem in your life." Maybe it will be, and maybe it won't. After all, I've resisted other temptations--I have one or two drinks on a weekend but the only time I've ever gone to a bar and spent money for alcohol was when a friend's band was playing a few weeks back and I had two White Russians, and even then I didn't even get drunk (just, maybe, a little "loosened up," because Goddamn I am a Russian and we can take our alcohol well), mostly because the fucking things were $5 a drink, and I had two. I could have bought a Deluxe with that. Or a GI Joe. Or lunch. Or dinner. Or gas.

That's the other thing--I am, at this point, taking care of all my bills firsthand when they come up. When rent is due, I make sure I have it and allocate for that money. The same with the Internet (shit, I need to pay the Internet! It's due like...tomorrow) and the electricity--I make sure those are taken care of before anything else. Gas...well I'm not entirely worried about making sure I have money for gas, because me and my girlfriend get paid on opposite weeks, so I can borrow money off of her (and vice versa) if I get too low; or I can borrow money similarly from my father or brother. Because that's the kind of family I live in. (When I was living with my father, and he was driving me to work every day, he would routinely ask for $20-40 to help get himself through the week.) It's when I let a payment lapse because I spent the money on toys or video games or whatever that I have A Problem. (Then again, I let the electric bill lapse for like three months. They were going to shut it off if I didn't pay it last Monday. But the payment was only $120; I didn't pay it because the first payment was like $50 and then the next month it was, uh, $12. So I just didn't pay it those two months, and paid it all at once. Also, that was because of Otakon, which I was basically obligated to go to because we had already paid the non-refundable registration fee. So.)

[Shockwave]

Aspects of the accident have prompted my parents to go through all of my paperwork and finances. There were 4 bills that were already 2 months past due and I had already spent that money on toys. They were pretty pissed at me. Mostly because they have spent literally thousands of dollars of their own money in fixing my house. And I haven't paid them back. So yeah, I would say that it's reached a detrimental level where it's not only hurting me but the people I care about around me. Sometimes we have to hit rock bottom before we can pull ourselves up.

[Onslaught Six]

Aspects of the accident have prompted my parents to go through all of my paperwork and finances. There were 4 bills that were already 2 months past due and I had already spent that money on toys. They were pretty pissed at me. Mostly because they have spent literally thousands of dollars of their own money in fixing my house. And I haven't paid them back. So yeah, I would say that it's reached a detrimental level where it's not only hurting me but the people I care about around me. Sometimes we have to hit rock bottom before we can pull ourselves up.

Then yeah, that's probably having a pretty detrimental effect on your life.

Did I ever actually tell you guys what happened to me at the end of 2009? My car broke down (for the last time), my driver's license was suspended (because I didn't pay a stop sign ticket), I dropped out of college, didn't have a job, and was basically living on my own for about a month. I didn't know what the fuck I was going to do. My father was gracious enough to drive me to work for the next year (and change) and my aunt gave me a job. 'That's' pretty hardcore rock bottom. I don't ever want to be at that point again.

[Dominic]

I have always been pretty good about managing my money when I have a consistent cash-flow. But, when my cash-flow was not consistent, I would have problems managing it. That took a couple of spans being broke to learn to avoid.

I rarely, if ever, make a stupid toy purchase without knowing full well what I am doing. (I might still do it, but I do not waste time trying to rationalize it to myself.)


Dom
-planning to skip the "TF Prime" toys.

[Tigermegatron]

I'm always re-examing my transformers toy collecting. digging into all the storage boxes. and deciding which TF toys i don't like anymore or which ones I out grew. doing this gives me more space,more money & helps me not be a hoarder & not a toy addict.

I was kinda proud of my self for the DOTM toy line as I only bought 5 toys which were: leader sized sentinel prime,leader sized ironhide,voyager megatron,voyager skyhammer & $29.99 DOTM Ha Roadbuster.

these days i'm always downloading TF toy pics months before on my computer hard drive. then deciding which toys I want or don't want months in advance. EXAMPLE: I like the TF Prime Skyquake & bulkhead voyager sized toy pics,So i'll be buying these 2 toys when they come out.

When the DVD era came in the 1990's,I got rid of all my VHS TF cartoon episodes & switched over to DVD's.

I dug thru my TF comics & got rid of all my duplicate issues & about 70% that DW/IDW released in various TF comics titles. sold all my un-wanted TF comics to my local comic book store.

[Dominic]

It is possible to be addicted to the line without hoarding. (If the transaction/acquisition is what triggers the reward center of a fan's brain, then keeping the toy will not do anything to "buzz" the collector.)


Dom
-has barely bothered to replace old VHS at all.