I've had the opportunity to go out the last few days on toy hunts and wound up either staying home, or going to one store and giving up. The thrill seems to be mostly gone for me. Tired of all the product out there. Two packs. MCU figs. I picked up Beast and Jubilee last week mostly because I figured they'd be the hard ones to find, but I've seen the rest of the figures from that wave a few times and just feel meh. I'd been clamoring for an original team Thunderbolts set for years and now I've had the chance to buy Citizen V a few times and passed. I've just lost almost all interest. I'd love a Professor X but don't see the value in paying $40-$45 for him. I'd love a classic Kraven, but not if I have to buy another Spiderman to get him. I know I've been opining my lack of interest in MLs for some time now, but would still go out and look around. I'd still buy new waves when I came across them.

I'm just going to sit back and wait for a lot of these on Walmart.com around Christmas next year. I know I may regret not getting some now, but I'm not paying $20 for stupid characters I never heard of like the black costume wannabe Spiderman that came with Kingpin's head. I would like a complete Kingpin, but I'm not paying $20 for that figure, and I'm not paying over $10 for a head on eBay. It's not a question of not having the money to keep up with all this stuff, it's not seeing the point on spending all this money on a lot of things/characters I just don't care about.

Even customs, I've been having a harder time finding the desire to work on them.

To quote BB King, the thrill is gone.

Maybe you really can have too much of a good thing.

I have extra heads for the Kingpin if you want them they are yours my friend. I just need your address and I'll pop them in the mail.

I go through my slumps every now and then... I got my highs and I got my lows. When there is nothing out there it just means I save money LOL. But seriously I look on Ebay for stuff/parts for customs I might want to make like my current X-Force Deathlok figure. It happens to all of us at some point, I was just thinking recently if I would ever stop collecting and quite honestly I don't know what I would do with myself if I did stop. This is my life and I am happy going down this rabbit hole so to speak, it is fun to go to the conventions, see whats coming out week to week on various toy sites and then there is NYTF, SDCC etc... etc... so all in all I still find this hobby fun after almost 35 years and I don't plan to stop...

Ha, yeah, I guess I'm just a little bored. It's weird because in one way I'm like, oh, there's way too much product, and on the other hand I'm like, oh, there's too much MCU stuff in waves, lol. Maybe it'd be nice if they had straight comic waves and straight movie waves, I don't know. I still miss the days where you could catch your breath, like how Star Wars Black Series is now. But MLs it seems like every few weeks there's a new wave or a new two pack out to chase down there's just no way to slow down. And once you've lost that completist bug, it changes what you're willing to buy and for how much. I don't know, maybe it would be different if I even had my MLs on display, but right now it's just buy and store until I get the time/space to put them out. I do appreciate the Kingpin offer, that's one less thing I need to chase down.

Anytime brotha! I'll have them in the mail in a day or two.

So, I was looking for reference pics of old MLs to scan for fodder parts because it's a lot easier than trying to dig through my closet, and I came across a website that broke down MLs by year and total figures. Sure, I could've always done this myself but I'm lazy. But this just sort of hammered home the feeling to me. I've seen the new Sugarman, Abomination, Demogoblin and Crimson Dynamo waves multiple times the last month, and I just kind of look and them and shrug. I bought an AoA Jean, but that was because I wanted it for a custom, not for my collection. And there's some figures I've always wanted in these waves like Mar-Vell, but then I have them in hand and I just hear this voice in my head that says, do you really want to pay $20 for that?

I know not everyone watches wrestling, but in 1997 then WWE champion Shawn Michaels forfeited his title, because he "lost his smile". Now I won't go into the whole storyline, but that's kind of how I feel now. I don't feel the excitement anymore when I see new MLs in a store. I don't feel that need to spend $120 or so dollars to complete a BAF, especially now that most waves are lucky to contain 3 figures I really want. And it's just tiresome. Anyway, here's the breakdown for recent years...

The year Hasbro "returned" was 2012. Can you believe it was that long ago?

2012: 26 figures
2013: 42 figures
2014: 47 figures
2015: 75 figures
2016: 74 figures
2017: 86 figures
2018: 147 figures
2019: 148 figures
2020: 76 figures (half a year)

It's no wonder that I first posted this thread in January 2019 coming off a year where figures just about doubled. And that number seems to be about where we're heading this year as well. To me, I think the 75 figures per year was about the sweet spot. It gave you time to breath, to open and appreciate figures. Now it just feels like a never-ending deluge of figures, and as soon as you complete a wave, another is already being reported as hitting stores and Hasbro just unveiled two more waves and then there's the figures with vehicles and two packs and three packs and four packs and <pant> it just feels like it never stops.

Now, I certainly didn't buy a 140 figures at full price either of the last two years because a fair amount of them were MCU figures which I ignore entirely unless I can get them on the cheap later. Just looking at 2019, I counted only 41 figures I actually bought, many of those though were purchased much later than when they were released and for less than $20. For 2018 it was 58.

I don't know. I'm sure a lot of people love that there's so many figures coming. Me? I get kind of tired of another Spiderman, another Iron Man, another Cap. Again, it's not at all about not being able to afford them I can. Money isn't the issue. But rationalizing spending so much so often, it just doesn't feel reasonable to me. Especially when much of it are characters I don't care about at all, or costumes that I'm just indifferent toward.

I just thought I'd share those numbers. For me, 147 figures in a year is just way too much. Especially when there's other lines to collect like Star Wars or maybe GI Joe now. Heck, McFarlanes out there, too but thankfully they want to do their own scale thing so I just ignore them on the pegs. Maybe I'm just getting old. Maybe I've just been buying figures for too long. Maybe I'm getting cheap. Or maybe it's the golden age of toys and I'm going to miss it when it's gone.

Who's to say?

I can't even remember the last ML I bought. Probably movie Ghost?

I'm a "Toys R Us" kid and I will never grow up!!! Marvel Legends FOREVER!!!! LOL

secondwhiteline wrote:I can't even remember the last ML I bought. Probably movie Ghost?

I still buy them here and there, but seeing a new wave on the pegs my reaction now tends to be more like, "Ugh, another new one.."

secondwhiteline wrote:Part of what keeps me going is not doing the hunt as often. I check Brickseek often, but I don't venture out unless I've got a good feeling. Right now I'm just waiting for those Starforce Captain Marvels to show up at Target. Building a Starforce, baybee! Don't really care about the movie, but I need a group of fighter pilots, Space Battleship Yamato style.

Also, I hate the MCU Character Smirk. I'm so over Tony Snark. I like the earnestness of T'Challa, the lack of self-awareness of Drax, the grumpiness of Rocket, and Thor's sad, self-deprecating, heroic weariness. I'm not sure how to capture that last one on an action figure, though. So we're stuck with Ant-Man's goofy smile.

I think Legends did a pretty good job on the “God of Lounge Lizards; Thor Lebowski”