Collector General: Pictures, Reviews and Discussion Thread -

[Hawker Hurricane]

Do you fancy yourself a collector of things? This is the place for you to post pictures of your collection, reviews of a specific piece you'd like to tell us about, or just talk about how gosh-darn great it is to collect whatever it is you decided you'd like a bunch of, whether it's toys (which you prefer to refer to as figures), knives, guns or some other weird thing, if you collect it, you can show it off here!

I'll get it started by posting some pictures of figures in my collection, I'm pretty open about the fact that I collect Transformers.


EDIT: I put up a new album.

 

[The Joker]

I don't have any pictures but I collect geisha dolls and figures.
They are my girls.

 

[Durable Mike Malloy]

Until my most recent move, I would've said I didn't collect anything. But for a supposed non-collector, I sure had accumulated more than a few pretty rocks and antique medicine bottles! I let my little cousins sell most of the bottles, but ended up holding on to about a dozen. So I guess I'm a collector now.

Here's a picture of the best bottle I ever found - "Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment" from the 1890s. This is the brand of snake oil that gave the product a bad name! Marketed as an ancient Hopi secret, it was actually produced in Rhode Island and contained nothing derived from snakes. Instead, it was composed of mineral oil and beef tallow, with red pepper extract for a warming sensation and a trace of camphor or turpentine to lend a "medicinal smell." Clark Stanley was a real person who sold the product at medicine shows, but he was a plagiarist, and almost certainly never the Texas cowboy he claimed to be.

I found it in a stream that had washed through an old household burn pile, and I ended up giving it to a friend.

Spoiler

 

[Hawker Hurricane]

I got some stuff together and I thought I'd try to do a proper review, I'll put it in a spoiler tag so it's not a huge post.

Spoiler: Plastic Crap Showcase: MP-12 Masterpiece Lambor/Sideswipe

The box itself is pretty small, it comes packaged in Vehicle Mode, compared to the Hasbro Release of Prowl, which came packaged in Robot Mode in a larger, slightly more impressive box, if only for it's size. As you can see, it's officially licensed by Lamborghini.

This is the Vehicle Mode, I don't really have anything to compare it's size to, but it's in between a general Deluxe Class and Voyager Class in terms of size, and it's completely in scale with Other Masterpieces in Vehicle Mode.

this is just a detail of the paintapps of the Autobot Logo and the vague representation of a Lamborghini Logo on the front.

and a detail of the Taillights and the words "Lamborghini" and "Countach" on the back.

I just wanted to show that you can store the weapons on it in Vehicle Mode, a tab on the roof is spring loaded, allowing you to push this in, while remaining flush with the roof otherwise and it makes a simultaneously awesome and bizarre looking Lambo Tank thing.

Here's the Robot Mode, it's pretty accurate to the G1 Animation Model, and again, it's somewhere between a Deluxe and Voyager Class in terms of size, but it's closer to a Voyager Class in Robot Mode than it is in Vehicle Mode, if that means anything at all to people here. As for the transformation, it's pretty simple, but as with most Masterpiece figures, you want to take it slow, it's not a race and if you break it it's about 200 bucks in the trash.

it also comes with these Pile Drivers which were used in G1 and came with the G1 toy IIRC.

My only gripes I have are that some of the paint apps are a little dodgy, and with the price point that Masterpiece Figures, even smaller ones, sell at, there really shouldn't be these kinds of paint application errors, especially on a second production run, which I got mine as a part of, but hey, it still looks fine on a shelf and I still usually display it in vehicle mode regardless, so it must not bother me that much.

In summary, MP-12 Lambor/G1 Sideswipe is a pretty nice piece. It's got an awesome Robot Mode, some nice touches on the Vehicle Mode, the transformation itself is fun to do and I'm not scared I'm gonna break it at any point like some Masterpiece Figures have a tendency to make me feel, and I'm proud to have it in my collection, even though there are some minor errors that I personally don't expect for the price point (s'expensive).

 

[Waifu]

I have a little collection of figures I'm building on, most of it so far is just every available figure of my favorite character... But we'll ignore that. I'd post my coomic book collection, but getting them all out of their boxes is kinda hard. I have a lot of stuffed characters too, and I'm working on a giraffe-related things collection! If you have any giraffe stuff you don't want anymore, let me know! I'll take pics of my stuff when I can, if you like

 

[Grand Number of Pounds]

I collect pocket knives and silver coins when I have the money. My favorite knives are manual flippers and the coins I collect are Morgans, but I'm thinking of getting silver eagles because they are a lot cheaper.

Edit - I just realized I can just say I collect silver dollars because I have some peace dollars too

 

[TheAmazingAxolotl]

I collect hip flasks. Right now I have like four because I usually can't find one that are interesting. They're also my go-to souvenir whenever I go out-of-state, just as long as they have the name of the state on them.

Among other things I collect: old vidya, translations of The Divine Comedy, pocket knives, and of course books. My collections are small, but collections nonetheless.

 

[Mourning Dove]

I don't have pictures handy, but I collect rock and mineral specimens. I also have a sub-par collection of international coins.

 

[galact0r]

I seem to be collecting vaping devices. I gave up smoking to save money, but I can't resist buying new mods, tanks or RDA's. Luckily it's still cheaper than buying a pack a day, but I should probably stop before my collection gets out of hand.

 

[Cute Anime Girl]

I collect guns.

 

[Mourning Dove]

Mourning Dove, how do you build your rock and mineral collection? Do you buy things, or find them? I'd love to see pictures of your specimens if you ever want to share.

I buy them at rock stores or online, like off of Ebay. I haven't gotten to the point of excavating for my own specimens yet. Though there is a nice piece of mica I found when I was like 7 years old.

 

[sparklemilhouse]

I have my knockoff Blythe dolls (lol cuz the real ones are too expensive), my old magazines from the 1980s and 1990s that I use for blog research, and of course, anything Simpsons.

I guess you could count the journals I've kept since I was 12 a collection too.

 

[Dollars2010]

Being a fan of taxidermy and vulture culture, I enjoy collecting pelts, bones, and such.
Plus, I like to give my critters special personal names.

Spoiler: my skulls

Pictured left to right: gray fox, white tail buck, tiny bird, and a bobcat set on a rabbit pelt.
The deer skull is the first bone I've ever cleaned so he's special to me.

Spoiler: Raccoon pelt

Spoiler: Jackalope

Featuring Big Boss.

I have a few more critters, such as a pair of badger claws, lynx claws, white tail deer tail, a cat femur, and a black bear pelt but I don't have pictures of them. Maybe later I'll post some.

 

[John Titor]

I collect animu and vidya figures, art books and want to start an unusual coin collection (which includes foreign money). The latter was inspired by a friend who told me he found a V nickel.

 

[Ravenor]

Where to begin....

Zippo Lighters.
Vintage Fishing reel's.
Rare books (just started this one).
Multi tool's.
Film collection.

I don't know if this counts but Skill's, I often find a skill I would love to learn and I try and apply myself to learning it as best as I can.

 

[ATM]

I have a fair amount of plastic crap accumulating on my desk. I guess it qualifies as a collection of some sort.

Spoiler

I've got half a dozen Hibiki's from THE iDOLM@STER, there's another one on the way.

It's fun to switch the heads on figmas and see how many times you can do it before something breaks.

This is a Satan from SMT that I found in Japan in the corner of some shop for ¥900. I only bought it because I felt sorry for it.

This is Monster ASSAULT, the best flavour of Monster. Also plastic crap.

I have a bunch more things due to arrive pretty soon so I might post some better pics then. I probably need like a shelf or something soon too.

 

[Durable Mike Malloy]

I'm really enjoying the peek into everyone's collections - this was a good idea for a thread, @HawkerHurricane !

Here are a couple more of my patent medicine bottles.

By and large, people bought quack cures because the products made you feel better in a hurry. Even Clark Stanley's fraudulent snake oil would have worked more-or-less as advertised - topical mineral oil is still used for minor cuts, burns and abrasions, and massage will help with all sorts of joint pain and muscle soreness. Many of these medicines owed their popularity not to the placebo effect, but to dangerous quantities of active ingredients.

Spoiler: Opiates, gentle enough for your baby.

Ayer's Cherry Pectoral.

This was sold as a cure-all for diseases of the throat and lungs. Advertised as "safe enough for a baby," it was chock full of morphine. While there are newspaper accounts of children and adults dying from overdose of cherry pectoral, its herbal ingredients had emetic properties - most people would've had a hard time keeping enough of the stuff down to do themselves much harm.

Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup.
(Here is Sir Edward Elgar's eponymous composition adagio cantabile for two flutes, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, if you'd like some music while you read!)

This product was explicitly marketed as a gentle remedy for infant colic, diarrhea and teething pain. In an era of limited access to health care and high child mortality, parents of ailing babies flocked to the stuff. A single 1/2 teaspoon dose of Soothing Syrup contained almost twice the amount of morphine as an entire bottle of Cherry Pectoral, so it probably worked as advertised - when it didn't kill the baby first. It's not hard to find records of children being accidentally overdosed or deliberately murdered with soothing syrup, or becoming addicted and suffering through opiate withdrawals. Soothing syrups were roundly condemned by doctors at the turn of the century, but weren't outright banned until the 30s.

Ayer's Cherry Pectoral and Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup were both manufactured for decades - my examples are both from the 1890s - distributed widely, and packaged in sturdy bottles that hold up well in burn piles or trash heaps. They're quite collectable, but not nearly as valuable as bottles embossed with words like "opium," "heroin," "cannabis" or "coca wine." Those are money in the bank.

Oh, and @Hunger Mythos , may I ask if you have a beetle box? I've got experience with dermestids in a professional setting, but I've never worked with a hobby box before, and I'm keen to know if it's worth the trouble. Your skull preps are so pretty.

 

[Ravenor]

@buster_kitten We have a fantastic source of medical bottles in Liverpool, the Williamson Tunnels. One of the worlds leading hospitals for Tropical Medicine had a entrance really close to the tunnels so medical waste was thrown down there they have been excavating them for a long time now and they are always finding pill bottles from around the world.
I know some one who is a dig volentier down there I'll ask him for copy's of some photos of the odd medical stuff they find down there when I see him next.

 

[Surtur]

Classic vidya and tabletop RPG books.

 

[OR 345]

Mecha stuff, are we at all surprised. I can post pictures/sperg about some of it, if people want, but a few are incomplete model kits.

As for medicine bottles, my mother bought a bunch of them because we have a rustic Western-y themed house. A lot of them still have labels and some even have what is presumably the original "medicine" in them. I can also get pictures of those, if you're interested.