What kind of figurine collector are you?

Over the years I have met many types of collectors. Each collector has his own particularities. Every collector has their likes and dislikes. What about you? What type of collector are you?

Below I'll introduce you to the different types of figurine collectors I've encountered over the years.

Manga Figurine Collectors

The collector of only one figurine per character

I think this type of collection is a bit common. I've heard many anime figure enthusiasts say that they only buy one figure per character. Of course, if you want some realism in your display, it doesn't make sense to have more than one figurine of the same character. Plus, you save money if you limit yourself to just one figure per character. With the insane prices of scale figures these days, it makes sense to buy fewer. That's what I once told the newbie collector that I was, but I fell down the rabbit hole and bought several figures of the same characters. With so many great figures coming out, how can anyone resist the urge to keep pre-ordering? If you've managed to stay true to the one-figure-per-character ideology, good for you. I should show a little more restraint myself.

The Waifu Collector

This is the collector who only collects female figurines - the waifu collector. I myself am a collector of bishoujo only, and that is why I only deal with bishoujo figurines in this blog. It's like building your own harem of PVC beauties. Aside from a single Nendoroid Petite by Koyomi Araragi who came in a set with Senjougahara and Hanekawa, all the others are female.

The Husbando Collector

If there are waifu collectors, there are also husbando collectors. I believe the most popular husband characters come from the FREE series! and Haikyuu!

The second-hand stalker

There are those collectors that we always see lurking and browsing the second-hand sections of stores. As a second-hand lover, you can usually find great deals on good quality figurines.

The impulsive Manga buyer

The impulsive buyer is the collector who does not pre-order his figurines. Instead, he goes to retail websites or physical stores to buy the figurine he likes at that particular moment.

The Manga figurine reseller

I probably wouldn't call the dealer a collector. The reseller pre-orders multiple copies of the same figurine with the intention of reselling them later at a very high price. It's not good to be a scalper, but for some people it's a way of life and a way to make a living. I'm not trying to justify discounting, it's a questionable practice that should be stopped and it's a good thing that figure retailers are limiting pre-orders per address to only three figures.

Bootleg scum

Be offended if you want, I don't care. Bootleg collectors are the scum of the action figure collecting community. They are only surpassed by scammers. It's even worse if bootleg collectors resell a bootleg and try to pass it off as an authentic figure. If you bought a bootleg by accident, you are a victim. But if you knowingly buy bootlegs, you're fueling a syndicate that thrives on selling unlicensed products and depriving creators of the compensation they deserve. Instead, you're giving your money to scammers who run sweatshops in violation of many labor laws and who may be using toxic paints and other harmful substances to make pirate figurines. Even cheap figures are of higher quality than bootlegged figures, so even if you're strapped for cash, you have no excuse. There are now cheaper alternatives.

The “one and done” Collectible Figurines

The “one and done” is a person who has purchased a single figurine of their favorite character and stops there. He never looks at or buys other figurines.

The garage kit enthusiast

The garage kit lover is in touch with his artistic side. This collector prefers to buy garage kits and paint them himself. The garage kit enthusiast can also make their own garage kits.

holo garage kit

The customizer

These are the collectors who like to personalize the figurines they buy. This includes repainting and mixing accessories from other figures. This includes collectors who create makaizou figurines. Makaizou figures are regular figures that are customized to become hentai figures.

The builder of shrines

The shrine creator focuses on creating a shrine for his favorite characters. As a shrine builder, this doesn't necessarily mean you have to limit yourself to just one character. You can buy figurines of multiple characters, but what makes you a shrine builder is that you dedicate your collection to just those few characters.

The Nendoroid/Figma Collector

Slaves of Good Smile Company - these collectors exclusively buy Figmas or Nendoroids . The Nendoroids are very cute and the fact that you can combine the accessories makes them an interesting collectible. If, on the other hand, you are more of a fan of poseable figurines, then the Figma are made for you.

The fluff faction

Stuffed animals are not exactly figurines, but they are still part of the collecting hobby. Not to mention that the prices of certain soft toys are becoming very high. I have known people who exclusively collected Nesoberi plushies.

minami kotori nesoberi

Doll collectors

These Dollfie Dream collectors are loaded with cash. I mean dolls are so much more expensive than PVC scale figures. Even on the secondary market, these dolls remain expensive and their price often increases. It is normal to see Dollfie Dream dolls priced above 200,000 yen from some sellers.

hatsune miku dollfie dream snow

The POP-pers

Personally, I'm not a fan of the dead, lifeless eyes of the Funko POP vinyl figures. They are gaining a lot of popularity. It's mainstream and it's cheap at more or less $10 a POP. See what I did there?

Pikachu funko

Pikachu looks like a dead mouse.

Vintage hunters

These are collectors who collect anime figurines from their childhood, so anime series from the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. These include anime figurines like Inuyasha, Yuyu Hakusho, Samurai X, Evangelion, Macross and anime villains like Voltes V, Mazinger Z and Daimos.



The hentai figurine lover

The collector of hentai figurines thrives on discarded figurines. They probably live alone, which allows them to display nude or obscene figurines without problem. We must still congratulate these people for having the courage to exhibit hentai figurines. I could only have the courage to display moderately obscene figurines because there is a child in the house. Hentai figurine collectors are patrons of Native, Binding, Daiki Kougyou and SkyTube.

The model collector

Whether Frame Arms Girls or GunPlas, they are all part of the model kits. Model kit collectors have a lot of time on their hands as they can spend hours and hours building their prized model kits.

The Shounen Collector

The shounen collector only collects figurines of popular shounen manga and anime characters like Dragon Ball Z, Hunter x Hunter, One Piece, and Bleach, to name a few.

Is there any other shounen anime character more iconic than Goku ?

The beginner collector

The beginning collector is still new to figurine collecting and has significant disposable income. This collector starts by buying dozens of figurines each month until he accumulates a few hundred in a year or two. He quickly accumulated a quantity of figures that would normally take ordinary collectors 5 years or more. As an example, it took me over 5 years to accumulate 200 figures and I buy a lot.