Clearing out

[caddyman]

I said it would never happen, but it seems that it is. Our hero (that’s me, you plonker) is growing up. Even if only a little bit.

As much as it pains the hoarder in me, I have to ditch stuff ahead of the final evacuation of the Athenaeum Club. I have to ditch quite a lot of stuff and I don’t necessarily want to just throw it away, which means that I am going to have to get myself into gear and start sorting.

There are three categories of items that take vast amounts of space and which are so rarely used/admired or displayed that I may as well get rid of them. I cannot explain just how much this goes against the grain: like any collector (hoarder), I don’t need to look at the stuff all the time; just knowing it’s there does the trick. I suspect that in a previous incarnation I must have been a dragon – or at least a magpie – with all my goodies piled up for me to sleep on and guard.

I do like my shinies.

Anyway, be that as it may, I very much doubt that I shall have space for much of it after the end of June.

I shall be very much reducing my comic collection. It never gets read and is stacked in a huge number of collector’s boxes. Most of it dates from the mid 80s to the early noughties. In more recent years from about 2002 onwards, my collecting has tailed off drastically as has my inclination to sort, file and box. The few titles I now read, I am content to wait until they appear in collected editions (except the Ultimate Fantastic Four, which I have to read as it happens).

Similarly I have an unconscionable amount of action figures to get rid of. Now while these strictly are collectibles, none of them are really old enough to command decent prices on eBay (or at least comparatively few are). This means that I am somewhat stuck as to know what to do with them. The majority of the space-takers are Dragon figures which, despite their name, are nothing to do with dragons. They are, in essence, glorified and highly detailed Action Man (GI Joe for my US/Canadian friends) figures. When I say highly detailed, I am not exaggerating: at 1/6 scale some of the more recent ones even have individual cartridges in the ammo pouches and gun magazines. I intend to keep a few of my favourites, but the bulk of them will have to go.

I also have a fairly large collection of videos (principally Star Trek) taking up space. I suspect that losing these will be even more difficult that the others. At least the comics can go in recycling bins if necessary and the action figures will probably recoup a miniscule percentage on eBay.

My question, therefore, to people out there in LJ land is simple: does any one think that they may want any of this stuff?

Comments

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

Awww I like the thought of you as a sleepy dragon on your shinies!
Sucks though, downsizing the living space, doesn't it? Fortunately I got rid of multiple car-loads of stuff when I left Reading - phew. I can't even remember what it was now, just that there was tons - so I suppose it can't have been that important!

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

Did you know that the faces for Dragon figures are all modeled after Holywood celebs? When I worked in a model store in Manchester I'd spend many an instructive afternoon displaying these in windows and then go "oh - It's Russel Crow dressed like a Vietnam-era US soldier" or "shit - that's a young blond Sean Connery as the WW2 German officer".

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

A lot of them are - but not all.

There is a US Marine with a David Beckham head, complete with Mohican hair cut, too. I have a British soldier from the 24th Regiment of Foot from the Zulu wars (about 1878) that bears more than a passing resemblance to an older Connery, which isn strange because I thought they maight have chosed Michael Caine...

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

Some of them are very obscure, mostly the more obscure non-Holywood ones turn out to be football players or famous in some way in Hong Kong/China.

BTW - how did the pinstripe painting go? Did you use the varied bristles method or the masking tape method?

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I chickened out.

The scale of the model too large to get away with the trick you suggested (though I shall bear it in mind for smaller figures) and I have neither the time nor the patience (and probably not the skill) to use the masking tape method.

So I cheated. I got a blue water colour pencil, drew the pinstripes on and then fixed them with matt acrylic varnish.

[ash1977law.livejournal.com]

Hey, if it works it's not cheating. Yours is an elegant solution.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I think it worked quite well:

Here is a picture of the legs with the pinstripe drawn on:


And here is the final figure (I must get and finish the Martha figure!):

[wallabok.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't mind a dragon comrade or two for Kurt.

Sadly my wife will bar me from the ST vids due to the storage implications.

[romney.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to take charge of a Dragon figure or too, with the intent of passing-on to nephew in a number of years (post action man!) should he be interested, and enjoying the company of until then.
I may not exactly have the space, but it will increase the clutter by an infinitesimal percentage.

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

I am surprised fencingsculptor hasn't leapt upon your action figures. Maybe he has been haunting your desk all morning, "Come on, Bry, come on, please..."

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I think he might have bust a spring after his earlier rant and is sitting with a cool, damp towel on his forehead.

I imagine he will chirp up when all readings are nomional, Captain (sorry, Star Trek moment, there!).

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

Then neither of us should mention anything to him. If he knows you have *ction f*gures available, he'll gibber and melt, poor lad.

[colonel-maxim.livejournal.com]

It really should be no trouble. Just get rid of your junk and you will only have about half a box of stuff to pack.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

Stuff; NOT junk!