It’s time for the yearly look back at the
collection. New Year’s Eve has never
been a big deal for me – I spent 12 years in university and after that 10 years
working in finance, so either Labour Day weekend (start of the new school year)
or April 1 (start of the new fiscal year) are far more significant as New
Year’s Day to me. But you expect these
sorts of things in January, so here we are.
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| No offense, January Joy |
The Geek Cave, while always enjoyable, has
largely been a source of frustration this year, as very little progress has
been made toward organization and cleaning.
Early in 2019 I spent a fair bit of time piling up things that should be
living in other parts of the house (we’re both collectors and geeks, and our
entire house reflects that, so things like books and mini figs don’t live in
the Geek Cave). However, those piles
didn’t move any further and are still taking up space in the Cave. Still, we did get some wall shelves up, and
the plushies have a permanent home, so we’ve managed to complete a few things. The Cave will never be finished, but it will
be nice to make a bit more progress on it in 2020.
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| Spoiler alert: it's still a mess |
Roomy and I traveled to both the MLP Fair
and the Canadian Collectors Extravaganza this past summer. We had a blast at both events, as we always
do. The Extravaganza always feels like a
nice bonus event to me because we only have to travel a couple of hours to get
there, and we can load up the car with larger pieces to sell (on the way) and
larger pieces I bought (on the way back).
Roomy helped out at the Extravaganza with bingo (hilarious), we both
found some nice pieces to add to our collections, and, of course, we got to see
friends that we only see once or twice a year.
I really loved how the Fair felt like one
of the earlier Fairs again, in that so many collectors knew each other and the
mood was relaxed, fun, and a bit nostalgic.
There was the possibility that this might have been the last Fair (it
wasn’t – yay!!!!) and I think most of the collectors there decided to make the
most of the opportunity to enjoy the community that we have. The MLP community is shrinking back to a
sustainable number of collectors (not a bad thing) and we’ll likely never see a
giant convention again like we did at the height of the brony phenomenon (also
not a bad thing, in my opinion), but many of us who’ve been around for the last
20+ years aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
Of course I added to my collection as well
this year. I’ve been collecting as an
adult for 22 years, so no, I don’t have too many easy and cheap ponies left to
get. However, there were a few
stragglers on my wish list that I had yet to pick up, and I managed to get
several of these this year. I also got
some upgrades on older ponies, a couple of lovely nirvanas, one more G2, came
within two ponies of completing my G3 collections, and contributed to the Geek
Cave mess by not opening up G4 packages quickly enough.
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| The majority of Ponies who joined the herd this year |
I don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but I do
have plans for the coming year. One of
them involves the Geek Cave indirectly, in that we are rearranging our rec room
to include glassed-in shelving for displaying and keeping safe some of our
side-collections (see above re: books and mini figs). As we start getting this shelving in place, we’ll
start moving collectibles into their new homes, but in the meantime, we’re
going to box up some of these things to get them out of the way and out of the
Geek Cave. This way we’ll have breathing
space in the Cave without having to wait until the rec room is in order.
There are also a few things I’d like to get
off my wish list and onto my shelves.
There are some harder to find ponies that have been on my wish list for
as long as I’ve had a wish list, and I wouldn’t mind adding one or two to my
collection. I’ve also got my eye on some
specific nirvana ponies, including Belly and Folly from Macau. My first (but not last) Spanish Piggy Pony
continues to elude me. Perhaps this will
be the year.
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| Macau Ponies, who have apparently become pony collectors themselves |
Thank you for visiting the blog again this
year. I hope it’s been entertaining and
maybe occasionally informative, and that you’ll join me again in 2020. I wish you a happy new year with your
collection(s) and the friends you’ve made through your collection(s). I look forward to seeing you in person and
online. Until then, I remain your humble
blogger,
Elf
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