2021 Collector's Year in Review

 I'm sorely tempted to move these "year in review" posts to a time of year that actually seems like a changing of seasons for me, rather than arbitrarily at the first of January.  But this year I'm also here to tell you that I'll be taking a hiatus from the blog for a little while, as I deal with some ongoing technical issues (read: both my laptop and camera are still dead or dying, and I need some time to deal with that so that posting can be both fun and not take 300 years again).

Many of this year's toy acquisitions, but there were also some buttons and pamphlets too.

In the meantime, 2021 was another year of no conventions, although I did manage to spend an hour at a local toy sale in October.  Most of my purchases were online.  You may think from the pictures below that I've embraced online shopping, but in reality most of these purchases were either through very good friends' sales or very good friends offering to pick things up for me.  Thank goodness for very good friends.

There were a few really excellent additions to the Pony collection this year, but only one excellent addition to the SSC collection.  In both of these collections, I'm really at the point where the majority of my wish list is rarer and/or more expensive items, so additions will tend to be fewer, but much loved.  The Care Bear collection, on the other hand, saw a major expansion this year, largely due to the fact that I love the new plush, who are available locally at TRU.  I don't have any vintage Bears (yet), but the anniversary and new Bears seriously spark joy.

Grumpy and I get each other

There's been more and more retro merchandise available lately, which can really appeal to those of us who've been collecting since the early generations, although there's a bit of a tendency for companies to continually reuse the same artwork and characters over and over.  In a way, that's made it easier for me to decide to pick up just a few pieces that really speak to me, such as the 2022 planner that both has great art and design, and fits in with my collection of stationary.

In 2022, I'm aiming to be posting again by February, with some exciting changes coming to the Geek Cave.  Yes, I've finally decided, with Marie's help, on what I'm going to do to alter the space.  I think it's going to work even better than it currently is.

Cheers,

Elf

Christmas Mem'ries

Singing carols. Stringing popcorn

Making footprints in the snow

Mem'ries, Christmas mem'ries

They're the sweetest ones I know

Cookies baking in the kitchen

Cards and ribbons everywhere

Frosty Christmas mem'ries

Float like snowflakes in the air

And oh the joy of waking Christmas morning

The fam'ly round the tree

We had a way of making Christmas morning

As merry as can be

I close my eyes and see

Shiny faces of all the children

Who now have children of their own

Funny but come December

I remember every Christmas I've known.

I was not able to decorate the Geek Cave this year.  You might think it was due to the fact that the room is an unholy mess, but actually it had more to do with having someone in to do some work on the house who needed access to the room.  So rather than spending hours fiddling with tiny accessories, I was spending hours packing away tiny accessories and anything overhanging shelves to make sure nothing was accidentally damaged or disappeared.

However, I have years and years of holiday pony photos to draw on, so I still had a little seasonal fun.  I hope you've enjoyed it.

Happy holidays, and may your days be merry and bright.

Elf

When does a collection room not work? Part 2

 I would hazard to say that the Geek Cave is currently not working as a collection room, but this is largely because it’s in a state of flux that just keeps going and going.  Supply chain issues have hit both the Cave and the basement display area (geeky name still to come) and we’ve not had the chance to get all the shelving and display cabinets that we want to finish the transition.  So, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, the rearrangement of the Cave has been somewhat delayed.

Happy with this bit.

I’m also finding I’m slightly dissatisfied with the arrangement of the furniture in the Cave.  Now, I’m not sure there is a better way to make use of this space, and it’s unlikely that there will be significant changes.  But the act of renewing the Cave is naturally the time to think about these things.  I think, actually, it’s the act of renewing that’s made me dissatisfied with the current set up.  I feel like I should make a bigger change than just moving things around on the shelves.  We’ll see if that amounts to anything.

Less happy with this bit.

I would also say that I’m in no way thinking of getting rid of the Cave.  A collection room absolutely does work for me, allowing for the collection to be displayed and protected, and also allowing me to have space for my dioramas, to photograph the collection, and to sit there and enjoy it, as well.  Once I’ve made my decisions and picked up the missing furniture, I will become enthusiastic about updating the Cave.  In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy the glorious mess.

Elf

When does a collection room not work?

Pretty well every collector yearns for their own room dedicated to displaying their collection.  Or, once you have one, spends hours setting it up, tweaking it, and enjoying it.  But does a Geek Cave work for everyone?

The short answer is no, and that's why Marie and I are separating our collections.  While I love the Cave and tend to spend time there every week, Marie didn't tend to spend much time with her collection in there, unless there was a specific job to be done.

However, Marie works from home and her office is in the basement (where our tv room and my art station also are), so naturally she spends a lot of the day down there.  When we started adjusting the tv area to better fit our house and our lives, we also decided to try moving the MOTU/POP collection downstairs.  Marie quickly decided that this was a far better way to enjoy her collection.  She can visit it during the day when she needs a break from work, or when we're relaxing in the evening.

Of course, we still needed to take the cats into account, and we have two confirmed chewers in the house. So we’ve been slowly collecting closed cabinets to protect the collection.  There’s a long way to go, but it’s starting to look good.  And most importantly, it works for the collector.

Elf

The best we could do

 How it started:

It's a mess

The MOTU have come out, opening up some new spaces for ponies.

How it's going:

Mostly retro G1 stuff is now gathered on the vintage side.

I'm calling the week in the Cave a win, although I wasn't able to acomplish quite as much as I wanted.  Moving anything in the Cave starts a domino effect that only ends when you either find room for everything or give up and abandon it on whatever flat surface is clear.  By the end of the day on Monday the room was truly a mess and it was difficult to find enough floor space to get back to the door and I didn't think I'd be leaving the room better than I found it.

There are a few vintage pieces on top as well.

On Tuesday I decided to bring everything pony-related still outside the Cave into the room.  Although this exacerbated the space issue in the short term, it meant that everything was localized within the room and could be placed.

The special G3s have a better display space now.

I quickly realized that I wasn't going to be able to get everything placed exactly as I wanted this week.  We have plans to add two more Kalax cubes under the large display table, but these aren't currently available locally. This necessarily limited some of what I could do, especially as the space these new cubes will occupy is currently filled with odds and ends and G4s still in package.

The BAB plush fit perfectly on the modern side.

I had planned out what I wanted to do with certain areas of the Cave however, so I focused on these first.  One thing that has long bothered me is having the Build a Bear G4 plush on the vintage side of the room. I cleared off the top of the shelves on the modern side to make room for the BAB plush, which allowed me to display more retro G1 items on the Vintage side.  I was also able to finally develop a display space for my party supplies.

Party supplies out on display

Toward the end of the week my focus changed to finding space for everything, even if it was only temporary. When the other two Kalax cubes have been added I'll be able to split the four under the large table between storage and display.  Right now, only a few of the cubes are being used as displays while most are temporary storage.  At least I was able to find the floor!

Reference, books, binders, and bits and piece.s

Overall, I'm happy with how the clean up went.  It's nowhere near perfect and there's plenty of stuff still on the floor, on the table, and just generally in the wrong place.  But a lot of other things are displayed now, or at least better organized than they have been for the last several months.  There's room to move and do things, like photographing new additions to the collection, and I'll be able to sneak in and do small adjustments now that there's room to breathe.

A collection room is never done.

Elf

It's time to move forward

It's time to move forward with the Geek Cave.  Supply chains aren't improving and we're still waiting on some new furniture for the Cave and the new display space, but we're tired of the state of things.  I need some space made to display some new pieces.

So happy to have these two - now I need display space to appreciate them!

I also need some space to display some old pieces.  The Cave has been left to itself for months now, but it's time to get back to organizing and making sure the display works.  Right now, I can tell you it's just a mess.

Needs work

However, over the next week we'll be packing up the MOTU and POP collections for temporary storage.  The following week, I've taken a much needed week off of work and I plan to spend a fair amount of time dealing with the toy explosion.  I already know I won't get everything I want done (I never do on a vacation), but I hope to at least clear room to walk!

For the Honour of Grayskull!  Let's get going!

So watch this space.  In a couple of weeks I hope to show you some before and after pictures of the progress that's made.  Here's hoping you can tell the difference between the two pictures.

Elf

Planning Ahead

We’re making plans for the autumn and the return to organizing the collections.  Roomy has very kindly offered (again) to pack up her figures until we can find a display cabinet of the right size and type for her new display space.  Through the summer I refused this offer, because I was busy in the garden and packing up the figures meant an inevitable jumbling up of accessories and bits and pieces to be sorted out later.  However, the last time she offered I suggested I’d take her up on the offer if we’re still searching for a cabinet when the weather turns.

Having the MOTU packed up will allow more freedom of movement in the Cave (always a struggle) and also make it easier to keep reorganizing my collection.  Naturally, if we go this route, I’ve promised to help Roomy with matching up her accessories to the right figures when the time comes (I do love a good accessory organization party).

As far as making plans, last February I slightly expanded the G1 display space so all the ponies had a little more breathing room between them.  This made sense as the G1 collection will certainly be the area with the most expansion happening in the future (read: biggest wishlist).  G2 follows up with the 2^nd biggest wishlist, but since that list was small to start out with, they don’t get all that much geographical space.  For both G1 and G2, there is one more playset each that I’d like to add to the collection. So I’m keeping that space in mind without actually leaving a blank area, because who knows when these will make it into the Cave.

G3 and G4 are the easiest to deal with now since they’re essentially complete collections from my point of view, meaning that there are so few other pieces that I want to pick up I can confidently identify the amount of display space needed to house them. Now that G4 is officially over, I’ll probably spend some time tweaking their display to take up the least amount of space possible while still looking good.  I’m still very fond of the Canterlot portion of the display, but there’s room for improvement elsewhere.  I will also look at expanding the G3 display slightly, as the ponies look crowded to me right now and I’m not enjoying that.  There won’t be huge changes there, however.

There's also the question of displaying merchandise.  This can be tricky because of the various sizes and shapes that merch takes and I've not yet found a display style that I like for my merch.  I think it makes sense to group like with like, so I'll probably display all my party supplies together, then stationary and stickers, then other bits and pieces.  I'll probably also divide them by generation, partially because  I think the vintage art looks so much better than the more modern pieces, and I want to give both the chance to shine.

Stay tuned.

Elf