This TOXIC Anime Figure Collecting Trope Needs to Stop? A response to fellow anime figure collector

This is a topic I’m very glad Kohai’s Collection brought up in the beginning of their collection tour video and this is my response to the ‘TED Talk’ portion of that video. No hard feelings of course, but I do disagree with his take on how sharing the dollar value amount of your collection is a negative and damaging thing being done within the anime figure collecting community specifically on KZbin. I’m interested in hearing what you all think of this trope.
With that, I hope you enjoy!
Video I’m responding to:
Over 500 Anime Figures! Collection Tour of Our Game Room and Studio: • Over 500 Anime Figures...
Their channel: / @kohaiscollection
#animefigurecollection #animefigures

[@KohaisCollection]

Such a wonderful response video! I appreciate you continuing the discussion and thank you for producing such a well thought out counter perspective! It's clear you are an experienced member of the community and the confidence you exude in both the video and the standards you hold yourself to are inspiring ❤ It really is a shame the algorithm puts so much value in clickbaity titles. We come from other toxic subcultures on the internet and so entering this scene has been refreshing as a whole. And when entering this scene, there was a strong focus of not wanting be perceived as we are in other hobbies which definitely projected onto this one. We've had a lot of wonderful comments both for and against our perspective so I'm so curious how we'll appproach the subject in our next tour video in 1-2 years. Ted Talk 2.0 😂 @kyokoSaphira brought to us the idea of this being a "luxury hobby" and they are totally correct 💯. We see that there is importance in letting new collectors know what they are getting into. Although we're still on the fence of sharing the total value of the collection, Senpai will be starting a prize figure collection and will fully document and share the costs with new members. We'll be able to do exactly what you mention and be able to show new/potential collectors "With X amount of money, you can have a collection like this". Then we can do a discussion on the more traditional scale figures and how far that same amount stretches and what to expect on that side of the hobby. We're more comfortable with quantity since price is relative to the quality of what you are getting. Statistically, we can already predict how $30K feels to the average person (given national average incomes). Money is just exceptionally tangible to people since we exchange hours of our life for it. A statistic that we will emphasize next that i would to see in this community is our "rate of collection". Ex: "our collection of 120 figures has taken us 5 years to collect, so on average, we're getting 2 new figures a month". I think thats tangible to new collectors and keeps out the irrelevant number of price since it's all about what you yourself will ultimately purchase. We told KyokoSaphira this in our response to them. At the end of the day, what we really want is to simply encourage newcommers to "eat the elephant one bite at time" vs "well.... here's the elephant". It's become apparent that our stance is biased towards new collectors and resonates with those who are new to the scene or those less fortunate. As such, we do a terrible job of being inclusive to our experienced collecting brethren and almost distance ourselves from them, which is not our intent at all! Anyways, great stuff. We've got so much to think about moving forward. The community continues to inspire us for sure. Subscribed 🎉 As an aside, someone commented on our video that "the best collection is your own collection" and it couldnt be more relevant or true. If, as creators, we can ensure more and more people feel that way, I would feel very accomplished ❤

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

Thank you so much! I’m happy to continue the conversation and hope others will as well. I think it’s great for people within communities to share their thoughts and opinions with one another and always found video format to be more personable. I agree that it sucks KZbin pushes the dollar, because I honestly think most seasoned collectors are more interested in the amount of figures vs. the amount of money spent anyways, but sadly that’s what KZbin has become. This subculture has been super welcoming (I usually just lurk, just recently started make videos, etc.) and I totally get what you mean. Because this isn’t a cheap hobby I feel like we’re all kindof in the same boat where we understand that we all have enough money or budget our money in a way to buy pretty plastic, so when someone has spent a crazy amount or has a huge collection it doesn’t come across as bragging, since we’d be guilty of that ourselves if we had the means. If we all had infinite funds I’m sure we’d go ham and get tons of figures too, so best not to judge others for doing that if they can 😊 I look forward to Ted Talk 2.0 and hope other people chime in with videos on the subject too! I miss the good old days when KZbin had a RE: option. I totally understand choosing not to share the dollar figure if you don’t want to. Honestly when I made my collection tour video I disclosed that I calculated the amount to the best of my ability, but it’s not an easy thing to do tbh. The prize figure collection is a fantastic idea and I look forward to it! Also a great idea to focus on the rate of collecting! I think that’ll be very helpful for newbies to see what a healthy way to collect looks like. I totally got where you were coming from in the video and do think you made good points, especially reemphasizing the importance of perspective and how colleting takes time above all else. I think too, and I mean this with no disrespect, but maybe those who resonated are younger as well? I feel particularly with the one comment you made about newcomers “giving up while they’re ahead” so to speak, just because someone has something ‘better’ or more figures is kind of immature (I say without any negative meaning behind the word “immature”). Regardless, I think it’s great that you strive to pull new people in and make them feel welcome! I look forward to your future videos as well (subbed 😉). "the best collection is your own collection", couldn’t have said it better myself!

[@KohaisCollection]

@@Konsuming_PlastiK Thank you for taking the time for such a thorough response

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

I think it’s great to tailor some stuff for the new folks in the hobby, because you’re totally right that anyone’s channel could be someone’s first introduction to collecting and navigating at first can be very overwhelming like you said. I’m excited to see what ‘intro to the hobby’ type videos you come up with! I’m glad you got a kick out of the Strike Witch flying video XD It was a ton of fun to make! (Thank you so much for the offer, but I might have a new mic soon anyways (birthday) - not sure, but fingers crossed!)

[@KohaisCollection]

@@Konsuming_PlastiKAwesomeness! Just let us know. Otherwise, we can offer it to another fellow creator :)

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

@@KohaisCollection Thank you so much, but don't wait on me! Please feel free to help another creator out :) Thank you so much again anyways!

[@MrChopsticktech]

I'm glad people take them out of the package! I collect and build Lego sets, and many of the snobs on the Adult Fan Of Lego sites keep them boxed. Others buy 3 pf each set: one to build, one to display in the box and one to store away to sell some day when the set is retired (out of print). Some of the sets can be several hundred USD, and the prices are fairly consistent here in the US, so you can Google the prices for each set. I know it can be really discouraging when it seams like everyone has money except you, but try to be patient and happy!!!

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

Awesome that you build Lego. My brother's a bit into that hobby as well. That's crazy that some people buy so many sets! Most anime figure collectors I've seen on here seem to keep the boxes, but I personally don't want to waste the room (and would most likely damage the box anyways by accident at some point which would lower the value anyways). Yep, people should always be happy for what they have and be patient with any hobby they enjoy - it's a hobby after all, not a job, no reason to burn yourself out ;)

[@papercutzombie]

Interestingly I don't look at my own collection in terms of a dollar amount, nor do I care to even calculate it. However, there is curiosity when someone posts the $ in their KZbin video title, I think we're just wired that way. You made some great points, especially re: jealousy (bringing it back to what I was mentioning above). Ultimately, if our collection, big/small makes us happy? That's what counts :)

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

Agree 100% :)

[@rogerc6533]

People have a right to know how much this hobby would cost them. Sounds scummy to hide the costs of this hobby from newcomers if anything.

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

Agreed, at the least ballpark it so newcomers know what to expect.

[@lSeKToRl]

This guy and his wife Kohai do reviews of 1/2 and 1/1.25 scale figures that they spent thousands on. One of their figures probably cost more than most peoples collections.

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

True

[@pennyjpie]

I agree with a lot of your points. My thing is I personally don’t care how much someone else spent on figures. Like I get that influencer culture makes people want to buy things and I can see how one can fall down the rabbit hole of spending just to “keep up”. But I mean…if someone’s interested in a figure in their collection, they’re going to look it up and find the price anyway. And you know, to the people that have been collecting for a while, we know how much those figures cost and it just felt like needless preaching for no reason to me. Like the entire time of the “TED talk” he was standing in front of a Nekopara display that just one shelf I *know* costs $2000 easy nowadays. It’s like…I don’t care, just show me the figures! It felt like a weird defense the entire video. I remember there was a moment where Kohai was going over her collection and said “this is our cabinet for clout” and I was like “dope, let’s see ‘em!” Because I genuinely like seeing people’s rares or the figures they’re most proud of-that’s a part of collecting as a whole, for ANY type of collection, is showing off a little! I think it’s fun to see what other people have, whether I’m personally looking for the item myself or not. But the the other guy (I don’t remember his name, I’m sorry), stopped the collection tour to seemingly defend Kohai’s usage of the word “clout” for like another 7 minutes and like…I don’t care! I just didn’t care! I wanna see the figures. That’s what I’m here for! Then I watched her tour with a bad taste in my mouth because I had to listen to him talk about how “when we mean clout we don’t mean it like everyone else” while showing me that 1/2.5 scale Sonico figure that’s like $1000- like YES it’s clout and that’s fine! I don’t know, I think the video was well meaning and they have a very nice display, but it just felt preachy to me. Especially when they kept bringing up specifically people talking about their $30,000 figure collection and saying they didn’t want to prompt a culture like that, but like their collection is totally at the minimum double that and it’s freakin obvious. Just own it and talk to people about collecting at their own pace and have fun and don’t bankrupt yourselves trying to get rare figures. But this hobby’s expensive. If the cost drives people away, I say that’s a good thing. It just goes that they’d be better off not spending hundreds/thousands of dollars in pvc. Anyone that wants to stay will stay. That’s my ideas about it at least. I hope I didn’t come off blunt, but it’s just ironically this was my first exposure to that channel and all I could think was “stop preaching to me and show me you’re figures” and “it’s so presumptuous of them to think I’d be jealous of their collection enough to constantly tell me not to be jealous”. Once again, I’m sure they’re cool but that’s how it came off to me. It’s one of those things where it’s like bringing up the thing immediately makes me more critical instead of simply not saying anything. They could have just named the video “Our 500+ figure collection”, not mentioned anything about money, and I would have been fine.

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

Don’t worry about the bluntness, I find it easier to understand people when they’re direct. It was my first exposure to their channel as well and I agree with you. Tbh the only reason I listened through the lecture was because I was cleaning at the time and having it play in the background. I also did think and originally had a point about how it ‘comes across as if they think their collection is so great that it’s going to make me jealous and stop collecting’, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt that that wasn’t what they were trying to say and I’m glad, because after talking a little with them they seem like nice people who, at least to us, came across wrong/rubbed us the wrong way. It definitely did seem ironic because as you pointed out, us seasoned collectors can at the least ball park what you’ve spent and they’re collection is super huge and that’s impressive, but definitely expensive (I mean figures aside, the displays themselves start to add up!). It also did seem defensive, like they felt they were going to be attacked in the comments for having such a large collection and to be fair they brought up to me after posting this (they commented here too) that they were part of some toxic subcultures online, so I think they really thought they might be dogpiled on for the amount of money they spent on their collection. Ultimately though I’m with you on not caring how much someone spends on their collection as a whole. But if someone gets a great deal on a figure that’s actually more exciting to me than someone spending a lot of money - even if that great deal is still a lot of money because it’s a grail or super rare. Your comment about “… I get that influencer culture makes people want to buy things and I can see how one can fall down the rabbit hole of spending just to “keep up”.” I think would have actually been a better point for them to make honestly. Reassure the audience that collecting takes time and not to rush just to keep up - hell I might even make a video on that in the future, because that is something we see on KZbin. People collecting at a ‘dangerous’ rate.

[@KyokoSaphira]

We totally agree with what you said. We think that it actually is really important to speak about money and what collections cost. Especially for new collectors so that they can get a feeling of what they are getting into. This way they don't get all excited and then realize that this is a very expensive hobby and then get discouraged by it. We have never seen anybody here on KZbin brag about the amount of money they spend on their collection at least to us it never came across that way. Like you said comparing collections is not really a problem of the figure collecting community because we all have emotional connections to our figures and the characters. If you compare your collection to others and get discouraged by it, it is a problem you have with yourself and that goes deeper than just collecting.

[@forestunger8649]

Completely true! One should be emboldened and encouraged when they look at their collection from any hobby, not insignificance because they don’t have as much as others. Like you said, the bond formed from having what we are able to have is stronger as time goes on and can really bring a new understanding to the term ‘value’

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

1000% agree! Thank you so much for commenting btw. I watched one of your guys videos a while back and couldn't remember your channel name :P Excited to catch up on some more of your stuff!

[@RC.Senshado]

General comment not specific about figures since that's not my realm, but pointing out consumption culture in the West is important and it's healthier if people understand it so people can be better with their finances. It's good to hear it being discussed. That said, for the sake of people who wish to do it for fun and for joy, there should not be gate keepers and artificial barriers keeping you from it (such as artificial scarcity, ridiculous pricing, and speculators sucking up all the inventory etc). I hate that about niche hobbies but I understand the lower production numbers matching lower demand.

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

I absolutely agree that people should talk about consumption culture and wish more people spoke about it more in this community tbh. Gatekeeping is stupid, but I also understand why prices get crazy for these things especially when they're on the rarer side. Luckily, when it comes to figure collecting usually there are cheaper options of the same characters, so more people can enjoy the hobby.

[@thedeadbatterydepot]

Nice outfit

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

Thank you!

[@philippe146]

I agree I’m not jealous of his collection, I have my own taste yes he’s set up is nice but do I like the figures he collect no not really. Most anime series he collect from I don’t really care much about i enjoy video game figures more.

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

Yeah, we all have our own interests when it comes to figure collecting and I doubt many if any collectors are jealous just because someone has more figures than them. That's cool you collect video game figures, which game series do you collect from?

[@philippe146]

@@Konsuming_PlastiK mostly horror games like silent hill, resident evil and little nightmares etc

[@Konsuming_PlastiK]

@@philippe146 Nice! We recently found some of my fiancés old Resident Evil action figures from when he was a kid - Hunk and a hunter. I plan on picking up some more because that's his childhood. I need to play the silent hill games. I have the first one on PS1, but haven't played it much. I've only heard of little nightmares one other time, but I might have to check it out.

[@philippe146]

@@Konsuming_PlastiK you lucky you got first silent hill the classic horror games are hard to come by most are over priced on eBay. But at least they finally coming with new silent hill games. Little nightmares is fun but it’s really short