10 Years Anniversary Post and Marvel Legends Collection

Woohoo! It's been 10 years since I started this blog. Make that slightly over 10 years... missed the exact date which was on 22nd December. I was aiming for it but I took longer than anticipated setting up my display.    

10 years! I didn't think I would last that long doing this. It's been quite a journey. You know I actually started the blog to try and maintain my interest in toy collecting. At one point it felt like I was collecting for collecting sake. I got the figure, opened it and just placed it on the shelf, and rarely looked at it after that. Then there was also the difficulty in getting things. Things like exclusives, DCUC and JLU figures. Quite a lot of those were not available locally. It was very frustrating having to ebay and you can imagine the cost for an overseas buyer. In case you don't already know I'm from Singapore. I thought I should put the money to better use instead of "putting it into shelves and boxes". I actually sold off some of my figures. Some of which hurt I can tell you as I spent quite a bit of effort getting them. Fortunately or unfortunately I came across some toy reviewers on the net before further damage to the collection could be done. Two that left an impression were SOLID and Shaun, a local collector who ran a Hot Toys blog. Both are no longer active. I thought that maybe I could do that as well and so I started the blog.

I get this question sometimes, why a blog? I actually considered doing Youtube videos but there were a couple of things I lacked. Namely an entertaining personality and a decent voice. My voice is dull and monotonous. I did not like how I sounded at all. I also kept muddling up what I wanted to say or missing things out. The early takes were shall we say discouraging and so I decided on doing a blog. 

Through running the blog I found myself better appreciating or hating a figure. I began scrutinising a figure more. From the art on the packaging, the amount of articulation to the amount of sculpted and paint detail. I had never fiddled with a toy figure as much since I was a kid. I started to enjoy doing it. The collecting bug was back and I looked forward to every new release. 

The blog did more than just restore my interest in toys. It also helped me develop an interest in photography, helped me be more confident, opened some doors and enabled me to meet some great people. I'll just touch on the photography aspect. My early photos were poor. I used a point and shoot camera and just blasted the figure with flash, like in the pic above. There was a lot of harsh shadows and sometimes the colours in the pic would differ from the actual product. I got a lot of criticism on the quality of my pics so I worked on it. I tried out various methods, using natural lighting, adding more lighting and using flash. I also started taking photos at events to practice taking photos in different environments. It took me about five years to get something decent out and then gradually to the pics you see today. I don't consider myself a good photographer but I think the pics I put out is good enough.  

I have considered using backdrops and such for my reviews. It's not something I foresee doing currently. Making proper dios takes time and after awhile you'll probably get bored of seeing the same thing if one is used too often. Also the dio may not be suitable for a particular character. I think I would rather keep things simple. The purpose is to showcase the figure after all. That said if I do want a certain scene I would look into it.     

Space is also key when taking pics. And space is something I don't have much of. My photography table, display and some toy storage are all in one room. I hate to say but I let things get out of hand... I had boxes all over the place and the cramp conditions partially contributed to me posting less. Stepping over things and accessing figures was no fun... I finally decided to do something about it. I sold off some of my stuff and got round to setting up a proper display for my Marvel Legends collection.   

My Marvel Legends collection have not been properly displayed for over five years. The previous shelf was full a long time ago and any new releases were kept in boxes. Letting some stuff go was hard but I'm so glad I did it. I finally get to enjoy the collection. There's almost twenty years of collecting in these shelves. Though what's on display is mostly from Hasbro you know what I mean.  

You can click images to enlarge.

Not every figure is displayed. I did the best I could to include as many unique characters from the 616 universe. They are loosely grouped if any. And some of them are place holders.

Spider-man is my favourite character so he gets his Spider-verse. I would really love to have done up an Iron-man and Hulk shelf as well but it's not possible at the moment.

Some of you may ask why vanilla posing and not dynamic poses? I find dynamic posing takes up more space and they tend to fall over more often. And in this way I can simply pull the figure out when I need them for reviews. 

Just a bit of trivia. I used to do a collection post for every hundred posts I made. I lost track of that along the way. Once I've finish setting up more displays I might do a post for them.

So that's my Marvel Legends display! I hope you enjoyed the pics.

So what's next? Another 10 years? I don't know really. I just barely reached the first 10 at the end. I've been posting less and less each year. I guess I'm not as motivated as before. With a cleaner work area now though who knows. I like to take the opportunity to thank J Hernandez, Barbeque17, GIJigsaw, Tom Boy, Craigjou and many more for dragging me to the milestone. Knowing that there's still people who visit the blog helps.

That's all for now. I wish you Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! 

Thanks for viewing!