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Why do you collect?

This was asked on another message board so i figured i would bring it up here as well. I know it has probably been asked before, but for some reason, this time i really sat down and thought of the true reasons behind why i collect. I am just going to copy what i posted on that message board here. I would also like to know why each and every one of you collection...

I honestly believe that the dere/addiction to collecting things is genetic. I got it from my mom. She collected all kinds of random things as i was growing up. I first starting collecting football cards. Then the next step was garbage pail kids and comic books. I got the love of horror from my mom as well, and every year for Halloween, she would buy me one mask. She thought it was strange nce I wouldn't wear it on Halloween, but would wear them any other time of the year. Things have just steadily progressed nce then. It is a hobby that I am able to put my heart and mind into, which helps me to relax and de-stress after dealing with the real world everyday.

I honestly think that if I didn't collect something, I would not be here right now. I got picked on alot as a child and pre-teen. I was always the big hairy kid in the neighborhood and in school. Kids half my ze beat me up on a weekly bas and I let them do it because my mom always told me not to fight back because I would hurt them. On the flip de, other people just automatically assumed I was much older and just mentally disabled, so they made fun of me for that. There is nothing better in the world than hearing a friend's father say, "why do you hang out with the big retard?" My collecting gave me an outlet to release all the anger and frustration I felt. Masks and monsters allowed me to play in this fantasy world where I did not stand out because of how I looked, because there were masks and monsters that were much more monstrous than me. The masks and monsters were my disguises....and even my brothers at times.

As I got older, I finally had the epiphany that I did not have to stand there and let these kids beat on me, so I know longer let them. This got me in alot of trouble due to the fact that I didn't just defend myself, I unleashed my fury on anyone that caused me any problem. Authority figures always pointed to my fascination with masks and monsters as a indicator that something was really wrong with me. My mom and dad, to a lesser extent, always defended both me and my collection of things horrific.

I have done alot of bad things in my lifetime, and collecting was/is one way of filling the void or urge of doing other not so good things when I was younger....in a way, monsters and masks saved my life....i know...a little too deep for this type of discuson....i really hope i haven't creeped too many people out.

take care, Tommy

Right on Tommy!

I started to collect because sometimes I would watch movies and instead of caring what the movie was about I was stopping the film to see the props and wardrobe. I always wanted the exact props I saw in the movie and wanted to know everything I could about them. How they were made and anything I could find out. When I got a little older and I could buy some of the replicas I did and I loved them. I always loved Halloween and the movie Halloween. For some reason it creped me out so bad I couldn't get it out of my head. I remember one day my dad and step mom destroyed my entire collection and cut all of my masks in half. I remember being so defeated I didn't collect anything for years. I was so bitter at them. When things came around full circle and I bought another myers mask followed by a jason and freddy mask along with just about everything I always wanted but didn't buy because I felt guilty for wanting I said screw it and just bought it because I loved the masks and replica props. Once I had all of these masks and props I wanted to display them and I wasn't gonna put them on paper towels or sticks so I decided to build some stands and cases for my new scores. I thought people would like to own some of the displays I was making so I started q.o.t.s. I think I will always collect Halloween masks and never truly grow up but age is a number and the older I get the better I was. I have always just loved Halloween because that time of year is like Christmas for me.

Thanks for sharing this Tommy.

We all have our own reasons for collecting. In my case I practice in a very stressful field where a lot of colleagues develop health or addiction issues. My way of coping with the crap I deal with day in and day out is to immerse myself in my collection which brings me back to mpler times.

Many great posts already and a great topic to bring up Tommy.

Collecting for me is a pason I have had nce I was very young. I really grew up in the "Slasher" era and was always fascinated with these movies and horror in general. Being a very visual guy I loved these movies for the broad character degn and iconic looks these movies gave us. I also have always been a huge fan of fall in general with Halloween being the one time of year where I can watch others act like I do in every day life.

As I have gotten older collecting has become more of a sentimental practice over anything else. I loved the movies when I was younger and collecting actual replicas or authentic props brings me back to a more mpler time. When work and a family was not something that you had to rely on.

From baseball and basket ball cards in elementary school to autographs in my teen years I have always been an avid collector. The growing horror community is something I really latched onto and believe in. That is why I do what I do....

Great topic, Justin

thanks for sharing your stories guys!

i collect because i have always been a horror nut. i wish i still had many of the things i used to have many years ago but gave a lot of it up because "i was too old for it" and "it was time to grow up"

my ex-wife mentally beat me down over my movie and horror toy collecting habits and even went so far as to say i was stupid for keeping a Don Post Myers mask i bought for Halloween one year. and even to this day after 9 years of divorce she still tells my son that im stupid for collecting stuff even though she has no buness doing so.

im glad im with Missy because even though she gets annoyed with my dvd compulons sometimes she supports what i do and makes me feel younger again.

Like Lee i work in a high stress job and movies are part of my escape

and like Lee said it takes me back to a mpler time when i didnt have so many worries. When i feel like crap or am really down because of work its great sometimes knowing that i have a mask or rare movie coming soon and the anticipation helps me get through my day.

sorry if thats sounds all wishy washy

Well for me it was comic books, baseball cards and video games systems when I was younger as far as collecting. I was always a tom boy...even dressed the part. baggie pants, big clothes, etc. Probably didn't start dresng like a chick till I was around 17 or so...lol. My mother started my obseson with horror movies may she rest in peace. Like I said I had all of the old horror movies along with all our favorites on VHS. for the most part that was her doing. She was disabled so she spent alot of time taping movies. I watched my first horror movie w/her when I was seven. It was the first Nightmare on Elm Street...gave me nightmares for a month and after that I was hooked...lol

Holloween was always a big deal to us to...dresng up to go trick or treating. Well she couldn't take us but had fun making sure we decorated and helped us get ready. And when we got home she already had the horror movies on and we'd stay up watching one after the other...lol When she died I stopped collecting and watching them.

Some years later going through the old tapes I noticed some of them didn't work anymore and decided nce DVD's had recently come out I would replace them all and that was how it started again. Then me and an old friend really started to get back into it and even though I ended up moving a few years later kept it going and have been doing so ever nce.

Only recently have I discovered the love of collecting other horror memoriabilia. I've always seen it on tes here or there when I started dedicating my myspace page to all things horror as some who have vited may have noticed by all the banners and shit. Going from te to te in new found interest clicking on their links, upon links until I ended up here. I have to say too this is by far the best horror forum I've joined...everyone is great and I've learned alot in the short time I've been a member.

Okay that's enough I tend to write to much...lol

I do customer service and the notes I type are like short novels....lol bad habit....

Even though this topic shows up again from time to time I still love it because there's always something new that I find that I share with others.

As I've said many times I was fortunate enough to be born on Halloween and so I've been a ghoul of sorts my whole life.

Even from my earliest years in the 70s I was obsessed with owning premium replicas or originals from the movies.

I would go to the various Halloween costume shops and would see the mass market verons of my heroes and remember always being so disappointed.

So when I became an adult and actually had a little disposable income I came across Bob Ferden's webte selling the fiberglass hocks and so began an uber-expenve but also tremendously satisfying hobby.

My wife thinks I'm funny because I will frequently own several verons of the same piece, but they are all different to me because each artist brings his or her (not nearly enough girls putting out pieces) own vion to the pieces.

I've been collecting for years and I still will spend hours sometimes just looking at my collection and I would just feel so incomplete if anything happened to my "manland".

QOTS's post just filled me with heartache.

I would have a really hard time recuperating from a loss like that.

I'm glad you did though because although I don't have any of your stands yet I think they are some of the best in the buness and had you not bounced back we would all be at a loss for not having such a good spokesperson for the community.

Great topic Tommy!

Even though this topic shows up again from time to time I still love it because there's always something new that I find that I share with others.

As I've said many times I was fortunate enough to be born on Halloween and so I've been a ghoul of sorts my whole life.

Even from my earliest years in the 70s I was obsessed with owning premium replicas or originals from the movies.

I would go to the various Halloween costume shops and would see the mass market verons of my heroes and remember always being so disappointed.

So when I became an adult and actually had a little disposable income I came across Bob Ferden's webte selling the fiberglass hocks and so began an uber-expenve but also tremendously satisfying hobby.

My wife thinks I'm funny because I will frequently own several verons of the same piece, but they are all different to me because each artist brings his or her (not nearly enough girls putting out pieces) own vion to the pieces.

I've been collecting for years and I still will spend hours sometimes just looking at my collection and I would just feel so incomplete if anything happened to my "manland".

QOTS's post just filled me with heartache.

I would have a really hard time recuperating from a loss like that.

I'm glad you did though because although I don't have any of your stands yet I think they are some of the best in the buness and had you not bounced back we would all be at a loss for not having such a good spokesperson for the community.

Great topic Tommy

Thanks man. When people you love take a pair of scissors to your collection and there isn't anything you can do about it because your just a child growing up there is just no words that can really describe the way it makes you feel inde. I think it was 10 or 12 years before I dropped more money on some masks and replicas and decided to collect again. For me it was evening the score and getting back what was taken from me all those years ago. nce I was just coming off the custom car scene I decided to put my new fabrication skills to work and put my newly acquired treasures in cases to protect them from everyone! Maybe that is why I do what I do because I feel the need to protect my collection and posble others collections as well. I see every replica as a way to go back to when playing with toys was how we passed the time and someone needs to protect that idea so quiet on the set was born.

bump

OK... I have seen this topic listed now for the past couple of days and when I seen the title I asked myself... "Why do I?"... My tipical reason was just because I LOVE horror films and I want the stuff that looks just like the movies... If I would have just put that on here as my answer, It would have been very plan and very boring, Not to mention lame! So... Having seen this topic, made me really think on this until I finally came up with the reason why I have a MAJOR DRIVE in collecting Horror Memoribillia. I believe it has to come from the heart. Collecting runs deep in me, and the more I thought about it, It takes me WAY back when I was about 5 yrs. old. I was outde in the yard running around playing on the swing set while my Neighbors David and Josh were tting on there de walk eating red gummie worms. I walked over and asked them what they were doing and David being Josh's Older brother looked at me and told me this -- " Me and Josh are eating Georges Brains "... I cried because it scared the hell out of me and ran back home. hahahahahaha... Eventually over time and MANY trips over there and him telling me about him and his brother eating George, I geuss David thought it would be funny to hang a Rubber Mummy mask from the walnut tree out back to make me think it was Georges head. haha... Well one day he cought me running around the yard wearing his Mummy mask just having a kick ass time, and he gave it to me. It was the very first Horror peice I ever owned, and it's a shame I don't have it anymore because over the years it rotted to nothing. But anyway back to the story. Over the period of time I spend going to the neighbors, Me and Josh, David's Younger brother became very close friends and one day while me and josh were playing Nerf guns out in the yard David came out and told me to check something out. So I go in the house and he shows me his room which was LOADED full of Horror masks from all the Horror movies! I more than likely shit!!! And ever nce that day I always wanted horror movie masks.

Over time I discoverd the MUCH more nicer masks that are custom and started with those! They are like the "ROLEX" of Masks... I have to agree with Lee as well. Anytime I am in a rutt or am having a tuff time with life in general, it is always nice to walk into the one place in the world were nobody can tell you what to do and be able to escape the problems with all the things around you that you LOVE!

anyway, this is my story and I am sticking to it!!! --Harry