Returning to Inside the Mind of a Toy Addict Part 1 - The Problem Persists

A couple of notes before starting:

A) Jeff the Landshark is almost always on the Rotating Marvel Shelf, because the three of us (mostly the two of us) can't help ourselves.

B) There will be multiple "all of them" pictures where I regularly (and many would say foolishly) assumed, "Well there won't be any more additions to that shelf."

C) As should be crystal clear by now, I still have a problem.

It’s been a little over a year since the survey of my addiction driven collection.

Unsurprisingly it has grown. 

When last we left the gang, I was celebrating the wonderous arrival of Doctor Octopus. It was well over a month later that he and the rest of the Sinister Six  (the "creepy old men" as Anabelle calls Spider-Man's foes) could proudly grace the living room's Rotating Marvel Shelf.

The delay of the classic gang of Doc Ock and his cronies in that location was caused by another priority. This was a celebration of Deadpool and Wolverine. Anabelle supplied a stand in for Blade, in her usual artistic manner, as the figure prices are still astronomical, and often having an actor’s likeness makes one be more astronomicaler.

Still- it is hard to keep a good addiction down.
And sometimes, it’s even harder to keep them from being contagious.
 
Anabelle got some additions to her Lego village. For an unknown reason, while always being tempted by all the genre Lego sets that I already have various addictions to, none ever pushed me to acquiring any…
 
With the odd exception of the James Bond  classic Aston Martin (2018).
 
There will not be a repeat of this dive into Legoland, as my "much older than last time I did Legos" eyes and fingers caused me to be an ENORMOUS nuisance to my child when I tried to share the building experience with her.
 
She assembled BOTH of her new kits well before I finished a fraction of mine, while helping me with the car. 

It’s not my fault! All the pieces were gray!!!
 

Because she finished so much faster, and the mini figures are always first, James Bond hung out with her gang around the bakery cart (2024) watching the Disney Train Parade (2023) go by. 007 Bonded (Bwa ha ha!) with the Croissant Lady. 

(Not a sales person… an actual croissant. James has never been picky.)

 
While automobiles are not allowed in her Lego village, Mr. Bond remains there, outside the cart with his new lady pastry friend. The car was evicted and lives over on the side shelf.
 
Meanwhile, the Black Friday Marvel Legend sales started to hit.
As should be crystal clear by now, I still have a problem.
 
As with most build a figures I give no hoots about, the Totally Awesome Hulk line containing the Marvels characters we got last year, were easy to fill in. While it is crystal clear I still have a problem, Totally Awesome Hulk (2023) is pretty high on my “no hoots given” list. Therefore, while I grabbed Karnak (in the hopes that more Inhumans would come, which they did, woo!) and Marvel Boy (because he answered the hopes that more multiple versions of the Young Avengers would come, also woo!) I didn’t get the final two figures of the wave, which would have been duplicates anyway.

More importantly in the “pre Christmas sale” department- Stumbling onto a comic accurate Whiplash (2023) in a store led to an online check on the single day the price took a nose dive.
 
Aside- Technically the figure represents when his name was “Blacklash” in comics I have, but after showing up in Iron Man 2, where he was really Crimson Dynamo, his name reverted. No one cares. Moving on.
 

Connecting back to my regular comic buying roots in the Eighties, he was a key member of the technologically enhanced, mercenary, super villains for hire, that got their butts handed to them by Iron Man  on a regular basis in those days. On the villain shelf, he was welcomed by his fellow “B List” Iron Man enemies- Beetle and Blizzard.

Even when it is crystal clear by now, I still have a problem, I am hilarious.

More meanwhiles- additions to the odd, side, DC shelf came from two directions.
 
A) My retired dentist moved to a smaller house and handed over not only the guest stars of last year’s Christmas Village, but also some cool, vintage Superman stuff. (THANX AGAIN DOCTOR MILLER!!!)
B) At the celebration of the Funnybooks Anniversary, I won the awesome Door Prize- an actual miniature door with guest of honor Amanda Conner’s art of Harley Quinn etched onto it.

Yes, I got her to sign it.
No that didn’t actually occur to me at first.
I was bringing it over to show her and Anabelle asked if I was going to get her to sign it.
As should be crystal clear by now, I still have many problems.
 
There are a variety of ways the collection continues to grow. There is always a figure or two from new releases I check regularly for sales. Some never happen, but the checking can lead to discoveries of items I had no idea about. The decent size group of figures from the Black Panther films I had “accidentally” acquired, was marred by a Space. M’Baku was my favorite character in the first film, but only available as a build a figure.(2018)  As the whole line never went on sale, and consisted of multiple figures I didn’t need - or even “need” - he was out of reach.
 
However, when searching for something completely unrelated…

(Yes, I was searching for a Marvel action figure, so there was some relation going on.

Also, shut up.)

I learned as part of the “random cool characters from the movies without extra body parts in the box” line, (this may not be the actual name) not only was he released, (2022) but his price dropped to acceptable levels. He quickly joined the Black Panther section of the Avengers shelf. (Woo!)
Well, he joined kind of near the rest of them. No sense knocking down half the Avengers shelf when restructuring plans were afoot.

 
Due to the Rotating Marvel Shelf upstairs it is rare the entire collection is in place to be documented, hence my multiple attempts when it does happen.

This lack of completeness is especially true when Rosa chooses characters for the Rotating Marvel Shelf.

Instead of following an in story theme from the comics or films, she (and Anabelle has inherited this) tends to go more for “These are people (or things) I like, have pretty clothes, or some combination thereof.” Woo!

She is also the most likely of us to stray from the “Marvel” part of the title of the “Rotating Marvel Shelf.”

Sometimes, the collection grows due to folks knowing it exists. With two (and a half) small exceptions I don’t collect Funkos. 

(The Witcher ones capture the vibe of those actors. 

The Godfather ones are adorable, and will grace the header when I finally use my "Dad is allowed to pick a movie" for my birthday or Father's Day and record Anabelle's comments on that masterpiece.

The awesome Daredevil Anabelle got me to celebrate her watching that show.) 

However, a woman at work, knowing my home was filled with this stuff, gave me a set of Star Wars Micro-Funkos for Christmas. (2024ish, also not called “Micro Funkos” but should be since that rhymes) 

They get a little lost on one of the Star Wars shelves. (Yes they are up there.)

BUT THEY’RE SO CUUUUUUTEEE!!!!!

Click for Part 2

Part 3, Part 4, Part 5