(Almost) a (Virtual) Micronauts collector...(literally)

A few posts ago I made mention of a piece of Big Bang Theory ad art I had "collected" off the internet.  This reminded me of an odd time in my life when I planned to virtually collect all the Micronauts toys ever made.

This was probably the mid-1990s, when money was somewhat tight for me.  I had recently been introduced to this new thing called "Ebay" where you could easily find previously hard-to-find collectibles all over the world - and buy them.  We all know Ebay now, but remember the time before it where, if you wanted say a Mego Green Arrow doll from the 70s, you had to either:

1) find one at a yard sale or thrift store

2) find one at an "antique mall" or some such for big bucks, or

3) find one listed in a weekly/monthly toy collector newsletter.

In short, it was work to track them down, now you just type it in and -poof- you have 13 listings ranging from ten bucks for a loose one to $995.00  (!)  for a mint in box one.

So once I started on Ebay, I quickly bought up a few things I'd been wanting for a long time and never came across.  Then, I thought about getting more of the Micronauts toys I loved as a kid.  The problem was, I was well aware that my beloved toys were sitting in a box packed away (see above) - so why spend hundreds of dollars on toys I'd just put away?  (This is one of the key questions collectors must ask themselves from time to time: Is It Worth It Even Though It's Not Going On Display). 

The brilliant idea I had was to just collect the toys virtually - that is, 

search the auctions on Ebay and just download the good scans of all the toys I wanted.  Easy.  I would soon have great images of all the toys I want, and they wouldn't be filling up the back of my closet (no storage space yet at that time).  I started collecting scans right away.

It probably lasted about thirty minutes.

The main problem?  It was boring.  Who cared about having jpegs of all the toys?  It was obvious that - even though you may handle a toy you get on Ebay for just a little while and then put it away, that tactile sensation of Having, combined with the satisfaction of Owning, was what you want in collecting.  This was an important thing to realize.  It kept me from beating myself up over some of the collectibles I "had to have" that I just packed away as soon as I had them.

The funny thing is, though, I never bought more Micronauts.  All the ones I have packed away are the ones I had as a kid.  Maybe that's all I really needed?

I still never got a Green Arrow, though...

(Fun bonus game!! Can you name 3 geeky things in the top photo of a box from my storage that are NOT Micronauts parts?  I'll give you a head start: One of thing in there is a glow in the dark plastic squid!)