After essentially turning the basement upside down, again, I find myself asking myself, what am I doing? I got a lot of stuff, but it's really not near as much as I could have, or have had!
It's also that line between having everything out, or put away. I would like to have it all out, but, it would simply be out getting dusty. If it is "away," the room becomes Rubbermaid container storage. And there is the ever-presence of the other people in the household, who I would like to share the basement space with. I also want to build a two-sided basement with a huge base for Cobra on one side, and Joe on the other, and a big "battle table" in the middle.
When I look at how many dreams, plans, aspirations, and other ideas that I have had and how far they got implemented, I wonder if I should just really trim everything (joe) down even further?
I try to think back to when I had the most fun with the Joes. Which, in some ways was almost all in the '80's into the early '90's. I had a big (for me) shopping spree from '94 through '99 with the original lines clearances, Street Fighter and other lines on clearance, and the '97/'98 TRU line. The 2000/'01 ARAH Collection line was pretty big for me, too.
Being more in college at the time (2000/'01), I think it would have been better had this line not been out. I was always working or going to school since '98, and it was a distraction to run up to Kmart to check out and see if there were any new or "on sale" Joes. It didn't help that in the Spring of '99 I discovered the Toy-Riffic store here in town, either. Another shopping distraction, but hey, how many times does one see a Terrordrome in a downtown shop window?
It was about this point in with the '97/'98/2000-'01 Joes that I think I had a pretty good time with them. I didn't have near the original figures that I have now, and getting these "new" joes with all the original accessories was huge for me. Add in that the uniforms colors sort of made a more "team" look, well, huge.
Now, most of my stuff was still packed up since leaving the parents, but having just a small box of loose Joes to toss up onto the shelf was where it was at. Still kind of sucks I lost Brehkov's hat in a dorm room. But, just a hand full of stuff, really.
Here at this point, I wonder if the "handful of Joes" is the most fun. Back in the day in the '80's and into the early '90's... I think the 1991 Snake eyes was my 50th Joe figure. Still roughly 25-some figures a piece for each team.
So, not an exact thought here in this HQ rambling, but, after this bit of though... can I reduce all my figures and vehicles even further?
Do I really need my X-30? Do I need an Arctic team? Does Col. Courage need to take up space at the HQ? Do I need three Sci-fi's, and which one stays?
I am contemplating which figures "could" go. I like the team depth, and many figures have their own unique things that I like..., but picking out just a handle full to keep over all the others? That's a hard thing to do, but maybe I should do it.
I could start with the leadership, but which HAWK would I keep?!
