Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Collector Confession: Photos Speak a 1000 Words












Welcome to my Doll Room or the Doll and Action Figure Zone (DAFZ)!

I confess: I have more dolls and action figures and accessories than I can maintain neatly given the storage units I have. Sigh. Part of me is pleased beyond belief - this was the dream of my childhood, to have hundreds, even thousands of dolls.

(Aside - I only have 100s - they are not yet into a 1000. Figures. If you add the figures, the clothes, the footwear, the accessories, etc., well ... that would be like adding apples and oranges. I plea, not fair.)

Part of me is a little abashed. Now these are just the dolls and action figures in the DAFZ: these photos do not show the figures in the laundry room or in the hall or in my bedroom or in the one IKEA Detolf cabinet that I have. Yes, oh my.

I share these photos, not to show off - if I had glass cases and shelves full of figures, well, then I could justifiably show off - but partly as a cautionary viewing and partly as proof of dedication to this hobby. If this blog in itself did not establish my love for this hobby, the photos seal my confession, this conclusion.

Next steps? Review, assess, and purge!

12 comments:

Dolls of Color said...

I am sooo proud of myself at the moment - you can see the floor of my "doll room" right now :D

D7ana said...

Applause! As one collector to another, I understand the triumph behind your words. Congratulations.

I see more floor here, but that's partly because I have stuff in other rooms. Sigh. Losing ground ... literally LOL in my bedroom.

I need to do some heavy purging. And some pruning before I bring in new dolls. Like those awesome Barbie Basic dolls ... oooohhhh!

Niel said...

Childhood dream... adult nightmare! LOL.

Mine are kept in cabinets but they are not stacked properly. It's a mess my cabinets. It's like I'm just sweeping the dirt under the rug.

D7ana said...

Niel ... so true! Fitter words have seldom been spoken. LOL.

I LOVE my collection, but sometimes, I shake my head. What have I done?!

Then again, there are sooo many I would pine for if I didn't have them. But that's for another post. Here is the introduction of the "problem."

I'm glad to have the understanding feedback.

smidge girl said...

oh. my. god. I guess it is a sign of my own affliction that this looks beautiful to me:)! No matter how often I try to "organize" my collection, it ends up looking something like this. Though not to this grand scale quite yet! Dolls and chaos just seem to go together!

BTW, thanks for stopping by my blog:) I've been reading yours for a while, but finally started following properly, now that I've gotten mine off the ground.

AilanthusAltissima said...

Whew! I feel normal after seeing those pics. I don't have the luxury of a dedicated doll room which means I have dolls stashed literally in every closet in every room of my house. I think I did lose control for a while - I had more dolls than I could realistically store or manage. I sold off a lot of them a few years back (including several that I had no memory of buying). So, I still have too many, but I can manage the number better. I keep trying to force myself to develop a nice, small collection, but I can't seem to let go of too many more dolls.

Ms. Leo said...

I hear the screams of dolls and action figures yearning to be free! They are saying “de-box me so I can play with you". To de-box or not to de-box... that is the question! Some items it is not just the doll that is great but it is also the packaging in combination. Do we need one doll or figure in a box and one to play with?

D7ana said...

Cautionary tale in photos, Smidge Girl ;-D . You can prevent doll and action figure overload. (At least, I'm telling myself that ...)

AilanthusAltissima, congratulations on getting your count down to manageable proportions. There are so many lines and tempting offerings, we can't help but get drawn in to new dolls and new action figures. Then there's the Internet ....

I-Luv-Dolls, yes, I hear those voices a-crying, "Let us out." If I had enough glass cabinets or shelves, I'd rush to debox. Free figures are more fun to play with than boxed ones. However, deboxing without having a home for deboxed dolls has led to "figure sprawl" in my situation. (Oooeey, inventing new technical terms, am I? LOL).

As for the one in box and one out of box option ... that is a slippery slope. Seems reasonable, but the count then doubles without the variety increasing. Sigh, but some of those boxes are mighty attractive. Not to mention the arrangement of some of the dolls and figures in those boxes.

Shaun said...

I hope you get to score more cool display cases to showcase your massive collection, Diana. :)

D7ana said...

Thanks for the wish, Shaun. More display units would make me feel better. I could consider myself a "good" collector, i.e., one who properly "houses" her figures.

There are some duplicates and near duplicates I need to remove and to replace with newer, fresher faces. Eh but deciding ... hard.

Ms. Leo said...

I thought I was doing good until I tried to find an outfit for Naveen and I couldn't find what I was looking for!! I may have it put away but I don't have order. I could scale down too.

D7ana said...

Ah, yes, in addition to more space, more order is an important habit to develop. Sigh.

Thanks for writing, Hugs ;-D