I started in the very early 90's hitting carboot sales. Had no real focus other than to get stuff I didn;t have as a kid and as much as possible of things I really liked such as stormtroopers, AT ATs etc.
I knew nothing more than what i knew as a kid in the 80's. I only had 5 last 17 and new nothing of the other 12. I thought the only figures I was missing were Han trenchcoat and B-wing pilot. A few CB sales and I started to see quite a few that I never knew existed which was pretty cool. I got theones I could (Yak, Amanaman, Lando, Luke stormtrooper) and just bought as much as i could as it was all so cheap.
by about 94 it has pretty much dried up as collecting had become popular and prices were going sky high. I pretty much stopped as I knew nothing about shows ot collectors shops and there was no internet!. End of 94 I got the Swansweet book which showed me everything that was available, all the figures, and all the vehicles playsets, especially the ones we never got here!! I really wanted a lot of the items I saw in there but figured I could never justify the prices or had a clue how I'd go about getting one (The remaining figures or R/C sandcrawler for example)
Late 90's i found my first collectors shop and started collecting again and braved my first expensive purchase of two of the last 17 for £25 each
Then by 99 I went to my first show saw just how much was there and decided to really go for it. My initial focus was every figure, vehicle and playset (UK and US versions) I'd manage this by 2000 I think, and upped it to boxed vehicles/playsets and key variations of VC jawa and Blue Snag.
Then the first biggest mistake, I bought my first carded figure!! Focused on getting every figure on their film related cardback, though decided on the last 17 on trilogo... not sure why, think it was because I didn't like the POTF packaging. I had no idea about the difficulty of some of them so it certainly wasn't because of that. Good choice though!!
I did say to one dealer at a show, quite early on that I would like the first 12 on Palitoy as that is how I would have had them as a kid. He told me, as did several others, that it was impossible and that the cost would be ridiculous. I sort of excepted it and completed the set on Kenner, right the way through to the last 17.
The following year (2002) I completed the set of the first 20 on Palitoy!!
8) :lol:
That changed my focus on to getting every figure on a palitoy film related card and that's what I set about doing. Once I finished that in 2003, I decided to complete the Kenner set properly and completed the POTF set. Then I slowly become tempted to get every figure on its debut card. I did that by 2004, with the exception of a Dengar on 41 back...which I'm still waiting to get!! :?
Focus is now pretty much Palitoy. In addition to the debut set I focused on certain cards, such as the 45 (a.b &c ) sets to try and complete them. Also a few character focus runs and I also set myself the challenge of having the first set of 30 backs on 30a and b.
I branched out in Palitoy 12" dolls (of which there are only 2!! Though started going for a complete sets of Dolls anyway) Diecast guns, boardgames. Also started picking up trilogo miscards. Have sold off virtually all my Kenner MOC and most vehicles playsets except for the ones that are different to the Palitoy version.
Palitoy has been the only goal I've stuck with when completed. I may focus on other things in the future but I don't think my Palitoy collection will lose its appeal unlike other pieces I have had. But I guess we'll just have to see!!