On Pretty Much Pop, a philosopher, an actor, and a sci-fi writer (often with entertainment industry guests) talk about media and how we consume it: TV, film, music, novels, games, comics, comedy, theater, podcasts, and more. Most of what (other) people like is pretty weird when you think about it, so thinking about it is what we do.
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What drives someone to collect Star Wars figures or Transformers or LEGOs or whatever else? Mark, Erica, and Brian are joined by guest Matt Young of the Hello from the Magic Tavern and Improvised Star Trek podcasts to talk about this potentially expensive and life-eating habit. Must we use the word “kidulting“? No, in fact we mustn’t.
For a little extra info, we can look at Wikipedia on the Psychology of Collecting, this incomplete list of nostalgic collectible IPs (that’s “intellectual property”), or this weird list of collections that includes erasers, confetti, traffic cones, and sugar packets. If you collect these things (or old pizza boxes, roadkill, or used gum), you are an insane person. But you definitely should get the Jek Porkins LEGO X-Wing; that’s not insane whatsoever.
Really, most of the literature we found was either about what collections might present a future investment opportunity or other tips for doing this as a financial activity (please don’t try to do this) and surprise that adults buy toys.
If you enjoy this, check out our past episode on LEGOs. If you like Matt, check out our other interviews with Hello From the Magic Tavern cast members: Adal Rifai, Tim Sniffen, and Anthony LeBlanc. Will we ever complete the collection?
This episode includes bonus discussion you can access by supporting the podcast at patreon.com/prettymuchpop. This podcast is part of the Partially Examined Life podcast network and is curated by openculture.com.
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My collecting growing up took the form of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. And while I have kept away from the cards themselves to avoid the collecting impulse, I do enjoy the nostalgia of the video game versions that have been available in recent years.
I was also going to mention MTG. After 20 years away from the game I found myself looking up the value of my old cards during lockdown. The nostalgia bug bit and I remembered why I liked it so much in the first place.
Two months later and I’ve added about a 1000 cards to that collection…. Sticking with the online reproduction probably would have been the smart thing to do but nothing beats tactility!