Blood for the Baron!

Just struck me as strange to leave the battle gear sets carded - I'd have to open them, alll that gear would be just too tempting...

I leave all my carded stuff carded. In the past I have opened some MOC or MISB stuff and what surprised me the most was that the magic I felt as a kid when opening toys was gone.

It is not as if you are opening a 1982 straigh arm Snake Eyes, so opening a battle gear is not a 'crime', but ask yourself the question: why would you need a pile of loose weapons?

Thanks to eBay there are loads of weapon-less figures available, but then I have since discovered Marauders. I opened mine but kept the cardbacks to keep track of which is which.

The Baron wrote:Thanks to eBay there are loads of weapon-less figures available

That's what I was thinking.

The other thing is they don't seem very collectible - the carded figures are cool to look at ,but a blister pack of weapons? I suppose I was wondering how many 100% completest collectors there are - you know the mission is to have a carded version of everything ever released.

My aim is to have at least one version of each figure on it's backing card,
and at least one version of each vehicle with its original box (toy inside can be assembled but box has to be in v.good to almost mint condition).
If i have an Enemy version of a vehicle e.g Robo-Skull then i will not go out of my way to obtain the cobra version as i feel justifed in saying that that is my "one version" of said vehicles, the same goes for AF versions that have been produced twice e.g if i find an AF logo box for the z-force base then i will not replace it with a Z-force version.
However something like the SAS HAWK and the COBRA F.A.N.G would have to be brought twice as there are extreme differences in the packaging, another place where this gets complicated is in the case of Clear plastic window boxes and cardboard fronted boxes. My preference is for the wave 2? style box as the pictures on the front make for an interesting display yet some of my collection is in the wave 1? style plastic window box and i would possibly consider replacing the older style boxes over time.
Complicated i know but it's fun to have these kind of rules.
At present i am 20 vehicles and 38 figures away from my target.
Does any-one else collect boxed items as most of you guys seem to prefer loose let me know, also do you have similar "rules" for collecting.
Cheers
Happy Collecting.

if i buy carded stuff i always keep it carded if you want loose stuff just buy it loose on places like ebay always loads of it. Still i supose if people keap open there carded stuff it will be good in the long run as it will make carded stuff go up invalue

It's strange, I have an boxed AF Whirlwind (with Z Force stickers) I don't want - I'm not a boxed collector. I thought, rather than build it, I'll offer to swap it for a ready-made Z-Force Whirlwind. No-one wants it!

Very nice gesture, but the costs of swapping are not worth it.

Yeah, I suppose the only person who could actually collect from me in person would be The Kraken Wakes - and he's the one I got it from! LOL

and i actually regret selling it now along with a whole load of stuff i got rid of at the time! oh well