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Note: did a pretty exhaustive search to see if this topic was done, but found none. If it has been done before, my apologies.

To clarify: a collectible can be anything anime related. Just don't want to give off the wrong impression this is solely about merchandise. DVDs and Manga are very welcome.
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Is there that one item you prize above all others? If so, please share it with us. Tell us why it's so prized, and how you acquired it if not through a store purchase.

For me, it's a figure, but not any ordinary figure. It's history is unknown, but that's a tale I have to share.

The history of acquiring it:
The same person who got me into figure collecting was the "original" owner. While playing poker, the pot was pretty full (about $2100). My opponent laid down a full house, thinking he had won. Sadly for him, poker rules state a straight flush beats out a full house.

He was upset as he had bet his car payment. He asked if I could lend him money, but I said no. From there, he asked if there was something I wanted in his collection. Thinking, I replied: "Her!" He turned white, but allowed the figure to be taken in exchange for the pot. My cost: about $700.

The prized collectible:
First, a bit of an apology. I'd take a photo of this and share it, but I'm terrified someone will recognize it. The "original" owner wasn't truly original. How he obtained it is questionable, so there may be a little issue of theft in its history. Of course, I can't confirm this, but I'm sure not going to take chances.

The figure is made of PVC, resin, and cloth. It stands at 16" and is extremely well detailed. It's a girl with very long blackish/grayish hair with deep purple eyes. The komono (or yukata, as I still don't know the difference) is made of cloth. The design has floral and leaf patterns, colored in purple, black, and white. In one hand, she's holding a leather (yes, real leather) sheath and the other a katana (made with real metal).

It appears to be a table center piece, as the stand supports a glass plate. One day, I happened to note the odd "stands" as having the same shape as chop stick holders, so I turned it around. The glass plate fit much better, indicating the piece was indeed set incorrectly.

(If anyone recognizes a character from the description, let me know. I've yet to find her in any anime listing so far.)

Who made it is unknown, as well as the age. There are no manufacturer markings at all. A shame, really, because I'd kill to have many more figures like this one.

Why it's prized:
Well, it's definitely unique. Can't say for sure if it's one of a kind, but doesn't matter. As a figure collector, it must be the most prized. It really is gorgeous (and the details make it moreso. Even the fingernails have a realistic look to them). There's also the way I acquired it, as it was memorable to see the look on the face of the "original" owner when I chose it.

Right now, it sits inside a fire-resistant case surrounded by foam padding. While my family room is being remodeled, it was the best place to protect it. I even have it insured. A little sad it's not out for viewing, but my memory retains its beauty.

One day, it'll be back out. I'm still investigating its history, and if I find it's all clear, I promise to show pictures. Something like this needs to be shared with other fans.

Okay, I'm done. Now it's your turn!

my prized collection is either my naruto shadow box or my gundam kyrios model. both are prized to me. the shadow box got my so many volumes and has a lot of good naruto stuff in it while my gundam kyrios high grade model was my first gundam model i ever got. the only reason i got it was actually because they didn't have the pre built one and i needed it, but now building gundam models is my hobby.

Last edited by HyugaHinata on Fri Aug 21, 2009 10:36 am; edited 1 time in total

I'd have to say my 3 Elizabeth statues from RACS. They're prized because Persona merchandise is just so rare.

The Amagi Yukiko statues sold out from CDJapan long ago, and preorders for those were taken over a year before its release date this November.

Then there's my Hikago Sai plushy, because it's OOP now.

Edit: For that matter, my Viz Hikago DVDs. For the same reason. Very Happy

And this is why we never gamble money we can't afford to lose... although it worked out for you. Laughing

(I'd love to see the figure, but if you've gone so far as to have it insured, I can see why you're not sharing.)

I'd be hard-pressed to pick one specific thing, since for me the whole collection is basically junk (definition of 'not junk' being something I'd risk my life to find and remove if the house catches on fire. Which does not include the anime at this time, I'd rather catch my cat.) Thinking it over, I can bring it down to 3 things:

1) My FMA DVD set... all 13 volumes as singles, with the tin artboxes and soundtracks. I save the little promo cards TRSI sends with orders sometimes, and have 5 FMA ones poked into the appropriate tins. Most importantly... I have several autographs from the English VAs in the booklets as well- Ed, Al, Roy, Winry, Hawkeye, and Envy so far (plus Noah on one of the LE movie's artcards.) I've obtained all of the autographs in person over several years of con-going. I'm sure someone out there who hits more cons than me has a better set- but I've put a lot of time into getting all that stuff, so I'm kind of proud of it.

2) My standee of Yoh from Shaman King (as seen here.) This was on display on front of our local Suncoast several years ago. I loved it the day I saw it, but was too chicken to ask about it. After about a week and prodding from family/friends, I worked myself up and asked... and they popped my name/number on it and called me when they were done with it. I like this one because it's unique... anime-themed standups aren't terribly common and aren't made for sale- so most of these probably got thrown out. I never have seen another one.

3) My Ukrainian-dyed egg of Kyo from Fruits Basket. I got this from a con art show- there were 2 Kyos, one went much higher in price and headed for the Sunday auction, but I was the only bidder on the second one for some reason. I adore the odd, unique stuff, so I always look at the fanmade art- and this is by far the best thing I ever got ahold of. I don't know how much anyone here knows about the Ukrainian dyeing process... you have to do it from lightest colors to darkest, covering the parts you don't want to be darker with wax in-between. It's kind of like drawing backwards- which makes me all the more impressed with the final result. This is the piece I'm most likely to show off when people come over.

I actually don't even have to think about it.

Here it is. So what, right?

Here's the inside. Very Happy

They weren't there together, that was a couple years concurrent getting the siggies. (In case you can't read the text, it's english "Vash" and "Wolfwood." They were very nice people. Anime smile

)

I actually have a lot more buttons to put all over it. If you squint you can see the two I have on there: Kuroneko-sama was a gift from my bf. (We also gave one to Jeff Nimoy and it looked rather silly on him.) Isaac and Miria were a gift from Rojas over at the Funimation blog. They're both the same kind of hard-to-clip-on, but adorable little button, though, and I still have a bunch lying around. I need to find out how to make my own...

I like it because it reminds me of my boyfriend. He cosplayed as Wolfwood one year and was very cool/cute. Well, that and Wolfwood is just plain awesome anyway. It's my main schoolbag and people do occasionally ask about the names inside, which gives me license to show how much of a dork I am. Laughing

My Ryo Ohki plush that's sat happily on my TV for 11 years now! I love her so much. She will be buried with me.

I dont think I even have any other anime Collectibles.

My prized collectibles are my two Motoko Kusanagis, because they were given to me by people whom I hold very dear. Both were Christmas presents: Hard Disk Motoko (the littler one) was from a longstanding internet acquaintance of mine, whom I finally got to meet this past January and from whom I was totally not expecting to get a material gift - I actually screamed a little when I found the package in the mail. 2nd GIG Motoko was from my parents, and she was almost more of a surprise because they've made a longstanding effort not to indulge my hobby. I had put that particular figure on my 'list of things I would enjoy having but that you really don't need to feel like you have to get me', along with a less expensive, less awesome alternative, but I figured that my chances of actually receiving either were slim to nil. Christmas morning came around, we got up at like six in the morning and unwrapped everything, and there she was, the very last present under the tree. I promptly died of OMG.

My whole anime, manga, and figure collection, small as it is, is very important to me because it's one of the few things in my life right now that I truly own, and I love looking at all of the volumes and remembering how hard I worked to earn the money for them and how excited I was when they came in the mail. Still, the Motokos hold a particularly special place in my heart.

I only have a few, but my most prized would be my figure of Rakka from Haibane Renmei. I'm actually one of those people who really dives in to the world of collectibles, so I have substantial collections of castles and lighthouses and boats and tiki masks, but I've just never gotten in to the anime collectible market. I think it's because I prefer a more artistic aesthetic, anime figures are often very simple and usually carry the more undesirable cliches in anime with them (like fanservice).

I have 3 figures, both Rakka and Lain are beautifully details, more so than most if you ask me. Then I also have a Eureka figure, which I picked up because it's my favorite series.

@HyugaHinata -I adore that Elizabeth, I love her outfit! Now if they only have a velvet elevator thing to put her in...

Most of my "prized" stuff are simply collection favorites, in particular ones that are out of print or difficult to come by (the longer they've been OOP, the more I'm likely to prize them). I'm the type that doesn't mind lending out manga to trust worthy friends, but even then there are some series I'll only let my friends read at my place (because I'd feel really bad if they couldn't replace it).
For manga, these series are:
Maison Ikkoku: the 2nd editions, some of them seem to be difficult to find suddenly
Banana Fish: I tracked down a vol 3 in 2nd edition, if anyone wants that specific volume in 1st edition, pm me as I want to sell off the old vol 3 of it
Please Save My Earth: especially volumes 1 and 13, thank you, JustManga for having those!
Akira vol 6: This is the only volume of Akira I actually have, got it at a used book store this past winter for $7 and then found out 4-5 months later I found out I could re-sell it for upwards of $90.
What's Michael?: I only have 5/11 volumes of it: 6, 7, 9-11. I got 10 and 11 at a comic book store and then got 6, 7 and 9 at Otakon. For being so unheard of, it's the only series in my entire collection that my mom reads.

For anime, I don't have too many rare series, so once again, it's mostly my favorites: Princess Tutu (the non stack pack version), Key the Metal Idol (which is actually kind of rare), Outlaw Star (perfect collection, not Legends set). And of course, my Gurren Lagann sets, which is the only series where I got everything in LE.

But I kinda do have a bit of a figurine collection. Due to the nature of the figure collection, I have a bit of a personal connection with each one, as some of those have taken upwards of 12+ hours of work, but my favorite one is Jack Frost, who, despite being a white papercraft, doesn't have any of the blue color bled onto him and doesn't have any obvious glue marks, which is even more difficult to do with light colored papercrafts. Even though he's lined, it's difficult to tell. Actually, my only major mistake on Jack frost was initially glueing his thumb on the wrong side and now it just looks like he has a scar from my mistake. I actually made Jack Frost before I played any Persona game, I just liked how he looked. His printout is here, I'd call him medium difficulty. I really just don't buy figurines, I have a lot of fun and slight carpal tunnel and finger aches from doing papercrafts.

Hmm, it's probably not worth diddly squat, but it's a favorite out of my collection, and just about the only figure I went out of my way to own versus all the ones I have that were gifts.

The Matantei Loki Ragnarok figurine.

I don't have a camera around, or I'd take a better picture. All I can find is a picture of it on the box via a yahoo.jp auction.

It was a limited edition bonus you got via buying one of the volumes of the manga in Japan, and as far as I know it is the only offcial figurine made for the series, and I adore it. It features Loki, surrounded by books (all loose so you can arrange them how you like) with his son Fenrir (who is also detachable) in dog form, and his little moon wand.

I am a huge mythology buff, particularly for Norse mythology so when Matantei Loki came out I became obsessed over it and it's portrayal of my favorite mythology diety.

I had problems trying to get ahold of the figure because there was no guarantee it'd come with the manga purchase via amazon.jp so I had to jump through various hoops and buy it via a yahoo.jp auction.

Other than this figurine, the only thing out of my anime collection I value would be my artbook collection (I've got some out of print Yoshitoshi abe ones I adore), Yoshitaka Amano tarot cards, and my doujinshi collection which I had to purchase, trade, and hunt down through various websites and auction sites.

HyugaHinata: I LOVE that Elizabeth figure. I want it a heck of a lot more than the current Aeigis figurine about to come out.

My 2 most prized collectibles are two series that I actually only recently completed, but still shoot to the top of most prized.

My first prized collectible is my complete set of Kanon 2006 (pic 1 pic 2). There are 2 reasons why it's my number one prized by a long shot with one being it's my dominant number one all time favorite anime. The other is that volume 5 is really hard to find and even harder to press the "complete your order" button when buying it because it's so expensive for a single disc with 4 episodes. I got it for $42 off Amazon last week and I like to think that that was a pretty good deal. Volume 5 is the reason I held off collecting the artbox + singles for so long and instead bought the complete collection at first. I got volumes 1 (plus box) and 2 a while back and 3, 4, and 6 just arrived yesterday.

My second prized collection is my just finished today collection of Girls Bravo (pic 1 pic 2). I mainly value this because it's probably the most valuable OOP show I have (I really don't know, but I think it's a good guess). I also value it because it's super expensive and I got it real cheap because I went the singles + box route. I did that because the complete box set will cost about $120. I got mine for a total of $70. TRSI has volumes 3-8 for a mere $8, I got the box +1 last week for $30, and bought the 2nd volume a couple days ago for a mere $16 (good luck finding it for under $70). The thing about volume 2 is that I didn't know it was so stinking expensive when I started collecting it, but I already had 3-6 at the time and couldn't just leave them hanging. Luckily, a few weeks after I got 3-6 I found 2 for $15. Unfortunately, I waited until the next day to buy it to time it with my TRSI order and it got snatched up. A few days later when I was hoping I'd find another one on Amazon, I saw if for $13 and grabbed it immediately on the spot (good thing I still had a good bit of money on my credit card). It's like I was supposed to get if for real cheap.

I'd love to sneakily brag about these when I talk about them, but I've only been buying anime for about 6 months so I don't think I have a full grasp of how valuable these items are. Now, if someone wants to tell me, "Yea, King of Harts, those are real valuable so feel free to sneakily brag all you want." I'll go ahead and do it. Until then I'll just mildly, sneakily brag about them Very Happy

Last edited by Kruszer on Fri Aug 21, 2009 7:23 pm; edited 1 time in total

It's really not one particular thing but rather my anime DVD collection as a whole. I've invested lots of time, money, and effort into it.

I, unfortunatly, have never really had the chance to purchase figures. I have a charmander figure if you can call it that that I got at my first (and so far only) convention. He is 3 inches tall and plastic and my cat likes to beat him up. He helps hold up my dvd's.

By far my most prized items are my Sailor Moon VHS's that I found at a good will all beaten up. They are uncut and subbed. What I'm guessing happened is that some kid who liked Sailor Moon on TV bought them up and couldn't read so they got donated. They were $2.10 for two (Sailor Moon R The Movie and S ) but I had to pay 20 dollars for a VCR. I screamed like the magical girl fangirl I am right there in the store. Beats the two bootlegs I have of Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon S. I know there are so many shows that are "better" so to speak but it still my all time favorite.

My Totoro puzzle is pretty special too. Mei and her acorns. Laughing

Lets see, I don't own many figures sadly. I own about three and there some small grade stuff (only one is a 1/8 scale pvc figure )

I have to say out of everything I own it's my Ouran part 2 dvd set. Why part 2? I have a interesting story to that. This past May I went to Acen (Anime central) in Rosemont IL with some friends. It just happened to be my first con and being the Funimation freak that I am and the Ouran fan I said to my self. "I'm going to meet Catlin Glass and Vic if it's the last thing I do this weekend"

So about 10 hours of dealer's room wondering around and about 4 hours total wait time in lines. In my Ouran cosplay I might add. I got to meet Catlin Glass and Vic, I got to say hi tell them how much I love there work got some photos and they signed my part 2 disks. Why part 2? My friend had my part 1 disks still when we went and she left the disk at her house, so I went with my part 2 disks instead.

photo of the signed dvd[/url]

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