Well there are ton of reasons that all lead to the top one: I love it.

I love these characters, stories they have been in and stories I have made for them. I love to use my imagination and give new situations to the old and new. I love the idea of intereaction with characters you never expect to see together (ie. The Lone Ranger, Flash Gordon, Roadblock, and Deadpool), I love the fact they are all around the sane scale (within reason at least). I love how they look and move, pose, sometimes not pose, Action figures (and vehicles and playsets ect) in 1:18th scale have always been kind of that first crush I never got over, but I never had to say goobye to either.

Good question. I'm still collecting mostly because I enjoy the product and the creativity and design that goes into it. It's still a strong nostalgic connection to a simpler, happy time. I was always into making models and miniatures, now that the model car hobby is mostly extinct, toys have replaced it. I just enjoy having scale physical representations of various fictions/stories I enjoy or am able to make up.

Man do I miss the days when collecting was cheap and my entire stash could fit into one shoebox. I really do need to get back to that.

Yeah, this.

For the longest time I denied being a collector because I just liked toys. You call guys who play video games, gamers, not video game collectors. Collectors are the MOC/MIB guys, not the guys getting down on the floor going pew pew, fisssssssk, boooommmmkkkk!. But then I set up displays. I started thinking about what purchases to make based on how I was using or planned on using the toys. I became a toy collector with an "active" collection including customizing.

Zed nailed the why for me. I love the toys. I love seeing how they work, what poses they can hold, how the action features work. I like being able to play out my fantasies that would never happen like Superman and Deadpool having a shoot out with a Hiss division. Or the Skystriker taking on the Millennium Falcon.

_________________

Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying that?

I LOVE LAMP

_________________

or

http://lampcommunity.org/

_________________

*snort*

_________________

Where'd you get those clothes, at the toilet store?

I like toy soldiers...GI JOE was progression from both Star Wars and army men. I wasn't one of those small team black ops mission fans...I want the huge all out battles that took 2 hours to set up and then almost everybody died in them (and came back to life next time). I still want to do that, but I don't. So maybe it's just nostalgia now.

Also, I want to accumulate a lot of junk so when I die it creates a big hassle for my heirs.

And I collect to make myself less attractive to women, it's the only way I get gorgeous ladies to leave me alone.

I love the toys. Period. Part of it is also habit- I see a neat toy, I have to buy. The other part, I think, is a bit of a sickness to buy all the cool toys I see. But God help me I do love it so.

_________________

I collect action figures of military themed characters and their equipment because collecting real Marines, SEALs, Army SpecOps guys and their equipment was proving to be very difficult.

I also collect for the nostalgia, the photography, the customize, the stories I create in my head and share and for the camaraderie I find with fellow Joe enthusiasts, several of whom i've had the pleasure of meeting in person, or at least having correspondence with outside the Joe boards.

_________________

Probably because I'm a bit masochistic when it comes to a toy line.

I want to be able to get the figures I want, including extras so I can army build or customize.

Then the PTB decide to cancel the line on me or puts so many exclusives out there it becomes impossible for me to get them, leaving me with half a collection.

Then another toy line comes alone I want to get, including extras so I can army build or customize...

_________________

I "collect" now in the sense I buy characters I like, if they're reasonably available and if funds allow it. I have weeded a lot of my collection down, but only very few of them I miss such as single pack Lady Jaye, Hawk or Alpine, but at the time I had expenses and it was picking out ones that I could live without and not necessary ones. I found a lot of them I don't really miss because I either had no attachment to their character or because the toy bored me. Troop builders are especially one type I don't really go for too well.

I get multiples of characters if I really like that character or if they have numerous good toys.

_________________