When do you let a girl you're dating see your collection?

[missdead13]

aura of foreboding- I have always LOVED your screen name  Now back to the topic at hand- I feel the exact same way as you do about Disney, Monsters, life, etc. 
I haven't dated anyone in 32 years, so I don't know anything about such wonderful adventures. But I have always been an outsider of sorts (my kids call me- a one-Mom Wolfpack). I have had a monster fixation from the age of 4 and started collecting little things all throughout my marriage. Many were gifts from my husband and kids. But I have always displayed my treasures openly, and feel that my home is my only safe place. My  sister and father think I'm "peter pan-ish", and they all buy in to the "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality. But what I am what I am. I might look like a 49 1/2 year old woman, but I'm a kid inside. I guess that's why I've always worked with kids, and I raised 2 productive members of society. If I had to start dating (G_d forbid), I would mention my Universal Monsters collection on the first date, and ask the person I'm with- if they collect any memorabilia. I think it's more acceptable nowadays, due to all the antique and collecting shows on tv. There's nothing wrong with ANYTHING that anyone collects in this crazy world of ours.....oh wait, there are a few things..like humans and what not. Anyway, everyone on this board has so much to offer, and I think that they have some great advice for you!- especially aura of foreboding!! 

  Here Here..  well said 

[seed_murda]

Seed - I've learned long ago that bars are the wrong place to meet people in my neck of the woods. The people who frequent them around here are the rednecks who live in trailer parks and get wasted and watch NASCAR, etc and brag up how many guns they own and how much welfare they collect. It's just not my type of people.

I go to the library quite a bit but I've never met anyone there. Mostly high school students, elderly ladies, libertarians, and gay men frequent my library.

Those are just examples for you to go out and get in touch with someone. You dont necessarily have to go out to a bar. And like I said.....wait..... aura already said it pretty much...

This is rather disturbing and more proof to me that you need to leave wherever you live, because that does not happen in the United States of America

Go exploring my friend, get in touch with you and yourself........... somewhere.... else??

[aura of foreboding]

Thanks so much, charp13!  I am glad we are on the same page yet again!  My collection is mainly monsters, but I am a big Disneyland nut, and have a decent amount of Disney stuff - nothing expensive, just little figures and the like.  (And I love me some Haunted Mansion, as you can tell.   )  I have always embraced my own uniqueness and I embrace the uniqueness others possess.  Collecting is just something that is natural to me.  It's fun, it's healthy (except come October when I bring out the credit card!), and it provides me a link to others, such as you guys!  It's strange to me that people would see it as something detrimental when, in fact, it's really very beneficial.   

[aura of foreboding]

And, Wizard of Ed, I am just going to add that you need to check out the quote in seed_murda's signature.

"A man who limits his interests limits his life."
— Vincent Price

Because that sums up the people around you. 

[charp13]

Thanks Missdead, you're a doll!! 
I live in a semi-rural area, so I understand the culture that comes with this territory. But, love comes from the strangest places.......(hearts popping out of your head).
You can meet people at fancy parties that a friend drags you to, or at Burger King. You just never know. I raised a couple of artsy kids that were- ahem.... Straightedge back in the 90s, and they have very different mates. My daughter is a Dr. and she is married to a 6'5" strapping Midwestern fella she met through friends, and my son is married to a country girl he met while at a show. I've observed that my kids (who are in their 30s) met a lot of their dates at music venues.

[Wolfman]

I'm thinkin' wait until you get to the altar, and bust a Aurora Franky out of your tux. If she does under 10 seconds running out of the church, she's probably not the one for you.

JP

[Wizard_Of_Ed]

My relative who owned the Drive-In was forced to close his Drive In Movie Theatre after 60+ years in business for the same reason. He had so many break ins and no one was ever caught that the cops finally told him "When you have a business in the country what do you expect?!"  He had a few heart attacks from the stress and they finally closed down. I agree with you on the vandals should have gone to jail and in many cases I knew who they were but the police would always say they couldn't prove it or that this wasn't all that important, etc. It is a fact that most crimes like that never wind up in a conviction. One cop promised to find who did it after they smashed all my spotlights and tried to set the garage on fire but nothing ever happened. This all happened in the 90's and I live less than a mile from a State Police Barracks and a cop lived across the road from me at the time.

I would love to move elsewhere but at the time I'm stuck where I'm at because of the economy and I've had to take care of my parents in the last few years. That's the main reason I came back here. I'm not sure where I'd go that would be any better, however.

I agree with you on the Disney characters, Arua. I'm just repeating what a lot of people have told me.

I guess I've had doubts that there were only "normal" girls out there, Lundy. I'm not really looking for that. I like quirky.

Charp - what did your husband think of your collection? Was it a reason your split or did he pass away? I've heard of collections breaking up marriages too.

Hey Aura - Since you mention the Haunted Mansion, do you have the newer series of action figures they did? I wondered how they compared to the sets I got several years ago in the big square boxes. Are they the same figures repackaged without the dioramas?

That IS a great Vincent Price quote!!

I've never felt any shame about what I do and what I enjoy. I just have not met many other collectors of similar things and when you see so many pop culture references where what we do is treated as being weird or loser-like you start to wonder if maybe there is a right way or a wrong way to present yourself. That's where I've been coming from right along.

[charp13]

Wizard- I wish I lived near you and your family! I would patrol your decorations while wearing my Mummy mask, and scare the dickens out of anyone that came near your holiday display!! And that means I'd wear the Mummy mask at Christmas as well 
I still have the same husband I had when I got married at 17. He's very tolerant of my taste in decor, and has embraced it all these years. Lordy......we sound like we're 90 years old!  I dragged him to his first Monster Convention a couple months ago, and he loved it.  Oooooh!! That's another good place to meet like minded Monster people!
He has also embraced my love for Social Distortion, anime, and horror movies. But, I will give him credit for my Disney obsession. He worked there in 1974 and I just love stuff from that era- America on Parade! Yeah-yuh!
You are a really cool person, and I enjoy reading your posts.  Your Vincent Price quote is perfect!!

[Wizard_Of_Ed]

I'll have to post photos of my decor. I built over 2,500 of them from age 14 through 18. I did 1 Halloween display in 1994 of the Disney villains and it was knocked down a few times so I never bothered with Halloween again. I'm putting a website together with an archive of this early work I did because it was so unique. (If I know where to post a link like that I'll post a few. I have no idea what the right section for such a thing is.)

I used to patrol my Christmas display like that. I'd hide out outside sometimes and patrol. One time a family with a bunch of special needs foster kids stopped by and asked if they could tour my yard and I took them on a tour. That was one of those special memories I have from back then.  One time my dad and I chased a group of them down and got their plate number. (They were in our yard and jumped in their mini van so we jumped in our van and followed them.) They denided they were there.

You're lucky to have met your match so young! And, yes, old school Disney was really cool. Yesterday I was at F.Y.E. (I think that's their name) and they had the DVD of Unidentified Flying Oddball for 2.97. I hadn't seen it in years and it's one of the few Disney movies I don't have a copy of. It's like the worst B Disney Movie they ever made and I popped it in and had forgotten that Ron Moody was Merlin! (We were just discussing him in another thread) I think the newer Disney is very plastic and empty. About 10 years ago is when they shifted. 

Where are some of the Monster conventions? When I'm done with the book I'm currently working on I'm going to relaunch my Monster property and would like to go to some of those shows to sell at.

I really enjoy this forum. It's great. When I need a break from the drawing board I can pop in and get a fix for a bit before returning back to work.

[aura of foreboding]

My relative who owned the Drive-In was forced to close his Drive In Movie Theatre after 60+ years in business for the same reason. He had so many break ins and no one was ever caught that the cops finally told him "When you have a business in the country what do you expect?!"  He had a few heart attacks from the stress and they finally closed down. I agree with you on the vandals should have gone to jail and in many cases I knew who they were but the police would always say they couldn't prove it or that this wasn't all that important, etc. It is a fact that most crimes like that never wind up in a conviction. One cop promised to find who did it after they smashed all my spotlights and tried to set the garage on fire but nothing ever happened. This all happened in the 90's and I live less than a mile from a State Police Barracks and a cop lived across the road from me at the time.

I must be living in the Twilight Zone, because - where I live - vandals are ruthlessly hunted down and arrested.  Vandalism is not tolerated.  Someone steals Baby Jesus from a frontyard, they make the 5 o'clock news.  The crimes are reported thoroughly.  Call me crazy, but people do not have any right to destroy other people's property.  It is one of the three most fundamental rights in the American way of life, along with life and liberty.  So your police force and your town need a reality check.  Is there just such a high violent crime rate that they can't focus on property crime?  Otherwise, there is no excuse, and I would have your town's law enforcement investigated by the local and national media. 

I would love to move elsewhere but at the time I'm stuck where I'm at because of the economy and I've had to take care of my parents in the last few years. That's the main reason I came back here. I'm not sure where I'd go that would be any better, however.

Any place would be better than a town that does not recognize and protect the basic rights of its citizens.  There are far better cities and towns out there.  You need to move for your own sake.  I really don't think you are aware of how just abnormal your descriptions  of your town and its people really are.  It's almost frightening to comprehend. 

Hey Aura - Since you mention the Haunted Mansion, do you have the newer series of action figures they did? I wondered how they compared to the sets I got several years ago in the big square boxes. Are they the same figures repackaged without the dioramas?

As far as I am aware, the boxed figures, which I have, are the same as the figures that were issued a few years later sans the accessories.  I don't know if they have released any since then, as I have not been avidly collecting Disney or Mansion merchandise since the Universal Monsters have had a steady stream of new material of which to amass.   

[Wizard_Of_Ed]

Aura - Whenever I've reported an act of vandalism of my property the cop ALWAYS says something to the effect of "We probably wont catch this guy because we have more important things to do." or "This isn't a top priority" or "We'll most likely never find them. This isn't Quincy". I agree with you about this being wrong and unAmerican. I have brought it up and I get the "well, we have a large area to cover and not enough resources to do it so only violent crime gets top priority". I've gone through all the channels you mentioned years ago and got nowhere. It is I who live in the Twilight Zone. They actually DID steal the baby Jesus from my light up Nativity Set around 1996. That was when my dad and I got the license number.

I'm back in my home town because of financial reasons and I take care of my elderly parents. Even that was another Twilight Zone story. I worked for 9 months in a Sign Shop doing 80,000+ window decals and all the other sign work the guy had coming in. Then when it was time to pay me he skipped town. He wa the Treasurer of the church I attended and the church members started hounding me on what I jerk I was for expecting him to pay me for my labour and it would financially ruin him. Meanwhile I learned a few years later he had been embezzling a substantial sum of money and the church covered it up using the story of Jesus saying "He who is without sin cast the first stone..." I can see why people get angry at church people. I did see the local DA about it at the time and she said I had no proof I ever worked for the guy and then he countered that if I pursued it he'd accuse me of stealing so I just let it go. (When I worked for him I had come in on weekends and stayed late to learn the software and how to do Vector art and he was going to say I did that on the clock like I was working on my own stuff and expecting him to pay me for it. It wasn't true but since I was told I wouldn't win by the DA I let it go.)

Yeah, I've been through a lot of crap but I don't let it define me and I try to be a stronger person because of it.

I'm just not sure what part of the country I should head to. I'd have to wait until the stuff with my parents passes but I'd like to go somewhere where the people are nice.

I look at the Hitchhiking Ghosts as being the most iconic ghost characters ever done. I wish Disney would have done figures more in scale with some of the other lines. I have their Pirates Ride figures and those are twice as big as the Mansion ones.

[aura of foreboding]

What town do you live in?  This is a matter of public safety and mental health.  No members here ever want to go near there.    So, please, inform us so we can stay away... far, far away. 

[Scatter]

but, ya know. thats me . Im not into being green.. I drive old cars. I like the smell of using too much fuel & motor/ engine// all associated smells & fumes.
I love old stuff made out of metal, that sits around FOREVER, taking up space in the yard, and junkyards. , not cardboard thats gonna fall apart back into the earth. .
I want stuff that pretty much lasts forever.. even if it is covered in rust.   Love it.
Call me old fashioned. Call me whatever the heck you want..

I think those eco -friendly pick up lines only work with University students? / hippies? / most of the other ppl here that live around me in So. Cal/ Berkley / Seattle.. i dunno . lol
......sigh. .......
okay rant over , before this topic gets locked and the General or Ray kicks me off this board.  ( begs .. Pleasseeeee dont kick me off . please . Im not tryin to get political...
I was jus' sayinn)........ shrugs. [/b]

OK......it's like you took one of your autopsy saws, cut off my skullcap, and looked into my brain.

[robodog]

At this point I don't have much in the way of monster collectibles. I'm just starting out so at the moment all I have are a few of the Neca Gremlins figures and a few plush dragons ( I lump in mythological creatures with my monster collection for the most part but only if said mythic creature is properly monsterous. Dragons and Gryphons have a place in my collection. Unicorns do not. Well that is unless the dragons require a snack. Because that's about the only thing unicorns would be good for in this house )
I don't really care about what others think about my love for monsters. I've never dated. A lifetime of abuse by family, classmates and even teachers has largely turned me antisocial. I avoid people like the plague.  I've reached the point where I just don't care what people think of me anymore. I'm not mean or impolite if spoken to. I try to treat people with respect. I just don't go out looking for social situations. I'm happier keeping to myself.

[charp13]

Well robodog- I'm glad you're letting us monster folk into your life    We are all in this together ( I can't stop quoting High School Musical!!), and I can totally understand what you're going through. It's hard being a kid, sometimes and it's even harder being a grown-up.  I'm glad you're hanging out with us