Talking about this has been in the back of my mind for some time now! I don't mean this in an "anti-haul" or anti-consumeristic way, although I suppose that's part of my feeling on it... But, being interested in cute stuff and knick-knacks and the like, the internet hawks me these things all the time. And I refuse. I REFUSE!!!! To even START! To even CONSIDER! Collecting anything else!
... That's a straight-up lie. I face constant temptation in the forms of these little kawaii little hunks of plastic.
But, thus far I remain strong!!!
SANRIO ANYTHING
Here's the thing. I love Sanrio!!! I collected it as a child, in the late 80s/early 90s, before Hello Kitty was as ubiquitous as she is now! I've loved it all my life. As a child my mother would reward us after a difficult experience such as the dentist by taking us to the mall, where there was a gift shop that had a Sanrio shelf. She would let us pick out an item, and my sister and I had an impressive combined Sanrio collection. I'd really love to post about some of the items we had sometime!
In high school (this was in the late 90s for me) I still collected! But I mostly loved stationery items, which I actually used a lot, so I don't have most of it now. I do actually still have a few Landry things from ~1998. Landry's not super popular. But I had a lot of Chococat and Badtz-Maru stuff! To this day I have an appreciation for Sanrio characters other than Hello Kitty. My favorites continue to be Badtz-Maru, Chococat, Landry, Keroppi, Marron Cream, and Little Twin Stars.
I wish I had endless money to dump towards cute Sanrio blind boxes and the like, and the space to display little figurines. But I simply don't, so I only allow myself to enjoy pictures of other people's Sanrio collections!
(But in the interest of honesty, amidst all these other things, Sanrio is what I have the most emotional connection to, so it's a case of "I would if I could!")
SYLVANIAN FAMILIES
Just super duper cute. So cottagecore. So kidcore. What would be the harm in attaining just one? Or one little family...? I do wonder...
POPMART FIGURES
These anger me so much because I like them so much. I'm talking about the Skullpanda Warmth Series specifically, because these muted/cool pastel colors are so BEAUTIFUL to me! But I like a few other Skullpanda figurines too. I've looked these up on eBay and Etsy in moments of extreme weakness. But I've never pulled the trigger. I ask, "Will this really make me happy?" It's like I have an itch in my brain that I feel like I can soothe with one of these. But I'm sure it'd make absolutely no difference in my overall wellbeing, so this gives me the strength to close the tab whenever I find myself tempted!
SONNY ANGELS
These also make me want to derisively curse. I love 'em. I hate 'em. I love 'em. I know these are extremely extremely trendy, which means that -- sort of like Funko Pops, in my opinion -- they're going to strike everyone as a very dated and irritating thing to have a whole mess of in the future. (Of course, I don't believe in letting something stop you from enjoying what you sincerely enjoy. Sonny Angels and Funko Pops make a lot of people really happy and I love that!) But thinking of them this way helps me not give into the temptation to start collecting these dust-catchers. Even though they're so cute in a little display case that I could scream.
Of course, I am not beyond my little collections! Here's what I do collect/what I am allowing myself to have:
TAMAGOTCHIS
I have six Tamagotchis and have built up my collection slowly over many years now! (I first/last posted about Tamagotchis in 2015, almost ten years ago now.) 90s nostalgia is of course all well and good, but I love the more modern Japanese Tamagotchis that have color screens and minigames! I have the iDL (still my favorite), the P's, the 4U, and the Meets. I would love love LOVE to expand this collection! But it's a cyclical phase type thing for me. I'll get really into running a Tamagotchi for a while and then I won't be in the mood to do the constant maintenance aspect of it again for a while.
Tamagotchis have long-running characters such as Memetchi and Kuchipatchi. The fact that there's specific characters adds an appeal factor that's not unlike Sanrio for me. They also often have Sanrio-themed Tamagotchis (or pierces, in the case of the P's).
Also, people make cute crocheted Tamagotchi cases, and this is SO up my alley!
THESE SPECIFIC STITCH FIGURINES
Stitch is, unfortunately, what the kids call my "comfort character." (I sorta got a douche chill just saying that, though.) In other words, he's a long-term favorite of mine, and I have a big emotional attachment to him. I have a stuffed Stitch that I sleep with and a couple of other little Stitch stuffies. I am always having to talk myself out of buying Stitch plushies. This is kind of a humiliating thing to admit, haha.
But, look at that little trio I have! I think this is a great way for me to indulge my bizarre autistic Stitch love without having Stitch stuff out the wazoo. There are four more little figures in this particular series and I would really like to have them all eventually, but I'm not focused on attaining them.
I also really love these because I got a couple of them from my little sister for Christmas. She knows me so well!
TAROT DECKS
I used to study tarot back in 2015/2016, before I had a huge mental health crisis and stopped being able to engage with all of my many hobbies. I have yet to pick up my studies again in anything longer than small spurts but I retain an interest, and every now and then, I am gifted a new tarot deck (most of the decks I have were gifts). I have ten decks total.
LITTENS
I got all my Littens in one fell swoop, as you know!!! Here are pictured just the figurines as they sit on my shelf. But you know I have a little gaggle of plushies. A litany of Littens. And I love them so freaking much. I would absolutely accept more Littens into my heart/my bedroom.
OTHER COLLECTIONS I HAVE BUT DID NOT MENTION HERE (BESIDES BLYTHES OBVIOUSLY):
- Animal Crossing Amiibos/Amiibo cards
- a huge hunk of the Sweet Valley Twins series, which I at one time was actively collecting
- BL Metamorphosis, the one manga series I have actively collected (it's only five books)