End of 2016 – The figure hobby expenses

posted in: Figure Collecting Hobby | 4

Hi everyone, I’ve prepared a small overview about my figure expenses … (and the crazy doll expenses) 😅.

In 2016, I, without a doubt purchased a number of lovely figures, the manufacturers tried their best with creating amazingly detailed sculpts and nicely colored figures, leading to one of the prettiest figures in my selection this year.

 

My biggest figure sins in terms of pricing were Yamato from Banpresto, although she is a really beautiful figure and the Wonderful Hobby Selection Sorceress figure from GSC, she is also beautiful, but seriously has one broken and also one loose peg problem. Problems I wouldn’t expect from a premium price product, it was a quite upsetting experience.

Here is a comparison of my figure and doll expenses, also compared to 2015.

Apparently the doll expenses went through the roof this year, I was rather busy with getting new things, aside from regular purchased clothes, I’ve bought a metal internal frame, an Mini Dollfie Dream body and paid for 3 faceup commissions.  I also got a Dollfie Dream Sister Rin Kagamine.

I’ve bought less figures in 2016 but paid more, 180.7500 Yen without shipping compared to 2015 with 170.272 Yen. On average I’ve paid 9.4590 Yen for a figure in 2015, in 2016 the average price for one figure was 12.050 Yen.

After ridiculously numbers in 2013 and 2014 with over 20 figures in a year, I had to and wanted to cut back, this year I somehow managed to stay at a reasonable number of 15 figures. Even though I saved no money because of buying three figures less, the reduced number still is noticeable in terms of space to display.

 


In the chart above you see the number of figure purchases from 2013 – 2016, the years of purchasing dozenz of figures without regret were a lot of fun, but I could not maintain this amount for a longer period of time, after 2013 the number steadily dropped. Nevertheless, I guess buying less than 15 figures a year is not possible for me in 2017.

 

I tried to reduce my monthly purchases to 2 figures as maximum, this worked surprisingly good, so I only reached the maximum number around 3 times and overstepped it once. December and April ended without any figures.

Last year my favorite manufacturer was Max Factory, in 2016 my favorite figure manufacturer was ALTER, the two Love Live! School Idol Festival characters Toujou Nozomi and Yazawa Nico turned out amazing, Gotou Matabei, one of the probably last Hyakka Ryouran figures is nicely made and beautiful and also Lala Satalin Deviluke is a really sexy and adorable figure. Native also made lovely figures, my favorite is Chitose, an unbelievable sweet ero figure, that doesn’t look so lewd. Well it’s actually a figure made by Rocket Boy, but Native serves as their distributor.


After all I feel very good with my figure purchases of 2016, I really was able to cut back to a number I consider as reasonable. I was satisfied with the majority of the chosen figures, although 4 times, I could have rather decided for something else. My doll expenses appear a bit too high, but I can’t say that I feel regret for any item I’ve bought.
This year I will only focus on outfits and not take part in any character doll lottery. Well, you never know 😝.

I hope you followed my good example and bought less figures in 2016 😇.

4 Responses

  1. Hoshiko

    A fan of Alter eh? I like their designs too though I haven’t personally buying figures myself for a few years now. Always wanted to but money was always spent somewhere else.

    You mentioned it’s rather impossible for you to purchase less than 15 figures this year. What about dolls? Your interest in dolls seem to picking up since the purchase of Mirai. Do you think it could affect your purchase choices in future?

    Your screenshot of Ami definitely conveys the expenditure feels, lol.

    • wieselhead

      Yeah, they make beautiful figures and they are the best manufacturer in terms of quality .
      less than 15 figures would be rather unrealistic, since the manufacturers produce too many appealing figures within the year,
      sure I could try harder with only deciding for the figures I really want, but all the tempting offers are often making it incredible hard (≧д≦ヾ).

      I understand, it’s also about ones priorities and I also say that figure collecting is a very demanding hobby.
      Figures also became a bit “too” expensive recently (︶︹︺)

      I already have 5 lovely dolls now ~ヾ(^∇^), so this year I honestly don’t need and want to add another one.
      I nevertheless will be on the lookout for more appealing clothes for everyone, I also want to focus more on improving doll photography this year.

      Yeah Ami is wonderful, she is so good at expressing her negative emotions visually o((*^▽^*))o

      thx for your comment Hoshiko

  2. Tier

    Yay for budgeting! Well, figures-wise, the doll stuff will destroy your savings. It’s pretty amazing how one can buy twenty pairs of boxers for the cost of one set of doll panties. Dakimakura covers are even worse in terms of cost effectiveness so I don’t recommend getting into that if you want to save money.

    • wieselhead

      Some friends also said I just transfered my expenses from figures to dolls, well actually it was even worse
      but as I said I have no real regrets about my doll expenses. First I was very unhappy to actually win Rin Kagamine, but after changing her wig and outfit I really like her (‐^▽^‐). Yeah, often the prices are close to real girl clothes. And Smartdoll clothes are like Prada ahahaha.
      Haha I guess Dakimakura is something I might pass on, 2016 looked a bit heavy, but I could afford other things aside from dolls and figures.
      Although this year I will try to buy some more technical gadgets instead of 2 dolls XD

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