The Joy of Slimming (the Minis Collection)

I realise that it's been weeks since I last posted. I've not been idle, but I've done very little painting. In fact, I've finally got round to seriously addressing the minis pile, a job that I've tentatively been toying with for quite a while.

Can you have too many minis?

Like many gamers I've bought far more minis over the years than I've painted, (I've boxes of RPG stuff that's never seen a paintbrush, and don't even mention Trident Realm) and of the painted stuff there's a fair bit that I know I'll never need again. I'm not great at keeping my stuff well stored, so it's always been easier to just shove stuff to the back of the loft of shame, but I'm determined to finally sort this out.

I've recently come to realise that having all this stuff is actually harmful. It's a psychological burden that can take the joy out of the hobby. I've had episodes over the past few years where I the thought of painting minis filled me with dread. Very much a first world problem, I know.

I want to bring the joy back into my hobby and dealing with the horde of stuff is my best first step. 

What to thin 

I'm going through everything. I'm deciding what use I can get out of it, and if the answer is little or none, it goes.

As an example, I've collected minis for D&D for decades. As a result I have many different types of the same creature. I have kobolds from the early days (Minifigs), official kobolds from TSR,  prepainted WotC kobolds of several different styles and sizes, and at least three different styles of Reaper kobolds. Witness my efforts to find the perfect orc for another example. The same applies to practically all the humanoid races, undead, beasts etc, and even dragons.

I only need one style of kobold, orc, etc, so I have a lot of spare minis that I need to ge rid of.

How to thin 

I've started with the RPG stuff, collecting together as much as I can find then sorting by type. These go into ziplock bags, such as a goblin bag or a zombie bag. These are then stored in Really Useful Boxes by type, so a box of undead or a box of fiends.

Next I decide what I don't need/want. This is a very rough sorting, the intention is to further sort once everything has been looked through once. As an example, I'm hanging on to a lot of the WotC prepainted minis as they cover creatures that just aren't available elsewhere, such as decent Displacer Beasts, but a lot of humanoids and PCs/NPCs are much better in Reaper Bones. 

The actual disposal of surplus stuff is mostly through eBay or specialist Facebook sales groups. I might not get top prices, but so far just about everything has sold.

As of the end of January I've sold on over 400 of the D&D prepainted minis and over 100 Reaper minis that don't fit in my collection any more. I've also cleared a few boxes of minis games, such as Bluebird Toys' Havok, oddments of GW bits, such as the old plastic WH40K trees and far more Heroclix minis than I thought I had.

What's next?

I've plenty more of course. I've just started on wargames stuff. Here I'm going to have to make some difficult choices. I know that just keeping a few of something will lead eventually to regret (if only I'd kept that one particular mini or unit I'd have a great army). It's going to have to be "lots or none at all", as Bilbo might say.

As an example, I've loads of Forge Fathers, originally I got them for Deadzone, then I added a lot of the then new plastics when Firefight came out. Now I'd still like to play Firefight, but I've got plenty of Marauders and Enforcers, so all the Forge Fathers will go. Keeping a few, for, say, a Deadzone team, will just lead to me regretting selling the rest off and/or me buying more.

Lord of the Rings minis are next for sorting, and I have a plan for what to keep. Then hard choices over what Kings of War armies I want to concentrate on.

If all this sounds a bit 'anti hobby' it's not meant that way. I've been doing a lot of work on the online D&D campaign, and I've even done a little bit of painting. However, I hope that once the exercise is complete I'll be a lot happier with the hobby.