How Do You Collect? Themes or Characters

I’ve been having a lot of fun sharing part of my collections again and viewing everyone else’s that they’ve been sharing. It got me thinking about how we collect and why. (If this discussion already exists somewhere, mods please feel free to merge me and sorry that I missed it! 😅)

My Answer: I find myself more collecting pins and creating themes around them about things that mean something to me. My favorite characters tend to stick out on these pages whenever I find one that matches the theme within my reach. 🥰 I also love writing so I tend to create stories from my pins. But I can’t take complete credit for that as a writer… I learned the art of pin stories from my mom and her collections 😍

While my tendency is to spread out my favorite characters and not group them all together, this site alone shows me how appealing it also is to see a whole display dedicated to a favorite character! ❣️

Most of my pins fall into character collections. Only complete mystery sets and date specific pins are displayed separately.

So I had to think about this and I think I'm either character based or "movie" based. I collect Cheshire cat because I like him, but the
movie isn't necessarily one of my favorites, but I do like the book. I collect Maximus because I decided to cut down my Tangled collection
and realized that I focused on him a lot. My two mainish collections are movies Aristocats and Robin Hood. Then I have Eeyore too, but
there's a lot of Pooh characters mixed in because I kinda like them all. Does that make sense?

I wish I were organized enough to be either/or. I love themes (sketches, hugs, icons, SW resistance, balloons). But then I also love certain characters and movies. I keep thinking I'm going to narrow my focus, but then I find a new theme that I love or character I can't resist. Pluto and Minnie polka dots (no faces - dots 75% of pin) are apparently my newest collections (one theme and one character). And there are so many cute animals in windows that I want that I know I'll start a windows page very soon.

Park pins!

I have character / movie collections because they are easier to trade for then park / attraction pins because of how people stock their pin books.

I think I tend to collect things that I like beyond pins. For example, I love the movies AiW, NBC, and Moana so collect those pins. And I love the parks so collect atractions. And I find the villains to be more interesting characters and add excitement to the movies so I collect them.

But then there are also various series that I just really like the design of and since I also am a collector at heart in general (I've had numerous other collections - stamps, coins, comics, etc over the years) if there is a series that looks nice to me I work on collecting the full series (such as PODM, OTP, etc).

And finally, since I get bored easily and wanted something "extra" to do in the parks, combined with my "Collect stuff" nature, that started (and continues) my Hidden Mickey collecting.

I work mostly by character (Stitch). Theme (Star Wars/7 dwarfs). Or other pins that catch my fancy.

So, as one might expect, the collection has grown to astronomical levels with what we collect as a family. Didn't mean for that to happen but for the most part it's the art style of the pin for me. I use to gravitate towards anything that fit into that specific collection; then had a "come to Jesus" meeting with myself and only focus on very specific things for each main collection so I don't get too overwhelmed. Some things I might never add but it's fun trying.

One of my favorite niche collections is a small pumpkin board that sits apart from my Halloween or Trick or Treat Nephews collections. One of my favorite colors is Orange so the collection brings me a lot of happiness! 🙂

The big collections include NBC, Holidays (MASSIVE emphasis is Christmas which has like 5 boards/shadowboxes), Disney Afternoons (mostly Ducktales/Duck Family), Pixar, and Princesses somehow. Everything else is in the toddler or infant stage and doesn't need too much attention.... until we go to the parks and see pins in person. Vacation doesn't count though, right??? I can go willy-nilly on pins then??

firechief18 said:

I work mostly by character (Stitch). Theme (Star Wars/7 dwarfs). Or other pins that catch my fancy.

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It’s the “other pins that catch my fancy” that are killing me🤣

I'm not sure whether mine qualifies as character or theme! Probably theme?

I collect anything Alice in Wonderland-related so that could be anything from all characters to attractions to shows. If it's Wonderland, I want it! lol

Currently mostly specific characters (Maleficent, Vanessa, Constance, Redd, Cyclops, Captain America, Jack Skellington, Prince Philip, Kristoff, Flynn Rider, Grogu). Although I have a ton of side collections. In the beginning, I was collecting larger themes like villains, Haunted Mansion, Star Wars, and Marvel but had to stop doing that and focus.