My Collection: One Year Later

Whenever you commit to writing a weekly/monthly/whatever series, you get a bit burnt out, just ask OpiumHerz. I can only write so many Top 5 lists before both I and the reader need a break, though I do appreciate all the feedback I get from those. I've recently dove headfirst into video editing, and I've basically been self-teaching myself, but I've managed to create some decent stuff. Because of that, I found myself with little time to write, but don't worry, the Top 5 lists will resume next week. But due to my lack of free time this week, I thought I would do something fun.

About a year ago, my wife and I moved into our first house, and after a brief hiatus during the moving process, I returned with this blog showcasing my game room/collection. That was about a year ago, and time has really flown. So I decided this week I would just update you with some new pics of my collection. There are some new goodies, and I've done a bit of rearranging. I've also included some "then and now" pics. Enjoy!

I have both a modern game room and a retro game room. Let's start with the modern room, as it's where I spend the majority of my time.

As soon as you walk in, the first thing you'll notice is this:

This is probably the biggest change you'll notice from last year.

It was mostly just a matter of rearranging things in order to make room for that big, black monstrosity that now houses my modern systems.

Of course, we have the television itself and a few things that are housed beneath it.

These couple of pictures showcase some of the cooler findings I got this past summer at the flea market. You might notice that small shelf to the left of the television, that's an officially branded Nintendo Wii shelf. It's missing one of the shelves that would enable me to house more games, but it cost me $5, so I can't complain.

And in that lower picture, you may see (though it's obscured by shadows) a Nintendo Power #1. Right underneath it is Nintendo Power #2, which is the Castlevania II: Simon's Quest cover that many parents complained about back in the day. They came in a stack of Nintendo Powers that I managed to grab for $1 a piece. Pretty sweet.

Now let's move on to the game shelf itself.

Right above the shelf are a few gifts I've received from friends and family, as well as my senior prom picture where myself and three buddies are all doing wrestling poses. Yes, I'm doing John Cena's "Word Life" hand symbol, but this was 2003, and John Cena was awesome back when he was still rapping.

Even though I haven't watched a new episode of The Simpsons in almost a decade, my love for the series is still enough to ensure that I buy every single season on DVD. Unfortunately, in order to make room on my DVD shelves, I moved them down here, and some of them still reside on the shelf itself since there just simply wasn't enough room. I'm currently deciding what to do with them in order to display them better.

Here's a comparison of my knickknacks from last year.

To your immediate right from the game shelf is a closet that houses all of my miscellaneous boxes.

I have a hard time disposing of stuff, you never know when you'll need it. That brown shoe box up top is where I keep my slim PS2, but if you look to the right, that thing is pretty cool. I can't remember its exact name, but I think it's called a "Retromini." It's a portable NES. No, not an emulator and something that has NES games built it, I mean it's an actual portable NES. You slide the cartridges in on top like an original GameBoy, and it can actually be hooked up like a real NES, complete with two controllers and a light gun. It was a wedding gift from my buddy James (who hosts the Action Features podcast). I don't have a lot of uses for it, as I usually carry my 3DS if I'm traveling, and I have two different models of the NES, as well as the FC Twin which can also play them, but it's still a really cool piece of my collection.

Oh hey, here's my couch with a Mario blanket.

Let's take a look at my toy shelf in the corner.

This is kind of my "pride and joy." It's such a cool little area in the room. Those wrestling figures on the bottom are the same ones I had as a kid, and I've spent a lot of years and a lot of money on those Simpsons figures. I actually stopped for a long time, but I managed to find quite a few new ones at the flea markets last summer. Here's a comparison.

At first glance, you may not notice many new additions. They're mostly up front on the lower shelf. My personal favorites are Lurleen Lumpkin and Boxing Homer. Boxing Homer is from the episode "The Homer They Fall," a fantastic episode from season 8, and probably a top 20 episode of all-time.

Right next to it is my newfangled work station.

This is where I record my podcast, as well as the majority of my writing, and now, my video editing. It's slightly obscured by my podcast mic, but behind it is one of my favorite figures in my collection: my Simpsons figure of Bret Hart, which combines two of my passions in life.

The workstation itself is pretty bare bones, and I also need to get a more comfortable chair, but I'm a pretty simple guy and it gets the job done. Plus, it has plenty of room for my coffee to sit.

Alright, that's pretty much it for the modern room. There's some art and stuff on the walls that I've shown in several other blogs, so just go to those if you want to see them.

Moving on, let's head to the retro room. Please excuse the lighting on the wide shots. It was a bit of a dreary day and I needed to have the light on.

First things first, here's my favorite part of my entire home: the retro game collection.

But before we take a more in-depth look there, let's tour the rest of the room. Every person has to have a bookshelf, even if the majority of your books are strategy guides and pro wrestler autobiographies.

And yes, those are Goosebumps books. I loved those books as a kid, and that's the entire 62-book run of the series before it transitioned to Goosebumps 2000.

This is where I've spent a lot of time lately, capturing some retro footage. And every collector has to have a Power Glove.

Around the borders of the ceiling are shelves with some of my favorite action figures.

I used to be a huge collector of all of NECA's video game licensed figures. I literally had 5 boxes full of them before I decided to finally purge that collection and pick up a nice chunk of change in the process. I kept my favorite ones, like Claptrap and the Headshot Locust from Gears of War, and the ones you see here are pretty much the only ones that remain.

There's also a shelf in the corner that contains some other books, bobbleheads, random figures, etc.

Here's a couple comparison photos to 2014.

And lastly, the retro game shelf.

First, let's compare it to last year.

I first got into collecting back in 2008. I started off by just collecting NES, then I progressed to collecting for everything. Then, like an idiot, I decided to sell off a great deal of it in order to focus on the NES again, and now, I'm back to collecting everything. The only problem is that now, collecting is huge, and I refuse to pay the kind of prices that re-sellers ask for, and eBay is a lost cause at this point.

At last count, my NES collection was at 387. I'm right around the halfway mark as far as licensed NES games go (licensed games being my main focus, though I do grab unlicensed stuff for the right price). What's crazy is that at this point, it's really difficult for me to find anything I don't already have. It's not that they're expensive, it's just that there are some cheap games that are extremely hard to come by. Like Volleyball. Plain, boring, black box Volleyball. I can't find that game anywhere.

Here's a quick look at what sits on top of the shelves before I move on to the games themselves.

There are some cool little things there. Some random Club Nintendo prizes (R.I.P.), the NECA retro figures, the RE4 chainsaw controller, some mini Terminator figures, and of course, the Michael Jackson Barbie.

Alright, now let's take a closer look at the game collection. The pictures aren't close enough to make out every title, but you should be able to make out a few.

There aren't any "holy grail" games in there like Little Samson or Bubble Bobble 2, but I do have a few that I managed to find cheap a while back that have skyrocketed in recent years. Games like DuckTales 2, Contra Force, Fire N Ice, Chip N Dale 2, etc. Definitely games that I'm glad I managed to find when I did. Below is some close ups my SNES and PS1/PS2 games.

Again, nothing too spectacular. When it comes to systems other than the NES, I typically only search for the games I want. You know, the classics. So, naturally, there's things like Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Secret of Mana, the Donkey Kong Countries, and then things like Final Fantasy VII/VIII, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil 4 on the Playstation side of things.

And there you have it: my game collection, one year later.

I hope you guys enjoyed this stroll through my home. I feel so much closer to you guys now.

New Top 5 next week. In the meantime, listen to my podcast.

Thanks for reading/looking.

-Dustin