Movie collectibles: awesome or lame?
11:58 PM
Vest from Ferris Bueller's Day Off via Max Goldberg
There's something so ambiguous about collectibles.
For the person who is buying them - the person who has seen the movie hundreds of times, memorized the lines and basically wished they could live in the movie - a collectible is a sensible purchase. For everybody else, it's a waste of money. And perhaps a turnoff.
There's this episode of Big Bang Theory where this is presented perfectly. Leonard and his friends buy the time machine used in the movie "The Time Machine" which seems awfully big for their apartment.
Leonard thinks it's the coolest thing he's ever owned. Howard calls it a chick magnet. Real chicks, though, are not impressed. Penny calls all of them pathetic for wasting their lives with toys like the time machine.
Map from Time Bandits via Boing boing
I can see where she is coming from because I never spent huge amounts of money on collectibles or kept things inside their boxes in mint condition. I was more the type of person who befriends movie theater employees so that they can give me movie posters.
Is that really less lame?
To me, objects like a "Lord of the Rings" ring or a "Clockwork orange" purse (yes, I owned both) served a different purpose. They were people filters. People who got the reference were insiders, like minded people and possible friends. The ones who didn't were outside the loop, cultural parias.
Pin from The Truman Show via Zazzle
It sounds awful, but luckily I realized it in time and stopped that attitude. (However, I feel most people do that, in one way or another.)
As time passed by, I got rid of all my movie collectibles. But lately, I've had my eye on some really cool objects. They are the ones showed in this post (whether they are cool or not is highly subjective). I think I can make them work in a non-snoby, nerdy-in-a-good-sense way. I mean, when you know the first lines of "The Illiad" by heart, it just makes sense buying this ring, right?
No Conquest ring via ModCloth
Do you like collectibles or think they are way too nerdy?
6 comments
The Iliad ring works because it is quite elegant in and of itself. Some people might get the Iliad reference, others might just admire it as an unusual ring. I think my approach is similar to what yours is now - if the object kind of works in and of itself, as a nice art/jewellery/etc object, then I might like to have it. I have a very cool movie poster of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which I snagged when I went to the London premiere (ok, by "went to" I mean I hung outside and saw the stars - but that was pretty cool!). It's quite moody and artsy looking, so my flatmate and I have it in our hallway, and it works. But yeah, generally I wouldn't really "collect" stuff like that, at least if it's just going to sit around gathering dust.
ReplyDeleteThe premiere of Tinker Tailor must have been amazing, all the actors in it are super cool. In this case, the poster also serves as a conversation piece. I'd go around saying it was given to me by Benedict Cumberbatch! xx
DeleteYou´re right, Paula, in the sense collectibles are ambiguous about the way people feel something, a movie for instance, or a book, a celebrity, etc. One interesting point is the affection we have with these objects, what they represent for us. This is the most important, and it´s very rich, with several possibilities.
ReplyDeleteCongrats.
You're right, many times movie objects represent more than just a piece of decoration, they have emotional value. xx
DeleteWhen I first saw the vest, I was immediately transported to happy times of youth. As a vest? No. Ugly as ever. And apparently the photo worked wonders as a happy-place trigger :) so I agree with you on some items have emotional value.
ReplyDeleteThat's so funny, I also get a little happy whenever I see something connected to Ferris Bueller. It's just such a fun movie :)
DeleteThanks for commenting! Do come back because I usually reply to comments here.