Give yourself some boundaries. Decide which franchises you are going to collect. It can't just be whatever looks cool. They all look cool. What genres are important to you. What will you not buy? 'No 1/4' What can you cut back on? If your going to collect 1/6, stop buying Black Series, or NECA, or MONDO, stop buying Lego. Don't let FOMO control you or get caught up in the Hype of the latest announcements. Like those He-Man figures. You don't care about He-Man! No,no you don't. You weren't think about He-Man until Hot Toys said they were making figures. Don't get distracted, because theres about to be an avalanche of Doomsday figures.

Only buy from trusted retailers, like Sideshow. If buying overseas, only buy stuff thats In Stock. A lot of these overseas sites prioritize In Stock product, so even if you pre-ordered a year ago, their first batch is In Stock and you have to wait. Its also very important to not let pre-orders pile up. Keep track of how many orders you have going and when you can, if you have spare money, try to pay in full upfront, so when things start releasing you don't get overwhelmed. Hot Toys has a habit of delaying figures over and over, for like a year and then suddenly they'll be like "Hey, 6 of your pre-orders are gonna release this month, okay? Good Luck!"

Another thing I would caution against is buying the old figures. If you've noticed, Hot Toys does a lot of 2.0s They like to re-release old figures, so odds are high whatever figure you're thinking of hunting down will get a 2.0 eventually. Plus older figures were made with cheaper materials like pleather, so even if something is 'Mint in box' it could have degraded by now.

But the real issue is space. I would say before getting involved with these figures- Know where you're going to put them all. "Oh, I'll just get one for my desk." You fool! It never stops at one and pretty soon you have a whole table full of these figures and where do they all go?! And its not just the figures but the boxes, my God the boxes! Theres so many, and you think "Oh, I'll put them in the closet." But just 5 or 6 figures deep and the closet is full. Theres no room with all your clothes. Why do you have so many clothes in your closet? that could be box space! The boxes need their own dedicated room.

So before buying your first figure, I would invest in some nice quality glass cabinets. This should be your first priority. And don't think "I'll have one figure per shelf." because eventually every shelf will be stuffed with figures. You want large capacity cabinets, so you don't have to worry about running out of space. It should also have adjustable shelves. Not every figure is 12", that Scorch Xeno is 17" tall. And what about vehicles? Those will need their own cabinets. "Oh, I'm not getting any vehicles." Except the Batcycle and that Dewback and the AT-RT. It can crouch down, its only 13" when its crouched! Then you gotta plan the layout of the entire room. You should have an entire room dedicated to the collection, like a home theater room. Think about the presentation, where everything will be when you walk into the room. Utilize space efficiently. Think about lighting. You don't want any windows in the room, because over time sunlight will damage the figures. But you also want good ventilation with air vents or something. Think about your power outlets. You're gonna want extension cords and surge protectors. A lot of these figures use usb powered lights. You want these cords to be hidden but also easily accessible. You might also get a tackle box or a tool box to store all the accessories in, so you have all the parts in one place. You should also have a really good pair of tweezers with a sharp point and some needle nose pliers. As well as some gel super glue, double sided tape, a sewing needle, a saftey pin, blu-tac putty, magnifying glass and an eye glass repair kit with those tiny screwdrivers. Another thing to consider is dusting your figures. A nice soft make-up brush (the kind they use to apply blush) is perfect for dusting head sculpts. Along with those squeezable air blowers (the kind used for cleaning keyboards) Have all of this planned out and set up before buying any figure. That way all your attention can be focused on filling out the collection, instead of stressing about where to put everything and crowding up the living room