What am I supposed to do with all these spare parts? There’s too many arms, hands, and heads. I’m stuck with countless pieces, not to mention all the Build-A-Figure and Collect & Connect pieces. Really, I feel like I’m running a parts department here! What’s a collector to do? There’s a couple of customizers that I think could use all these parts. But two of them live overseas. How much would shipping be? Is it okay to ask them to pay for shipping across the Atlantic? Would they really use them?
Sell them on eBay? Piece by piece? That’ll take years! You think I’m going to go through each and every piece, labeling it, listing it, selling it, and shipping it? Leaving positive feedback because they bought a $3 leg? Well, perhaps I should. They’re just sitting there anyway. I recognize various NECA heads and hands in there but there’s so much that’s unidentified. Is that a Marvel Select hand? I think so.
They probably don’t need them. I don’t see anyone in the Facebook groups asking for spare parts. Am I supposed to take them to Goodwill? A box of action figure parts? How much would they get for them as a lot? I’d want to match up pieces first.
They’re piling up. It’s starting to get weird. I’ve got two metal lunch pails full of appendages. It’s the dark side of figure collecting – the miscellaneous parts. I could make a Frankenstein figure with all these pieces-Freddy head, Terminator hands, Dexter arms. But legs? I hardly have any! So many hands and arms; so few legs and feet! How come figure makers let us swap out many sets of hands but rarely any extra feet?
I’ll probably just let them continue to multiply. It’s become a little sub-collection. I wonder how many heads I’ve got? How many pairs of hands? Really, what am I going to do with all these pieces? Maybe I’ll take them down to the local shop and just drop them off – “Here you go. Free.” But it’ll probably just be a burden on them. Are they supposed to pay an hourly employee to sift though the parts, hoping to eventually entice a customer on the aisle – “Is that a DC Cyborg arm cannon?" Yes sir, yes it is. If you buy today I’ll throw in ten hands that might belong to Mezco’s Heroes line. Or maybe they don’t.
Sal Rodriguez pounds the pavement in Los Angeles as an actor, comedian, and writer. He began collecting figures upon discovering UFC and WWE figures by Jakks Pacific. He lives with his two cats, Fluff Daddy and Little Mister, and over 2,000 action figures. Subscribe to his YouTube channel.