How to start a DragonBall collection

[RoarkVegeta]

Hey guys! Been a while since I posted on here. Kinda lost interest in DB for awhile. But this new movie has me quite excited!

For those of you who know me, you'll know that I'm a young lad. I'm 16, and I get payed $7.25 an hour at a job I do. Not much, I know. But do you expect me to be a CEO at 16?

And now I feel like I need to begin my Dragonball collection. Since I'm obviously not banking, I wanna start small. I wanna collect EVERYTHING. Toys, games, dvds, books, you name it.

Any ideas of how I should start off?

Thanks!

[rereboy]

Collect the manga. The Vizbigs volumes have good quality and have a cheap price per original volume.

[Sin]

Like the dude above said, grab the VizBigs. By that point let's say it's next year, which is when a new announcement about the Dragon Boxes is being made, now whether these are a release of the original Dragon Ball Dragon Boxes or a re-release of the Z ones you should get them. If you want something to watch in the meantime you could pick up the Kai seasons, they're pretty good value and have a superior english dub.

[VegettoEX]

My suggestion would be to pick one particular type of item, and go all-in on that to start with. Others have suggested the manga already -- that's a really good one. It's the series itself, so collecting the series does seem like a logical starting place .

Once that's done, find something else you like. Even if you jump into the massive world of figures, pick just a single line of figures and start with those. Then branch out into other areas of figures.

If you move into video games, collect all the games on one console before moving onto another (something like, for example, all the GameBoy Advance games). Once you do that, you can move into international releases of the games.

Start small, and work up to big!

[Fizzer]

I started basically like these guys are saying. I used to watch stuff online and not spend much money (I'm talking about when I was at school, getting £5 per week pocket money), but when I decided I wanted to read the manga I decided I would buy it, because for whatever reason I didn't want to just read some scanslation on a computer screen, I wanted to read it on real pages. I collected all 42 volumes, loved reading it, it seemed to go pretty fast. Then I found myself with more money, and I tended to buy things for myself every so often, and one of those was Dragon Ball season 1. I hadn't watched much of the DB anime before, despite having seen all of Z and GT multiple times, so watching that became what I did in my spare time for a while, buying the next season when I'd finished the previous one. I watched it in Japanese, rewatching some episodes in English. I'd only ever watched Z and GT dubbed, so I decided to carry on into those after finishing Dragon Ball, and I bought Dragon Box Z 1, and continued all the way through to 7 and then GT The Complete Series.

This took a while, as I only got them as I needed them, but I found I had pretty good collection of stuff at this point, and I wanted more. I did get a poster and a couple of T-shirts with Dragon Ball stuff on them while doing that, just because I was really into it at the moment. I went on to get Kai (Seasons 1-3, and parts 1-4), some old Pioneer singles, a few kanzenbans, some cels, some CDs, the Complete Illustrations, Journey to the West, a mug with the "kame" kanji on it and so on... Now I just like to get Dragon Ball things, I have my eyes on plenty of guide books, sheet music books, more kanzenbans, more DVD singles, and so on. Before I knew it, I was a collector, and now I have all of this stuff.

[Beji]

Once that's done, find something else you like. Even if you jump into the massive world of figures, pick just a single line of figures and start with those. Then branch out into other areas of figures.

While all the other parts I agree with I'll have to disagree with this part(don't kill me please!) and put in my two cents.

I started going out of my way to collect my figures when I was 17. When it comes to figures I definitely have to say its more enjoyable to get the best looking figure of a character. especially if you are starting small. It feels GOOD to have your favorite character and a good quality near your manga or dvd sets.


When you go into a single line of figures, if they aren't gashapons you will almost ALWAYS find that ugly figure or one that just shines.
the HQ DX series came out with so many Gokus and they were all so.. eh But the Freeza forms in that line were pristine! you can really tell that if you were to get the HQDX line you would want
this-> instead of this->

In that case you might wait for a better line for Vegetto, or buy from a different line.

Certain figures can even mix and match and still be relatively the same size

The new Colosseum/SCulture line and the Legend of Saiyan line are reeeally close to the HQ DX line as well^

So that you can finally have a collection with both books and figures go hand in hand. and I don't think I have ever collected an entire line of figures before. Can you count all the lines (excuse the clutter I'm rearranging)


You obviously don't have to go as big(Or you could go bigger but your $ is limited like mine). But it adds a nice effect when it the collection starts out small and you have one nice figure(20$) thrown in there to make it look better

[Raykugen]

I'm 20, and I collect manga volumes, artbooks and databooks of Dragon Ball.
I think you should start collecting the manga, after the daizenshuus (It's better if you save money to buy all of them together, it will be more cheap, seriously) or the GT files (GT files can be found on ebay with a cheap price easily) and then whatever you want

[dbboxkaifan]

I don't buy Dragon Ball items for collection purpose, but to use them, so it's basically some (old) Dragon Ball games and not much more.

Start from somewhere you feel happy spending your money.

[Raithos]

@ Beji: I can't tell if I'm flattered or annoyed that your using my photo to depict an ugly Vegeto, lol

[Ginkasa]

Keep in mind as well, you shouldn't expect to have a massive collection soon. Getting *everything* of something is going to cost a lot of movie and, in some cases, some time to find and acquire. Working a minimum wage job while going to school (I assume) is not going to provide you with many resources to just go nuts buying everything you want in a short amount of time. Basically, just don't expect to have a massive collection any time soon. Those kinds of things almost always take time to purchase and collect unless you have a fortune to spend on a pre-existing collection that someone else is selling.

Also, especially as you continue to gain them, be sure to keep in mind your responsibilities and other expenses. I'm not saying you shouldn't use your money to buy DBZ items, just don't forget to also fill your tank. Also remember that if you're using your expendable income on collecting DBZ items, you're not going to have that cash for any other interests that you may have. Basically, don't forget to budget.

I don't mean to be a killjoy or anything, I just don't want you to leave with the impression that you'll be able to amass a giant collection of stuff in a month and still be able to buy lunch.

[Beji]

@ Beji: I can't tell if I'm flattered or annoyed that your using my photo to depict an ugly Vegeto, lol

I was actually going to credit you when I used it since you have the same username on myfigurecollection but I had forgot and figured you wouldn't see/notice. Fantastic catch lol.

[Kendamu]

Not being a guy who does tons and tons of collecting, I got into the replica side of things. Replica Dragonballs, toy Scouters, a toy Dragon Radar, etc. Most recently I collected some cans from a Dragonball Energy Drink line because it was inexpensive (I have a couple Japanese markets nearby) and fun.

Other than that, the entire series in one format or another (I'm collecting the manga slowly through the iOS VIZ app and picking up the Kai Blu-rays) is also a nice and obvious one.

The point is, I didn't go after the super obvious stuff like figures or guides. Hopefully that helps.

[Son Satan]

I agree with everything else that's been said in the thread thus far, although there is one obvious sounding thing I'd like to add, and trust me, it's something that will help you and you may not have come up with it too easily: Only buy things you will use in some form or another (display or actual use). Don't buy, say, the Japanese version of Budoukai 3 just for the sake of having it.

For example, I've always enjoyed the Dragon Ball video games, but I only collect the North American-released ones (notwithstanding Jump Ultimate Stars or Ultimate Butouden) because I don't own a Japanese PlayStation or Super Famicom. And notably, the only US-released games I don't own are Ultimate Battle 22, the 2005 version of Final Bout, Taiketsu and Collectible Card Game, because they were genuinely bad games that I knew were bad at the time they came out.