"Two-Fer" Tuesdays: Our First Completed Vinylmation Series

You could call me a Vinylmation collector. I have just a little over forty of them, but I only have one completed set. I would be what you call a slow Vinylmation collector. 

When the first series came out,  I bought a few of them, but then I stopped buying them. I just decided I didn't need anymore. Then the Toy Story series came out, and it was right around the time my son was obsessed with Woody. I knew I had to start collecting that set. 

 I started a slow tradition of buying one or two boxes every couple of weeks at the park. I would buy them, and then my son and I would find a nice spot at the park to open them. My son quickly caught on to the excitement of ripping the box open to see which character we would get. 

 Each time no matter which one we got, he would exclaim, "OoOOOoo" once I  had helped him open the foil packaging. I would make sure to turn my head away, and ask him which one we got, as he would pull it out to show me. I liked being surprised until the last second. 

 We were lucky at first, always drawing characters we didn't have, but once you almost have the whole collection getting duplicates is almost a certain. 

I could have stopped and just bought the ones I needed off eBay, but what I really enjoy about collecting them is the hunt. Each trip I would carry my duplicates in my purse, and check all the trading spots for the ones I needed. After 6 months of searching, I only needed Bullseye and Woody. 

Then one day I decided I would move on to the Animation series, I almost passed on buying a Toy Story box but still grabbed one. We picked a spot to open them, and it was Bullseye! Now I was on the hunt for Woody. 

I thought about buying him on eBay because then I'd have a completed set, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. On March 11, my husband went to the parks with us. Right before we were about to leave, I had him go with me to one more store to see which traders they had. Guess who we saw in that clear box... Woody!! I freaked out. My husband rushed over to a cast member, who wasn't with anyone, and told them he wanted to trade for Woody. He knew how long we had been searching for him, so it was fun to see his excitement for us. 

After 7 months, we had our first completed set. 

Much celebrating was done, and I was on a natural high beaming with the biggest smile.

You may notice that there is no chaser in the above photo. I don't have it, so you may say I don't have a completed set, but I would still say I do. A completed set to me, is the one you see on display. Chasers are a bonus in my eyes, but not something I need to have for the set. 

I'm now trying to complete the Animation series. I only need a few more, but again I am in no hurry. 

 I just recently traded my last duplicate for Cruella de Vil from the Villians series. I was excited to find her at Disneyland (The Villians series can only be bought at the Disney Store), but sad because now I don't have anymore duplicates for a quick trade. Looking for traders is my favorite part about collecting the Vinylmation.

The Vinylmation collecting has slowed down a bit for us, as we have moved on to collecting Cars at the moment.
Do you collect Vinylmation? Do you enjoy the hunt of finding them, or buy them all at once? I always find it interesting to see what every one's approach is to collecting them.

Now I'd like to point you in the direction of my friend Chad at Days in the Park. We decided to each do a post today about our Vinylmation collections (hence "Two-Fer" Tuesdays), so make sure to head over to his page now to read about how he displays his collection. He has a very good tip!