Why do I collect? Why do we collect? Everybody might have a different reason.. There are sometimes I come to this question, I keep buying and buying new (and old stuff), companies keep releasing new cool stuff in 1:18 scale (which is what I like), and I just want to get that new vehicle or that new cool figure. But when it's home, displayed in shelves... what else?

When I started collecting, I found interesting things to do, like customs and diostories (I've made some customs, but still haven't got the b@!!s to do the diostories). Until I found Joedios, and I found a new "use" for my collection, which was a kind of middle point between taking pics of single custom figures and making full stories... just posting pics of scenes you would like.

So that gave a new sense to my hobby... try to get specific figures/vehicles/accesories for ideas I have in my mind, or make something with the ones I already got... then I started playing with Photoshop, and found it was a relaxing thing as well.

My main problem is that I don't have access to outdoors (no, I'm not in jail ), it's that I don't have a backyard with a garden, and I still haven't had enough courage to take my joes and vehicles to public park and start taking pics.

I still have my inner goal of making some dio-stories, but I need more time, and with two growing kids (boy,2 and girl,5 yrs old), living the 4 of us in another country, without any relatives or close friends at the moment, we need each other more than ever, so I dedicate most of my free time to them.

Fortunately my kids are getting into the hobby too , my daughter likes to play with the "girls" so I have separated all the female characters in a special ziploc for her (minus the 25th... I see them too fragile), and the animals (another ziploc), so she likes making campsites and adventures with them with some accesories and vehicles. My son is more inclined to cars, so he goes for the tanks and humvees (all under my close supervision ), and soldiers as well (I only give him PTE guys for now, two joes went KIA in his hands sometime ago).

My joe hobby has become also my escape from reality... I tend to stress too much at work... but when I enter joedios, and other joe sites, but specially joedios... and start watching the new photos, or discover a new one, or read what you guys post, or see the new pics of the upcoming movie (damn, I hope they make a good one!), or read the reviews of some cool toys I need to get (like the Indy truck and motorcycles)... I just feel a release of my tension, or when I post a new pic, and see what you guys think of it... it's a great feeling...

I don't post too much... in fact, it's been a year I guess since I joined joedios, and I just became veteran like 2 weeks ago... but anyway, I feel like I know you guys, even though I've only met in person with Nando... (thanks for the Humvee man!)

So I just wanted to finish this by thanking all of you for being part of this community, for posting in this site and for sharing with us your pics and creativity... and well, for reading this post as well...


Bartus.