I was listening to a person at work talk about how their kid collects action figures. It made me smile and I told them I was happy to hear that kids still played with Action Figures. Of course I was corrected. His kid collected action figures — He did not play with them. While I am impressed that a kid has the willpower to not open a shiny new action figure and play with it, I also find it slightly depressing. It seems like something only adults should think about. Toys should not be an investment for an 8 year old. They should be toys.
I can tell you this, when I was a kid, this is how I rolled.
TOYS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE PLAYED WITH!
Opened them as soon as we hit the car.
The cards became ramps for our Hot Wheels cars!
Ramps! Great use for the cards.
Metal Misfit is right. To leave a toy in the package is just wrong.
The collector value is only worth what someone wants to pay for it. I say break it out and play with it.
More memoirs are made playing then looking.
I’ll agree with Ugly American. Any toy was removed from it’s card/box, as soon as we hit the car. Probably only took a couple of seconds. Nowadays, I collect toys, but not all of them stay in the box or on the card. For example, last weekend, I bought a Transformers Animated Skywarp, and he is standing on my coffee table. There are some toys, that I keep in the original packaging(i.e.-NECA Donatello). But I don’t think children should be “collecting” so to speak. If the kid is into it, fine. If that’s the case, buy 2, so he can play with one and keep one MOSC. I couldn’t imagine, as a child, not opening, even one toy.