You may see my collection and be amazed at the abundance of a certain teal-haired girl. Her name is Hatsune Miku, and not only is she the mascot for a singing synthesizer software, she opened the floodgates to my obsession with collecting anime figures and art toys.

In middle school, I learned about the action figure line called “Figma,” which specializes in cute anime girls. I was entranced with the thought of having a physical manifestation of her in my house, one that I could adjust to my wishes. It only escalated from there; if there was a single cute anime figure in my vicinity I grabbed it up, no matter the atrocious price.

When the bubble tea cafe downtown began selling blind box toys, I developed something of an addiction to collecting them. I started to have a recurring dream of stumbling on a hole-in-the-wall anime store that had all of the figures I could possibly want at a low price…but I always woke up before I could buy them.

Having so many of these figures in my room makes me feel as though I’m cultivating a museum just for me. Every piece has a memory attached to it, like the time my dad kindly paid for a Miku Nendoroid because he knew I just didn’t have the cash to spare, or the Homura Akemi ⅛ scale figure that I spent $180 dollars to buy from a Japanese Ebay seller; I spent a week pulling my hair out because it was stuck in a U.S. customs limbo and I was afraid it wouldn’t come in time for Christmas, though it arrived in one piece, thankfully.

If you’re interested in doing some collecting yourself, let me give you some basic advice. The first and most important thing to know: do not do what I did when I was younger. Don’t just impulsively buy a toy or figure because you feel like you need to expand your collection. Try to narrow your focus down to a certain criteria. That way every figure and toy will have a special meaning to you.

Another thing is to keep the price in mind. On average blind box toys can range from ten to twenty dollars, though genuine art piece toys can go for fifty or more. For anime figure collecting, “prize figures”—or figures that are made to be put into claw machines in Japan as prizes—are generally more affordable for a beginning collector.

Along with blind box toys, they are pretty easy to get from places like Ebay, Amazon, and online stores that sell figures. On the other end of the spectrum, “scale figures” can go for at least a thousand dollars. The more expensive the figure, the more of an art piece it will become in your collection.

You can collect anything, not just toys and figures—bike parts, plates, books, movies—anything. I’ve found that having a collection of treasures keeps my personal space more comfortable and cozy. Like I said earlier, it feels like a personal museum of my life. It might be the same for you, and besides, it never hurts to indulge in a little bit of childlike joy as an adult. If finding toys to collect these days brings you fulfillment and joy, I say go for it.