I listed this page to get you some info on myself and one of my biggest passion: movie collectibles.
Just click on the following links to navigate through my background info:
Chapter 1 - The roots of my passion
Chapter 2 - Getting into collecting
Chapter 3 - Acquiring masterpieces
Chapter 4 - Take a break from the game
Chapter 5 - Return to the passion
Chapter 6 - Today and the project xenom0rph.com
Some general info on my profile:
- My name's Andre
- born in 1985
- living in the northeast of Switzerland,
- degreed at University in Business Economics with a major in Information Management and
- currently I work at Switzerlands in a customer success role at a leading Software as a service provider
- other passions besides collecting: my relationship, friends, cars, photography, videography, cinema / home theater, internet in general, some sports like swimming
- favorite movies: Alien, Predator, Terminator, Lord of the Rings, Iron Man & selected Marvel movies (mostly Sci-Fi or Action)
- collecting: Sci-Fi collectibles, Prime 1, Questn Studios Sideshow stuff, Hot Toys stuff
- My instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/xenom0rph1/
- My e-mail address: admin@xenom0rph.com
Chapter 1 - The roots of my passion
I was always a huge Predator and Alien fan. I think it was Alien 3 and the Predator 1 movies that really melted into my child-brain when I was about 8 years old and since then I'm completey fascinated by these two franchises.Alien 3 was quite a disturbing and horrific experience at that time. It was my first sci-fi movie that I watched on pay-tv of my parents, but growing up with such moments in my childhood just pushed the fascination even furhter.
The dark and hopeless atmosphere of the movie was something I only appreciated a long time later. At that time it was the brutatlity and gore that shocked me, and the creature definately felt "real" to me.
Ripley's terrifying act when she killed the clone-lab was another of these iconic moments you just couldn't forget.
And so the story continued - discovering many many more of other Sci-Fi and Action franchises to like. As a child of the later 80s you couldn't pass along these movies - and in addition the collectible merchandise market took an important part of the industry.
Somewhen around 7 years old I got into collecting action figures like the popular Jurassic Park line by kenner. These toys were extremely well done for its time and I still regret passing them onto my cousin while getting older. Then there was of course my interest in Batman, with collecting comics, video games and of course some action figures. As a child you're dependent of the usual dates where you get gifts: Christmas, Birthday, Easter...you probably all know the situation. :-)
Getting older I realized that my passion grew more and more and somehow I had to soak everything up of these franchises I was so interested in. With aging I developed a strong liking for the art and mechanics behind those things we see on screen. This is probably the main reason why I dig all the details on the collectibles - having a more or less detailed reproduction of the thing that was used on screen. And coming with this was also the expanded universe, the fan-universe, the space for making interpretation on these things (customizing, own paintjobs, etc.).
Living in the country of H.R. Giger was also quite a good thing. I made a long trip through the country visiting his museum in Gruyère, another experience that definately left its prints regarding my passion.
Chapter 2 - Getting into collecting
So when did the actual collecting start? I think it was around 2003 when I got a glimpse of the first Palisades Toys products. Palisades Toys was a US Company producing mass-market but none the less numbered / limited resin-made products for collectors of many franchises. I think they began with Resident Evil, but somewhere in 2002 they acquired the official Alien and Predator licenses by Fox. My first collectibles was the awesome pair of Alien and Predator statues Palisades released at that time. I was just amazed how much detail and accuracy went into these two pieces (though no comparison to todays standards). I was at the beginning of my economics study then - so financing at that time was a bigger problem. I had my parents who helped me out a bit. Living in the heart of Europe did not make it easier, since all the stuff came from Asia or the United States. Collecting international means you need a lot more money, since you pay for bigger shipping fees and then of course taxes & custom charges. Also reselling the stuff isn't that easy in a small country like Switzerland - the hobby here is extremely small populated.Then in 2004 I started my xenom0rph.com website, which initally were some static HTML websites glued together with an old fashioned flash intro. But the main part were photos of my collectibles and I primarily used the website as a photo diary (like this blog). I had this vision of creating a whole brand of photos, videos and reviews on my collection, but the idea didn't fully realize. You still can check the website out in the internet archives (not really functional though): Click.
Chapter 3 - Acquiring masterpices
After some time in the "business" you know how you do the right deals and you get deeper into the community. You get a feeling for "real masterpieces" and you won't buy just everything anymore. I had several things in my collection which I just had for completing a line - I didn't really care for these pieces. I realized that this isn't my way of my collecting so I stepped down a bit and went pieces which were more personal to me. Thats when I found out about garage kits and custom paintjobs. Palisades Toys and McFarlance were cool mass products but somehow they weren't special enough for my likes (except for one or two products that I still own). With garage kits this is another thing: If you see a pro-painted garage kit for yourself the first time you will know what I'm talking about. You get the feeling of holding something real special in your hands - something totally unique. Which it actually is, considering of whom you got the kit painted and build.
Chapter 4 - Take a break from the game
In 2005 I suddenly had to stop the collecting because of starting to study at university. All the money and time went into this - to cut the corners in life. At that time Sideshow began to rollout their first real and defining pieces, like the Predator Bust or the Alien Queen 1/4 Bust. I had to stop the game , it would not have worked out along my study. Seeing other people getting these 2 pieces definately made up my envy. But what can you do... :-)
Chapter 5 - Return to the passion
I passed university and entered the business world in 2008, which gave me some freedom in leading my life. I tried other stuff out, my car became another heavy wallet hobby but somehow I still reminded myself to my earlier passion. I stumbled upon a photo of the Hot Toys Terminator 2 T-800 in 2010 - and instantly was on fire again. The degree of accuracy and movie likeness shocked me and I couldn't believe that this whole revolution happened in the time when I was busy with other things.
Chapter 6 - Today and the project xenom0rph.com
Since then I got into collecting mainly 1/6 stuff and some of the bigger life-size pieces if they make up for a nice display. and I find the free space and cash for it. I set up this blog, my youtube account and of course other social channels. So in the end xenom0rph.com stands for a personal project of mine with some focused goals:
- bringing people of the same interest together
- offering you high quality photos and videos of latest collectibles in different sci-fi or action franchises
- doing collectible reviews and sharing personal opinions on these things
- archive the collection for myself and for other interested people
I hope you enjoyed this little read and wish you all the best
Andre
And to make it bit more engaging here a video of my collection and current home theater setup:
Find me on the web on the following social media channels:
