collector's passion: the fantasized omnipotence

Maybe in my past life I was a frog.  What if I am the Frog Prince? You can smile but perhaps that is the rationale why I had the fixation in collecting frog items: I have currently more than a thousand of them they are scattered all over my house and office , a frog memorabilia museum of sort: toys, toiletries, plates, pillows, vases, incense holders, candles, mugs, keychains, wood crafts, figurines, jars, socks, chimes, and several others made out of varied materials such as terracotas, wood, glass, clay, cement, plastic, ceramics etc.. Let me guide you to my FROGLANDIA.....

I started collecting in December 2001,after i noticed that there are some gifts that were not given to my inaanaks. then when i opened them, they are frog toys that i bought for them. Later on, i seemed to have the urge to scavenge for more frog items anywhere i go, as if i had a third eye or sixth sense where the items are located.

I would wake up every morning and start my day with touching some of  my frog collection . You find your eyes going to a piece. It pleases you and excites you and makes you want more and better.

 In answering the question, "Why do you collect?," many collectors would probably simply say, "Because it's fun." But there's always something behind what we find fun.

Collecting is more than just collecting. Its origins go way back. As a species, we have a deeply ingrained need to hoard to survive the next winter or the next siege, to safeguard the future.Some people collect for investment. Some of us, like Noah for his ark, collect one of each type. Others collect many of a smaller number of types. Still others collect many of many types, amassing them in huge numbers. Some collect to expand their social lives, attending swap meets and exchanging information with like- minded souls.We can be called obsessive compulsive, but  we should not pathologize collecting. Almost everyone is attached to a certain kind of item. 

To others, collecting is a need-driven compensatory behavior where "every new object effectively gives the notion of fantasized omnipotence." Motive may be so fundamental, so intrinsic that it simply doesn't consciously engage a collector's attention. Focusing on objects, after all, their beauty, function and relationship to each other, may be a kind of self-sustaining process of externalized emotion.Collecting is just another way of organizing thought.  

It 's a kind of art. Having something that nobody else owns or that very few people own or that they can't afford to own is very gratifying.  Knowing the sought-after item is no longer available to others provides the collector with pleasure and a sense of well being.

Collecting as a hobby can be a fun, worthwhile and potentially lucrative way to pass time. Amassing collectibles as investments, however, can be a disappointing endeavor yielding nothing but piles of devalued tchotchkes for the next of kin to sort through".collectibles" and the companies that make them are slaves to demand and market forces — and the realization that their mass-produced product is only worth as much as a buyer will pay for it.

For pictures of some of my collection, please view them in my facebook account: 


http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542932735#!/album.php?aid=179981&id=542932735
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542932735#!/album.php?aid=179400&id=542932735
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=542932735#!/album.php?aid=178992&id=542932735
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=690407874#!/album.php?aid=44292&id=542932735
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=198387&id=542932735

My frog collection was also  featured four times in different tv programs, to wit Mel and Joey and Unang Hirit of GMA7, SaPulso of QTV and Matanglawin of ABS-CBN.
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For many cultures, these amphibians were symbols of and connected to divine powers of fertility, regeneration, and rebirth.

In ancient Egypt, the frog appears as a symbol of fertility, water, and renewal. The water goddess Heket often appeared as a woman with the head of a frog. Frogs were also the symbol of the midwife goddess Heqit, who ruled conception and birth, and Egyptian women often wore metal amulets in the form of frogs to enlist her good favor. Frogs appeared in great numbers each year at the flooding of the Nile , an event which was crucial to agriculture in that it provided water for many distant fields. Frogs thrived in the muddy bogs left by the receding waters, and it is easy to imagine how frogs came to be viewed as favorable symbols of abundance. In fact, the frog became a symbol for the number hefnu, which meant either 100,000 or simply "an immense number." Perhaps it is frogs’ impressive fertility combined with their association with water, so important for human life, that has led humans to see them as such potent and positive symbols.

As a symbol of transformation, the Frog Prince, is a fairy tale, best known through the Brothers Grimm's written version; traditionally it is the first story in their collection. In the tale, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends a frog (possibly meeting him after dropping a gold ball into his pond), who magically transforms into a handsome prince. Although in modern versions the transformation is invariably triggered by the princess kissing the frog, in the original Grimm version of the story, the frog's spell was broken when the princess threw it against a wall in disgust. In other early versions it was sufficient for the frog to spend the night on the princess's pillow.

In the Philippiunes, therer is this group called Collectibles Unlimited Association, a non-profit association based in Metro Manila, whose main objectives are to promote interest in the collection and display of all types of comics,toys, movies, animation, games and related childhood memorabilia; and to maintain a network of collectors to help members keep in touch with each other and advance the collecting hobby. they organize Toyfairs that  feature the best selection of kiddie toys, dolls, action figures, die cast cars, licensed merchandising and high end collectibles this side of town.