Gartwo's Bendie Mecca

Well, thanks a lot Jakks for killing my interest in this line. Things started out well enough, as evident by the opening line from my first write-up on these figures, which I posted shortly after Series 1 appeared in my area: "The new generation of bendies has arrived, and I must say they RULE!" Don't get me wrong, the "bendabilty" of these guys is still great, but the thing that has turned me off of this line, at least for the time being, is the same thing that has kept me away from pretty much everything Jakks has produced: Overkill. No sooner than I put this page up singing the praises of Jakks new product, did I discover the shelves of my local K-B were suddenly overflowing with both Series 2 & 3! Now, instead of having 2 figures left to track down, there were 12 new guys whom I needed in my collection, and I could've have bought all of them at one time if I would've wanted to with no challenge at all. Where's the fun in that? The thrill of the pursuit is one of the funnest parts of collecting, and being able to go to the mall and pick up any figure you want, any time you want just totally kills that aspect of the hobby. And to top it off, most of the new figures appeared to be repaints. I hate that. I hate the idea of having 27 Steve Austin figures in my collection with the only difference between them being the shirt he has on. That's why i've always stayed away from collecting Jakks and why I loved and sorely miss Justoys Bendems. When I collect something, I like to have that goal of one day completing the whole collection. With Jakks that would be near impossible. Who has the time, space or money for it? With Justoys, they would put out a series of four or five brand new guys, give you several months to complete that set, then hit you with an all-new series. Those were the days. Maybe another reason i've become so disenchanted with this line of figures is my overall indifference to most of the WWE wrestlers of today that are a part of this line. Who exactly is Dave freakin' Batista and why am I supposed to want two versions of him sitting on my shelf? Anyway, enough of my ranting. I will still keep an updated list of all the Flexems produced here. But I doubt i'll be buying a lot of them so there probably won't be many updates as far as pictures go. I'll probably wait about 20 years to start pursuing these figures, that way there will be a little challenge to it. Isn't that what it's all about?