Neo's big collection

I have been a proud collector of all sorts of things for as long as I can remember. Whenever I get a new obsession, be it a band, a book series, a TV show or a videogame, I try my best to get my hands on something related to it. I simply adore the feeling of having a physical object that represents my love for a Thing, regardless of whether that obsession lasted a few months or several years. Thus, throughout the years I have built a collection of CD's, DVD's, games, books and figurines so vast that I couldn't possibly fit all of it in my limited shelf space, and a good amount of items are stored away in a closet. Below is a photo of the "nerd shelves":

Although there have been additions to and removals from the shelf over time, the items in this photo can be considered to have, for the most part, a permanent spot in the collection. Not all items on display have remained as relevant as others, however, and some I even plan on selling off (in fact, by the time this goes up, I may have already done that). I will show off the most important parts of my collection below, but if you want to see a rundown of each "box", click here.

top of the shelf: the boxes of my main Kamen Rider SH Figuarts; a box where I put various assorted keyholders, buttons and small figurines; Dragon Ball Z mangas.

top left-most: Death Note mangas; DVD's of Twin Peaks, Lord of the Rings, band concerts and a Japanese theatre play called TRUMP; various books related to franchises created by Brazilian media company Jovem Nerd; videogame cases and handhelds; artbooks of Bioshock Infinite, Kingdom Hearts and Kamen Rider Ex-Aid; a Kanji dictionary; Monokuma plushie; a dragon and a tiger figurines.

top middle: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and Zero-One collectibles; Ex-Aid, Lovecraft, The Little Prince and Lord of the Rings books; Tekkonkinkreet mangas; the book Wonderful Life with the Elements that inspired my OC Neo; Irish language learning books; Chemistry books.

top right-most: The Lion King DVD and CD's, and figurines and booklet from the musical; various postcards, photobooks and certificates.

bottom left-most: Kamen Rider Zero-One plushies and doujinshis; a manga and some graphic novels and books; the Bescherelle dictionary set; lorebooks of Final Fantasy XIV.

bottom middle: the main part of the collection. CD's of several bands; The Little Prince books in many languages; Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and Zero-One mooks; artbooks of Nier: Automata, Kingdom Hearts and New Danganronpa V3; action figures of some tokusatsu characters; acrylic stands of Kingdom Hearts characters; some Pokémon figurines.

bottom right-most: Kingdom Hearts mangas, novels, Orchestra CD and an action figure; Nier: Automata novel; Uzumaki manga; Kamen Rider Ex-Aid plushie and keyholders; Monokuma figurine; acrylic stands of Kamen Rider Zero-One, Final Fantasy XV and Twisted Wonderland characters; some postcards and fanart of Kamen Rider and Kingdom Hearts.

Rammstein

Rammstein are, of course, my favourite band of all time, and the catalyst for my physical media collecting. From the day I fell in love with the band in 2012 I knew I had to have all of their studio albums and concert movies (I drew the line at singles), a goal that was quickly achieved and which I have still maintained even long into the age of digital media. I will never forget the joy of looking for my new favourite band's albums at the CD stores downtown, buying a few at a time before going to school in the afternoon and cracking them open to look at the CD and booklet. Their music video compilation DVD was my very first online international purchase for myself and I can still remember the day I went to pick it up at the post office (and pay a hefty import fee). By the time I got around to buying the Paris concert movie (which I originally saw in the cinema!) I finally had a Blu-ray player in the form of my PS4, so it was my first — and so far only — Blu-ray, a purchase I made during my trip to Buenos Aires. My uncle who's also a Rammstein fan sent me the deluxe version of the 2019 album by mail along with other trinkets, and I got the most recent addition, the deluxe version of "Zeit", during one of my Québec trips as a gift from my partner. The collection also includes the first albums by Emigrate and Lindemann, the side-projects of two members of the band. Even though not all items are original releases or deluxe editions, I am really proud of this collection as it represents my passion for this band that has captured my heart for more than a decade, and without it I wouldn't have felt compelled to collect CD's of other bands.

The Little Prince

One day, in 2009 or 2010, my primary school took us to the old theatre (which no longer exists) in my tiny hometown to see a play adaptation of The Little Prince, and while my classmates probably cringed and laughed at the play, I left it a changed person. That event motivated me to read the book and reflect on the story; I was deeply touched by the ending specifically, when the Prince allows the serpent to bite him so that he can return home, and as a kid who had just begun to explore concepts surrounding mortality, it left a big impression on me. This work, along with a charming ancient "ebook" uploaded on YouTube and a touching musical adaptation, served as my biggest exposures to French at the time. When I moved to the capital, already with a budding interest in languages, I decided to make a collection in several languages, starting with Portuguese, English, French and German. Years later, during my Buenos Aires trip, I got a version in Spanish and one in Galician (which the owner of the little vintage book shop mistakenly identified as Portuguese); later on, I got a Japanese version and an imported Irish one. The most recent addition is a new English copy purchased in Canada, to replace my original that my sister gave away to our young cousin. Since I had made it a goal to buy at least one local copy from each country I visited, I really wanted to get a Romansch edition when I was in Switzerland, but I wasn't going to be there for long enough to get it, so that's my next target!

Dragon Ball Z

These mangas have been in my possession for at least 15 years, making them one of my oldest and most valuable collections. It was the first manga I read and I have such fond memories of following the series with my sister. Back in the mid-2000's online shopping was still not very well established, so my father would actually order them in batches via telephone, directly from the publishing company Conrad. We never got around to ordering the rest of the series, which had in total 51 half-tankobons, and unfortunately several years later Conrad stopped publishing DBZ. I considered buying the remaining volumes second-hand but ultimately never did, and as time went on these editions became more and more of a rarity. At one point I lost volume 12, leaving a gap in the set for many years until, following the author's death in 2024, I felt compelled to correct that at the very least, and bought the number I was missing. I will likely never finish this collection, but the sentimental value it holds is tremendous. I categorically refuse to part with it.

The Lion King

I grew up in the 2000's watching Disney movies in VHS and DVD, so The Lion King was definitely a part of my childhood, although it was mostly the sequel that was being played on loop at the time. Around 2011 was when I finally opened my eyes to the masterpiece that was the original film (and very much influenced by a popular cinema podcast I listened to, whose host is a notorious Lion King super fan), which quickly solidified itself as my favourite movie. I'd frequently re-watch it (or just have it playing on the background) to the point it is most certainly the movie I've seen the most times, with every line, scene, sountrack and song seared into my memory. I saw the 3D release in 2011, and when the renowned Musical came to São Paulo in 2013, I saw it a total of three times either with family or by myself, adding the Simba plushie and the ornament figurines to my Lion King shrine. I regretted not being able to get a ticket to see the musical a fourth time in 2015, during my London trip, but this wrong was finally corrected in 2023, when the musical returned to Brazil and I got to see it again, and being with my partner who knew nothing about the production made it all the more magical!

Various metalcore and metal bands

Thanks to my love of Rammstein and Oomph! and my acquaintance with Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot and Bullet For My Valentine, I made a friend on my end-of primary school trip who introduced me to the world of metalcore, shaping my music taste for the next couple of years. I explored more of the aforementioned bands' repertoires and discovered other groups such as Bring Me the Horizon, with BFMV and BMTH joining my pantheon of favourite bands. Because for a time they had an importance on par with my beloved Rammstein, I had to match the collections and buy all of their albums released thus far, including preordering their upcoming 2013 albums in deluxe editions; the little Sempiternal "book" is still one of the coolest CD's in my collection. Oomph!, despite also being one of my faves, was so much more obscure than the others that I never considered collecting their CD's, and the one I do have was a lucky find in a dying CD store in my hometown (they had a couple of others but this one was my favourite). The CD's by Swiss folk metal group Eluveitie and A7X were one-off purchases just because I really enjoyed those albums, and as for the Slipknot CD's, the live one was a secret santa gift and the other was their most recent release at that point. Finally, my music taste was completely shaken up in 2016 by the discovery of Mastodon through some guy I liked on my first year of Engineering. I hadn't been into metalcore for a while by then, so the introduction of Mastodon (and some other groups) to my library made my preferences in metal a bit more sophisticated. By that point my interest in collecting physical media had already dwindled, so I only bought my two favourite albums out of their discography, and their subsequent releases.

The rest of the music collection

From the middle of 2014 onwards, my predominantly heavy music taste began to shift towards accepting softer sounds, Bastille being perhaps the first one to break the barrier and finding themselves among my top preferred bands. I consider "All This Bad Blood" to be one of my favourite albums of all, and I remember being on Skype with friends who were also fans and excitedly opening the package with the CD I had ordered online. Some time later, in 2015, other so-called "indie" bands joined the ranks: Twenty One Pilots (who were just breaking into mainstream), alt-J, and Two Door Cinema Club (who sadly never made it into my collection). That year was also when I rediscovered Enter Shikari thanks to their newest album, and Sigur Rós too. Most of the CD's pictured here were bought during my London trip in 2015 at an HMV (along with the first Lindemann CD, way above); it was very exciting to go to a big store where I could be sure to find anything I wanted. Of particular note is the Blurryface CD, which I bought on eBay shortly before my trip and is a deluxe edition with really cool packaging signed by the band members.

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid

While Kamen Rider has been on my radar on and off since 2013, it was Ex-Aid (2016-2017) which put me on track to become obsessed with the genre and make many friends through tokusatsu fandom. I followed the series from the beginning, growing more and more excited as the episodes came out weekly and watching other seasons in-between episodes. The hype around the show went off-charts after the unforgettable Christmas special, by which point one of the antagonists, Parad, had solidified himself as my favourite character. I could probably say that his relation with the protagonist, Emu, is the origin of my love with "yin-yang selfcest duos", and he was so important to me that I got a Parad costume done, part crafted by myself and part commissioned from a friend with whom I cosplayed in a con! I bought a lot of Ex-Aid merch throughout the series's run and after it was done: action figures and collectibles, keyholders and charms, lots of "mooks", the movie booklet, the novel I never read, and the little "bean" plushie.

Kamen Rider Zero-One

Zero-One (2019-2020), written by the same guy as Ex-Aid, was the next Kamen Rider season I fell in love with as it aired. The antagonist faction, MetsubouJinrai.net, ended up becoming so popular they got their own character books. Horobi, the leader, happened to be my first favourite and the object of most merch I own (keyholders, action figure, plushies and collectibles); I credit him for kickstarting my obsession with religious zealot-like characters, but his story took a turn I didn't enjoy very much. His spot as my fave was taken by Naki, another member of the faction and a character who arguably made even those who weren't following the season pay attention, as the actor who played them was queer (non-binary, coming out as a trans man some time after the show ended). I made it my mission to spread that knowledge by translating blog posts and interviews, and as the certified #1 Naki fan, I even organised a fanmail project. Unfortunately, being introduced rather late in the series, Naki didn't get a ton of merch, at least while the series was still on my radar, but I was still able to get their action figure (which was extremely expensive to ship) and an acrylic stand gifted by a friend.