Collecting is Human Nature
Everyone has to collect something. It's human nature. People who collect nothing must have to work at it really hard. I put them in the same category as people with no interests - they're all robots.

There are different ways to collect. There are three important factors to consider when starting a collections: money, space and commitment.

Money and space, in my book, go hand in hand. If you have lots of money, then you can buy yourself space. If you have lots of space, then chances are you don't have any money in which to fill that space. If you're lucky enough to have plenty of both, then I'm sure you have all those life-sized Star Wars figures, including the Han Solo encased in Carbonite and I expect my invitations to Thanksgiving, Christmas and Groundhog Day dinner to be forwarded to me here, at newmoanyeah.com.

Commitment Self-Assessment
That leaves commitment. The two levels of commitment are passive and obsessive. Imagine this example, and decide for yourself which one you are:

You're at a garage sale in your small, Midwestern hometown. You're digging through a box of toys and come across a limited edition Boba Fett action figure. (You know it's a limited edition and worth a lot of money because you watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Three Nemesis had one. Remember, the one Spike threatened? Ok, I digress...) You know it's worth a lot of money, but you don't collect Star Wars action figures. Despite the fact you watch Buffy; you don't know anyone who collects Star Wars action figures.

Do you...

1. Pay the sickly old grandmother the five bucks she asks for it and sell it on Ebay, letting someone screw you over.
2. Scream at the sickly old grandmother that she'll take your fifty cents or you'll break her dentures.
3. Tell the sickly old grandmother that this figurine might be worth a lot of money and she should sell it to send her twelve grandchildren to college.
4. Tell the sickly old grandmother that this figurine might be worth up to twenty bucks and that's why you're trying to stick a twenty up her sleeve.

I chose d. I am a passive collector with limited money, space and huge commitment issues. I am a passive collector of many, many things. I never leave anything in the box. I rip those things open with a joyful glee and play with them as if I were still ten. I also have a strange obsession with men in tight pants and/or capes, so I collect a lot of things Robin/Nightwing, Robin Hood, Angel, Han Solo (Ok, so the tights are only in my dreams) and of course, Riker.

Ahh. Riker.
My Riker collection is the best. I wait for Rikers to come to me. Sometimes, they come by way of friends and family gifts; sometimes they call to me from the shelves of Wal-mart. It's a collection that takes up very little space, has cost me very little money, and gives me great pleasure and happiness. It also can be very challenging, which just makes it all the more fun!

I wish I could remember who started me collecting Riker. The first Riker of my collection Riker was a pre-beard, pre-pudge Riker. My first memory of him is during the summer of 1991. He came with me on a trip to Lake Winnepesake, New Hampshire, where I discovered that he fit perfectly into the Risk army men box. A perfect, little glass coffin. It brought minutes of laughter and enjoyment to a very long, depressing game. I lost.

My second Riker came from my high school best friend... a true, obsessive-but-still-nice collector. Still pre-beard, this Riker is only ¼ inch tall. He comes in and out of my collection and my life from year to year. I currently think he may be on vacation somewhere under my bed.

Taking Control
From there, I took control of the collection for a while, branching into the bearded Rikers, experimenting on sizes, TV figures versus movie figures, even testing out the look of a "young Starfleet Academy" Riker. He looks great and fits in quite well! Other friends and family started noticing my Riker collection, always on prominent display, and started to help out. The best example of this is the story of my former roommates, who, while shopping for a baby-shower gift, came across and purchased for me "Transporting Riker." His legs are almost translucent and he has his own pedestal. When you press the button on the pedestal, a light comes on from underneath and the "beaming" noise plays. Ultra cool. (My friends didn't get a shower gift that day, by the way.)

The biggest Riker in my collection joined me in Christmas 2000. He's a 12-inch Insurrection Riker. He spends his days in the glass-doored cabinet hanging with the other Rikers and hitting on my "Barbie-as-Scully" doll, much to the chagrin of "Ken-as-Mulder." This big Riker is a bearded first-half-of-the-movie edition. Apparently, they only took his weight from the first half of the movie too. I expect the no-beard second-half-of-the-movie Riker must look a little like Marlon Brando.

Just Riker?
A lot of people ask why I don't branch out to collecting more Star Trek characters: Picard, Geordie, Data, etc. I tried once to collect the entire crew of Voyager. I failed. I'm still missing Kes (on purpose, I hate her), Chakotay (in his Starfleet uniform) and Paris (the cute one, of course!). To collect an entire series is too much of a commitment to me right now. I'll probably start looking around and hoping for some Jonathan Archer and Trip action figures, but I don't plan to branch out any further than that.

Besides, I don't need to. There's a new STNG movie coming out in December, remember, and you know what that means?

More Rikers for me!!!

[Please feel free to email Kerri if you feel an unstoppable urge to add to her Riker collection. -Ed.]