Victoria’s biggest memorabilia, rare merchandise collectors revealed
Whether it’s cards, figurines or TV show merchandise, these superfans have all taken their passions to extreme levels, with their collectables taking up entire rooms in their homes.
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There are SuperFans, and then there are the fanatics who take fandom to a whole new level, with collectables taking over entire rooms of their homes.
Their passion can be seen in their large eye-popping displays, with some showcasing floor-to-ceiling shelves of rare merchandise and memorabilia.
Some of them spend thousands of dollars on eBay and other online platforms to secure their niche items.
Michael Irving, 36, who has been collecting Simpsons memorabilia since he was nine, has an entire room dedicated to the popular cartoon and shares videos of his finds to his 65,000 followers on TikTok.
Husband and wife collecting duo David, 43, and Danielle Sirianni, 40, run a YouTube channel called Nostalgia Button and review items from their collection including vintage Star Wars, Ghostbusters and wrestling toys.
Sophie Williams, 30, has filled her whole lounge room with Japanese animated Sanrio characters including Hello Kitty.
Ryan Mobilia, 42, has a garage filled with rare NBA merchandise and also makes his own trading cards.
Collecting has become so popular that some of these vendors will be showcasing their merchandise at the Melbourne Comic and Toy Fair on October 29.
The fair’s organiser Nyen Andrews, who has been collecting everything from trading cards to movie posters for more than 30 years, says he has always dreamt of running an event like this.
“This is always something I wanted to do, to run an event myself,” he says.
“This is for mum, dads and smaller operators that can’t afford to attend the bigger events.
“Come along and have a look and talk to people, it’s a very big and interesting community. All of these collectors, myself included, are more than happy to give advice.”
Michael Irving - Simpsons collector
Irving owns thousands of Simpsons collectables including a retro arcade machine, stuffed toys, figurines and even Duff Beer cans.
He says it’s hard to put a dollar figure on his entire collection, but estimates it would be worth thousands.
Irving has been collecting merchandise for more than 20 years and recalls watching his favourite show as a kid.
“I remember how excited I would get waiting for The Simpsons to come on at 6pm. I think it was colours and the characters that drew me in,” he says.
“My favourite character is Professor Frink, I have a soft spot for him. He’s a weird pick but he’s just so much fun every time he shows up in a scene.
“There’s not a lot of merch around him either, so whenever I find something of him, it’s always special.”
Irving fondly recalls opening chip packets and collecting Tazos in the mid-’90s.
“The collection quickly built up and you’d be swapping them with friends in the schoolyard and then I remember getting them all and moving on to trading cards and then figurines and it snowballed from there,” he says.
“In high school I decided that The Simpsons was going to be part of my whole personality and that was when I started really collecting everything I could find.
“I was doing school presentations and essays on The Simpsons as I wanted to shoehorn it in any way I could.”
Irving says he began “ramping up” his collection almost 10 years ago.
“I bought a couple of collections from other collectors who were selling their stuff and from eBay.”
He says his favourite item is an autographed storyboard, which cost him about $1200.
“It’s from the production of my favourite episode Hurricane Neddy, where Ned Flanders has a mental breakdown.
“It’s autographed by David Silverman who is one of the directors on the show, he’s been there since day one and he’s still there today.
“What I love about collecting is the thrill of the hunt and the fact that you are part of such a supportive community, it’s really special.”
David and Danielle Sirianni - Star Wars / Ghostbusters / Wrestling collectors
This husband and wife duo run a YouTube channel called Nostalgia Button, which has more than 1000 subscribers.
David, who owns more than 3000 collectables including some rare action figures, first began collecting Star Wars toys in his teens.
“I would walk into a store and I had a rule that if I saw a stormtrooper or a Boba Fett, I would buy it and this is how I amassed a big collection of these figures,” he says.
“As the years progressed I began diving into Ghostbusters and wrestling.
“One of my favourite items is a custom lightsaber that my best mate Brett Wood made for my 21st birthday … his dad was a boilermaker and they made all of the parts themselves.”
He recalls having a “strong” emotional connection to the Ghostbusters films and cartoons from a young age.
“I was quite sick when I was eight years old and I remember being in the hospital and my parents bought me a lot of Ghostbusters toys, I still have a lot of these items,” he says.
“As an adult you then discover eBay and you go down a rabbit hole sometimes buying things that you wanted as a kid, but could never get.”
David says a lot of his wrestling collection are also investment pieces.
“I own a sealed WWF Hasbro ring, which I bought about four years ago and now it’s tripled in price.”
Danielle, who began dating David in 2002, says her collection grew after meeting him.
“He’s made me a little Mighty Morphin Power Rangers collection. I still had a few toys from when I was a kid and he’s added on to that for me,” she says.
“David’s really sweet, he bought me a Pink Ranger helmet that you can actually wear, so if I ever want to cosplay I can wear the helmet.”
She says the couple enjoy producing their weekly YouTube episodes for fans.
“We produce toy hunting videos, unboxings, or we talk about a collection we already own, it’s heaps of fun.”
Sophie Williams - Sanrio (Hello Kitty) collector
Williams’ lounge room is decked out with eye-catching Sanrio memorabilia featuring Hello Kitty soft toys, bags and figurines.
“My dad gave me a little Hello Kitty wallet when I was 12 and I remember visiting Chinatown with him and seeing so much Hello Kitty there, I thought it was so cute,” she says.
“My favourite item is a clock, which is a Crayon Shin-chan and Hello Kitty collaboration and my other favourite items are my massive plushie toys.”
She says she owns hundreds of items and enjoys the “thrill” of hunting down rare items.
“I like the chase, especially when you go somewhere and you see something that you want.
“I’m always on eBay, Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree, it makes me really happy when I find something that I’ve been looking for.”
Williams says she also enjoys collecting soft vinyl figures.
“I love things that are one-of-a-kind items. My partner collects as well and he encourages me to keep adding to my collection,” she says.
“It’s something fun that we love to do together.”
Ryan Mobilia - Basketball collector
Mobilia’s garage is the ultimate treasure trove of basketball collectables.
As a child, he was passionate about basketball and wanted to get his hands on any memorabilia he could find.
“I always had a lot of posters on the wall as a kid and owned NBA jerseys and over time it’s now evolved into really niche items including Space Jam figurines as I was always a huge Michael Jordan fan,” he says.
“A lot of my collection includes figurines and trading cards. I love to find stuff that’s a little bit quirky, which could be a Simpsons character holding a basketball.”
“The favourite items in my collection are my Space Jam original movie figurines and action figures.
“They made so many, but I never had them when they came out, so I’ve been building that collection for the past 10 years.”
Mobilia, who has more than 40,000 followers across his social media channels, says collecting helps him connect to special memories.
“It’s an opportunity to remember those things and also connect me with a community because there’s so many collectors out there that are passionate about it too,” he says.
He also makes custom trading cards from scratch.
“I’m cutting old cards and DVD covers up and I’m making the cards look really appealing,” he says. “There are a lot of people out there that actually don’t have a place like this to display their collectables and they reach out to me because they know it will be taken care of and appreciated.”
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