Kitsch Collection: Difference between revisions

This elderly woman (though some men and young people, [[Otaku]] in particular, are depicted as having such collections) will usually create the collection to pass the time and fight the loneliness of a life removed from the joys of family, or as a symptom of oncoming senility. This [[The Collector of the Strange|curious collector]] will usually see her modest collection grow from a shelf to a bookcase to a [[Trophy Room]], or even fill her entire ''house'' with this kitsch. The collection is usually harmless, rarely ever becoming as outright creepy as the [[Stalker Shrine]], but it can be cause for concern regardless.

The collection itself will be a big source of comfort and [[Pride]] for the owner, which makes it [[Interrogation Byby Vandalism|a prime target for threats and coercion]]. If a character wants to persuade her to do something, he just threatens the porcelain puppy. If he wants to sweet-talk her, he'll compliment the miniature moose. And of course, if children are about or a statue gets broken, [[Berserk Button|things will get]] [[It Got Worse|much worse]].

Needless to say, this trope is based on [[Real Life]]. If you have examples, please put them on [http://tropertales.wikkii.com/wiki/Main_Page Troper Tales]. Note that in [[Real Life]], there may be a [[Values Dissonance]]; back in the 1930s, collecting figurines was both a status symbol and a symbol of ''femininity''. The little old lady who has 300 figurines may not be pathetically lonely, she is following a tradition of her childhood.

* In ''[[Falling Down]]'', William Foster's mother has such a collection. When the police were interviewing her to try and see where her rampaging son might go next, she was incredibly nervous because she felt that William might kill her and wouldn't say anything. The lead detective dramatically calmed her down just by asking which figurine was her favorite, guessing that it was a dog (it was the giraffe).

* Deconstructed in ''[[Up (Filmanimation)|Up]]'' - Carl has to learn to ''let go of it all'' in order to move on.

* In Charlotte McLeod's novel ''[[Exit The Milkman]]'', one of the characters has a huge collection of porcelain.

** See also Nettie Cobb and her carnival glass in ''[[Needful Things]]''. She tolerated her husband's abuse for many years, but when he smashed one of her pieces she took his life.

** Also, [[My Beloved Smother|Kirstie Carver]] in ''[[The Regulators (Literature)|The Regulators]]'' collects Hummel figurines. Her goal in life is to design one that looks like her [[Spoiled Brat]] son.

** Stanley from ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Going Postal (Discworld)|Going Postal]]'' kept pins, and later became one of the disc's first stamp collectors. This was a frequently used method of calming him down.

* [[Harry Potter (Franchise)/Characters|Professor Dolores Umbridge]]: in ''[[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Franchisenovel)/|Harry Potter and Thethe Order of Thethe Phoenix|Harry Potter]]'' has a collections of plates with kittens of them in her office. Harry doesn't like them in the least.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* [[Serial Killer|Sylar's]] adoptive mother in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' collected snowglobes, and she definitely was more than a little cuckoo.

* In an episode of ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' it is revealed that Arwin's mother collects owls.

* People with these kinds of collections (or more sinister variations) occasionally appear as characters on ''[[Scare Tactics (TV series)|Scare Tactics]]''. One notable episode had a particularly deranged doll collector.

* ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'' - "Do not touch the precious things of the shop!"

{{quote| '''Sue:''' Well, isn't this just [[Deadpan Snarker|lovely and normal.]] [...] Boy, the only thing missing from this place is a couple dozen bodies, limed and rotting in shallow grades under the floorboards.}}

* ''[[Oddities (TV)|Oddities]]''. Kind of the point of the show.

* The entire ''[[Bitchin' Kitchen (TV)|Bitchin Kitchen]]'' is decorated with porcelain and chrome baby dolls and skulls. Lampshaded when Nadia goes on about her grandmother's creepy collection of figurines while the camera zooms into the set behind her.

* Francis has a whole bunch of ''[[Paper Mario (Video Gamefranchise)|Paper Mario]]'' merchandise in his room in [[Super Paper Mario (Video Game)|Super Paper Mario]].

* In ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'', Nervous Broad has a collection of "fancy Santas".

* In ''[[Hanna Is Not a BoysBoy's Name]]'', Ples really likes clocks.

* On ''[[King of the Hill]]'', Hank's mom, Tilly, and her elderly friends are obsessed with getting to see a glass miniatures museum. It turns out Tilly is obsessed with them because they were the only thing that made her feel better during her divorce from Hank's father. Hank then realizes what a big deal it is to her, he apologizes for dismissing her interest in them by buying her a miniature of a stadium in a walnut shell by the famous artist she had been admiring. While the episode is touching, the obsession is still shown as a sign that Tilly is mentally fragile (all her friends are senile to various degrees).

* Creepy... semi-subversion, maybe, in ''[[Transformers Animated]]''. Lockdown has a collection of all sorts of trophies. However, he is not extremely old ,<ref> he doesn't look/act it, at least - being a Transformer, he's probably a couple million years old</ref>, and the "trophies" are various mods (read: body parts) he's ripped off of his bounties.

* ''[[The Tick (animation)|The Tick]]'' - a supervillain named Pig Leg, a man with a fully formed, sentient pig for a leg, had a collection of pig figurines - he sheepishly explained that he told a friend in passing that he liked pigs, so his friend bought him a little pig figure, then someone else saw it and bought him another; it sort of just happened.

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