Though it arrives a little later than I’d planned, today I’m excited to present my 2016 “Year in Collecting” retrospective graphical collage. This is the eighth year in a row that I’ve put one of these together and it’s fun every time I get the opportunity to do it. Make the jump to check it out!

As I stated in that introduction, today’s entry arrives a bit late. I normally publish these fun look back features in the month of February, but a family emergency in addition to a lot of other goings on kept me away from my desk for most of that month. So here we are a few weeks late, but ready to dig in.

For the uninitiated, I first started putting these visual “Year in Collecting” collages together back in the Spring of 2010 as a way to reflect on my previous hobby year. Back then I realized it would be a fun way to reflect upon the top new additions to my collection and archives – a greatest hits if you will. Some of the pieces included in my Year in Collecting post are Holy Grails that I had been hunting for, for years. Others are pieces I didn’t even know existed until I witnessed them this year, and still others are brand new releases I felt were extra-snazzy and impressed me enough to make the cut. So these amount to the best of the best, although I’m certain a thing or two has fallen through the cracks. And without a doubt these all represent important additions to my historical archives which I utilize to help document the history of this subject matter.

I would also add that a number of these are previously unpublished items that I may soon get around to editorializing in more depth here on the site. So there’s lots of fun nuggets to see that you’ve probably never seen anywhere else and are seeing for the first time within the collage. So let’s get to it – here is my Year in Collecting for 2016!

Looking at that image, it is evident that I had a good year for “soft chunk” style bubblegum wrappers (the early Bubble Yum and Bubblicious examples) as well as unusual Big League Chew flavor releases. And after being unable to track down a contemporary Oompas pack in previous years, 2016 brought me three different versions from three different sources! I was also thrilled to finally track down the rookie packs of all of the early 1990’s M&M’s brand extensions – I’d been looking for the Mint pack for over a decade. There’s so much goodness there in fact that it’s hard for me to believe I tracked all of the material down in a single year.

Each piece shown on that collage has a story attached to it and oftentimes a person as well. When I look at this collage, those stories and people come to mind and they always bring a smile to my face. I’d like to think that they always will as it’s the people and the stories that are as much fun and interesting as the items themselves.

Now, as is my tradition, I’ll share the other seven “Year in Collecting” collages from previous years, counting down to the very first one:

And that’s it! Looking back at that 2009 entry, it’s wild to think that I’ve been putting these together for this long (or that I’ve been doing this for even longer). This crazy stuff has become one of the biggest parts of my life which is something I’d have never expected. But beyond the fun of the hobby itself and documenting the history of it, it’s brought so many interesting people and adventures into my life. I wouldn’t change a thing.

And that’s everything for my 2016 Year in Collecting – here’s to a great 2017 for us all! See you next time!