Fans vs fans

[gemfyre]

Hello Livejournal, that's "Dear Diary".

So I was contemplating today... yesterday... sometime recently, the two different types of fans that tend to pop up (they can crossover).

You have your 'mainstream' fan. Someone who enjoys a movie, or a TV series or a video game or a book/comic and proceeds to purchase lots of licenced material to show how much they like the thing.

Then there are the 'fangirls' and 'fanboys'. People who are more likely to create and consume fanworks rather than licenced material.
Things like - fanfic, fanart, fanmixes, cute little handmade plushies, T-shirt designs sold on Redbubble, funky jewellery that subtly implies elements of the thing that is loved.

I was thinking about my main fandoms and the only licenced thing I think I own - apart from the DVDs, are Pop-Funko figurines.

Just a thought - feel free to comment or discuss.

Comments

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

I thought you had (at one point at least) mountains of official MLP merch?

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

That I did! Mostly before I discovered "fandom".

But yes, I guess you can be more a "licenced merch" fan of one thing and more "Fanworks" fan of something else.

Or a bit of both.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

You don't seem to have a category for those fans who just don't feel any need to buy tons of worthless crap licensed material or fan products.