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craggy wrote:If your spouse gets stuff you've pre-ordered delivered a year after you've passed, it's maybe a little too much. Otherwise, fair game, whatever the age!

Sadly this could potentially happen at almost any age.

Are any of you Transformer collectors married? If so, do you allow your wife (or anyone else) into your "Transformer room"?

sentinelprime1234, I just celebrated my 57th birthday this past weekend and two of my gifts were these honking big electronic Transformer toys of Sentinel Prime and (FINALLY!) Optimus Prime. And yes, I'm not a bit ashamed to admit that I love looking at them and playing with them or likewise enjoying any of my other favourite toys which I keep handy and out on display for visitors to look at (gasp!) in my livingroom/kitchen. Seriously, what difference does it make what you keep on your shelves or sitting on your dresser or table or what-have-you? If it brings you pleasure and recalls good memories and doesn't infringe on someone else's quality of life, collect whatever you want! Eventually, you'll get old enough that uptight people who lack a sense of fun will assume that you must be in your second childhood anyway, so there's always THAT excuse to look forward to if you're still worried about what 'others' think.

As for my latest toys, they've found a home on top of my nice Colonial-styled hardwood entertainment cabinet where they can glower at each other and share space with a Japanese crane lamp, a Jim Shore Jiminy Cricket figurine, and a Battling Bug. That should be eclectic enough of a grouping to keep folks guessing, heh heh...

That is totally awesome, Biddybot!!

Cyber_Tek wrote:Are any of you Transformer collectors married? If so, do you allow your wife (or anyone else) into your "Transformer room"?

My house is my collection room... Stuff everywhere (not just TF's either)..
My wife and girls enjoy the collections as it gives them something to talk about.

WOW. THAT is cool.

Cyber_Tek wrote:Are any of you Transformer collectors married? If so, do you allow your wife (or anyone else) into your "Transformer room"?

don't really have a room devoted, they're just in their own little corner of the loft. my wife doen't really mind them, but then again i don't say much about her clothing/shoe "collection" either.

data81 wrote:

Cyber_Tek wrote:Are any of you Transformer collectors married? If so, do you allow your wife (or anyone else) into your "Transformer room"?

don't really have a room devoted, they're just in their own little corner of the loft. my wife doen't really mind them, but then again i don't say much about her clothing/shoe "collection" either.

I´d say, refering to shoes and ladies, it´s more like hoarding than collecting....

saucerdo wrote:

data81 wrote:

Cyber_Tek wrote:Are any of you Transformer collectors married? If so, do you allow your wife (or anyone else) into your "Transformer room"?

don't really have a room devoted, they're just in their own little corner of the loft. my wife doen't really mind them, but then again i don't say much about her clothing/shoe "collection" either.

I´d say, refering to shoes and ladies, it´s more like hoarding than collecting....

Dude, you have no idea right now. It looks like a Betsey Johnson exploded in our house.

I feel that you can do whatever you want with your money. After all, we work hard to make a living to enjoy life. Also, Transformers is a great for the mind too. It is kind of like a version of the Rubik's cube. Great to practice on how to change it back and forward after you have obtain sooo many of them.

haha life is for having fun, if your toys make you happy, keep them. anyone who tells you you're too old is an unhappy grump who hasn't found anything in life to love yet =P

The way I see it, why does there have to be an age limit? Adults collected toy carousel's and other merry-go-round memorabilia for years (there still are collectors out there but I dunno how popular it is anymore) and Tin Toys are still something of a hit (actually their boxes say something along the lines of "not for children. Adult collectors only." Lol). Model trains too! Adults collect them as much as kids do and, really, it's the adults who have the nicer, more expensive ones.

So why should Transformers be any different?

My uncle used to get on my case about collecting them because I'm not a kid and his children (who are 10+ years younger than me) ditched Transformers years ago. I eventually got him to lay off when I grew irritable and attacked his desk at work when he was out (ie: I printed out a ton of Autobot insignias and taped them EVEYWHERE on his desk. Even in hidden spots ;P He found one nearly a month after the fact xD It now sits on my monitor at work )

The box? Throw it away. You're collecting not selling. A few extra bucks in a few years spent make up for lost storage space. Sorry, I used to keep all my transformers boxes, but ended up throwing them away. I don't regret doing it. In fact, I regretted keeing them when I had no room in the house...and I'm 36. Had almost every transformers ever made. Still buying and collecting. Very happy still.

President-prime wrote:The box? Throw it away. You're collecting not selling. A few extra bucks in a few years spent make up for lost storage space. Sorry, I used to keep all my transformers boxes, but ended up throwing them away. I don't regret doing it. In fact, I regretted keeing them when I had no room in the house...and I'm 36. Had almost every transformers ever made. Still buying and collecting. Very happy still.

I keep the boxes, not for selling, but the art is good (except DOTM, the faces are not concept art or cgi, they are a copy from the toy face ), and look at them as part of the toy. When i have time enough, I will cut all the plastic bubbles, and put them flat within an album....

I have an album too. Keep all the articles and pictures from toyfares and toy reviews. You're right, they are good memories. I cut out boxes for their pictures and tech specs

President-prime wrote:The box? Throw it away. You're collecting not selling. A few extra bucks in a few years spent make up for lost storage space. Sorry, I used to keep all my transformers boxes, but ended up throwing them away. I don't regret doing it. In fact, I regretted keeing them when I had no room in the house...and I'm 36. Had almost every transformers ever made. Still buying and collecting. Very happy still.

The one issue I have with hearing that is, you never know what's going to happen down the line. Having the box can make a big different in value (seeing some of the G1 prices with and without box is a little boggling). You mightn't think you want to sell them now, but in 20 or 30 years you might *have* to for one reason or another or when you die and your kids don't want to deal with it they'll either throw 'em away or sell 'em.

A little bit of paper can be worth a lot.

ex: a guy I know who's collected designer watches for years found out the instruction manual (just the instruction manual) made a watch he had worth 20-25k more. Just a manual!

Obviously toy boxes aren't going to be worth that kind of dough but the concept is there. When you go to antique malls and what not, toys with their boxes tend to have different values than those without them and I bet many of their original owners didn't think they'd sell them either... though in terms of vintage toys, I don't think they generally came in boxes you have to rip apart to get the toy out of either (ie: the typical modern TF deluxe class box). Those packages I think are worthless to save.

Erailea wrote:
....when you die and your kids don't want to deal with it they'll either throw 'em away or sell 'em.....

Yikes. Should you have any clue that ANY of your kids/grnadkids/wife/husband, etc. will make a "stinky old (wo)man is finally dead" sale, for the love that you put on your collection, you better make sure that someone who really deserves it, gets it BEFORE you die (right now i´m thinking about the dumpster scene of toy story 3)....

im 31 right now and over the years its been on and off. but recently ive started collecting hard core again. i think its one of the few hobbies that i will keep going for the rest of my life. i stopped collecting for the past couple years because i just dont dig the movie transformers too much(is it just me on this issue?)but the 3rd party stuff has really gotten my attention lately.

my reply

I'll be too old when my G1 prime is removed from my cold, dead hands. I had an accident recently and it made me think, apart from the fact that being dead would suck, what the hell would happen to my transformers? I'm 33 by the way.

I forget loads of things that I should remember, like birthdays, anniversaries, not drinking excessively etc. but I can pick up a TF I last transformed 20 years ago and instantly remember what to do. Let's not forget how damn clever these toys are.

I am a bit snobbish in that I consider Transformers to be more intellectually challenging that any other toy that I have ever seen. Just take a step back, divorce yourself from all the rich fiction that supports the brand and you still have toys that are absolute marvels. Even the Bayformers. And Ihope to never stop collecting after a 20-year hiatus.

You are never too old!

Many people collect things, some are considered cooler or strange.

Transformers I do not think has an age limit considered they are things adults now, watched when they were young.

I think it all depends on how you do your collecting.

Are you obsessively weird about it? Or do you just have a few stage up somewhere?
Do you let your collecting affect your personal life?
Does it tank your bank account?

Are you obsessively weird about it? Yes
Or do you just have a few stage up somewhere? Huh?
Do you let your collecting affect your personal life? Yes
Does it tank your bank account? Yes

I think I got most of them...what do I win?

Kibble wrote:Are you obsessively weird about it? Yes
Or do you just have a few stage up somewhere? Huh?
Do you let your collecting affect your personal life? Yes
Does it tank your bank account? Yes

I think I got most of them...what do I win?

I hope your joking if not...

You win my hopes that you are at genuinely happy that way and a good for you!
Otherwise I feel sorry for you and I hope you things pick up.

lol

chonosmoon wrote:I hope your joking if not...

You win my hopes that you are at genuinely happy that way and a good for you!
Otherwise I feel sorry for you and I hope you things pick up.

lol

I was mostly joking, but if you actually take a look at it: obsessively weird…well, we’re adults posting on a forum about toys. That could easily fall under obsessively weird. Affect your personal life…I have a room in my house largely dedicated to TFs and I walk through the toy aisle 90% of my trips to department stores. Sounds like it’s affected, even if not negatively.

But then we come to the tanking bank account…I actually was just joking about that, but as I started to explain this in a manner similar to above, I began adding up money spent over the last 6 months and it really is far more than one should be pissing away on toys. No, it hasn’t been problematic by any means, and Hercules REALLY skews those numbers, but either way, it’s still a significant amount and deserves a closer look. I think it’s probably time once again to reevaluate the collection, start unloading more of the unnecessary parts, further widen what’s considered unnecessary, as well as do an even better job of narrowing what comes in. Too often I buy things I know I don’t ‘need’ in my collection just because it reaches a price where it’s seemingly ‘too good to pass up’.

Anyhow, yeah, I was kidding, but it did lead to an unintentional mini-intervention of sorts…