Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Just wondering what led to my fellow figure fans collecting addictions?
For me it was a random trip down the toy isle for no particular reason.
I saw what I now know to be the cybertronian megatron which is I.M.O a damn good G-1 rendition and all at once this flood of nostalgia that I was unaware existed in me up to that point flooded my senses and I just had to buy him.
I couldnt even resist the urge to open him up and once I opened him, I felt like a child with a new toy. It was great!
After that though,I thought it was over. I stood him up at bedside and went on with life.
My next trip to walmart however had me wanting to go back to look at transformers again. I reluctantly and somewhat embarrassingly snuk back to the toy isle hoping no other adults would see me looking at toys and thats when I saw dirge and thrust. The same nostalgic feeling swept over me and all of the sudden I didnt care who saw me. I think I even made a loud noise like "AWWW!!" When I saw them.
Ofcourse I bought them and again couldnt resist opening them. I even opened thrust in the car! lol!
Once again, after the feeling had left, I would have bet the farm that the end of that little....what ever it was... had come.
That is until my NEXT trip to wal mart came. This time I didnt fight the urge to go look through the toy isle. It was that trip that I found cup,the hot rod/ cyclonus two pack and more importantly cyber optimus prime! Man finding that optimus sitting there was an awesome feeling! I couldnt understand how these toys were impacting me, a grown man, like they were.
I was hit hard with the very same feeling that I had forgotten having as a child when I walked into the isle and saw so many of the new figures I wanted, but knew Id only be able to have one or two of. What A wonderful feeling that was/is.
Luckily as an adult I had the income and more importantly the ability to make the decision to buy all of the figures at once! I got them home and starting with prime of course, opened them up and felt like a child again.
I swear I even had the impulse to PLAY with these figures the same as if I were a child.
I have to admit that feeling to play both scared me and made me feel like a weirdo. I kind of pulled the reigns back for awhile after that and sat trying to think on the psychology of what was happening to me with the "weird toy hunting" impulses I was having.
*Was it that I was reliving my childhood?
*Did I love the feeling of being able to buy in mass all at once what I could only work up to one at a time as a child?
*Was it something else that I was just missing, or was I just crazy?
*Did I need help? Should I tell someone?
LOL! I really did think this way at first and I concluded that my new habbit was more than likely a bit of MOST of the above reasons and I was fine with that!LOL!
Still, the urge to actually PLAY with my figures was really bugging me.
So I sat down one day, a 30 yr old man and arranged every figure I had in cool poses and placed them in a war like setting and was about to actually indulge this urge to play when suddenly, that urge completely left!
As I was looking at the figures all posed and looking awesome, I felt The same satisfaction then that I felt when I physically played as a child.
It was then that I realized I loved to pose my figures and display them and that was the urge I was having.
From that moment on, I felt ALOT better about my "weird addiction" of buying toys as an adult.
After that breakthrough, I started to make frequent stops at stores actively seeking out transformers classics and buying only the ones that I loved as a child.
Its also when I began to look on the internet and ultimately found this very sight to help me find what I was looking for. I had no idea how deep the figures went, the elaborate lines and line names, japans figures vs u.s.a figures, or most important, that I was NOT alone in my addiction by any stretch of the imagination.
After reading you guys posts and seeing that there were others out there, ALLOT of others like me I truly began to completely indulging my collecting habit whole heartedly and without feeling odd for doing it. I have a BLAST looking and hunting for these things and Im not going to let anyone rain on my fun.
That finishes up my story and brings me to today!!
I have to admit that finding that the majority of my favorite figures were only available at this point on ebay for five times their worth and learning of scalpers and exclusive figures etc knocked the wind outta my sails a bit, as I had a hard time justifying spending so much money on "toys".
In the end though I decided that It wasnt that big a deal. People spend lots of money on all sorts of things. These figures, although kind of expensive, have brought me so much joy and right outta the blue too, that I cannot put a price on them.
Any time I feel the need to experience the rush of nostalgia and joy I had as a child and have reclaimed as an adult, all I need do is walk over to my shelves and gaze over my collection. The feeling it brings me is instantanious and well worth what Ive spent
The continued feeling and anticipation of acquiring the figures I still need and figures that have yet to be released will be well worth what I spend in the future as well.
I have procured 3/4 of the G-1 figures I need and have saved the best and most expensive for last (and that is no coincidence lol!).
I only need a half dozen or so of the killer third party figures that are making their way to us in order to complete my collection.
I truly hope that hasbro will continue to create superior,original product so that when I do finish collecting the G-1 figures that I want, they will have won me over with a whole slew of new figures that give me that must have feeling the way that the figures Im collecting now have given me.
I want to thank the pioneers that created this sight because I was really struggling with feeling weird for my impulses to buy figures before reading the threads in this forum and others like it. Now I know Im not alone!
My wife is also so supportive it shocked me. She says its cute and she has bought me several of my favorite figures, even going so far as to procure every G-1 cartoon in the form of a boxed set that comes in a matrix carrying case and the 80s cartoon movie. I have watched every one over and over, especially the movie and the exhillerating feeling it leaves with me is awesome!
Im so gald to have found that megatron that started this all.
Thats my story folks! I hope it didnt bore anyone or sound soupy of silly.
I guess I have a few questions as well.
To all of you who have been collecting for years and years,does this feeling ever fade? How long does it last? Does anyone relate to my story, or collect figures because of the feeling it gives you?
If so, Would anyone else care to share their story? Id love to read it!
Thanks again and take care!

Sorry, tl;dr

Around the time that the 2007 movie came out, my nephew found my old Transformers in my parents' basement. I decided to pick up a couple of the Movie figures to see what the new figures were like. (Ironically, the ones I picked up were those Target-exclusive repaints of Energon or Cybertron figures, not the new Movie molds.) And that's how it started.

I actually had two sparks: Sabrina-Online and my then-girlfriend-now-wife This takes some explanation I think.

First of all, Sabrina-Online is a webcomic about a female Amiga-loving skunk who likes to collect Transformers. At one point, the artist had fan-art and mini-reviews of the then-current Armada line, along with a Top 10 best Beast Machines and RiD toys. That got me thinking: there are actually Transformers collectors out there? Later, I got RiD Optimus Prime on clearance and Armada Sideways. But it didn't end there...

Fast forward to me dropping out of University in December 2003 (I had problems adapting to Uni life, my Autism may have played a part in it), and my first 3 month trip to the US. Stayed with my gf-now-wife and her parents, and went on a small shopping frenzy over those 3 months, with the parents paying for some as a christmas gift. I love my in-laws

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I actually had two sparks: Sabrina-Online and my then-girlfriend-now-wife This takes some explanation I think.

First of all, Sabrina-Online is a webcomic about a female Amiga-loving skunk who likes to collect Transformers. At one point, the artist had fan-art and mini-reviews of the then-current Armada line, along with a Top 10 best Beast Machines and RiD toys. That got me thinking: there are actually Transformers collectors out there? Later, I got RiD Optimus Prime on clearance and Armada Sideways. But it didn't end there...

Fast forward to me dropping out of University in December 2003 (I had problems adapting to Uni life, my Autism may have played a part in it), and my first 3 month trip to the US. Stayed with my gf-now-wife and her parents, and went on a small shopping frenzy over those 3 months, with the parents paying for some as a christmas gift. I love my in-laws

You are one lucky lady JZGR!

Anyway, the spark that led me to this boon/bane of my geeky life..........was the 1st episode of MTMTE pilot....the rest is history!

GuyIncognito wrote:Sorry, tl;dr

Around the time that the 2007 movie came out, my nephew found my old Transformers in my parents' basement. I decided to pick up a couple of the Movie figures to see what the new figures were like. (Ironically, the ones I picked up were those Target-exclusive repaints of Energon or Cybertron figures, not the new Movie molds.) And that's how it started.

Oh man so you got the combaticons and constructicons then? LUCKY DOG!!!
That made it easy for you to buy the bruticus add on didnt it?

for me it was 1984... my uncle was stationed in japan and brought me some diaclones. then suddenly in the end of 84, beginning 85 a new cartoon came on called transformers... and the rest is history.

Dinobots back in 198X did it for me. I guess somewhere in '85 of '86, I was a pre-schooler and watched it on the Fun Factory back when.

I never got the Dinobots untill a few years ago, but I want them BADLY. And now I do. Harhar.

Honestly, I kinda knew it was just a matter of time. Y'know that awkward teenage chunk of life where you can't like anything you liked as a kid? Yeah, that happened, but nostalgia always ticked at the back of my mind. And I likes me some good nostalgia.

Anywho, the dam finally broke walking around Target when they had the PCCs on sale for $5. I was walking around with my long time best friend, and she caught me staring and said I should get it. PCC Searchlight and his amazingly green buddy Backwind were quickly joined by my still-favorite scout and deluxe duo Breacher and Warpath! I can't imagine a better not to star off a collection on than those two! After that it was a snowball, haha. I've slowed my spending lately, but only because I've gotten a lot of what I want right now (that isn't crazy pricy, at least). I definitely want to get the rest of the updated minibots though. Voyagers Powerglide and Sea Spray(though I prefer the camo deco), especially.

Megs for pres wrote:

GuyIncognito wrote:Sorry, tl;dr

Around the time that the 2007 movie came out, my nephew found my old Transformers in my parents' basement. I decided to pick up a couple of the Movie figures to see what the new figures were like. (Ironically, the ones I picked up were those Target-exclusive repaints of Energon or Cybertron figures, not the new Movie molds.) And that's how it started.

Oh man so you got the combaticons and constructicons then? LUCKY DOG!!!
That made it easy for you to buy the bruticus add on didnt it?

No, those didn't come out until two years later. The first two TFs I bought in '07 were Elita-1 (repaint of Energon Arcee) and Hardtop (repaint of Cybertron Hardtop). Then I got Movie Arcee, Bumblebee, and Blackout.

for me it was seeing the commercial for the Marvel comic then the one for the figures.. The rest is history.

Armada and Alternators started it in ernest. I had drooled over the G1 figure catalogs that I could name every single figure up to the Pretenders from memory - every single one of them. I tested myself. Armada hit and they were so cool. Alternators came shortly afterwords and they were like Adult-TFs that was great!

Took a couple years off for school so I missed Energon, Cybertron and Classics. Then I worked solely on BEast Wars for a bit, them being my nostalgia. Then came Botcon 2008 and Oh My God did I get a lot of stuff. Excluding the Botcon Figs, I went home with 40 figures that year and my classics collection began and hasn't slowed down since.

My dad bought a tub of old g1 transformers at a garage sale when i was like 5 or 6 and twenty years later it hasn't stopped!

I started collecting not too long ago. My first figure was a legends class ROTF Sideswipe in the summer of 2010. Got him at Walmart. I intended on leaving it at that, but eventually picked up the deluxe class HFTD Sidearm Sideswipe at another Walmart in early Spring in 2011. Haven't stopped since.

The '07 movie. Tried to get just the on-screen Decepticon cast.. which kinda snowballed into an obsession with Transformers as a whole.

For me, it was actually my friends - who aren't even big TF fans!

My buddy Ben surprisingly bought a figure or two from the 2007 movie line, so I got to see those and check them out. I thought they were great. That was the spark that re-ignited that ol' 1980's flame!

When ROTF came around? I dove in head-first. Look at my join date. It's just after ROTF came out.


I've been on-board ever since!

Happy happy joy joy blah blah had some as a kid in the 80's etc etc. But as a kid, you're not a collector. You're a kid with toys. Any kid who looks after theirs is clearly not enjoying them enough.

So when did I become a collector and why? Probably around 10 years ago. I hit rock bottom with depression, maybe it was partial childhood regression I dunno, but I'd just started to discover E-Bay, looked up Transformers and found Rodimus Prime and Grimlock. Two figures I wanted as a kid but never got.

It went from there, now I have a whole room wall to wall, floor to nearly the ceiling full of them.

Mkall wrote:Armada and Alternators started it in ernest. I had drooled over the G1 figure catalogs that I could name every single figure up to the Pretenders from memory - every single one of them. I tested myself. Armada hit and they were so cool. Alternators came shortly afterwords and they were like Adult-TFs that was great!

Took a couple years off for school so I missed Energon, Cybertron and Classics. Then I worked solely on BEast Wars for a bit, them being my nostalgia. Then came Botcon 2008 and Oh My God did I get a lot of stuff. Excluding the Botcon Figs, I went home with 40 figures that year and my classics collection began and hasn't slowed down since.

Those d@mn catalogs..............

Burn wrote:as a kid, you're not a collector.

Agreed. Although I had plenty as a kid, starting with Optimus in '85, I too went through the stage of rejecting everything you liked during childhood. In 2005 I'd just recently started seeing Mrs O and, knowing my nostalgic love of TransFormers due to the PS2 game, she couldn't resist buying an Armada Supercon Prime (£1.99 in Woolworth's!) "as a bit of fun". Little did she know how slippery the slope she's pushed me down. I soon became aware of Alternators and decided that Shockwave (I won't call him Shockblast) would be the only other one I'd get. The original post pretty much sums up the feelings that purchase stirred in me and I started seeing the damn things everywhere. TFs were a special part of my childhood, a place to escape to and I find nostalgia, comfort and fun in the hunt, the unpackaging, the initial messing about with and the displaying of what seem like lifelong friends. Damn Prime, starting it all again.

The Bayverse movies.

I've been aware of the franchise's continued survival through the anime series and Beast Wars, but never thought to buy any of the toys for myself until seeing the movieverse ones on shelves at TRU while getting something for my nephew's birthday. The designs just won me over, and I found myself buying fig after fig for my desktop, geek alarms be damned.

Bravo Bravo Bravo!!!!

Your story is almost exactly like mine. I am 31 years old and I grew up with the g1 transformers and gijoe. My brothers and I watched both cartoons and got all the toys from our parents. My very 1st transformer that I could call my own was Blaster. My brothers would get all the figures and would not every let me transform them because they thought I would break them. My parents thought they were to hard for me to play with also so I got stuck with mostly he-man and Star Wars toys. I complained and complained that I wanted a transformer and one day my mom tells me "get in the car, I'm going shopping and I don't want to leave you here with your brothers because they won't play with you." We went to this store called "Best" which was kind of like a Target back in the day and they had the craziest toy department. My mom walked me over to the toy section and said "get whatever transformer you want." I stood there in shock in front of a whole isle of g1 transformers. The one that caught my eye was Blaster because of his bright color scheme and endless arguments with my brother about Soundwave vs. Blaster. Since he had Soundwave I couldn't wait to get home and bust out the big ass Blaster and destroy his little Soundwave. This memory has stuck with me my whole life and its one of the most exciting days of my life.
My brothers and I grew and lost interest in toys and cartoons but never forgot about the cool toys we had. I began collecting Marvel legends in college and then stopped after series 5 or 6 because it was getting way too expensive. Then I met a coworker who was heavy into gijoe and and he got me into collecting joes. I stopped with gijoe when the movie figures came out and only bought rare figures. One day I was in Walmart and I saw generations thundercracker and wheel jack . At that point I thought to myself where the hell have I been to miss these awesome g1 remakes. That is what triggered my transformer collecting. It brought back all my childhood memories and its now my #1 hobby. With all the cool masterpieces coming out I am getting that same feeling I had as a kid every time I get a new one. It's a good feeling when you go to a store and have the money to buy all the figures you want vs being a kid and only being able to get 1 at a time.

The "spark" that got me into collecting was the relaunch of The TF universe through Dreamwaves comics. Must have been 2001-2002. Absolutely loved the artwork.
I remember reading the first issue and shortly after that I dusted off some of my childhood figs. Prowl and Optimus (both the early nineties classic re-releases) were my two best.

I hit up ebay shortly after that and picked up MIB Tracks and MIB Sideswipe for about $40 each if I remember correctly.

Now I have a collection nearing 500 figs.

For all your faults, I thank you Pat Lee.

*edit:It was 2002.

I stopped playing with them about 25-26 years ago. There was a lull between high school, women and guitars. I guess it'd have to be the Hasbro G1 TRU reissues that brought me back into the franchise. After that and the internet etc i decided to concentrate on a few select MISB & MOSC pieces. Theres' a difference between a toy and a collectible. I don't have a massive 5000 piece MISB collection to brag about, but i quite like what I've got.

Being 42, I was a teen when G1 hit the states but I always liked Japanese anime / sci-fi. I watched Ultraman and Battle of the planets as a kid and even had some of my old Micronauts at the time. I remember having bought a few things like Bumblebee an Blitzwing but as I was getting older, I grew out of that "phase" of my life.

Fast forward around 15 years or so and out of the blue I get a RID Skybyte from my daughter as a Christmas present. Not sure why she did it as I had never seen the show as and hadn't thought about Transformers in years. In any case, I loved the figure. Tons more articulation than what I had remembered as a kid.

Unfortunately, she got it on clearance during the show's final days. Finding more at retail was a pain. Enter BBTS and I pretty much grabbed the rest of the line. From there it has been a downward spiral.

Luckily I have a wife that keeps me reeled in but still encourages my hobby. Hell, she's the one that got me my pristine G1 Shockwave and my Gigatron.

I think I'm somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 figures now. They become lost on the shelves. However I still know exactly where that Skybyte is.

War for Cybertron.

I'm a gamer first and a Transfan second, and had lapsed from Transformers for several years, basically from Beast Machines until the Bayverse started up in 2007. I still had a few Beast Wars figures and my G1 Grimlock and Shockwave collecting dust in my closet, but I'd never have gotten into buying toys again had I not thoroughly enjoyed blasting fools with the Riot Cannon while Steve Blum Barricade cracked wise. I found Generations Optimus Prime and Megatron at my local target while perusing the Mcfarlane Halo figures, and thought, hey, what the hell? They look cool.

I found Soundwave in the line after that, and then started checking ebay and thought, hey, some of these movie toys are pretty cool. I picked up some ROTF stock, and shopped around on ebay for some Classics/Universe stuff... and a year later I was bidding on BotCon figures. That was when I knew I had been consumed. And I liked it.