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Quick correction: Hasbro UK and Hasbro EU are two separate entities, and their distribution (and staff) works independently of each other's practices.

That said, Hasbro UK doesn't always have the most clued-in of reps, from my Toy Fair experiences.

william-james88 wrote:If ever you want to get rid of some toys, let me know and I will pay the shipping it costs to send to me (granted you live in North America).

Same goes to everyone here who doesnt care to make money off their toys adn just wants to give them a new home.

Hmmm...
I would like to try to get some money off of these things... though my sales threads don't seem to garner much interest and I suspect I've missed the boat on selling Movieverse and Kreons (90% of what I have). I guess the next step for me might be figuring out eBay... But there are soooo many TFs to get rid of



I've been revisiting my old Warhammer things (with a mix of fond nostalgia and despair over that waste of resources), and now I feel even more disconnected from Transformers. The brand's simply not doing anything for me now or in the foreseeable future. Even MTMTE's been on shaky legs.

Va'al wrote:...I just. I just got rid of all my PCC dudes.

Oh dear. The clearance is real.

WHAAA?

Noideaforaname wrote:

Va'al wrote:...I just. I just got rid of all my PCC dudes.

Oh dear. The clearance is real.

WHAAA?

As I mentioned to Will:

Va'al wrote:Moving places, with very definite purpose. I've seriously scaled down the Italian side, so to merge the two when I get back to that flat I need much less stuff - for my own reasons, mind you, no external factors limiting how much I can have.

But as the PCCs have been in their box for over two years now, including Dennis and Bruce, I don't feel like I should be trying to justify keeping them any longer.

I had a friend over yesterday, who helped me make the decision. And now that half are at a charity shop, and the other on their way to Canada as of tomorrow, I don't actually feel any regret. So all is good.

Va'al wrote:...I just. I just got rid of all my PCC dudes.

Oh dear. The clearance is real.

You are dead to me.

In all seriousness though I'm planning on clearing my shelves a bit too. Mainly Movie Decepticons that I got when I was a nipper and was in full Movie hype mode.I'm also planning on selling my CW Superion (except Alpha Bravo) and getting the UW version (and if I'm lucky some white PE feet). That way I can have a more consistent combined mode Superion (I love ol' AB but he looks a bit odd in a combiner full of jets) and have an extra white CW limb for my planned black-and-white police themed combiner- Justitiam Maximus, starring a lightly customized BC OP as Tyrest (I haven't read any IDW but he's a crazy chief of police guy, right?), Prowl, Alpha Bravo (with extra police helicopter details), a customized CW Trailbreaker as Strongarm, and one more black/white/blue limb. I'm not sure who that should be though. I'd happily go for UW Groove with a new head as a new character...if he weren't only available with the (IMO) somewhat poorly deco'd UW Protectobots, which I don't like as much as the CW versions. Hmm.

(Yes I know IDW Tyrest looks nothing like BCOP. This isn't IDW Tyrest- this is Deltaverse Publishing's Tyrest. I may give him a new combiner head with the spiked halo though.)

In any case. Justitiam Maximus. It shall be so.

(I'll post more later. I just don't want this post to get too long.)

Delta Magnus wrote:Justitiam Maximus, starring a lightly customized BC OP as Tyrest (I haven't read any IDW but he's a crazy chief of police guy, right?), Prowl, Alpha Bravo (with extra police helicopter details), a customized CW Trailbreaker as Strongarm, and one more black/white/blue limb. I'm not sure who that should be though. I'd happily go for UW Groove with a new head as a new character...if he weren't only available with the (IMO) somewhat poorly deco'd UW Protectobots, which I don't like as much as the CW versions. Hmm.

I like using a personal idea as a reason to keep certain figures from wider 'established' sets or teams. It has yet to happen to me, other than for one specific shelf in my collection, but I like it.

(Quick note: Tyrest is not a police person, but rather a Chief Justice. Or was, at least. In any case, they can both create laws and enforce them.)

Noideaforaname wrote:

william-james88 wrote:If ever you want to get rid of some toys, let me know and I will pay the shipping it costs to send to me (granted you live in North America).

Same goes to everyone here who doesnt care to make money off their toys adn just wants to give them a new home.

Hmmm...
I would like to try to get some money off of these things... though my sales threads don't seem to garner much interest and I suspect I've missed the boat on selling Movieverse and Kreons (90% of what I have). I guess the next step for me might be figuring out eBay... But there are soooo many TFs to get rid of

You got me curious, so I checked your thread for fun and I see why its a tough sell. The most plentiful figures out there are deluxe and voyager movie figures of on screen characters. Simply because those are the ones that sold better and thus, as anticipated by hasbro, there was a greater supply of them. They were also the best priced classes for gifts.
For some reason, the rule of thumb amongst the fandom is that the off screen characters were better toys (Mindwipe, Terradive, Guzzle, Skystalker, Lockdown) and the more sought after on screen character toys are the leaders (Brawl, ROTF Optimus and Megatron all fetch a pretty penny if complete). Many of the movie toys you have are of on screen characters. You do have Bludgeon though which is a toy people want if complete. Which brings me to the next part of why you might not have gotten a lot of hits, collectors are very picky about complete toys. By stating off the bat that most dont have missiles, it can easily turn someone away.

A loose movie toy without accessories is a very tough sell so I totally feel your pain. One thing about e-bay though, if ever you are thinking of going there, they take a cut from your sale. And it is crazy competitive for many of the toys you are selling.

What I would recomend is you sell the complete toys solo and group the accessory-less toys in bundles. For the right price, this could interest customisers who need toys for part of their custom projects.

Va'al wrote:

Delta Magnus wrote:Justitiam Maximus, starring a lightly customized BC OP as Tyrest (I haven't read any IDW but he's a crazy chief of police guy, right?), Prowl, Alpha Bravo (with extra police helicopter details), a customized CW Trailbreaker as Strongarm, and one more black/white/blue limb. I'm not sure who that should be though. I'd happily go for UW Groove with a new head as a new character...if he weren't only available with the (IMO) somewhat poorly deco'd UW Protectobots, which I don't like as much as the CW versions. Hmm.

I like using a personal idea as a reason to keep certain figures from wider 'established' sets or teams. It has yet to happen to me, other than for one specific shelf in my collection, but I like it.

(Quick note: Tyrest is not a police person, but rather a Chief Justice. Or was, at least. In any case, they can both create laws and enforce them.)

Ah, I see. Like I say I don't read IDW (probably should but A: all I've read so far is TDOOP, B: I'm so far behind now I don't know if I can ever catch up, and C: there's the Marvel UK comics to read too...goddamnit, for a Transformers fan I sure haven't read much Transformers) but thank you for the info.

I was actually going to lead into that with my approach to canon and my collection, more specifically my complete disregard for anything resembling canon or continuity. Y'see, I grew up watching Season 1 of G1 on video (and a bit of Armada), but the toys I grew up with were a mix of RID2001, Unicron Trilogy and Movieverse stuff. Ergo I never really developed an attachment to one particular era above all else and assumed the toys were unrelated to the cartoons. I never really abandoned this haphazard approach to collecting, though I have exercised more restraint lately.

Thus my collection became a complete mishmash of different eras and styles- Movieverse stands next to Unicron Trilogy and Animated rubs shoulders with Prime. In attempting to reconcile the different styles of figures in my collection, my young mind developed a whole "backstory" to my figures which has evolved into a fairly elabourate headcanon that essentially boils down to "I collect toys that look cool".

Whilst listing the complete "story" of my collection would take years (especially as it actually takes into account figures I don't even own but plan to) I shall instead list a few of the more interesting tidbits from my utterly mental headcanon:

• The different styles of figure are justified by them being just that- different styles. Cybertronian fashion comes and goes, from the "greebles upon greebles" fad of 2007 to the curvy, elegant style named by Decepticon fashionista Needlenose as "l'animation".
• The war has been over for years now, but the occasional mock battle is held "for a laugh".
• As with humans, there are many multiples of the same name amongst Transformers. For example,
  there are no less than 3 Megatrons vying for power; RID Megatron (who has recently renamed himself Gigatron) who in spite of his old age and decrepit state is still the primary Decepticon warlord, Armada Megatron, whose lust for power is thwarted constantly by his lack of leg articulation, and another Megatron (currently being repainted from a converted Universe 2.0 Dropshot) who would be the most powerful Megatron in existence if he weren't currently a pile of partially painted plastic parts.
• The Transformers are a truly ancient race who were originally organic and evolved over billions of years into the immensely complicated mechanical beings they are today. This explains why despite being robots they have seemingly organic features (noses, mouthparts, gender etc).
• Speaking of gender, female transformers are nothing unusual at all (as mentioned before, gender exists amongst the Transformer race as an artefact of their biological ancestry). They are however rather rare for no other reason than there aren't that many female Transformer toys.
• Starscream always wins. Always.
• The 13 Primes existed. We think. That's all we know about them.
• Transformer reproduction is a...confusing topic. Nobody has actually seen a new Transformer being made for a long time, so there are currently three prevailing theories about the matter. The first, "romanticism", suggests that sparks are born from a union between a male and female Transformer in a manner fairly similar to their organic ancestors- the resulting spark then has a body constructed for it according to its destined role in life. Whilst this would explain the existence of Transformer romance (and...other things) it seems rather odd that such a needlessly complicated process would not have been evolved out of use. The second theory, "manufacturism", states that all Transformers were manufactured in a gigantic factory deep beneath the surface of Cybertron by a mysterious creator- said creator varies from story to story, the 3 most common examples being the Quintessons, Primus, and Hasbro. This theory, however, conflicts with the organic origin of the Transformers. The third theory, "capitalism", says that Transformers form in sacred spawning grounds such as "The Entertainer" and the mysterious realm of "eBay". This remains the prevailing theory amongst the higher academic minds of Cybertron, notably Decepticon scientist Shockwave, who penned the essay On the Origins of the Mechanoid by Means of Buyer Selection to great acclaim.

What this translates to, of course, is "I buy whatever figures I think look cool".

Given all that: I think you would like the IDW, post-DOOP, stuff.

Va'al wrote:Given all that: I think you would like the IDW, post-DOOP, stuff.

I think I would. Once I've decreased my manga backlog (still got JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Sailor Moon and Berserk to get through) I should probably get on with it. It sounds pretty good, and I do love some of the artwork.

william-james88 wrote:*snip*

Yeah, not easy being the stereotypical fan. Ah well. Now I know to be a LOT more selective.


Surprised to say, though, someone bought Deluxe Wheelie yet nobody's even asked about Bludgeon or HA Barricade. Hmm....

Incidentally if I was to rant a bit more one thing that does get my underwear in a twist is that for example lets use Motormaster as an example again.

He was made for the lets say American/Canadian Market (I would assume the Stunticon wave came out in Mexico too and maybe some of South America - but they get things go missing on them too) .

So if there was enough retailer interest in North America to fill up the whole alotment of the first run off the mould - then that is fine they can then simply put the release of the Stunticon on a the calender at a later point.

But they don't do this, so that does suggest they were quite serious in not having the budget to see the Stunticon released in Europe.

The reason the Stunticons bug me in particular is they had these really clever adverts with them in they now can not use - and likely couldn't use even now unless they say released original colour giftsets just for Europe.

Now lets look at the G2 Boxed sets - how hard would it be to run of those with tweaked art and design but in the original colours ? or even slightly alter the Unite warriors template with the 5 toys in the box instead of 6 in them.... then they could use the adverts.

I find it perplexing that the boxed sets start to show up mainly after Xmas - where they would obviously be the best place for - the next minor Buying season I guess is east or other holidays but it sure seems like they missed a trick - I have to wonder if this due to the them booking the transport with to much Star Wars - thus pushing the Transformers back into the following year ?

That is a terrible thing to happen in the UK as there retailers in the UK are abominable at stocking toys until say September meaning 6 month or more of the year many years there is a toy drought, often the only reason some don't notice this is the warehouse clearance sales Hasbro fun in March give the illusion of new stock arriving but it's just old stock that didn't get sent out - this happened with TF : Prime (RID type) Ultra Magnus who spent months sitting in a warehouse with only Forbidden Planet getting any of the UK stock for many months.

Oh well at least the good stuff often shows up the in Clearance retailer around march so that is often the time for toys that Christmas should have been for me at least. Home Bargains last year around that time was a bonanza of Transformers.

Noideaforaname wrote:

william-james88 wrote:*snip*

Yeah, not easy being the stereotypical fan. Ah well. Now I know to be a LOT more selective.


Surprised to say, though, someone bought Deluxe Wheelie yet nobody's even asked about Bludgeon or HA Barricade. Hmm....

The Bludgeon I dont understand. Yours is complete and priced decently. I couldnt find one at that price a year and a half ago. I think the deal with Barricade though is the modded hips. Any mods to toys takes them out of the pricing curve.

And to stay in topic of collecting transformers wherefore, here is something I could share. There is a guy in Quebec who sells his tf toys for half what he paid for them. He doesnt want to make his money back, he just doesnt need them in his house. when he is tired of them, he sells them and to sell them quickly, he puts crazy prices. He'd rather have less stuff in his house and if it helps out collectors, then he's happy. I bought Sentinel Prime Leader for 30$ cdn, same for Leader ROTF Prime. And just the other day I got this entire lot off him, each for half of what he paid (minus the RID toys, those were just bought by me at a store the same day). But after years of having some toys up, there are some he just cant sell. So, noideaforaname, you are not alone. To give you an idea of what the market is like (and the prices he is down to, in case you want to get to e-bay), here is an idea of those toys and the price he put (which are still not selling). Remember, these are all complete with instructions and this is all canadian dollars (so take away a quarter to get the prices in US$):

2007 Transformers film

Barricade deluxe Movie 4$
Megatron Leader Movie 15$
Bumblebee deluxe (sport car) Movie 4$
Dreadwing deluxe Movie 4$
Scorponok deluxe Movie 4$

Transformers ROTF

Cannon Bumblebee deluxe ROTF 4$
Barricade interrogator deluxe ROTF 4$
Soundwave satellite deluxe ROTF 4$
Ravage deluxe ROTF 4$
Starscream voyager ROTF 7$

Transformers DOTM

Jolt deluxe DOTM 4$
Shockwave voyager DOTM 7$
Thundercracker deluxe DOTM 4$
Nitro Bumblebee deluxe DOTM 4$
Bumblebee deluxe DOTM 4$
Ratchet voyager DOTM 9$

Transformers Prime

Starscream RID voyager hasbro 7$
Optimus Prime RID voyager hasbro with reprolabel 9$
Terracon Bumblebee deluxe takara 18$
Rumble deluxe hasbro 5$
Skywarp arm-micron deluxe takara 18$

Wow, Shockwave not selling at $7 Canadian, which turns out to be... just under $5 in US, or about half the price of the new Legends Shockwave. Hoo boy.....

Man, you get into this hobby not worrying about resellling anything because silly reasons, then years later you just feel surrounded by this junk, and think selling it is a quick and easy thing, but noooo... And I'm pretty sure I laughed at these types of posts years ago.
Estimating pricing's hard because you genuinely don't want to overprice things, but you don't want to undersell things either, and all the while you expect people to haggle anyways. Meh. Maybe an open bid is the way to go, bypass all this nonsense.



... I suppose there's a degree in irony that what got me hooked on Transformers in the first place has it's main character struggle to sell old garbage online.

Noideaforaname wrote:Man, you get into this hobby not worrying about reselling anything because silly reasons, then years later you just feel surrounded by this junk, and think selling it is a quick and easy thing, but noooo... And I'm pretty sure I laughed at these types of posts years ago.

And that feeling of being surrounded is exactly what leads me to...

william-james88 wrote:And to stay in topic of collecting transformers wherefore, here is something I could share. There is a guy in Quebec who sells his tf toys for half what he paid for them. He doesnt want to make his money back, he just doesnt need them in his house. when he is tired of them, he sells them and to sell them quickly, he puts crazy prices. He'd rather have less stuff in his house and if it helps out collectors, then he's happy.

That is more or less my line of thinking at the moment, too. The money is really not an issue, as my personal qualms with collecting are in part also due to where the money is going in the first place (I sort of talk about it in a piece here). But yes, if someone else is happy, be it a fellow fan or kid dropping into a shop, that really is enough for me.

Va'al wrote:

william-james88 wrote:And to stay in topic of collecting transformers wherefore, here is something I could share. There is a guy in Quebec who sells his tf toys for half what he paid for them. He doesnt want to make his money back, he just doesnt need them in his house. when he is tired of them, he sells them and to sell them quickly, he puts crazy prices. He'd rather have less stuff in his house and if it helps out collectors, then he's happy.

That is more or less my line of thinking at the moment, too. The money is really not an issue, as my personal qualms with collecting are in part also due to where the money is going in the first place (I sort of talk about it in a piece here). But yes, if someone else is happy, be it a fellow fan or kid dropping into a shop, that really is enough for me.

I previously applied this line of thought to my sales as well. I used to have around $3000 worth of TFs and I sold them ALL until I was down to my original Powermaster Optimus Prime and my Robots in Disguise Fire Convoy. I just couldn't bear to part with them. This was 6 years ago. Since then I have rebuilt my collection and I am once again in the process of seriously culling it. But even though this time around I am not feeling as charitable as before (maybe I should?) when I did do it before it made me feel good that I was giving fellow fans figures they really wanted but would have gotten robbed blind on eBay. It's good to help out your fellow collector.

Rodimus Prime wrote:But even though this time around I am not feeling as charitable as before (maybe I should?) when I did do it before it made me feel good that I was giving fellow fans figures they really wanted but would have gotten robbed blind on eBay. It's good to help out your fellow collector.

I did the reverse about 2 years ago. I sold a job lot of figures to an eBay store for £400. I paid less than that for it anyway (profit!) and watched with a guilty glee as they hung around eBay for months before being discounted.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Va'al wrote:

william-james88 wrote:And to stay in topic of collecting transformers wherefore, here is something I could share. There is a guy in Quebec who sells his tf toys for half what he paid for them. He doesnt want to make his money back, he just doesnt need them in his house. when he is tired of them, he sells them and to sell them quickly, he puts crazy prices. He'd rather have less stuff in his house and if it helps out collectors, then he's happy.

That is more or less my line of thinking at the moment, too. The money is really not an issue, as my personal qualms with collecting are in part also due to where the money is going in the first place (I sort of talk about it in a piece here). But yes, if someone else is happy, be it a fellow fan or kid dropping into a shop, that really is enough for me.

I previously applied this line of thought to my sales as well. I used to have around $3000 worth of TFs and I sold them ALL until I was down to my original Powermaster Optimus Prime and my Robots in Disguise Fire Convoy. I just couldn't bear to part with them. This was 6 years ago. Since then I have rebuilt my collection and I am once again in the process of seriously culling it. But even though this time around I am not feeling as charitable as before (maybe I should?) when I did do it before it made me feel good that I was giving fellow fans figures they really wanted but would have gotten robbed blind on eBay. It's good to help out your fellow collector.

Charity is a wonderful thing, but there is nothing wrong with earning a profit.

The why? I love robots, particularly giant ones and especially giant transforming robots. GI Joe was nice and had neat vehicles. Same with Star Wars. But really, Transformers just stuck with. I collected the comics, the toys, and watched the show. While I have a ton of other, non-Transformers robots (Gundam, Votoms, arguably loads of Evangelion stuff); Transformers just stuck with me. I can probably pinpoint some nostalgia to a deeper meaning. G1 Soundwave was an original toy for me when I was about 5. The G1 Devy boxset, followed by the Superion boxset the year later cemented it. I have a complete Monstructor thanks to family. There's a lot of love in these toys I played with non-stop and received as gifts. I collected on and off all the way up until Classics.

As to what I collect now, I stick with whatever passes for Classics, legion toys, and Post MP-10 Masterpiece toys. The Classics line was amazing, but I was trying to conserve money when Universe came out and stopped buying. When Reveal the Shield started rearing its head I started buying TFs full-swing. To me, a lot of these lines are what bring the original characters and newer characters into a shared universe. Though I am aware of the different multiverses (and engage in some), it's this line of toys which brings it all together.

Masterpiece is it's own beast. I never expect it to be an all-encompassing Classics style of toyline, but each figure is well-done and represents the original toys and cartoon which got me interested. It's purely nostalgia; I just get some sweet loot out of it.

I do pick up other toylines. Animated held little interest to me, but Prime and the new RID stuff is pretty cool. The movie toys are hit-and-miss, though I have a different characters from those lines for the Classics shelves.

Legion toys are awesome, though the ones I pick up the least. I once authored a very simplistic Tranformers wargaming manual to be used with actual toys, but it wasn't until the Legends/Legion line this manual would be actually useful with characters roughly to scale with one another. One day I'll get my army together and try it out again.

Sadly, everything is in boxes right now because of a poopy home situation. I had a toy room set up, and maybe in the future I'll be able to do it again soon.

Does that answer your question? Feel free to ask additional questions.

Cross-posting this article from Maz, from the boards link, with another thread on here too.
What do people make of it?

Ouch! That one hit me right where I live.
In particular, this...

Maz wrote:It’s one thing to have a strong opinion, but when you go online with a positive feeling about an aspect of the hobby, walk into a hurricane of negativity, complaints and whining about that same thing you like, an element of its enjoyment will eventually be eroded

It's very hard to swallow, as I have volunteered to do a thing, and when I say I'm gonna do a thing, I do it.
The burnout has spilled into my main focus as well. The toys. Keeping up with the Jones's can really ware a guy out. I am very aware of this burnout and have given it a lot of thought. I have some plans to try to help get back in it on a level that can maintain the enjoyment.
I do love these toys and characters, and truly enjoy all the new friends I've made. Most days they are the ones who bring me 'round when I'm feeling burnt.

Cobotron wrote:The burnout has spilled into my main focus as well. The toys. Keeping up with the Jones's can really ware a guy out. I am very aware of this burnout and have given it a lot of thought. I have some plans to try to help get back in it on a level that can maintain the enjoyment.
I do love these toys and characters, and truly enjoy all the new friends I've made. Most days they are the ones who bring me 'round when I'm feeling burnt.

Man I wish more fans were keeping up with the Jones' in terms of Robots in Disguise toys. Although to be fair, I dont shove it in people's faces to brag but instead to make people aware of the good stuff that's out there. All kidding aside, I get what you mean Cobo. While I do come here to see whats next and the new marvels Hasbro and Takara are cooking up (as well as looking at the corporate differences between the two), what I find fun about this hobby and the interaction with the community is looking at older toys. When we do that, the negativity gets toned down a lot. We are instead ot reacting to something but remembering it. And we can remember it fondly (which we often do) or remember our frustration. But in either case it ends up endearing. Enough time has past that people are willing to give Optimus Minor a second chance (I dont know why they would) or look at Heimdal for the fun goofy and culturally rich toy he is, instead of laughing at his sack.

Hence why I really like doing those lists, which look back on everything and let fans talk about the fun that has come. I really like discovering older toys or simply toys I missed out and while there is negativity towards new reveals, I instead like to imagine how we will remember them. Which of these will end up being on my lists 10 years from now, when everything has settled. Hence why I like the RID line so much, its so innovative with its designs and transformations.

And while I do get the frustration about seeing beautiful new toys that one cant afford, I preffer knowing what is out there and the feedback so that I can budgt better and get what I want the most now instead of having to pay more later when I rediscover it at some point.

After my last post, I got to thinking of recent events. My haul from BotCon consisted of mostly Unicron Trilogy stuff I had missed out on back in the day. I am getting much more enjoyment from these old toys at the moment. I can't stop playing with Cybertron Leader Galvatron, mean while MP Shockwave has left me feeling meh.
So there is something very refreshing in catching up on the ones that got away and it help put the things to come in perspective. Maybe because the Cybertron thread is dead and buried it frees me to enjoy the toys for what they are and how I perceive them, and they are not tainted by constant negative speculation. Nor do I feel obligated to over analyze or defend them. They can just be toys. They can just be fun.

Cobotron wrote:After my last post, I got to thinking of recent events. My haul from BotCon consisted of mostly Unicron Trilogy stuff I had missed out on back in the day. I am getting much more enjoyment from these old toys at the moment. I can't stop playing with Cybertron Leader Galvatron, mean while MP Shockwave has left me feeling meh.
So there is something very refreshing in catching up on the ones that got away and it help put the things to come in perspective. Maybe because the Cybertron thread is dead and buried it frees me to enjoy the toys for what they are and how I perceive them, and they are not tainted by constant negative speculation. Nor do I feel obligated to over analyze or defend them. They can just be toys. They can just be fun.

I think that is something which is part of the natural progression of any collection, though, as many fans tend to be caught up on contemporary releases, but might still be missing older stuff. (Worth checking the ScottyP/razorclaw0000 segment of Twincast 140 for thoughts on the Cybertron/UT lines, if that's your jAam!)

That was the case with me for Animated, which became my hunting ground for a while, even as I narrowed my field of appreciation. The current figures at the time would've been Generations and Prime, which I also sorta did - but they were more available, and not as thrilling to research and go look for.

Someone else pointed out to me, from that article, this section:

A lack of access to toys due to poor retail distribution or limited nature of particular exclusives can have a detrimental effect on enthusiasm too. If enthusiasm is the energy and fuel that sets our hobby passion alight, then running out of that enthusiasm and the burning out of that fuel is every bit as much ‘burnout’ as the exhausting of funds, space, time or appreciation. Not being able to buy the things you collect because they cannot be found or reached without importing or resorting to expensive or complicated measures on a regular basis will create the same atmosphere of disenchantment.

That is the UK. Even more so continental Europe. Even more so Italy, it seems.

I bought Transformers because I like the transformation technology and the design of certain figures. I'm selling most figures of my collection because:

I got them out of boredom
I got them for the sake of completeness
I enjoyed bidding on auctions more than actually owning the figures
I kept them to fill voids in my life (it didn't work)
I bought more to comfort myself when I felt sad (didn't work either)

These are obviously very unhealthy reasons to keep them, especially in such high quantities. I think I sold a third of my collection by now. I truly feel liberated every time I come back from the post office after a shipment. I will only keep a very small collection.

Dr Va'al wrote:

Ironhidensh wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Ironhidensh wrote:So I've begun the process of liqudating my collection.

But... will it blend?

For serious though:

It's a good thing. Bittersweet, but a good thing. My tastes as a collector /fanboy have changed, and it's time my collection changed to reflect that.

May I ask what the changes are, how you feel about the toys in general, and where you think you might go from here? I just heard your question being answered on the Twincast, and am curious.

You may answer over here, too, if you want.

Well, basically, I've become a bit of an elitest. I'm an insanely huge fan of Masterpiece/3rd party figures. I know a lot of people can find them to be a bit too fiddly, but that is one of the things I love about them. These figures are simply light years above and beyond mainline, or "traditional" figures.

Now, I know that mainline figures aren't supposed to be at the level of Masterpiece, and I accept that, but I simply do not get much joy out of them. There are a few figures that stand out, and certain characters that I will always want to have representations of. For example, I collect Optimus and Starscream figures, and I will continue that. Ijust picked up TR Chromedome, and I'm very happy with him. I also picked up Mindwipe, but he will be joining the other TR wave one deluxes in the box to go on ebay. See, went Iook at these figures, all Ican see is how much better they could be. It really stands out with Hasbro figures, as Takara can, with just a few small paint changes, make the exact same figure really stand out. Very little joy to be found.

ITs the same with my collection. I look over it nowdays, and just kinda think of it as a huge waste. While I do have some feelings of happy nostalgia from my youth, as soon as my gaze moves to the high end figures, the warm fuzzies go away. If it doesn't bring my joy, why should I keep it? I came to that realization after reading a post by COunterpucnch in the MP Hotrod thread. If it doesn't make me happy, its time for it to go.

Now, I won't be getting rid of everything. Like I said, some figures are exceptions, and awesome enough to keep. A lot of stuff, I'll keep to give to my sons when they are older. Going forward, my collection will be 95% focused on high end figures. I will also continue to consume the comics as well. I still love transformers, but I"m just not so interested in the toys that are actual toys. Make sense?