The Energon Pub

How have you changed as a collector?

When I first started collecting I was buying each and every Transformer I could get my hands on.

After realising I ended up with a lot of figures which were a bit disappointing I began to choose only select figures.

Next I began fixing what I didn't like in figures such as removing movement limiting gears, springs, etc.

Now I've begun altering figures to better suit their character (the face of classics roadbuster) or making a figure into what I wanted it to be (altered the head on Generations WFC Bumblebee into a Goldbug for my classics collection)

For a while thru the Unicron trilogy shows, when I got back into collecting I bought pretty much any figure I liked without much thought. Because of this I have a few things I am very happy with, and a few things I that while I'm glad I have, I likely wouldn't buy it they were at retail right now.

Since then I am now faced with more financial responsibilities, and rapidly decreasing space available to display. Thusly, I put a bit more thought into it, whether buying the figure is something that will personally benefit my enjoyment of my collection, or likely to disappear into a storage box.

If it's likely to disappear, then I will pass it by, to save space and money for something I am likely to keep on display.

Before I was a Mod, I was a jerk and even though I provided useful info, I was a dick about it, but now I'm a lot more layed back and helpful.

Also,

I used to be funny and insightful, but now as a Mod I'm just an overbearing prick.

It all depends on who you ask.

On topic: I did the same thing, collecting everything until I realized I couldn't/shouldn't try. I still collect a LOT, but now with real boundaries.

Counterpunch wrote:Before I was a Mod, I was a jerk and even though I provided useful info, I was a dick about it, but now I'm a lot more layed back and helpful.

Also,

I used to be funny and insightful, but now as a Mod I'm just an overbearing prick.

It all depends on who you ask.

lol

CP ILU!! <3!

(ducks thrown object)

Well, ya see, I didn't even realize there was...fandom until about 18 months ago. So there was me with my dvds and toys and such being the lone freakass weirdo when all my other normal friends were, you know, drinking merlot and discussing the environment.

THEN I discovered Seibs. <--totally called for. Which totally hits my fix for news but also awesome discussions about TF things (which I mostly still just lurk in) such as talking about comics. Which brought me back into comic collecting (damn yoooooo!)

THEN I went to my very first Botcon and had a total blast! Which 'evolution' step was me saying, these people are awesome and I"m not the oldest weirdest person here, so...yay.


THEN I discovered fanfic. Which has been...less evenly awesome. (Because OMG there is some scaaaaaaaary stuff out there, yo!) And along with that the LJ fandom, which is a totally different vibe from here. Good and bad.

So now I feel like I have a much bigger picture of how BROAD TF fandom is. Before I thought it was just deep--continuities and microcontinuities and stuff--but now I see how much variety there is--toys and comics and videogames and metadiscussion and fiction and...all sorts of stuff.

Oh, and RP! Which can devour one's life, non? Dear god it's dangerously fun.

HK, butterflop

When i started i was all about the cartoons, live action movie and what ever figure looked interesting. Now i still grab the toys that look interesting but also consider the back stories, if they can combine, do i like the design at all, etc. Ive also gotten into the comics side of thing recently.

I used to collect almost every single one if I liked the series they were in but I generally didn't pick up something I didn't like I just liked most of the characters. I used to collect repaints but I don't anymore unless part of their body is different then from the original mold. I don't really like a lot of the movie version transformers though I do have a few. I only collect certain ones from the movie line mainly because I dislike the insecticon type of design to them, legs bent backwards or whatever. Though Mindwipe is pretty awesome. =o I'll probably be collecting the new generations line, most of them but not all.

I thought about getting a new unicron but..I already have one. Like always though my obsession got the best of me and I pre-ordered one anyway due to the colors and the head re-sculpt. Oh the call of collecting transformers.. XD

I started collecting in late 05...I think, I'm terrible with time... anyways it was shortly after I'd learned that the first live action movie was being made. I hadn't owned a transformer figure or even really thought about them since I was a kid.
But I went to my local walmart and found several figures from the Classics and Cybertron Lines.

My first figures were Classics Starscream and Rodimus. It was also at this point that I wanted my collection to be primarly G1 and Classics/Universe Figures. I also began a search for the G1 series on DVD and other series online. By 2007 I had watched or at least skimmed through every transformer cartoon series there was. And had decided that my collection was lacking.

I started collecting movie figures and RiD/Car Robots as well, Then when Animated came out I got them as well.

To this date my Neo G1/universe/Classics and movie collection are my largest. My RiD collection only lacks Scourge to be complete, and Animated only lacks the last season characters(Rodimus,Blackout, Arcee) and Autobot colored Shockwave(Longarm Prime)

But as a collector I only got the characters I wanted, and those being the ones that either were homages to G1 characters or looked enough like G1 characters.

My problem now is display space, I refuse to box and store figures, If I can't display them with their comrads I put them somewhere... for example my Titanium Megatron and Animated Optimus v.s. Megatron set are displayed with my small collection of Armada figures. And my Masterpiece Skywarp and Megatron stand next to an Amp suit from Avatar(which is being drivin by Cobra Commander) and a Inuyasha figure.

Nice thread.Great reading about everyones'involvement.

I kicked off mine in the first week of G1's release in Oz, fascinated with the philosophical factor in the mottos of the day,with intent to assemble all the Autobots into a safe new home on Earth.I collected what I could tho some never arrived and many ceased to be after the original movie.Many of my bots got given away to less privileged kids in the neighborhood.Others got lovingly put into storage but accidentally got thrown away by my folks.

The next few generations couldn't meet my expectations and tho i to get addicted, they got skipped, and like many others I moved right back into the party with the Transmetals.After another drought,and, strangely, a dream where I walked into a store crammed full of TFs, I visited my nearest David Jones to find the unnanounced arrival of Armada wave 1 sitting on the shelves.I was sadly, sorely disappointed and even felt insulted by what I saw,tried hard to get involved again, but let it go,assuming my involvement with TFs was done.
Alternators transformed everything and I bought as many as I could until I realised that 1)Remold use was moving in for good,and 2)doing half of G1in the latest tech and cutting the line off was a play intended to make me start collecting the next line in the assumption whatever bots were missing would get done there.Of course,I picked up associations with new bots along the way.The Alternators I bought were redone into homegrown characters,kitted out with a masterclass Ultra Magnus to lead and rounded out with Motorcycle bots from other lines.
Moving to Greece I found lots of tiny g2 caches and more Beast Wars tidbits in the corners of the very smallest toy businesses and I then moved into the movie line,discovering in the process that Hasbro doesn't send what Europe asks for to Europe but often whatever they want to get rid of, such as huge amounts of Robot replicas and gravity bot trash.So I evolved by buying,sculpting and repainting particular models to count as the G1 pieces that I have learnt never to trust to find alive again in a storyline, and especially not together in the old lineup.These pieces either get redone whenever a proper g1 homage figure comes out into another g1 or g2 stand in, or alternatively into a new homegrown persona.

Now, I collect anything that's more or less to scale with the movie deluxe lines,with intent to have the original line-up as the core (not always as the G1 manifestation) and anything else as expanded universe.Everything is repainted into an Autobot,except for a select few who are Decepticons living in the post Megatron/Galvatron Autobot happy home...for now...

There's a second cross-line collection of in scale decepticon flyers but it's too little to really show off,just yet.