The Energon Pub

I recently moved my TF's collection from an upstairs bedroom to a nice shelving unit dowstairs. As a result of this my collection is much more visable to the people visiting my house.

My girlfriend (who lives with me) is fine, even supportive, with the collection. She is amused by it more than anything else, and will from time to time take down a toy or two and transform away.

My friends make fun of it, but then seem to be drawn to the shelf and end up spending a lot of time looking at them and asking genuinely interested questions about them. (We were all into them as kids. We are also around the same age 25-30.)

My question is, how do your signifficant others feel about your toy collections? Do they wish you were spending your money on other things? What do your friends think about our hobby?

A side note: Regardless of what my friends think, I will keep on collecting because I enjoy it.

Kudos on this topic


I personally got back into collecting right after my divorce (gave me something fun to wrap up my brain with) but I can pretty much guarantee my ex wouldn't have found it to be a valuable thing to be spending my money on when we were together (though in all honestly, she would have been right)

I used to collect action figures here and there and none of my "signifigant others" ever really minded, though I'm sure they thought it was pretty silly...

Nowadays I spend most of my free time messing with collecting Transformers (I've pretty much phased out all my other collections for monetary reasons...Nothing really tops Transformers anyway)...My son loves it (:P) so we hit the toy stores every week and that's something fun for us to obsess over together...

As for my friends, I don't have any that have any interest in transformers and though they tend to think it's a bit strange and silly for me to be so obsessd with toys, they're all pretty supportive of my addiction and they too generally find it amusing (though one of my friends is always threatening an intervention But she's almost as crazy about Legos as I am about Transformers so she can't really talk)

I will admit sometimes it feels a little bit silly to ME, being a 29-year-old man who spends stupid amounts of money on toys...But I'm not at all embarassed about it...Transformers are like my Hummels...Only better because they actually DO something (and don't look like creepy little german kids)

My wife is cool with my collection and supportive. If she's out and sees a figure she thinks I may not have she calls me. We both have good jobs and no kids, or plans of having any, so the money really isn't an issue. Her only complaint is the space they take up and me not dusting them enough.

As for my friends none of them give me any grief over my hobby. One friend asked me how much money I had wrapped up in my collection and seemed a little taken aback by my answer. I was quick to point out that he had just spent $12,000.00 on a Yamaha Rhino, that he had no use for other than recreation. He shut up. Actually compared to hobbies most of my friends engage in collecting TF's in quite affordable.

My ex-wife and I used to collect Beast Wars/Machines together. We each went out of our way to find figures, and it was fun.

Now, my GF and I both hunt for new figs, along with my daughter. Hell, it's my GF that started fixing up the den as a suprise to get more shelves to fit so we have room for the RotF line.

My friends all have their quirks and hobbies, so my TF collecting is nothing too unusual for them.

I guess I kind of have it pretty good.

My GF is totally supportive of my TF collection. She even bought me the Target "2 pack" (Galaxy Force OP and Crumplezone)for my B-day last December. Thanks Honey She even likes to transform a few of them from time to time.
My friends don't mind, as typh0id said "My friends make fun of it, but then seem to be drawn to the shelf and end up spending a lot of time looking at them and asking genuinely interested questions about them".
Of course you get the occasional : "you'll never grow up will you? , LOL" or the "Why do you buy Toys???" to what I say " They are NOT toys !! They are ACTION FIGURES !!! "

Men envy and women swoon over my collection.

I make no apologies.

My wife is on and off about it. She knows that I have a decent amount of stuff, but she doesn't like me to buy it, and she's not a fan of displaying them at the moment. As our sons get older, she seems to be getting a little softer, but she would be happier if I stopped collecting and sold what I have, but she'd never ask me to, unless we were in danger of going homless!

My girlfriend has apparently gone though stages with my collecting. At first, she made fun of me for doing it, then she started picking out her favorite figures in my collection and asking if it would be ok to transform them. Now, since we've moved in together, she's not a fan of me having a bookshelf in the room used for displaying the figures I don't have stored in the closet. She gets pretty annoyed when I take one off the shelf, play around with it, and leave it on the bedroom dresser.

I can't say that I blame her at this point though. We're living in a one bedroom apartment at the moment, so space is quite limited and sharing such close quarters with someone who's your total opposite isn't always peaches and cream. We're getting a two bedroom soon, and she says I can do whatever the hell I want with the second bedroom so long as there are no TF's in our bedroom. Good news for me, because I'll finally be able to display ALL my figures without her nagging.

As for my buying TF's, she doesn't really care. I'm a REALLY picky collector, so I don't actually buy many at all. I've been collecting pretty solidly for about 5 years and I only have 250 figures. She does have a problem when I ask for a TF for my bday or Christmas. Still, she got me MP Battle Rollar for my bday and Shadow Commander for Christmas even though she hated doing it. Oddly enough, her family loves to buy me TF's on special occasions.

As for my friends, my brother used to make fun of my collection, but once he realized all our other friends thought it was cool as hell, he stopped joking about it. I can't tell you how many times people have come over and just spent 10 or 15 minutes just staring at my collection. Soon, when I have my "own room" and all my figures are gathered around a flat screem TV and PS3 setup, I know my friends will visit just to sit in there, lol. Hell, last year when I shared a 2 bedroom apartment with my cousin, he would just come into my room and stare at my collection.

Thankfully, my wife of 11+ years is supportive of my collecting, even though we don't have the most money. I've curbed a lot of it, though, since we have two kids. She even bought me two barrister bookcases to display my G1 collection and Alts (which only leaves about 7 more tubs of undisplayed lines elsewhere in the house. *sigh*). She understands that it's what makes me happy, and I think she also knows that my collection is a topic of interest for a lot of people we know. I also let my kids and some of the kids she babysits play with some of my figures (not the old stuff, though).

She also thinks it's cute when I take some figures down and "play" with them. Of course, I'm not "playing", I'm just conducting research, but she doesn't need to know that.

Kique wrote:as typh0id said "My friends make fun of it, but then seem to be drawn to the shelf and end up spending a lot of time looking at them and asking genuinely interested questions about them".

Actually is was the topic-starter SJ21 that said that But I certainly concur



Also, I have a friend who told me that he hated Transformers because he used to have a friend who talked non-stop about it...But once he actually asked me some transformers-related questions and he said he instantly found them more interesting just by the way I described them...

typh0id wrote:

Kique wrote:as typh0id said "My friends make fun of it, but then seem to be drawn to the shelf and end up spending a lot of time looking at them and asking genuinely interested questions about them".

Actually is was the topic-starter SJ21 that said that But I certainly concur

Gahhh !!! Whoops my bad !!! And yeah, people tend to get interested once you explain a bit of the Transformers history of each Figure.

My ex-girlfriend was very supportive of my collection when we were together, hunting out transformers for me and surprising me on birthdays and Christmas. Even now she is happy to pick up things for me, and act as a relay so I can buy things on eBay they will not post to NZ. She is still afraid to actually transform them herself though, .

I love it when a friend or something looks at one of the TF's and says "Hey, I had that guy growing up!" Everyone seems to have a memory or a story about TF's from somewhere along the line. My Mom gets a kick out of telling stories about me and my brothers fighting over them.

I even bought a few for my girlfriend. (She had a G1 Bumblebee growing up and still oves the character). She also has a G1 t-shirt, and and keychain hanging from the rearview of her GTI.

on the reverse end of things,

when I had a gf that collected things, it didn't bother me unless they were, hurting her financially or making her use it as an escape when she needed to take care of other things.

When they collect certain products of celebrities because they think so and so is so very hot, this is really annoying and kind of an insult.

TF I would think are quite harmless in a sense that it doesn't cause problems other than,
1) time, if your constantly online checking for new toys to purchase for hours and hours instead of being with her.
2) money, they can be expensive, and your buying so much that you have to cut down on her.
3) space, now this is a matter of etiquette, you should keep your stuff in private and away from her interior design needs. If your collection is so huge and you live together in a small apartment, then you should be more considerate and drop them off at your parent's or something.

No GF right now, but my friends think it is pretty damn funny that I am back into Transformers. I admit to them that it is a geeky hobby, and it helps them understand that I know that they know that they think it is a strange collection. I point out to them, and my mom when I at her place that most people collect something (my mom collects a ton of stuff), and just cause hers are antiques doesn't make them any better or worse than me collecting toys. My buddies wives were talking about there multi-hundred dollar handbags that they were buying, so I don't think they can judge me. My mom knows that it could always be worse, I could be spending my money on crack or meth.

It also allows me the ability to buy my friends kids some of the best birthday presents and get the kids to think I am the best adult. This is a plus when your friends have smokin hot sister-in-laws.

My wife gives me mixed signals of TF's. She's told me she thinks I waste my money on them and also wonders about space if and when we have a baby. I think some of it comes from her mother, but I don't know.
On the other hand she's picked up quite a few figures for me on her own or if she happens to be going shopping and I aske her to check for me.
She's also, in some sort of retaliation, started a small My Little Pony collection of her own.

alh77 wrote:My wife gives me mixed signals of TF's. She's told me she thinks I waste my money on them and also wonders about space if and when we have a baby.

read my previous post

alh77 wrote:She's also, in some sort of retaliation, started a small My Little Pony collection of her own.

that is super awesome! I think MLP rule!!!

anyway for those of you saying at least I'm not spending money on drugs,
I hope your not so close to reverting to that! I mean really think about it, that's like a 300 pound fat man saying at least I'm not 500 pounds.
your not suppose to be spending money on drugs! you can't justify a bad habit by picking on something worse.

basically my point is this, TF collecting can become a bad habit,
if you don't accept this, then your living in Egypt near a famous river

However it's up to you to make TF collecting a good experience not just for you but those around you. And yes they are MORE important.

Sometimes we get so busy defending/explaining ourselves we end up taking our selves too seriously.

yes I collect toys, I'm a Peter Pan that never grew up, no it doesn't consume me, yes I understand what is and what isn't priority in life.

alh77 wrote:My wife gives me mixed signals of TF's. She's told me she thinks I waste my money on them and also wonders about space if and when we have a baby. I think some of it comes from her mother, but I don't know.

I have thought about when I have kids what I will do with my collection to protect it from being played with/eaten. I decided to put it in the armoury with my swords in that case, create a real 'mysterious room of forbidden wonders' .

Dread_Wing wrote:
I have thought about when I have kids what I will do with my collection to protect it from being played with/eaten.

My son (who's 3 1/2) is very respectful of my transformers...We play with them together and he knows to be careful with them and asks me to help him when he can't get one transformerd (rather than trying to force it to go the way he wants)...He understands that they are MINE and he has his own that he can destroy or do whatever he wants to with (thank you Fast-Action Battlers ) I'm very proud of him I'm also proud that he knows every single one of their names



On the topic of friends, again, I have a friend who's little boy is big into Transformers and she frequently asks me questions about ones she's thinking of purchasing for him...I'm glad my knowlege of something so silly can be useful to someone, hehe

Typh0id, I liked the quote about helping your friend make informed decisions. I had a moment like that at TRU at Xmas time. This couple was in the TF's aisle looking at Animated leader class toys. They had no idea which one to get their son. He wanted a robot that turned into a car and they were stumped. I encouraged them to go with Optimus Prime (you really can't go wrong with OP.) After talking to them they seemed very confident with that decision and were very appreciative of the help. It was nice to be able to help.

I noticed a few posts mentioning people allowing their collections to overwhelm them. Does that really happen where people do nothing else but collect TF's? I couldn't imagine substituting my girlfriend, snowboarding three times a week, playing basketball every day, or hanging out with friends, for action figures. I would be interested to hear some stories from you guys on that.

SJ21 wrote:I couldn't imagine substituting my girlfriend, snowboarding three times a week, playing basketball every day, or hanging out with friends, for action figures.

Then you're not buying cool enough toys.

Counterpunch wrote: I couldn't imagine substituting my girlfriend, snowboarding three times a week, playing basketball every day, or hanging out with friends, for action figures.

As I've said before, I have phased out a lot of other collections in favor of Transformers...And I have forced myself to pass up some other things, knowing that ultimately I'll be happier having spent the money on TFs...Recently I had to really restrain myself to keep from spending $80 on the new set of Castlevania figures (which are just breath-taking)...And more generally, I have to fight myself everytime I go to the toystore to not start collecting GIJoes again...But I only have so much money to spend frivilously and I don't regret choosing Transformers over other things because I love them the most...

Outside of that though, I have never and would never left a bunch of toys block out things that actually matter, like my son or friends or significant other...Transformers are a HUGE deal to me and have been since I was like 5, but in the end it's just a hobby...

I concider myself quite lucky that my GF is understanding about my collection. She also collects different things, but as long as we don't spend beyond our budgets and can pay our bills then everything is cool.

That said, after we started living together, I started making a habit of giving her a heads up about larger items coming in advance when I can, just so she knows I'm not making any huge impulse buys while she out buying groceries.

I've had one x-wife that made fun of me for it, one x-wife that supported and loved it(she even surprised me once with Energon Unicron and Beast Wars 2 Big Convoy .) My current girlfriend and also the mother of my 2 year old son thinks it's great since I don't drink, smoke or do drugs anymore just focus my time on Transformers. But of course she has serious issues with how much I spend and how much I want to spend. God love her. As for friends, they are just fascinated by a. the variety & b. the value.

Mostly, when my friends see my collection the jaw drops and they just stare. Eventually some sort of 'wow' or 'awesome' will drop from their mouths.