The Energon Pub

My Wife let our 2 1/2yr old into our closet and this is what happened



At least he knew that the seekers go together

I can relate. My experience wasn't THAT bad, but one time I came home to find my wife (fiance at the time) had her 3-yo niece and nephew over while I was at work and "assumed it would be fine" to let them play with the TFs I had on display. Luckily nothing was broken, but there were parts all over the floor and mistransformed figures and such.

She now understands that my TFs are not toys, and she knows how important they are to me. At the same time, with two sets of young twins in the family, a newborn nephew, and our own kids coming eventually, I can't have a big collection of toys on display and tell every kid that comes over that he/she can't touch any of them. (Try explaining to a 4-year-old why they can't touch any of the hundreds of cool toys you have.) So my new idea is to fill a bin with figures I don't like (mostly movie figures, probably) and let those be available for kids to play with when they visit.

Ive been letting my daughter play with my toys and stuff since she was born basically. Teach little ones how to play with them, how important they are, etc. Its a lot more fun and rewarding that way if you ask me. My daughter asks me every time when she wants to play with one on display. Masterpiece figures I can understand keeping away, as well as accessories, but letting children enjoy them gives the toys true meaning for me.

I was raised to not break things, and very, very rarely had any toys damaged. EXCEPT when my cousins came over...and the obviously hadn't been taught a)how to handle things, or b)to respect other people's property, so I ended up with a fair few broken things.
It got so much that my mum would warn me they were coming over so I could hide my good stuff.

He actually played real well with them. In the end they're just toys (hard to cope with that lol) and I'm glad to have shared with him as im sure many of you dads feel the same. albeit it was the ladies idea. His favorite seems to be Inferno and voyager Onslaught so I'm going to shop around for a parts lot or a well played with version so he can have his own to add to his own growing collection.

One good thing about this is that at that age there attention span isn't terribly long, so it was probably short lived and then on to another toy. But glad they survived. Don't see any MP laying around either... that would be my fear with owning any of them.

This is why I leave the cyberverse in arms reach instead.

I don't have any kids but my niece is surprisingly good when she comes into my room. She hasn't taken any of my figures off the shelf yet... minus the DOTM Burger King ones, but for the longest time they were downstairs for her to play with so I think she figures it's OK. Usually she just points to random ones and asks if they're "a meany." Lol.

As of right now she only has Playskool Optimus, an Inferno toy I don't care about and Ultimate Bee to regularly play with (Bee was the best yard sale find ever, if only because my niece adored that thing when she was a baby. As a toddler she's more apt to play with barbies, but occasionally she fishes him out. Lol). Bee's rather sturdy so he manages rather well with her. Inferno... tends to have pieces ripped off in her attempt to transform him. Lol. So far none have been lost though. Not going to worry about him, given the fact I found him for $2 or $3 at a yard sale. And, obviously, Playskool Optimus does fine, not that she plays with him much xP She plays with Bee far more often.

KInda off.You want to get mad but at the same time,you relate to the kid.

Didn't happen to my TF's, but an Arii Macross VF-1J model I built was totally dissected by my cousin's kid once. Left it on my workstation and was upstairs chatting with my cousin, and by the time we came downstairs, poor VF-1J looked like it took on the whole Zentran army by itself!

Children do not belong in my room.

Thankfully nothing like this has ever occurred with me because my extended family tends to remain as distant as possible, though I have had a small chunk of my collection fall on me(along with a good number of books and VHS tapes )

GF had her cousins over one day while i was out. Something similar happened. Then i did the math, kids + transformers = creative play. All good

No run-ins with kids yet, but I did come home to a knocked-over bookcase full of G1s & Bayformers one day. My girlfriend had tried to move furniture out onto the patio by herself. That'll teach me to make sure my display cases are secured to the wall. But yeah, I was still pretty unimpressed, since there were a couple casualties. Most notably, G1 Jetfire broke a wingtip.

there is a rule in my house, if you live here and touch my transformers... i kill you.... if you are a visitor i only mame you... dont touch the collection in a display case... kids may not know but adults do... you dont put transformers in a nice display if you intended for them to be messed with.

VioMeTriX wrote:there is a rule in my house, if you live here and touch my transformers... i kill you.... if you are a visitor i only mame you... dont touch the collection in a display case... kids may not know but adults do... you dont put transformers in a nice display if you intended for them to be messed with.

I have a similar rule, everyone learns very quickly at my place

Recently my 3yo nephew was looking at some of my figures, and knowing that he can't touch, he had his hands very firmly clasped behind his back. It was cute seeing him walking around the room putting his face close to the toys for a good look but not touching. It was a pose I'd expect to see an older gentleman making

Arctorro wrote:

VioMeTriX wrote:there is a rule in my house, if you live here and touch my transformers... i kill you.... if you are a visitor i only mame you... dont touch the collection in a display case... kids may not know but adults do... you dont put transformers in a nice display if you intended for them to be messed with.

I have a similar rule, everyone learns very quickly at my place

Damn, and here I was hoping that i could have a bit of a bash with your Masterpiece figures.

Sinnertwin wrote:

Arctorro wrote:

VioMeTriX wrote:there is a rule in my house, if you live here and touch my transformers... i kill you.... if you are a visitor i only mame you... dont touch the collection in a display case... kids may not know but adults do... you dont put transformers in a nice display if you intended for them to be messed with.

I have a similar rule, everyone learns very quickly at my place

Damn, and here I was hoping that i could have a bit of a bash with your Masterpiece figures.

NO NO UH UH Forget it...

VioMeTriX wrote:

Sinnertwin wrote:

Arctorro wrote:

VioMeTriX wrote:there is a rule in my house, if you live here and touch my transformers... i kill you.... if you are a visitor i only mame you... dont touch the collection in a display case... kids may not know but adults do... you dont put transformers in a nice display if you intended for them to be messed with.

I have a similar rule, everyone learns very quickly at my place

Damn, and here I was hoping that i could have a bit of a bash with your Masterpiece figures.

NO NO UH UH Forget it...

Im going to make it my mission to.

Sinnertwin wrote:

VioMeTriX wrote:

Sinnertwin wrote:

Arctorro wrote:

VioMeTriX wrote:there is a rule in my house, if you live here and touch my transformers... i kill you.... if you are a visitor i only mame you... dont touch the collection in a display case... kids may not know but adults do... you dont put transformers in a nice display if you intended for them to be messed with.

I have a similar rule, everyone learns very quickly at my place

Damn, and here I was hoping that i could have a bit of a bash with your Masterpiece figures.

NO NO UH UH Forget it...

Im going to make it my mission to.

Just remember that the MP's won't be the only ones receiving "a bit of a bash"

While I can get the whole "well, they are toys philosophy", I would be annoyed if someone just went and did anything with any of my stuff without asking. I don't care if it was a beanbag. I would find it rude.

Different things hold various amounts of importance to people and other people should respect that. I may not see a lot of value in, say, a bottle cap collection, but I would still ask the owner if it was alright before I touched it. I've had people mistreat a lot of my things: clothes, books, videos, and it annoys me to no end that they can't think beyond themselves when it comes to that. Just because they don't care about their own crap doesn't mean they don't have to care about other people's.

plain and simple rule to life... if you didn't buy or contribute to the purchase in any way, you have 0% right to touch...

VioMeTriX wrote:plain and simple rule to life... if you didn't buy or contribute to the purchase in any way, you have 0% right to touch...

Obviously you're single and have no kids. That rule doesn't work in real life unless you're a hermit or a sociopath.

been married twice and have full custody of my 12 yr old son... never had a problem with him touching my transformers, he had his own toys and was happy, now he is a collector of lego and transformers, he has more masterpiece figures then I do.

also I didn't say the simple rule is what is, that's crazy, but how I try to steer it to be...and has worked well for me so far. I'm 38, very successful and happy

I don't like people touching my collection. My brother came over to the house to watch my dog when I was out of town. When I came home I saw that he arranged my Classics collection into some, well, compromising positions. I was not pleased. It was funny, but I was not happy about it.

When we have children over to the house the display room is closed and locked. If they can't get to the collection they can't mess with it.

It's just a bit disheartening to find that someone else has either gone to a lot of trouble to access and damage your collection, or has allowed a child to do so without first asking permission.

I've never had kids in the same room as my collection as an adult, but I did have trouble when I was a kid myself, with younger siblings deciding that an appropriate way to relieve their boredom in my absence was to open my closed bedroom door, open the (unfortunately not lockable) wardrobe I kept my collection in, reach in past everything else, grab various figures, and proceed to smash them together or toss them down the stairs (old house, 14' ceilings).

I've also never had my collection on display in an accessible/unlocked manner in any city I've had pre-adult relatives in (including relatives of anyone I was living with). Purely because I know Murphy's law, and the one time I'm not there to prevent disaster, said relatives will proceed to turn up out of the blue and have (or be given) access to the display room. Or some neighbor will drop over for the first time and bring a kid with them. Or a local dog will find the front door slightly ajar and decide to explore.

It'd be nice to be able to assume that all kids, animals, relatives, roomies (and their friends and relatives and romantic partners), landlords (and contractors they employ), emergency services personnel, and romantic partners of your own (long-term or otherwise) are 100% aware of your collection and know not to allow it to be either accessed or tampered with. But in the absence of that total assurance, it might be an idea to store it in a lockable, child-throwing-a-tantrum-proof location, whether that be a display cabinet or otherwise.