About me
I always loved Transformers, but as a kid, we were kinda poor and I couldn't get nearly as many as I wanted. Also, I was blessed with good friends who would always let me play with theirs and we would have countless battles and adventures in the great dusty wide open places in Pocatello, Idaho. Since I couldn't get too many toys, I instead got
a lot of the trading cards from my friends. I only got the ones with the Tech cards rather than the ones with TV show shots. These were gospel to me, not the TV show (we didn't have TV until later and didn't get Transformers anyway on the three and a half channels that came in).
When we moved to California, Transformers had already shifted to 'masters and Pretenders, neither which I cared for but my neighbor had a very large collection of Transformers and we created some great battles. By this time I saw the movie either on TV or video and was immediately blown away. I thought it was the greatest thing I had ever seen.
As I grew older, I grew out of my TFs, but I loved all the cards, specs, catalogs, and order forms that I had. Sometimes I spent time just looking at them and wishing which ones I would have gotten.
Now, in college, and with the Internet and ebay, I learned to love Transformers again. I finally learned why the hell my friend had a yellow Cliffjumper and why Bluestreak was silver. However, I started to collect some TFs again, but the prices nowadays are too high. I can remember once almost getting Megatron for 20 bucks when I was a kid and then thinking the price too high. Man, where are those days now? :)
Besides I realized the truth behind the saying "wanting is better than having" and I realized that I wasn't happy with getting them. Why? I never really believed in "collecting" just for the point of completing an entire set and the whole reason I loved Transformers and toys in general was my ability to project my own stories and imagination in playing with them. Now the only Tfs I can afford are the ones that have already been played with. They have their own stories with the past owners, they just don't seem like mine. I could get MISB Tfs but I wouldn't open them since they would cost me so much to get. If I could find some out of the way place that still sold a Jazz or Soundwave for the original price, then well I'd get them, open them, put on their stickers, and play with them :). I do buy
occasional BW figures, but they haven't captivated my mind as much, most likely because I'm not a kid and my imagination has, hopefully, matured to the point where I don't need any toys to help me enjoy Transformers. Nostalgia makes up for alot of things, but as much as I'd like to give credit for the new shows (I love cartoons and they are very well written), they just don't captivate my mind to the extent that I have to rush out and buy some toys :). I don't like just buying toys and then having them sit on a shelf.
Of course, I'm not consistent. Some of my favorite characters will grace my desk. Right now I have a Darth Vader, a Quebeley Gundam model, Jazz, and a Squirtle bank that I won in Vegas on my desk as well as a Master Grade Gelgoog and Optimal Optimus standing on my stereo. I still want to finish Predaking, since I have the complete Rampage and Razorclaw and if I get the rest I'll make sure they terrorize the Autobots and start plotting the eventual triumph of the Predacons.
Now I mainly am collecting the catalogs, paperwork, and tech specs from the Transformer since they are cheaper, work well as things just to look at rather than play with and make
wanting more fun than having.
Click here, if you want to see my collection