So, three years ago now I left my long-term girlfriend. She'd been quite controlling, and despite knowing of my passion for Transformers, refused to support me and didn't let me buy any (with my own money - but that's another story, involving my testicles and a small box). So, of course, when I left her, I went and bought a fair few more Transformers, and displayed them all proudly in my room, a defiant gesture towards my old life.

Eventually, however, I started to realise that I may have a few too many. Just for display purposes, mind - you can never have too many Transformers (I don't think I need help or anything - collecting toys is a perfectly healthy hobby ;-) ). Okay, so I only had 130 in my room - whilst that's not many by a lot of standards on here, it was a significant improvement to my own collection - but they presented three problems. Firstly, keeping them clean was a nightmare - I was losing an hour every week trying to dust the damned things. Secondly, I was only renting one room, and it was looking seriously cluttered. And thirdly... women.

Now, I'm never going to let a woman tell me what I can and can't be interested in ever again, BUT I figured that when I was inviting a girl back to my place for the first time, I probably shouldn't freak her out by taking her to my room and then seducing her whilst being watched by 130 plastic robots. (And just to make things worse, I was sleeping in a bunk bed. But I digress...) So when I did get a girl, I ended up hiding all but a couple of them, and, my gods, that took time. And I quickly realised that if I ever randomly pulled again, there was no way I'd be able to make a girl wait outside whilst I attempted to hide my collection - she'd die of exposure before I was done.

So, even though I've now bought a house, and I have plenty more room, I still don't want all my Transformers out, for the two reasons that they're annoying to clean, and they could scare away potential new girlfriends.

That said, I'm not putting them all away, mind - I've got a nice, glass display case in my study, which is holding the cream of my collection. I'm not entirely hiding my Transfan side. Just now it looks a little (well, relatively) more respectable.

The question I have, though, is what do I do with the rest of them?

I want to keep the rest of my Transformers, since I'll get them out and play with them again from time to time. (Of course, when I say "play", I do mean "admire in a mature manner". Of course. ;-) ) But I don't want them to suffer from any sort of damage whilst in storage. It's probably inevitable that things will just... go, but I want to minimise it if I can.

My original thoughts had been to store my toys in the loft, since that's where I was keeping some of the more fragile, older ones anyway. But having recently taken a look at the older ones, I was aghast to discover that some damage had occurred. Most notably, Powermaster Optimus Prime's grey bits have gone green. Now I don't know if this is anything to do with being kept in the loft, where it experienced extremes of temperature in both directions, or whether the plastic was just dodgy, but I want to try and stop this kind of thing from happening again.

So, yeah, what I want to know is: What do I do with my Transformers such that, when I come to get them out and look at them again in a few weeks'/months'/years' time, they're still in good condition?

Thanks in advance for any advice, and well done for making it through my ramble.  

 

I've got my horde of TFs and various sci-fi and anime on a bank of Ikea shelves, but the ever-growing TF collection filled it up, so I got some plastic drawer sets from Target and stuck 'em in my closet. Now any TF that fits in a drawer is in one save the Alternators and the 6" Titaniums.

Oh yeah, and my MicroMasters that I got way back when have been stashed in the basement for a long time. Star Convoy reissue and the universe micromaster combiner sets joined them down there.

 

The best advice I can give is to keep them somewhere clean, cool, and dry. You could get those plastic containers (I call them "tubs") and maybe consider a dehumidifier.

 

DUDE! you dated Kelly too?

 

Well that wasn't her name... Do you think this Kelly could have been one of a set of clones? Do they have a Plan?

And thanks for the advice thus far, guys.  

 

it is my believe they are spawned in Hell. born not from woman but from sacks of stuff that can makes up being spawned.

 

Funny, I always dropped girls as fast as I could if they weren't going to support the stuff I was into. No 'tang is worth sacrificing hobbies for  

 

I too once hid them when I had a girl over. I still criticize myself over that decision, as she was definately not worth modifying my lifestyle for. But hey, mission accomplished, the toys went away & Dan got to play.

Now that I'm a bit older I agree with Lumpy - the collection is part of who I am, and if someone doesn't like it, I dont want to be around her, and vice versa.

Not the greatest role model, but I have to quote the fat fraternity guy in Borat: "Never let a woman define you."

 

Dude, as long as they're not all over your house, (and mine kinda are... well...maybe a dozen figs), you're fine. a girl doesn't need to be Sami about it, but anyone willing to eventually love you understands that people have hobbies. however dorky. (which you're obviously running into.)

i was flirting up this chick online, and we got on the phone (this goes years back), and when she found out i was into TFs, it turned into a laugh fest... i instantly lost all interest in her. heh - back then i had about 230, now i'm at 1030. And Emily (my fiancee) doesn't mind...

Though I am trying to come to grips with halting the purchases as I save for the wedding...man it's hard.

Good luck, and put out your stuff for display!!

 

thanx. Like - i cut myself off of G1, cuz I figure if they've been around for 20some years, they can wait a little longer. But this new stuff's comin out, and she's wise to it a bit...I bought the protoforms, and she was like "stu... are those new?"

um...



shit.


yes.

 

QFT! Forgive me, but I think being "watched" by plastic robots is quite funny.  

(I have had sex with a GF in front of my collection and never felt that way.)

 

Well I guess that that depends on how much you anthropomorphise your toy collection... ;-) But yeah, I have done that too, and never found that way. It's just that I didn't want to really freak anyone out the first time they came back to my bedroom. That said, until very recently that whole experience also involved being less than two feet away from the ceiling, so I guess there were other distractions...

But no, I utterly agree with what you've all been saying in the thread - which is that I wouldn't be with someone who didn't understand, support, or at least just accept my hobby. (Well, not a second time, anyway.) It's just that between my Transformers, my Master Replicas Lightsabres, the Astromech I have roaming around the lounge... I wouldn't want to overwhelm a girl the first time she came round to my place. Of course that said, the first time I ever slept with a girl we were being watched by pictures of Mr. Worf and there was an Enterprise-B on my bedside table... so maybe I worry too much.  

The other, and more important reason, though, is really what Seawing said - I hate having to clean the damned things on a weekly basis. An hour spent dusting toys is an hour not spent in Warcraft, or doing something equally worthwhile. ;-)

 

The female mentality is a strange one to say the least. They'll say nothing about buying hundreds of pairs of shoes but I guess collecting toys isn't considered "glamorous" enough. Anyways, most of mine are in baskets or tubs as well, I live in a small two bedroom duplex and my extra bedroom is full of stuff, I have a few on display on my coffee table and a few other places but I think getting some display cases are your best bet.