Close and lock your room when unknown/untrusty children come over. I've always had a cave in the basement myself, and now that I'm in (shudders) Florida, a "man room". Just the same as you, I have many of my collectibles on display (20 years of Star Wars and 10+years of Transformers) along with all my video games, TV, even mannequins displaying some of our costumes. I've never had any issues with my own kids, but whenever other kids come over, I treat them case-by-case. Some I know pretty well, know they're parents well, and know how the kids behave, and usually have no problem leaving the room unattended since I know kids wont be going in there. However, whenever we have more than a few kids over, throwing a party, or maybe some kids I may not be comfortable with, I simply close and lock the door. Period. I've even done this with the kids' room at times. Ive had kids come over that are not interested in my room (girls), but will go into my girls' room and break a bunch of stuff and leave a horrible mess that my kids are left to clean. First time that ever happened was the last. Every time those kids have come over since (only invited to parties out of courtesy), my kids' rooms have been locked as well as my room and only common areas have been accesible. On a side note, we've managed to raise 2 children who come in and out of my rooms on a regular basis and never had a single incident, I developed a technique that I'm sure is guaranteed since it's worked two-for-two in my household. Like I said, I have Star Wars and Transformers in my room. There's also always been a couch in my room (HEY! A guy needs somewhere to sleep when he gets in trouble with the wife right? ), well I always kept age appropiate themed toys on that couch for the kids. A stuffed Ewok, some happy meal toys and legends TFs. These were there specifically for them to play with whenever they were in my room. They could sit on that couch and play with them only when I was in the room with them, any other time there was a baby gate up. I also let them have some of those toys in they're room. This gave them the opportunity to share my hobby with pieces of they're own and kept they're interest away from my more expensive, shelf pieces. As they've grown, the baby gate's long gone, and they come in and out of my room without ever touching my stuff. My oldest comes in here daily to do her homework on the computer. They've also now made their own shelves that they have their mini-collections on. So dont lose hope! If you guys ever get to a point in life where you change your mind about children, it doesnt mean you have to give up your hobby! For now, just lock that door when kids come over! Hope that helps! Later
I'm leaning towards getting some of those glass cases from ikea, the problem is that my man cave area isn't real big. just big enough for the stuff I have in it.
Okay, now that the OP has clarified the things I didn't understand (a skunk collection? Are there that many skunks in the world? Inquiring minds wish to know...!) I'm more on-board with him. Nothing happened to the toys except possibly a few fleeting moments of horror when they envisiged themselves in a Toy Story 3-esque situation, and the parents ought to have been more responsible. If I had to take my child to another person's house then I would make sure they were on their best behaviour, and that they followed the rules of that other person's house. My parents taught me this, it's not so hard. That being said - I can't believe the sheer number of posters who are all "omg stop inviting people round!" "tell your wife she can't have her friends round!" Seriously, people? Stop entertaining and allowing your spouse to have a social life on the off-chance something in the house might be damaged? There are plenty of remedies to the situation - put a lock on the Man Cave, get a proper entertainment system in a communal area, put the Transformers in lockable glass cabinets - but "don't invite anyone around ever, be an anti-social prick to all of your friends!" isn't one of them. I fear for the future of humanity if some people on here are really choosing their toy - yes, toy, it doesn't matter if they are $20 or $200 they were mostly made to be played with - collection over their fellow human beings. Sheesh. EDIT: I'm getting some Ikea Detolfs sometime next week, and according to my amazing math skills (measuring a room is harder than the professionals make it look) I can fit two on a small wall next to a Billy bookcase, which is massive by comparison. Unless you're banging your head on the ceiling or your television literally takes up a wall, you should have nae problemo
Ok, then you have now reached a point where you'd best separate the home cinema from your TF cave. Clearly, you and your wife might get more visitors and the home cinema will likely be the 'social hub' ...thus, it's not a smart thing to have the TF's in the same room if you're not comfy with people touching your TF's. If you have the home cinema thing in a dedicated room ready for friends and visitors, they'll appreciate you for being a guy with friendly hospitality instead of someone who's going act uptight over something they don't see the collector value of.
Be sure you get something you can open from the front. I have a jewlery store display for all my Optimus Primes, class case with mirrors in the back, it looks awesome! But also, I HATE IT!!!! Why? Because it opens from the back and now all my Primes, my favorite part of my collection, are trapped in there and if I want to play with any of them, I have to move this gigantic thing over to get to them, knocking over most of what's inside then having to set it all back up again and very carefully push it back against the wall when I'm done, hoping something wont fall over in the process, which I believe is impossible now. I'm currently looking for a new display option. Glass cases look awesome, just be sure you can access from the front LOL!!! Later
A little overreacting but understandable. I have my display cabinets in the living room and everytime my sisters 2 and 4 year olds come over, they go right to the cabinets and occasionally open them and pull something out. Put yourself in the kids shoes, they are all toys and are meant to be played with. If you have a problem with them touching your stuff then place them in a higher location that isnt accessible, just a thought for you to avoid the situation all together.
no not at all. My girlfrind knows better than to have people touching my figures but I run into the same problem with her letting people into my man cave.
I don't let any heathens near my man-cave. No, you're not overreacting. Get a lock so that the kids can be kept busy with that if they "have to" be touchy and fiddly with everything. The way most of your stuff survived this long, if I'm correct, is that you took good care of it when you were a kid. I still have a good portion of my TF from my younger years; my siblings' are all in pieces. A bunch of kids are wayyyy deficient in manners, and it's getting tougher to teach them as parents become too cowardly to speak their minds and take corrective action - thus they run wild, become ghetto youth, can't pass citizenship tests, end up featured on "Jaywalking" with Jay Leno, etc.
I just found that man cave has an entry on Wikipedia and read about it. I just thought you have a room that you called man cave and that it would be a play on bat cave. But when I read what was written about it on Wikipedia I can assure you that you did not overreact and I wonder why you let the woman and her kids in there in first place. They have disgraced your man cave, now it's time for revenge And now I know that I need something like this if I would live together with a girl one day But it needs to be soundproof
Letting a little boy anywhere near Transformers is like letting a hungry Grizzly Bear near salmon, you just know what's going to happen. Would not have hurt to humor the kid a bit with why they are out of order. Not like we are going to live forever so we might as well be nice to people who are going to replace us one day as the people with an odd collection. Although I have to agree that the mom should be a little more responsible for her kid's behavior when it's clear that you can't just afford to go out and buy replacements if the kid breaks something that cost a ton of money. Maybe a compromise answer is to keep a few cheap figures around for the kid to mess with to keep him distracted from the expensive stuff.
Please don't tell me you just equated a child who is naturally mischievous when he or she wants to play with a bunch of fun-looking toys, with a teenager in prison because he shot a rival gang member over drugs/alcohol/girlfriends/respect etc. Just because you were cautious over your toys as a child doesn't mean everybody else has to be. I threw mine around like nobody's business, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna go set me up a drugs cartel. And I have no idea what passing a citizenship test would have to do with anything. I'd certainly fail mine, I know nothing about England. And I've lived here my whole life.
Yes, I can understand the kids as well. When I was little we visited friends of my parents and the man had tank models. To me they were tank toys. I wanted to play with them and wanted some as well. But I was not allowed to touch them, I did not understand why... but when my parents said I was not allowed to do something, I obeyed them. I think the first time I lied to my parents was when I was 13. Funny, I already forgot that
I dont let any kids near my collection. I may take a few toys that I dont care about and leave them around for them to have something to do, but no, if kids are coming over, they aint getting anywhere near my stuff, and if they try-I put the kids or kid in a dark closet for the duration of their stay.
You are nowhere near overreacting. I don't have my own home, but I have I own room, which I'm now calling my "Mancave" . I have three nephews, the oldest one knows not to touch my collection without my permission, the second oldest will try to get one when he thinks I'm not looking, but fails to do so, the youngest is still a infant, so no worries there, for now. Unlike the rest of you, my collection is mostly made up of Bionicle figures as well as some TFs, six Hero Factory figures and soon, a Busou Shinki. I have some junker TFs and a container fill with Lego pieces to use as distractions for other kids that might come over when their families do. When I do get my own home, all of my figures are going to be on shelves and in cabinets, which are going to be lock in a room only I will have access to.
Yes. Yes your are. Greatly. I'm surprised the kid didn't go batshit insane. If I was young and saw all those toys I would've lost control.
