Ya know... I had a feeling someone might go there and thought about qualifying it. Guess I tempted fate.   No offense taken.

Honestly this whole thing goes beyond collecting TFs. It applied to anything that your peer group looks down on. When you get out of high school at least, it becomes vastly easier to choose your associations and control that group so you don't have to deal with people giving you crap.

 

The thoughts that run through my head when there's a mom and kid in my way in a toy aisle aren't good (take a fucking CJ and get the hell out of here)  

 

I have no problem going to any store to "hunt" or the like. No shame.

 

i don't buy new toys so i use ebay or the b,s,t thread. but i guide my little brother on new toys and tell him the good ones to get at retail.

 

I'm surprised to read that, but are there stores that won't let you buy toys for yourself if you're grown up? Some posts seemed to imply that  

Why would they ask? The most people ask me is if I want to wrap it in gift paper, to which I reply "No, thanks". And IF they ever asked me if it's for me, I wouldn't have any problems saying it is.

I admit, though, that when I was still young and in the last year of school, I bought a TM Tarantulas, and a guy I knew from school was with me, so for some reason I lied and said it was a gift to my little brother. That was stupid, but then again teenagers often do such things to avoid perceived embarassment. Since then I've never denied my taste for transforming toys meant for children.

 

Good man.

 

I'm 30 and not ashamed of my TFs or buying them. But I generally don't like people being nosy with any of my stuff.

I avoid going to one place where a certain employee gave me crap and spoke to her directly telling her to step up her service. But if I still need to go there I just go and be cool. It's only a couple of minutes of trying to be civil and I get something that gives me a lot of enjoyment.

 

true true,,,,but maybe the moms hot. and i can score a toy adn a mom....lol...just kidding  
i support single moms

 

Well said.

 

I am 13 and it kinda bothers me.....

 

I see plenty of adults buying Legos and Transformers and GIJoe.

I myself buy TFs and those Cra-Z-Art's Super Blox building block sets.

I buy video games.

Cashiers have given me a bit of lip in the past, but for the most part, no one says anything and I don't give a shit. They're probably going home and tokin' up or getting drunk or something along those lines.

They have no right to sit in judgment. F*ck 'em.

 

17 here. Never been bothered by it.

 

I'm not ashamed at all.

 

i'd assume that if you are older, that people assume you are buying them for kids or nieces/nephews, and if your under 15 it's okay. but i'm pretty sure for the 16-21 yr olds it gets a little unnerving, especially cause mall centers are where our friends hang at and some have jobs at the stores, so no one wants to go and buy a toy or lego set and get rung up by someone you know from school, and the holidays only come around once a year and the "it's my little cousins birthday" cant work all the time

 

I'm 21 years old. I'm at that age where I can't really make excuses. I feel no shame in buying toys at retail, in fact I prefer it when I can find them. Then again, toy collecting among adults in my town is not really that outstanding, since there's a guy who frequently buys any Star Wars figures he can find and a few other Transformers collectors I've bumped into. Even if it was a thing only I did, I think in this day and age people are just cool with it.

 

I don't care what anyone thinks, why would I have any reason to? If someone has the balls to ask rather than judge, then I simply tell them that I'm a collector.

No big deal.

I hate shopping online anyway. I prefer the feeling of having the item in my hand as I pay for it, and actually leaving the store with it. Beats paying for something you won't have for a while and leaving it to the Postal system.

 

Everyone has their "thing" and I feel no shame for what I like or am in to. I have family members that refuse to talk to me because their thing GOD and apparently I am unworthy so IMO there are worse hobbies than just buying small pieces of plastic that represent the good ole days. Honestly, it's not really what you're in to so much as how you handle your life and the things in it.

 

I don't mind going out in public. I recently had a talk with a local toy-shop salesguy who smiled at the disucssion I had with my ex-gf. He was actually used to adults buying TF toys for themselves and not for their children.

So the region I am currently in, it is at least a little more "normal" or socially accepted that TF's are a hobby for adults as well as children.