At what point, what amount of money, what amount of action figures, what deeds of dedication will it take for you to realise you've crossed the line ? What amount of purchasing, action figures aquired and time invested in transformers will cause you to take a long, hard look in the mirror and question yourself; "At what point did this harmless hobby become a destructive obsession, when did I cross that line!"
When I'm down to the point that I'm buying 20 copies of the same figure to add new parts for new characters. Or when I blow nearly 500 dollars for one voyager and four deluxe figures because its a special repaint with a new head. If I ever do that, I got to step away and look at myself.
i have bought hundreds (several hundred in fact) my ebay account feedback # attests to that...and have gotten to the point where i still like to collect transformers...just not a vast huge ass army of transformers...and have been actively selling off a large portion of them....for me it was when half my collection was in sterlite plastic storage tubs in our storage container....and the other half of my collection was all over in my room in a matter that made it look like al qaeda blew up a TRU inside my bedroom. now i am collecting select lines *classics, some botcon figs and beast wars/beast machines,...and selling off all the rest... but it will be different for each fan, just like everyone has different interest and tastes in music...we are all different and react differently to collecting TF's
When I almost put down $70+ to buy a loose henkei rodimus that originally sold for ~$25 That and looking at the number of MISB toys I have. I still can't bring myself to set them loose.
If my daughter looks at me while I'm playing with the new Transformer I bought and says "I'm hungry." And all I can say is that Daddy spent grocery money on his new toys. That's where the line is crossed.
For me, I just use "you know it when you see it". I just bought Beachcomber/Brawn Legends class for $30 from someone on the boards A bit pricey for two Legends, but I got into the CHUG game rather late (March) after being out of Transformers loop since early Universe. So I did some very fast catching up, and for some must haves, it's just a penalty fee for being late. I KNEW I wanted the modern interpretation of every 84, 85 and 86 G1 character I could get, so I would lay down the cash. Where is it self destructive? Well I prevented myself from putting down $90 for United Rumble/Frenzy. Two SCOUT CLASS figures, that are well known to have very wide appeal in the US but have not been released here yet? Huge waste of money. It was just 2 years ago Hasbro was scrambling for non-Movieverse, non-Animated molds for their broader line that they churned out redecos of Cybertron and RiD figures (namely Prime and Magnus). They put a lot of energy, not to mention money, in flushing CHUG with fresh molds since then. I'd be extraordinarily surprised if Rumble/Frenzy didn't get a post-DotM release because they have it on hand, and fresh to the West.
I drew the line at the 2010 Unicron. Then I crossed the line and bought it. Now I have to stop myself from buying anything else until the movie toys come out. Because I only want like 4 from the whole line.
Great topic! I've actually drawn several lines. I don't collect movie figures because on the average I don't like the designs. The deluxe TF figures I collect are hovering close to the $15 mark once that happens I will have a lot of thinking to do. When the MPs passed the $150 mark I decided to leave them alone. The TRU versions are also too small to warrant $75 so those will not be bought either. I'm not a completist so there are certain figures I will not pay over a certain amount for.
I overstepped the line a lllllong time ago. I remember telling myself "I am not going to spend more than $100 on any one figure" & that promise has since been blown out of the water... Yup, I'm beyond help...
I'm not an adult yet. i don't pay for my own house or for kids or food or anything. i pay for my transformers using birthday/christmas money. there are months where i simply run out of money, where my wallet is flat, as i don't really get an allowance or anything like that. it's taught me quite a bit about managing money. Thus, my wishlist is also full of calculations and prioritized numbers and dates, to ensure that i don't run out of money. i'll know i've gone over the edge when i've stopped caring about how much i'm paying for what and stop planning what, when and how to buy my toys. as a child, i can afford to run out of money in my wallet. as an adult i never want to be in that position.
I'll stop when 10 figures in a row I buy have some kind of horrible QC issue. I'll just look at myself, and be like "why do I buy this shit if the arms are just gonna fall off?"
Depends on character of the toy, awesomenss of the toy by a toy reviewer (usually Peaugh), and the price.
When buying toys causes me to be late in paying bills, not paying bills, getting overcharged on my card, or living with mom in my 40s because I'm too obsessed with buying stuff that I don't bother to save up and buy a house and/or can't even afford the rent on some shitty apartment. Basically, when the act of purchasing all of this crap gets in the way of things I actually do need to live life. Barring something that extreme, there is no line.
My bills are paid, a roof over my head and food in the fridge. As long as that is met and the son and gf have everything they need I'm good. Any of that goes because of toys its too far and I would be in trouble anyways lol As far as buying stuff goes, the sub $20 things are never really an issue, the larger expensive stuff like Masterpieces or Predaking or Unicron 2010 reissues get budgeted for and are usually my X-Mas, birthday or equivalent type gifts. I also will not pass up smoking G1 deals as that is the focus of my collection(and homages off, least the good ones) and always knowing what a deal is and isnt helps, as I try and keep a quasi list of G1 private hands traded prices and ebay BS prices. Luckily I recently landed a good new job and I shouldnt be in danger of missing any new releases, but with no reissues announced as of yet and Generations slowing down or ending it wont matter.
