I'm sure this has come up before and will again, but I'm curious. I used to scoop up one or two Transformers a week, any generation/universe, and what made it worse was there was a comic shop nearby that sold older figures that had long since come and gone. I had anywhere from 150 - 200 figures at one point before I decided the hobby was just too expensive and I was buying them just to have them. I didn't actually do anything with them and they gathered dust. When I sold off most of my collection, it was quite liberating actually. I freed up space, money, I wasn't so anxious to get my hands on exclusives and rarities..I was glad I sold them all.

I see alot of people here, and I'm not faulting anyone by the way, that say things like 'My wallet is crying' or 'my wife/girlfriend/significant other is going to kill me' and it makes me wonder why you would want so many toys as to reach that point. I remember all the ways I convinced myself to buy stuff- I needed to build a proper army, I needed a balanced cross section of Bots and Cons, hard to get exclusives were a must but ultimately, those weren't reasons but attempts to justify. I felt like I was trying to fill a hole with toys and once I realized that, I seriously slowed down. Admittedly, I still have a collections of Alternators I'm quite proud of but I can't and won't go crazy like I used to. I find it much more satisfying to have a relatively small collection of figures I truly enjoy than just grabbing everything that comes along.

So, yeah, why? Why do people spend and spend on Transformers? What compells you? What does it do for you?

 

Its all you guys,"hik!", I luuuuve ya guys!

 

i really have no idea, i try and limit myself to just a few and I tell myself I only collect the prime molds but in reality i just buy the nice things (which is pretty much every thing lol) I only buy 2 or 3 a month and there generally deluxes or cut price voyagers (like the nemisisbreaker I bought today) so I do try and keep the cost down but i think the bottom line is that im just a hoarder I have other collections too so I think im just programmed that way.

 

Is this an intervention? Truth be told I have no idea why, other than I love the hobby and I love toys. Rabbit is very right in that it is rediculous if you are buying stuff just to buy and have. I used to do the same. Then I grew up and narrowed my approach to the figures that really appealed to me. But then again thats what it should be about in the first place. As for the wife bitching, she drives us into debt just as much with cloths she never wears. So I just stopped worrying about it

 

yeah I try not to buy too much ive just realised looking around my room at my collection that i tend to have a lot of g1 homage stuff from energon and cybertron so i think that mite be what attracts me to a figure and the reason i have the entire armada collection was because i worked at toys r us at the time so it was hard not to buy them when i was watching them come into the store.

 

I've been on a Transformers toys buying binge lately. I can easily spend $50+ on 'em. All I can say is that when I go into a store like Target and K-Mart, I just make a beeline to the toy department and when I see Transformers toys, I just grab whichever ones I want until I have a good armload of them and head to the checkout lane. Just don't ask where I get the money.

 

I used to be pretty obsessive, actually. I suppose I'm slowing down in my old age. Now, I collect for quality. I'm also planning on selling some of my MISB collection with the exception of the figures that have special meaning for me or are of incredible quality. For instance, I am and always will be a big Smokescreen fan. I got the original toy when I was 8 or so, and got every reissue and homage of him available in recent years (I loved the Cybertron Smokescreen figure). Needless to say, I can't wait for him to become a classic in the Universe line next year.

 

it's probably because buying these toys gives me the same feeling of happiness and satisfaction that I got as a kid, and that maybe when I was younger, I didn't get enough transformers, that nowadays that I'm able to afford them myself, I am acting on those feelings...and mostly because it reminds me of how life was when I was a kid, a feeling of worry free youth...i dunno bout the rest of you guys...

 

We're in the same boat, iluvu_superion.

 

I am a Police Officer so I have kinda a stressful life. I buy Transformers and keep them in my office at home. I can come in the morning and just look at my collection and just kinda get the worries, fright, and all the bad things that happened that night out of my mind cause I dont like to bring all that home to the family. Plus I buy some Transformers and keep them in my patrol car to give to kids that really dont have the money or the parents wont spend money on toys but rather buy drugs and drink. I keep about 10 figures in my car at all time everything from FAB's to deluxe class. I just hope that those toys can bring as much joy into their life as they did when I was a kid.

 

thats an awsome thing to do!!!!!! major kudos for that you deserve a medal I wish there were more good people around in the world.

 

Same here.

 

OCD. Which results in needing to complete collection at all costs.

Problem is, especially with Transformers, you will never be able to truly complete it.

Its starts off innocent, with a single Transformer you always wanted as a kid. Then you want a few more. Then the exclusives and rare ones. Reissues and homages. Then MIB. Then MISB. You get the idea. It really never ends when you hit this point. Unfortunetly, your money/bank account does.

 

Or prime will die lol


I think this is my real problem I have slight OCD and as I said in my earlier post I just hoard things somtimesw it dosnt even matter what I wonder how many people on here just buy things because of a mental condition haha.

 

badass dude!

 

Same here. Also with me there's a certain sense of what I couldn't have as a kid... I lived in Gibraltar and Germany when I was younger, so it was almost impossible to get TFs out there. Once in a while my dad would go back to the UK on business and pick me up one... I remember one time when he came back and he'd got me Thrust and my bro Dirge... and he was one of the first that I got when I started collecting again  

When I found that Hasbro were re-issuing the TFs, it was a chance to have all the toys I wanted as a kid but could never find / afford... Prime, Soundwave, Megs, etc. etc. etc..

So basically it boils down to I'm a 6 year old in a 26 year old body  

 

That's one of the coolest things I've read in a long time dude. Major kudos to ya.

 

My PTSD.

 

I collect them because they are awesome. What, you wanna fight abboudit?  



No really though, I don't understand completism either. There are a *lot* of lousy figures that aren't worth owning if for no other reason then to say you have it. I cherry pick my favorites from each line (regardless of the characterization) and I *still* have too many.

I continue to collect because there is a ton of great stuff on the horizon, and its a hell of a time to be a fan. Hoever I'll skip the animated figures in favor of fine-tuning my existing collection.

 

the power of chrysler compels me.