Good question. I step away to be financially responsible, and when I feel burnout on the horizon.

 

I need that on loop every time I walk into a store, set up at a show, or open Internet Explorer.

 

Thanks. My biggest worry being anywhere is how I act towards other people. It's because people are used to a more "normal" behavior that they have no idea on how to approach me. It's a "Being an Aspie" thing and I am still working hard to make it feel normal. Which is why I have been going back to my letter campaign to get the help I need to start a business in Japan, focusing on problematic people's patterns more than their attitudes, and rebuilding both the AFA and non-AFA portions of my collections. Things that should help me forget my ongoing social vices and issues.

Plus my goal here is nothing major. Which is why I am not going to make a big deal about anything. But I do promise you that once something is worth showing comes along, I will post it here.  

 

It's been about three years that I've been serious into collecting TF. Before that, I would say that at best, I was dabbling in it, and not for a lack of time or commitment, but because I didn't really know what I wanted to get out of it.

Three years into it, and I'm still in it. That said, the pace has slowed, and therefore, instead of charting a course from acquisition to acquisition, I now drift and enjoy what it is that I have. I guess, in a way, it's a step away, but it's just a step back. I'm still enjoying the show.

 

I'll share some of my experience.

Was mostly unemployed from 2012-2016. Cut back on a lot of Takara TF, wait for sales on Hasbro TF, and transitition to buying LEGO's on clearance and reselling to get bye.

The past two years I've been working in Vietnam. I don't feel the need (and cannot) hunt down all the TF's coming out but when I was back in the US in July the withdraw hits hard. I spent a bunch on older Takara Titan Returns online. Also, I'm not fond of the decepticon siege molds and and still went out and paid full price for them. Ugh. For the past two years I've been paying $100 a month for a storage garage for all my bots that I can't enjoy but I don't regret that at all.

If/when I go back to the US to work permanently the plan is to trim down the collection to one display room and get rid of the rest.

If you really do plan to trim down make sure it's not just a gut reaction and that you spend a bunch of money to rebuild your collection later. Pack up the part of your collection you plan to get rid off and do not look at it for 1-3 months. If after that time, you find you're not thinking about them at all then by all means eject, eject, eject.

Part of my enjoyment from the hobby is occasionally hanging out with other people with the same interest. Even in Vietnam I still feel a little sad when I missed Houston's quarterly toy show or TF group gatherings.

 

I've recently made the decision to stop collecting. Over the past year or so I've spent about $140 on mainline Transformers figures (probably more, factoring in tax and all). That's not even counting stuff like legends/legions, tiny turbo changers, BotBots, non-TF toys, etc. Factoring all that, I've probably spent over $200 on toys in the past year. I realize that's a tiny amount compared to what some collectors spend (that's less than 10 mainline figures...some people buy them all), but I just can't justify spending that amount of money on stuff that gets transformed twice and put in a drawer. Out of my recent purchases, there are only two figures I don't regret buying (mainly because I still use them my display). Plus, I'd rather leave figures on shelves for kids who will actually get more use and enjoyment out of them. My 5 minutes of fun with a figure doesn't justify taking enjoyment away from the target audience, at least in my mind.

But having given up collecting, I do feel more liberated. For one thing, I don't feel the need to stop by the store as often, or stop by the toy department at all. The time I spend watching reviews, looking over photos, driving around to stores, looking at the toys, and standing in line to buy the figure can now be spent doing something more rewarding: like spending time with friends, studying, or practicing a skill. It's also nice to be free of that urge to constantly check whether something's in-stock. It's kind of an addictive feeling, because I was afraid someone else would get to the figure first. And it was definitely cutting into my time.

 

I’m not giving up on collecting I’m just changing my interests. I’m stopping mainline collecting. I’m running out of room and soon I’ll be moving in with my girlfriend which means even more limited space. I’m going to focus on 3P legends and MP of my favorite characters which isn’t many left untouched at this point.

 

I just sold a lot of my old live-action toys, and some of my older CHUG figures. They just collected dust. I didn't play with them, they didn't bring me joy. I'm still buying, but I am being more selective about it. My main focus is CHUG and Masterpiece. I wanna get rid of all my old third-party toys-I have such regret for the Combiners!

 

I have other interests but I don't collect anything else. This is it, just TF's. And it's been a part of me since I was a little kid, so 30 years later, without ever selling a single one, the collection has grown beyond me.

I was in the middle of potentially selling my home and when the realtor took the tour she saw the collection and said wow. And then it went into the utility room with the 10 huge tupperware coffins stacked floor to ceiling. Tongue in cheek she asked of I had a problem, but later told my wife that we had to "clear out all the sh!t" in the otherwise nice finished basement before we showed the place to anyone. Yeah that hurt.

We didn't sell after all for unrelated reasons but the comment stuck with me. Something I deeply treasured was just garbage to everyone else. Okay.

Then for also unrelated reasons I got sick, missed a lot of work, had two surgeries and incurred thousands of dollars of medical expenses (not to mention still having to pay for child care, wife's college tuition, mortgage, car note, etc.).

So today I'm having to reassess my one true hobby's worth and impact in my life, in my family's life.

I've cancelled all my preorders, have 4 tubs of C8+ figures I'd like to sell, going back to the early 90's thru this last wave...I've made the conscious decision to scale back, stop for a while, and enjoy what I have left. I just don't know how to go about recovering as much funds as I need in order to get back on my feet. I don't wanna gouge any fellow collectors but I NEED to dig myself out, so more stress...Yay.

Usually a trip to the store for a cheap 'bot would cure that right up, but I have to avoid that whole side of the shoppe anytime I go...because food and medicine are more important right now than cheap-overpriced plastic.

 

Precisely. I was fired from my job a few weeks ago and had to scrub all the figures I had planned to buy so I could put the money I had toward the things I need.

However...when I get hired, you best believe I'm going on one hell of a shopping spree!

 

Honestly dude, same thing. I’ve been studying like crazy and so collecting just takes the backseat in my life for now. These are some tough exams, so best of luck with your studies!  

Very good points! I feel like I’m fitting in with the first few points you’ve mentioned. I’m personally hoping to be able to move sometime in the near future, so not only will I have to save some money, but keeping a relatively minimalistic collection would also be ideal. Plus the law of diminishing returns is starting to kick in for me, and each new figure is giving me less of a “thrill” on arrival. I never initially intended to go on collecting forever, so I feel like stopping before I get to the point where I could get frustrated with the hobby could be a good idea. You know, ‘leaving off on a high note’ sort of thing.

I’ll sum up my points as to why I’m personally considering “hanging up the coat”:
- Saving up money for a potential move (or for anything in general to be honest, since it never hurts to have extra for when it’s needed)
- Keeping my collection at a minimum for personal preferences & for aforementioned move
- Time, since I’m also studying for my CPA exams
- Also time, because after my exams I hope to venture out and find some other hobbies that could interest me (non-collecting that is)
- Leaving on a high note, before the hobby has the potential to turn toxic

I think the turning point for me is when I realized I’m starting to buy toys specifically for my other toys, rather than for my own self. I was looking at the SS constructicons again, and I came to the realization that those are the only figures I really want for myself (since I collect for more than just display purposes), and everything else that was on my proverbial wishlist were just additions to ‘look good’ with other stuff. I think with a hobby like this, it’s always best to be mindful of yourself, of what you want, and how you see things progressing in the future. That’s how I personally see things at least.

 

I've been spending more time with my family and my new job. I'm also focusing more on religion and politics (two things we can't discuss here.) I wish I had the time and resources to grow my collection, customize, and makes web comics with them. Maybe after I retire....

 

It's all about money, space, and interest.

I didn't buy many throughout the years as many figure didn't grab my attention, nor did I have money to buy indiscriminately. I'm not a completist, and I know what i like and my collection was large already years ago (as it's not limited to TFs only).

I've been able to buy more lately, and Siege hit hard on the "finally, the G1 in a form that I really like" and is the only series that made me get so many of them (almost all of them, but drew the line at the recolors of late). Now, I'm more about the fact that I have limited space to put them, so I need to rotate and put a lot away.

But the overpricing is wearing my purchase interest down, so once I finish the main characters that I want, I'll return to being extremely picky... and possibly stop, at least at 99% and maybe get into other series that I'm also into.

 

Unofficially retired collector here. My $0,02 on the matter:

I've started attending a boarding school. There's only so much stuff you can bring into one small (relative) room home to five loud, noisy boys. Now that I'm pretty much on my own, I have better things to buy than plastic crack. For instance food, groceries, books, stationary, even clothes.

But most importantly, I just don't care anymore.

I love TF figures and I watch every release, especially Studio Series stuff with great anticipation and attention to detail. Beyond that however, I feel burned out of collecting and I've lost what it means to me. I bought my first Leader (Blackout), spent $35 twice on two very underwhelming and small Deluxes (TLK Drift, Stinger), one of which I don't even display with my main gang anymore, about $120 on three Voyagers (Ironhide, Brawl, Bonecrusher) and one Deluxe (Jazz), and pretty much the entire SS 2018 roster barring repaints. All that and now what? They've been reduced to heaps of dust collecting plastic like Andy's toys in Toy Story 3.

I have no plans of selling them, but at this point in life that's all they have left going for them - money. Who knows where they'd go from here.

 

I've always had limits of what I wanted to collect and how much space it should take up. Now I started to sell off some figures to make room for new ones. I could buy waaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy more, I just don't want to. What I buy matters to me and brings me joy. But it's only a fraction of my hobbies.


Although I'm looking for a bigger apartment, my current goal is making my current apartment nicer, decorate more, make more room. I came to the conclusion, that I won't automatically have a nicer apartment just by getting a bigger one. I have to streamline what stuff, furniture, etc. I have and optimize where it's positioned and how. Also I went from having everything only in black and silver to more friendly colors and adding more green and Nature elements. A little bit away from the techno look. And it's working. Of course some things won't be replaced until I have the bigger apartment, like getting a big corner couch. I also made my home smart and automated a few things here and there.

But my collection is not really part of that restructuring, as that has been planned and organized from the beginning. I had a vision of what I wanted and waited years to see if the figures would become a reality for what I needed to make that vision come true. Now only a few are missing and only a few figures got into the collection that we're not planned, but had such nice toys I had to have them.

 

Just an update from moi. This past month I have been focusing on creating a positive end to my need to solely collect Transformers.

I am capping my whole collection with a minimalist approach: Three newer pieces displayed in my current bedroom, two packed away so they can be graded by AFA (and taken with me when I finally move), a book that is part of my art book collecting plans, and a t-shirt I paid double for because it was sold in Hot Topics. All in all doing this has kept me from trying to learn all the latest fiction created by TOMY, and not having it be role-playing game related has encouraged me to look into other things I find to be interesting.

Atop of that I have found the means of how people accumulate their knowledge to be interesting. Not enough to permanently follow them. But in a sense that it has me wonder why select bloggers who go vintage do not keep up with the newer stuff. One example a well known blogger flubbed when he told me that TakaraTomy's Legends line did not have any Headmasters. He thought it was true, and probably still does. But in truth Legends is currently the last to use that G1 gimmick. Which, to me, is why I find these past differences to be interesting.

In the end walking away will give me more time to have you guys see "Fenrir Zero" become some type of brand I co-create before the next decade is over. Hence the #1 positive reason why I am personally stepping away from collecting anything more from this franchise.