Can it really be called Transformers collecting when we were children and someone was buying the toys for us? Isn’t that just having toys as opposed to a conscious dedication to the collecting of a particular brand or toy line? These interesting questions were posed by a forum member recently and it instantly made me think of the distinctive aspects of collecting versus having and receiving. When Is It Collecting? | Source Blog <- CLICK TO READ All the best Maz
When I was a kid, I bought mostly my own Transformers with money I earned by doing firewood and other chores. The ones I got as gifts were ones I specifically asked for. I think what I did was an early form of collecting. I was less experienced, but I knew what I wanted without question and I did what I needed to to hit those goals.
^Ditto. I bought all my own Transformers by earning money and doing chores, yard work and all the stuff that my parents didn't want to do or were too tired to do. The only TF I got as a gift was Soundwave, and that's because it was my Birthday. Still have it, too! I lucked up and found Topspin (a Jumpstarter) on the ground on the way to school one morning. I was absolutely stoked to have it. I wasn't privileged growing up and I had to earn everything I received. I still have all of my G1'ers, but they're not in good condition as they were all transformed hundreds of times by a 12 year-old.
So I finally got home and had a chance to sit down and read your article @Maz I enjoyed that a lot. Several times when reading it I paused as a flood of memories came rushing in. Days from the past- I remembered opening Optimus Prime, Megatron and how I started building Predaking but never made it because when I finally had enough to finish him, the other ones were gone from the pegs. In hindsight, I should have asked the store owner to do a layaway for the full set. Great article man
If you are a kid and doing MISB kind of stuff, I'd say that is collecting, of course I had no friends growing up doing that?
I think I was collecting even back then. Of course I couldn't pay for my toys, but I loved Transformers so much that there was a time I only wanted them. In catalogs, in toys stores, in commercials, they were the only toys I was interested in. So I asked for them because I wanted to collect them. I was jealous of my friends who had specific ones (Oh that Powerglide my neighbour had... And that day he said to me "for his birthday my cousin got the Robot Base (Metroplex)!" me: "There's a robot base ??!" That was emulating, I knew I wanted more, I really desired to collect these characters I loved, these fascinating transforming things. Even with my kid brother. He had some, of course, but he wasn't as invested in it as i was. So i didn't understand. And trade his TFs against some toys of mine he would like. Yes... I think I was collecting. And if I wasn't ? Well, I was a kid with a passionate love about a specific universe. Still am. With a little more money, a little more free to be.
I consider the start of my collecting ROTF, even though back then my parents were buying my stuff for me. I would consider if collecting cause while I played with my figures like any kid would after a while I put them up on the shelf, I was very inspired at the time by people's collections I had seen online. A few years later and I started making my own money to keep up my collecting when lines like Prime and FOC came around.
I know for a fact I wasn't collecting as a kid. I loved the G1 figures I had, but I never tried to get a complete line of anything. I just had fun with them and played with them, usually until they broke.
Even as a "kid" if you made a concious choice to ask for one specific brand of Toy over others (Star Wars figures, TFs ) then you could probably ascribe that the qualities of "collecting" as opposed to just passive gift reception. I was old enough (14 going on 15) to be "earning" my own allowance when TFs first hit so very few of them were gifts, I had to buy most of them myself. So......definitely collecting.
Riiiiiiiiiight there... top left hand corner. Pretty much says it all. Hasbro told you were collecting regardless of where the money came from. I think people confuse the word "collecting" with "buying"... Or, more importantly "spending your own money". And there are plenty of other ways to collect without spending money. But that's all trivial. The bigger issue is when you confuse "collecting" with "investing". That's a problem as you should be collecting because you want to enjoy the figure/item for what it is and not what it's worth ten years from now when hindsight buyers can't pick it up off a store shelf. You want to invest in toys, buy toy company stock. Back to this topic, a collection is simply having more than one of anything in a theme. And that's a loose concept at best. The real defining point is when you stop collecting to simply play with a toy and start collecting to own and enjoy for more substantial purposes. You've always been a collector, you've just matured in your understanding of the hobby or habit.
I thought of myself flipping the switch to "collector" around the middle-nineties. I was into Transformers since '84. I was in college when G2 rolled around, and gave me the chance to pick up reissues of a few childhood toys I missed. I really went full out around '96, when I first got on the web and browsed the early TF websites and forums, and I discovered/rediscovered BW and late G2 toys like Laser Optimus, which made me go "When did they start making Transformer toys this good?"
Back in the '80's, in the heyday of action figures and vehicles, I most certainly did collect toys, though not Transformers, but rather the M.A.S.K. vehicles and playsets. I loved (and still love) those toys and theer was a definite intent to get all of them. As far as possible, I kept packaging and paperwork, and I also know I haven't lost any accessories of any of the vehicles. I only stopped collecting, when, well... I had everything (all regular released vehicles and sets). Then again, I did own some Transformers (and some GI Joe vehicles), but these were specifically toys, only to be played with, but never with a realistic intent to collect all of them, or even to spend much pocket money on. I only became a Transformers collector when I started with Beast Wars toys, even though distribution of especially the Mega and Ultra class figures was patchy, even back then. After that, the rest is history...
Yup, I used what savings from my pocket money I had during college days to buy my Takara Transformers Book collection... ahh. good times. Of course this was a good 3 years before I started work and using my own money ...
I think it becomes collecting when you start being concerned about the condition of the toys, keeping them in good shape, and being no longer willing to pass them on to younger siblings or friends, or throw them away without replacing them when they break. Collecting is an emotion, it's a state of mind that can be observed in behavior. You're a collector when you form an emotional connection to the things you buy.
I collected Thundercats (Panini?) stickers when I was wee. It was still collecting because I was trying to amass a set, despite them being paid for by my parents money.
My little girl (6 yrs old) collects Shopkins. We buy them for her but she checks off her checklist with the ones she has and either redistribute swaps as other characters (reminds me of the old days of repurposing Armada figures in chug) or gives them to me and I sell / swap them on so she can have more. We may pay for them but she keeps check, looks after and tells us which ones she needs. Between the ages of 7 and 14 I used to collect Matchbox 'Models of Yesteryear', which - unlike any other 'toys' I had - were kept on one of my shelves, some MISB. My parents paid for them but I collected them. Much like my daughter is doing with Shopkins. Ironically, whilst I did have a lot of transformers as a kid, young Beardy didn't see that as collecting, more characters I 'needed'. I stopped 'needing' Transformers when G2 happened - young Beardy hated the all plastic, brightly coloured stuff. And there wasn't as much of it.... Fast forward around 10 years and I purchased a MISB Armada prime. This rekindled my love for transforming toys and I set out to find out what had been happening in the TF world during my almost decade sabbatical. To my delight, I discovered the Classics and Alternators lines in my local Tescos and suddenly I was back to 'needing' characters again. In short - I don't believe collecting is about earning the money yourself and buying stuff with it - It's about knowing HOW to get what you want. Which becomes more apparent the rarer and rarer items get.
I'll just reiterate and expand on what I said in G1 Appreciation when the subject originally came up: At first TFs were just a passing fancy like most childhood toys; I had a number of toys from before TFs, like GIJoe, He-Man, and Star Wars, but with those I would play with them and then throw them back in a box. It was the same way with TFs at first, but very early I started displaying and posing them (well, as much as G1 could be posed ). I started taking better care of them, being careful not to lose accessories, and each had their place on the shelf, things I wasn't so careful about with my other toys (except maybe my MASK, all of which, perhaps not coincidentally, I still have and wish to display once I have the room). I consider that the beginning of being a collector, when they started meaning enough to me that I would actually "curate" the collection, as much as a kid is able to. I didn't just rely on my parents buying me random TFs, either; I gave them a list of the specific ones I wanted. As far as I'm concerned, the only differences between then and now are scale and the ability to buy stuff myself. @Maz Thanks again for eliciting fun, meaningful discussion
Great article that brings up some interesting points. For me, I feel like I've been a dedicated TF fan since I got my first toy when I was 6. I was extremely careful with them and never lost a single accessory. As I watched G1 reruns I unfortunately couldn't find most of my favorite characters in stores anymore though. I think I started to really seriously collect at the age of 10 when beast wars came out. I knew exactly which figures I wanted from the show, started doing research online on my dad's computer and even got in touch with Hasbro directly to get some hard to find figures. I made check lists and always asked for specific toys for my birthday and Sinterklaas, kind of the Dutch equivalent of Christmas. Been collecting ever since.
Ooo... lots of factors. I stated in the G1 thread, that when I was little and my love for Transformers started, times were tough. I didn't have many transformers, they were not a necessity and they were expensive. The stickers from the boxes of cereal and the decoys were treasure to me because they themed with the Transformer brand. The marketing at the time was great for Transformers and the quality of the cartoon helped me develop the sense of nostalgia I have now. The comics were bought for me as they helped me to learn to read. So was I an eight year old collector? I kept my G1 Skyfire box: Understandable, its really cool. I kept my colouring book: Kinda weird. I kept all this other stuff too: Just a fan? I think I knew what I liked then, and I like it still now.
