Eyes of Nine
Everything's Fine
backpacking
I'm likely younger than you, so my period of collecting is in the late aughts. Back then, the amount of money I spent each month would at first buy 5 comics. Then four, and three, eventually just one, and now less than one. Part of it is our parity with the dollar getting worse, but the rising price is the biggest concern.I collected comic books but the costs go too high in the late 1990s so I stopped.
Like many others here, I have the typical geek hobbies: reading, TV shows, movies, science fiction, and computers.
I was looking for this picture:I collect transforming toys.
It started as my love for the Transformers growing up. I was born in 82 and the original show was my first love. Getting an Optimus Prime for christmas is even my earliest childhood memory. But as time passed and I got older I moved on from toys, it was the expected thing to do in the 90s. Toys are kid things, time to move on. Even so, I never completely stopped thinking about Transformers. I had all my old toys out on display in my room and transformed them every once in a while. So my family did know me as "the Transformer guy". One day after a christmas my nephew brought his movie 1 leader Optimus Prime toy to my house and asked for my help. He already lost his instructions and he and his father couldn't transform it. So I worked on it and figured it out for them. I hadn't picked up a transformer since Beast Wars Ultra Megatron, I didn't know how much they'd advanced over the years. I was very impressed with this toy. So much so that I actually looked in a few stores to buy one for myself. They were already gone at that point and I let it go. Fast forward a few years and I do see a big Optimus Prime toy for the Revenge of the Fallen line, but it looks different from the one that impressed me before. I was curious if they changed the toy that impressed me so I looked up a transformation video. Yeah, they changed it, it was the most mindblowing thing I'd seen in years. I bought that toy and quickly got myself up to speed on the franchise and toy collecting in general.
I still do love the Transformers franchise (although mostly for the toys), but my interest goes well beyond that. I am deeply in love with the engineering that goes into a transforming toy. It's a magical thing to see something fundamentally change right in front of you. Having something transform without removing parts puts limits to what you can do, but that has just made toy engineers get more and more creative with their transformations. I haven't been collecting for the past few years because I haven't had much spare income, but I still pay attention to what is releasing and watching reviews. Even if I can't afford to buy a toy, a still love watching them transform.
Here's a review of the toy that brought me into modern transforming toys.
and here is a few more of my favorites focusing on the transformations themselves. there are more thorough reviews out there if you're interested.
I was looking for this picture:
I grew up watching the first Japanese trilogy and Beast Wars. I was also exposed to a bootleg toyline that was all animal-based. The cool part was that half the figures were female characters. My first official transformer was an Airazor, and as an adult I've collected mostly female transformers. (I also have some of the usual suspects, but they are peripheral. There's a Megatron, a BW Megs, an Optimus, a Hot Rod/Rodimus, Galvatron, Sixshot, Magnus, Ginrai and others)
I'm mostly done, I just want a good Elita1, Slipstream, Windblade and a Tigraton (to pose with Airazor), possibly a Silverbolt to go with BlachArachnia. Though the changes to customs make that harder than it used to be.
There are 2 types of motorcyclists: those that have gone down, and those that will.Motorcycling, riding a lovely Moto Guzzi these days.