Toy Collecting: Never too Old!

[Ev]

I used to always think that action figures and dolls were essentially the same thing.  So, even through the fem-transition, I still like to collect my "boy dolls" aka "action figures."  I have hundreds of giant robot toys I have been collecting since I was about 6 years old.  They "help" me feel young and keep my in touch with the simpler times in my life.  The largest portion of my collection is Transformers and Power Rangers.  I like Transformers in part because I identified/sympathized with them and how they had to choose an "alternate form" to be "accepted" by society.  The fact they had laser guns and duked it out every Saturday morning appealed to the "tomboy" side of me, which is something I will always have.

I know that there are a lot of other toys out there, having worked in a toy store and being a toy collector.  I have a nasty habit of taking them all out of the box...I have a $300 Optimus Prime out in the open on my shelf along with the 30 or so other Optimi (Optimuses?) on my shelf.

Does anyone out there share a similar love for toys that I do?  This can include anything: model cars/planes, dolls, ponies, Legos, G.I. Joes, Barbies, Slinkies...and I mean anything.  Do you take them out of the box or leave them in?  How many do you have?  How long have you been collecting?  Why do you like them so much?  What's your prized piece?  (Mine is a Japanese Import Striker Optimus Prime from Dark of the Moon...so shiny!)

[immortal gypsy]

G1 Transformers. Right now my prized pized piece is sky lynx. I keep them all on display on a shelf in my room. Right now I'm looking at my budget and see if I can buy metroplex (autobot city) that is on sale in our local shops right now.

Like you I take them out of the box, what is the point of buying them if you can't hold them in your hands.  But I do keep their boxes if I'm ever forced to sell them

[Emily.T]

For many years I collected Lego I had over $7000 of it which I have since sold to fund my transition it wasn't an easy deist ion as many items I will never find again.

[Jayne]

Up until 2 yrs ago I had a HUGE toy collection, I lost most of them when I was illegaly evicted by a nasty landlord.

My collection included:
Over 80 Transformers including a 1ft tall Optimus Prime.
About 40 Zoids (Japanese animal shaped robots)
20+ videogame figures
A large collection of Aliens & Predators, the prizeed piece in that lot was an Alien queen who was about a foot & a half from nose (do Aliens have noses?) to tail.

Every few years my collections would get too big so i'd get rid of my toys & start again on collecting something else, whenever I cleared house I would find someone with a child who would appreciate the toys & give them away (it made me feel warm & fuzzy inside to know some child would be overjoyed at several large boxes of toys).

Since I started transitioning i've stopped collecting toys, I replaced toy hoarding with clothes & often wonder if my collecting habit was a subconcious way of making up for the urge to buy female clothes.

[Ev]

Up until 2 yrs ago I had a HUGE toy collection, I lost most of them when I was illegaly evicted by a nasty landlord.

My collection included:
Over 80 Transformers including a 1ft tall Optimus Prime.
About 40 Zoids (Japanese animal shaped robots)
20+ videogame figures
A large collection of Aliens & Predators, the prizeed piece in that lot was an Alien queen who was about a foot & a half from nose (do Aliens have noses?) to tail.

Every few years my collections would get too big so i'd get rid of my toys & start again on collecting something else, whenever I cleared house I would find someone with a child who would appreciate the toys & give them away (it made me feel warm & fuzzy inside to know some child would be overjoyed at several large boxes of toys).

Since I started transitioning i've stopped collecting toys, I replaced toy hoarding with clothes & often wonder if my collecting habit was a subconcious way of making up for the urge to buy female clothes.

That sucks.  If I lose toys because of something I did, that is one thing but when other people get a hold of them I get all "mother bear" with them.

I had Zoids at one point: I loved those things!  I got the model kits, along with the Gundams I used to put together too.

I also have an Alien Queen, but she is no where near a foot long.  She came with a baby. I wound up giving her to my son and he displays it on his shelf.  I had a Predator collection but my dad thought they were "evil looking" and got rid of them lol.

I have some Pacific Rim toys, Iron Man, quite a few Ninja Turtles (mostly bad guys like Kraang and Baxter Stockman) and the knight from Dark Souls 2.  I had the big Dragon from Skyrim but I gave it to a boy I thought was cute, but know better not to tell because he is straight as an arrow in terms of orientation...and even after the change he'd still view me as the "guy" he knew hahahaha.  He just thinks it's a gift from one of his buddies so I'll let him think that as it has been quite some time since I last talked to him.  BUT that is off topic...boys distract me sometimes.   

I still collect toys, but I have noticed my collecting has gone down since I started saving up for the transition, getting clothes and makeup and all that.  The urge to buy toys hasn't gone away AT ALL but I have shifted my priorities now...and you better believe when I get done with the transition and free up that bit of cash I will be at it again!   

[Ev]

G1 Transformers. Right now my prized pized piece is sky lynx. I keep them all on display on a shelf in my room. Right now I'm looking at my budget and see if I can buy metroplex (autobot city) that is on sale in our local shops right now.

Like you I take them out of the box, what is the point of buying them if you can't hold them in your hands.  But I do keep their boxes if I'm ever forced to sell them

Sky Lynx was voted as one of the "worst" Gen 1 toys, but also one of the mose beloved characters in the series.  I myself loved the toy and the character and envy you a bit for having him.  He was such a stuck-up brat in the show and I loved it hahahaha.

I have the Gen1 Metroplex.  He's in decent shape but he got banged up a bit by the "babysitter" I left him with while I was in Basic Training.  He has all his parts but he has some loose joints and grungy coloration from being stored out in a shed.  In a shed?!?!?  I was gritting my teeth over that one.

There is a new Generations Titan Class Metroplex they have available online.  He's something like 2+ feet tall or a rediculous size like that.  Bigger than Fortress Maximus I thunk.  The biggest Transformers I have is Primus, Unicron, and Optimus Primal from Beast Machines/Robots in Disguise release.  Some are like 18 inches in robot mode.

[Ev]

For many years I collected Lego I had over $7000 of it which I have since sold to fund my transition it wasn't an easy deist ion as many items I will never find again.

I love Legos, but never could find the time/money for them.  My boys are crazy about those things and even buy up all the Lego Video games.

I had a giant robot from some Japanese show that was broke by a guest...never allow drunks in your display room lol...and he is worth $5,000 or something like that now.  I can get a "new" version of it I am sure...the re-release of him...but it doesn't hold the same sentimental worth, you know?  Pooey.

[Kaylee]

There is a new Generations Titan Class Metroplex they have available online.  He's something like 2+ feet tall or a rediculous size like that.  Bigger than Fortress Maximus I thunk.  The biggest Transformers I have is Primus, Unicron, and Optimus Primal from Beast Machines/Robots in Disguise release.  Some are like 18 inches in robot mode.

I've had to avoid tfw2005 since that came out, far too tempting!

I have a shed load of G1 sat in boxes, and a good chunk of classics/generations style figures of G1 characters - both official and 3rd party (Fansproject Bruticus rocks!!).  I think the biggest/most expensive official fig I own is the 2010 Takara G1 Unicron, still in the shipping case because I already had another Uni!

I'm planning on selling my collection soon to help raise funds for transition, but I think I'll keep the customs I've done (like my "classics" Shockwave)

[Ev]

I've had to avoid tfw2005 since that came out, far too tempting!

I have a shed load of G1 sat in boxes, and a good chunk of classics/generations style figures of G1 characters - both official and 3rd party (Fansproject Bruticus rocks!!).  I think the biggest/most expensive official fig I own is the 2010 Takara G1 Unicron, still in the shipping case because I already had another Uni!

I'm planning on selling my collection soon to help raise funds for transition, but I think I'll keep the customs I've done (like my "classics" Shockwave)

Customs?  *drool*   

I tried to sell some stuff, but no one bought anything.  All the costs to put up online auctions with no sales became counter-productive so I chilled on it for a bit.  I am actually considering going through my storage bins and seeing which ones I can get rid of.  Maybe do a Transformers Garage/Yard/Block sale instead of being at the mercy of eBay or Amazon?

My apartment manager's father-in-law is the guy who runs Jin Sanatome's Dangerous Toys.  He does some good work but I am afraid a custom is outside of my price range...even then, he is back-logged (usually) years at a time because he is one of the few good custom guys out there.

I have one fansproject/3rd party mod that isn't too bad...the Battle Tanker for Transformers United Optimus (a Japanese import as well.)  Borrows from the Gen 2 concept.  I keep him on my "Prime Shelf" in truck/tanker mode.

[Kaylee]

Customs?  *drool*   

Well, only ones I've done myself.  A childhood misspent play 40K and making Necromunda conversion set me up for a stint at doing customs myself, not done any in a while though due to the old "busy growing boobs" thing but I do keep up on bits via FB once in a while - I've actually got FrenzyRumble on my friends list (his personal profile) and a customizing kit to put together a FlyWheels based on a 3rd party fig.

Gads I needed to get out more!!

[Jayne]

That sucks.  If I lose toys because of something I did, that is one thing but when other people get a hold of them I get all "mother bear" with them.

I had Zoids at one point: I loved those things!  I got the model kits, along with the Gundams I used to put together too.

I also have an Alien Queen, but she is no where near a foot long.  She came with a baby.

The landlord got all the stuff I wanted to keep & I was left with the stuff I was planning on giving away, bloody typical 

I had the zoids for a while but some bloke at at the hostel had just won a custody battle to see his son who loved anything to do with robots so I gave them away for free. It took me 3 days to re-build them all to then just hand them over!!!
One of my faves was the Blade Liger, i'd even taken the effort to paint it. I also had Gogulus Giga (T-rex) & a huge Stegasaurus.

My Alien Queen was part of the Todd McFarlene range, it came with a cocooned human & a "working" chesburster. The Alien collection was one thing the landlord got that I really wanted to keep, I had a at least one figure for every film variant & a Predalien.

[TheQuestion]

I've always been sort of a tom-boy trapped; I've always loved action figures.  Grew up reading comics, so I have quite a few Marvel Legends figures...

[TheQuestion]

and yeah, Kaylee, I'd keep a few.  I've regretted the trashing of many toys in my time.  I never had many transformers, but was big into the Beast Wars line, all those were trashed and I've been regretful ever since...

[JenSquid]

I collect old video games. Does that count?

Anyway, while I was at the antique/collectables shop we have in town (where I picked up a TurboGrafx-16. Squeee!), they had this giant bin full of beanie babies. I ended up getting another crab, a rat, and this really cute duck. Quack!  I also got a spider that I want to tease an arachnophobic friend of mine with.  It's too cute to be scary! Next time I'm in there, I want to dig through that bin some more and see what else they've got.

They've got a bunch of other old toys there too (including a bunch of action figures from the late 80s/early 90s), though I've held off on most of them due to lack of space. Still, it warms my heart to see ninja turtles figures.

Of course, if there were any toys I was passionate about as a kid, it was legos. All of mine are put away due to lack of space, but I look forward to one day pulling them out again.

[ReaverMarcus]

My only toy collection is My Little Pony figures. I like the toys with the mane/tail hair but I prefer the mini figures or the vinyl figures. I also have two of the Mickey D's MLP toys, still in their packages.

[Emily.T]

My favourite collection at the moment would have to be my Chucky and Tiffany dolls from the child's play movies.

[Miss_Bungle1991]

Wow...those dolls look frightening.

These are much cuter:



Far Left: Dotty
Top & Bottom Left Center: Doris
Top & Bottom Right Center: Patricia (aka Patty)
Far Right: Portia

[Jill F]

I have over 100 bears and other assorted stuffed little friends.

Do guitars count as toys?

[Emily.T]

Wow...those dolls look frightening.

These are much cuter:



Far Left: Dotty
Top & Bottom Left Center: Doris
Top & Bottom Right Center: Patricia (aka Patty)
Far Right: Portia

Awww so cute

[Miss_Bungle1991]

Indeed they are. Portia's my fave.