Why I collect

Last week I received an e-mail from Maz who contributes to the awesome articles found at TFsource's blog.  The toicp he chose was meant to be on a brighter note after his last two topics were about sacrifice and selling off collections.  The morning I received his e-mail request for help w/ the topic I just happened to have a little insomnia, so I jumped out of bed and hit the reply button.  The published article was very well written (of course), but a lot of different collectors contributed to the piece and the comments were all mixed around.  So I thought why not post my original response in the form of a blog post?

I'd like this to be somewhat conversational, so if you read this and something comes to your mind I'd like to hear it.  Post a comment and tell me and everyone else why you collect.  Even if you aren't a hardcore Transformer collector, I'd like to hear why and what you collect.  Have fun with it!

While it's inevitable at some point in our lives that we will/must part with our collections (or part of them), this is a hobby that we all love or else that decision to let things go at times wouldn't be so painful. I'm asked all the time why I collect.  My wife, family, friends and even the local new station that did an interview January 2012.  My response is usually the same.  As an adult, married w/ kids, there are certain responsibilities thrust upon me that without some sort of escape, it can really weigh you down.  For me that escape is Transformers.  It reminds me of a simpler time in my life when I didn't have all this responsibilities.  I could just be a kid...kinda like the old Toys R Us song "where a kid can be a kid". 

A part of Transformers taking me back to my childhood are all the fond memories I have of my late father.  Growing up, every summer after school let out my dad would take my brother or myself by ourselves on a trip he called "Father Son trip".  On that trip we could pick (within reason) where we wanted to go or travel to for an extended weekend and just hang out together.  Or course being a kid the place I would choose usually resulted in a trip to Toys R Us, Lionel Toy Warehouse or KB Toys along the way.  This is how I obtained several of my vintage G1 toys, sadly only a few I still own from my childhood. 

Today as an adult, I can grab G1 Bonecrusher off my shelf and the vivid memories of time spent w/ my father come rushing back.  It's a nice little way of remembering and honoring my father.  He was a fan of all model Corvettes, so in turn I sought out to get as many Transformer Corvettes as possible.  Granted a lot of what is in my collection today isn't tied to memories of my childhood or my father, but now I get to make new memories as a husband and father.  Touring the Hasbro facilities in Providence, RI in 2007 w/ my wife as a part of Botcon, helping create and run Charticon 2013 w/ my friends and of course buying that first Transformer Rescue Bots toy for my daughter's birthday last year.

A big part of why I started my own toy blog, randomtoyreviews.blogspot.com a few years ago was to have another way to enjoy my Transformers and other toys.  I often sell toys I no longer desire to keep in order to buy something else that I want.  This makes the wife happy (since the bank account isn't touched) and it helps me from getting overwhelmed.  At any time I can go back to my own account and read and view the pictures of items no longer in my collection.  It's just another way of enjoying what I'm so blessed to have.

At some point I may stop collecting.  I don't see that in my near future, but whenever that day comes I will still be able to take a step back and take it all in and have some wonderful memories.

Maz interviews the guy behind the blog

January of 2012 I was interviewed by a local news station solely because I had a large Transformers collection.  While that was a great experience and I love how the interview turned out, I was still being interviewed by people that don't collect.  The interview was part of a television show that would reach people that also don't collect.  While I did get some positive feedback, it mostly went unnoticed...or so it seems.

Flash forward to a few months ago and I was approached by Maz.  He writes for TFSource's blog and among the many topics he writes about, collector's get the spotlight once a month.  He also has an excellent TF site of his own called TF-1.  I was honored (and surprised) that someone of my meager status would be selected.  I proceeded to answer his questions and submitted a few pictures to him upon his request.  To be completely honest I forgot about the interview as I've been so busy with the holidays, work, family and of course working on content for this blog.  Just in the last few days did Maz contact me again letting me know the interview was almost done and ready to be posted.

How did it turn out you may ask?  Well, why not read it HERE for yourself!