The Reorganization: Casualties

If you have been following my blog or at least read my last post then you'll know that my toy room / office is undergoing some big changes. I work from home a good bit of the time and I've been sitting at my desk and out of the corner of my eye the far end of the wall (seen below) always bothered me. Sure, I had a lot displayed (Power Core Combiners, Robot Masters, Generation 2 and other mini collections), but I never liked the overall presentation. Plus I've felt the calling to give my Generation 1 collection a proper display so I decided it was time to do something about it. So far one wall of the room as gone from looking like this:

to this:

While the great reorganization is still in phase 1 there have already have been some casualties. It's really unfortunate, but it was was expected. I lost a lot of display real estate if you will when I got rid of the cube shelves and book shelves and went with the 6 Detolf cases from IKEA. However is change bad? Will I miss the castaways?

Generation One Action Masters. The casualties from the recent phase 1 reorganization. I was lucky to fit my G1 collection (for the most part) in 6 Detolf cases. Micromasters ended up on the top of the cabinets along w/ Fort Max, but I'm OK with that. I didn't want to part with those but when it came to the Action Masters (and a few select others) I just didn't know what to do. The old G.I. Joe collector in me appreciates the Action Masters, however they just look odd in my collection. After all, they are Transformers that don't transform. Granted the ones that were paired with vehicles are better and give me that M.A.S.K. vibe, but there must have been a reason why Takara never released these toys in Japan back in the 90's. I'm fine with the story behind the Action Masters (nucleon), but the toys themselves just don't appeal to me that much anymore.

As I was working on loading up the cabinets and working each 'bot in year by year, faction by faction there were some shelves that were a little more crowded than others. Granted I should be able to help remedy this problem with some clear acrylic risers that I just acquired, I began to realize that there are some G1 toys that I just don't care about. Yes, it's true. I know that may sound blasphemous to some of you, but for me that is the case.

I'm a big fan of Pretenders and when I was first getting back into collecting the Pretenders were my main focus. At the time they were easy to find and they relatively affordable. The Autobot Classic Pretenders were some of the first I bought, some loose while I picked up Bumblebee and Jazz complete and MIB. Over the years those toys just didn't hold their appeal as the other original Pretenders did. When it came time to set the cases all I had left was Grimlock and Starscream. The latter is staying because, well it's Starscream and his Pretender shell looks cool. Sorry Grimlock, you just don't have a home in my collection anymore. Same goes for the K-Mart Legends figure. If you have a keen eye you will see AM Megatron in the bottom case to the far right. I don't own a AM Optimus Prime, but I'm thinking I may pick him up and call it quits for that category.

The others that got the boot are the Deluxe Insecticons. They were kicked for a few reasons. 1) I never had them as a kid (minus Chop Shop, which survived the cull) so I don't have the same attachment to the toys as I do say the original Insecticons. 2) Since they aren't made by Takara they don't have that same feel and asthetic as other TFs. This is the same reason why I won't be picking up Jetfire for my collection. I know there are other TFs that weren't made by Takara that are still in my collection (Omega Supreme and soon Shockwave), however those characters were awesome in the old animation show and at least their toys look like their show counterparts...that's more than you can say about Jetfire.

By cutting a few toys it means I won't have that elusive complete G1 set of Transformers, but who cares? It's not a competition. I'm one of the few that actually comes in my toy room / office in the first place. Why should I keep, let alone display something that I don't care for? Plus by getting rid of a few it opened up the space to better display others. 

The great reorganization project is far from over. I'm working on adding risers to the cases before I start to photograph those. Then it's back over to the wall that houses my track shelving to begin to set up other TF collections. Will this project ever truly end? That's a question I ask myself all the time. However I have to say it's been a fun ride thus far and I look forward to finding the time to get some more work in and eventually finish this project...for now.

P.S. I haven't decided how I'm going to sell the Action Masters and other select G1 toys, but if you have any interest please send me a message at flywheels@yahoo.com

Man Cave Reorganization

It's no secret.  I have a lot of hobbies.  Some are more active than others, but this means I accumulate a lot of "stuff".  I'm also a married father of 2 young daughters.  This means my hobbies take a back seat to my family and other priorities from time to time.  Add "stuff" to the equation and I get piles of stuff in my man cave.  At times it gets so bad I can't get to certain things in my room, let alone find a place to sit down on my couch.  This all leads to levels of frustration and stress that I don't need.  Hobbies should make you happy, not stressed.

Enter a winter storm that brought levels of snow and ice the South hasn't seen in quite some time.  These last few days I had the luxury of hanging out at home w/ my family since my work was closed.  This lead to some quality free time being spent w/ my kids and my wife.  It also meant I had some time to work on cleaning up my clutter in my man cave.

Next weekend I'll be hauling a good bit of my modern Transformers collection up w/ me to a fairgrounds just north of uptown Charlotte, NC.  Since I'm a collector and not a dealer, I couldn't afford more than one 8 foot table to set up.  I'm saying good bye to most of my Classics and Generations figures plus their Japanese equivalents of Henkei! and United.  One wall in my man cave has track shelving installed that basically goes from the floor all the way up to the ceiling.  Once I started pulling all of these toys off my shelves, it became easier to pull the plug on other toys.  Before I knew it I had cleaned off two 72 foot shelves!  I ended up grabbing most of my Botcon exclusive toys I had left along with a few 3rd party toys and some Web Diver toys I now no longer cared to keep.  I actually have so much to sell now I'm not even sure it'll all fit on my 8 foot table next weekend!

So where am I going with this?  Empty shelves.  Gaping holes in my collection.  I would spend the majority of the last few days taking everything off the shelves and moving them up or down according to how I was re-loading the shelf.  Every Transformer I own has been picked up and moved in way or another.  This has given me the chance to not only dust the toys, but also rekindle certain memories I have attached with specific toys.

Early yesterday afternoon, I finished just one part of my man cave reorganization project.  The wall of shelving is now 99% complete.  My G1 Transformers collection previously resided on these shelves, but I had little to no room to expand.  I only lack 25-30 figures (or so) to have a complete G1 collection.  Problem was if I had bought any of those missing figures, I had no room to work them in.  After all I had Micromasters and Action Masters stacked on to of each other due to lack of space.  That was before.  Now, the G1 collection takes up approximately 4 and a half shelves.  Everything is displayed in order of 1984-1991, by faction.  Of course the Decepticons didn't receive as many releases so their shelves look much better.  The Autobot shelves are still crowded in some areas, but the important thing is I have room for Hound, Jetfire, Whirl and a few others I lack.

I apologize I don't really have any pictures to share as I haven't gotten that far.  I snapped a few cell phone photos and posted them on Facebook, but I plan to do a proper post w/ pictures once the entire project is completed.

I mentioned this was just phase 1.  To the right of my wall shelving I have two large bookshelves.  These too are totally being revamped.  Some sections already have been as had to move a lot of things off the wall shelves.  Once this part is done it'll be on to the final phase, phase 3.

Phase 3 will consist of revamping my entertainment center where my video game consoles reside.  I'm working in an old CRT television for my older video game consoles so this means everything gets moved around.  My light box where I take most of my pictures for this blog sits on a high table.  Underneath it currently sits a lot of trading card binders.  Did I mention I also collect baseball cards?  Well those binders are going underneath the wall shelving on the other side of the room.  But first I have to remove the comic boxes that are there now and trim down my comic collection.  Some of the comic boxes may end up in the closet again, but at least I had previously cleaned the closet out when the idea first hit me of selling off a chunk of my Transformers.

When phase 3 completed, I'll have an additional television set up w/ video game consoles hooked up such as my Sega Genesis/CD, Sega Mark III, PC Engine, Turbografx-16, Nintendo Famicom and possibly my Super Nintendo.  This will by default give me an additional cube in my entertainment center for small TF displays...thinking about sticking the few Alternity TFs in one of the spaces.  I may even have space to bring out my Go-Bots / Converters / Transistor Robot toy collection once again!

When it's all said and done I think I'm going to be extremely happy.  I'll be able to see and better appreciate the Transformers that are on display, while still giving me a little room to expand.  I'll be able to sit on my couch again and enjoy a game of Borderlands 2 or Bioshock Infinite on my 360, or enjoy some retro gaming on my "new" old school TV.  The biggest change I'm opening to get out of this is a sense of relaxing when I walk into my room, not stress.  I'm still a month or two away from having this project completed, but once I'm done perhaps I'll do one of those corny YouTube room tours everyone does.  We'll see.

Reorganizing

By now you've probably noticed or even used the category links at the top of the blog.  I'm kind of anal when it comes to organizing stuff, so I just had to move some things around.

First you may notice a new tab exclusively for Third Party Transformers.  While I haven't reviewed many at this point in time, I have a lot that I haven't typed a review for yet, or simply haven't even opened!  Yes, I have 4 of the FansProject Stunticons, FP's Assaulter, Mastermind Creations' Hexatron and all 5 of TFC's Uranos figures that I haven't even touched!

Next I moved some things around on the Transformers tab.  I broke up the multi categories (like Energon/Superlink or Classics/Generations/Henkei!/United) and gave them each their own listing.  You'll also notice most sections now have their respective toy logo!

A few new categories were added such as Alternity and Robot Masters as I hope to eventually grab some items off the shelf to review.  I've been sitting on an Alternity Goldbug that I can't wait to open up!

Lastly I added a section for Battle Beasts under the 80's/90's tab.  I picked up several while at Charticon a few months ago and I want to show those off at some point too.

That's about it for now.  As I continue to sell unwanted items that are in my way and free up some clutter at home, I'll be able to get to more toy reviews.  In the mean time, thank you all who regularly stop by and read and comment.  Make sure to Like us on Facebook and engage there as well in the conversation.