Surprises and Collecting

[DaptoDog]

I love surprises.

Some of my fondest Transformers memories are when I was given a Transformer by my wife without even knowing they existed. Hasbro MP's 1, 8 and 9 come to mind. I was amazed by the look of them.

Since then I have gotten into the online forums and become a dedicated collector. This has been very enjoyable. There is still the thrill of surprise, but it now comes when a figure is announced. By the time I receive them in the mail months later I usually know most things about them. Walking into the toy section of the local department store no longer feels as adventurous.

Also, now that I follow Transformers so closely my wife can't surprise me with them anymore. I have in a way taken that gift of giving from her.

So my question is, have you or do you ever consider pulling back from following Transformers so closely to bring back the surprise of seeing a new figure in hand? Or could you never imagine going back to those days?

[Facepunches]

It sounds like such a romantic idea... But I feel most would think fomo rests on the shoulder more heavily than surprise.

[Paulbot]

I do remember the good old days as a kid when I'd walk into a store and suddenly the new TFs were on sale and I had no about any of them.

The closest I've come lately was when I saw RID Sawback on the shelf. Hadn't been paying any attention to the Minicons and though the little Wolf looked great.

What I do though is never watch any of those video reviews where people show the transformation of a figure. That's something I'm happy to wait and see in person.

[UltraMarginal]

I do remember the good old days as a kid when I'd walk into a store and suddenly the new TFs were on sale and I had no about any of them.

The closest I've come lately was when I saw RID Sawback on the shelf. Hadn't been paying any attention to the Minicons and though the little Wolf looked great.

What I do though is never watch any of those video reviews where people show the transformation of a figure. That's something I'm happy to wait and see in person.

pretty much this for me.

though I had a good trip home from Baseball on the weekend, I stopped at a couple Big W's a Kmart and Toymate and they all had stuff on sale or clearance that I had been looking at getting so I enjoyyed the thrill of the hunt that day a lot.

[CHILENO20]

Thrill of the hunt does it for me, weather looking in store or online.

[Raider]

I remember the awesome feeling as a kid when my father would come back from a work trip with a Transformer. I remember getting G1 Tantrum well before it was released here.

As an adult there are less and less surprises in life and I mostly like it that way, it makes the few surprises really special.

So to answer your question mate, no I wouldn't pull back collecting for that feeling. Instead of receiving the surprise I now give the surprises to my son. That itself is far better.

[DaptoDog]

It sounds like such a romantic idea... But I feel most would think fomo rests on the shoulder more heavily than surprise.

Fomo is real. I did suggest my wife could track the MP's coming out but the frequency of release has increased so much there is no way she could keep up with it now. Espcially not considering I want to complete the line.


What I do though is never watch any of those video reviews where people show the transformation of a figure. That's something I'm happy to wait and see in person.

Yes that makes complete sense.



So to answer your question mate, no I wouldn't pull back collecting for that feeling. Instead of receiving the surprise I now give the surprises to my son. That itself is far better.

A nice sentiment mate.

[BigTransformerTrev]

The internet ruined it for me. I just used to go round all the different Melbourne stores and see what new stuff had arrived so thrill of the hunt and all that. No similar option in the bush so I rely on the net to see what's being made.

I remember getting a G1 inspired double bedspread from the wife for Xmas one year that i never knew existed - that was an awesome surprise!

[GoktimusPrime]

I was actually surprised just last Wednesday. I was shopping in Kyoto and found Transformers Adventures Nemesis Prime, which is a pretty sweet redeco of RiD Warrior Class Optimus Prime. I also found Warrior Class Scorponok - didn't even know this character existed, let alone the toy (I'm very behind on RiD :p). Also saw Warrior Class Windblade - I have the local Legion Class figure, but the Warrior looked nice (but not nice enough for me to want to buy it as I already have Generations Windblade). So I bought Nemesis Prime and Scorponok though. My students said that Scorponok reminded them of Evangelion Unit 1 and would look good repainted in those colours (probably better than MP10 :p). They were also really impressed with the look of Nemesis Prime, one was so impressed that he later bought one for himself (so we had two Nemesis Primes accompanying us on the rest of our Japan trip :D). I also later found Legends Weirdwolf - I had no idea that the head was retooled to be more G1 accurate or that it came with a repaint of Apeface's gorilla unit. I honestly don't care about the gorilla thing, but the retooled head looks quite nice. I don't have TR Weirdwolf so I grabbed it straight away. :D

I also found an Animated Activator Ramjet in Japan, and I had completely forgotten that this rather obscure toy existed!

I haven't been paying much attention to news about TakaraTOMY redecoes of Hasbro moulds, and I'm massively behind on all things RiD (haven't even watched S2 yet :p), so this all came as a surprise to me.

[jazzcomp]

Gok, how much was activator ramjet? Been after one for awhile.

[GoktimusPrime]

Gok, how much was activator ramjet? Been after one for awhile.
2000JPY MOSC. Cheaper than its original RRP. Seems that this toy has depreciated, although 2000JPY is still a lot to pay for an Activator IMO. I did check on Amazon JP and saw that the cheapest Activator Ramjet there was 2000JPY, so it seems that this is the cheapest aftermarket price that you can get for it.

[jazzcomp]

2000JPY MOSC. Cheaper than its original RRP. Seems that this toy has depreciated, although 2000JPY is still a lot to pay for an Activator IMO. I did check on Amazon JP and saw that the cheapest Activator Ramjet there was 2000JPY, so it seems that this is the cheapest aftermarket price that you can get for it.
Certainly more affordable :) Thanks, Gok!