Have you had others MESS WITH YOUR TF'S AND BREAK THEM!?

[BigTransformerTrev]

Some people just don't respect a persons collection! They seem to be totally ignorant of:

a: the amount the individual figures mean to you. Even after 1100 figures I still remember when, how or from whom I obtained each one.

b: the value of the figures. They don't realise that what looks to them like an old plastic toy can be worth hundreds of dollars because of it's rarity.


I've had some incidents over the years:

1: THE MAIN BETRAYER
*At my 30th my wife's cousin, his mate and his girlfriend went into my Transformatorium room where he dropped his pants and his friend took mobile phone pics of his girlfriend holding some mini-cons around his butt-crack
*A year later we were going to play a game of Transformers Monopoly that I just got imported. I decided (stupidly) to use my 1984 mini autobots as markers. While I went to the next room he picked up Gears and started bashing him around the board. Subsequently Gears left shin guard broke away. He then to try and illicit laughs from others hid Gears at the bottom of a bowl of sticky, sugary lollies.
*At our wedding two close friends made a huge board for everyone to sign. The board was black with our names in the middle with a giant Autobot and Decepticon symbol either side. People were supposed to sign it with a silver pen - instead he drew a huge pair of boobs in the middle.

Needless to say I refuse to talk to her relative anymore, and he knows to stay away on pain of pummelling (and the sod just did a runner on his 8 month pregnant wife so I was proved right about his morals).

2: LAST WEEKEND
*Last weekend we had Sarah's Baby Shower/My 35th Birthday Bonfire. During the baby shower 3 of the women from my work went into my study (bear in mind they are all mature women and had NOT been drinking). With our impending baby almost here almost all of my TF's are packed away except for a bunch of my Diamond Select and HardHead TF busts, some TF headknockers and a bunch of Robot Heroes and Bot Shots on the shelves in my study. These 3 women proceeded to take my rare, expensive busts down and put them in what they thought were funny but precarious spots all over the room for me to discover later. By the time I discovered this many hours later, the cat had knocked my Soundblaster statuette onto the floor, causing damage to it. These women when confronted just laughed about it until I told them of the damaged caused, and yelled in such a white-hot fury than one left the room and cried for half an hour.


None of these people who committed these outrageous sins seemed particularly repentant and if anything found my incandecant rage to be a source of humor. When I said it would be the same as 'me slapping one of their kids or pushing their kid out onto a road for laughs' they just said to not be stupid. Needless to say I have many other friends who would never dream of touching my collection without my express permission, and many who refuse to even hold one when offered for fear of breaking it.


Do people in your life respect your TF collection? And have there been instances where they haven't and the conequences have been grave?

[Sky Shadow]

1: THE MAIN BETRAYER

What an a---hole. Fortunately I only had other people damage my Transformers when I was a kid, but there are two people I'm still pissed off with to this day because it happened when I wasn't around (i.e. I was away and my parents entertained their friends/kids/etc. with my Transformers.) One d-ckhead broke 1984 Optimus Prime's trailer, and another - actually an adult - broke off Skystalker's wing while I was away at a scout camp. But neither of those people was so deliberately a twat like the ones you've described.

[gamblor916]

BigTransformerTrev that is just wrong what they did to your stuff. They're guests in your house and should act as such.

If your rage is a source of humour just stay calm, and send them the bill for complete replacement at current value.

I've had a couple of TFs broken but only when I was a kid. Some guy broke Laserbeak's leg off and my cousin lost the clear piece on Grimlock's back. Small change compared with what happened to you.

[BigTransformerTrev]

BigTransformerTrev that is just wrong what they did to your stuff. They're guests in your house and should act as such.

For the 3 women last weekend, it was the FIRST TIME EVER they had been to my home. Somehow I don't think they would appreciate me coming to their home and messing with things on their shelves on my first visit (or 10th for that matter). I mean, who does that kind of thing?!

[gdmetro]

Despicable.
I guess some people are so disrespectful and self centered. If this is just a glimpse of their attitude I wonder how far they go in other aspects of their life?

I don't know how I'd react but I would have immediately shown them the door.

[Megatron]

Wow.. sorry to hear that BigTFTrev. I completely understand how you feel. Fortunately I don't know or hang around with anyone who is so disrespectful that they would just go into my Transformers room uninvited and start touching and breaking things. If that ever happened to me they wouldn't be visiting my house anymore, especially if they are not listening to my concerns or taking it seriously. (My family completely understands the value of my collection and wouldn't ever dream of touching any of it at all.)

I just get the impression that people such as the ones you encountered are so uneducated and self centered that they have no idea how to treat other people with respect or decency, nor understand how valuable Transformers (or any toy/model/die cast, etc.) collectables can be - especially those busts and statues! How would they like it if you started playing tea party with their precious silverware without their knowledge or permission?

Seriously some of us spend literally tens of thousands of dollars on this hobby... those people should understand that. Perhaps placing a lock on your Transformers room will help prevent any future misconduct if you can't avoid people taking an uninvited tour of your house in future.

[GoktimusPrime]

I also don't know anyone even remotely that bad in my personal circle of friends and relos. Perhaps it's because most of my friends are geeks who collect toys, comics, DVDs etc. themselves. But even my Mundaner friends would never dare dream of doing something like that... it's just so ... awful!

If anyone ever did do that I would absolutely expect them to compensate me. That's just part of being a responsible person. I once accidentally scratched someone else's Super Speedbreaker -- I gave him a spare loose G1 Sixshot as compensation. I've had some other people (adults) who've accidentally damaged/broken my toys and they've compensated me too. It's just the right thing to do! If you've done something wrong, own up and fix it. It's what we teach children.

[jazzcomp]

Sorry to hear BigTrev. Do these women know how much you value your collection?

For these women and others, they have no idea what your collection means to you. For them, it's just toys. They outgrew them and therefore is just rubbish with some sentimental value. Not really valuable from their point of view. Imagine if you told them about AFA grading.

I can see where they are coming from saying since kids isn't equal to toys.

For these casual acquaintances, I guess we have to set the house rules when they visit.
I usually lock rooms back home that I don't want anyone to access. Unfortunately in Oz, locks in rooms isn't the norm.

Not everyone has a collection. For me, since I don't know the value of stuff - i tend to be very careful. A simple vase could be very expensive. Even stuff at work that I use or equipment I could break could take a lot of money to fix.

If ain't mine, better be careful.

[Lint]

For the 3 women last weekend, it was the FIRST TIME EVER they had been to my home. Somehow I don't think they would appreciate me coming to their home and messing with things on their shelves on my first visit (or 10th for that matter). I mean, who does that kind of thing?!

Different people have different "boundaries", I remember having guests who thought it was perfectly okay to rifle through shelves, cabinets, personal belongings and eat anything they happened to find. If these differ from your own or even the 'majority' it can be VERY hard to understand this behaviour.

These people don't understand collecting and are most certainly fishing for a bit of humour from your reactions to them messing with your collection.

My advice, like others have said, is to put a lock on your study or set some firm ground rules for all guests. You have more than enough citeable examples of how idiots have cost YOU money. If they still don't understand, just ask them how they would feel if you just keyed their car. It's equivalent to the same thing.

[GoktimusPrime]

I think it's just a matter of respect. I don't care how much something is worth --you don't go and wreck stuff that doesn't belong to you!

vandalism /ˈvændlˌɪzəm/
noun
deliberately mischievous or malicious destruction or damage of property.
wilful or ignorant destruction
And of course, the Classical definition (from Roman times)...
ruthless destruction or spoiling of anything beautiful or venerable.