The Kid Collection You Never Had

[Skyfire]

I also wanted to complete the Young Corgi Books Adventure Game Books, which I bought from the newsagent. I have Island of Fear, Highway Clash and Dinobot War. Peril from the Stars was listed in the front and wanted that one. There were two more (Desert of Danger and Swamp of the Scorpion) that I didn't know existed or were available as a child, but I missed not having Peril since it was listed in the other books.

[GoktimusPrime]

I had this moment in 1985, when my collection count hit 52. I remember stepping back and looking at my collection, which was sorted by faction spread out under my bed from one end to the other and thinking to myself, "Whoa, that's a lot!" I would've hit the hundred figure mark around 1989, thanks in no small part to the Micromasters boosting my collection count. But I know that by 1988 I had already dedicated a bookcase for displaying my Transformers collection; which started off being fairly spaced out but became increasingly crowded. I had my toys spread out between two sets of shelves and the top of a bedside storage thing by 1998.

From around 1988-95, one of my friends would walk into my room when I wasn't home; he would choose just one row of Transformers toys (e.g. shelf 2, row 3) and turn each figure on just that row 180 degrees... then leave. So I'd come home and find my Transformers all standing perfectly, except for one freaking row that was facing backwards! In 1998 I had some uni friends come over for a party, and they freaked out when they saw my collection (I had about 300-something Transformers then). One of them told me that I had "some kind of awesome childhood!"

Apologies for those who've seen these photos umpteen times, but this is about what half of my collection looked like in May, 1998. There was one more set of shelves, but the photo of that has been lost. This is the first bookcase that I started using in 1987/88:


And this was the top of my bedside thingy.

[dirge]

As a kid I wanted to complete the Minibots. I had 14/17 (I didn't know Bumper existed). I needed Cliffjumper, Windcharger & Brawn.

As a 20 year old or so, I discovered the newsgroups (yeah I am old and have been around in the online fandom that long). I didn't just get those three, I discovered there was a yellow Cliffjumper (I already had the red Bumblebee), and got both him and Bumper as well.

[KELPIE]

As a kid I don't think I ever thought of my "collection" in a sense of wanting more. It was always wanting specific characters.

Sure walking down a toy isle or receiving gifts it didn't matter to me, Transformers, Transformers, Transformers, gimmie, gimmie, gimmie. However If I sat down and thought about it there were clearly characters that I wanted to tick off my list. Whatever that reason may be: they did something in a cartoon, they did something in a comic, a friend had the toy and I realised it was awesome...

Obviously, like most, even with that limited thought process, I never got all the ones I wanted and I guess that's what re-enforces favouritism.

So, to flip the question... being able to get whatever you want, has it changed who your favourite character/figures is/are? Also, if/when you have kids and can likely get them more than your parents could afford for you, will you get any/all, or will you artificially restrict what toys they get?

Because if there's one thing I realised through my kid and his books. It's a lot harder to pick a favourite or build a connection to something if you own the entire set. Looking at you Mr Men box set.