I told my girlfriend I collect Transformers...

[Tiby]

My collecting predates my dating years, and always came first! It was no secret and she just had to live with it or move on. Tried changing for girls once and just felt like I betrayed myself. Some of you have been in my "vault" with the collection, and I have programmed her fingerprint into the lock, so the level of trust and acceptance is pretty high now. I'm very lucky I found someone who accepts me the way I am.

Having said that, it is a constant battle to convince her that spending this amount of money on toys is okay. I usually roll out the alternatives: alcohol, drugs, (other) women, etc. We stay on top of our bills and lead a fairly comfortable life so there is little for her to complain about. I also zip it when she comes home with the 150th bag or pair of shoes...

[Kyle]

You have a fingerprint lock?! This is now something I'll keep in mind if I ever build my dream house...

[GoktimusPrime]

My collecting predates my dating years, and always came first! It was no secret and she just had to live with it or move on.

+1 QFT: Same here!

I did have one ex-gf who didn't take it well - she only ever saw collecting TFs as a childish hobby (despite the fact that she liked collecting Ultraman PVCs and Winnie The Pooh plushies (-_-) - she also collected shoes and expensive brand clothes) - so I just didn't bring TFs up again around her... thought that I could make her come around later, but the relationship didn't survive long enough for that to be a concern. In the end, TFs won.

Some Perth users here would've met another one of my ex-gfs who's a Transfan herself, so that was absolutely no problem. At the time we were dating she had 100+ TFs in her collection. We would actually go on TF hunting trips as part of our dates and even attended a Nexus Fair fan meet together once.

Yeah, usually when I'm in the early stages of dating, I tell them straight up that I collect TFs and that I'm a fan. Forget the "nostalgia" thing, I tell them that I do play with my toys - it's a reality of my fandom and they have to accept it if they're going to be with me in the long run. When I was still just friends with my wife, I told her that I collecting TFs, so she'd already known about it by the time we became an item.

Having said that, it is a constant battle to convince her that spending this amount of money on toys is okay. I usually roll out the alternatives: alcohol, drugs, (other) women, etc. We stay on top of our bills and lead a fairly comfortable life so there is little for her to complain about.

*sigh* Unfortunately this is true for me too - well I don't know if our lives as quite as comfortable as yours; my profession just doesn't pay that well (I wish it did! She's also a full time student atm so I'm the sole breadwinner) - but we do stay on top of our payments etc. so I'm always telling her that she shouldn't complain about it so long as my hobby doesn't directly interfere with our living; i.e.: we can pay our bills, mortgage etc. and never have to live off instant ramen a la liegeprime's signature.

I also zip it when she comes home with the 150th bag or pair of shoes...

Ditto, 'cept mine buys clothes (she actually doesn't collect shoes, which I'm glad for ).

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P.S.: I did once have a gf who was from a very religious family who believed that action figures were evil and demonic. She was my only gf who tried to convince me to stop collecting and get rid of my TFs (her younger brother was also disallowed from things like Harry Potter because they considered such things to be evil). One of her cousins used to play with TFs when he was younger but told me that he and his brother were only ever allowed to have Autobots because they were "heroic" - their parents would never allow them to buy an "evil" Decepticon. So in the end they just made their Autobots have civil wars against each other (e.g. Aerialbots vs Protectobots etc.)! I did try to point out to her parents that this was all fiction once... that exercise was about as fun as headbutting a brick wall, yay. ^^;

[sideswipes brother]

When i first met my wife 5 years ago she encouraged it and even bought me a few but now that i have 2 kids and mortgage she hates it and wants me to stop. Like Hell!!!

[kup]

The last girl I went out with actually got me into collecting.

She wanted to go to Target to shop for clothes since that was borring as hell for me I decided to look around in the toy section. At that point I was a bit hyped about Beast Wars since I had just finished watching the DVDs that I recently bought (last time I saw the series I was in year 9) and I was delighted to see 10th Anniversary Beast Wars figures and an MP-02 Ultra Magnus! At this point I wasn't keeping up with toy news so they were a complete surprise for me, particularly Magnus (A white Prime? WTF? ).

I stood there for ages wanting to buy them but I still had the stigma of 'Toys are for kids' bull crap that my father had previously hammered into my head. The girl came looking for me and saw me staring at the toys, I told her that I really wanted them but that I shouldn't be buying kid's toys. She just said "If you want them, buy them!" So I did and 2-3 years later I have hundreds of them

[SofaMan]

It's funny - my partner and I have been together for a bit over 13 years. We actually started going out while my collecting was on hiatus (between about 1991-1996), where I just lost interest for a while. I got back in when Beast Wars came out in 1997.

It all just kind of ramped up from there - she's never really understood it, but she's pretty supportive overall. I never really had to break it to her - one day I just had all of these toys, and she had to adjust.

[Bartrim]

I was quite lucky as I was well and truly into a long term relationship when I restarted collecting. She must of been cool with it as we are now married with a kid and a mortgage. The Australian dream

[Defcon]

For me this is an interest/hobbie which I'm passionate about. Another interest is I paint, mostly landscapes, trees and animals. Other hobbies such as painting miniatures have falled to the wayside, as they chew up alot of time. Overall i'm a fairly creative person and its part of my nature.

Anyway the point is having or starting a relationship, its essential to express your passions and interests, some will appeciate that and will like you more for it. Just need to have a sort of balance , family, work, money, hobbies, food, sleep etc. and you will do fine

[k.wong23]

Now none of you have any chance of group related activities with her best friend.

I think my gf found out after she kept seeing my room start to fill with more and more, she doesn't mind though

[Tallestblue]

The second date I had with my guy he bought me Metroplex and Soundwave from cybertron. I think that's when I knew he was a keeper. He loves that i get Transformers and I've bought him a couple of Battlestar Galactica figures as well. He loves them, or at least says he does to humour me...