Quote Originally Posted by kup
Heroic_Decepticon has already explained that he believed to be doing a charitable action by giving poor kids in misfortune a toy to play with and therefor try to brighten up their lives at least a little.

As a kid of good concious, one would very easily give in to such rationale (I know I would although I didn't have a choice in the matter).
I know it was for charity, and I don't mean to question the nobility of that charitable act at all. Personally if in 1991 I were asked to donate toys for charity, I would have agreed, but I also would have been quite selective in terms of which toys I wanted to give away and which ones I didn't. I'd given away some of my toys to younger relatives, like my Voltron toys. But it's something that I don't regret - I have no desire to get back into Voltron or repurchase those toys I gave away.

What fascinates me with heroic_decepticon's story is that he voluntarily gave his toys away, which he now appears to deeply regret. What I'm curious to know is, in 1991 at the time heroic_decepticon's mother presented him with the choice of giving toys to charity, precisely what was going through his mind at the time he volunteered to surrender his entire toy collection for charity, only to deeply regret it later. I've encountered plenty of people who've given their toys away. In fact a lot of kids I used to play Transformers with growing up have since given their old Transformers to me. None of these people have ever contacted me and asked for their toys back.

If someone were to now ask all of us to donate toys for charity, would any of us immediately voluntarily give away our entire collection, or would we be selective in which toys we wanted to donate and which ones we'd want to keep?

I hope I'm not coming across as being judgemental, as it's not my intention. I simply wish to gain further insight into what would make someone want to give something away that was still precious to them (otherwise why else would they later regret it?).

Thank you.