If you lost all of your Transformers collection, where would you start again?

[Paulbot]

If for whatever reason you lost all of your Transformers collection tomorrow, what figure would you buy back first? That excellent question was asked by Alex Kirk at a UK Transformers meet recently and created some fascinating discussion and introspective analysis. After the initial wave of “Nothing, I’d be free!” responses, everyone who was asked the question gave some very interesting answers. I’ve expanded Alex’s question to include the first three toys one would buy back, for whatever purpose that might be: rebuilding, three and done, nostalgia or a blank slate with the benefit of experience.

If You Lost It All… (Part 1) | Source Blog <- CLICK TO READ


All the best
Maz

I thought this article's question was an interesting topic for discussion among the young and old here.

For every member here that's never stopped collecting, there's at least 10-15 who did and came back in often with nothing. So I'm very interested to hear from the who range of fellow Ozformers, what would do?

I'm not sure and need to think about it some more. There's toys I could never part with, but if I doubt they'd be the first ones I'd get back. There's sentiment attached to the ones I have that make them treasured, not because they are ideal TF specimens. A replacement just wouldn't be the same.

There's also momentum for me, if I lost them all I might indeed not get back on the horse. I'd want to have some toys but I'd never build up such a big collection from scratch.

If you lost all of your Transformers collection tomorrow, what figure(s) would you buy back first?

[1AZRAEL1]

I think I'd be in the boat of probably not collecting again. I think I'd lose the passion for collecting. Maybe the Masterpieces, definitely Soundwave, and classicverse figures. I don't think I'd start on G1/G2 again. I'd likely get the few figures I have from BW and Tidal Wave too.

[i_amtrunks]

I'd be done. Tracking down the classics would be too expensive now, getting all the animated and BW figures, let alone the G1 stuff would be both time consuming and potentially financially impossible.

Plus the passion has worn thin due to the movies and the lack of product available locally.

I'd recollect the IDW comics though.

[Skullcruncher]

That would be me done. Maybe I'd collect GI Joe or something less burdensome on the bank account

[CoRDS]

i would move to collecting detailed jpg's or png's of master piece transformers in the poses i want. then i would print them out and put them on my self.
may even branch out in to pics of 3rd party figures as well

[5FDP]

I came into this thread thinking I would be the only person to say 'I wouldn't'... I got to admit I was quite surprised.

Put me down also as someone who wouldn't take collecting back up. Now that I know how expensive the hobby can be, especially since I would be tracking down past toys, I'd rather save my cash. I have two kids aged 4 and 7 that are dependent on me and it would be irresponsible parenting to spend money on building a collection from scratch. I'd rather spend that money on giving them an education.

[GoktimusPrime]

I wouldn't stop, but I wouldn't back collect either; I would just keep collecting the way I've always done since 1984; by buying current stuff. Even if I could afford to re-purchase the toys that I lost, the fact of the matter is that they would never be MY toys. IMHO back-collecting a lost collection would be futile because the new toys simply would not be the toys that I grew up with. They wouldn't be part of my childhood. Even toys that I've collected in adulthood still represent different stages of my life, e.g. 9 years ago I was burgled and some of my TFs were stolen, including my original G1 Optimus Prime. Someone generously gave me a free 1984 G1 Optimus Prime, which I am forever grateful for, but ultimately that toy will never hold the same personal value for me as the toy that I've lost. It's actually in physically better condition than the toy that was stolen, but the stolen toy was the one that I grew up with. It was the Optimus Prime of my childhood. When I get reissues, I actually still hang onto my original G1s, no matter how worn and damaged they may be. The reissues are the toys that I will play with now, but I keep the originals because they are ambassadors of my childhood. No reissue can ever replace that.

So considering that what I would lose would really be irreplacable, I wouldn't bother back-collecting. I'd most likely continue collecting current and future stuff, but I wouldn't hunt down old toys from the aftermarket.

[BigTransformerTrev]

There's also momentum for me, if I lost them all I might indeed not get back on the horse. I'd want to have some toys but I'd never build up such a big collection from scratch.

This ^

No way after taking 30 years to get 1500 figures I'd start again. Maybe get the odd one of my fav characters (Grimlock, Swindle, Shockwave, Optimus, Starscream) but that would be it. I think I'd get them more for my son and enjoy playing with his along with him.

[Sinnertwin]

i couldn't be bothered spending all that time, energy & money buying them back again.

[Paulbot]

So the overwhelming response so far is: would not start collecting again.

But, are there particular figures you would get again, even if you weren't collecting, a personal favourite or two you'd want to have?

I don't know my answer yet. Some of the recent MPs probably (Prime, Prowl, Sideswipe) which is a pretty cliche answer.