What age did you start Collecting for real?

[chans formers]

waaaaaaay back in 84,i was only seven years old and i traded a hole bunch of gijoes and got my first tf "blaster".ever since then,ive traded alot of toylines like tmnt,m.a.s.k.,he-man,etc, to get my bot fix.about 60%of my personal collection of g1's ive had since then.(except certain characters that seemed to fit firecrackers nicely back in the dayprime and soundwave come to mind)after g2,i stopped collecting for a few years till beastwars came out.then i got addicted to plastic crack again and have been buying doubles or triples ever since

[General Tekno]

18 years old, myself.

Got back in after reading about Classics and the BWX line. Picked up Waspy, then Alt. Prime, then stuff from Cybertron, and it went from there.

[Cliffjumper69]

My mom got me onto plastic crack when I was 4 and I fully started collecting at 5. I washed the dishes and cleaned the house to get my plastic crack fix!

CJ

[FreedomGundam]

Since "collecting" as a kid didn't really count (like you said, waiting for parents to be willing to buy you a toy doesn't count very much), I started really collecting 3-1/2 years ago

This was right after I had got out of Univerisy and found my current job. I had great income, and Wal-Mart (back in Sept '05) had waves 1 and 2 of Alternators at $10 each. And it just went downhill from there...

[GMfan]

I'll give a short answer...I gave the longer one on Canadian Slag :P

I always had the odd Generation 2 and Beast Wars figure when I was growing up but one summer when I was 17, bored and on vacation in a Wal-mart I found some tail end Armada figures on sale and liked that they were more poseable versions of the G1 characters I loved to watch when I was a kid. I bought them, 500 figures later here I am....

[soundwaveCA]

I was pretty into G2 as a younger lad but I didn't start seriously collecting until 1996/1997 which is when I discovered the internet and started posting on small internet chat rooms and buying G1 toys on the old newsgroups as eBay dint come along until what 98/99? Had to have been 15/16 back then (27 now). Eventually discovered and went to Botcon in 1999 and have been into these damn things ever since lol.

[S.A.A.M.]

I was 5 when Transformers premiered back in 1984. My cousin lived across the street. Between the two of us, we made sure to get our parents to buy us figures the other one didn't have. It was a great system, not planned, but kind of unspoken. If he got Devastator, I would have Superion. As a matter of fact he would have most of the Decepticons, and I the Autobots.

When I turned 13 my Dad decided to toss away all of my toys. They had been sitting in a closet for a few years. At that point in my life my interests shifted to watching movies and reading comics. I couldn't care less about my toys so I even helped my Dad get rid of them! We tossed eveything from G.I. Joes (ugh, I had a LOT!), to M.A.S.K., Super Powers, He-Man...you get the idea. I even turned a Snake Mountain playset into the Batcave, and that was tossed. Again, I couldn't care less.

The 90's came, Beast Wars was out and I was not interested. I thought, " how could you call this Transformers? Lame! I'm going to smoke now because I'm a cool teenager!"

Then it was 1999. I had turned 20 and just moved into my first apartment. I was on my own. I don't know why, although I think it's common for a lot of people at that age, but a sense of nostalgia had been hitting me pretty hard. How could I let my Dad throw away all my toys?! Crap, I miss my toys. I miss my childhood! I was working full-time, I was dating girls, I was going to flea markets looking for old toys.

2001. I was at a London Drugs buying some last minute stuff for a 6 week trip and I stumbled on a Heroes of Cybertron Prime & Megatron! Sure they were little PVC figures that didn't transform, but seeing them in that old-style packaging sent me back. I bought them, and went on my trip.

While traveling all I could think about were two things; how can I get this girl back home to like me, and what are the chances I could get all my old G1 Tranformers back. I frequented a few internet cafes and did some research. This is were I educated myself on EVERYTHING related to toy collecting. X-Entertainment.com (http://www.x-entertainment.com/) provided me with some hilarious articles regarding stuff from my childhood. I checked out Ebay and realized that there was a collectors market. That's when I decided when I get back to Canada, I'm toy collecting! And I'm asking that girl back home out!

Since then, thanks to Ebay, Japanese & American re-issues, Classics, garage sales, Value Village, comic and specialty stores, etc, I've made toy collecting my number 1 hobby. I've collected not just TFs, but movie toys, G.I. Joes, and Batman. I even managed a toy & comic book store for a year.

Sorry, I only meant this post to be a couple of sentences but ended up typing my Toy Collecting Autobiography. So to sum up:

-I've been collecting since I was 20. Ten years now.
-I appreciate Beast Wars now, as I see how solid the writing is and how well they tie into my beloved G1 continuity.
-I'm about 75% complete in my G1 colection.
-I've been with that same girl for almost 6 years now.

[jourdo]

What year did Alternator Smaokescreen come out? Whenever that was is when I got back into it.

I said to myself, "Self, those are what Transformers should have been like back when you were a kid. Let's just buy this one as a reminder of your childhood."

I agreed with my assessment of the situation and it has been downhill ever since.

[rhinoxmaximal]

Originally Posted by Cemetary Man

-I've been collecting since I was 20. Ten years now.
-I appreciate Beast Wars now, as I see how solid the writing is and how well they tie into my beloved G1 continuity.
-I'm about 75% complete in my G1 colection.
-I've been with that same girl for almost 6 years now.

Great story Cemetary Man!

[borihazard]

short little story about myself, i wasn't really a collector of any certain series, but if i was in love with one thing, i would by a piece of it.in result i have a few beastwar figures, power ranger figures, evangelion soul of chokogin, a blythe doll. but i kinda grew up as a gamer kid, owning most of the systems. But until the live action tf movie came out..that changed me lol. kind of a negative thing to say in here, but i wish i could quit its just hard to keep up with $60, $70 dollar games and all these nice figures coming out! im 19 right now and part time job doesn't cut it all..but i guess im really lucky to have nice parents

p.s. i know we already had an age poll before, but its interesting to learn more about each other, this is a great thread