I guess this question can go in a multitude of ways. The internet has really given collectors an outlet to meet and express their appreciation and also provides means of purchase and of course INFORMATION.

What would collecting be like today with no internet?

At first I only used the internet for ebay, and that's where my collecting really began to take shape.

It wasn't for a year or two before I started to get into online fandoms and really tune into news sites for all the latest info. All in all, since I've really been hooked into the various message boards I think my collecting habits have grown to a near scary level.

Now I'm aware of every new figure as it first hits the street, I'm aware of all of the exclusives and new import goodies that can be had. But the hardest part, is being more informed on the future releases LONG before they come out. By the time those figures do surface, we're like crackhounds chasing down all the dealers in town hoping to score.

We're all in some way addicted to the thrill of the hunt, but does anyone ever wonder if that's become more powerful than the simple will to collect? At least on a personal level.

If you don't know where you stand then next time you get a big find, try to be mindful of how quickly that figure gets shelved and you're already foaming at the mouth for the next.

I admit, I don't get to really enjoy all of the figures I purchase before they end up in the storage bins when the next new line comes out. I do usually have a bunch that I've spent a fair amount of time transforming and putting in various poses, but at least twice as many that end up only being transformed once or twice.

Anyone else care to share some thoughts here?

I probably would have stopped collecting a long time ago if not for the internets...

Before the net my only way of knowing what was supposed to be out was the back of the package. If I couldn't find a fig at my closest retail I didn't buy it. Eventually that morphed into toy hopping/hitting up different stores but the chances of not finding what I wanted then were greater.... and gas cheaper.

With the net, well it's scary. I tune in everyday. I hit every site. And I'll bust my ass for weeks on end driving around after the initial sightings trying to find mine. Now I know everything that's coming out and where to get it.

I've recently been thinking that I need to stop being so impatient. I spend more money on gas being one of the very first to nab figs than if I would just waiting for them to hit thier full release.

Yes, the internet is unhealthy for my money spending. "But he's a transforming crab tank! Buy him!"

QFT.

My small wish-lists inflated to be like, what, comprised of 18 - 22 figures on it... All because of TEH INTERNETS INFLUENSSEE!!

i think i can safely tick "all of the above"

sorry, I should add more caveats like "oh I used to have him and I sold him, but if you're into Beast Wars so much that you're spending money on eBay to buy these toys, he's one of the better ones" but that gets wordy.

Sawrite

My BW collection is lacking in transmetals...or really any BW toys, for that matter. I want a few of them.

Rampage is a shiny crab version of Alt Grimlock FYI... especially when you're making that tank mode. But if you can ever figure it out, you feel like you just won the Olympics.

Actually if I had it to over again, I would just get TM Primal.

I've, unfortunately, reached the point where very few of the TFs on my want list are the kind I have to look online for.

I typically just use the innernets as back-up. Pre-order stuff in case I can't find it in stores. If I can't I'm covered, if I do, I just cancel (or return) the internet order. If I get the order before I find it in stores...well...think of all the gas money I saved.

The internet helped me get stuff I wanted and couldn't possible find at retail(G1 Blitzwing, BW Megatron the Purple Dinosaur, etc.), but now that I've gotten all of the stuff I wanted (with a few exceptional exceptions...G1 Omega Supreme), I can really just walk in to a store to work on my collection. Yay me, I guess.

I am watching TM Primal also. I have one, but it's missing the gun, missiles, and blue munkky "feet." I neeeeds a complete version.




And a Japanese TM Megs

TM Megs is less fun than you think. Also smaller.

And you definitely need TM Primal's hair dryer. Those lustrous munky locks won't wind-blow themselves.

Well, if crap didn't stick to his fur so badly....

ON TOPIC: Yes. I agree with everyone else here.

I have a TM Megs and liked him, when he wasn't a broken piece of sh*t.

Pretty much it's easier for me to know whats out and whats good so I don't have to second guess things. Also much easier to get imports.. which are also much more expensive. Honestly though, I don't usually resort to online shopping. Most of my stuff can be purchased in TRU, Targets or Walmarts .. most of it. But if I ever want to finish pollishing off my pre-movie TF/Diaclone guys I'm more than likely going to have to go about it from online vendors.

For weeks I've been checking hasbrotoyshop.com every day (sometimes twice a day) waiting for that "coming soon" on Animated Blitzwing to change to "add to cart." At about 1am this morning it did. I was about to fall asleep, and wasn't expecting it.

A shot of adrenaline and an honest (and probably loud) 'gasp!' woke me up just enough to blabble incoherently to my significant other, grab my credit card, and order. It felt like I was racing against hordes of people trying to order the friggin thing before it was sold out.

Then I passed out, slept, and close to a day later he's still not sold out.

Crackhounds indeed.

Something else about the long wait, there's ebay. Ebay and people selling stolen factory toys for retail price and five times that amount in shipping.


I will say I make much more informed choices in my collecting. It's easier to not buy some figures because I've carefully listed what I don't like about them.

But then again, it's also easier to read about people who do like those things, and talk myself into liking them.

*glares at animated Lugnut.*

~Matt Booker

I think we hit a double edged sword there. Sometimes we can get so hyped up over certain figures from online exposure only to be severely let down once we get them and other times we can spew hate all over others and for whatever reason end up getting them anyway and totally loving them.

I will say this, the internet has made collecting a whole lot more interesting than just owning the figures alone. I think it really amps up the urges to find those figs that are momentarily elusive. But does anyone else feel the crash so to speak once the figure is home and on the shelf with the rest?

When the fascination with the find wears off and it's back to the net for more of "OK got this one, now what's next?" does anyone ever have moments of WTF AM I DOING???

I guess I kinda do from time to time. Knowing I've spent unfathomable thousands of dollars now over the years on these things, it's hard not to.

It would be interesting to see how things started to change if I spent a lot less time on the internet. I'm sure I wouldn't stop collecting, but I'm guessing if I started to limit my exposure to all of this and went more on a take it as they come basis, things wouldn't seem as relentless as they do now and I wouldn't be worrying about hunting everything down from it's first reported sighting like I tend to do a lot.

In the end, I'd probably end up spending a little more wisely and end up saving a lot more.














But that just wouldn't be as much fun now, would it?!?

I sometimes find myself wondering; when the hell is this gonna end? I'll walk back into my room, look around and just shake my head. 'Dude, this isn't even all you own either.. remember the storage tubs under the bed?!" I have moments where I feel like I need to sell half my collection. I'll root through everythings and start making piles of stuff to sell. Only to come back to it minutes, hours and/or days later and start pulling figs out until they're ALL back where they originally were.

I pulled an experiment a few months ago: I stopped gettign online to see just what it would do to my collection habits. I just ended up branching out again to other toy lines. All I really did was replace the internet with retail store outlets. I started broadening my horizons in regards to toy lines. I eventually just said 'screw it', got back on the net and redevoted my money back to TF's. All of those other toys I've bought just sit there while I always come back to the TF's I've purchased and regularly play with them.

i use it to make more informed decisions. when energon first came out i wasn't on the internets much at all. i assumed the packaging meant that only rodimus could link with hotshot or only prowl with inferno. so i bought all four so i could take advantage of the gimmick. By the end of the line i was online full time but in love with the autobot deluxes anyway.

if not for the internet i'd probably skip the more expensive bots like masterpiece starscream cause i'm a cheap bastard if i only see it in the store and don't know anything about it.

At first I went out of control with ebay and online retailers from America and Overseas. But once I became part of the "boards" I found myself making more educated choices. Thanks to you guys, I now find a figure I like and trace the progression from news to prototype to in hand reviews.

Thanks to my fellow TFans!

Even though I may be buying more, the choices are well thought out and rarely regretted...

With no internet I'd probably just be picking up a Prime or two in my Bi-annual visit to the toy store.


...Sh-t.

Go get Armada Predacon repaint/remold, instead. ;)

i blame the net for just how much stuff I have gotten I dont think I would have any Japanese TF's or exclusives if i didn't have the net

Without the internet there would always be the toy magazines, as far as learning about new products goes. However, I doubt that I would have any G1 toys, or even old G.I. Joe figures if it were not for the internet.

I was already getting into collecting big time when I first stumbled across the net. First search I ever did was for Beast Wars. It helped me figure out what characters were available. But I never would have known about Beast Wars II and Neo without the interwebs. Or on many other figures. So yeah, the internets has helped me blow a lot of cash.

The internet has not helped. I used to get then for birthdays, holidays, and if I saved up the money. Now that I have a job, a little friend called plastic, and the internet, now at least once or twice a month I get something Transformers related via the mail or UPS, or go out when sighting have spiked up and hope to find something (and about half the time I do).

So while keeping up with stuff, I'm currently trying to acquire some older things (not G1, but at least figures of characters that were in BW).

Long ago, in a different world, there were many resources for obtaining Transformers and related goodies. Before the interenet, there were toy shows, garage sales, flea markets, toy shops and the toy mags + ads that helped keep things alive. Some of us even bought out friends collections who ‘grew up’ and didn’t want to ‘play’ with them any more.

Then came the Bot Cons, which were a huge hit for collecting. And some even put out news letters, like Tony Preto’s Cyber-Con news letter, which told us in the US about the UK and Japan series, as well as the Diaclone and pre Transformers.

But then, the internet hit, Ebay, trading posts, web pages and the whole world of international TF information opened up.

I obtained most of my collection from flea markets and buying out collections, the occasional toy store purchase post G1. After the internet and botcons I obtain most of my things through the net. Pay Pal has made it a lot easier to throw credit around rather than money orders and cash.

In the hay day, I obtained quite a few good items through international collections and on line toy stores. Bootlegs from our friends in Canada, as well as Asia. Even a few goodies from South America.

Internet has made things available at a click, allowed people to show off their possessions which might give a clue certain variants even exist. Why even filing bankruptcy because one spent all his money on imported Japanese Transformers that were re-released here in the states for a fraction of the cost can be done with ease.

Yes the internet, bringing us more and more things from the whole wide world to end up in a whole lot of debt and clutter.


AH but seriously, now I'm pausing my collecting for awhile (at least trying to be good) I still have the FANDOM! On line lets us go from some creep who cuts up toys to make customs in a basement, to cool person on line who gets to post picts and gain some respect. Not to mention writing, posting art, and reading all the news like what Michael Bay had for breakfast...

Quite simply, I wouldn't be collecting if not for the interwebs. The only bots I've gotten out of brick-and-mortar stores were the TRU G1 reissues and the movie figs. Everything else comes from on-line. I probably would have stopped a long time ago too, but when I get on here and see the other stuff people get, and read other collectors' excitement, I get all excited and remind myself, "hey at least I'm not out killing people". That's what my friend would always tell me when I told him I felt like a dork for buying other people's old toys. Now he's a Superman collector! hehehe

I also like that I can find out about what's new and coming out. I just wish it would hurry up and be September so I can get my Encore Metroplex.

Well ebay and online retailers of course got me out of collector shops, man I was being taken for a ride by them.

Then there are the forums, both enjoyable and frustrating with all the free will and independent thought. That is were the internet realy affected my habit. I've always enjoyed seeing and sharing what I have on my shelves with others and vice versa. The notes I've shared with people have been very helpful in the molding of my collection.

Sometimes the conversations stray off course, and get alittle heated, but thats just how discussions go sometimes. If it was all roses, I don't think it'd be as much fun.

The Good The Bad The Ugly, it's all taken into account.

Finaly the sites themselves. The information on upcoming series, toys, and what not have helped me budget and decide what I want in advance. This has been extremely helpful. Take Animated, I saw it knew it realy wasn't for me, so even though I have most, I don't have as many as I would from an average line. Thanks to that I knew in 2008 I wanted to focus more on vintage figures, which again thanks to the internet is working out very well. Also if not for sites like this, I never would have known about some awesome figures like the THS Primes who I realy enjoy. The exposure to whats out there beyond regular retail shelves is increadable.

My bank account may not, but I Thank You Internet. Me thinks thats about covers it.

One word.

Remy

He makes nearly every Transformer look damn cool.