I like to take them out of the package and Play with them I'm a fiddler and then I put them on my bookcase

Following on from Taaron's idea of ranking, for me I'd be Player -> Fiddler -> Curator -> Artisan :)

 

Greatshot: That's interesting because I'm the opposite. I can't play with my toys in front of other people because I feel self-conscious about it, but on my own I love to get lost in my own fantasy. :) For me it's a form of escapism and creativity, because I actually do develop plots, stories, character developments etc. Not terribly _good_ stories mind you, but of course these stories aren't ever intended to be seen or read by anyone other than myself. Just last week I used Star Wars toys to represent NEST forces from the future (with Stormtroopers and Clone Troopers as humans and Jedi and Sith as Nebulans); they travelled to present day (along with Universe Cyclonus, also from the future) and interacted with my movie Transformers and present-day NEST forces (G.I. Joe toys); and of course, I'm using Mutt Williams as Sam Witwicky! The Nebulan Jedi and Sith have special Force powers, thus calling themselves "Powermasters." YES, it's very stupid and cheesy, I know - but I have a lot of fun playing with my toys while making up crazy stories like that (and it's all spontaneous; I don't sit down and plan this :P). I enjoy exercising what imagination and creativity (limited though it may be). It's something I've always done since 1984 till now. :)

 

Even as a kid I was never one to just make the robots fight and blow stuff up, I _always_ had to have a story. Although when playing with my friends it was 50/50 - depending on what kind of kid I was playing with. With other like minded kids we'd get into making stories, which was great because I would control one side and they'd control the other, or we'd control different characters on both sides. It was cool because I had less control over the whole story-telling process and the story could turn one way or the other depending on what plot complications the other person would throw in. Unfortunately I don't know anyone else who still does this that I can play with (well, maybe one person, but he lives 1679 kilometres away from me! :/) so I can only ever do it by myself.

 

But yeah, sometimes I'll be in the middle of playing with my toys with voices and sound effects going, then my wife walks in on me... awkward silence. If she doesn't leave I might continue playing but with a lower voice (or use my inside voice). :P

OK my breakdown would be

Curator- I can spend hours into days or more setting up figures in intricate displays, and even though I play with what I have, I am careful as I go.

 

Fiddler- At any given time I have 10 or so figures on the table next to me. When they pile up though I snag an empty box(12 pack empties are golden) toss them in the display room, and that starts me picking my next batch to fiddle with. The boxed bots also eventualy become part of a new display.

 

Player- If only I had time for this to rank higher :( My figures have a very long running consistant story though. Really this should be higher in theory.

 

Artisian- I'll fix a figure, but mods are something I backed away from when this current collection changed from a larf to massive.

 

I honestly think that as an adult, toy collector, I have found the happy medium in it all.

Following on from Taaron's idea of ranking, for me I'd be Player -> Fiddler -> Curator -> Artisan :)

 

Greatshot: That's interesting because I'm the opposite. I can't play with my toys in front of other people because I feel self-conscious about it, but on my own I love to get lost in my own fantasy. :) For me it's a form of escapism and creativity, because I actually do develop plots, stories, character developments etc. Not terribly _good_ stories mind you, but of course these stories aren't ever intended to be seen or read by anyone other than myself. Just last week I used Star Wars toys to represent NEST forces from the future (with Stormtroopers and Clone Troopers as humans and Jedi and Sith as Nebulans); they travelled to present day (along with Universe Cyclonus, also from the future) and interacted with my movie Transformers and present-day NEST forces (G.I. Joe toys); and of course, I'm using Mutt Williams as Sam Witwicky! The Nebulan Jedi and Sith have special Force powers, thus calling themselves "Powermasters." YES, it's very stupid and cheesy, I know - but I have a lot of fun playing with my toys while making up crazy stories like that (and it's all spontaneous; I don't sit down and plan this :P). I enjoy exercising what imagination and creativity (limited though it may be). It's something I've always done since 1984 till now. :)

 

Even as a kid I was never one to just make the robots fight and blow stuff up, I _always_ had to have a story. Although when playing with my friends it was 50/50 - depending on what kind of kid I was playing with. With other like minded kids we'd get into making stories, which was great because I would control one side and they'd control the other, or we'd control different characters on both sides. It was cool because I had less control over the whole story-telling process and the story could turn one way or the other depending on what plot complications the other person would throw in. Unfortunately I don't know anyone else who still does this that I can play with (well, maybe one person, but he lives 1679 kilometres away from me! :/) so I can only ever do it by myself.

 

I was the same way. I used to act out the big, spanning, multiday epics and all that. As i "grew up" (got older is really more accurate ;) ), I eventually turned to writing and a few years back a pretty major TF RPG stint, though I more or less burnt out on that. Everyonce in a while I get the writing bug now and again, which is where I put my energies now. I wish i didn't feel so weird messing around with them by myself.. but ah well.

 

But yeah, sometimes I'll be in the middle of playing with my toys with voices and sound effects going, then my wife walks in on me... awkward silence. If she doesn't leave I might continue playing but with a lower voice (or use my inside voice). :P

 

:lol I think that's what I'm afraid of. :lol

I'm a Curator/Fiddler right now. My shelves are in a constant state of re-aranging. When I've got too many new figs cluttering up my "man-cave" I put some on the display and some go into storage.

 

I luv :love posing and transforming figs but am really looking forward to when I turn once again into the "player" that resides in all TransFans with my son. Now if he'd just make this easier and age a couple years for the old man, we can get this playfest started :yay

Fiddler/Artisan, with a little Hackster thrown in. Def. a Fiddler, I love moving the parts around and watching them fall into place. An Artisan in the sense that I love to mod them to work better and look better, in that order. I tend to be a little hackish, tho (if we hadn't cremated my dad he'd be rolling over in his grave :wat )

 

Could never be a Curator. Name the most rare MISB TF ever seen, and I'd open that bad-dog up in a second and try to get better articulation out of him. One of you guys could have the box, I'd be careful with it. :con

 

EDIT- Gok, love the pics, you've got a great sense of humor.

I would call myself myself a "sporadic" collector. I tend to mostly go for figures that I like the lookof and am not majorly bothered about completing a whole series of figures. I want all the G1 homage figures from Universe 2.0, but none that aren't accurate to their original selves in some way, or are just a repaint of an older figure (for example Hardhead being a repaint of Onslaught is just weak IMO). But then there's other times when I'll like a figure so much I don't mind having multiple versions of them. For example Classics/Universe 2.0 Starscream.

 

I also fix QC problems on some figures, like metioned earlier the Battle in a box Ultra Magnus had backwards bending elbows. That drove me nuts so I had to fix that problem. Then there' articulation problems too, like ROTF Starscream. I removed hi from the box, TF'd him into robot mode then said to myself "yep, time to take an x acto to this guy, as I don't want to pose him doing the dance to Michael Jackson's thriller video.

 

If I get an idea in my head about a custom I can make, or have had inspiration from great customisers like Jin Saotome or Frenzy_Rumble, I may just repaint or even mod a figure to better them. I love making a figure that'll then be a one of a kind on my shelves as I know I have made it that litte extra special

 

As for playing, yes I play with my toys, and love doing it too. When I was younger I was allways the Autobots well as my Brother would be the Decepticons with a base set up in his room , and mine would be set up in my room. I still to this day remember how I'd get excited when my bros Decepticon "invasion force" would all come flying into my room/base, as my brother ran back and forth between rooms to get all his figures into mine for a fight. Prime allways died and came back, starscream allways shot megatron in the back only to be ass kicked by soundwave. YOu know there's just some things you keep in continuity, no matter how many times you play. And yes these games would sometimes take days to finish.:tflaugh We'd even sometimes come bck upstairs from having diner and play out a "Last time, on Transformers" intro back into the game

 

Fiddling with TF's is just addictive and definitely done on a daily basis. I'm sure rubix cube enthusiasts have the same sort of obsession, allways having to twist or tuen parts. It's the same with my TF's. And , I feel like I have a sense of accomplishment when I've TF'd a figure, especially if I haven't used the instructions the first time TFing a figure

 

As for being a curator though, I think i'm as far from that as I could be. I have TF's on my shelves but they get rotated with other TF's every now and again. Plus the only boxes I keep are normally for very special figures, like RID Brave Maximus and my MP-01 and my THS-02 G1 Convoy. Maye a few reissues too but they're all out of box and proudy kicking the shit outta someone else on my shelves, or just looking badass in some sort of pose

 

Goki, this is a great thread by the way, I had been thinking of doing something similar myself, but it wouldn't have had the great pics of each personailty like yours has :tflaugh

I'm glad everyone's enjoying this thread. :) :D

I'm definitely a Curator and a player with my figures. I have some very rare and fragile figures, so they don't get a whole lot of playtime for fear of breaking them!

I'm deffinatly a fiddler! WOW that sounds wrong! But i love transformers for the enginering. When I see a transformer I always wonder how it transformers or what it transforms into. I would hate to keep all my tfs in the box as I would want 2 transform them! but i would if i had enough money to buy 2. 1 lose and 1 MISB. I am no good at painting of customizing so thats not me. I have grown out of "playing" with tfs, not that im saying im mentaly mature or anything like that. I guess i like more complicated and dramatic stories rather than autobots fighting decepticons.

 

So yer deffinatly a fiddler i often find my self transforming a tf just because.