The majority of my figures are mint in sealed boxes , but I do have some open on display.I try to keep all of my boxes if possible.I know some collectors search for boxes for their auction won whatever generation to complete the figure, but sometimes the boxes run almost a much as the figure. I'm a curator all the way with a little fiddler and artisan mixed in.

I'd say I'm mostly a curator, although I definitely fiddle with my loose G1 figures. Also, I have two sons that love Transformers, so with them I'm totally a player and a player gots to play, yo!

Fiddler/Curator. Having spent years mastering the art of near "seamless" openeing of blisters and a near photographic memory, I open, futz aorund then display the loose figures, occasionally reposeing, transforming untill i OD on the figure, or more just push it out of the display case, which point i move it off to the "in box" display/storage area back safe in thier package(or in a bubble wrap "loose" box for those that came loose)

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.

That's exactly how I play with my toys; with a story... usually with plot complications, character developments etc.! And it's how I've always liked to play with my toys, even as a kid. I didn't enjoy playing with other kids who were content with just smashing their toys up with each other, I much preferred playing with other kids who would join me in making dialogue and trying to make a story etc. Sometimes we'd stop playing and argue about certain events. :D

 

But yeah, as I've gotten older I'd like to think that my stories have also become more complex. Sometimes I'll play entire sessions with mostly dialogue and little to no fighting! A few weeks ago I played out the end of the Autobot-Decepticon war and all the political wheelings and dealings around the Pax Cybertronia etc. It was basically the Autobots and Decepticons playing political chess as they prepared for the dissolution of their factions. There was only one action scene - Rodimus was ambushed by unknown drone fighters for which the New Decepticon Triumvirate* (later to be reformed as the Tripredacus Council) denied any knowledge of. So the action exists as part of telling the story, not the other way around. :)

 

*Now there's an obscure reference to G1! (^O^)

'hello, I AM MEGATRON!....

 

and I'm a fiddler'

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.

That's exactly how I play with my toys; with a story... usually with plot complications, character developments etc.! And it's how I've always liked to play with my toys, even as a kid. I didn't enjoy playing with other kids who were content with just smashing their toys up with each other, I much preferred playing with other kids who would join me in making dialogue and trying to make a story etc. Sometimes we'd stop playing and argue about certain events. :D

 

But yeah, as I've gotten older I'd like to think that my stories have also become more complex. Sometimes I'll play entire sessions with mostly dialogue and little to no fighting! A few weeks ago I played out the end of the Autobot-Decepticon war and all the political wheelings and dealings around the Pax Cybertronia etc. It was basically the Autobots and Decepticons playing political chess as they prepared for the dissolution of their factions. There was only one action scene - Rodimus was ambushed by unknown drone fighters for which the New Decepticon Triumvirate* (later to be reformed as the Tripredacus Council) denied any knowledge of. So the action exists as part of telling the story, not the other way around. :)

 

*Now there's an obscure reference to G1! (^O^)

 

I have a 17year story going on myself filled with all types of subplots and twists. The idea of "faction" to me has become as disreguarable as what line a figure is from. The larger my collection gets. the more complex and intricate that gets as each figure is doing something.

 

Hell even when I part with a figure, they have a send off as they're "departing on a new journey"

 

If I wasn't writing books about other things, I could fill plenty of novels with my shelves alone. Everything has a reason and explination.

 

Like I said earlier, it's my own little world.

I am more curator than fiddler but I will pick up the figures and fiddle with them from time to time. I do open all my figures and put them on display where they have a tendency to collect dust more that get played with unfortunately. :(

Boy, its been awhile since I have been on here. Things sure have changed quite a bit.

 

Anyway, I am right smack dab in the middle b/w a fiddler and a curator. I definitely have all my figures displayed in great big huge display cases and I tend to only collect figs that are in great shape (or if they aren't, then replace them w/ better ones later). Displaying them this way is the main thrust of my collecting. I love to catalog them and keep lists and all that fun OCD stuff. However, I absolutely will get them out and mess w/ them. I even let others touch them from time to time, like whenever they ask. They are toys after all, even if they have magically transformed (pun unintended) into "collectibles" after all these years. First and foremost, they are toys and are meant to be fiddled with. I juts personally like pristine toys w/ all the stickers and accessories, and I like to display them in an exact way. See what I mean about being both?

 

PS: Someone please PM me or something about what happened w/ Madhammer. Last I was on here he was an all-powerful Mod and now I think he is kaput. I am dying to know that little bit of gossip.

I guess I'm pat fiddeler, part curator and part player when I'm in the right mood. I tried artistian once. My room has never been the sam since...

Well first Id like to say hi everyone as im a new member here but have had this site as my home page for over 3 years and this topic got me off my ass to register after all this time lol.

 

FIddler: Id have to say im mostly a Fiddler myself my desk is allways filled with my latest group of TFs Iv got and they get posed and transformed all the time until my partner tell me to cut back a bit. Then a select few go off to the many cupboards in the house that are filled with the many TFs waiting to be taken out when the rush of new figures gos slow so they can get a second chance ^^.

 

Curator: Iv never seen the point in being a Curator myself but with TFs even more so. A figure thats just a figure like a GI Joe in package is I sopose never going to change so what you see in package is what you would get if you took it out. But with a TF its only half or somtimes even less then half of what the whole figure is and that makes me feel sad for them as there never know how cool or even if the mode there seeing in that box is the best mode for that toy. That and i sopose I can only feel bad as it feels like the only reason I would consider keeping them in box (and I have done with a few doubles) is to keep them to sell and thats not the point is it??.

 

 

Artisan: Iv done this quite a bit myself but it was all about 5 years ago and mostly with the beastwars toys as they were cheep at the time and I really wanted to see some of my fav G1 characters get a beastswars figure. So i made a BW starscream out of BW Skywarp and a very cool BW Insecticons conbinder out of Tripredacus and then I kinda started making my own cast for alt reality BW with the finest being Arkimas prime a Airraptor painted in Blue siver and red with a painted matrix where his spark used to be. Iv wanted to do more custom work but I always tend not to as its 1) me getting more than one of a mold to convert/paint and room is getting tight and 2) Im always scared Ill mess it up and Iv high standards with my painting and if it ends up looking anything less than the same qulity then if i got it off the peg at Toy R us id be unhappy with it and feel it was a wast of money and time.

 

Player : Now like some of you thats posted I really wish I was one. When i was 16 I went though a (Im not a kid anymore) stage in my life and sold most of my collection that included my jetfire that to this day id love to go back and hit myself hard for selling :( took me nearly 17 years to get him back) and when i sold them somthing in my mind closed and that was the door to my ablity to play. I kinda blame computers as at the time I just did en't see the need to as it was all there. But when I started collecting again when I was 20 and my Ex got me back into Transformers (she was a collector of TFs among other toys) and she gave me Optimas primal and few few others I did try but it was like even tho i was on my own somone was staring at me and laughing mocking me for being 20 years old and trying to make up silly stories with toys like i was 5 again :( . But what made it worse was my Ex did it all the time she had stories that she would come up with that were up there with or better than the episodes of Beastwars we had just been watching and that made me feel worse as I felt someone had robed me of the thing I wanted back the most my imagination. I still look at the mass of TFs on my desk in front of me now and wonder if ill ever make that leap and be able to injoy then to there fullest again until then Ill be most a fiddler