This is a question for the older geezers here. Has anyone else seen a child, be it their own or a nephew, cousin, step child from little kid to adulthood and seen them grow into a more frenzied Transformers junkie than you? I would think some people out there have to have kids who have been raised to, or nearly to adulthood and all on Transformers. So how has that gone? Or is it going?

 

 

I have no kids. My older nephew Joey was born about a month after I graduated high school. My own collecting began by buying Beast Wars figures for both my nephews. Both loved to collect them as a kid, though the younger one has little interest in them these days. Their mom on the other hand, HATES ME! She blames me for everything my older nephew still loves.

 

I have never gotten a tattoo. Joey already has 2 Transformers tattoos. Of course that's my fault. :tflaugh

 

We still hunt for TF's by day and sometimes throw back some beers at night. I've found in the last month that it's nice to have someone who can make a beer run for me! I don't hardly drink though, but when I do... :)

 

I've never really felt or thought of myself as getting old until looking at my nephew. I don't know if that's good or bad. I'm gonna be 40 in December and I guess this is one of those many self reflection moments, but one worth talking about. Especially for others with rapidly growing kids.

 

My only regret though, is that I lost the other one! I think he pitied his mom a bit knowing how much she hates TF's and stuck with video games instead. Seems to make her happier for some odd reason, probably because he never goes more than 10 feet away from the XBOX. :shrug

 

 

 

I've been asked if I feel like I missed anything by never getting married or having any kids and the answer to that is still....HELL NO! Watching my sister raise 2 kids was a daily lesson in "this could happen to you!"

 

I've gotten all the experience I needed to have with kids! I've done my job passing on the Transformers legacy to another generation and I feel rather pleased about that! Better a bitter sister than a hateful wife! (or ex)

Meh, this is no where near as bad as adults who introduce their kids to smoking, drugs, alcohol abuse etc. I knew a guy who used to do drugs - who got him into it? His mother (that's just fvcked up). You've exposed your nephew to a hobby, not substance abuse. :P

 

One of my colleagues doesn't like how I've "baptised" my daughter in the Transformers faith and I constantly surround her with Transformers and dress her in Transformer clothes. :D She's accusing me of indoctrination... which is true (heh :P), but how is it any worse than people who indoctrinate their kids in other beliefs? At least my beliefs come with awesome toys, comics and cartoons! :D

There are few that can match my fanatasism to the Transformers, so NO.

 

Collector

Fan Fiction writer

Botcon dealer for 2 years

partisipated in TF books and web pages

Even managed to incorporate TF's into my own WEDDING.

 

My nephews have a snow ball chance in hell of outdoing my interest in TF's.

 

Even if they grew up to be the next Shia L in the reboot of the TF movies, I still have them beat.

 

I hope to get my nephews interested in a wide variety of things, but TF's is MY thing. I perfer that they find their own nitch really. Keeps them from wanting to play with Uncle G's toys. "Don't open that box, that's my $$$$ Diaclone Fortress X!"

Collector

Me too! Been collecting non-stop since 1984. :)

 

Fan Fiction writer

I've tried to write some fanfics... I'm not very good. I can write some okay fan specs/profiles and I can kinda draw, but I'm not great at that either. Ah well.

 

Botcon dealer for 2 years

I've never been to BotCon, but I've ran several TF booths/stalls at conventions, and I've organised the first Transformers convention in Australia. :) I was also a volunteer at another convention organised by someone else.

 

partisipated in TF books and web pages

Even managed to incorporate TF's into my own WEDDING.

Same here. I had G1 Beachcomber with me and the ONLY music we played was Transformers music. ;)

 

I've also...

+ Put Transformers down as my religion in the national census

+ Inducted my daughter into Transformers from birth -- Softimus Prime was in the delivery room with us when she was born, when I held her in my arms for the first time, I showed her Softimus. He also stayed with her in the crib for the first week of her life. Softimus Prime and Slumblebee are almost always with her whenever we go out together. :D

+ My daughter has a TF name which is an extension of her mundane name. :)

 

My daughter can currently say the following words in English (we're raising her trilingually, so her range of English vocab is limited atm): "No!", "Hi!", "Bye-bye see you!", "Mummy," "Daddy" and "Bumblebee" (which she pronounces as "Bum-boo-dee" :P). Oh, and she can sort of make the G1 transforming sound too. :)

 

 

One of my colleagues doesn't like how I'm exposing so much TF stuff to my daughter... she reckons I should introduce her to more girlie stuff like Barbie. I told her that this would be complete blasphemy since Barbie is made by Mattel and Transformers is Hasbro. I'd be happy to let her play with My Little Pony though. ;)

i stopped collecting when alternators died. i too started a family. my son is 2 yrs and 4 months and he is stuck on the name 'ironhide.' so every transformers name is ironhide. i also had no intention on collecting again but seems that transformers seem to make its way back into my house with transformers prime on hub, 3 movies, and plenty of transformers gifts from grandma and grandpa lol. there seems like no way out of being a tf fan lol.

i stopped collecting when alternators died. i too started a family. my son is 2 yrs and 4 months and he is stuck on the name 'ironhide.' so every transformers name is ironhide. i also had no intention on collecting again but seems that transformers seem to make its way back into my house with transformers prime on hub, 3 movies, and plenty of transformers gifts from grandma and grandpa lol. there seems like no way out of being a tf fan lol.

 

 

That's what's deadly. Trying to overlook them at stores, then having kids who love them that stick you buying them again for them. They're insidious! Starts out innocently, next thing you know you'll have "Dad's shelves" going up that the kids can't touch.

My daughter's not allowed to touch any of my shelves or TFs without permission - except for the PlaySkool TFs shelves. That one she can help herself to. And she's pretty good at sticking to this rule - most of the time when she touches my other TF shelves or toys, it's by accident. And I never actually even taught her this rule - believe it or not, she taught herself! :o

 

One of my mates reckons it might be because the brighter colours and cuter shapes on the PlaySkool TFs might be more attractive to a baby/infant compared to other TFs... so I fear that she may grow out of it and take a greater interest in my other TFs. Actually, it's already starting to show... but again, she generally won't touch my other TFs without permission. She's never in my TF room without my direct supervision anyway (this is actually a legal requirement in my state because of Megatron ownership).

its know its the law...and a legal requirement and all that....and blah blah blah....but concerning megatron....thats got to be the stupidest thing ive ever heard...its a toy for crying out loud...having to have permits and all that jazz just to own a stupid toy....does the same go for browning were your from goki?or G1 shockwave or legends G1 megatron for that matter?

its know its the law...and a legal requirement and all that....and blah blah blah....but concerning megatron....thats got to be the stupidest thing ive ever heard...its a toy for crying out loud...having to have permits and all that jazz just to own a stupid toy....does the same go for browning were your from goki?or G1 shockwave or legends G1 megatron for that matter?

I agree... but the law's the law. Actually, initially our state govt started just confiscating all MP Megatrons that they could find and started destroying them. One collector who had his MP confiscated happens to be a lawyer - so he took took the NSW Police Ministry to court, and after several months finally got the law changed to legalise ownership of MP Megatron (and by extension, any replica gun Transformers). He also appeared in one episode of ABC's "The Collectors" (see YouTube Video below) ;) However, part of that means that it's a prohibited item - so I'm registered with with NSW Police Firearms Registry... it was a lengthy pain in the arse process too because they make you jump through all these hoops in order to qualify for the permit. Thankfully some hoops that regular gun owners have to jump through were waved for TF gun owners, for example, the gunformers have to be a in a locked display unit, but it doesn't have to be a wall-mounted safe (as would be required for an actual gun). The expensive registration fee was also thankfully waved - although I have to continue paying an annual membership fee to the Megatron Gun Club to keep my permit current (I also attend their AGMs ;)). The fee's fairly minimal - just helps to pay for the ongoing costs of running the club which is a requirement for the permit... so I don't mind paying. Sure beats having my Gunformers confiscated and incinerated!

 

Some other states and territories are even worse off because nobody's been able to successfully challenge the courts there, so the toys remain outright illegal. :( In SA it's weird... it's illegal to import the toy, but perfectly legal to own it once it's inside the state! WA is the one state where gunformer ownership is completely legal - no permits or anything required. The WA government recognises the toy for what it is - just a toy! :P But I live in NSW, so here we have to have a permit (and all the requirements that come with it). Also fortunately for me, I didn't need to undergo a Police Background Check - because due to the nature of my occupation, I've already had one done. ;) But I know others had to have it done, which means even more flaming hoops to jump through. :(

 

(those Japanese Headmaster warriors are legit too - though they're not his (someone else lent them to him to bring onto the show :))

 

In answer to your question...

+ Browning: permit required

+ Shockwave: no permit required

+ Legends Megatron: no permit required

I don't own Browning, but I know someone else in NSW who does, and he keeps it locked in the same display unit as his G1 and MP Megatrons. The one permit covers all those toys, we don't need to get a new permit for each new Gunformer we get. :) I can display my G1 Shockwave and Legends Megatron outside of the display unit and I can carry them in public because they're not prohibited. This is also why Hasbro was able to sell RtS Legends Megatron in Australia too. G1 Shockwave was never sold here, but "Shackwave" was. Classics Megatron was also sold here and that mould is also unrestricted - which is why when I met Shane McCarthy, I brought Henkei Megatron along with me for him to salute...

 

<--All Hail Megatron!

Meh, I try to let my kids make their own choices. I've already watched my 9 year old move on from Transformers to Star Wars. What gets me there is he's fixated on the droids. He'll go on about R2-D2 having jets and all I can think is "Oh, he's got jets huh? That's pretty cool. STARSCREAM IS A JET!!!!" If robots is what you're into, how can you possibly favor droids over TFs? Ah well, it's his call.

The younger boy is all about TFs, but he has other interests too. I love that he shares my passion and I'm sure he picks up on that. It's probably as much a bonding thing as it is a love of the TFs themselves. I work hard not to take advantage of this. His 7th birthday is coming up on September 16th and of the 15 gifts he's getting only 5 are TFs so I think that's pretty good.

As for my youngest, as yet unborn (11 weeks to go!!!) son, he's already got a Transformers Rescuebots Optimus Prime and his human partner waiting on his shelf for when he's ready. Until then it'll be a good decoration. And we're naming him Orion. So I'm definitely working a TF angle, but I'll give him space to be who he wants to be too.