Y’all’re awesome!
I knew I posted here for a reason...and it wasn’t because more than a couple of the Bots on display came from Seibertron via eBay... I’ve drooled over (ew) many of your collection pages; your kind words are high praise indeed.
I’ve survived multiple assaults by folks thinking it’s funny to rearrange my shelves when I’m not around (strange how my toddler-nephews understand and respect the “No Touch! Rule” better than their parents), so some playful ribbing about Trypto’s stickers won’t scare me away.
The big guy actually IS stickered up, but I had the light at a bad angle (a photographer I am not). He was a two-day chore getting stickered up for me. I hate stickers.
On that note, I’ve been thinking about getting some Reprolables. Boy, they sure are pretty, but...I hate stickers...but they’re really pretty... Thoughts?
As for how I decide what goes where, I wish I could give you a short answer, but to understand the methods of my madness is to understand the mind of a Loony Toon.
The unlearned say I’ve got really bad OCD, but in truth it’s mild at best; I function just fine in the real world. I try to focus all my silly urges to control onto my Transformers. I’ve made up sortable lists (plural) of my collections so I can arrange and rearrange them in different ways that still satiates the need to put things in order. Recently, I discovered MPNs and that’s my new favorite way to sort...for now...
Actually fidgeting with them can be quite therapeutic getting through anxiety attacks. And going through the ritual of First Opening— getting the tools ready, cracking the seals, tossing the instructions and taking my sweet time puzzling out the designers’ intended transformations (speaking of which, I think I’ve figured out a better way to do PotP Optimus’ cab mode)— all very satisfying.
As for what goes where, I originally had this master plan of having one single “ALIGNED|GENERATIONS” collection displayed, with them intersecting at that grey-area that is Fall of Cybertron. But part way through setting that up I realized that the shelves weren’t big enough for the both of them. So I mapped out my shelf-space, ultimately decided on only Generations, only combining Combiners from box-sets, so both forms of a mold get shown off, plus Deluxes are easier to mush together than Combiners...but the Combiner Hunters needed to be surrounded by combined Combiners...and I still might push the Titan Force set back a row so they’re touching Fort Max.... Tried to keep it it MPN-order-ish going L-R/T-B, but also pushing bigger figs in the back and pulling smaller figs up front...-ish...all while not having any “holes” in my map (thank the Lords of Order I could stretch TR Soundwave’s arm out and perch Laserbeak on it...that happy happenstance of arrangement solved a remainder of 1 in my mapping equations that was wracking my brain for days!). I’ve got twelve spots left; PotP is going to be big; I’ll need to either retire FoC or combine the Combiners and retire the G2 reprints...or both...I don’t know yet...
Feelings on G1, BW, and other lines: Brothers and sisters, I’ve got nothing but love in my heart...even TF figs or entire lines I’m personally not fond of for whatever reason, I try to find something to appreciate about it (I grew quite fond of RotF Arcee as the ugly duckling that never quite got to turn into the 3biner-Swan with her sisters)...and if I can’t find anything to appreciate about it I’ll love it for the simple fact it’s promoting a brand that genuinely has meant quite a bit and more to me and my sanity, and say no more—I figure someone somewhere probably digs on it; who am I to trash their thing?
I’ve many fond memories of G1. I remember my dad taking me to see the Movie at the theater (I must’ve been 4yo), and being blown away by Ultra Magnus saying “dammit” (I was completely oblivious to Spike’s potty-mouth until the DVD). I had a PM Prime that was so special and awesome (read: expensive) it lived in my dad’s room so siblings wouldn’t destroy it. Had a few awesome finds garage-saling with Grandma, too...scored Blaster, ‘84 Prime, Brawn...
Beast Wars, not-so-much of a toy-fan, but I dug on the show when I was actually able to catch it (high school at the time...some things—not many—but some, are more important than Transformers). Beast Machines was trippy but in a good way. But I’m not a huge fan of organics-to-robots.
2001 RiD got me into collecting and using them as OCD outlets. Firetruck-Prime and Purple Dragon-Megs were the only two in the collection for a while. Never saw the show.
I tried to resist Armada, but the Mini-Cons won me over. Y’know? I’m just going to say it...NO SHAME—I loved the hell out of all 3 of those lines. Galaxy Convoy still just might be my favorite Optimus ever (although Evolution Optimus just may finally usurp the title).
The Prime: RiD and BH lines are my favorite as far as aesthetics go. For a bit this was ALL I collected and very selectively. These lines gave me the appreciation for retools that I never had before, and also gave me full tech-specs, which...I’m sorry but there’s no excuse for ANY Transformer to lack a full tech-spec. And the characters were well specked too...all 10’s for Optimus is just plain silly.
With the exception of the RotF toys, the Movieverse offerings just aren’t for me. Many of my earlier Chugs didn’t survive a hasty move. Peaugh got me into the Animated stuff...loaded up on most of the mainline Takara figs when I found out Blackout and Jetwing Optimus wouldn’t be released State-side, and I just can’t have Takara and Hasbro toolings together. Couple this with an expensive LEGO habit and even more expensive Bandai Japan Super Sentai DX mech addiction (both since kicked)...And that all became a problem...over-saturation after the Bayverse films and I couldn’t even hope to keep up. Actually quit collecting EVERYTHING for a bit...but then my wife surprised me with CW Ultra Magnus and it was all over...started collecting Generations in both directions at about the same pace. Decided to make FoC my “beginning” point because—c’mon now—it marked a completely different aesthetic than the earlier Classics 3.0 and just logically made sense to start there. Money restrictions have dictated I couldn’t go further back to complete out the ultimate Chuggy-collection, and now I need to stick to one toyline at a time (exceptions being made to “complete” my Aligned collection with some select 2015RiDs), so it was a good place to say “Good enough” and be happy that with T30 and Prime Wars, I can construct a pretty darn good G1-tribute display without earlier Chuggerts.
WOW! I sure have a lot of pent up nerdness...I could talk about Transformers forever! Rather than try to edit this down into something more...er...reasonable, I’m just going to leave it so y’all know what kind of a nutbag yer dealing with here.