For over twenty years I have collected Transformers. Mostly G1s, but some G2s, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, RID, and Commemoratives. I'm giving them up, even as the movie trailer receives rave reviews.

They were not the first thing I collected. I have that compulsive urge to gather things. Comics (funnybooks as Grandma Sarah used to say), stamps, rocks, coins, and wild pets were all collecting hobbies before them, but Transformers were different.

I was 16 and trying on independence for the first tiime. I spent my money and drove myself all around the southeast buying toy robots. It wasn't the toys, only a few are quality (Shockwave, Roadbuster, Jetfire, Soundwave, Optimus, ...). It wasn't the cheesy cartoons. It wasn't the "Collect 'em all" slogan. It was a symbol of boy's burgeoning manhood, that I could gather these toys from disparate regions and complete an actual collection of something. The words aren't conveying my feelings. It was my first attempt at independence, at being me.

Over the years I managed to buy 170+ toys from SC, NC, IL, NY, and even France. I never played with them, only displayed them on my desk as I filled out college applications and wrote term papers. I even brought a Megatron and Optimus to Northwestern with me. Nothing is more uncool to college students than toys, but they meant alot to me. However, I did keep them hidden in a drawer all through college.

I have since moved on to collecting plants and expereinces. Now that I am giving up the Transformers, I appreciate them and the effort it took to get them more than ever. I hope they find a loving home with someone who will display them proudly, instead of keeping them tucked away in boxes in a storage unit.

Prologue

I was so caught up in describing what collecting Transformers meant to me as a boy that I forgot to write what the toys themsleves mean. They made me happy and my family knew it. My momma, sister, and wife delighted in buying Transformers for me,because they know it would make me smile. Even if it was not a G1 or a figure I knew, I was still happy to add to my collection.

My love for Transformers has spread to my family. My sister and niece watch the orignial Transformers movie and cheer when Galvatron blasts Starscream. My ma watches Beast Wars and Beast Machines. Everybody wants to see the live action movie.

I thought my wife tuned out most of my nerd talk, but she has absorbed alot of Transformers lore. At thiis point she is more broken up about freeing the colleciton than me. There are so many memories. The summer after our freshman year at NU I internshipped in Charlotte. She came to visit me and we had a ball driving to Cotswold Mall, Gastonia Mall, and South Park Mall buying Transformers. Toys R Us became one of our favorite stores. At that time there were few for sale, but it was always fun to search the toy stores for Transfromers treasure.

There will be nothing like it again. I'm too old and jaded. I no longer derive pleasure from buying things. It's time. I want to begin a new chapter in life. Less materialism, more substance. I want to live like my great grandmother with purpose and self sufficiency. In 18 years my wife and I have managed to gather a house and half worth of crap. I want to free us from this stuff. Make room to allow better things in our liives.

It won't be easy to discard the things we have spent so many years, memories, and dollars gathering, but if we free the Transformers, then anything is possible.