Are you embarrassed/ashamed.

Omg I swear I laughed so hard that the hot dog I an eating almost killed me then felt like it was coming out my nose. That was hilarious man!

I'm 25 years old, and I still march into Toys R Us with my head held high, knowing that while I may look ridiculous, I'm going to come out with some really cool looking stuff, and ultimately that's all that matters. All of my friends are into miniatures and/or doll collecting, so they don't really think me silly with my hobby (as they have no room to.) My dad thinks it's neat that I go around the state looking for under market value action figures, and my mom is entirely indifferent about the entire thing.
Sometimes I babysit, and occasionally a kid will come in and see my wall-of-Marvels, and it looks like they're about to vomit rainbows. I feel like this is a hobby I will stick to for a very long time, regardless of how silly it may appear to others.

I've been a collector for years but recently re-kindled my love of the hobby. Luckily my smokin hot wife supports my habit and is known to suprise me with a figure every once in a while Last week she bought me a 10th anniversary arbiter from macfarlane and this week she picked up a couple mech tech transformers. Other than her most people judge me for it and I always get compared to steve carrell in the 40 year old virgin. But what evs

haha exaclty the same with me

some of my family members make fun of me but its ok.. most of them don't even know what a hobby is... my wife doesn't like thins much but its ok as well...they are my "dolls" and ill collect them as much as I can

Im judging you

I allways judge you

Im judging you

Not Neccesarily my friends make jokes sometimes because I don't have many friends that share a love for superheroes and action figures as much as I do....but If I met someone or went on a date with a girl or something It wouldn't be the first thing I would Say though...Don't JUDGE ME

People don't usually say anything negative about it as I have my Gun Collection displayed in the same room.

Ditto in the "not a huge collector" department, but I've had a 90's POTF Darth Vader, Sandtrooper, and Micro Machines Death Star on my desk at work for about XX years, and only one time has anyone ever commented on it, and in a more positive fashion. I added a miniature 3" Zentraedi Queadluun powered armor about 4 years ago, and one person thought that was cool and said something

Not really a collector here given that I simply don't have the money nor the time to invest presently, but I've posted photos of a couple of the figures I have picked up (My much-loved Advent Children Sephiroth and the lovely Huntress) on Facebook and if anything had purely positive reaction, though that could just be to do with of the vaguely amusing captions they went along with them, ha

Heck, my boyfriend even went to the trouble of ordering me a Harley Quinn figure for Christmas this year (Arkham Asylum, I prefer her more 'classic' design but it's really nice regardless)!

It probably helps that I tend to surround myself with people who are into more alternative and indie culture, however; most of the people I know these days are generally open-minded sorts.

Really? I encourage my girls to play with any and everything I have on display. I constantly wake up to find my oldest playing with my beast wars toys. Optimus and superman have attended many of tea partys.

Certain things I don't let my boy touch but it's generally my customs as I'm unsure of the safety of them. Everything else he can as long as he asks first, his recent favourite is my force unleashed Rancor, he loves it and it's nearly as big as he is

I try to get my second oldest (shes 13) interisted in nerdy ff but shes just not in to it. Which is fine too heck I gave one of my girls a large portion of my play arts collection (which I late rebought)

Really? I encourage my girls to play with any and everything I have on display. I constantly wake up to find my oldest playing with my beast wars toys. Optimus and superman have attended many of tea partys.

Certain things I don't let my boy touch but it's generally my customs as I'm unsure of the safety of them. Everything else he can as long as he asks first, his recent favourite is my force unleashed Rancor, he loves it and it's nearly as big as he is

Really? I encourage my girls to play with any and everything I have on display. I constantly wake up to find my oldest playing with my beast wars toys. Optimus and superman have attended many of tea partys.

Creepy huh?
I could see if you had a collection pickled fetuses or Polaroids of dog poop in a scrapbook.
Creepy for figure collection?
That's just dumb.

I have (had) a friend who spent too much time on encyclopedia dramatica dot com and called my collection "plastic crap". I have also on occasion had a girl over that called me creepy. I'm not ashamed of my collection, hell, I've been collecting since I was 5 and my older brother gave me his old Boba Fett figure which I still have, love good and bring with me on assignments abroad. Some toys bring me back to a specific time an place in my life. Just think of all the old timers that collect nick nacks from their era. The only thing that makes me mad is getting lumped into the same category as the basement dwelling social retarded 40 year old virgin (I'm in my late 20's and not the other part, thanks very much) stereotypes that are hard wired into their videogame consoles when in fact I'm a metalhead blue-collar jerk with a hobby. I'm really proud of my collection; especially my customs! I just hate the flak that I get for it. I could think of plenty of worse things that I could be doing. My recourse is that if anyone is going to judge me on it than they're judgmental phallus' that I don't want anything to do with anyway.

Amen brother amen lol

I'm ashamed that I don't have enough room to do a proper display off all my stuff lol

I am proud of the hobby that I have, I have about 11 or 12 shelves/display area's around my house full of my toys, both out of the package and customized. I'm 43 and I love to show off my work, my friends are all geeks like me and I have made figures of their role-playing characters for them, of course they keep them at my place so they can show them off to new players we occassionally get. LOL. I have custody of both my kids, my ex does not and even when they were little they knew enough to keep their hands off the shelves, I'm not mean about it and never was so I'm not an ogre whenever they did lol but my daughter was a bit defiant several times. Bottom line is be proud of show off your hobby, have fun with it. I keep all mine, I don't sell them, just a line between hobby and business that I can't cross......their my toys dammit! Just playing, I have a quote on my computer "Never sacrifice who you are just because someone has a problem with it."....that says it all to me.
I'm just here to help...........and for the inadequecies I feel when I see customs that blow mine away....a lot do, but I still keep customizing away.

No way, Ben collected action figures at an obsessive rate for many years, and it took me a long time to really "get it" but I think I've become as stupid about it as he was. Besides f#*@ anyone who scoffs at collectors, in some way or another I think were all just trying to get back the excitement was had as kids! There are a hell of a lot worse things you could be collecting!
Danielle

My thing is as long as you can pay for your hobby I say it's nothing to be ashamed of .

Not at all. Sometimes is kinda weird when someone says "Oh, you collect toys" and smiles like thinking "you are 33, grow up" but I really don't care, the usual reaction is "ooh way cool! Is that Mazinger Z?!? and I really enjoy that. It's more common that women doesn't understand the love for action figures, toys, etc. (Not all women of course), but, happily for me, the only girl's opinion that I really care is my wife, and she loves my toys!!!

I'm not ashamed. When I was in highschool oh, almost 16 years ago, I was into comic books and toys before it was cool! I played D&D and Magic the Gathering at lunch in the art room. I'm so not ashamed!

While I don't play with my action figures anymore (my collection of loose Kenner SW figures is too dear to me), I'm not ashamed, emberassed or anything like that about my colleciton. Recently I've bought quite a lot of Transformers as well. I now have more TFs than I ever did back in the 80s :LOL:

My g/f is a-ok with my hobby. My friends respect it and a few, who are also fans of Star Wars, Transformers, Marvel, etc., even dig it. My colleagues at work are..... well, uneducated . I recently showed them some of my collection and customizing work and they were far from understanding about it. Why on earth would I spend hours at a workbench modding and painting plastic toys? I am not a person who will try and force them to change their opinion, but I just let it slide. And I'm not bashing their "hobbies" either, which include biking trips, walking, watching football (soccer) and such. It just would be a bit cooler if they didn't judge what I do with my spare time, you know.

The way I see it, the toys we all love have evolved in such a huge way, they've become works of art. And sometimes the retail price has evolved as well, but besides that, the companies nowadays really know how to mix action features with very nice to beautiful sculpts and paint work.

Agreed. It was surprising the amount of basement customizers I met attending Toy / Comiccon conventions in the Toronto area this past year. The way people mention it to me (I have a booth showing off/selling my stuff at these places), you'd think there was something illicit about repainting wolverine brown.

People sense weakness/what you feel shameful about - if you let people think (through body language, vocal intonation, or flat-out stating) that toys are for little children, or are somehow bad/immature - that's exactly what people will think. If you're mature and honest about what you love, you'd be surprised about the positive reaction you can get from people. As long as you don't come off as a hoarder, it's pretty easy to represent toy collecting/customizing as a fun/rewarding hobby.

Hey good topic. I actually suppressed most of my nerdiness for years. Not much video gaming and almost no comics or toys. I decided life was too short not to be exquisitely action figure happy. Then I went through a phase of collecting and keeping it on the dl. Which of course can only last so long before you're going to have someone in your life who wants to know everything about you. I was terrified to let my girlfriend (now wife) know at first but you can only be who you are. She thought it was cool that I wasn't afraid (even though I was a little) to do what I wanted. After that I put that shiza on a bilboard man. "What are you into?" Me: "I collect dolls, yo. It's really fun. Sometimes I customize 'em too. Marvel stuff mostly. Wanna see pictures?" lol. Stacks of comics, nerdy t-shirts, tons of video games, and shelf after shelf of glorious action figures. Don't be afraid nerds. Life's too short. Peace out and keep on building.

Interesting thought though I have no shame and I mean that in every way you can imagine. I use to get crap from my mother and father. Until they realized that I was making a bit of money on some of my figs and that if I wanted to my house could serve as a museum. Now my mother goes around telling anyone with kids they need to come see my museum not come see my house. LOL.

My siblings also looked negatively on this as I am the oldest and they see me as not growing up. But the second they have children they seem to change their tune. In fact my brother actually uses me as incentive to get his kids to behave now. They are not allowed to come to my house if they misbehave which makes them straight up cause a visit to my house means toys coming home. At a family dinner he told his oldest to stop being a punk and give me the respect I deserve as over 80% of his toys came from me.

My friends are all geeks and nerds in their own right everyone that has a house has named their house Punk house, Cemetery house, Haunted house, Starwars house, U.S.S.Trek House, Animal House, Renaissance house, my house has been dubbed Comic/Blade House. With the number of swords and toys in my house I thought it was an honor.

But before my family took the understanding road they looked down on me regularly and I did feel a bit of shame. But I figure it this way its my hobbies or I go postal and end up in a mental ward somewhere. LOL

However I do think it matters as to how you feel about it if you are embarrassed it is you that needs to work on your personal well being. first and then show others your self-confidence and inner geek. My wife finds this to be an admirable trait and supports my habit and in fact pushes me to do excel at it. Hence why I like honest critiques that tell me of flaws and tell me what I could do better. As I would love to be better and learn.

I have at times, (generally when I realize how much I have spent feel slightly ashamed as I could have invested that money into something more lucrative) felt a bit of shame for not being wiser. But I would not be happy and I would not be me. So I have decided that for me happiness is better than riches. I am happy with that and enjoy my life. This hobby has brought me a great deal of joy it relived my stress so that I have no ulcers any more and my blood pressure is well with in normal where when I started I had so many ulcers my stomach looked like a sieve and my blood pressure was quite high. My diet really hasn't changed nor has my excersize level though I should change the later. So I have to attribute it to customizing.

I had a "crisis of faith" about my figure collection back when I entered high school. I still liked action figures, and playing with them a bit too. However, I assumed that I was some kind of anomaly.

I came to realize it was just a neat hobby that others could appreciate. As long as I avoid looking like an obsessive weirdo (like people who have thousands of salt & pepper shakers, or compulsively buy every D-Cell battery they see), a properly displayed/managed figure collection - as well as my custom pieces - are perceived by people as they should be; works of art, and an interest I have.

If you act like it's something shameful, people sense weakness and assume that it should be something embarrassing. If you're proud of it (but still keep your social graces when showing stuff to people), people will treat your figure hobby like any other. It's something that makes you unique, and brings joy to your life.

I'm 18, I just graduated high school (as of today actually! ), I'm an artist, singer (well, I dabble), I work out so I'm rather muscular, and I collect toys. I am only but a very small bit ashamed, but in the same sense, I'm living to enjoy it more and more. I can proudly walk into a store (such as a department store, Toys R' Us or whatever) and go straight to the toy aisle. It doesn't bother me in the least bit anymore. I have all my figs surrounding my desk at the moment too, mostly robots (Bionicles/Transformers) but no. I'm not ashamed. I'm damn proud. I love it. They bring me a sort of joy that nothing else can, and when my graphic novel customs are done, it'll be even better ;D

]Embarassed/Ashamed? HECK No! I am on like a dozen forums with all kinds of people and I have a massed a great ammout of figures and still want more lol. I do recall in high school though that I never knew of anyone that had an interest in figures like I did. I knew of a few people that were into comics but not toys. In some ways back then I was quiet about it but as I got older it didn't bother me as much. I think that when I found some people with like interest and hobbies such as on this site I felt a lot better. The only complaint that the Staff who work at my house has is that I sometimes buy more than I have room for. But I in no way hide my hobbies of figures & comics. I have to say though my roomate makes fun of me a lot though cuz of my collection but I don't listen to him cuz he is a dumb@$$ anyways lol

Embarassed/Ashamed? HECK No!

My ex used to encourage my toy collecting hobby, and then she began to degrade me about it...that was near the end of our relationship. Now I'm single, and nobody gives me any crap about the stuff I buy. My dad will occasionally give me an odd look here and there, but that's about it. All in all, despite the fact that I'm single, I'm happy that I don't have to run this stuff by somebody else...and I can just get what I want. I also have a daughter that I'm going to try to get into action figures, I'll probably end up giving her some of my old stuff to get her started off...when she gets a little older that is. She's only 2 right now, so she wouldn't properly understand that sort of stuff.

I think I would have made a scene....but that me, I love to get loud and yell "Get me your manager!!!" Sometime I have to make my own fun.

I never had any problems until recently... I always just bought my toys with my hard earned cash, no funny looks, no shame, no reservations. That was until Thanksgiving... Me and my sister went to King Soopers to buy some last minute thanksgiving items. I passed the toy aisle and went to see if they had anything, they usually don't. But on this particular day they had just the toy I was looking for (DCUC Orion)! Needless to say I was picking this toy up! So I get to check out counter and lady (ugly late 20 - early 30 something y/o hag) looks at the toy and then looks at me and opens her gum smaking mouth and says, "who is that toy for?" I answer "its for me." She replies "I was afraid that was going to be the answer" WTF! is what I'm thinking! The funny thing was that she thought she had the upper hand. I tell her that toy customizing is a hobby of mine. I mean who is she to judge? She's the one who's working at a king soopers! I on the other hand am a college graduate with a job I love and I play guitar, I'm a professional actor, the list goes on and on. Despite that little hick up I walked away a pretty content man that day. Everyone who's seen my work/collection loves it so no, I have nothing to be ashamed of in my action figure collecting ways.

I gotta be honest, back then, I was --
people look at me when I'm on the bus and I have these plastic bags with toys in it ..
browsing at toy stores or hobby shops alone --

but when I got the hang of it -- everything seems fine -- I buy what I need and just ignore the onlookers

looks like you started drinking and it really kicked in near the end.

I get made fun of all the time but I don't' mind
see im a big bad arse guy and most ppl see me as the fighter I am but I have always been a nerd and I don't hide it but yeah I do get made funn alog bug my nhephews love it and my daughter thinks its cool that alya matte to I wo

When you are able to openly embrace who you are, your life will filter itself out automatically. And those people whether they are friends or family who were never real with you to begin with will all disappear. Plus you will be happier!

Only my Mother and Sister think its ridiculous but shoe buying/purse infatuations is my quick counter method. I'm not ashamed to collect, the fact that I found a small hobby to kind of put me in that "nostalgic", moment makes me happy. Always had random toys here and there growing up (GI-Joe especially) but actually appreciating the sculpt and artistry, started Freshman year of high. When my Dad bought me the first 5 figures from the Marvel Legends series 1 at a local Blockbuster. Sometimes I do feel embarrassed because I look around and see how much I spent over the years, so my collection tends to fluctuate. But I always buy 4 for every one I sell away so... lol I think its way to late to be ashamed. I just try to stick to the ones that really catch my eye and give me variety in my displays. I was able to get my childhood friend/band mate involved with collecting, THANK GOD!! I didn't know anyone else to rant too or go figure hunting with in my state. Though a trip to Wal-Mart reminds me they are out there.

For most of my life I was a "closet geek" and my folks always made fun of me. My girlfriend now is totally all about the geeky stuff, including action figures and customizing (she customizes My Little Ponies! LOL) so she has brought out the inner geek. My folks still tease, especially since I have more toys NOW than I had as a kid, but whatever. Its all good

I'm proud of my collection, anyone gives me grief about them I show them my over/under. Now the 7000 plus movies, those I'm embarassed by. I just can't stop till I own them all. ;p

Why, whats her problem with GIJoe?

My wife recently made me very ashamed that I still collected G.I. Joes....so I've stopped collecting them. I'm sticking to horror stuff now...she doesn't seem to think badly about that stuff.

Im actually proud of my collection

PS 10000th post in this section

I'm 27 and I'm not the slightest bit embarrassed by my collection.

My friends/family will actually send me picture messages of figures they see in case I don't have it/want it. Hell, I have a Princess Jasmine on my shelf that my girlfriend, who's in loved with Jasmine, added.

Nice, nice, way to slap that bulldog down . Some people just need it.

Lol I was at a barbeque the other night with a bunch of mates. Most of them know me, and even pick stuff up for me if they see it cheap, and a lot of them do stuff like Warcraft, like Star Trek and so on so it ain't too wierd for them. Anyway there was this woman at the barbeque and she was a reall British Bulldog (she even looked like one!!!) and she started with the loud ,shame inducing comments:
Hideous troll woman: "DOLLS?? DOLLS?? My son grew out of that when he was eight!! So what do you DO with these things??"
Me: "I strip naked, slather myself in milk and rub them all over my throbbing body. Are you SURE yur son has grown out of it?"

She stormed off!

when ever someones says "oh are you a toy collector or something?" I am proud to say no, I make toys. that elicits more often than not a bemused condescending look until I tell them that I sold one for over $5000. then they get all interested. after that my collection of over 300 gundam msia's doesn't look dumb at all.

Only a little tentative when discussing with people I don't know very well. And my customs I only show to a very select few. But all my siblings are cool with it, like to sit in my room and take a look at everything when they're bored. My twin sister is exactly my opposite and doesn't get the whole geek thing, but she can appreciate the work I put into my stuff, so when she says something is cool it really means a lot. But nearly all of my friends are nerdy/artistic boys so they understand my geekery and often partake in shopping excursions. Actually, we're all hitting a Toy Show on Monday! So I guess my friends are more like enablers. I also worked in a cool toy store for several years, which didn't exactly help....