I assure you all, I am not one of those “Mint in Package” toy collectors. But when I thought I was going to move a few years ago, I packed my collection away and stopped opening anything new I bought due to the uncertainty at the time. That seemed like a good idea, but the move did not go through and I kept collecting like that anyway so it kind of spiraled into, well, this:

What you see here are 99 unopened Deluxe class Transformers figures. They’re all mine. And that’s not all. I have several more Transformers still in their packaged prisons that you can see on my Photobucket Account.

I was always one of those open toy advocates, so how exactly did this happen? I don’t really know how to explain it, but I have to say that it’s actually been a lot of fun to collect and display these boxed toys. I’ve really enjoyed it for some reason. Having these on my shelves in my office made for a cool set up. There’s just something cool about seeing them all together, buying more and trying to find room for them, and the excitement of getting new acquisitions in the mail from assorted lines with different packaging. It doesn’t make any sense when you consider what sets Transformers apart from other toy lines, but for some reason it grew on me (and clearly my collection grew with it). It’s kind of like having a toy store in your own house, except that there’s only one of everything.

There are things going all the way back to the Energon line (2004) here but these were all acquired within the past 3 years, so I haven’t been hoarding them for that long. In fact, much of this is just from the past year or two, and a lot of this was purchased for below retail prices.

Now, as it turns out, I am moving in a few weeks so I will have to open most of this stuff just to save space. I figured it would be cool to take some photos of everything before I dug in. It’s going to be like Christmas morning every day for awhile.

So what should I open first?

Sayonara.