[Snailbot]

I'm over 30 and as a kid, I loved toys. Hot Wheels, He-Man, Secret Wars, Super Powers, Transformers, GI Joe, the list goes on and on. When I hit my teens, some of my friends thought it was weird that I wanted to collect all of the Toybiz Marvel figures. A lot of those friends are long gone out of my life now, but then it was important. I collected for a while but soon found myself not enjoying it as much. I got made fun of a little (being a nerd was pretty lame) but it was also taking my money. I could drop $50 on toys and still not hae every one of them. So, I grew up. I had a pretty normal high school life, collected comics but I didn't tell anyone that, I hung out with friends and life was alright. I got a job at Toys 'r' Us when I was 18. I loved the environment! Toys everywhere! I started to buy things here and there, but when Star Wars relaunched it was over. I wanted them all and I collected the first 4 waves, proudly. After leaving TRU and moving on I found people in my life disapproving of my toy buying: "adult" friends, college girls, my girlfriends. Eventually though, they moved on. Some bad experiences in there because what made me happy didn't make others happy and I tried really hard to please the wrong people.

Now, I have a lovely wife who doesn't care about my hobby. Better than that, she supports it! All my friends think it's cool or at the least call me a nerd but still like seeing me happy. My best friend's wife cracks jokes about it, then he comes over and poses a bunch of them and says, "dude, these are so cool!".

So, why do I do it? It makes me a happy kid, every day. It's nostalgic, it's like Christmas, it's simple, whatever! I'm a mature adult but what is maturity? Paying bills, being a self sustaining person who made it on his own with a family? Got that. A lot of adults today don't see that they're still just a bigger version of that kid on the playground. I think being that is okay, as long as you weren't a bad kid. I've always liked comics, toys and video games. That is me. As for why I collect MU? Simple: "3.75" scale has always been my favorite. I loved GI Joe and Marvel as a kid and wished they would somehow combine the two. When I was a kid, I had dreams of walking into toy aisles and seeing every character I loved as a GI Joe on the pegs. That's pretty close to what we have now.

I grew up Marvel, now I'm a DC guy, but I still love the characters. And when DC puts out a worthy "3.75" line, I'll be there too.