[proteus]

Snailbot yours and my circumstances/outlook are almost identical,when i was in my teens i was the only kid in a school of 100-200 who was still into SW toys(this was '86-'91) there was no established toy collecting hobby in the UK then(no internet!!),so i was pretty lonely amongst my age group,though me and my younger brother had some great Joe adventures!! And i continued building model kits,customising my Joes etc,and i still do now. Its nice to know there ARE people who have been through the same stuff,its funny as iv got older,iv realised if you are confident about what you love people dont even give it a second thought,ALL of my friends know about my love for toys and customising,and often ask what iv been working on,which is awesome,and on one occasion i brought a girl home,she looked around my room and said..."hmmm you know this is exactly how i thought your room would look" and was totally cool with it!!!

As for the customising/kitbashing thing,i just like to add a little something to my figures to make them "mine" if you guys get me??

I think often its also a bad thing to try to work out "why" you like toys,i mean football fans dont have to explain themselves do they?? The more you try to justify or find a reason the more you can become unhappy,i love the escapism of my collection,and whilst i dont actually play with them,i do love dreaming up scenarios and incidents for them to get involved in,planets for them to inhabit,armies for them to battle,etc,and also just taking em out into the garden or local park and just doing little photoshoots with them,taking pictures of new finds to add to my collection thread,and seeing peoples comments is really rewarding too,im really looking forward to hitting NY in october with an elite group of my favourite figures and (hopefully) getting some awesome shots of them around the city!!