Do you remember when you got hooked on Transformers?
“As a young kid at the age of five I watched Transformers at Sky Channel every Saturday morning. At that time there weren’t that many TV channels. We’re talking about 1985 here. So without even knowing what the characters were actually saying, I was obsessed with the Transformers. If you see clips on YouTube of the original series, you can see that the show has changed a lot over time. For me the new series can’t beat the original Transformers G1. Oh, and for the people who don’t know what G1 stands for: G1 means ‘Generation 1′. That’s a pretty important thing about the collection.”
What item do you like the most?
“My favourite one is Optimus Prime. He was one of the main characters in the series and fought against all the bad guys.”
How did your collection get so big?
“My father travelled once a month for work to the USA. He bought me my first Transformer. After that I gave him a list with names of the Transformers that I wanted every time he travelled to the USA. When he got back I had my fingers crossed if he picked the right ones. Every week or so new Transformers were launched. With five or six items you could complete one Transformer. You can imagine that you couldn’t wait that long as a young kid!”
What did you do with all those toys?
“Play with them of course. In my room I created a whole new world and I played there for hours and hours. I reenacted what I saw on TV and I made a whole decor out of all the stuff I had in my room.”
Now that you’ve rediscovered your Transformers, don’t you want to go back to collecting again?
“The fact that it brings back all those great memories, feels so good. I’m not planning to collect more Transformers though. I’m not even sure what I’m going to do with all the Transformers after this. Maybe one of my daughters will play with them one day.”
More collectors
Daisy Lee collects poodles
Jeroen collects stop-motion puppets
Alma collects hamburgers
Ada collects Christmas cribs
Bart collects Gremlins
Volkshotel is looking for collectors. Those with an untamable passion for quirky items. To show off their special collections and to tell the special stories behind it. Happen to know one? Let us know at hello@volkshotel.nl.