January 26, 2001

4:15 PM

I can't believe no one has posted this... but if I had a cool ten-grand, this set of Generation One Transformers would definitely be mine.
posted by hobbes (13 comments total)

Why do today's adults fetishize children's toys? This must be the first generation to do this. Is it possible that the advertising blitz were were subjected to at a young age implanted a deep longing for these items? Or are today's young adults simply facing a harsher world than their parent's generation, and thus reaching back for a simpler time?

Or are the toys of our youth just cool, for any age?
posted by cell divide at 4:37 PM on January 26, 2001

First the dotcom bubble bursts, now people are selling their transformers!

Egads.
posted by DragonBoy at 4:37 PM on January 26, 2001

This must be the first generation to do this.

Hardly. That'd be the Boomers.
posted by kindall at 4:40 PM on January 26, 2001

I know a lot of boomers with '57 chevys in their garages, so I hardly think this generation is the first to spend stupid amounts of money to rekindle the past.
posted by mathowie at 4:49 PM on January 26, 2001

True, but it seems like the Boomers' motivations were a little different, in that they seemed to start appreciating their childhood items in their later years, and only then once they became valuable.

I can't see my father's generation hankering after a howdy-doody doll when they were 24. At 48 and when it's worth 15k it seems a bit different.
posted by cell divide at 4:50 PM on January 26, 2001

I don't think it's any burning desire to have these items, it's more like a "it would be cool to have that" kind of thing. I don't think anyone other than a serious collector would pay any real amount of money for this stuff.

I remember a while ago I saw someone selling a TON of old video games and systems, pretty much every system from the 80s with hundreds of games included. That went up to something thousand dollars, and if I was rich like Bill Gates I would have bought it. :)
posted by swank6 at 6:03 PM on January 26, 2001

I guess you can call it advertising and marketing, but the fact is that Transformers and other such childhood fads were more of a culture for us than the dolls and action men of the Boomer's. We have cartoons, movies, Happy meals,.. fads of today are far more consuming than those of yesteryears.
posted by aki at 6:53 PM on January 26, 2001

Though it's a little premature to say people will spend that much money. There are no bids yet...
posted by dagnyscott at 7:23 PM on January 26, 2001

You'll all remember the famous Honus Wagner baseball card, which sold for some huge figure I can't recall now. Baseball cards are pretty much accepted as "respectable" these days, but, hell, they're baseball cards. We're hardly the first generation to do it (although I think we do it more than previous generations).

As to why we do it, I think the ad culture has a lot to do with it. When I read the MeFi headline, I say "what a waste of money". But when I saw the auction, my first reaction was "Wow! Autobots and Deceptacons...COOL!" I never played with them as a kid, but I remember the commercials.


posted by jpoulos at 7:53 PM on January 26, 2001

I might be tempted...
Actually I think that, at least in my case it's about the things that you wanted as a kid but never had. Though I did have some. In fact, the prototransformer Jetfire sits on the mantlepiece staring at me as we speak.
Cool picture as well. It's interesting to see all the stuff that we didn't get over here (UK).
posted by davidgentle at 8:04 PM on January 26, 2001

Actually I think that, at least in my case it's about the things that you wanted as a kid but never had.

Definitely. When I was a kid, I couldn't afford all those cool toys. Just had a few representatives, while drooling over the rest. Fast forward to present times, when I can suddenly afford all these toys (at least til last fall).

As for "this generation" having a greater sense of nostalgia toward childhood toys, that's easy: we had the coolest toys!
posted by smeat at 10:03 PM on January 26, 2001

Settling trivial childhood debts seems like a poor motivation for adults. If I let my 12-year-old self run my adult life, I'd eat corn dogs at every meal and blow all my money on coin collecting.
posted by argybarg at 7:52 AM on January 27, 2001

Mmmmmm... corn dogs......
posted by amanda at 9:51 AM on January 27, 2001