Post-Christmas “Afterglow”

Hello again, it’s the day after Christmas here in 2014, and I hope that this blog finds everyone in good spirits and that everyone is having a happy holiday season.

Christmas is a time when a lot of Transformer collectors either get just the right gift in figures or the wrong one completely.  Usually the latter happens when their friends or significant other simply isn’t fully in tune with what the collector wants.  It happened when I was a child a lot, my family and friends all knew I loved Transformers, but wound up getting me something like a Go-Bot (awesome, but not a TF) or even worse some dollar store robot that may or may not even convert.  Now, I’m not saying look a gift horse in the mouth, but we all know the disappointment. My first wife didn’t have a clue, even though she could easily ask my friends to help her out.

Let’s face it, we’re difficult to buy for.  We collect all throughout the year, and many of us have collections of  thousands of figures.  Quite frankly, to a non-collector they all just look pretty much the same–nameless, meaningless chunks of plastic.  But we know they’re much more to us.  That’s why when we receive gifts from fellow collectors, most of the time there’s something we get that is exactly what we wanted.  Such happened this year for me, but it was the result of an effort put forth by a few people, not just one.

It isn’t about receiving though, it’s about giving, and that’s what I’m wanting to highlight here in this short blog tonight.  Some people took the time to look at an individual and see what would be awesome for them to have, and pulled the trigger and made it happen.  Taking the time to put some forethought into it with deliberation made the event extra special.  I saw many of the Transformers Facebook groups had secret santa programs going, one person I know in particular came out like gangbusters because of it.  All it took was one fan looking at another fan’s wish list and making it happen.  Just. Amazing.

Just when the fandom makes you run away and scream at all the infighting, bickering, shiftiness, and judgmental nature of the whole, a time of year like this rolls around.  Then the holidays roll in, and restore your faith in humanity… somewhat.  Hope you all continue to have a great rest of the year!