Welcome [back] decypher. No, you don't need to have the recipient added as a 'friend' or anything to PM them. As long as you type out their name in the "To" box (properly spelled and capitalised of course), it can/will add them to the message. You can always just PM any member through their profile as well (which you can find from the Members list at the upper right), such as ,
Datadub
Really great to see some other 'locals' coming back to the board. And you are off already on a great start towards a rebuild with those two.
Incidentally, any significant other who can't handle/accept a part of your life that you love, well, probably that was not a great foundation already for a relationship it seems to me. For most of us this is something we are passionate about, and no matter whether you see that as really cool, or some kind of quirky character flaw (I know, right?), it stands to reason it is part of who you are and shouldn't be something that has to be dismissed, abstained from, subjugated, etc. Really, if you can't love someone for who they are without having to change them, you are probably looking for something else. Getting off topic, I know, but it's just unfortunate that you had to give up something so silly and really trivial - which makes you happy - to please someone else. Not just toys, I don't like to see that for anyone really.Anyhow, good luck on the collecting I am sure is to come. The Anraku Dako is definitely a fantastic figure. Many times I admired one in an Osaka Mandarake shop with dreams of somehow saving up the Yen necessary. Hahaha, I'll have to keep up the ramen diet for a few years more.
Pic courtesy of zincsaucier
), as long as it wasn't destructive, harmful, or dangerous. Although, dangling off bits of rope, freezing your buns off, climbing sheer cliff walls, might constitute as "dangerous", but we enjoyed our mountaineering and rock climbing too 
(which in itself is a notoriously expensive pursuit as well! 
).