I'm always amazed at people's reactions to toys.

I had a Bitter Chocolate Salvation sitting loose at desk today, perched up on some mailing tubes, waiting to go home.

Some people accidentally noticed it while stopping by my desk to ask me questions. Reactions:

Ugly!
Evil!
Not pretty!
Weird!
Is that a joke? It's an angel but it has that evil face. Why?
Why do you have that?
It takes up more space than collecting stamps, yes?
Do you have an addiction?
I would never own or want that!
Strange!
Is that chocolate?
etc

Not that I care as I'm used to it these days...

Did you tell them how much it cost?

That usually gets a rise out of folks!

lols try having a skullcaptain on your desk and have ppl pass by asking is that from pirates of the Carribbean or is that a Johnny Depp figure

When I got my first fight figures, SB GNO set, I had them shipped to my job. I always had some toys sitting around, but they "made sense." Star Wars, things like that, no one every said anything.

Than when I got the SB figures I put them up, just for the day until I went home, and an attorney walked past my desk.
"What the hell are those?"
"Toys."
"Yeah, but like....what of?"
"Nothing in particular."
"But....like...what are they? Weird man."

I think with a lot of people it's a matter of recognition. If they can't connect it to something, like a movie, than it's just weird and a bit off base for them. They can't get the concept of something being just to be. They need stories and t-shirts, etc. Not to come off as an elite butthole, I love corporate stuff like Star Wars and LOTR, but at the same time I don't really see the need to connect anything I collect to an idea or story. Just being interesting to look at is good enough.

It's funny and entertaining watching the occasional person try to wrap their head around these toys.
Too much tho and it gets old, like anything else.

I had the Comcast guy at the house the other day and he was trippin' hard. I was trying to answer all his questions until he started trying to guess at what everything was worth. Then I started getting nervous and hurried him along.

That's awesome! I try not to mention "value" but it always comes up. "How much do those go for, my kids might like them?" "UUuummmmmm.........." My mom saw my collection for the first time the other week. She wasn't satisfied until I just said "They're all like from Godzilla movies."

Leave it in the box, and charge admission!

My normal response to those kinds of comments is "You wouldn't understand..." and leave it at that. If they are actually interested, then I will explain my interests. But if they are criticizing or judging me based on their definition of the "norm", they can kiss the fattest part of my ass.

so funny...

I always get the blank confused stares and then usually the question: "so, what's the end game here? Is this for investment? what are you going to do with all of this stuff?"

i tell them it's not for investment, I just like collecting. they usually just shake their heads like i'm an idiot and walk away.

This thread is GREAT! I get the same talk all of the time--except my niece LOVES coming over and asking, 'What new stuff did you get?!' That's awesome. I agree that this doesn't have as much to do with these items being 'toys', as it does most folks' rejection rooted in an inability to connect.

I'm always amazed at the number of people that feel they have to interject their opinion. If I saw something "different" on someone's desk, I wouldn't automatically feel the need to run over there and quiz the person while sharing my opinions and judgments. Maybe it's just me though...

that's cause you have something called tact, z. some people are seriously lacking nowadays. i have a portion of my collection at my desk at work.
i always love the people that bring their kids over to gape at the jumble of toys. one guy comes over every other month or so and asks if i've gotten any new "critters" lately. i try to steer the conversations away from price, you never know who you can trust.

nobody at my work bats an eye...

although,,i work with a bunch of freaks,,too-cool-for-school kids & high-society art snobs...so it goes by un-noted...

whatever they think about it,,they keep to themselves (i prefer it that way)

the only people who keep tabs are the knuckleheads in the mailroom,,who always pass comment about more TOYS FOR JEB when they drop off boxes...

I don't bring any of my toys to work, or have them delivered here, for pretty much all the same reasons everyone has listed.

Some coworkers know of my collection, but have never really seen any photos. One of my coworkers that was recently laid off collects Western stuff, so he kind of sort of (but not really) knows what it's all about.

Imagine if you brought a Fetish Mode XXX-La to work. Would you still have a job?

while not quite the same, i do have the naked cavemen/woman from the grumbletoy butanohana set on my desk, my bosslady noticed a couple guys pointing and laughing, but she never said anything about it.
everybody's pretty cool here. plus they are tiny compared the the other stuff, so kind of hard to notice.

one of the new vp's walked up and introduced himself and said that he appreciated the collection. he told me that he collects silver age comics, and then asked for some good comic shops in the area.

let's face it people. We are FREAKS for collecting this stuff! ............that is all.

^ for sure.

and proud of it.

I have a skullcaptain and a skullpirate on my desk at work. I've only received positive feedback. And this is in a corporate environment. Maybe I'll bring a Jar of Pus or a Hydrobaby just to throw them off a little bit.

"another box...this guy gets a box like everyday?!?!" says the new guy. everyone else already knows so it's not much of a surprise.

I don't even bother having anything at work - just not worth it. For the folks I work with, a box of melba toast is living on the edge.

The last place I worked, a REAL small operation, the person who got the mail got sick of getting boxes for me so they just gave me mail duty.

I wonder how the reviews will go if you display a Bemon on your desk, instead of the SI?

Same here!

The guy who schedules my appointments at work collects McFarlane football players.

He liked to make fun of my monster dollies until I called him on his "mandoll fetish". He then decided it was best not to discuss toys at work.

I have never understood why sports memorobilia collections are socially accepatable & my creatures are not. I will take smelly vinyl over a smelly used jockstrap anyday.