Botcollector:  So, Hope, describe your personality a little bit for us.

Hope:  Well, it's a little hard to describe yourself to people; whenever people ask me about myself I tend to focus on the bad stuff.  I'm a little paranoid, and I worry about stuff a lot, like my job, responsibilities, stuff like that.

Botcollector:  Well what about the good stuff?  Any of that?

Hope:  Well, hopefully:>).  I'm not the average girl, which I like.  I'm quirky in a pleasant way, I guess.  I'm into a lot of guy stuff, like I love racing, and a lot of things that aren't typically associated with girls.  I LOVE my geekiness.

Botcollector:   Geekiness, eh?  What's geeky about you?

Hope:  Well, I'm totally into what a lot of people call geeky stuff.  I love Transformers, Mecha, Anime, a whole bunch of stuff like that.

Botcollector:  Do you collect these things, or just like them?

Hope:  I still have the Transformers I had as a kid.  My favorites were Optimus Prime and Soundwave, but I love Arcee too.  I wish they'd made a sizeable toy of her.  I collect a lot more Anime than anything else, if videos can be called a collection.  I'm president of our college's Anime club, Tokyo Cinema, and have like 150 or so titles in my own library.  As far as toys, I collect more Star Wars stuff than I do Transformers, but those are my top two crazes in terms of toys; Transformers and Star Wars.

Botcollector:  What goes into your collecting "process?"  Do you try and get everything in the series, are you a big MIB, keeping things sealed fan, etc.?

Hope:  I'm definitely not a completist, or a packaging maniac.  I only get the figures that look good or do cool stuff.  I don't buy a figure if it looks crappy, even if I totally loved that character in the corresponding movie or cartoon or whatever.  Nowadays everyone's kind of aware of the value of keeping packaging, and I don't tear it up and throw it away, but I definitely think these things need to come out of their boxes and be seen and played with.  I play with ALL the toys I get, and display them loose.  I've got a pretty sizeable case at home used to display toys, in all kinds of cool poses and stuff.

Botcollector:  What is it you like about Transformers?

Hope:  Three main things:  I liked them as a kid because I thought the cartoon was really cool; not overly violent, but plenty of battles and, of course, super cool robots.  Nowadays, I really enjoy the nostalgia of them and how seeing them and messing with them takes me back to my younger years.  And, of course, I like the whole concept and the good toys; Transformers are very cool as toys.

Botcollector:  Now we're sure you're aware of this general notion that girls don't like guys who collect toys, or that collectors have less of an appeal to the opposite sex.  What do you think about that?

Hope:  Well, from my own standpoint, it's false.  I mean, I think it's cool.  But I realize that a lot of women react negatively to the whole "crazy about some toyline" thing with guys.

Botcollector:  What do you think is the cause of that?

Hope:  That probably differs from one girl to the next, but I think that often it has to do with the idea that before a relationship even starts, the guy likes something more than they like the girl.  I mean, I think that's the signal girls feel like they're getting when a guy is super into something like collecting stuff; they automatically assume the toys or whatever hobby will be more important than themselves.

Botcollector:  So it's the idea of playing second fiddle to a hobby or a set of toys that's the real turnoff?

Hope:  Yeah, I think that's a lot of it.  And unfortunately, the assumption leads to judgement before the guy even gets a chance.  I know some people that are super crazy into stuff like toys or classic 80's cartoons, and even tough they come off as fanatics, they still carry out normal life functions and responsibilities too; jobs, dating, friends, nights out, the whole bit.

Botcollector:   Are you dating someone now who's as into toys as you are?

Hope:  You bet I am.  It's actually quite a Transformers story; I met him at the first Big Broadcast in January 2001.  He lived in Kentucky when I met him (how's THAT for commitment to Transformers; he came all the way to Ann Arbor, MI for that thing:>)).  Well, I don't want to bore anyone with the longish story, but anyway, now we're quite the item.

Botcollector:  What do you think about this whole "Barbies are for girls, 'Bots are for boys" phenomenon.  Why are girls expected to play with pink fluffies and baby dolls, and boys are supposed to run around with guns and war toys?

Hope:  I actually think that the line between what girls and boys play with nowadays is blurring.  A lot of that came from just the way things were before; it wasn't that long ago that women's place was considered to be in the kitchen, and a lot of grown women now grew up in the old fashioned households with home-making mothers and working fathers.  So a lot was based on the general place in society for women.  Things are changing now, but it's still a factor.  I also think that there is a legitimate genetic factor, too, though.  Girls growing up generally seem to want to take care of stuff and be gentle with things, and when they play with stuff it doesn't involve killing and fighting.  I think some of that's a genetic trait.  [Smiling] The whole "sugar spice and everyhting nice" versus "snips and snails and puppy dog tails" has a little bit of truth to it.

Botcollector:  So what was different about you growing up?

Hope:  Well, I was actually discouraged from playing with the dolly stuff by my parents, so upbringing played a big role in my liking boyish stuff.  I think I still would have gravitated towards robots, though; when I first saw the Transformers cartoon, I LOVED it, it was awesome; it had nothing to do with what my parents got me to play with.

Botcollector:  What do you think about Beanie Babies?

Hope:  Beanie Babies SUCK.  I hated that whole thing, how Ty "retired" stuff so that it became "valuable" and the whole deal.  Plus, I mean, c'mon, the little bits of fabric?  What was so collectible about those?  Most of them even looked dumb, like they weren't even cool.  I cannot imagine why, with the store shelves so full of cool toys, people would be so into this competitive collecting craze that they'd actually be fooled into buying those.  I'm so glad that's all over.

Botcollector:  Any final thoughts?

Hope:  Yes; I am really looking forward to the Big Broadcast of 2003, and if things go right, it's going to be really awesome.  I hope all you Botcollector surfers will be there!