The worst thing about being a toku fan is being a toku fan. Whenever I think of all the money I would have saved...

Ironically, a few years ago I was working a job where the client was a large Japanese firm. When we had some meetings here in the office with them, we ended up going to Toys R Us (which is within walking distance of my office), and they loved it. The three clients ended up each buying some "import" stuff for their kids back home! :lol

I tried to be into tokusatsu without buying any associated merch. Lasted about two months. :lol

Almost made it seven before I got my first Figuart, though.

It's sometimes best not to think about it. :lol

I still haven't bought anything (excluding Power Rangers. No offense).

The worst thing about being a western Toku fan is when you meet someone new, and they eventually ask you what you're into. And you have that tense moment where time slows itself down. And you think: I can't tell him/her Power Rangers, I can't say Toku or Sentai or else I'd have to explain what it is.. Collecting.. Hummels. Yes, I collect Hummels.

Or worse. You bring back said girl/guy home and they see your collection for the first time. Then you have that whole new fear that they'll just laugh and give you that sarcastic "Awww, that's so cute"
Or they'll laugh and just walk back out the door never to be seen again. Or look at you like you didn't just show them a collection, you showed them human parts in your freezer.

Then you have that fear of watching MMPR seasons on netflix outside of the safety of your house, because godforbid you sit in a wifi hotspot and someone catches an episode off your shoulder. And buying toys? In a real brick and mortar store? You always have that moment of a mother with her son in the same aisle, looking at you looking at the PR stuff like you're hanging out the window of an ice cream truck going to little kids saying "Want some Caaaaandy?" (Happened more than once whenever I goto K-Mart. The joys of living in a small PA town)

There are joys to collecting Sentai/Rider stuff. You just have steel yourself against the atom-bomb level downsides.

I am trying to remember how I explained my love of tokusatsu (namely daikaiju, which is where my love of tokusatsu comes from) to my wife when we first started dating back in college. I know I had a pile of Goji movies with me at school when we started dating, and I was watching Lightspeed Rescue. I think I finally just said that I have always liked monsters and was a big fan of Godzilla. She had never seen a daikaiju movie, and to this day has only watched one (Godzilla vs The Thing) and a couple of episodes of Power Rangers. She doesn't like it but she acknowledges that I do and that's that.

I do recall a fun story from when we first were dating. Like the second day we were together. She was going to visit one of her friends who lived off campus, and I was invited too, but we had to bring a movie. She didn't have any, so it fell to me. So I take a look at my movie rack and what do I have:

--Unrated or hard R horror movies
--80s cartoons
--Godzilla movies

...Yikes. Luckily I had exactly one movie which doesn't fit into those categories: And Now From Something Completely Different by Monty Python! :lol

Makes me think of a plane trip I took a few months back. I was working a project in Rhode Island, and I would fly back home to SC every two weeks, stay home for the weekend, then fly back Monday morning. On the flights, I would watch fansubs on my laptop -- either Boukenger or Kamen Rider. On one flight home I was watching Boukenger. The guy next to me, you could see him just sort of staring at my screen in disbelief.

For a few minutes, anyway. Then he starts watching the show, and you can tell he is reading the subtitles and paying attention. That really made me laugh. After a few minutes he clearly got absorbed into the story! :lol

I have never gotten static from buying toys in a brick and mortar store. I guess because I'm a father, and I look like one, everyone assumes its for my kids, ha!

Eh, everybody I meet and my girlfriend accept what I like, so that's something that never occurs to me ^_^

I'm too stupid too realize I'm supposed to hide my obsession(s).

You know, I actually once described Kamen Rider to a friend over text chat like this:

"It's like Power Rangers, except it's in Japanese, and there's only one guy and he's got a bug theme and he rides a motorcycle."

His response:

"So... nothing like Power Rangers?"

"Yeah!"

"lol"