Just wondering how people deal with others who are not into the whole anime figure collecting hobby. I am somewhat new to the figure collecting space. I've only been collecting for the past year and a half but have amassed a decent sized collection. I started watching anime in general fairly late. I'll be turning 49 this year and only started watching anime about 7 years ago.
The reaction that I've gotten from other people are very mixed. The younger crowd like by kids and their friends think that i'm one of the coolest dads out there. But with people around my generation it's a bit of a more difficult discussion with reactions being from indifferent, to me being childish for my age to people thinking that i'm just straight out weird. And that's just coming from friends and family. I've shyed away from talking about anime and figure collecting with anyone that i'm not super close with just cause the ones who I have tried to talked to about it look at me like I've grown a second head or something. Up untill now i've just been like whatever.
My issue now is this is a hobby I've picked up after I got out of my last relationship and I'm worried about how to bring it up with any future people that I may consider dating. It's not a common thing for people close to 50 to do. I'm the only one my age that I know (outside of forum friends) that collect anime figures. And while I don't have any extremely lewd figures I do have a few cast-offs (primarily from High School DxD) and I feel like that will be another level of difficultly to try to explain to someone who isn't even into anime let alone figure collecting.
Has anyone else had to deal with this situation and how do you deal with it?