No less an authority than the New York Times has weighed in on the sex appeal of video game collectibles. News flash: They tend to scare away potential mates.

About halfway through a story on scary bachelor pads, the Times comes to the case of 46-year-old Bob Strauss, who finds that, among other things, his Sonic the Hedgehog figurine display tends to put off the "tough, smart, aggressive, challenging type people" he likes to date. Strauss, for his part, thinks the collection is "provocative" and says he doesn't want to "blandify my apartment to make myself generically acceptable."

We know it can be hard to choose between finding romance and giving away your three-foot tall stuffed Mario doll, but we still recommend the collectibles go into storage for the first few in-home visits. It's best to ease the idea of your video game obsession into the relationship slowly, so by the time they see your candle-lit shrine to Lara Croft, it'll seem practically normal.