Guillermo del Toro is a man with robots on his mind. The writer-director of the epic $180 million robots vs. monsters movie Pacific Rim revealed his obsession to HFPA members who met him in San Francisco. And then he showed association president Theo Kingma his “bible”—the book he always carries with him in which he jots down his mainly robot-related thoughts, drawings and ideas.

   “I’ve never been a hardware guy,” he said. “The only things I love in science-fiction hardware are robots. I love them. They float my boat.

  “A lot of people smile when they think of kittens and puppies. I smile when I think of giant robots and monsters.”

   Del Toro, whose movies include Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy films, has three houses in Los Angeles, two of which are devoted to his eclectic collections. “I have between eight and nine thousands books, 50,000 comics and magazines, about 580 original pieces of art, acrylics etc. and twelve life-size figures of monster writers, authors and creatures I have commissioned specifically for the house,” he said. “And I have thousands upon thousands of toys, statues and collectibles. I have secret passages behind book shelves.”

  He laughed. “At 48 I live the life of a well-financed 12-year-old.”