When did you start collecting Transformers?

[hungta]

Ah I see, yes, now that I think about it, that's true. A little nudge can knock em over.

I have a general question for everyone, if you don't mind answering, when did everyone start collecting ? (someone might have made a thread for this, point me in the right direction if there is).

I guess I can say I started properly around end of 2005.

[roller]

properly collected in the mid beastwars years, Sydney calendar

[GoktimusPrime]

I think Titanium Series TFs are terrible toys. They're alright (but not exceptional) display pieces... but yeah. Awful action figures. I tried playing with my Titanium Series Rodimus Prime the other day... guh... got frustrated and had him "rebuilt" as Classics Rodimus in my play-story. :/ I'm really not a big fan of this line and I mostly collected characters that were exclusive to this line, e.g.: War Within characters, The Fallen etc. IMO Galaxy Force Starscream is a better realisation of War Within Starscream than Titanium Series War Within Starscream!


I have a general question for everyone, if you don't mind answering, when did everyone start collecting ? (someone might have made a thread for this, point me in the right direction if there is).

I guess I can say I started properly around end of 2005.
1984.

[Pulse]

6 inch Titanium line = IM worthless O, Overall just plain s#%@!

Good for display purposes, but that's about it... (when their arms/legs aren't popping off :rolleyes:)

I hope WW Grimmy & Prowl are better engineered but I haven't got my hopes up... :rolleyes:


I have a general question for everyone, if you don't mind answering, when did everyone start collecting ? (someone might have made a thread for this, point me in the right direction if there is).

I guess I can say I started properly around end of 2005.

2000/2001 - I guess I was a late starter :) (compared to some ;))

[Lint]

I started when I realised I was spending far too much money on lego. Which is to say, about a few months ago. I'm already spending far too much money on transformers, and with rising import prices, i'll probably go back to lego. Rinse and repeat :p

[griffin]

Postings above were moved or copied from the Q&A topic, as it would be a responce topic generating multiple replies by others.

My answer to the Q - 1985 was when I got my first TFs toy, but serious collecting started in 1992.

[Soundwarp]

Man i'm glad you said that Griff i was so damm confused.........

1985 i think, that's when the toys came available to me i think. I started to do heaps more work around the farm so i could earn more money to buy TF's.
(I was 7)

But after G1 i left until 2004, the love was still there but i diddn't see any of the shows because BW made me puke.

[TheDirtyDigger]

1985-1987. Stopped when I hit high school to concentrate on females, alcohol and other unmentionables.

Got back into it a few years ago when noticing (and purchasing) figs like..

- R.I.D. Stormjet and Sideburn
- Alt Smokescreen and Hound
- the first MP Prime released here
- Hasbro Commemorative Series

So in my universe, Beast Wars may as well be Machine Men for all it adds to my personal Tf lore as I skipped it altogether.

[dirge]

Back in the beginning of the line. So I guess 84/85.

[Tiby]

19 May 1984 when Grandma got me my first figure (Optimus Prime) for my 9th birthday.

[TheDirtyDigger]

Yeah I could be wrong (but I'm not:)) when saying Transformers were released here in 1985. I remember it well. I woke up early and recorded it on the first Saturday morning it was on The Early Bird Show with Darryl Cotton, Anne-Marie and Marty Monster.
Also as soon as the toys were released I went and got Seaspray.
It was 1985 they were released down here in Mexico.

[Bartrim]

Around 2006 when I first started collecting toys. But I started getting the G1 cartoons on DVD as soon as they came out.

[Paulbot]

I definitely had Transformers in 1985 (http://www.otca.com.au/boards/showthread.php?t=1446) (although I have a feeling the first might have been Christmas 1984 I have no proof) and from the first ones there was no other toyline I was interested in spending my money on.

I accumulated about 400 over the next 20 years, but I would say I only really became a toy collector last year when I brought about 25 movie toys over one weekend and started buying TFs online (and in doing so increased by collection by 50% in one year).

Before that I tended to think of myself more as primarily a TF comic collector and that collection started building in 1986.

[Saintly]

1987, had to stop collecting in 1988...

back at it again in 1990-1992, then stop and concentrate on other stuff TDD mentioned about :D

started back at ToyCon 2005 then stopped a couple of months this year. And recently back again in August!

[STL]

I can't claim to have "started" as early as some of the others but 1990 was about the first time I received one for a birthday and I stopped in 1995-ish cos I "grew" out of them and became just too "cool" for TFs.

I resumed in 2005 when I started to earn a lot more dough than the average student. It really started off as a thiing that I bought just b.c I had too much money and not too much to do with it. I'd been reading the comics so that had kept my interest levels and nostalgia going. In those early days, I was all about G1. These days, since Classics 1.0, I collect anything that takes my fancy these days.

[gamblor916]

My first bot was Constructicon Hook back in I think 1984. Collected more bots up to maybe 1987, then moved on to other things. Resumed collecting when the Binaltechs and Masterpieces came out a few years back.

[Robzy]

I never realised until a few years ago that I've been collecting TFs since they started.

I had HEAPS of them when I was yong... I started in 1984/85 (whenever we agree that they came to Oz :p) with Bluestreak. I would've been about 5 or 6 at the time. But over the years (during my teens) I would pick up G1 figures from markets or garage sales... then in 2002 I "discovered" ebay! Or rather, I became "addicted" to it. And I started to get in to the new wave of TFs at the same time!

[Gutsman Heavy]

Had heaps as a kid, but started to collect in a proper nerd fashion when 20th MP Prime first came out here. I was on holiday at the gold coast and took my lil' bro into TRU and saw HIM it was an "OMFG cool!" moment, I bought one when I came back to SA, then some Alts, then started getting TFC reissues, and its kind of snowballed from there.

[GoktimusPrime]

gamblor916: The Constructicons came out in 1985. My first TF was Brawn in late 1984. :)

I've always been a "nerd" collector even back when it started. As a kid, almost all of my toys were put into toyboxes (i.e.: empty fruit boxes my parents would use for me to store my toys) and I would rummage through various toys from Gobots, Masters of the Universe, MASK, Matchbox etc. to access which toys I wanted. But Transformers and Lego were the sole exceptions to this. With Lego it was a matter of practicality - it would've been a royal pain in the butt to find tiny individual Lego bricks if they were mixed up in a big apple box full of toys. So they were kept in a special Lego "suitcase." Transformers on the other hand I actually displayed on top of some small drawers next to my bed. When I had too many TFs to continue displaying on top of those drawers.

In 1985 I made my first collection list on our family's Commodore 64 - printed on a dot-matrix printer! :D I used some simple word processing program with columns for faction, name, function and motto. I never bothered with sub-groups or actual numbering. :p

By the late 1980s I had taken my Transformers out of their box and started displaying them on bookshelves. And I continued to do so until G1 ended in 1993 - by 1994 I'd become a less passionate collector of TFs (although I still did collect a few figures here and there and I continued to read my Marvel TF comics and watch G1 eps and TFTM on VHS religiously - that's when I started really immersing myself in TF lore like Primus, Transformers theology etc.; wrote some fan-fics and fan-essays etc. I also got into animé (in 1993 my handle was "Gokuu") and developed an interest in Japan. Alas my TF toys were boxed from 1994-96. The only time I've ever kept my TFs in box (other than for moving of course).

I was attending university in Japan (http://www2.daito.ac.jp/jp/) and when Beast Wars came out there I became a rabid TF toy collector again. :)

After I moving back to Australia and I started attending small private gatherings with other AusTrans members... I suppose you could call them meets... and yeah, everything's basically grown from that. :)

[gamblor916]

gamblor916: The Constructicons came out in 1985. My first TF was Brawn in late 1984.

Well it was 20 years ago give or take :)

[kup]

I had an assortment of Transformers when I was a kid, mainly ranging from 1984-1986 toys (I had all the 84 toys and a lot of the 1985 toys, mainly those that featured in the cartoon, same with 86.). When I turned 10 years old my father through all my toys away (TFs, Thundercats, MOTU, GI Joes, comics, etc).

The part above I wouldn't really call it collecting and since its all gone they don't count at all.

I started buying TFs as a collector in 2006 when the 10th Anniversary BW had reached local retail. I begun with Cyber Key Primal and Megatron and the ball rolled from there.

[Thanatos]

Got heaps as a kid which for me was between 93 and 98, last figure I got before stopping (high school) would have been BW Transmetal 2 Prowl.

Started re-collecting with Movie Ironhide in 2006... what a mistake that was :D Now I've collected most of the Cybertron, Movie, Animated and all the Classics to date.

I'm a sick sick man.

[kurdt_the_goat]

I only started collecting mid last year around the time of the movie.

Originally, i only had a passing interest in the movie. But, since I had traded all my G1 toys a few years back (for an original GBA, sigh), i decided to check ebay to see if i'd made a terrible mistake by not checking their worth (yes i did... at the time, i had assumed loose toys were worthless). Anyway, i happened across Masterpiece Prime while searching, and research from there led me to the new movie toys (i had no idea they still made Transformers toys, i thought it had ended after Beast Wars). Upon seeing Movie Leader Prime, i took a trip to TRU and came back with him and Classics Rodimus/Starscream 2 pack. Soon after, I got MP Prime and my first Binaltech, at which point i was doomed/very happy :)

I want to figure out when i actually got my FIRST toy as a child.. I will have to check if my Mum has any photos lying around to date it.. I know it was no later than 1990, as my interest grew from a friend i met when we moved house in that year.

[Sky Shadow]

I went to a toy fair around the end of 1984 where they were showing More Than Meets The Eye on a permanent loop and I just sat there, entranced. I don't think I actually got my first Transformers toys until the 7th of August, 1985 (my 9th birthday: Optimus Prime, Topspin, Mixmaster and Scavenger.) Until then I had been a Lego, Masters of the Universe and Machine Men collector, but from then on it was primarily Transformers – watching the show, buying the comics (UK and US) and collecting the toys.

It's since become a twenty-three year addiction that I keep (unsuccessfully) trying to kick. :o

[1orion2many]

:confused:I think I started collecting about 20 B.C:p:D, only kidding. I think I started 1986-7, not 100% sure. My collecting addiction really hit high gear when I discovered ebay in 97:o.

[The_Damned]

got seriously back into collecting bout 5 yrs ago

[Hereticpoo]

I had TF's when I grew up. My first was G1 Astrotrain, when I was 4.

Anyway, went thru the 'I can pretend to not be a nerd' stage in high school and forgot about TF's.

I was walking thru Demons R Us in 2004 (22 yrs old by this stage) buying some baby crap for my neice and I wandered into the TFsection keen for some reminiscing. And lo and behold, 20th Anniv Prime in standing there.

That was the end of my exodus from TF's, and the end of my savings account. :)

[Zippo]

1984 - 1989 I got given or brought Transformers as a kid
Started collecting March 2001 with Reissue Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus.

[loophole]

well ive been getting and buying TF's from about 1987 at a guess i was about 4 years old, my first toy was Grapple and i still have all of my TF's and they are still part of my collection

i remember saving up for about 2 months doing odd jobs for my grandma just so i could get motormaster to form menasor ah the memories:D

[Fungal Infection]

Been collecting continuously since 1984 - my first TF was Sunstreaker. Sold the large majority of my collection back in 2002/2003, but was still collecting assorted items, just not EVERYTHING which is what I was doing in the years prior.

[GoktimusPrime]

Started re-collecting with Movie Ironhide in 2006...
That's pretty amazing considering that the movie only came out last year. ;p

Meeeeemmmooorrriiieeeess.. (yeah, most of you have seen these photos before :p)

1986 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/G1%20toyplay/th_g1_1986.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/G1%20toyplay/g1_1986.jpg)

1988 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/G1%20toyplay/th_g1_1988.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/G1%20toyplay/g1_1988.jpg)

1989 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/G1%20toyplay/th_g1_1989.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/G1%20toyplay/g1_1989.jpg)

:D

1997 http://www.geocities.com/goktimus/Maccas.JPG (TF shopping)

2001 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/th_transfanmeet02.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/transfanmeet02.jpg)http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/th_melbmeet.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/melbmeet.jpg)

2002 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/th_meetsyd_group.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/meetsyd_group.jpg)http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/cosplay/th_cosplay2k2.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/cosplay/cosplay2k2.jpg)

2003 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Conventions/th_ozformers.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Conventions/ozformers.jpg)

2004 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/cosplay/th_goki_matrix.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/cosplay/goki_matrix.jpg)

2005 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/cosplay/th_cosplay_supanova2005.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/cosplay/cosplay_supanova2005.jpg)

2006 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Conventions/SupaNova%202006/th_supanova06.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Conventions/SupaNova%202006/supanova06.jpg)

2007 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Movie%20Premiere/th_tfm15.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Movie%20Premiere/tfm15.jpg)http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Sydney%20Movie%20Meet%20June%2030%202007/th_moviemeet08.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Sydney%20Movie%20Meet%20June%2030%202007/moviemeet08.jpg)http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Conventions/SupaNova%202007/th_supanova17.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Conventions/SupaNova%202007/supanova08.jpg)

2008 http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/Sydney%20Meet%20January%202008/th_sydmeet0108_10.jpg (http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/goktimusprime/Transformers/Transfan%20Meets/Sydney%20Meet%20February%202008/sydmeet0209_04.jpg)

[kup]

Your Megatron cosplay always cracks me up as I picture you riding on a crowded bus wearing it! :D

[griffin]

For those of us who were first exposed to, or collected TFs from the early years, I feel like a late starter. With my first one given to me in November 1985, the toys were out in this country for over a year already. Makes me feel like a noob compared to those who got one in 1984 or early 85. :p

[Pulse]

For those of us who were first exposed to, or collected TFs from the early years, I feel like a late starter. With my first one given to me in November 1985, the toys were out in this country for over a year already. Makes me feel like a noob compared to those who got one in 1984 or early 85. :p

Yeah but for a so called "late starter", You've really gone above & beyond most others who began in '84... :D

[liegeprime]

Hmmm, well coming from a different country where TFs are really pricy toys, I received my first official TF ( which I still have) Soundwave with Buzzsaw in 1986 from my aunt who was on holidays from ironically - Australia back to Phils. Ironic coz now I am living here and had to migrate the toy back here:D. Wasnt able to collect at all coz as Ive mentioned these toys are considered more of a "luxury"... food first is my parents motto. MOm always said " you can buy all these toys when you're already earning your own" which is what is happening now:D. So for the meantime I diverted to getting the Marvel TF comics instead as its cheaper and I still get my fill of TFs and also getting GiJOes - well cobras actually.

Also to bide my longing for real tfs I fostered my creative side by making my own figures from craft paper basing it from Catalogues I got from my classmates who didnt want them.... see pic below for sample of these craft paper TFs( i believe I posted this before somewhere in the forum) til G2 era
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb313/liegeprime/Othercollectibles036.jpg

Started really collecting when G2 came out. I only started getting the figures I liked. I saved my allowances so I could purchase for myself a constructicon set (the orange one I have now) then a reissue God ginrai and so on and so forth until I got 123 figs ( G1 and G2), TFs are still very pricy there but I was only getting what I wanted anyway. I skipped BW, but watched the Series non judgementally, but didn't get any of the figures. Still went about buying ol comics of TFs as well.

Fast forward, migrated here 2005, Got most of the Cybertron small figures first then discovered Ebay ( a boon and a Bane) from 123 figures left back in Phils collection swelled in 2 years to 500+. Migrated the first 123 here last March making my collection finally one and all here. Currently have about 760+. Mostly collect G1s ( even though some of the figs are dreadfully rolling bricks - as most of us here would say I DONT CARE :p), Some BW, some.... veeery few Armada, select Energon and of course Cyb and most of the current lines now.

[kup]

For those of us who were first exposed to, or collected TFs from the early years, I feel like a late starter. With my first one given to me in November 1985, the toys were out in this country for over a year already. Makes me feel like a noob compared to those who got one in 1984 or early 85. :p

As far as I know, I could also be a late starter as I can't remember the exact year I begun with the toys. I do remember getting story books and stuff first and then the cartoon aired and I begun pestering my parents to getting me the toys. As a kid, I collected based on the characters I saw on the cartoon so I too could have started in 1985 although I started first with 84 toys. I had very sporadic access to the comics back then so as a kid I never fully enjoyed the Marvel story.

I also had a few Gobots like Crasher, the Helicopter dude and Leader One. I used to use them as canon fodder when playing with Transformers similar to the generic bots you see getting wasted in the comic and sometimes the cartoon.

I can't remember how I got my first Transformer as I was only 4 or 5 years old at the time but if I had to guess, it would have been my birthday.

[i_amtrunks]

You guys can stop whining about being late starters, I was only born in '85! :p

I got my first figures of my own in '89, Breakdown and the Air Patrol Micomasters. Transformers were always on my want list, but I was more of TMNT kid, so I got those instead.

Then bought myself some Turbomasters and Predators in 1992, and they were the last figures I bought until a Uni mate of mine got me really interested in Transformers in 2002, and I started collecting in late 2003.

[Thanatos]

I was only born 1989, I'm a later starter than any of you.

Also, I'd like to point out I had no idea what year we were in, so Movie Ironhide in 2007 :P

[roller]

I was only born 1989, I'm a later starter than any of you.

Also, I'd like to point out I had no idea what year we were in, so Movie Ironhide in 2007 :P

you just missed the plague!

I would have started collecting earlier, but in the eraly 90s i never saw any tfs on the shelves. Though i had 3 growing up, i remember searching for the other G2 Aerialbots to go with my Airraid. So withhout tfs i had to make do with thomas the Tank:D

And i never ever saw a tf at the school jumble sale or church jumble sale or garage sales.
No one in my year group in primary liked tfs, or thomas the tank for that matter:p I still dont understand why i, 1 out of a year of like 100+ people was the only one to like tfs. G2 was still on tv at the time, i assume Actionmasters and G2 toys were around, but not in my area. And everyone but me had bigger brothers to get hand me down toys, my cousins got theres that way. Hand me downs from their cousins.

[jaydisc]

I was into Transformers from their US inception up to about 87ish, during which I virtually had them all (Dad was awesome!) I lost interest then and got pre-occupied with the same stuff Digger did. When I was sixteen my mother unbeknownst to me gave all my toys away to the equivalent of a Salvation Army. About six months after the movie came out, I decided that I just had to have at least one figure and hunted down Voyager Prime. Then I decided to expanded to just the cast, and then it became full blown.

[autobreadticon]

I started collecting this year, January was when i first got my transformer. I think i was drawn back into transformers because i remembered the good memories of when i was a kid, i use to watch it with my dad.

[Verno]

It was all about the Beasts baby!

[Sky Shadow]

Also to bide my longing for real tfs I fostered my creative side by making my own figures from craft paper basing it from Catalogues I got from my classmates who didnt want them.... see pic below for sample of these craft paper TFs( i believe I posted this before somewhere in the forum) til G2 era
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb313/liegeprime/Othercollectibles036.jpg

Wow, Neil - are those Transformers all made from paper? Those are awesome. (By the way - yours was a truly intriguing and enthralling collector-biography. Thanks for sharing.) :)

[Krayt]

I've had them as far back as i can remember..... and being born in 1983, i have no idea when i started :-P

but i figured something out out..... at about age 13 I had a "big box o' bots"... 3 combiners including Predaking, good old OP and UM, and even a metroplex... the most of any of my friends.

so i put them aside a while ago.... grand old total of 37!!!! and soem were my brothers!!!!

pales in comparison to the 1600ish now.... but they are still my favorites!

[optimus1]

Hey guys, its good reading up on all your stories of the start of your TF collecting!

For me, since i was born in '83, my earliest memories growing up were bout transformers. I still remember the movie posters for the animated movie being up in some of the cinemas around where i grew up (in Brisbane)

My earliest Tf i can remember getting is Throttlebot Rollbar when he first came out.

I went through the phase when i was about 12 when i gave a lot of my collection away, which i really regret because i gave away some good ones (G1s - e.g. sunstreaker, wheeljack, combaticons, aerialbots, all weapons and accessories and other Tfs i cant remember).

What reignited my love for Tfs was the release of the G1 Dvd boxsets and the 2007 Movie.

Since then i have always been getting main characters or whoever i liked from any series. My focus has always been G1 and i dont mind 'junkers' because as long as i had the character im happy.

[Bartrim]

Hey guys, its good reading up on all your stories of the start of your TF collecting!

For me, since i was born in '83, my earliest memories growing up were bout transformers. I still remember the movie posters for the animated movie being up in some of the cinemas around where i grew up (in Brisbane)

My earliest Tf i can remember getting is Throttlebot Rollbar when he first came out.

I went through the phase when i was about 12 when i gave a lot of my collection away, which i really regret because i gave away some good ones (G1s - e.g. sunstreaker, wheeljack, combaticons, aerialbots, all weapons and accessories and other Tfs i cant remember).

What reignited my love for Tfs was the release of the G1 Dvd boxsets and the 2007 Movie.

Since then i have always been getting main characters or whoever i liked from any series. My focus has always been G1 and i dont mind 'junkers' because as long as i had the character im happy.

That sounds alot like me. Except I was born in 1980, my first tf was Prowl. I gave away my TF's when I hit high school (which I regret because I had a complete Menasor amongst others) to go down the TDD,Jaydisc path and had my passion reignited when I saw the G1 box sets. I also don't mind junkers because it's the character I prefer over the actual figure:)

[Vector Sigma 13]

My story is the same as many of you. I was born in 78 and when G1 came out on TV i was an instant fan. Lol, i remember taping it on a very bulky VHS recorder and some times on audio cassettes as well! I vividly remember getting up at 5:00 or thereabouts on Christmas morning and opening Optimus Prime- must have been 1985. My collection was quite large and i had the collectors case. I remember stumbling across the movie one Saturday on TV (midday movie i think) in 89 i reccon. Stuck a tape in the vcr and pressed record- i still have this tape today.

One unfortunate day in my early teens i traded all of them off for a pair of roller skates if i recall.

Insert VOID IN LIFE

So anyhoo i had been surfing something on the net and happened to stumble across rumors of a TF live action movie. I end up following all the blogs etc and saw the movie. I bought some movie figures but soon discovered my love of G1 again, which is probably my main focus now. I do collect other releases but only the ones that tickle my fancy.

[GoktimusPrime]

Thankfully I've never been through a period in my life when I was possessed to give/throw away Transformers. Even thinking about doing something that crazy makes me cringe. :p

I originally recorded G1 eps on a top-loading National VHS VCR! And I'm sure there's at least someone here who taped it on Betamax! :D And I originally collected comics from the Newsagents - I didn't discover specialist comic book stores (and the joys of standing orders) until the 1990s. I found comic collecting from newsagents to be a pain in the bum. The standing order that I opened up at my comic store for my TF comics during G1 is the exact same standing order that I still use today for my current TF comics from IDW! :D

[liegeprime]

Wow, Neil - are those Transformers all made from paper? Those are awesome. (By the way - yours was a truly intriguing and enthralling collector-biography. Thanks for sharing.) :)

Thanks Jordan, yes they are made of Craft paper... this the only surviving, well actually ONLY picture I took of "A version". Since these get easily worn out from all the play I do with em, Ive gone through several incarnations. The first versions were of just plain white paper which I colored with markers. Veeery expensive buying a lot of markers for a kid on a tight allowance. Then I noticed that craft papers come in almost all the colors I need so I switched to it after about 2 years. Made my crafting days so easier and faster. Also made Gobots and their Doglike spaceship/base, Cobra Vehicles ( my fave was a Moray) for my Cobra figures and He-man Bases - Castle Grayskull was a b@#&h to make but very satisfying. I used paper mache on some parts of it.

NONE survive to this day sadly. Good thing the process of making these is all quite simple and is not lost in memory :D:D

Cheers..

[kup]

Thankfully I've never been through a period in my life when I was possessed to give/throw away Transformers. Even thinking about doing something that crazy makes me cringe. :p

I originally recorded G1 eps on a top-loading National VHS VCR! And I'm sure there's at least someone here who taped it on Betamax! :D And I originally collected comics from the Newsagents - I didn't discover specialist comic book stores (and the joys of standing orders) until the 1990s. I found comic collecting from newsagents to be a pain in the bum. The standing order that I opened up at my comic store for my TF comics during G1 is the exact same standing order that I still use today for my current TF comics from IDW! :D

Betamax was a big deal when I was very young and is possible that I may have watched G1 episodes in that format. I know I watched Star Wars and Ghostbusters on BetaMax.

On a side note. From memory I was not aware of the size difference between the Beta cassettes and VHS until I found one at work some years back. I was shocked because as a 5 year old kid, the tapes looked huge to me :)

[GoktimusPrime]

The original Optimus Prime was MASSIVE back in 1984 - and I mean gargantuan! Ditto Megatron and Soundwave! :p Actually, all the boxed Transformers seemed big to me. Even the Constructicons felt large - the first time I got one (Long Haul) I was really impressed with it thinking that it was quite big for a carded figure (cos they tower over the Mini-Bots and cassettes).

[loophole]

wow you guys got rid of your toys!!!, i was always swapping my other toys for TF's the best deal i made was swapping an EMPTY tic tac box for Kup who i is till have or what was swapping a copied game for Optimus Prime:D

[SilverDragon]

I started collecting last year, which was when I really got into Transformers thanks to the movie.

My first was Movie Signal Flare, since they didn't have any other interesting ones (plus I spent most months hunting for Classics Grimlock. I was ignorant of waves, then...).

[Firecracker]

I think I decided to 'collect' at the tail end of Beast Wars. I didn't have a lot of Generation 1 toys, lots of G2 and most of Beast Wars. Sought out as much as I could... this was pre Internet days for me you must realize. Bought a smattering of Beast Machines; wasn't really interseted as the show wasn't being shown on Free-To-Air(Only watched BM last year!). I was disgusted with this 'Robots in Disguise' nonsense, everything was repaints (again pre-Internet)! And then I was lost to Transformers, they all stayed packed safely away in box until... Energon! Found that entertaining... -ish. Bought most of the toys... And then there was Alternators. Oh the joy! That kept my interest the entirety of the line. I wasn't interest in much else though. Unfortunately, last year ill health and finacial strife caused me to sell everything; eventualy even my much admired Alternators. I had 8 Transormers as this time last year:
Generation 1 Optimus
Generation 2 Firecracker
Alternators Meister
Energon Arcee
Cybertron Armorhide
Robots In Disguise Optimus
Real Gear Spy Shot
Movie Bumblebee

... But now I'm back! Yay! And, much more focused and Savvy on what I collect.