Collecting - Your Favourite Year

[5FDP]

I was thinking about this last night - what year was my most successful or enjoyable to be a collector.

Now I don't know if it's a case of my memory fading, but 2010 has been a phenomenal year for me.

My favourite acquisitions for the year have been:

2010 Unicron - The movie-accurate version that I always wanted
MP Grimlock - Even though his a simple toy by MP standards, he's GRIMLOCK :cool:
Reissue Predaking - My favourite gestalt when I was a kid and that gold makes him even more awesome

Runner-up years would have to be 1985 when I received Megatron, Optimus Prime, and Soundwave all from Santa (all of which I still have), and 2009 when my neighbour discovered a box of goodies in his garage including a complete / mint Reflector which he happily sold to me.

What was your most memorable year being a collector?

[GoktimusPrime]

I thought 2003 was a pretty good year.
+ It broke that awful TF drought of 2002
+ We got lots of G1 reissues from HasTak
+ We got Armada, the first real new Transformers franchise since Beast Machines (as opposed to RiD which was mostly modified Car Robot, other repaints and a small handful of moulds intended for Beast Machines (e.g. AAOP, Megabolt Megatron, Bruticus etc.)) - and I personally like Mini-Cons (some of the best toys from Armada were the MiniCons IMO).
+ The year ended with the release of Binaltech Smokescreen and news of Masterpiece Convoy which came out early the following year.
+ We had our first taste of an Australian convention with the OzFormers booth at Sydney SupaNova. =)
+ I attended the Nexus Fair in Perth and met up with some of the WA fans there. Also hung out at Ark Ivor's afterwards which was heaps cool. :)

Runner-up years...
* 1997: Beast Wars was really picking up steam in its 2nd year and I felt excited at seeing the "Transformers Renaissance." And after years of searching, I finally found other TF fans online to interact with. Joined AusTransOTCA
* 2001: Attended lots of fan meets, including the big (well, it was big for those days :p) meet in Melbourne where we had fans from 3 different states (and 1 from Japan) in attendance, including myself, dirge, Demonac, Rhinox (aka Paulbot), Sofaman etc.
* 1986: My dad took my brother, cousin and myself to Hoyts cinema on George Street to watch an animated film called "Transformers The Movie." ;)
* 2007: June 16 premiere - got to meet Michael Bay and Rachael Taylor (oh, and that skinny tattooed girl who won't be in the 3rd flick :p)... and Deni Hines who was standing behind me in the line to the cinema. ;) Now apparently Transformers is "cool" again (which has its pros and cons)
* 1984: can't forget the year I started collecting Transformers. My mum took my brother and I into HobbyCo and bought us Brawn and Huffer. (^_^)

[snazzbot 101]

It isn't my favorite year as such, but according to TFwiki, 1998 was when Quickstrike was released. I can deal with "milestones" when it comes to my childhood, but at that time I was twenty three years old. Surely beyond being a child.

(in theory at least)

And yet there I was, buying my first modern Transformers toy.

There's been many great years since then - I look fondly upon them. And yet none of them have that same impact as when I rediscovered something so very special from so may years past.

[SkyWarp91]

2009 - when I first started collecting. And now I have over 100 TFs!!! :D

[Hursticon]

For me, it would too be 2010.
Why? for the following reasons:

1. Finally got on top of my Classicsverse collection (then they had to go ahead and add Generations :rolleyes::p)
2. Finally joined a Transformers forum after being lobbied pretty heavily. :eek:
3. Joined a Transformers forum... and liked it!, have learnt exponentially since and also have been poorer ever since. :p
4. Met many other people who shared in this passion. :cool:
5. My Collection has grown ridiculously! :D:D:D

Acquisitions of note for the year:

1. 2010 Reissue Predaking
2. Masterpiece Grimlock
3. G1 Scorponok
4. G1 Omega Supreme
5. FansProject :cool:

[jaydisc]

2008 as it had so much diversity:

Classics/Henkei/Universe
Movie
Animated
Encore
The birth of Fansproject

[Vector Prime]

2009 was the year for me - mainly for a few reasons:

~ 25th anniversary of Transformers
~ Watching ROTF and it subsequently re-igniting my interests in TFs
~ ROTF showing me how much I disliked Movie-verse bot designs and making me want to revisit 'classic designs' (Universe/Henkei)
~ Rekindling my childhood and buying TF toys again after a 20+ yr hiatus
~ Joining OTCA (never imagined I would join a forum 'discussing toys' :p)
~ Buying 200+ TFs in the second half of the year (as a result of the above)

[1AZRAEL1]

Hard for me to pinpoint a year really.

2003, because I started collecting Transformers again
2006, the convention was that year I think?
2008, Classics got me back into heavy collecting
2010, Finally got the figure I always wanted, "and the answer is Unicron"

[Prime_217]

2009. rotf gave me a chance to begin my collection on a large scale and i loved every figure that was released :)

[GoktimusPrime]

2006, the convention was that year I think?
Yeah that was OzToyCon at King Street Wharf. :)

[LordCyrusOmega]

For me it would be 2004. I'd been buying tfs sporadically for years but this was the year i started buying regularly with Energon. The stores always had something to buy and my collection grew rapidly.

The other year would be 2010 when I met someone who not only appreciated my passion but also takes a lot of interest and surprises me with new ones on occasion.

[1AZRAEL1]

Yeah that was OzToyCon at King Street Wharf. :)

Yep that was the one.

Incidentally, my mate who I was there with, has a video of the event. I forgot to grab it off him when I was there last. I might try and visit him this Friday and get it off him and bring it on Saturday.

[jaydisc]

Upon further reminiscing, I'm going to revise my answer to 1986. I had been watching the combiner teams on the cartoon and imagined how awesome it would be if they ever came out as toys, and then they did.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

Either 2004 for getting Predaking and getting back into TFs, or this year 'cos I've just picked up so many awesome TFs.