The Kid Collection You Never Had

Okay this is a bit of an odd concept but I will try to explain...

Many of us now have way more Transformers than we ever expected to as children, and yet might still remember the kind of collection we imagined wanting to have when we were young. For instance, I now have over a hundred, but I'm harking back to that time in which I might have owned ten and dreamed of expanding that to something like thirty toys.

Does anyone remember thinking this way? What awesome collection (however small it might seem now) did you hope to have when you first discovered Transformers? What key items was it missing that would round it out in your kid mind? :)

Oh I remember all right :)

I wanted all of those toys from the fold-out catalogue pamphlets that came with the toys in the 80s; who didn't?. Anyway, I saw so very few of them, and owned even fewer. I would have been happy with a bunch of the big names from the cartoon and comics (anything not a mini-bot, to be honest, but I never even saw a real carbot at the time).

But putting together that collection of 213 toys (I cut out the stuff from 1988 and beyond that I didn't want then and still don't want now - pretenders, micro-masters, and action masters) is what I've been doing since I worked out in 2019 that it could actually be done (both in terms of modern versions of those toys and my finances).

As of today, I'm only 40 off my goal, with 7 confirmed in listings for this year and next, plus a few others almost guaranteed as re-workings of some of those (and things we've already got). 10-year-old me squees a bit when I sit down and look over the shelves.

Great question!
As someone who grew up watching G1, but didn't have access to any of the toys on shelves (at least until the commemorative reissues came along) I definitely had a wish list in mind.
In all honesty you could've given me anything G1 and I would've loved it, but these are the characters I recall obsessing over the most.


Powermaster Prime (yes specifically him because of the super robot mode)
Bumblebee
Jazz
Ironhide
Swoop
Springer
Ultra Magnus

Starscream
Devastator
Astrotrain

I grew up with the original cartoon but not the comics or other versions. The (1985?) toy insert catalogue with the space background was my reference for the toyline, but I didn't want everything. I wanted all the Autobot cars, the Dinobots, Optimus Prime and Jetfire. For the other side of the catalogue, I wanted Megatron and the Decepticon planes. The Autobot mini vehicles struck me as cheap. I also wanted Bruticus, my favourite combiner.

After the Transformers Movie, and the way they killed off all my favourite characters (and brutally too) to sell more toys (even I could see the [ongoing Hasbro - damn you Buzzworthy Dying Prowl] cynicism back then), I was turned off the toys. Also, I didn't like the direction of the cartoon moving away from Earth and into space environments. Plus the Pretender toys that were coming out were stupid to me.

I was also careful with money as a kid and Transformers was an expensive toyline back then in Australia, which is why going to Singapore was great - the dollar was about 2:1. Even there, though, I couldn't buy everything I saw (they had a bigger range too). I seem to remember choosing against a Sunstreaker. I wish I could have bought it.

So, my list of desired toys as a kid had about 35 figures (this is the frist time I've ever actually counted what I wanted). Of that list, I got 5 as a child - Sideswipe, Prowl (my favourite - damn you Buzzworthy Dying Prowl), Mirage, Swoop and Thundercracker. Of that list, I have collected nearly everything in either G1 reissue, Masterpiece, Studio Series 86, War For Cybertron or Legacy forms. I don't have Bruticus at all and didn't like the Combiner Wars one, so I'm hoping they re-make him in the current aesthetic and engineering style. The last few years and now have been a boon for original cartoon figures - animation-accuracy, good proportions, articulation. This got me back into collecting, as the toys nowadays are actually the versions I really wanted as a kid.

At one point I would have wanted everything in the 1985 catalogue. That's still the "core" Transformers line up for me. Now that we're so close to having a modern version of everything on that sheet, it's become my current collection goal for Generations toys, and the Autobot Cars lineup is what I'm collecting in MP (only two left to be revealed!).

Over my adult years I ended up getting most of the G1 toys I wanted but couldn't get as a kid - like the original 3 seekers, Scorponok, Powermaster Prime, Omega Supreme.

I also wanted a complete collection of the UK comics - never got there but reprints have filled in most of the gaps - and the trading cards - I'm currently one short of the full 100!

I also wanted to complete the Young Corgi Books Adventure Game Books, which I bought from the newsagent. I have Island of Fear, Highway Clash and Dinobot War. Peril from the Stars was listed in the front and wanted that one. There were two more (Desert of Danger and Swamp of the Scorpion) that I didn't know existed or were available as a child, but I missed not having Peril since it was listed in the other books.

I had this moment in 1985, when my collection count hit 52. I remember stepping back and looking at my collection, which was sorted by faction spread out under my bed from one end to the other and thinking to myself, "Whoa, that's a lot!" I would've hit the hundred figure mark around 1989, thanks in no small part to the Micromasters boosting my collection count. But I know that by 1988 I had already dedicated a bookcase for displaying my Transformers collection; which started off being fairly spaced out but became increasingly crowded. I had my toys spread out between two sets of shelves and the top of a bedside storage thing by 1998.

From around 1988-95, one of my friends would walk into my room when I wasn't home; he would choose just one row of Transformers toys (e.g. shelf 2, row 3) and turn each figure on just that row 180 degrees... then leave. So I'd come home and find my Transformers all standing perfectly, except for one freaking row that was facing backwards! :D In 1998 I had some uni friends come over for a party, and they freaked out when they saw my collection (I had about 300-something Transformers then). One of them told me that I had "some kind of awesome childhood!" :D

Apologies for those who've seen these photos umpteen times, but this is about what half of my collection looked like in May, 1998. There was one more set of shelves, but the photo of that has been lost. This is the first bookcase that I started using in 1987/88:
https://i.ibb.co/tDsdKyS/collection-1998-B.jpg

And this was the top of my bedside thingy.
https://i.ibb.co/DGv5sDm/collection-1998-A.jpg

As a kid I wanted to complete the Minibots. I had 14/17 (I didn't know Bumper existed). I needed Cliffjumper, Windcharger & Brawn.

As a 20 year old or so, I discovered the newsgroups (yeah I am old and have been around in the online fandom that long). I didn't just get those three, I discovered there was a yellow Cliffjumper (I already had the red Bumblebee), and got both him and Bumper as well.

As a kid I don't think I ever thought of my "collection" in a sense of wanting more. It was always wanting specific characters.

Sure walking down a toy isle or receiving gifts it didn't matter to me, Transformers, Transformers, Transformers, gimmie, gimmie, gimmie. However If I sat down and thought about it there were clearly characters that I wanted to tick off my list. Whatever that reason may be: they did something in a cartoon, they did something in a comic, a friend had the toy and I realised it was awesome...

Obviously, like most, even with that limited thought process, I never got all the ones I wanted and I guess that's what re-enforces favouritism.

So, to flip the question... being able to get whatever you want, has it changed who your favourite character/figures is/are? Also, if/when you have kids and can likely get them more than your parents could afford for you, will you get any/all, or will you artificially restrict what toys they get?

Because if there's one thing I realised through my kid and his books. It's a lot harder to pick a favourite or build a connection to something if you own the entire set. Looking at you Mr Men box set.

JJJ

My information for collecting was the cartoon, the in-box catalogues, and just browsing shelves (which was easy in Melbourne suburbia). The discrepancy between those sources (like how Reflector became a mail-away item after the character was phased out of the cartoon) was frustrating.



I too found the mini-vehicles a bit crappy, even compared with the similarly sized mini-cassettes, which had the same quality feel as the rest of the 84-85 line. What surprises me now is that they were both by Takara, but I guess they were made with a different purpose in mind.



I was never aiming for a complete collection, but even now I like to have a comprehensive sampling of the line, which is why I made sure to get a stand-alone toy like Reflector.

The Phantom



I’ve never even handled Powermaster Prime, but the super-robot mode looks cool, and I like how it brings him to the size of Galvatron. However, I’ll never forgive the inner robot for bringing us faux-part chest windows. :)



Swoop gets mentioned a few times here and I agree. You not only get a Dinobot, you get an Autobot who can fly and, if Desertion Of The Dinobots is anything to go by, a character with a lot of personality.


Skyfire



I liked the third cartoon season, for getting away from the ‘energy source of the week’ formula and expanding story-telling options in a pretty wild way. However, the toyline did seem to take a downward turn, with a lot of the toys looking more kiddy. Interestingly, even a pre-existing Takara design, like Ultra-Magnus, contributed to this feeling. A caveat, though, is that even if I call a toy more ‘kiddy’ I’ll admit that they can still be very nifty.

Paulbot



The 1985 catalogue does indeed feel like the core in many ways. It is large and yet to involve the discontinuation of items. I think it’s too skewed towards Autobots, and part of my decision-making over time has involved evening that out.

My younger brother and I ruthlessly optimized our collections to have zero overlap, and out parents even consulted us on that. He was happy to have an excess of Autobots, but I till recently managed to keep my sides more even. The recent entry of more neutral characters has been a fun thing for me to explore.

Goktimus Prime


I love that trick of your friend - nicely targetted trolling. I also like the way you were using some boxes as further shelving. I get that friends were impressed - I've found that even smaller displays send adults (who've supposedly put toys behind them) into a charmed state and rarely do they just look at the morsels of childhood fun.

Dirge

Hahaha do you include the pack-in Mini-Spy line as part of that collection? ;)

Kelpie



I don’t have kids, but I do think about which toys to display versus store in drawers, and while I try to keep them circulating, the truth is some are in the spotlight far more than others. Also, I’m thinking these days about a time in which I’ll want to cut down, which has been spurred by having a parent in aged care. This sort of conversation works for that too.


* * * * *



My memory of that ‘great big collection’ that is now smaller than what I have is blurred because, of course, it changed over time. Here’s an approximation of the sort of thing I would think for G1…



Mechabot-1 from Playbox

Defensor
Bruticus
Optimus Prime
Megatron
Perceptor
Soundwave with Buzzsaw
Tracks, Trailbreaker, Mirage, Hound

Starscream, Dirge, Ramjet, Thrust

Snarl & Swoop

Kickback

Bonecrusher

Yellow Cliffjumper with White Buggy Mini-Spy


There’s a story here. The big guardian robot is a neutral base that both sides try to take over for themselves, and the mini-spy is its patrol drone. Even the combiners cannot overcome the base-bot, unless maybe they join forces…