G'Day fellow Transformer enthusiasts!
I am a Graphic Design Student currently living in Melbourne.
Until September of 2011 I hadn't owned a single TF since I was 12 [that's about 20 years ago].
I had ended up giving them away to salvos and lifeline . . . actually "giving them away" is such a strong description, a better one would be "blackmailed"!
My mother decided that I was too old for my toys and that I was "required" to fill two garbage bags of my toys [to be given to charity] or else Mum would go through and "fill" two bags for me.
Anyway, last Sept I was at the Camberwell Sunday Markets and I saw a guy selling a G1 Optimus Prime with Trailer for $15.
I didn't really look too hard at its condition or try and barter the guy for it, I just saw it and instantly knew I had to have one again.
The last OP I had was when I was 4 [back in '84] I had decided that Optimus Prime was the wrong colour and so I repainted him purple and green [hey I was 4!]. Speaking of which if anybody has ever encountered a prime like that I would be really interested to know, I was living in Redcliffe, QLD at the time.
Anyway after getting home I set about investigating his condition . . . not good.
This prime has had a rough life of neglect, his paint job was severely chipped and cut with deep scratches that cut into the metal.
His decals were so badly damaged that they disintegrate with the slightest touch.
90% of his chrome was gone and the front windshield had taken a nasty impact.
Ontop of that his arms and legs were so loose that I was afraid of transforming him. Also I noticed that he was starting to suffer from structural fatigue in the plastic parts.
That's the bad news, the good news is that his main body was intact with no warping, his head was virtually unmarred and none of his tyres had any damage [including dry rot].
It was at that point that I discovered I wanted to embark on a new hobby, to repair old TFs and to try and recreate my old collection.
At least that was my goal in the begining since then I have noticed that it has started to spiral out of control, its nigh on impossible or at least expensive to purchase replacement parts for a specific TF by themselves.
Usually in order to get the one part that you need you end up getting 3 or 4 parts plus one or two nearly complete TF's and that then means that you have a couple of new TF's to repair.
Currently I have about 12 complete TF's [including that first Prime who I have since repaired] and about 3-4 kilos of spare parts, lol!
My main area of interest is TF's from around 80's to 2000.