When did you start collecting Transformers?

[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

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.

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! 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!

[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

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.

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! 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!

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