what do you love about transformers that makes you collect them

[kovert]

Those were Chinese reissues, but yes they have definitely multiplied in value. That said, I suspect there are better twenty-five-year investments than Minibots, so not worth kicking oneself over.

Not necessarily as an investment. As a kid, getting the ones I didn't have (to actually play with) would have been pretty cool. No money I didn't realise they were Chinese reissues. The only one I ended up getting had Hasbro 1985 stamped on the toy with original G1 grid pattern, sunburst and was packed in robot mode. Were there non-Chinese ones? More info would be great.

[GoktimusPrime]

There were re-releases of early G1 toys in 1990 that were identical to their original releases -- toys, packaging etc. were all the same. They were basically a later production run and released in that year, but no actual physical differences were made. I bought a second Cyclonus in 1990 because the price had been slashed to $2 and I thought that my 1986 Cyclonus could have an "Armada" member (and also the stickers on my original had started to badly fade). There's absolutely no difference between the toys.

For that reason, I personally refer to these toys as "re-releases" to differentiate them from what people commonly think of as "re-issues" (i.e. toys that are deliberately made to be differentiated from the originals; e.g. Classic, TFC, Encore etc.). But admittedly this is just my own personal/subjective form of classification, technically either form can be referred to as a 're-issue.'

I've since traded off my 1990 Cyclonus and kept my 1986 one with the ultra-faded stickers (one of the shin stickers has completely fallen off ).

[kovert]

There were re-releases of early G1 toys in 1990 that were identical to their original releases -- toys, packaging etc. were all the same.

Very interesting, thanks GoktimusPrime. Up until now, I thought these were leftover original stock. I remember seeing the G1 minibots, Cyclonus, Blaster, Soundwave and others in their original packaging. I still have some cutouts of the artwork from the back. This was around the time the 'Classic' gold packaging reissues were available in Australia. Then in 1993 they brought the colourful G2 stuff. :/

[Sinnertwin]

There are some sublte differences, Kovert, like copyright stamping on the figures & packaging
If you've got 5 minutes, look at highendtfs.com & click on the Chinese Reissue header

[kovert]

Thanks Sinnertwin. Will spend way more than 5 minutes on that site.