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Post by grahamthomson on May 21, 2008 17:46:13 GMT
If you were the sort who had Transformers bought for you for special occasions like birthdays and saved up your pocket money to get Transformers as a child, what was your collection count before you became a "collector"?
I think I must have had about twenty or so.
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Post by The Doctor on May 21, 2008 17:51:24 GMT
I recall my childhood TF count hitting 30 and being immensely happy with it. This was over about 4 years from birthdays, mini Autobots acquired with saved up pocket money and the like. Only Metroplex (a Chrimbo pressie) survives from my childhood collection, minus his original accessories.
-Ralph
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Post by Bogatan on May 21, 2008 19:23:14 GMT
I dont know, how do you define before being a collector. I sort of view 96 as the first time I knew what Transformers were coming out in advance and planned to get them in advance. It also came after my interest had been renewed by G2 having nearly stopped buying them after the UK comic ended.
On the other hand I viewed myself as collecting transformers from very early on. Around 88 Transformers were well established as my main purchases and gifts.
Going with 96 Id guess 150-300. That numbers bulked up by lots of clearance Micromasters and Actionmasters, plus I "acquired" my brothers toys at some point and the fact that after 88 the only toys I got in any numbers were TMNT and we got most of them sent by friends in Canada while they were almost impossible to buy here.
Andy
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Post by legios on May 21, 2008 19:59:56 GMT
I think my Transformers collection when I was a youngster was probably somewhere in the region of about eighteen (and frighteningly I could probably list most of them). I got a few of the smaller ones with pocket money over the years, but tended to get something big and chunky for Christmases and Birthdays - things like Metroplex, Skorpornok and Powermaster Prime.
Most of the original collection has gone by the wayside over the years, but Spacecase, G2 Sideswipe and poor yellow Cliffjumper, missing one of this tyres, are still safely ensconsed within the house.
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on May 21, 2008 20:01:50 GMT
Has not your Skywarp also survived?
-Ralph
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Post by legios on May 21, 2008 20:08:14 GMT
Has not your Skywarp also survived? -Ralph *slaps forehead* Did I not mention him? Neither I did. Indeed he does survive - having turned up unexpectedly a few years ago when my mother turned up one weekend telling me that she had my "Transformers Concorde" (I despair of parents sometimes. How can she have raised a 'plane nerd like me and still think all "pointy aircraft" are Concorde....). Indeed, Skywarp and Cliffjumper were my first two Transformers, and as a result I am quite pleased that I still have them. Karl
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dyrl
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Transforming robots are no match for combat waitresses from the future!
Posts: 1,652
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Post by dyrl on May 21, 2008 20:52:00 GMT
Well...my pre-collector collection is easy for me to recall. It was the end of 1990 when my family moved back to Poland from the USA, and I remember that I'd stopped shopping for Transformers, the cartoon was gone from the telly, and there were no more toys in the stores. But, I ran across a back issue of Marvel comics number 62 at a comic shop and bought it. It was Matrix Quest, part 1. I was SHOCKED. It was SO GOOD! I remembered a few years back having been equally impressed by a Transformers comic (the one where the Throttlebots and Blaster take on the...err...those...oh...drat...the little pins and needs who eat robots:) ).... Anyways - while packing, I remember feeling scared and lonely; I'd never been to Poland and grew up in the USA and felt happy and at home there - so I wasn't too thrilled to be up and moving... I guess that's when I felt my first pang of nostalgia; and dug out my "old" Transformers - the remnant - what was left of what had been bought... They were: Powermaster Optimus Prime (Christmas present, 1988) Slag Twintwist Quake Spinister Flywheels Scrapper Tantrum Rampage Once in Poland, I discovered a store where...they had... G1 MEGATRON IN THE BOX!!! I was shocked! As it was the end of 1990, and thus Christmas - G1 Megatron was my Christmas present that year. The "collection" slowly grew, as Transformers were still alive in Europe, and I basically managed to get all of the Turbomasters, Predators, Throttlebots, Motorvators, Overlord and so forth and son on - even classic adventures and then G2 came out... Shiznitz. I guess I've been a nostaligc collector since I was...11??? haven't changed since then! dyrl
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Post by legios on May 21, 2008 21:04:35 GMT
It was Matrix Quest, part 1. I was SHOCKED. It was SO GOOD! I remembered a few years back having been equally impressed by a Transformers comic (the one where the Throttlebots and Blaster take on the...err...those...oh...drat...the little pins and needs who eat robots:) ).... dyrl Scraplets. Transforming nuts and bolts that eat robots, and can combine into a big sort-of-jelly-baby like form. Karl
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Post by The Doctor on May 21, 2008 21:05:22 GMT
"HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNGRY!"
-Ralph
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Nigel
Thunderjet
Posts: 4,967
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Post by Nigel on May 22, 2008 19:24:17 GMT
I can't really answer this accurately, as being a childhood fan merged gradually into being a collector. Remakarbly, there are only two, maybe three Christmasses when I have not had any Transformers or bought them out of Christmas money. (One year the present was a second hand Thundercracker found on a car boot sale, another it was a bunch of G2 that turned up in a discount store, a third it was Weirdwolf from another discount store.)
There was a period in my teens, though, when I was less into Transformers and didn't keep up with new releases; during this time there was also a period of no new toys available (which was when I had the presents mentioned above). I did continue buying at car boot sales, though. My entry to university coincided with my introduction to the internet and hence discovering Japanese Transformers, along with the release of Beast Wars and with my attendance at Transformers conventions, so if there was an arbitrary point when I became a "collector", you could say that was it. Prior to Beast Wars, my collection stood just over the 200 mark (counting Micromasters and Actionmasters' partners individually). Of these, around half were mine from new, the others bought from car boot sales and the like.
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Post by Shockprowl on May 23, 2008 6:04:50 GMT
What a good question. Well, I suppose I became an 'Adult' (HA!) collector at the time of Armada, when my beloved blocky designs came back in. That's when I thought, 'oh I'll have to try and get a 'new' version of all my favourate characters!' And it's snowballed ever since with Alternator, Masterpieces etc etc. But, thinking 'bout it, I prob have to consider myself a 'Child' collector (if there is such a thing). I had a good haul (esp after I stole my brother's TFs HA HA HA!), and didn't really get many other types of toy. Difficult to remember exactly how many, but easily approaching the 40 mark.
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Post by grahamthomson on May 23, 2008 10:48:12 GMT
I guess "becoming a collector" will mean different things to different people depending on their definition of what a collector is. Nonetheless I think it'll be interesting to find out how/when/why everyone made the transition from casual Transformers buyer/receiver to collector.
So. When did you become a "collector"?
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Post by Dark Stranger on May 23, 2008 12:02:15 GMT
I think around age 16/17, when I realised that I had grown out of playing with Transformers, but I still wanted to buy them to own. Might have been a year or two earlier actually.
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dyrl
Empty
Transforming robots are no match for combat waitresses from the future!
Posts: 1,652
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Post by dyrl on May 23, 2008 12:37:47 GMT
I think it was at the point when my expenditures on Transformers exceeded what I would have paid to have a good quality new car. dyrl
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Post by Shockprowl on May 23, 2008 16:43:10 GMT
For me it was when Armada and blocky designs came along. I saw in TFs the possibility of owning a 'New' collection of all my favourate G1 characters, and began the quest that's continued to this day. When Alternators came along, and then Titaniums, and Masterpieces, and when I discovered Beast Wars, there was no looking back! Lost cause me!
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Post by The Doctor on May 23, 2008 19:52:32 GMT
I'm not sure I'd describe myself as a 'collector' as such. I don't have the urge to pick up whole lines/eras or transforming robots as such. I pick what catches my eye that I can afford and have room for.
-Ralph
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2008 10:51:58 GMT
Same here. If I had a lot more room I'd buy virtually ever TF that I liked the look of but I wouldn't ever collect entire runs. As it is I only have a handful of TF's although I wouldn't mind collecting a few more (but not all of) the Classics line. Classics toys I'm more than happy to leave on the shelves are different coloured versions of toys I've already got. I've got Bumblebee, Ultra Magnus and Skywarp but have no intention of getting Cliffjumper (and the Decepticon repaint that I can't remember the name of), Optimus Prime and Starscream.
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Post by karla on May 24, 2008 21:45:53 GMT
I hope I never do, its dangerous
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Post by Shockprowl on May 25, 2008 11:21:55 GMT
It's dangerous being a collector when you're married to Mrs Shockprowl, that's for sure!!!
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Post by legios on May 25, 2008 18:40:54 GMT
I'd say that it was around the time that the Beast Machines toys were doing the rounds in stores. An old friend had recommended that I give the Beast Wars VHS release a go on the grounds that it was a Western Transformers cartoon that was actually quite good. So I did, and he was right. That led to me looking around for some of the toys - which amounted to, in my neck of the woods, three Beast Machines toys:- Deluxe Primal, Jetstorm and Basic Buzzsaw. Primal I felt was rather poor, Buzzsaw was a bit 'meh' but Jetstorm impressed me and he dragged me back in.
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on May 25, 2008 19:40:44 GMT
RID was when I started to pick up the toys again. I thought they were quite clever. Though ironically, many of my RID toys are now gone due to them being just a tad too clever. I liked the Car Brothers, the Build Team and the big Optimus Prime a lot in both modes but trying to transform them hurt my head. Other than X-brawn, which will be re-acquired at some future point.
Spychanger Scourge, Ruination, the trains and Brave Max were of course retained.
-Ralph
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t4e
Spark
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Post by t4e on Jun 3, 2008 8:06:11 GMT
Not sure when I'd say I became a collector.
First TF I bought was Sept 85 (Inferno). I then bought TF's until early 1988 when Dad then reckoned I was 'too old' to still be buying toys.
I still bought the odd figure from 89-94.... then bought a couple in 1997 and that was it.......
Until July 2000 when the parents were watching this ITV programe 'Find A Fortune' and called them up about the 70-80 TF's I still had. Ended up on the show and from there I started looking at what TF's were still in the shops. Beast Wars were doing the rounds at the time so I started buying some, then had the idea of buying a couple spares to maybe sell on a few years later........ I ended up buying way too many 'spares' and then started selling at Transforce in 2002, and it's kinda gone from there.
I guess I'd say it was the Beast Wars line that really got me back into collecting. Until 2 years ago I did have the entire UK/USA Beast Wars range mint and sealed. Have sold most of it off now, but still own the ENTIRE Beast Machines (inc repaints) range mint and sealed in USA packaging, which I don't think I'll ever sell as I quite like the idea of having the 'entire' range of a certain Transformers line.
Cheers Jon
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Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 7, 2013 10:24:44 GMT
and ....... bounce ! I took this (rather poor quality) shot of the above the stairs cupboard earlier on in the week: Cupboard by philip_ayres, on Flickr There's something about all those TFC boxes nicely in a row....
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KoshNaranek
Minicon
Friends with the Zog Folk
Posts: 484
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Post by KoshNaranek on Sept 10, 2013 0:25:36 GMT
Ooohh! Is that a yellow Magnus or a trick of the light?
And I agree, love the TFC boxes.
Also, I've just realised this thread is over five years old. Managed to fill a few gaps since those initial photo's were taken, including both TM Scourge and TM Blurr, as well as most of the Pretenders. Just need the two Ultra's, Vroom, Finback and 4 of the Pretender Monsters now. Oh, and Siren and Horri-Bull still elude me.
- Tony
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Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 14, 2013 12:14:06 GMT
Bad photo I'm afraid Tony. It's the 2002 Japanese release Magnus. I'd like a better pic but there's no way of getting more light into the cupboard.
Starting to get tempted to track down some of the TFC's I don't own.... I've got most of the toys elsewhere but ....
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 14, 2013 12:44:49 GMT
This thread reminds me of the size my collection used to be. Peaked at four figures. Under a hundred now. Most had to go for space reasons! -Ralph
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Post by Shockprowl on Sept 14, 2013 16:58:08 GMT
A thousand TFs, Doc'?! Blimey!
My collection has never been anywhere neat that ever! Shame you've had to part with so many. Although I'm realising recently that less is more. TFs, Marvel, Star Wars. Stream-lined, my collection will be.
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Post by Shockprowl on Sept 14, 2013 17:00:06 GMT
How many TFs have folkes got at the mo?
Think I'm around the 200 mark.
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 14, 2013 17:04:40 GMT
A thousand TFs, Doc'?! Blimey! My collection has never been anywhere neat that ever! Shame you've had to part with so many. Although I'm realising recently that less is more. TFs, Marvel, Star Wars. Stream-lined, my collection will be. Well it was a collection curated over a lifetime of heavy buying. Still, when things had to go they mostly went to Oxfam, mates or were sold by Toy-Fu for the Marys Meals charity. And in my last days of selling on Ebay, piles of them paid the rent for two months when I was out of work at the end of a lease (otherwise I would have got into heavy debt at a Bad Time). So they were all put to good use in one form or another. -Ralph
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Post by Shockprowl on Sept 14, 2013 17:10:14 GMT
When you were hard-core collecting, Doc', what did you buy? I'm always curious about what drives other collectors. I've always been very G1 / nostalgia driven.
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