Your first ever Transformers toy

[karla]

that carboard s.t.a.r.s base is so cool. And the little bit about how you wanted and got galvatron is so cute.

We had a couple of rip-off transformer toys, looking back I know they weren't The Transformers.
And barbies, disney dolls etc. is what I had, but they're all dead now.
Guess the only thing i've got left is my playstation, I worked hard to get that thing and i've still got the first game that came with it V-Rally.

[Andy Turnbull]

I don't have any of my original childhood Transformers anymore. I have very few of my childhood toys or comics any more. Although I have reacquired a lot of them in the days since.

Andy

[Dezzeh]

I tragically no longer have any of my old transformers, Maz and Paul hitchens, give them back!
I do however have a few photos of me on christmas/bday mornings however groping another toy in triumph, I may have to find them

[dyrl]

Man, reading that brings a tear to my eye. And I particularly agree with how it's just not the same nowadays... Although I do find as I get more Encores, that really helps bring back the good old feeling...

Still... those are some great fantastic memories! And they so remind me of my toils as well. I got 1 dollar and 50 cents a week for my allowances, and I remember saving up for the Constructicons...

The only pictures I have from back then are 2:

Christmas 1987 - when I am shocked as I open my present and find therein...Powermaster Optimus Prime!!!!! I had NEVER had an Optimus Prime toy before. I'd seen one at school once and been awe-struck by its' power. My friends played a game of "chicken" between Headmaster Skorponok and the original Prime. Skorponok and Prime rammed into eachother and Skorponok's plastic helment came flying off. Prime, with his die-cast caboose, was unscathed!

The Powermaster version was so much bigger and so amazing... and I totally completely didn't expect it.

Another picture shows me and a friend setting up Metroplex, Skorponok and Powermaster Prime on the shelf.

As for trading... first - I remember those springs that went down the stairs by themselves. They were awesome!

Second - the best deal I ever did was some Ghostbuster toys for Skorponok and about 30 other Transformers - Headmasters, Targetmasters - you name it.

But, when my friend's parents noticed that he had hocked his super expensive Skorponok for a bunch of silly Ghostbuster toys, they personally came up to visit me and begged me to give the stuff back.

My mom made me agree.

Oh well

Pete

[Nigel]

Something I miss about Transformers these days - you still get it with some Japanese releases - is the smell. There used to be a distinctive smell when you opened a new Transformer that isn't there any more. I guess it was mainly from the sticker sheets.

[blueshift]

I hated the sticker sheets, I always got something wrong

[dyrl]

Heh. Yeah, only now, at the end, do I appreciate the sticker sheets... back then they were such a pain and always I'd get them on crooked

Pete

[The Doctor]

I miss the styrofoam. That was as much fun as the toys themselves as they made for handy bases, and could be chipped for 'battle damage!'

-Ralph

[Deleted]

Some fantastic memories there everyone.

AS I've mentioned many times before in the past I never had any TF toys as a child and, although this doesn't sound too bad it actually was because a kid I knew at junior school had parents that owned a pub in my village and they had the money to buy him a new TF every time one came out. This kid then decided to make me seethe with jealousy by taking his latest acquisition into school and letting me play with it for about five minutes knowing that I could never have one myself. The jealousy however, didn't last long because, after about a year or so he was taken out of school and moved to another one when his parents sold the pub and moved elsewhere. The two of us were friends for a while but we fell out during P.E lesson one day when I was given the job as bowler in a cricket game and him as the person who catches the ball behind me. When I tried to bowl the ball it slipped out of my hand and hit him square in the face! He never spoke to me again and before the year was one he had been withdrawn from the school.

Now enough of my nostalgic ranting. Lets get back to business!

[legios]

I still have both the first and last two transformers from my original collection.

The first were Skywarp and Cliffjumper, which were bought on the Boxing Day and the day after of the Christmas they were first available. I remember agonising over which of the three Decepticon jets to get (the bios on the box made all of them interesting characters and I was torn as to which one to get - in the end Skywarp struck me as the more outrightly villanous evil robot of the three). Of course, once I had an evil robot I realised that I needed a heroic robot to oppose him - and so when I was in a little shop near Banstead in Surrey the day after Boxing Day and realised that I had enough money for a mini-Autobot, then my course was set. I picked up a Cliffjumper and the little yellow Autobot struck the first blows in the war against Decepticon domination of the Earth.

The last two toys I bought as part of my original collection were G2 Sideswipe - I had always wanted a Sideswipe but missed out on the original - and the Cyberjet Strafe.

All four of them miraculously survived the various purges that claimed toys like Galvatron, Skorpornok and Metroplex, althought I had thought the were long gone.

They appeared once more when my mother was selling her house and moving down to England. She turned up one day with a bag containing "the Transformer Concorde you had and some toy cars." (I have long since abandoned hope of explaining to my mother that not all pointy aeroplanes are Concorde.......)

My new collection was surprised to say the least when these veterans suddenely appeared - proving that when it comes to survival, experience can be a valuable edge to have.

Karl

[Bogatan]

I still have every Transformer I got growing up. Infact the first Transformer I had owned from new that I sold/got rid of were Energon Ironhide and Jetfire last year.

My first Transformers were Sludge Hotspot and I think Groove. It was my birthday in 1986 at least I keep thinking it was 86 it could have been 85 if they were available then. After some play one legged Defensor was deemed a bit useless I guess as that evening Dad came home from work with Streetwise (its quite possible Streetwise came in the morning and Groove that evening)

Over the next Christmas and following year Defensor was completed, Ultra Magnus and Metroplex joined the ranks. The rest of the Dinobots arrived, Grimlock to me. Slag and Snarl to Matt.

I think I abused my big brother status by getting Matt to ask for the decepticons as his early collection included Galvatron and Scorponok. When I got Hardhead, Matt got Skullcruncher. I got Actionmaster Prime and Megatron he got Gutcruncher. Though along with Dinobots he also got the Superion giftset and Hotrod (twice after our cousin broke one).

The first Decepticon I got was Snapdragon and possibly dreadwind.

I do remain convinced that I saw a Decepticon Jetfire (a real Hasbro one) growing up, but have come to accept that at some point after that history was changed and now only I and Phil (cousin) remember that original timeline were such a thing existed.

Issue 200 of Transformers began my comic collecting to. Till then I suppose I was a cartoon fan. But once I started reading I got a lot more serious about TF's.

For a long time Transformers were not my sole toyline. I bought MOTU, Defenders of the Earth, Thundercats, M.A.S.K. and Zoids, because of that I have big gaps all over the first few years. By the Micromaster/actionmaster years all those had gone and suddenly my collection got a lot completer till around 92. I got Overlord for my birthday but the SNES called me and meant no Transformers for christmas. But I did get some money from family and in a second hand toy shop that I had longed to go in for years, but was too far to go by myself until then I found original Optimus Prime for £20.

traveling southern England collecting Constructicons remains in may ways my favourite childhood memory. We visited my Aunt and uncle who had one of those Gardens that is perfect for 8-10 year olds. Hundreds of meters long and all sorts to do with a big wild foresty bit at the end. I spent hours sitting in the sun, copying images from Transformers comiccs and playing with constructicons.

I got Starscream and Hubcap in 93 on holiday in LA and then Prime again for Christmas. It wasn't until Phil told me about the G2 comic that I really got back in to the toys in 94. The end of the year led me to TMUK and when BW started in 96 I was prepared and bought the entire line while in Florida. Plus most of hte last year of G2. At that point I suppose I was well and truely in the collector zone. Barring late Armada, Energon and early Cybertron I've not stopped.

Andy

[Shockprowl]

What a fine collection, and fine story behind them. Hearing your tale caused me to ponder my own early collections and adventures! Good times!

[jonathan85]

Oh, the memories…

I still have all my early Transformers too. I can’t remember the exact details, but my parents agreed to buy me a couple in 1990 - it might have been the start of the summer holidays or something like that. Anyway, I got the Race Car Patrol, and the Race Track Patrol for them to fight. I think I’d already seen a couple of comics and cartoons by then, because I remember pretending the yellow and blue Autobot cars were Sunstreaker and Tracks…

And that was me - my birthday brought more Micromasters, and, more importantly, Jazz and Inferno. I didn’t release they were re-releases at the time, of course. Soon after, I fell in love with the idea of the special teams after getting Drag Strip free through Weetabix (anyone else remember that deal?), while Christmas that year brought Groundshaker, a few Action Masters, and Powermaster Optimus Prime!

I’ve lots of vague memories too - spending ages in Woolworths deciding which Constructicon to buy (Long Haul, I think), finding AM Starscream on holiday in Girvan, getting not one but two Micromaster combiner patrols because they were reduced to clear in a shop called Goldbergs, coming across Galvatron and Rodimus Prime at a car boot sale, and going to the Jolly Giant just to look at all the stuff they had…

Later birthdays/Christmases brought Hot Spot and Onslaught, then Countdown AND Overlord one Christmas. And although I was always into other lines (Ghostbusters, then Turtles and GI Joe, then WWF and Batman) there was never a time when I totally dropped Transformers. I suppose it’s a sign of how much I enjoyed them that I can still remember so many details - getting TF’s was a big, exciting deal.

Jonathan

[grahamthomson]

Aw, such fond memories from everyone!!

[Hero]

The only early Transformers I have left from 84 are a very loose and battered Ratchet, Windcharger on the brink of losing a wheel, and a very yellowed Starscream stripped bare of bits. Most of my collection got sold for next to nothing at a boot sale because I wanted TMNT stuff. (My complete Scorponok sold for £2!!! and the Firecons and Sparkler Mini-Bots were like 30p).

Reading all of these accounts of people's childhood TF experiences are a nice lookback and reminder of why I liked Transformers to start with.

I have fond memories of trying to scrape together money and build a TF army as well taking a couple to friends houses and mixing them up with thier collections. I've had a few casualties on the way (taking them to school, stolen, confiscated etc) but Transformers has always provided lots of happiness.

My favourite account of 86 was getting all the Combaticons. I never had a giftset, but they were all separate and I think a combined present from my 8 uncles and aunts. I also got Metroplex for Christmas later in the year.

As for the STARS base, I always wanted it, but the folks thought it would be better for me to make my own. I must have gone through quite a few cardboard boxes during those days.

===KEN

[The Doctor]

I do sometimes find it hard to remember which Transformers I actually owned as my best mate at Primary School was also a huge fan and we were often meeting up to have big battles with each other's TF toys. Also, Transformers was a big craze at school and we all would bring our Transformers to school to play with at break times. So I got a shot of most of the '84 until around '87 toys when it started to die down though some '88 toys were floating about.

One toy no-one at school had though was Powermaster Prime, alas! Never had a shot of one until around 2002 (?) when I got the God Ginrai re-issue version. Another toy no-one had was Scorponok (hard to come by, and quite expensive) but at Christmas 1987 one of my cousins had one so I got to play with it. It was massive! I had to use both hands to hold it! Though I only got to play with it for one day it made a big impression me. It's one of the few TF toys that feels as 'big' to me now as it did then.

[Andy Turnbull]

The first toy that I owned was a Grimlock, brought back from America for me by my Uncle and I got it in June off 1985, not long after we moved back to Scotland after five years in Germany and that was me hooked. Funnily enough I already owned several Go-Bots at this point but they failed to replace He-Man as my main toy collection. Grimlock did that quite easily.

My most powerful Transformers related memory as a kid is of the first annual. I knew it was coming out and we always got an annual every year, Hulk, He-Man and so on but this year I wanted the Transformers annual. I'd asked my mum, chief toy buyer in the house and with her traditional poker face she said it would depend. Needless to say it was bought.

Now around October time....

The older of my two younger sisters used to go to Brownies on a Wednesday night. My mum would help out and take the even younger sister along. Dad often worked late/some kind of social activity so I was left on my own. Fret not, we were still in an army quarters so there was always neighbours who knew to keep an eye out. For some reason I was looking for something and discovered the Turnbull children annuals and lo and behold the Transformers annual was there.

Naturally I took it down and read it cover to cover. Only the once and then I put it back as a I found it. Telling no-one I repeated this ritual every week until just before Christmas came when it was gift-wrapped. Each week the joy I had reading the annual was exactly the same. Christmas Day came and I opened it and read it and still loved every minute of it. A few weeks later my Mum mentioned that she knew I had read it as she'd seen the slight creasing on the cover and laughed.

Sadly I long ago lost my copy of the Annual but reacquired it. While I don't quite get the same elation reading it as a child it's still always makes me smile when I read it.

Andy

[chrisl]

I still have all of my original collection at my parents' house

My first TF was Megatron bought from Southport Argos for my birthday when I was 3 and my second TF was Pipes bought from Ormskirk Woolworths a few weeks later. Following the birth of my younger brother the colllection grew and grew. I kind of gave up collecting anything other than Japanese stuff shortly after G2 although my brother was really into Beast Wars and all of the other stuff all the way up to the present day.

As a child I never really liked the Marvel comics (other than the stuff involving Rodimus Prime and Death's Head) and much preferred the cartoons as I hated quite alot of the weird bendy art or toy-based styles at the time. One of my favourite memories from my teens is when I discovered TMUK in 1994 I thought Matt Dallas was possibly the best TF comic artist ever due to his cartoon-like rendering of popular and new characters.

[Cullen]

I was very inspired by your post Graham so I decided to raid the garage tonight and get my original TF collection out. This is modest collection I had when I was a but a boy:



Yes I kept the boxes - most even have the sprews missiles came on and the empty sticker sheets. I don't know why I did this - it was only with Transformers too. The boxes for my He-man, Star Wars, MASK toys all got binned immediately. I guess it was because Transformers were special.

I didn't realise how few Decepticons I had until just now. It seems to be a running theme they were outnumbered in everyones collections. The Air Strike Patrol on the right was won from a competition in the comics. I've still got the letter from Marvel somewhere that came with it (it had a Spiderman letter head!)

I don't remember the exact order I got things in but my first TF was Dirge which I got for my birthday in (I guess) 1985. I got Optimus Prime the following Christmas and a number of mini-Autobots in between.

By far and away my favourite TF is Metroplex - I love base Transformers. Today Slammer came in the post from eBay replacing the one I lost at some point (I don't know when because he's lived in the same box for 20 years!). Here's a photo to commemorate the occasion:



Look at his fearsome eyes! They glow with the promise of destruction. Or a nice ramp. One of the two. The astute among will notice something has spoiled this happy reunion; Slammer's bloody cannon is missing! I could have sworn I still had it. I could have gotten it from the same seller too. Ah well back to eBay. One day Metroplex, one day.

More tomorrow when I'm less tired!

[Cullen]

One thing I've spotted tonight is how expensive the smaller TF were (most of the backing cards I kept still have the original price stickers on). £3.75 for one Aerialbot? £4.75 for Frenzy and Laserbeak? Seem expensive today, let alone 25 years ago.

I've also just noticed some of the smaller ones are missing. I've got backing cards without any toys. Frenzy and Laserbeak went MIA after an ill fated spying mission in my bedsheets in a hotel in Spain. They were captured by the laundry police never to be seen again. However I've got cards for a Seacon, Sizzle, Guzzle and a Firecon. Gonna have to seach some more boxes...

[grahamthomson]

That is awesome, John! And well done for keeping the packaging all these years!

I used to cut out the box art to put in scrap books and also the tech specs. The rest went in the bin!

[blueshift]

Was that the competition where you had to spot the little Micromaster silhouttes dotted about the issue? That was amazing!

[Cullen]

Some up close piccies:



Poor Powerglide. Somehow I ended up with two, both broken and one with no wings at all. There's a full Superion in that Silverbolt box.



There's two Grimlocks in that box for some reason. Also isn't Roadgrabber shit?

[blueshift]

Only if sh*t=great

[The Doctor]

Roadgrabber is AMAZING! It's on my 'to get' list. It has a battle chariot mode!

-Ralph

[Cullen]

Only in Bizzaro World: Population You (and Ralph!).

I can see the tat appeal now, but as a kid I was bitterly disappointed with him. Pretender Vehicles? The concept is insane - Transformers already pretend to be vehicles by, you know, transforming. I always wished he was a cooler TF.

[Gav]

Holy shit. Nostalgia Overload. I'm sure I had Roadgrabber.....

.......holy shit.

[The Doctor]

Sept 10, 2009 10:08:22 GMT Cullen said:

Only in Bizzaro World: Population You (and Ralph!).

I can see the tat appeal now, but as a kid I was bitterly disappointed with him. Pretender Vehicles? The concept is insane - Transformers already pretend to be vehicles by, you know, transforming. I always wished he was a cooler TF.

Yep, the concept is utterly ludicrous, which is why I like it!

-Ralph

[blueshift]

Roadgrabber is cool because
1 - His vehicle looks amazing
2 - According to his bio (I think) he is paranoid and so will never get out of his car, even in non-dangerous social situations :v

[Jaymz]

Sept 10, 2009 9:41:06 GMT Cullen said:

Also isn't Roadgrabber shit?

His Autobot counterpart, Gunrunner is much worse. His backpack does all the transforming.