I am just amazed at how many of my childhood dreams are getting real toys recently! If I went back 30 plus years and told myself all these toys would happen, my younger self head would explode and I would fade from existence. It would be better to tell my younger self, be patient dreams do come true... Headmaster Optimus Prime - When I was a kid, we loved headmasters the best. We didn't like target masters as much and somehow we didn't like power masters at all. Maybe its because we couldn't appreciate "engines" or these engines don't really look like anything. Headmasters was the coolest and our favourite gimmick. We loved the Masterforce anime and we love "head on!", we imagine we were those kids with transactor vehicle bodies, but weird that Ginrai isn't a headmaster instead he turns into this weird block. Powermaster Optimus Prime was one of our favourite toys, but I was disappointed he was a power master. Really wished he was a headmaster. I really telling my friend, they WILL make headmaster optimus prime, I AM SURE OF IT, because they know it will be the coolest toy. Hey, I was right! Just took 30+ years. Autobot Sixshot - We all wanted to be the good guys, but when I saw how cool my friend's sixshot was I had to get that toy too! I loved the toy but wished he was an autobot. My friend introduced me to his Quickswitch and it was smaller, uglier and less cool than sixshot. What I wanted was the sixshot toy as the quickswitch character. Hasbro said, OKAY! Tank Megatron - Kid me never understood why the Deception leader turned into a puny handgun, when I saw G2 Tank Megatron on the shelves I thought yeah that's the way it should be! But the green camo isn't megatron! And whats with this funny looking deception symbol? Did they make a mistake? What is this G2? OMG WHAT HAVE THEY DONE?!!! I wanted Tank Megatron in G1 colours. I am most happy now with my CW Megatron. Dinobots Combiner - There are 5 dinobots, why don't they combine? Combiners are like the coolest thing! Dinobots are so powerful but devastator was more powerful in the movie, if only they combined they wouldn't get kicked around like that. Some asshole in school said his dinobots combined. We looked for hidden modes in our dinobots. C'mon there are FIVE dinobots they MUST combine! Volcanicus, you will be a dream come true. Optimus Prime Combiner - Yeah, combiners are the most powerful transformers. Optimus Prime is the most powerful, he will be even more powerful if he can combine with his best friends... Jazz, Ironhide, Bumblebee, Ultra Magnus! What a cool toy CW OP is! BONUS: And soon... Jazz too! Arcee - After watching TFTM, we wanted toys of all the new guys! But why isn't there an Arcee toy?! I was sure she was coming soon. Yeah 30 years later, we do get a beautiful Arcee. Awesome, but wished she had headmaster Daniel too. HOKAY BOY! Wheelie - All the movie cast toys were okay except for Wheelie, that toy was horrendously deformed and ugly it would give me nightmares. I mean I wanted a Wheelie toy but that G1 abomination was too scary! Finally a beautiful wheelie and I managed to give him a slingshot! Unicron - How cool would it be if they made a Unicorn toy? Could they ever?! Orion Pax - Who was Optimus Prime before he was the leader? Is there a face behind that mask? When we saw Orion Pax in the cartoon we felt like a big mystery is solved, and how cool if we had a toy of Orion Pax? Before the POTP reveal, I was satisfied with the IDW version. But sunbow is what I wished for! Elita-1 - Optimus Prime needs his girlfriend! He deserves happiness! Any of your childhood dreams became a real toy?
Seeing the movie for the first time around 93' or so I always wanted a Blurr. Not just any Blurr though, he had to look like he did in the movie and had to be articulated as close as possible. Only had to wait about 24 years but Takara delivered. Growing up during G2 I was able to experience a few of the G1 molds. Always loved Jazz and had his G2 toy, but it always kind of bugged me somewhere in the back of my mind that he couldn't really do much from the waist down. Fast forward 20 some odd years and we get the Gen Ultimate Giftset with a G2 Jazz(he's not exact but I'll be damned if I'm going to bitch about it) that has the articulation I've always wanted. I probably had more but those dreams are lost to time.
^This^ I'm going nuts thinking about the fact that I'll be able to obtain (official) Dinobots that can do more than bend their knees and raise their arms up and down in robot mode...
Ones from my childhood were actually an Unicron with the full sphere in alt-mode with a transformation scheme similar to the movie. Actual figures from these guys (Battlestars Megatron and Optimus0) This is more recent, but i'm actually dreaming for an optimus peterbilt wich cab can form the legs, and retracts the grill into the chest and looks something like this
The Masterpiece toy line, and the crazy screen accuracy/transformation wizardry has been wish fulfillment for me. In particular: Bumblebee. When I was an elementary school kid (born in 1984) Generation 2 took to the airwaves. I'd grown up with some Transformers, and LOVED the Gobots cartoon as a preschooler. I'd had the Gobot Bugbite--a childhood favorite toy--and had a love of 'slug bugs' and all things yellow. When I saw G2, it blew my mind. The characters were so cool, so recognizable! Bumblebee was the best! I'd had a Action Master Bumblebee toy, so that was pretty recognizable, but it didn't transform. In the toy aisle, while Transformers still seemed really cool, they were mystifyingly inaccurate to the show designs, or represented characters who weren't even on air! My parents snagged me the G2 Minibot Bumblebee--which semi-accurate had a weirdly Optimus Prime-esque face. A few years later I picked up the Gobots version, by this time realizing that the name an color scheme might be all a toy had going for it in service of recognizable traits. (Also, by then I'd rented "The Return of Optimus Prime" and was stoked to have an 'upgraded' Bumblebee.) In middle school, my friend Jason traded me the K-Mart exclusive 'core' to the Pretender version of Bumblebee. That toy transformed, AND had a face that was more recognizably Bumblebee... but the quality of the mold/and sculpt of the puny arms always left me cold. A few years later, while Beast Wars was on the television, and I was in Middle School--with an allowance, and the freedom to mow/rake lawns/shovel driveways... I really went HOG WILD on collecting transformers. When they revealed in the climax of Season 2 that all the Autobots were in stasis aboard the Ark I went bananas!! I thought, "THIS IS IT!" they're going to bring back the earlier Autobot characters and make toys that are as accurate and posable as these Beast Wars toys! But it didn't happen that way... I did make my first two eBay purchases around that time though--collecting the Japananes version of BW Dinobot, and G1 Goldbug. Goldbug, while an exciting addition to my now burgeoning Bumblebee collection, was a bit disappointing--he was the least articulate of the toys yet! His proportions were the most squashed, and least 'show-accurate'... (A term, thanks to BWTF.com/AxalonUnderground.com/Allspark.com i was starting to know and use.) Years later, during my early twenties, they released 'Classics' Bumblebee. This toy was getting pretty darn close to that wish fulfillment! I wasn't an active collector at this time... being a college student, generally broke, and turned off by the Unicron Trilogy's mediocre pose-ability/designs. This toy was too cool! Much closer to my unreachable expectations... I hunted him down and added him to that bank of bumblebee toys (now collectively housed inside a Ghostbusters plastic lunchbox). Then came the Live Action Movie--with its garish and splintered design style--Bumblebee was now a muscle car and looked like hollywood-horror-alien. At first I really blistered at the look, then softened, "Okay, it doesn't REPLACE my childhood version..." I dutifully collected two versions of the character (70's and 00's Camaro's) and added them to the lunchpail. Animated Bumblebee was my next yellow-car purchase during those 'non-collector' years--I really liked the 'return to form' with this version. He was diminutive, a compact-car, inexperienced yet earnest and loyal. Animated came way closer to what I expected from the character. Alternity Bumblebee came pretty close to scratching that unscratchable itch--mostly because he seemed at the time, 'the best we'll ever get' to a collector-oriented G1-ish real-world accurate car mode. I knew the history of the failed VW pitch meeting for the modernized bug in the Binaltech line. This toy, while not a 'true' G1 Bumblebee, felt like a modern Goldbug. Spiritually the same character, lovingly updated in the most high-class way. In 2011 I moved to my current home, Portland, Oregon. (**Home of the Transformers! **) The 'first-edition' Prime toys were just hitting shelves. I ordered a Bumblebee from BBTS.com. I appreciated how it took the 'ugly' Movie-design and fused it to the more palatable Animated look. However, it was a far-cry from what I'd wanted as a kid. This would be my last new Bumblebee purchase until the Masterpiece toy. in 2012 my friend's had their first child. I gave them most of my remaining childhood toys (I'd sold many the previous summer)--including the Bumblebee box (and some dinosaurs, some Spideys & Mutant Turtles, and another lunchpail of 'precious' toys). I kept only two toys: Masterpiece Grimlock, and G1 Bumblebee (I'd acquired the keychain duplicate of the Minibot mold along the way). I'll never be able to give up the collectors bug. The Masterpiece line had already started to draw me back in. But the announcement of Masterpiece Bumblebee REALLY hooked me. AND THE TOY DELIVERED! I couldn't imagine a more perfect version. TOTAL CHILDHOOD WISH-FULFILLMENT. And a LONG road to get there. (Photo credits to TFW2005.com, Seibertron.com, BWTF.com, and Soundwave's Oblivion, among other anonymous google image results. Several of the above cover childhood dreams for me as well... particularly the new Dinobots!!!)
I'd say the current generations line. Simply because many of the toys now actually look like they used to in the G1 show/comics. Some of my favorites: Topspin and Twin Twist - These were my first Transformers toys when I was 5 or 6. My parents got them because they were simple and wanted to test the waters I guess. Combiner Wars Devastator - Had the G1 original and this one made me giddy. Deluxe seekers - No more losing parts and all 6 + the rainmakers. T30 Springer/Sandstorm - Loved these guys. T30 Jetfire - Cartoon/Comic accurate! CW Megatron - Not a gun, but finally a decent mold with his newer accepted alt mode. TR Galvatron, Blurr, Scourge - Movie accurate! These guys are what got me back into collecting. A lot of the legends class mini bots: Powerglide, Cosmos, Brawn, Wheelie, The Insecticons, TR Bumblebee. Seaspray, Beachcomber (POTP) - They look like they should!
Honestly, MP-10 is my childhood dream. I loved Optimus Prime, more than any of the other cartoon characters. Well I did absolutely love Roy Fokker and his Valkyrie, then they killed Roy off. Man 1985 was tough for my cartoon heroes. I bought the 30th Anniversary Roy Fokker Valkyrie but it just isn't very good at all. I wish there was a really good transforming Valkyrie under $150.
Yeah that was one of my dream as well, I wished OP didn't have those pop-out fists because I lost them and he became handless
As a kid, I always wanted a Metroplex that could fit regular sized Autobot cars, not just mini-bots. And of course this Metroplex would tower over all the other Autobots instead of just being twice as tall as Prime. Superion was the only combiner that I ever completed as a kid. Of course, I wanted a Superion with elbows and knees. And I wanted a Jetfire/ Skyfire toy with a full face, just like in the show. Yay for Generations. Little kid me is very happy.
Pretty much all the MPs, but the ones that really stand out the most as childhood dreams come true are Ironhide and Ratchet (for having heads first of all, and looking exactly like the cartoon except for the hip kibble) and also MP Starscream for not having a stupid nose cone sticking straight out of the back of his head. Best best of all in MP Megatron. He doesn't have a giant trigger dick and he looks exactly like the cartoon, and he can still turn into a gun. I never thought it was possible.
I always wanted a line of Combiners, and modern Headmasters, and pretenders. It's almost like the people running the Transformers brand grew up at the same time that I did...
Just transformers that didn't look ridiculous with the good scale figures ( Joe and Star Wars)... Leader Class with some Voyagers peppered in gets me there from here.
I'm still waiting for my perfect Cyclonus . And yes , Iv lost sleep & dreamt of owing him ! I could almost see his prototype in the figure king magazine.
Excellent thread! There were so many characters I used to want that I assumed I'd never get as a kid. Some of them I would literally dream about. I used to draw the bots I never thought I'd get onto cardboard, cut them out and play with them. I had a big plastic container full of those cardboard transformers. And now we are really spoilt beyond kid me's wildest dreams. Swoop- he was in some of my fave comic stories- the whole showdown with Divebomb, the battle with Guardian, In The National Interest. But his toy was never released in the UK. PotP Swoop looks incredible (hopefully in red thank you please) and I also picked up DX9's Skyer which is a fantastic rendering. Blaster- the scraplet era stories were among the first comics I read. Blaster was another we seemed to miss on these shores. I always thought of him with his 'shades' on rather than in his cartoon incarnation. And TR Blaster is just perfect! The headmasters- I missed out on Chromedome and Brainstorm. It's always the ones you don't pick up that you lust over, now I have the TR figures and Unique Toys Blue Cat. Impactor- a non-toy character was really and truly beyond hope as a kid. Then MMC brought out Spartan and I am happy! A more accurate Megatron- I now have a very accurate one in DX9 WIP Mightron, and a fantastic update in TR Megatron. Fortress Maximus- always pretended my Metroplex was Fortress Maximus. I could never afford either the original Goliath or the new third child scale one released for Titans Return. But Toyworld Infinitor is just fine, and at leader scale fits in with my CHUG collection at the scale I'd imagined him. Could do with a Cerebros though! Remaining wants: Not many. Probably mainly Divebomb, but I won't be able to afford the full PotP set Maybe DX9 will make legends scale Preds. That would make me very, very happy indeed.
