Mine was a LONG time ago (must have been '81 or '82) - I was in KB toys and they had a G1 Megatron. It wasn't even the transformer brand one, it was a couple years before they came out. It was from whatever line spawned him - Microman I guess?

I remember thinking it was fantastically complex. I was so bold as to take it out of the box and fiddle with it (I was just a kid and did that a lot - I'm surprised no one ever busted me for it). I didn't get to buy it.

So really, the first TF I saw wasn't even a TF, but I knew it was something special. Technically the first actual TF I saw was Bluestreak, a buddy got one for his birthday.

 

1984. A kid used to come visit his aunt across the road from me. Sometimes we'd play together (me and the kid, not me and the aunt). One day he had a red sports car toy that became a robot. Later I discovered it was Sideswipe.

Caught my imagination immediately. The concept of a realistic vehicle becoming a cool robot. Just the engineering of it was enough to hook me. I had to have my own one of these robot car things. And I already had a thing for red robots (the Dai-X in my sig was doing the rounds on television around then).

I totally blame that kid for my house now being full of Transformers.  

 

I can't remember the first one I saw, I know it was the very first wave but I think the store had a couple of different ones.

I do remember the first one I ever transformed was Bumblebee because I remember how you could take his rubber tires off so we'd pretend one of the Decepticons had shot his tire off.

 

In 1984 less than a year before I saw "The Gambler" and started collecting, a child had shown me a Transformer which I later identified as Soundwave. Funny, upon seeing Soundwave for the first time it awoke no interest in Transformers for me. The magic didn't happen until 1985 and what a ride it's been since then.  

 

I lived in Mexico and was at a store similar to Walmart and saw a Megatron and Constructicon set.

 

In 1984 I was 3, and I am told that the first TF I saw was the racer ones, where you set up the track and then race them with your friends, via remote control. Being that I was 3, there wasn't much I could do with them. But I know that later that year I owned most of Devestator, Mirage, Optimus, most of the minibots and a few others, as I have most still stored away somewhere, probably in pieces sadly though. But its all good as I have most of the re-issues from the beginning of this past decade.

 

G1 Beachcomber. I was 3 years old, at a flea market with my parents, and thought it was a Hot Wheels car. The lady told me and my dad that it was a Transformer named Beachcomber, and showed us how it changed into a robot. And so it began!

 

I honestly don't remember the first TF I saw. Might've been Mirage, the toy I got for my birthday in '84, or maybe something like a red Bumblebee.

I think actually the first Transformer I ever saw was Cybertronian Wheeljack, in the MTMTE miniseries.  

 

Mine was my cousins. Not sure on the year. I had no concept of what transformers were. I was staying over there and my cousins were gone so I had nobody to play with. So my aunt let me play with their toys. G1 Prime. I had no idea, I just thought it was a semi truck. But then I messes with it and figured out it was a robot to. I was hooked. I later acquired a lot of my cousins tfs as hand me downs. Also the kids down the street gave me and my bros a huge box full of em when they grew out of it. I remember my mom calling their mom cuz there were so many she thought we stole em. Once everything was squared away, me and my two bros took turns picking on out till they were all divided up. I remember having a lot of the scramble city combiners but never knowing they combined! Sadly all of this collection was lost in a fire back in the day. I got back into Tfs near the end of beast wars when my little brother got me into it. The first of my new collection was Fuzors Air Hammer. It hasn't stopped growing since!

 

I was four or five and my two cousin who were like 10 had a whole mess of them. The 1st one I rember seening and falling in love with was my cousin Soundwave and lazerbeak... there theory was Girls don't play with transformers but I just would sneak off with him and lazerbeak and play anyway XD

 

I think the Beast Wars toys in the store. The first TF I actually bought and held was Beast Machines Thrust.

 

I was born in 1988 so never grew up with G1 I grew up more with beast wars. So the first time I saw a transformers toy was in walmart and I saw beast wars rattrap. He is still my favourite transformer even till this day.

 

In fourth grade. A friend of mine brought Ravage to school. And that's what did me in.  

 

I remember this kid at school showed off Trypticon. It was huge to me back then. He was a mean kid and wouldn't let me play with it. I never owned any Tformers when I was kid but when I started working and able to afford them, that's when the addiction started.

 

In a hospital after surgery in '84, it was Optimus Prime.

 

I remember seeing the commercial with Prime, Starscream and Sideswipe and I was immediately hooked.
Then one of my friends brought Gears and Windcharger into school and I was very disappointed because I thought that they didn't look anything like the ones on TV.
Finally another friend brought Soundwave in with all 5 cassetts and I think I asked mom and dad for all of them after that.

 

It was one of the '84 Autobot cars that I saw at my local toy shop. I can't remember which Autobot it was - either Jazz or Wheeljack. Didn't pique my interest at the time.

 

Can't remember what was the first TF I ever saw, as my brother had a handful of the original G1 figures.