I want make a topic that will involve G1 and other series that I pray cannot go wrong, and turn into a mess. So here's my attempt. Let's reminisce. Think back to simpler times. Fond memories we have of Transformers, from any series. No debating, no yelling, no arguing about which series is better. Let's just share good times. I genuinely love reading stories like this. Am I alone? Maybe. I bet it can be fun to just share your own, though. -------------------- I grew up with G1. Literally. I was born in 82, and Transformers were with me from 84 onwards, when my dad decided to take me to toys r us, and actually buy me a G1 starscream that I apparently wanted REALLY badly. I was like, 2. He probably shouldnt have done it, but he did. He confiscated a lot of the extra parts, and I chewed the hell out that nosecone, but I got Starscream. He bought me more through the years, and I watched the show, and I loved it. At some point I stopped chewing on seekers. I only had two as a kid, starscream and ramjet. Funny enough, when G2 came around, I was again limited to those two. Looking back, I don't have that many memories of the TV show or comics (which I discovered at a grocery store when I was around 4 or 5). My fondest memories were the bio cards, on the toy boxes. They gave a hell of a lot of care into making even minor little toys unique in their personalities and backgrounds, even to the point of naming their weapons and giving them crazy ranges and stuff. I thought all that stuff was SO COOL. I kept all of them until my mom threw them out some time during G2. By then, the red crayon box I kept them in had broken in half, and was being held together by a mess of scotch tape and a gigantic rubber band. Even then, the thing was so stuffed it couldn't close, it just looked like a really fucked up sandwich with a handle. The bios were more interesting to me than the show or comics, because they gave me a great foundation to come up with my own stupid stories and comics, which I thought were awesome. The bio cards were so important to me, that on the christmas morning that I came downstairs to find a brand new, box-less Scorponok set up by the tree with all his accessories and instructions laid out, I begged for my dad go out in the freezing cold, dig through trash bags in the back yard, and retrieve the box for the bio card. He did it. My dad is awesome. I also decided at some point to rename Tracks "Speedfast". I was like three or four. it's... not one of my proudest moments, but it happened. So. How about you?
How cool was it to be born almost exactly 10 years before the peak of 80s cartoon/toys? Very cool. This meant u were pretty much at the exact age the toon/toys were targeted at and many a school days looking fwd to end (to go back n watch the toons) n begin (to talk with friends about yesterdays episode. Old enough to gather friends to watch tftm together on vcr. Old enough to go to the newsstand and stake out the latest issue of the comic (in my case both the US n UK cuz i lived in the commonwealth). And were not just talking about TF here, there was a buttload of franchise with both show n merch to pester mom n dad on those trip to dept stores. Think i let go of my toys only at 14.
I love this time of year, it reminds me of my best memories of g1 transformers i remember getting devastator gift set in christmas in 1985 i was 8 or 9 along with omega supreme, blaster, skyfire, 3 dinobots grimmy, swoop,sludge, astrotrain, blitzwing, redalert,thrust, and hoist, that night was magical i was so excited it was christmas eve actually stay up till the next morning my oldest sister helped me apply the stickers she sadly passed away in 2004 due to teminal cancer up to that day we would reminise that christmas.
Heh, nice story Valk. I´m a bit of a late TF fan. Grew up mostly on Beast Wars, but I remember my aprentes buying me the G1 Optimus Prime (TWICE, I broke it TWICE), needless to say I was a bit careless as a kid. Still fun memories tho.
My favourite memory was painstakingly building whole cities with the giant box of lego bricks my parents procured from somewhere, and then smashing the shit out of it in about 10 min with an epic battle between Skorponok and Powermaster Prime.
I remember, as a kid, wondering why everyone's roofs kept breaking off their cars like bluestreak. I never had one new so I never knew. I found a bunch broken and sorta adopted them until I realize it kinda sucked when they had no roof and maybe one or two doors missing. One good one was seeing trailbreaker for the first time on the bus to school. I got to skip kindergarten because of test results so I got to ride on the big kids bus and this kid had trailbreaker and back then I thought it was the coolest looking robot toy I ever saw.
I'd script out battles, play them out outside in the dirt, then re drew them in my school exercise books. Some guys who haven't seen me since grade school goes, heeeeey you used to draw them robots all over the place. Then one time this jerk kid came into my stash and broke my sideswiped n ratchet n I cried like a little bitch. Also another time our house got broke in n they took our tv n VCR but 1st thing I chkd were my tf's n I was like, it's ok mom! My tf's are still here. Geez, me.
I was born in the mid 90's and remember my older brother having a Beast Wars Scorponok. He would'nt let me play with it; he said i would just break it! Later, in 2001 or 02, my brother got a RID Ultra Magnus for christmas; he said he was dissapointed because he really wnated optimus prime instead, but I couldn't tell the difference! I asked if i could play with it, and he said,'sure!' I got frustrated because his legs kept falling off, so I asked him to transform it into car carriar mode. Boy, did i play with that toy! I played with it for hours, and i would stick my matchbox cars inside him and make him roll around with no destination in mind! In this mode i was very careless and it came apart a lot, but i didn't mind because it just so much fun. In 2005, G4 started re airing Beast Wars, and I absolutely loved it! The next year, Beast Wars 10th anniversary came out and I got as many toys from that line my allowance could handle! I had Rhinox, Rattrap, Cheetor, and Waspinator, my favorite characters. I've lost Rhinox by now, but I did play with him a lot. Within the last couple years, I got Alternators Wheeljack off Ebay, a toy my brother said he always wanted. I showed it to him, because I basically bought it for him, and he said, "That's Wheeljack? Cool. I'm not really in to Transformers anymore, though". This kinda made me mad, but whatever. Wheeljack's a really cool toy, though, so I got over it. Within the last year, I found RiD Ultra Magnus' front chromed bumper thing and that brought back most of those great memories. then I got so obsessed with the dang toys my grades started dropping horribly and I almost failed, and i thought about them so much I never talked to my own family; I just sat in my room and played with them. So, I made a decision no one should have to make; I quick Transformers, after collecting 142 of them. It's just sad that I still come on these websites to reminisce.
my mom and grandmother used to tape the tommy kennedy "season 5" episodes for me on vhs. still have some of them, complete with old commercials for things like "simon" and "crossfire," and swamp thing psa's. another memory was getting g2 optimus prime. at the time i had a powermaster prime that was really loose. so I made my younger brother play with that one and he was named "optimus dime" while I had the real deal. so sad we threw out that prime =( it also explains how my bro and i are nothing alike and he dislikes transformers.
I don't actually have that many fond memories...I have lots of stories with my brother and I concerning TFs, but nothing all that great. I was born in '91, so I was a little late for G1 (I think in time for G2 though, since I do remember watching TF episodes before kindergarden ). Fortunately for me, my mom LOVED Transformers. So recorded episodes a plenty. I also loved the movie. My brother and I must have watched the hell out of that VHS. It actually got to the point where the sound stopped playing I do remember my first Transformers toy. It wasn't a new toy right out of the store that I was begging for. It was a Skywarp my mom had bought before I was born (My bro had gotten her Hot Rod she also bought prior to our births). However, me and my brother weren't the gentle "We still have our first TFs in mint condition to this day!" some people are. We waged war with each other. I do remember a huge argument we had concerning who won a battle (Between a one fisted Skywarp, a no handed Optimus vs. Hot Rod and a no doored Prowl). Ah. Good times. We had battles like this well into Beast Wars. The last one (Or the most recent I can remember) we had was between Terrorsaur and Rattrap. After that one, we stopped and just played with them a bit more carefully.
I got m start a lot like you did Valkysas...I was born in '81 and got my first Transformer at age 3. Prowl was my first since my grandfather was a police officer. Funny enough, my G1 Dirge has teeth mrks on the nosecone as well Since it's Christmastime and I constantly have TFs on the brain I always think about Christmas '85, seeing Sunstreaker and Jetfire under the tree. I got Tracks for Easter earlier that year I believe, but I could be wrong. I also remember my parents ordering Optimus Prime and Wheeljack from the Sears catalog and whe they arrived my dad drew up a Teletraan-1 console for me on a piece of cardboard and laid down on the floor to play with me. It's so funny think ing back I can actually remember getting a lot of my G1's growing up and the gigantic store called Great Western that had an entire wall of toys with a HUGE G1 display. A few other more recent memories I'll think about for along time is getting my first G1 reissue (Prowl, ironically), being giddy buying the entire first waveof Classics at once andrushing ometo open them up and then to 2008 when my girlfriend (now wife) found and got me Universe Cheetor...even if the toy isn't that great I'll always have sentimental value for it Ah nostalgia!
I dug some of my own TF memory posts out of the TFW forum archives: - On the TF G1 2-part ep "The Search for Alpha Trion": This is one of my all-time favorite eps, for a very specific nostalgic reason. I remember our VCR was busted and wouldn't record, and I had a soccer game that day at the same time the second part was going to air. I recall so vividly my mind so not being on playing soccer... it was more on the heartache that I wouldn't be able to see the end of the episode. (I was seriously addicted to TFs back then.) And then my younger bro (TFW member jon3pnt0) did something very thoughtful for once in his life and put his Fisher Price tape recorder next to the TV and audio-taped the episode. So I got to hear the ending, but had to wait 20 years to finally watch it when I finally bought the Rhino DVD set. - On the G1 series/toys I was born in 1971 and was just barely a teenager when TF G1 premiered. In spite of being older and it not being "cool" in middle school to watch cartoons or play with toys, I enjoyed the show and the toys so much they became an extension of my childhood. Unfortunately, my family didn't have a TV back then (it's complicated to explain why), so I had to ride my bike 2 miles to K-Mart every day after school to watch Transformers in the electronics dept. To get my TF Marvel comics, I had to ride my bike nearly 4 miles to the nearest drug store. [Addendum on my original post] Actually, I now that I think about it, I didn't have a bike until Christmas '85. So I actually walked 4 miles round trip to watch TFs at Kmart that first year they were on the air. And it was only once that I walked -- round trip -- nearly 8 miles to the drugstore to buy the G1 Marvel comic. After that little hike, I had mom drive me to the drugstore to pick up my comic, until I got a bike. And we did finally get a TV within the first 2 years that TFs were on the air -- I just can't recall exactly when that was. I should also apologize to Jon for a related incident. We had piano lessons once a week at the teacher's house, and I used to make him go first so I could watch TFs in the living room of the home while he was getting his lesson. But he didn't realize that TFs were on at that time until one day I had to go first for some reason now I don't recall. The next week, he cried because I made him go first and he had to miss the show. And then later mom scolded me for making him miss the show. I was like, "Sheesh mom! I'm 8 years older, I shouldn't have to go first anyway!" And then she countered that because I was older, I should be more mature and not be so selfish to force Jon to go first just because I wanted to watch a cartoon that I was "too old to watch anyway." That was like a knife to the heart. I'll admit I was wrong for being selfish, and after that Jon and I alternated going first for lessons. But if and when I ever have kids, I'll cut my own arm off before I tell my child that he or she is "too old to watch cartoons."
My favorite Transformers memory hands down till my dying breath, Christmas of 85 my first Optimus Prime it was like a choir sung in the background.. sadly I don't have said prime anymore as alas I held him and petted him and transformed him out of existence.. thank goodness for 10,000 reissues
Born in 1994 so i missed BW, I never watched BM or RID. I saw an epsiode of Armada, I liked the cartoon so i continued watching till the end of the series and the Energon series came out, As a kid i liked Energon even though the show made no sense and now thanks to almost every fan here i regrette enjoying Energon as a kid luckily Beast wars was re-runed on YTV, so i immidatley loved it. I hope started to buy Trnaformers toys at this point but it wasn't till Cybertron came out that i really wanted to collect Transformers, I love Cybertron to death and still do. I eventually discovered Transformers websites on the Internet and learned of the live action Transformers movie comming out in 2007. So i stayed collecting Cybertron and Classics till the film and by the time the movie came out July 3rd 2007, saw and was hooked for life. So my nostalgia memories is what many would call the worst times of the Transformers fanbase.
Hey, you just go right ahead and love the heck out of Energon if you want to, no matter what anyone says. And if anyone -- especially a Geewuner -- gives you any grief over it, just remind them that Energon never had Kremzeek, or "B.O.T.", or Insane Galvatron, or Zombie Prime, or Disco dancing Decepticons, and I could go on and on...
Born in 1980, one of my fondest memories was an incident regarding my older brother's Metroplex, anyone who grew up in the 80's knows that toy particularly had a lot of complaints about the waist joint , it got broken easily! Anyway my dad and older brother and sister went on holiday for 2 weeks, my brother left his metroplex in robot mode on display and told me specifically not to touch it, for great part of the 2 weeks I resisted then on the day he was arriving from his holiday, I dont now what possessed me, I finally gave in to my urges and decided to transform Metroplex, while in the process I heard that infamous waist snap noise, then the tears started rolling down my cheeks, my mom saw it and had the utter look of disappointment on her face. When my brother came home and saw it he gave me his piece of mind which even brought more tears. But I think I cried because I really liked Metroplex than the fact that I had broken my older brother's toy. Other fond memories involve my brothers and I rushing to tape episodes of G1every morining at about 6 am. In the UK it featured on this programme called the Timmy Mallet show and what they use to do was cut down the episode to 6 or 7 minutes, I think, so it would spread for about three or four days. Man!!!!Those few minutes of G1 every morning was just pure ecstasty, heaven. Damn those were the good ol days! Other memories include my family and I going to the toy shops. And I remeber sitting on the shop floors just looking and drooling at all those G1 figures well arranged on the shelf. I come from a very big family so it was difficult for the old man to please everyone everytime we went out, so you had to pick usually what you really liked! Transformers were also very expensive back then I remember buying Triggerhappy for £17.99!!! Another memory involved my collection of the protectobots. They were the first combiner group in which I bought every piece seperately. The first four were relatively easy to obtain but the last piece hotspot was rather pricey and I had used up all my transformer credit with both my parents, then an uncle of mine whom I was not too fond of and vice versa visited and then I asked him to buy it and he agreed. A couple of hours later he came back with it to my own suprise. I didnt think he would buy it, it was quite a gamble but anyway I was ust celebrating and my new Defensor! G1 Jazz, I honestly don't even remember when I got this guy, all I remember is that he was my first ever transformer. And I've had him a staggering 5 times since then. Damn the guy had it in for himself damaged by myelf, a friend or even stolen my G1 Jazz's have experienced it all. One of my personal sentimental favourites!
As I've stated before, my best memory of Transformers was the day I came home from school at the ripe old age of 5 and expected to watch "He-Man" with my dad, and the TV announced that MOTU would not be seen the next few days in order to show "More than Meets The Eye". From that point on, I was totally hooked. Almost obsessed A week after that, I remember my Dad had to go on a trip, and when we picked him up from teh airport, he bought me a Bumblebee toy (my frist transformer), which was awesome. I will always remember those two as my earliest TF memories, being there from the beginning and getting my first TF. I always have a soft spot for Bumblebee since then. Other memories that I love are just being part of that whole 84-87 "golden age" of G1 and playing with the figures outside down by the lake with my other friends from the neighborhood. It was really cool to find some of them on facebook recently, since I moved away from Virginia in 86. Aside from that, I just have fond memories of watching the G1 show and getting all excited when they would show the toy commericals with new toys, and subsequently getting a bunch of them for Christmas. Good times.
AH man, the beginning of Transformers was good for me. Born in 1994, I didnt grow up with G1 nor Beast Wars/Machines, but infact started on RID. RID used to air alongside other cartoons on this TV show called "WNTV" It had these crazy hosts who I cant even remember their names except for a woman named 'Wanda", plus, one of the actors of the show had something for lamingtons.....If any NZ member here can remember that show, that would be great. Anyway, all of their opening segments for the cartoons they aired would be chopped and sped up to fit about 7 seconds to make an opening. Was funny as hell man. I specifically have the last segment of the episode of where Tow-line goes haywire from the preds messing with him, it was at the part where he was towing Rapid Run through the streets. Heh. Then it would cut to the main show after the chopped up intro was used as the ending credits aswell. After a bit of main show-ness it then aired an episode of "Digimon Tamers" again with a chopped and sped up intro but the theme songs were always like the last 7 seconds of the main theme song. I watched the hell out of that VCR and I cant even remember where it is anymore. VCR will always remain apart of my life. Come around to Christmas of 2001 and my first transformer was given to me....RID Megatron which I still have and hes actually doing really great apart from a few pieces here and there lost. I actually chose him over Galvatron since both were in the shops at the time and sometimes I regretted it, but I still love him to death. IMO I do think RID Megatron had one of the best personalitys with a great voice to go along with him. RID Prime, who I really do want to get but ddint get at the time will always be one of my most favourite Optimus Primes ever (Along with G1 Prime of course) Fastforward maybe a year or two and my dad introduced me to Beast Wars. At the time I wasnt really interested for some reason even though he kept saying that it was Transformers, then one day I gave in and he rented the tape of the first few episodes. Fast-forward to today and I am a huge Beast Wars Fan. Sadly though, throughout my childhood, I never had any TF friends that I can remember. No ultimate epic battles of the Transformers as Autobots wage their battles againts the evil Decepticons, nothing like that I have probably said too much, so I think I will just leave it at that then.
