Odd "Leftovers":
Finding a G2 Megatron in a Boscov's circa 2003 near Harrisburg.
Finding a TF07 Deluxe Camshaft in a Kohls outside Pittsburgh last year.

Odd "Leftovers" AND Location:
I used to frequent a little "mom and pop" grocery store run by the sweetest "grandparent" looking people around. The store also doubled as a discreet head shop with just about any paraphernalia you could imagine. As if that wasn't odd enough, they also had (amongst the groceries and "Tobacco Water Hookahs") a small selection of MISB/MOSC G1 figures... The ones I recall were Grimlock, Slag, Astrotrain, Tracks, Hoist and Groove. This was circa 1998 or so and at age 21, I was not quite aware that I would (within a few short years) resume my love of toys and start buying/collecting them like mad as an adult! Too bad because I recall the prices for each being between $15-$20 each, Groove was probably around $10.

 

Don't know what made me think of this today, but I seem to remember seeing the Aerialbots for sale inside the Kings Island amusement park near Cincinnati, Ohio, probably in 1986 or 1987. They were in one of those shops along the main boulevard as you enter the park. I think they had other Transformers there too, massively overpriced. Does anyone else remember this or did I dream it?

 

A random ROTF Legends Tankor on the Magazine shelf at Tesco (Or was it ASDA? Anyway). Obviously he'd fallen off the cover of the TF magazine when they were given away as gifts, but that was over a year ago, so he'd been floating around hidden on the shelves since then.

I took it to the customer service desk (I wanted to buy it), but because the bar code didn't match with the current Legends figures, they flat outright refused to sell him to me. Which pissed me off, I wanted him to fill that Tankor shaped hole in my Legends collection, so I should have pocketed him.

 

I remember seeing a few Legend class transformers in the PX at BIAP- Baghdad Airport Base in summer 2007 in Iraq

 

There are these stores around me, most are run by Amish families. Folks around here refer to them as Bent n' Dents. Essentially, the families buy damaged goods and sell them at their store. I live in the middle of Forbe's State Forest, and just over the mountain peak there is one of these Bent n' Dents. The way the road winds around, it actually takes longer to drive to this store than to walk through the woods to it. So imagine taking a nice little half hour hike, going into shed, and buying a HFTD Tomahawk.

Yeah, I've done that.

 

My pops found a trash bag by the dumpster once. It had snarl, roadbuster, astro train, sea spray and an insecticon.

 

I got a G1 Soundwave in his packaging, with the box pretty beat up but the toy in fine shape at AmVets in 2001 for $2.48.

 

Just last week I was at my friend Teresa's haus.. she was giving me a bunch of old stuff to sell in mein thrift mart. We're in the basement packing up stuff and there it is: a G1 Sky-Lynx junker. She said "oh yeah, I found that in a box and thought you might like it." Sky-Lynx must have belonged to her brother Mike who is a year older than me. I hung it from the ceiling in my art studio.

 

ROTF Rampage last year at Kohls, WTF right?

 

Last week, I found one of the Real Gear robots from 2007. It was that Decepticon watch.



I FOUND IT AT A FRICKING RITE AID

 

Yellow, or red?

 

you had a Po'folks? I thought that was a one off restaraunt near me when I was a kid (long out of business). They used to have a tree stump with coins stuck in it and if you could manage to free a coin it was yours.. ahh memories.

I bought several TFA figures from Aldis. But, the wierdest place for me was at
a local video store when I was a kid. They had a G1 Kaltor, which I wanted (and eventually got.. thanks Uncle Clarence).

 

Not a Transformer story but close enough:

When I was ten years old my family moved house and I had to change schools. It was about 70 miles from our previous home so I had no hope of seeing or hearing from my old friends and was pretty bummed to have to start a new school, make new friends, get used to a whole new house and area, etc. Anyway, the day after we moved in and I was able to go outside and explore, I spotted a flash of yellow in the back yard and when I went to check it out I found a Super GoBots Bug Bite. It wasn't rusted or dirty so it hadn't been there long, but there it was. I was just getting into Transforming toys at that time and finding Bug Bite laying there in the grass at my new home was not only highly exciting but also suddenly made me feel a whole lot better about everything, like it was a good omen (even though I wouldn't have known what that was back then) or a lucky charm.

I took Bug Bite in the house to show to my dad and I asked if I could keep it. He said I could keep it as long as none of the other kids in the neighborhood said it was theirs and that I should take care of it, along with my other toys because they would be a collectors item some day. Later that day he put up some shelves in my room for me to put my toys on. I didn't really have a grasp of the term 'collectors item' back then, but the knowledge I took away from that was to take care of my stuff and keep it in good condition, and I always did. Thanks, dad.

Bug Bite was later claimed by a boy in the neighborhood, although I didn't believe it was really his (and indeed his older sister said it wasn't, but c'est la vie) and I never saw one in a store and wasn't able to get another one until I was in my late 20's and found one for $1 at a local thrift store.  

I know none of that is truly 'strange', but it was very strange to me back then to find a seemingly new toy gleaming in the middle of an unfamilar expanse of green grass.

 

Finding TFs at Kohl's is not that strange. They show up occasionally over the years. I remember when Kohl's had Deluxe Armada figs.

 

Working for a property letting agents as a gas man I often help the maintenance lads clear out houses and find a lot of junker and decent figures......but inside an old cooker thatwas being moved, I once found a g1 prime with both fists still in the chest......even better the trailer was under the stairs, roller (missing 1 wheel) was in a bedroom and under a carpet was primes gun.

that's not the strangest but defo my most memorable and favourite find.
I picked up some binbags while clearing outside a house once and an animated megatron was amongst the rubbish that spilled from a torn bag, megs had no gun but I took it home and sterilised it.

but my fave memory as a kid is when my dad went to the tip to get rid of some furniture and came back with a box full of transformers and rocklords that someone had dumped next to him and allowed him to take. They were mostly power masters, g2 and headmasters.

I know this isn't exactly what was meant by unusual places but I thought it would add interesting diversity to the thread.

 

ROTF Voyager The Fallen in a clothes store.

Nuff Said.

 

Under my wife's foot (long story)....

 

Found my Botcon '08 Shattered Glass Boxset at a rag & bone/used goods store in Hong Kong in year '09.

Old man manning the store told me to make him an offer since there wasn't any price tag affixed to it so I offered him HKD $2,000 (approximately USD $260) which he was very very comfortable with.

So saves me the trouble of sniping one down on eBay, which would have easily costed me USD $500+ shipped at that time.

Needless to say, deal was concluded instantly & it has been with me since.  

 

Yeah, got most of the RTS line for cheap when they went out of business!

 

I found a kreo bumblebee in an old folks home