Rather than go for more obvious general collection ideas like "the entire G1 cast" earlier this year I decided to focus my collecting primarily on one simple goal: To have modern representations of every single G1 toy that originally released in 1986.

This was the year I was born, the year the original TF movie released and the year considered by many to be a pinnacle point in the early days of the Transformers franchise. So I want my collection to reflect a point in time that was significant to my existence and the franchise itself as I feel I almost owe this to Transformers given just how much influence they've had on my entire life whether it be my interests or hobbies, friends and so on, Transformers has always and will always be a part of defining me.

Toy-wise 1986 was the year of combiners more than any other with several of the key and most iconic gestalts getting their first representations. Ironically enough the year I decided to get way back in to Transformers (late 2012) was when we first started to see several third parties revealing their intentions to recreate many of these iconic combiner characters.

It was this realization that made me convinced I could in fact finally have the collection I now seek to complete. Surprisingly I am extremely close already and I've only been re-collecting for 10 months now. If not for third parties this goal would absolutely be impossible.

So I set about "planning" for my collection and thankfully with the help of the internet it's been incredibly easy to know and keep track of exactly the figures I need.

I took a screenshot of Seibertron's 1986 toy galleries page as my basis and edited it to include images of all the figures they currently don't have galleries of:


How my "data sheet" is currently looking,  

Then upon learning of the status of each modern representation figure I would need would label them as such and I've been going through them as I've been able. The next two I will be purchasing are FansProjects Diesel (motormaster) and MMC's Tigris/Fortis (rampage and headstrong) which will allow me to have complete homages to four of the 5 combiners released that year: Predaking, Menasor, Superion, Bruticus and Defensor.

My requirements for a figure are fairly loose. The only real must-haves of them being that they obviously are meant to be the character but even if they're loosely g1-esc I'm still happy with that so long as the figure itself is good (well made, looks nice and so on). Igears Bushwacker (Outback) is a good example of a figure I was tempted to get but given just how little he looks like the original toy (being an entirely different base color, white instead of brown) I've decided to avoid him.

Likewise I think classics Galvatron and Octane are terrible representations of the characters so I'm deliberately avoiding them hoping better figures will exist sooner or later. My impatience may get the better of me when Takara does their re-release three pack that includes them though.

Scale wise I have no specific preferences, couldn't care less about the whole classics VS mp VS blah blah blah it's all nonsensical nitpicking to me so I just buy whatever I think is cool and does a good job of being who they're suppose to be.


The individual 86 Autobots I've got so far, including Blurr, Sandstorm, Springer, Kup, Hubcap, Ultramagnus, Eject, Hotrod, Rewind and Wreck-gar.

I'm hoping Transformazing's armor set turns out great so I bought FoC magnus hoping it will, if not I'll simply replace him with something more g1 down the line.

Here are TFC's aerialbots:

And here they are as not-Superion:

He's a bit ugly and not-so G1 right now but the Wings of Uranos upgrade set should rectify that nicely.

Here are the stand alone 86 Decepticons I have atm:

Including Runabout, Scourge, Cyclonus, Ratbat and Runamuck.

Here are the Combaticons:

A mix of the re-released Takara set based on the old energon molds upgraded to include FansProjects color matched g1-deco re-release Swindle and Blastoff. The official toys in this instance ironically being the least-g1 looking of the 5 so I very well may replace them with Warbotron if he turns out great.

Here they are as Bruticus:


Lastly here are FansProjects homage to the stunticons, easily my favorite combiner team from 86:


Really looking forward to being able to make their Menasor in the coming months and getting the first of MMC's Predacons in the next few weeks.

I still have a good amount of figures yet to get to complete my collection but the bulk of it I've certainly obtained already. Of all the 86-homage figures I own right now I'd say my favorites are the TFCC battle chargers and FansProjects Stunticons. As for the rest of my collection, I have absolutely no criteria for it other than "stuff I want cause it is awesome" haha, so here's a few random pics:


Mastermind Creations not-Sixshot Hexatron, easily one of if not the best Transformers I own, he's big, incredibly well made, incredibly posable and just so freaking cool. If only official Masterpiece toys were as awesome as he is, I'd be way more interested in owning more.


Maketoys 2nd iteration Battletanker meant to homage shattered glass Ultramagnus i believe, though I personally use the armor to simply make my rts prime more bad ass since I loved g2 laser prime. Here he is wielding two of the stupidly-too-heavy Dr-Wu NovaPrime matrix blades.


This is Takaras version of PCC heavytread with MakeToys Marine Mobine limb attachments, sadly the product along with with their Megatronus/Fallen homage version Chaos Paladin ran in to production issues. Still looking forward to getting him.

My modest Optimus sub-collection:

The g1 prime you see their is an original if his horrible state weren't proof enough. He was the first TF I ever got back when I was like 4 or 5, so even if he were in perfect condition probably still wouldn't be worth as much as an original 84 mint version but I still value him quite a lot. Somehow he survived when every other toy I had as a kid did not.

I also find I have a thing for black redecos in general, so here's a few of those:





And to end this post, my absolute favorite combiner still, Maketoys Green Giant:

Who I also got the entire reprolabels set for.

 

Very cool. I love your modern take on the original G1 cast.

 

Yeah man I love the maketoys Giant and Hexatron. 2 of my favs as well.

 

Purchased my next four 86 line figures today; FansProject Broadside, KFC Ramhorn and Steeljaw and Perfect Effect Reflector. I also recently acquired a brand new camera and have been taking many new much higher quality images though I'm still sorting out the proper lighting/settings.

Since I won't have my next 4 purchases till next week here's some recently taken photos of some of my other figures:


MP10 Prime of course, the TRU Hasbro version which I'm pretty sure I paid way to much for but he was incredibly hard to find at the time and I assumed he was never going to get another run. While MP figs aren't really my thing I knew I had to have at least the Prime figure. Still got my eyes on the black nemesis version but just haven't had the spare money to pick him up yet. He'll go nicely with my classic MP1 black prime I imagine.


Perfect Effect Aranea, my most recent acquisition, though I purchased her way back in February. She's certainly a wonderfully pretty figure though I'm not fond of her insanely tight joints and finger destroying transformation in general.

 

Some cool 3rd party stuff

 

Wow! Some great figures you have here!

I love that Green Giant, Stunticons, Perfect Arena, and MP-10. I also was pleasantly surprise with that WFC Black Prime. He looks very nice!

 

Love that purple/blue ish barrel on green giant. Did u paint it?

 

Very nice and thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks, I'm quite fond of black repaints. Sucks they tend to be quite pricey but the WfC Prime and Megs are certainly well worth the 60 I paid for them as they come in the same box. Their paint is so nice you'd swear it was the sort they use on real cars.

Here's a more recent pic of WfC megs I took with my new camera:

I wanted them both but more so for the Prime originally but ended up preferring the Megatron more. He has such a cool design and the purple is just pure awesome.

Nope that's a repro sticker. I got the entire set for all 6 constructicons a while back. You can order all 3 of the repro sets still from here: Reprolabels.com - Classics

Here's some more random pics:

My original 1989 G1 prime, who has certainly seen better days. haha and his modern 2013 counterpart, a nice example of around 30 years of toy evolution.

FansProject Chromedome:

Planning on getting all their headmasters eventually, got their Weirdwolf on order already, hopefully he'll arrive this week.

And an old favorite I got a mint sealed original of a couple years ago off ebay:

And promptly ripped out of its package of course haha.

I'm an unabashed fan of G2's "horrible" color schemes and decos and Hooligan remains one of my favs. When I can somehow find the money to afford more g2 originals I'll be grabbing a few more I think.

 

And my next four new additions just arrived minutes ago:


All of these guys had toys originally in 86. Broadside, Reflector, Steeljaw and Ramhorn.

 

Great looking figures and pictures. Wow!

 

That's a great collection and focus 1986 was a great year.

 

very cool collection,

 

Some new hires pics I took today:

IDW Megs whom I got last week.

He is so awesome, cannot wait to get the Dreadwing version too. Would love to see either an official or 3p voyager. Hopefully ToyWorlds turns out great.

Aranea with her rifle, still the purdiest bot in my collection.


Considering she's not technically a canon accurate character and a fembot, both extreme rarities makes her that much more special. I think she's easily among my top ten figures of all time now.

ROTF Lockdown.

Despite my burning hatred of 99% of the movie lines designs Lockdown manages to be one of my favorite figures ever, another one I'd put in my top 10. He's just so freaking creepy and unique and I loooove me some creepy robots. Wish Hasbro would do more but I guess then kids wouldn't buy them.  


TFCC Runamuck and Runabout, easily the best reuse of a mold next to Generations Sandstorm. I'd even say this one suits these two guys far better than it ever did Tracks or Wheeljack but that might just be due to how nice their mold n paint work is.

 

Great collection man! Love them combiners! Wish I could have the Green Giant.. They all look magnificent!  

 

Wow, your collection is awesome!

 

At last Uranos looks more like good old G1 Superion:




And all of my currently owned modern-take 86 originating g1 character figures together:

Just gotta upgrade my FoC Magnus with Transformazing's armor set next year so he's not so shrimpy then see about grabbing Xtransbots Pipes and generations Swerve n Tailgate, patiently wait for TFC's Defensor (unless some other company makes a better one) decide which version of Wheelie I want or hope Hasbro does a new proper one along with Outback, and then hope someone, if not Hasbro, makes a new SkyLynx and I"ll have every single 86 autobot figure well represented by new figures. Woo.

Decepticon wise I just need FansProject Diesel to release so I'll finally have my Menasor, complete MMC's Predaking early next year, then get generations Tankor and after all that I'll only need three more figures to complete my collection: a decent new Galvatron and Trypticon. And to get UniqueToys or Igears Sharkticons depending which set turns out better though I'm already leaning towards UT's.

Concerning my non-main collection figures;

Already got Generations Waspinator, G2 Dreadwing, Goldfire and Skids on the way. Looking forward to buying Rhinox next week and I've placed an order for Perfect Effects IDW Fortress Maximus since he already looks stunningly nice.

 

Very cool collection, thanks for sharing it with us!!

 

Some color themed images:

 

I really have to get a FP
Chromedome, that's a great addition.