I'm new to this place (as you may or may not have guessed from the title  ) and to Transformers in general. About a week ago, my friend told me about a live action Transformers movie that was going to come out this year. He showed me the trailer, and even though I had only a vague idea of what Transformers were, I still thought it looked cool. After this trailer, I became interested in the actual series and started to read about it (hooray for Wikipedia!) Then, two nights ago, I was out shopping with my friend (the one who originally showed me the trailer) and he bought a couple of action figures. For some reason, that event made me really want to get into the Transformers franchise. So, the next day, I decided to do even more research (including reading posts from here to get perspective from fans) and then we went shopping yet again. By the end of the night, I had bought seven action figures, totalling a little over $90. Just in case anyone is interested, they were:

Starscream
Demolisher
Rodimus
AstroTrain
Optimus Prime
Unicon
Grimlock

After these purchases, I went back to my friends house where we watched the Transformers movie from '86. Despite the fact that it had incredibly campy dialogue and the plot was sort of hard to follow, I thouroughly enjoyed it. When I got home in the morning though, my parents weren't too happy that I had spent that much money on a whim. I haven't been working much lately, so I am sort of pressed for cash. I eventually ended up taking back all action figures except for Optimus Prime, AstroTrain, and Unicron. I've only played with Optimus thus far, because it took me like an hour to figure out how to transform him   It's awesome though, and I now can't wait for the pre-movie comics next month, and, of course, the actual movie.

So, I guess my question is this: am I missing anything else? Are the action figures the best part of the series? I do know that's what they originated as, but I don't know if I'm missing out on any other movies, shows, books, or anything else that I could otherwise be enjoying. Anyway, seeing as this is my first post, nice to meet you all. Yep, I like to save formalities until the end of a post.

 

as far as I'm concerned, the toys are the main reason to be a fan, however, if you're looking for a storyline to go with them, they have an extensive history in comic books, ranging between 3 companies (Marvel, Dreamwave, and IDW)

 

You gotta get the original G1 cartoon. Buy the movie that you watched, then get the series on DVD. It's out of print at the moment, but is supposed to be rereleased this summer. It's campy, but fun. If you ever watched it as a kid, then you will love rewatching it for the first time so many years later.

 

First off, welcome to the fold! You actually sound like me just over a year ago.

The first thing you're going to want to do is check out the comic and cartoons (especially Beast Wars and the original G1 show). Do some research, Transformers has enough divergent continuities and plot holes to drive you insane.

The second thing; get a job! Your wallet will thank you.  

Look here.
http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

 

Welcome, welcome, welcome.....It is never to late to be part of the in crowd! I myself have loved t-formers since there inception 23 years ago, however after falling out of the collectin craze when I was around 20 (i'm 35) I got back into them, kind of, about 3 years ago shortly after the introduction of the Alternators. after a year of collecting those I discoverd the extent of T-formers popularity by stumbeling onto this site. And ever since I became a member here I have not only continued to collect Alts. But now and again I post a "modest" repaint of the same. If you come in often and pay a lil attention you will catch-up with all the t-former lore. Again welcome and have fun.

 

WELCOME> there are also three novels, HARDWIRED is the first , annihilation, and Fusion. they are a good read

 

the first novel is so so, but the other two make up for it. Welcome to the fold!

 

I think Transformers has something for everybody. Me, I tend to lean towards the japanese side of stuff when it concerns the shows. www.tvnihon.com has fansubbed a lot of the series including post-g1 (Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory) and two of the post-beast series (Super Link and Galaxy Force)

With Classics in full swing and some good Cybertron stuff still on the shelves, its a great time to be a collector, just don't spend more than what you can afford  

I can't really comment on any of the comics of Beast shows, but everybody here seems to love them.

 

Welcome! I'd start with G1 DVDs too then work my way through Beast Wars and Beast Machines then try the Japanese stuff. And there another topic currently on the boards that lists the comic book trades in order. There is a lot to experience and feel free to pick and choose to what you like and to leave what you don't. I personally like Transformers for the stories and characters over the toys, but Transformers are the coolest toy line I've ever seen.

 

Welcome to the boards!

This is a great site to help you get started, as far as the wealth of information from the other members within these electronic walls.

You could pretty much start anywhere in TF history and it will eventually lead you to the rest of it. Two other good sites that I enjoy for research purposes are TFU.info and unicron.com. Both have a ton of pics for the toys and you can read up on all the lines (at least the US lines for the latter).

Besides, you could always ask anyone here about something specific. Quite a few of us don't my sharing our opinions. On everything. 

Just look at how many responses you got already.

 

Welcome! It's always great to here from new fans. And yes collecting action figures is a great (if not the greatest) part of this hobby. I suppose the figures you bought are Classics mostly, in that case bite, claw and scratch to keep your classics. I have classics Starscream and Astrotrain, and I love them, they are near perfect, modernized representations of G1's most memorable characters. You will appreciate them more after you've watched Generation 1. G1 and Beast Wars series are a must for you to watch. Ignore the second half of season2 of G1, they were mostly silly with few exceptions, but season 1 and 3 are great. BW is the best tf series no doubt about it. If you want to know more about action figures from all tf series visit :
www.tfu.info (really extensive database with pics)
www.seibertron.com (they have a great a toy gallery with almost all figures shown)
www.unicron.com (they also have pics of almost all tf figures made)
That's all from me. Start from this forum and these sites and your set. In a short time you'll get hooked for life.

EDIT: D'oh, trebleshot beat me to it!

 

Hey, thanks to everyone who has posted thus far. It's always great to have a warm reception when joining a new board, and I'll definately take into consideration all that you guys have said.

As for the G1 series, I believe I saw the second half of Season 1 at Best Buy the other day, but it was arount $41, something I'm not willing to shell out on a TV show yet. In fact, the only TV seasons I own on DVD are the classic Ninja Turtle ones, and I haven't even gotten around to watching all of those yet. I definately want to see the G1 series sometime, but that will probably have to wait until I see a price drop or a fortune increase (neither of the two looking very imminent)

I guess I'll probably be sticking with some of the toys for now and building up my collection around that while also researching this franchise on some of the sites you guys gave. So, I have another question about the actual toyline. First though, I'll just clarify that my Optimus Prime and AstroTrain are from the Classic series, and Unicron is from the Cybertron series. As cool of a character as Unicron is, and as cool as the toy is, I still seem to prefer the overall design and feel of the Classic ones more. So, knowing the two I have from that series and also knowing that's the one I prefer, what are your suggestions on the best toys from the Classic line? Optimus of course is awesome because of his character and role in the series, and I gravitated towards AstroTrain because of his ability to take on three shapes. I know that you guys won't know my opinions on the actual characters, so as far as design goes for the toys (i.e. how enjoyable it is to transform, what ones have the coolest features, what ones are the most fun to play with, etc.) what do you guys recommend? I know all of this will be subjective opinion, but I'm still interested to hear what you all have to say. Thanks again!

 

Welcome, and enjoy one of the coolest hobbies there are!  

 

can't believe noone has said it yet:

"ONE OF US...ONE OF US...ONE OF US"

Welcome not only to these boards but to the fandom as a whole. I think you'll find that there is a whole hell of a lot more to learn about the past and present toys, shows, books, comics, stories, etc. I've been into this since I was a kid in 1984 and am still far far away from knowing everything there is to know about the TF universe (that's why God made Nevermore   ). Have fun, and let us know when you have more questions, we're more than happy to help!

 

Here is a cheaper alternative. Granted, it's about $20 more than what you saw at Best Buy, but you get the whole series, not just half of one season. Something to consider saving up for.

 

I think Mirage is an essential figure. He may be the funnest Transformer I own.

Jetfire is very hard to find, but he is a fantastic looking figure.

Bumblebee and Megatron are both really cool.

Frankly I think all of the Classics are good, but if you're only gonna buy a few, those are the ones I'd go with.

gooble gobble gooble gobble

 

Hey there new guy! I'm usually pretty mean to n00bs, but I've been in a good mood the past few days, so I'll be nice.   Welcome aboard! Aside from spending way too much money, being a TF fan is a pretty cool hobby. There is a lot to do, and lots of different storylines and toylines withing the Transformers brand to follow. My personal favourites are Beast Wars and one of it's Japanese exclusive sequels Beast Wars NEO.

If you're looking for toy images and the bio stories that go with them, TFU.info is a nice site to check out. Not really dazzling photoshoots, for that you'd to a site like http://www.tfkenkon.com and look around, but just a quick index of what the figures look like and what accessories they come with. (Here's a link to TFU.info's Beast Wars and Beast Wars NEO sections in case you're interested.)

 

Here, I'll do it for you.

GO AWAY! 

Welcome.

I highly recommend Classics and Alternators.

The rest you can slowly accumulate via different channels. But those two lines provided above are the epitome of TF awesomeness right now.

 

Heh. I was absolutely confused for a bit there. I thought you were telling Boo to go away. Duh.

Anyway, welcome aboard, new dude! I, too, highly recommend going for the Alts., it's too bad the line is on the decline now and many of the older ones are quite hard to get these days....still, the line is a shining beacon in the TF universe and there are no finer examples of the vast, realtively untapped potential of TFs.

I would also say go for the Classics like some of the others, but I really only like a few (Jetfire, Prime, Megatron, and Mirage), so I can't support the whole line, but I know I'm in the minority there.

My best advice is don't be come a completists like a lot of us suckers, just buy what you think is cool. That's what I'm doing with the Classics line and my wallet thanks me much as do my sagging shelves.

 

Boo's old job was to tell noobs to GO AWAY!

This was, however, back in the day.