What drives me nuts is that eBay does absolutely nothing to try and stop it. Buyers can report them all one by one while eBay sits on its hands.

 

Merry Christmas hope you are having a good one

 

Not to mention Fenwick, Argos, Toys R Us, John Lewis, Beatties, Toy City and a shedload of local shops...

In Iceland, Hagkaup stocked vintage Transformers.

Merry Christmas to everyone  

All the best
Maz

 

I've bought a fair number of G1 figures and parts this December, amongst them a much better Dreadwind than the one I had, Brainstorm (minus the guns, but including the head), Tailgate and Outback - but the absolute star of the show is this guy:



I discovered only recently how cool those G1 'deluxe' insecticons are. The designs are far superior to those of the Takara insecticons that also featured in the cartoon. Venom is currently accompanied by Chop Shop (who transforms into a stag beetle) and will soon also be joined by Ransack (who transforms into a locust).

And, even though it's a bit late: happy holidays everyone!

 

*i think you mean bootlegs? since bootlegs are trying to pass themselves off as the original, and knock offs are just trying to cash in on transformer's success. and are usually repainted and extra large versions of the toys, and no one will mistake the two, hopefully* lol anyways i think sellers who try to pass bootlegs or reissues as originals, are the worst.

 

Cool! Thanks for the find. I often have threads I intend to keep track of/comment in opened in tabs and I don't always refresh so sometimes I don't notice new posts between when I last refreshed and when I post.

I'll plug that data there into my spreadsheet next time I'm updating it (bookmarked the page).

 

Browsing eBay, I have noticed some boxes looked too mint for being 25+ years old. Old price tags, especially from long-defunct retailers and at least some creases, damage to boxes make it look more authentic and seem much more probable of being genuine. If I recall correctly, especially with boxes, and with rising odds of the larger the box, it was not uncommon to see some damage with even fresh on the shelves boxes like creases around the corners.

 

Yeah. Factoring in different countries would get complicated. As can be seen, it's a long list. I hoped to fill in completely the most common few stores for G1 and have enough data for some of the next biggest to get a sense of the pricing. There's already enough of a pattern showing Kay-Bee charged the most outside of an absurdly priced Insecticon from Montgomery Ward (unless it was from a Montgomery Ward in Alaska or Hawaii. Anyone know if store numbers are encoded on pricetags?) and TRU & CW/CP clearly saw one another as competition and usually matched prices or came very close.

 

Yeah, reissue should be limited to just an official reissue from the same company or a company that bought the rights to the toys in the case where the original company was gobbled up.

 

Loooove the Deluxe Insecticons. Widely overlooked (in fact, they are, behind Smokescreen oddly, the least common/available figures on eBay from G1 1985. Venom there is actually the most common in the group, not surprising since he's the only one without a basic Insecticon parallel). Venom had me confused though. He has a very non-cicada color scheme. In fact, Ransack has the classic Magicicada (periodic) color scheme (annuals, Tibicen, AKA the dog day cicada, AKA the one you hear all the time from late June thru September if you're in the eastern half of the US are army green & black). Then the name, Venom and the filecard talking about his stinger having damaging fluids and his "poisonous talents". That sounds more like a bee or wasp. Cicadas are known for their loud singing (very high decibel). They don't have stingers. One would think he would have a Frenzy-like power, singing so loud it causes confusion or deafens them, making them unable to hear other Decepticons approaching. And his filecard noting his specialty is psychological warfare makes him overlap with Bombshell. The other Deluxes have no overlap in their profiles or specialties with the basic Insecticons. What's odd is Japan has annual cicadas too (they are in fact one of the common summer kigo, a background sound in movies, anime designed to be a subtle time cue as to when it's set), so its not like they were making a robot based on an animal they had no sense of (like an American company back pre-internet trying to make a toy, say, of a tapir or bandicoot).

 

Regarding looking for vintage toys with price stickers. Does anyone remember that guy faking the price stickers on his KOs? I think it was on carded bumble bees

 

Orange toys-r-us stickers, if I remember correctly there was more than Bumblebees. Can't remember exactly, but do remember the issue.

 

His original colour scheme was more natural:



Not sure why they recoloured these guys. Perhaps Hasbro thought the original decoes were too boring.

 

DK, that's what he's saying. Sellers labeling these as anything but knock-offs are bootlegs are irritating. Labeling a knock-off as a "remake" is certainly far from the actual truth.

 

lol oh i see. i do not buy on ebay or anything.

 

Regarding the sourcebooks, for my money the Cybertronian: The Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guides are a MUST for me. TFW2005.COM's own Hiro Prime is the author! Our Generation One Resources section here is also developed much in part to his work.

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/trans...on/307933-collector-guide-books-best-one.html

Here's mine (albeit a tad out of focus):

Anyone wanna alphabetize this list? As is, it's a bit difficult to navigate through it. Still, the sheer awesomeness must be seen!  

 

That's pretty much it, Hasbro were willing to take more of a risk with wild colours for these moulds than Takatoku did for the Japanese market and also to help differentiate them from the Beetras toys.

All the best
Maz

 

Agreed on the Cybertronian guides. Also pretty good stuff. I'm still missing Vol. 1 & 2. Vol.1 is being shipped over as we speak.

These have been with me for a long long time and I still enjoy reading them. In fact, I enjoy ALL the TF guide books...I'm a geek  


[Antarctic Press] Cybertronian The Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide Vol.3 (2001) 01-1 by unem13, on Flickr


[Antarctic Press] Cybertronian The Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide Vol.4 (2001) 01-1 by unem13, on Flickr


[Antarctic Press] Cybertronian The Unofficial Transformers Recognition Guide Vol.5 (2002) 01-1 by unem13, on Flickr

Not forgetting Lee's Review Books/Inserts too


[Lee's Toy Review Magazine] Issue #168 - Lee's Guide To Transformers Generation 1 - Part 1 (1984-1986) (2007) 01-1 by unem13, on Flickr


[Lee's Toy Review Magazine] Issue #169 - Lee's Guide To Transformers Generation 1 - Part 1 (1987-1990) (2007) 01-1 by unem13, on Flickr

 

So I wound up finding a pre-rub Huffer with minimal chrome and sticker wear with tight joints at a flea market locally for $1.50 which makes for a good Christmas. Also won an auction which amounted to me basically getting Kup for free. Convenient, since I had the musket already as part of a lot I got.