30+ ~ like sunscreen  

Used to collect them when I was in my teens but stopped before i turned 20 and sold them.

Started up again sometime 2005, on and off.

I had plans to sell everything I had a while ago and quit the hobby for good, because collecting just didn't do anything for me anymore !!

But when I bought DX9 Tyrant and opened it and I looked at that face !! I couldn't believe how spot on it was, I was just in awe, and that was the moment that got me back !!

That feeling that I thought was lost, this hobby, my figures... no other figure made me feel like I really wanted to collect the best representations of any characters than DX9s Tyrant. And it's funny cos I said to myself, this will be the last figure you're ever gonna buy  
And I've been mostly living in the 3rd party world when it comes to buying Transformers !!

 

25. Transformers fan since 1995. My 1st Transformer was G2 Megatron. What a solid piece, with interesting non instrusive gimmicks.

As for 3rd Party, been collecting for some time now. 1st piece was Fansproject Bruticus, then City Commander, protector, etc.

Sold most of my early FP toys due to Hasbro releasing better versions of the same characters. But boy, for their time they were the shits!  

 

37. Another Child of the 80s.

Grew up on Star Wars, GI Joe, Transformers, He-Man, MASK, Silverhawks, Marvel Comics, Ghostbusters, TMNT and the like. While my enthusiasm waned from time to time, I never really did ever stop collecting Star Wars, GI Joe and Marvel Comics. I completely skipped Transformers after G1 but slowly started to get back in with CHUG.

My first 3P was one of Warbot Defender, City Commander or Beezleboss' Devil Horns kit, can't quite remember. iGear's Faith Leader and Coneheads were amazing to me at the time. So, I guess I've been in on 3Ps since the ground floor and its been a great ride ever since.

#G1forlife

 

26 years old.

My first 3P piece was either FP City Commander or FP Bruticus. Either way it was 2010.

 

I've collected since 1995.
Im 35 now
My first 3rd party figure was the add-on for Ultra Magnus fansproject city commander. That was in 2008. The birth of 3rd parties

 

This is interesting - figured more people would have been at this longer.

I'm 34 and began collecting arguably around 2000. My funds have increased since, but I was buying what I could back then. First 3P specifically was an accessory pack from unicron.com I think. City commander was my first bigger item (1st run).

 

38. There seem to be a fair amount of is who grew up in the 80s. I enjoyed Mask, GI Joe, Thundercats, and have fond memories of G1. I had all sorts of toys as a kid but Transformers were always pretty special to me.

1) I started collecting MP transformers in August of 2015. MP-10 was my first official purchase.
2) My first 3P purchase was Apollyon to go with my MP-10.

 

Dooooood ... Zoids, fuck yeah. Got my first Zoid in '83, Gordos/Great Gorgon ... first love, Zoids forevah * kisses the badge *

Transformers were initially pretty much secondary to Zoids because my parents were more inclined to spend money on the DIY stuff. Educational value and all, you know. I had a really crappy G1 collection ... lemme see ... Brawl, Swindle, Sinnertwin, Bombburst.

Shit started to get real when someone started passing round a VHS copy of TFTM. Best childhood movie ever, die OP die die. From then on even if my money was spent on Zoids, the Transformers were officially A Big Deal.

I stared hours on end at boxed Predacons and Coneheads at this one shop until the lady storekeeper recognised me by sight and knew the timing of my visits. I killed my eyes and started wearing specs from poring over those delicious G1 catalogues.

Had a bloody rich friend with every desirable TF known to man ... all combiners including the almighty Predaking, all the basebots available at the time ... many happy hours were spent mooching off his richness.

The "Masters" appeared ... persuaded a kid who wanted to buy Highbrow, to get Brainstorm instead (cos better articulation, and I wanted to borrow a Brainstorm instead of a Highbrow). He promptly defriended me after he bought the Brainstorm and realised he really just wanted Highbrow.

Borrowed another rich friend's Spasma (he wouldn't lend me the whole Apeface, the bastard), promptly lost it, was threatened by said friend that he'd tell my mom and make her buy him a whole new Apeface, scoured my whole house until I found the little bugger ...

I could go on and on ... but all these memories will be lost in time, like tears in rain ... time to buy! G1 will never die!

Mp/3P MP is the second coming of the Saviour. I have a Megatron toy - we have Megatron toys - that doesn't transform into a robot with a trigger dick. We have combiners with more than 2 points of articulation.

It's a good time to be alive.

 

46. Started collecting when I was 16, all G1 stuff. Stopped a couple years later and didn't start back up until RID in 2001. Been going strong ever since. Focus now is mainly masterpiece and 3rd party.
I think my first one was FP city commander

 

33 turning 34 next month. I grew up with G1 but sadly my parents got rid of everything after I had left for college  . I started buying official releases back in 2006 but finally dipped into third party products early 2011 with FP's Protector add-on

 

40 years old

My first 3rd party was Igear Black Optimus Prime, downsize of MP-01. Very bad quality. I dont remember which year that came out.

Didnt retouch 3rd party, till FT Quakewave, and i can say that is the true start of it. That was in 2012 - 2013. I was coming out of macross, i was collecting mainly Yamato, as it went down and i couldnt keep up with their pricing anyways. I did have some Masterpieces here and there, but at that time, it was only 1 - 3 figures a year, and well, shockwave is one of my favorite decepticons, so in i went. Then, a while after, MMC Hex / Rex. Then the FT Dinos.  

 

I'll be 36 shortly.

I was hugely into G1 toys from age 3-8. Ninja Turtles took my attention for a few years but I still got quite a few of the late-G1 guys and a little of G2, as well as a couple Beast Wars toys. Robots in Disguise (2001) brought me back into collecting and I've been doing it ever since.

My first third party toy was Fansproject City Commander in 2008....2009? I'm pretty sure it was 2008.

 

41 collecting since 2006 starting with the classics filler line first 3rd party item FP city commander for my classics Ultra magnus.

 

38 years old...
1.) I restarted collecting Transformers Mid-2015 with the Combiner Wars-Stuff, but quickly changed to MP-scale.
2.) My first 3rd party TF was/were MTs Visualizers.

 

37. Grew up with the toon loved the figures as a kid as well. It wasn't until season 2 of Beast Wars where I finally caved and bought every figure I could find related to the show. That was back in 1998...
My first 3 third party figures ( since I bought them as a set ) , was the igear cone heads back in 2011 ? Loved them to death ....

 

I'm 15, which makes me that kid that gets made fun of because he talks with 35-40 year olds who like transformers. Creepy ain't it?

 

39, Transformers fan from the start. Had a lot of G1 figures from the eighties as a kid.
Got back into collecting when the Bay movie came out and my son became interested in Transformers.
First 3rd party was fans project city commander add on or the aerial bot add on kit.

 

I only had a handful of Transformers back in the day… mostly Autobots – Ratchet, Red Alert, Jazz, Wheeljack, Sludge, Snarl, Cosmos, Gears, Beachcomber, Huffer, Outback, Pipes and Windcharger… and only two Decepticons – Bonecrusher and Shrapnel. I was bought Weirdwolf and some of the Terrorcons later on, after I’d lost interest, but gave them to my little brother who still loved them then… in fact I think my generosity allowed him to complete Abominus, his first and only complete combiner.

Zoids on the other hand, I had forty or fifty of… and yet I can only remember a handful of names… Zoidzilla, The Great Zrk, Red Horn (I think), and Gorgon (was he the Stegosaurus?)… then just what they looked like comes to mind… of the larger ones I also had mammoth and gorilla types and some kind of red dragon with no arms. I remember the really basic early ones like the spider, swimmer and flyer (which looked more like a Dodo), then they started to get more advanced with snake, crocodile, Dimetrodon, Snail and Iguanadon types.

Interesting though isn’t it, that despite the Zoids taking priority in my youth over Transformers, I remember so little about them. I guess that’s the power of marketing. We had all the stories to go with Transformers, so they became characters… Zoids were just “things”.

 

It is now.

 

At least you're old enough to realize it's creepy  

I wonder whats a 15yo's take on g1-styled/inspired 3rd party transformers these days?