Good Eye. I had to put doors on the bookcase because of the cats. The last thing I want is a mess of broken G1 toys on the floor because they can't help themselves. Haha

I've tried to get the Autobot cars and Dinobots in toon colors where possible. I'm also trying to track down Diaclone versions of the Autobot cars with the Takara circle stamp, or in Sideswipes case, the Takara stamp on his waist. I don't swap parts to build nicer figures, so tracking down nice specimens gets more and more difficult as stuff dries up and goes into collections.

 

Was one of the cartridges Bart Simpson's Escape From Camp Deadly? It was all the rage, who could blame ya.

That pop-up store is something I would love to see. Heck any store with the kind of stuff I want piled high would be amazing. Do you recall what you bought all those years ago?

It's great, I was looking for displays in Billy bookcases to plan my new room. I roughly know it can have 8 medium figures in car or robot mode across and yours has provided further evidence, so thanks!

I am also a cartoon fan, so for new stuff I leave off certain stickers and got myself a bunch of insignias to closer match (e.g. Sunstreaker's large Autobot symbols on his car hood and chest). Vintage ones I leave as-is for the historical value. The reissues with blue eyes are also something I appreciate.

 

The only ones I specifically remember buying are Kup, Mixmaster and Bone Crusher. But I remember seeing nearly everything you could think of on the shelf.

 

I love stories like this. what I would give to find a modern day case find.

 

Sealed IGA Smokescreen. Botcon ‘99

 

I stumbled upon many such examples of dealers having case finds and selling cheap after G1 was off the shelves but before the collectors market (and the internet) exploded. The sad thing was I was either with my parents or had limited funds, I always wanted to buy multiples to stash.

I remember a dealer friend having cases of MOSC Chinese Seasprays for 99p in the mid nineties. Finding Steeljaw and Eject MOSC for 50p each at a local market (I bought two and later traded one for a MISB Wheeljack). Cases of Stunticons and Constructicons at a different market which I used to complete both sets. Cases of Action Masters which I stupidly ignored (but I did buy Gutcruncher). Sixshot for £20 in Bicester Village. My favourite find was a dude selling loads of Soundwaves for about £20 via mail order in 1994 or so (Model and Collectors Mart). I wish I'd bought multiple but at least I finally got one for my collection.

It's weird because it was so hard to collect Transformers in the mid nineties before ebay came along and there were few dealers who bothered with Transformers back then, but it meant every find really mean something significant.

Early ebay was brilliant (but difficult pre-PayPal) and I got some absolute bargains, and there was still the joy of the hunt in the early days. Now its just a case of nearly everything being available if you've got the money.

 

Amazing stuff, did there used to be a toy store in Bicester Village?

I was out of the Transformers game until recently, I only remember popping into Toys R Us as an adult and seeing some Platinum sets. Stories like these make me wish I'd started earlier, but then what would I be doing now...

 

I can't remember if it was toy shop or just a random factory clearance store with odds and sods. I think the latter.

The big collecting game changer was meeting Paul of Spacebridge fame at a Memorabilia show in Birmingham, must have been in 1997 or 1998. Immediately bought the first Blaster I'd ever seen and went back with every penny I could beg borrow or steal and went home with Trypticon and Omega Supreme too. It was amazing to see so many US toys I'd never seen before but at the same time I'm sure I ignored a few really rare Japanese toys I didn't even recognise.

 

Nice, what backend does it have, the regular Smokescreen mold or the Bluestreak mold. I've own loose examples of all three variants, but have never seen a sealed Smokescreen front, Bluestreak back.

 

thanks dude. It’s the regular Smokescreen mold. I never knew there was a variant til many years later, but love when people show them off.

 

Redoing my Gobots shelf.

Menasor with Puzzler.

 

Puzzler really is the highlight of the Gobot line.

 

One for @Maz ?

 

I had this same problem around the same time, when my unfamiliarity with foreign TFs reared its head.
At my first con of any kind, Botcon '99, there was a dealer table manned by a bunch of Japanese guys. Naturally I didn't recognize a lot of the stuff they were selling. They offered me a MIB set of Headmaster Jrs for $50...
I turned them down  

My most infamous story of my ignorance costing me I've told on this site a few times, the time when my parents and I visited the house of a distant relative in Norway and he turned out to have a whole bagfull of European exclusives. To make a long story short, I ended up buying my AM Thundercracker and Slicer from him, but left the rest, including AM Sideswipe and frickin' OVERLORD. I tried getting back in touch with him after that but I could never obtain the rest of his stash.

 

Puzzler's great, but Gobots get a bad rap. I've been re buying all the ones I had as a kid recently, and their build is great.

 

Would it be weird to have a Gobots thread?

 

There's one here I post to: Gokin Machine Robo / Gobots!

 

I've had these 4 for quite a while now, but never had them unboxed and out of storage all at the same time, so thought I'd share a group shot  



Quite intricate transformations for the time. Just a shame Chop Shop and Ransack can't rotate their arms forwards!

 

Grails for me.

My cousin randomly had Ransack.

 

Took me a long time to track them all down. I'm not sure if they were released over here in the UK, and if they were I don't think they were widely available. My Chop Shop is from France, the others I bought from sellers Stateside. Just need to find the spear thingy for Chop Shop