This means it special to you in special way.

 

Greetings lover of Warpath, it appears you just signed up yesterday.

For me, it's more of a group of toys than one specific one. After two decades of being away from where I grew up, I went to my parents' house to help them clean it out - and in the far corner of the basement buried under tons of old ruined stuff was a whole bunch of original G1 transformers from when I was a kid. Surprisingly they were in semi-decent condition. That would probably be my answer.

I guess if I had a second one it would TFCC Timelines Astrotrain because it was the first big purchase I made once I got into Transformers. If I were ever to sell off everything I have, that might be the last one I would sell.

 

Combiner Wars Superion was the first figure I bought when I restarted collecting. It has special meaning to me because it was a moment in my life that I realized that I was fortunate enough to be able to collect the toys I couldn't buy as a kid.

 

Same here! I collected from 2006-2013. Combiner Wars Superion was the figure that got me back into collecting again in 2015.

 

The original Powermaster Optimus. I’d been sick for several months with persistent, debilitating headaches, to the point that I’d missed most of my sophomore year of high school. The doctors couldn’t figure out the cause. They decided to do surgery to remove a cyst from my sinus which they’d dismissed as a possible cause. A week after the surgery I was finally feeling much better.

So to celebrate, my grandmother gave me the money for the figure. And for the first time in 6 or 7 months, I rode my bike to Kiddie City, and picked up Prime. Had some trouble steering while holding the big bag, but I managed.

So the figure is a memento of a bad time in my life coming to an end, and of my Grandmom, who passed away back in `99.

 

Generation One Micromaster Skystalker. It is one of the first Transformers I owned. I remember a trip to Kmart picking it up. I had it for years, until it either got donated or tossed. I later started collecting. I acquired all of the US Micromasters in my collection. I made sure to grab Skystalker.

 

Prob my titan g1 metroplex, was first titan that I bought and just so cool, that he is that large.

 

I’d say my MISB reissue Rattrap from Walmart. It’s just sitting in a plastic tub in the basement, and obtaining it was just a matter of grabbing it off the shelves during a routine shopping trip; but it represents like, the longest grail hunt. As a kid, I got into Beast Wars just late enough to have somehow missed Rattrap on the shelves. Getting the rest of the cast at the time was no problem (depending on the allowance budget, lol) but the best character on the show was gone for good. Anytime we went on vacation, I’d break out the yellow pages and call any toy shop in town and ask if they had him.

Somehow, in those early days of the internet (back when I’d download pictures of their transformations over our 56k modem and save ‘em on 3.5” floppy disks), someone pointed me toward a little site called eBay. That guy’s name? Fuze6. And you better believe I ordered myself a loose, incomplete Rattrap — by mailing off a money order!

 

LONG-ASS STORY ALERT:

I got back into collecting Transformers as an adult around 2000 with some Beast Machines figures but it was really RiD that got me back in whole hog. But I was a young father supporting a family so my collection was fairly small (compared to what came later, a few times even) and I didnt have a ton of free money money to spend on TFs. A few years later Armada rolled around, and I had started my own company which was nicely successful so I could afford a bit more toys. I went whole hog on that line. Those toys felt like a semi-continuation from when I had stopped collecting G1 figures as a kid (around '88) and that Bendy Prime mold was just hand-candy to me in every way. And even though I had more pocket money, I wasn't importing Takara figures simply due to cost. Heck, I could buy a few Hasbro figures for the price of one Takara version (that changed for me later). I LOVED Armada Nemesis Prime. An excellent figure with a great color scheme (black vehicle with red windows is an insta-buy from me, I just dig it), and easily obtainable. Got one and was happy.

Until I saw pictures of the Takara version.

Takara used a slick, charcoal-black and cool grey plastic as opposed to the brownish-black and beaige plastics of the Hasbro version. Takara's just looked like plastic sex to me, but it was damn expensive right out of the gate and the secondary market went bonkers, too. Soon it was regularly selling for $125+ on ebay, and sold out at all the retailers. And even though I tried to bid on some here and there over the years, I never won one and I relegated myself to never owning it.

I bought, amassed and sold fairly massive collections a few times between 2005-2013, when I finally got out all the way. I didn't collect again at all until 2016 when I randomly picked up the CW Combaticons and Motormaster at Target on sale. And I was hooked again.

By this time I was divorced, my kids were all almost grown and out of the house, and I had a great job so I built another sizeable CHUG collection very rapidly.

And then I got cancer. I sold everything again just to keep up on medical bills.

After I beat cancer, I sold my company in 2018 and went to work for one of our partners for a couple years before getting laid off in May 2020 due to covid, but I got a fat severance package so I could afford to wait to find a new job and could still live very comfortably.

And then one day just scrolling through eBay, I found it. Takara TV Magazine Exclusive Micron Legend Black Convoy. It was new in box. It was from a US seller. The auction was ending in a couple of minutes AND I finally had the money. The price was still ridiculously low so I put in a high bid, fully expecting to just raise the price astronomically or be simply outbid. But no! Luck was with me that day and I scored the figure for a ridiculously low price that I'm still shocked by today.

And now, I have that figure. It was a crazy journey to obtain it (to me anyway) but I am simply overjoyed to have it in my collection after all these years. I can't see selling it, even if I get rid of everything else because it signifies quite a bit to me. It reminds me of good times, bad times and everything in between because of how much my life changed over all those years I spent ogling it on the internet.

Thank you for attending my TEDTalk.

 

Welcome to the boards!

For me it's got to be MMC Perfection Series All-Built-In PS-16 Volatus!

It's the first non-CHUG figure I received as a gift from my brother-in-law, and after I joined these boards I picked it for my forum name.

 

Very recent but probably Legacy Override. Never had the original as a kid even though character was a favorite of mine in the show, so it's a very weird but also great feeling of having a new, uncompromised, update of the character specifically made for folks like me (it's one of the only figures in my collection I own two versions of). I imagine it's similar to what G1ers felt when Hasbro started doing G1 updates in the early 2000s with stuff like Classics.

 

I'd have to say G1 Jetfire.. loved Robotech Macross and it was simply amazing to see a VF fighter at all and under the TFs line. I was deathly poor at the time and couldn't afford it, and it was sold out everywhere anyways. Then I went to a Zellers that I seldom go across town and out of the blue there was one on liquidation for 20$, which was pretty much all I had and could spare... it had a broken wing but otherwise nothing missing. I glued it up with super glue and it's held since then as whatever was in that glue really must have melted and bonded the plastic perfectly. The box was a bit damaged, but since I've had it it was one of the only "pearls" of my collection that I was able to hold on to.

Sadly, my ex took it out at one point and gave it to the kids (toddlers at the time) one day for no other other reason than do something nasty and the gun clip (of course) was lost but at least nothing broken.

Between a lot rough times during so many years, it was a figure that I'd rarely take out to play but each time I did, it was my temporary escape as it held the status of being one of my ultimate Holy Grails that I had somehow managed to get and somehow managed to hold on to as I had lost (borrowed/stolen or "disappeared") so much of my collection through the years.

And when I had it stored away, Hooligan (G2 cyberjet) was my go-to, small in hand mini VF fighter that I could fiddle with anytime and such.

Since then, I found a "rescue" that was missing the arms/leg armour and gun (which I got a replacement for as he needed at least a gun) that is at my desk along with a chunky monkey reissue I found at an event, and amassed a bunch of various Jetfires, including the Cyberjet "R-blade" one, giving my Hooligan a well deserved retirement.  

 

Micromaster Highjump, a KO version of it   bought with own pocket money, play the heck out of it,
eventually it was lost. Got a few other KO micromaster as well, the starting of my own collection.

Came 2019 and I see Siege Highjump released, bought two. Then the old KO Highjump came was found back  
Also managed to score original 4-pack Micromaster Highjump.

 

Micromaster Devastator - I bought all of them invidually when I first met my wife. I was unemployed & homeless at the time, and could just about afford £1.99 a time for them. I've bought many more since then, but that's always been a bit special

And though it's not here yet, Victory Saber. When I decided to get him last year I'd just been diagnosed with cancer and genuinely had no idea if I'd be around see him released, but going in for him was my big 'fuck you' to cancer, stupid as it sounds. One year on and, well, I still have cancer, but I'm still here and he'll be arriving a couple of weeks before I have surgery. Here's hoping I can write another one of these about Deathsaurus next year!

 

For me, it would have to be Thrilling 30 Springer. It was the first modern figure I bought in 2014 when I decided to start collecting. Had he been garbage, I probably would have stopped there. But he was and is fantastic, so onward I went! So for that reason, he will always be part of the collection.

 

I have 2 special figures.

Armada Unicron. Bought by my then girlfriend in 2006. I mentioned I didn't have one and she, knowing zilch of toys and transformers, found and purchased one for me. We were dating 6 months at the time. Married 15 years now.

The Second one is just a personal grail that took forever to find. Beast Wars Neo Elphaorpha. Years hunting for that figure.

 

Carnifex

Because look at that marvelous grin

 

To some extent, Encore Fort Max. $400+ was a shit ton of money for me then, especially on just one item no matter the size … and then I got a new, much better paying job (that I still have today), that meant it was well within my grasp.

So it was a long time grail and when I feel like I finally got my life on track after a few disappointing and lackluster career years.

 

My MIB Reissue Star Convoy. I had known about it but at the time couldn't afford it on my own in time due to other fiscal priorities. Well bless my mother, she got it for my birthday that year being the Optimus fan that I am.

 

These little guys, my childhood “Knock Out” and “Huffer”, I thought they were transformers when I got them with my dad’s G1 collection (Wheeljack, Windcharger, Ramjet, Scooter, and Cop Tur) but these are the only survivors.