37, the better part of my childhood was spent asking my parents and grandparents for transformers, especially at x-mas. Stopped when I was 11 or so. Managed to catch MP-01 when it originally came out but refused to go all in on the MP series when I saw MP-05, which is nothing but a bigger version of that pos I had when I was kid. Once I saw MP-36 was coming, the gas pedal got stomped through the floorboard, 15 MP figures (Takara/Fans Toys) in the last 6 weeks, 5 more on the way. First 3rd party figure was FT-18 Lupus and it has successfully hooked me into the 3rd party scene.

 

I'm two weeks shy of 37. My first TF was G1 Sideswipe, but my dad getting laid off meant he was one of the very few season 1 and 2 toys I had that wasn't a minibot. I was very into the cartoon, though; we taped the cartoon when it was on before school, and I watched that tape so much I wore it out. I had TPBs of the early Marvel comics, too. Shockwave kicking Megatron's ass and taking over the Decepticons was mind-blowing to my young self, but I lost interest when they did goofy stories like Ratbat's carwash and the Throttlebots having their brains stuck in RC cars.

When I grew out of toys I just gave my collection to one of my cousins. No one expected at the time that they'd be collector's items.

I myself didn't get back into any sort of collecting until the first wave of Classics, which hit my nostalgia button pretty hard. My first 3P purchase was Mania King, a figure I felt corrected a serious issue with Hasbro's releases at the time. CHUGs we're still my jam until Combiner Wars, though. I loved Predaking and bought Feral Rex to fill what I saw as a gap in my collection. The difference between a $15 Hasbro toy and a $100 3P toy, though, was so impressive to me, and since I'm at a position in my life where I can afford to pay more for better quality, I actually swore off CHUGs and have been systematically rebuilding my collection. Right now it's almost entirely 3P with just a smattering of MP cars, and the bulk of the 3P stuff is combiners.