I remember thinking I could never pay that much for one figure back when I was looking for a Springer and Warbot Defender was the best option. hahahahahahahahahahahaaaa.

First purchase was Perfect Effect Reflector. Fansproject Warbot Defender came some time after.

 

Pretty sure it was around when City Commander got announced, but I passed on him because 3p were relatively pricy compared to official TFs back then.

 

I was already sort of a casual toy collector, picking up lego sets and action figures I liked, then about a little over a year ago I was scrolling through YouTube and for some reason it suggested Michael Mercys 9 days of Devastation videos about CW Devastator with the Perfect Effect perfect combiner add on kits and my mind was blown. Coolest shit I had ever seen. Then YouTube suggested Bobby Skullface videos and I watched them all. Now I can't stop buying this crap.

 

Might have been ToyWorld's Hardhead, FansToys' Quakewave or FansProject Stunticons.

 

Here on this site.

 

When I saw threads on a certain image board about Maketoys Giant and TFC Hercules. People were teasing it until the pre-order came up on BBTS, but FP Code was the first 3rd party figure that arrive though.

 

2008's City Commander. I LOVE G1 ultra magnus design, but options for a good classics sized Magnus were 0. Once is saw the kit, I was hooked and never looked back. 3rd party combines have been a especially great joy.

I personally appreciate all the hard work and motivation these groups put in at the beginning. I really believe these groups pushed HasTak to come harder, especially when I look at all the larger, obscure characters HasTak has made since then. Looking at all the options you have for characters a mere 12 years later, it's been nothing but a joy to see some of my child hood dreams.

 

When did Fansproject make the Ultra Magnus and Rodimus add ons? It was around then, but the MP line as we know it wasn't out.

I kinda watched from afar then forgot about it. Then I stumbled upon FT's Dinobots one day and 3P Transformers were back on my radar, shortly after that Toy Dojo opened up about 15 minutes from me. First official 3P purchase was Quakeblast from Eddie.

All down hill from there.

 

Yup yup! Had to hunt down the White Ultra Magus to get the city commander set

 

Was seriously collecting since 98/99 (Beast Wars and on, nostalgia trip for theng1 stuff I grew up with).

So I was buying the new US releases with G1 homages.. the classics line and there were upgrade kits coming out to make figures, like Cliffjumper and the Cybertron Defense Hotshot repaint (Roadbuster) more accurate. Had some of that stuff.

Most of us were disappointed in Classics Ultra Magnus just being a white prime. Then Fansproject made the City Commander upgrade armor. I preordered and had the first release.

Then, when Fanslroject made their Springer.... that was it. Companieanstarted to make fully 3p figures and I was in.

 

in 2013 I had moved to Florida for school and I was feeling lousy from the experience, so when I was in a pharmacy I bought a cheap TFP Optimus figure looking for something to amuse myself with, having not had any experiences with Transformers toys since Armada.

I began looking up things that had been released during my time away from Transformers, and I stumbled upon Mitchsantona's reviews of iGear Weapons Specialist and Medical Specialist. After that I ended up reading more and more, until I made my first third party purchase of the Boosticus upgrade kit, and things only got bigger from there.

 

I've always had my eyes on toy sites since my early days of the internet (actionace.com RIP) I remember seeing cool MP transformers stuff years ago and thinking, "These prices are crazy! I'll never be able to get into those" Times have changed lol.

The 1st time I started thinking, "yeah, let's try it out" was seeing Fanstoys Quietus. Not too long ago, but I was hooked. I now have 32 MP scale 3P figures along with 8 TT MPs and 6 KOs. Plus my small collection of original G1s

To date, my personal favorite is Fanstoys Dracula. However Quietus, of which I have both versions, is #2. If I looked at them all objectively, I'd have to say I feel Fanstoys Quietus is the best 3P figure out there to date.

 

2017. Came here for the comics section, discovered toy robots, decided to treat myself to -one-. Chose MMC Tyrantron, the equivalent of going straight to the hard drugs first. Am now doomed.

 

2011 - Found out about TFC Toys's Devastator, really wanted it but was still in early highschool so no money.
2016 - Bought my first 3rd party combiner team, TFC Toys's Liokaiser.

 

I had just gotten into TFs again as an adult in late 2018 and saw the unpainted prototype of Civil Warrior's General Grant somewhere, Twitter I think. It was so amazing and cool that I had to look into the nature of it more - Hence 3rd party.

 

City Commander in 2008 is where I remember it being a thing... I likely bought the odd resin weapon or a trailer adaptor and such before that but I don't really recall now, The City Commander Kit seems to be when the Flood Gates opened.

To Be honest I don't actually remember what my first full 3rd party figure was though (not an upgrade)

 

Hmmm. Not entirely sure, as it was a sort of gradual thing.

I became aware of masterpiece some time over ten years ago. Not really sure how, as I had had no real interest in the toys since the early 90s. Thought it was an interesting idea, but still not what I'd always wanted and too expensive.

At some point in the last decade or so I idly looked up the toys again (this would have been because of IDW's comics), and some of the results were not from Hasbro. Interesting... Looked much better, but the prices... and it still wasn't what I really wanted (and too big). Still, the concept lodged in the back of my mind.

At some point I became aware of legends scale toys. Didn't really grab me because there wasn't much yet.

Then in November 2018 I looked into it yet again, and worked out just how many legends scale toys there were at that point. Wow. And they actually now looked like what I'd always wanted! And that was that.

 

i bought walmart mp03 mp starscream in 2010 after seing a friends mp screamer and mp prime which sparked my interest so had a look online for tf forums found the energon pub didn't really like it there and found here the same week and it all went downhill from there   i joined just at the right time when third party figures were really starting to take off   the fanstoys bugs and tfc contructicons were my first 3rd party figures although i don't own them anymore they are what got me really excited for transformers again with the hype this forum had for them , those and of course as already said mp03 and also bought mp01 ( last shot release ) around the same time

 

I became aware of them here on tfw2005 and seibertron, around 2008, when City Commander was out, but was not very interested. After buying some G1 reissues and Armada Unicron, my first modern figures were MP01 and MP05, and it should have finished there, I liked MP03 and MP08 but they were too small for them, and chugs were not G1ish enough to my taste.

Then they started to release a lot of cool stuff in 2010: Warbot Defender, 3P Arcees... and iGear Faith Leader PP01 showed itself (mini MP01), and I thought it could be the link to mix the smaller MPs and the most G1ish chugs, so it was my first 3P figure and the beginning of a rabbit hole...

Now they're kept and I display official and 3P MPS, but today Facebook has reminded me that 7 years ago I was proud of that collection, and I've felt I kind of miss those toys.

You're merging Impossible Toys TRNS-01-Valkyrie and iGear MGT-01 Delicate Warrior, which were released around the same time.

 

April 2019. Was browsing aliexpress and stumbled across Jin Bao Devastator. Wasn't even into collecting anything but thought that was awesome.
Did some more browsing and discovered the whole third party world.
Was just going to get a MP sized Optimus, Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream, but now have 66 figures. Crazy.