My nephew is three, and when he was born I bought him Rescue bots Optimus Prime. He's always liked it, but this past July his dad, my brother, started showing him the rescue bots cartoon. He loves it, and Optimus became his favorite toy. For his birthday last month, I got him the griffin rock rescue team and Bumblebee. He loves them all, but is particularly fond of Chase. But today I received bad news: Optimus's leg broke off, and my nephew is so upset. My brother threw out the toy, hoping my nephew will forget about it. So sad though. Have any of you lost a beloved toy?
Parents always seemed so cold-hearted towards toys. They don't realize that us toddlers and children bonded to our toys as if they were our siblings or littermates. I think it's your duty as a Transformers Uncle to hurry up and buy a replacement toy. If possible, retrieve the thrown out original and just replace the broken part so it's as original as possible.
It did kind of irk me that my brother just threw it out, because it was sentimental to me as well. But I did buy two of them at the time, so I'm considering giving him my spare.* I have the bigger rescue bots prime with trailer as well, so I wouldn't miss it. *No, I'm not being cold hearted and considering denying my nephew an OP just because I want it. What I'm considering is "should I give him mine, or buy him that rescuebots optimus prime racing rig with blur?"
Oh, here I thought you had him watch the original movie. Rescue Bots are plentiful at Walmart and TrU and such. Grab him another if you like. I'm kinda surprised he got broken, for being so cheap, the RB line is pretty sturdy. And hey, I've tossed out broken toys sometimes. My daughter was quite rough on her toys when she was younger and absolutely thrashed dinobot Scorn. By the time she was through with that poor beastie, he was nothing but a head, spine, tail and sail. He had to go and I refused to buy a new one after his legs could no longer be put back on, because she was warned repeatedly to take care better of him. Poor Scorn. He was so cool. Made a kick ass snake beast for a while though.
I was a bit lucky, if one of my favorites wore out, I did get some replacements. Turbo from Go-bots was one of my go to "transforming" toys since I mixed Go-bots and Transformers as a kid, I wore it out and it did fall apart. I got a new one, I want to say for Easter that year. I also got a replacement for Super Powers Superman, since I really wore him out; the S was mostly gone, the hair on the head was mostly flesh colored, the cape lost the yellow S and the stitching had come out, the toes of the boots wore down and his fists lost some of their flesh coloring as well. His hip also cracked from repeated use of his super punch. I don't remember why, but at some point I got another and was told to "keep him indoors" so he wouldn't get worn out like the first one. Not every figure got that treatment, not by a long shot, but those two did. If it's his beloved toy, I'd look at Amazon or other places and look towards replacing it. Sure it won't be the same, but it will be treasured very quickly.
I've had toys break on me all the time when I was younger. My old Movie Legends Allspark Battles sets, '70's Camaro Bumblebee, 08 Camaro Bumblebee, Movie FAB Fireblast Optimus Prime, Movie Payload, the Movie Legacy of Bumblebee set, Animated Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime, Animated Activators Bumblebee, Grimlock, Optimus Prime, and Megatron, ROTF Deluxe Bumblebee, ROTF Battlefield Bumblebee VS Infiltration Soundwave, ROTF The Fallen, ROTF Voyager Optimus Prime, ROTF Leader Optimus Prime, HFTD Battle Blade Bumblebee, DOTM Armor Topspin, and my first DOTM Voyager Optimus Prime are all one with the plastic Matrix now. I'm sorry for his loss. I hope you're able to find a suitable replacement for your nephew.
I held on to my toys for dear life, even broken. I retaped g1 Mirage at the waist so many times it's not even funny. If I break something I knew I wasn't getting another one (something I wish my own kids took more seriously).