I don't make too many threads on TFW...but I figure this one will be good one. It's probably been asked to death before, so if it has, don't give me too much shit for it.

I'm 33 years old. I collected what TFs I could when I was a child. We didn't have a lot of money coming up, so the most I saw them was either my birthday or Christmas. My first Transformer was Red Alert. My last Transformer (since the 80's) was DoubleDealer. I had a kid as a friend who seemed to get ALL of the new ones, so I had to settle for playing with his toys whenever he came by when his parents were in town every few weeks.

I first "dropped" the hobby when I saw the hideous (IMHO) colors of G2. At that point, I pretty much lost interest thanks to that, and I just stopped purchasing them.

I began collecting again back when I saw MasterPiece Optimus Prime...and then the Transformers Alternators. Since the day Prime came out, I've started up again, and I've managed to amass the collection I couldn't afford to have as a kid.

So, (TF life-story aside), my questions are:

1.) Did you take a break or stop collecting TFs after G1/G2?
2.) If you did, what made you quit?
3.) How did you get back INTO the hobby?

Thanks for your time, and I look forward to seeing your answers.

- FX

 

I stopped after G2. It wasn't until I was at my friend's house and Beast Wars was on. He told me G1 was involved(season 3 obviously).That's what peaked my interests again. But it wasn't until Car Robots that got me buying again.

2 year ago, I sold off most of my collection. I had no intention of buying anymore. I got married, moved halfway across the country, my son was born, etc. Then Fansproject came out with the Powered Commander trailer. THOSE BASTARDS!!!! They got me buying again! It's a vicious cycle that will not end.

 

I never "collected" when I was a kid. Back then they were just toys I enjoyed playing with.
I really started my collection a few years ago when TRU released the reissues of Red Alert and Jazz.
This Christmas my collection really took off when I saw the Insecticons and Perceptor reissues at TRU. Now I've got 88 figures.

 

My 'break' began with Beast Wars. Not cos I disliked it, but because I was in middle school; too young to get a job, too old for parents to buy me toys. Plus they had a divorce around that time.

I came back during the tail end of RiD. For a while, I thought BM and RiD sucked, but I ended up changing my mind.

 

Same thing here. I saw Beast Wars, except it was in the morning during my senior year in school, or was it college, I can't remember, it was 95', and it used to come on early in the mornings. I was happy that it was a Transformers show, and began to watch it actively as the stories were really good despite the small cast...and I liked the idea that a Predacon joined the Maximals and had a friendly rivalry with RatTrap. You always wondered if Dinobot was up to something with his sinister nature, but he proved himself a true Maximal when he defended the Ark from invading Preds (if I remember it correctly). Awesome awesome show.

 

I'm 35 and we didn't have much money, so I took what I could get. I had at least one or two figures from each year toward the end, with most being from 84-87. When G2 started I was married and my wife got me the whole first wave of g1 characters for Christmas. After that it was pretty much new characters and I lost interest.

Then one day at K-Mart I saw the Optimus Primal vs Megatron two pack and got it. They were fun to tinker with, but they weren't "my" Transformers. I later discovered the Beast Wars cartoon and changed my opinion, but I didn't buy another toy until...

Armada. I cometely skipped RID in both cartoon and toys. Mostly because I was mad that they, for the first time, completely revolted continuity. So I just skipped it. Armada would have suffered the same fate, but the Mini-Con partners drew me in. I LOVED Head/Target/Powermasters because of the partner concept, and what started as a few figures here and there became a complete collection. The cartoon kinda sucked but I went with it. As much as people hate Armada toys, I still love most of them. And since I was a completist for Armada, Energon and Cybertron followed suit.

Classics became the next series I went complete with, and is still going...

I bought the movie toys when they first came out and was disappointed and sold most of them. I have a few Animated toys, but nothing complete. I just bought figures that appeal to me.

Today, I continue to pad my CHUG shelves with Generations and I buy HftD figures that interest me. Then we have the Power Core Combiners... The same thing that drew me in with Armada got me with them. Partners. So I'll be getting them all...

There's my story.

 

Thank you. I should have had the thread title as such. A majority of us didn't collect as kids. We just played with and enjoyed them.

Each CHUG is a dream come true for me. Simply put.

Classics Sideswipe. Henkei Sunstreaker. Red Alert. Hound. Cyclonus (that isn't a brick and looks like the cartoon model!). Now we're getting a Tracks and a Jazz?

As for the R.I.D. phase, I tried to get into it, as I purchased 3 toys...Sideburn, X-Brawn, and someone else, but I was ultimately unhappy with them, so I returned them without opening them. I hated that fact that 1/2 the car was hanging off of X-Brawn's arm. But that's just me, the designs weren't what I was expecting.

 

I started way back in the 80s with G1. Any periods I stopped for would have been because of availability issues in the UK before I had the net; other than that, I've never stopped collecting. I don't plan on stopping either.

 

I stopped with Beast Machines, and started again when Masterpeice and Alternators came out. Almost entirely skipped BM, RiD, Armada, Energon and Cybertron.

 

I started collecting in the Armada days, since that was the main series that got me interested in transformers (wasn't even alive during the 80's). I still don't have a lot of Armada figures, but of what I do have it's of the figures that count for me (Leader Optimus, original 2003 Unicron, and the obligatory Hot Shot).

When Energon came around, I thought the designs were off and that the show was nothing like my beloved Armada ("where were all the Mini-cons?" was a common thought for me). I picked up Strongarm simply because I like Jeeps, but that was about it. I was done with TF's.

Or at least until the live action movie came around. Seeing that first trailer brought back memories of the good 'ol Armada days and after digging out my old TF's from the basement, I was back into TF's. I'm still kicking myself for missing out on most of Energon (the Decepticons, anyway...), Cybertron, the TRU re-issues, Classics 1.0, and most of the Alternator run, all because of that stupid TV show, but I won't be making that mistake again.

 

I stopped around about 1996. I had no interest in beast wars, and I was growing out of playing with toys.

I still had an interest in transformers - but most of my limited cash in the intervening years went on computer games, alcohol and music.

Started buying them again in 2007, the new movie was out that had gotten me seriously loving transformers again, i'd just left uni and got a full time job - so i had the cash to buy them. Thought id get myself a Classics Prime to rest atop my TV. then another. and another.

Sometimes i feel like im trying to appease the inner child who could never own ever transformer. He never will, but I've gotten him pretty damn close.

 

First TF was Sideswipe. Got him in September of 84. It was my friends birthday and I bought him Hound but I saw that red Lambo and my mom bought it for me. I was 8. I then steadily amassed a collection from the 84-87. Kinda lost interest then but loved the TF's I had and would display them in my room. Jr. high and high school kind of put a damper on my collecting, but I did pick up stuff every so often. Always eyed the G2 figs but just never picked any up for some reason. Then one morning caught Beast Wars (middle of the 1st season) and that got me back in. Started buying up BW figures. Kept up with the hobby until Beast Machines, but those toys were just horrible looking compared to the show. Ended up selling all my toys in 03. Got back into it in 07 (TFA) and now have a rather sizeable collection of G1/BW/Henkei/Classics/Botcon/Animated/RID. And my wife hates it.

 

Im 35 and I really did not have many TFs as a kid. I was more into GI Joes since they were cheaper. My first Transformer as a kid was Jazz. I remember walking in with my mom into Service Merchandise in Texas and seeing these new cool ass toys that just blew my mind so she picked him out for me for like 10-15 dollars. Then for christmas that year I got Soundwave, Megatron and Optimus...damn that was an awesome christmas...lol. The only other Transformer that I got after that was Jetfire and a few mini bots but nothing more since gaming systems were becoming a bigger part of my life and I kind of just lost interest in them. I do remember getting a few gobots here and there as well but they were never as cool as TFs, I just wish I had more.

Fast forward to 2001 I was feeling a little lul in my life cause every Christmas at my wife's parents (she had 3 younger siblings) house they were always getting toys while I was getting clothes and underwear and shit. So I kind of complained that I would like toys too...lol.Yeah...it was pretty ghey but whatever..  . So the next year in 2002 She got me Power Master Prime Commemorative reissue. Once that happened and I saw that she did not mind the fact that I had toys...well the tide started to roll in with the release of Alternators/Binaltech. Then I picked up a few of the Energon that was out and intermittently a few of the Cybertron. My collection kind of blew up from there when I discovererd Ebay and realizing that I missed out on those cool ass TFC Collection book case style reissues and Masterpiece and I have been going strong ever since.

 

My first TFs were Beast Wars figures. I had the Optimus Primal/Megatron two pack and Dinobot (and I hunted like HELL for that Dinobot, whom I still have out on display). I stopped for a while, focusing my efforts on other toys (I was in middle school then). I stopped all together through most of high school but some time just before I finished I started collecting figures, like the McFarlane Toys figures.

It wasn't until the designs came out for the new movie that I started getting interested in the toys. I have a friend who was really into G1 and he loaned me the animated movie so I could get familiar. I sat through it but only out of pure, stubborn determination that it was BOUND to get better! It did give me enough of an appreciation for the characters that I could be legitimately excited for the movie figures and I picked them up on the day they were released.

I've been collecting ever since. I started JUST getting characters that appeared in the movie...then it expanded into the video game...now it is any original mold in deluxe, voyager and leader class with the occasional scout every now and then.

 

got my first figure in 86 i think, my parents decided that i had to sell my toys around when beast wars came out after a while i found a g1 trailbreaker at a comic shop, and was fiddling with it (got it for $6 pretty incomplete) and wondered why i had stopped, but wasn't until i saw mp prime and the alts that o started up again, i was hesitant to buy classics when i seen them on the shelf, especially mirage because he was so skinny, (after playing with him, that opinion has changed obviously) and i bought them up around the time the last shipment went out cliffjumper and ramjet were on the shelves, so i grabbed every one of them except the minicons, only one i had to get online was megatron

 

I stopped at G1, had no interest in Beast Wars or anything until the movies. Bay got me back.

 

Stopped after G1 and started again with RID and Alternators/Binal Tech. Skipped most of Armada and started again with Energon and have been steadily collecting since.

 

I was born in '81. So I had a lot of the G1 toys and they were my favorite. During the late 80's, my mother took a lot of my old toys including GI Joe, MUSCLE, and Battle Beasts and gave them away to kids in need. I wasn't really interested in them at the time but I was unaware this happened, I thought they were in storage. During the 90's when G2 came out, I started getting excited about them and found out my mother got rid of them all. I had started collecting baseball cards, then comics, then figures in the early 90's so I had the collecting bug.

I got all of the G2 figures, and started buying G1 figures at flea markets and yard sales. I made a huge score at a comic shop down the street and bought many G1 figures including a complete Fortress Maximus for around $200. This was before Ebay and the nostalgia explosion. After all was said and done, I had most of the G1 figures in my collection, a lot with boxes.

I ended up selling all of them to pay for my house down payment and some pinball machines for my rec room. I was losing the itch to collect them. Then it started up again with classics, and now I'm glad I did sell the G1 figures when I did because at the time the prices were at their peak. Now I get better detailed versions of the G1 characters I love with more articulation. Not to mention all the great 3rd party companies coming out with even better versions. I'll mix some G1 figures in the collection when I can, but now I don't mind if they are reissue or high quality knockoff.

As a side note I also collected the other Transformers incarnations such as RID and Beast Wars, but they didn't last long. It just wasn't the same for me. I'm an old school fan.

 

My last figures in G1 were Brainstorm and Highbrow. Then I started collecting again in college when G2 came out.

 

1.) Did you take a break or stop collecting TFs after G1/G2?

While I was only born in 1989, I did have a few G2s, and a few of my older brother's G1s that I enjoyed, but I was mostly into Power Rangers at the time. When Beast Wars came around, the Power Rangers were mostly obsolete haha. But eventually I stopped buying them.

2.) If you did, what made you quit?

Beast Machines kind of did it for me. Kind of. But I was also into other things, mostly Zoids, and that took most of my attention (and my parents money).

3.) How did you get back INTO the hobby?

When Armada was on, I became interested in that and the new He-Man cartoon, because at that point I was into anything that brought back an '80s cartoon. And while He-Man was good, it faded from my mind for the most part, but Transformers stayed. I began collecting again with Armada, and the left-over RID stuff (I wish I could still see the Commandos on shelves  ) I've been collecting to this day, and my collection is well over 500 at this point, but I'm working on an exact count.