Revival!, What toys brought you back? Options

[Xero Prime]

I grew up G-1, I love Beastwars. But there are times that my passion for Transformers fails. Nearly dies even. Sometimes its the toys, sometimes its the media. Sometimes something else, but every time I say I'm done, they have that perfect answer.

When I saw the Binaltech Smokescreen I was blown away.. Two, three pics from a Japanese toyshow and I was back. Same with the classic seeker mold, the designer just got it so right. I couldn't help myself, I wanted the whole line.

So what toys restored your faith? What made you a devoted fan again?

X

[DINOBOT SLUDGE]

Generation 2 Snarl. The gray one, of course.

[lightsyder]

Alt smokescreen brought me back to the toyline

[Strafe]

Found on clearance at KB Toys, Machine Wars Prowl and Megaplex nudged the snowball down the hill. Transmetal 2 Prowl and Depthcharge attached jet boosters to it.

[Internet Jesus]

TM Megatron. I actually had Silverbolt before him, but Megs sold me on getting me into collecting.

Sadly, he suffered from bronze swirly, but he lives on in this custom's head:

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/crimson_dawn/bcmegs-1.jpg)

[NICKSAUR]

TM Megatron. I actually had Silverbolt before him, but Megs sold me on getting me into collecting.

Sadly, he suffered from bronze swirly, but he lives on in this custom's head:

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/crimson_dawn/bcmegs-1.jpg)

Beautiful. For a busted toy, his legacy is persevering incredibly.

[Blindmouse]

Transmetal Cheetor.

I was really impressed with how much Transformers had come along.

[Sean Whitmore]

I was done with, not just Transformers, but all toy collecting around the time the Beast Machines toys started.

What brought me back was Universe/Classics. I saw Prowl and Sunstreaker in a KB's and was hooked. As quaint as it seems now, the idea of large, fully-articulated, cartoon-accurate Transformers dragged me back into the life like someone shot a dose of toy-collecting-heroin into my eyeballs.

[The Doctor Who]

Alternators Ricochet and the Alternators line in general brought me back to collecting Transformers.

My main reason for loving Transformers (the toy line) was always the concept that they were real world vehicles that turned into robots. I could look outside my window and every car on the road, every plane in the sky, even the cassettes I listened to music on could, potentially be a Transformer. As a kid, this made my imagination run wild, making the everyday world seem, to coin a phrase: More than meets the eye.

Between Transmetal Beast Wars and the 'futuristic' vehicles in the Unicron Trilogy, I had lost much of my interest in the figures. It didn't help that some of the UT figures were just plain awful (in my opinion) due to the emphasis on spring-loaded and combination gimmicks.

But along came Alternators and it was glorious, although I didn't start collecting them till late in the run. I think it was actually Jazz that made me realize I should get one, but the first I ever bought was Ricochet(who I had never heard of at that point). It was a line of real world vehicles that did one thing: Transformed into robots. And that was all they did, but that's all I ever needed them to do.

Then classics came around and I was hopelessly swept up in the wave of nostalgia with all the old characters being brought back and the rest is history.

I started out with one Alternator and I have... a couple hundred (?) figures now, across Classics (and it's spinoffs), Animated, Movie, and Alternators lines (not to mention a couple Masterpieces and one Hybrid Style) and though I keep saying I need to stop, as I really don't have enough room for all these guys, I can't help but think that a few of the Prime figures look quite nice...

[electricidad]

Beast Wars. It came out when I was in college. I spent my RA money on booze and Fuzors.

[Esser-Z]

After RiD, I was a bit out of TF for a bit (as a kid, mind. I was born in 91). Armada Red Alert returned me to the fold.

[Gizmoboy]

I was a big collector back in the G1 days. Then I moved on to other things in the late 80's. Was really into GI Joe for a while. Then in the very early 90's, I stopped collecting toys all together. It took my brother-in-law in 1998 sitting in his living room watching this show called Beast Wars for me to say "What are you watching? Those things aren't Transformers. Let me show you what Transformers is supposed to be all about". We then proceeded to the local video store and found a copy of Transformer The Movie. We watched that and it all came rushing back to me. I remembered how much I loved Scourge and the Sweeps and the very next day I went on Ebay and found a Scourge for $25. And that is how I started down this dark path of Transformer Collecting.

Of course I came to love Beast Wars and subsequently Beast Machines.

[Octavius Prime]

^Hell yeah you did!

In February 2003 (my 2nd semester of college), I decided I had to get Armada Starscream. That lead to Blurr, Jetfire, and deluxe Optimus, which then quickly lead to a lot more Armada. I got into RiD at the beginning of the summer, mostly through eBay, but also finding some in stores still. 2003 was a good year to get in, because it had Unicron, the beginning of Energon, and the first Alternator.

[Donocropolis]

Heroes of Cybertron, as silly as that seems. I hadn't bought any action-figure-ish toys since I was a kid, but then I happened across a HoC display at Walgreens one day. I bought me a Thundercracker on a whim, a combination of heavy nostalgia for my favorite cartoon as a kid and the low price did me in. I liked it so much I went around looking for others to buy. After I had picked up what I could from my local area I decided to look into the internet to see what all was available. It was around that time that the first pictures of Alternators Smokescreen and Hound were starting to appear on the Transformers sites that Google had given me. I had to have, at minimum, a Hound as he had always been one of my favorites in my childhood. After not being able to find one for quite some time, I settled on buying a Smokescreen. After that, I was hooked for good.

[Rust]

I had G1 toys as a kid, picked up a fair amount of Beast Wars/Beast Machines merchandise then stopped for several years.

Getting Armada Unicron for Christmas from my Parents is what really brought me back into the fold.

[Nanite]

Duocons were the last Transformers I bought as a kid, then nothing until Cybertron Downshift.

No, wait, I had Micromasters too, and those didn't hit until 89. So nothing between micromasters and Downshift.

This post has been edited by Nanite: Jul 1 2011, 10:14 AM

[Blot]

Clearanced out ($25) Armada Unicron and a Buy one get one half price Smokescreen and Sideswipe alternators.

As much as I love my current (massive) collection, Nothing will ever recapture my wonderment at those three complex monsters. Keep in mind my last transformers when I was a kid were flipchangers, Sludge, and Broadside.

[1stStageMidboss]

I loved Beast Wars as a kid, but with Beast Machines and RiD not being shown on terrestrial television, I sort of lost interest in Transformers, though I did buy some Spychangers. The toys that got me back into TFs were Armada Smokescreen and the Air Assault Team, along with the Sea Team that my brother bought. I loved the whole Mini-con thing and generally really liked those toys (yes, I like Armada Smokescreen, if only for the nostalgia-ish-ness it has for me).

[The REAL Chopper...]

Animated brought me back in, I loved the angular deco, and the toys had finally reached the one thing I wished for as a kid, that the figures look show accurate

[DeltaSeeker]

TM Cheetor. I had previously picked up a G2 Cyberjet Jetfire on clearance at Kaybee Toys, but when I found TM Cheetor I had to get more. I haven't stopped since (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-waspy.gif)