Hi all,

After the good reception I received for the collectors' partner interviews a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make further use of the community this week for TFSource blog's weekly articles. I've asked a number of long-time and prominent collectors in their field to offer up one rare/obscure/surprising toy from their areas of interest and talk a little about it. The hope is that these knowledgeable collectors will highlight to the wider community some of the more unknown difficult toys from various sub-categories of TF collecting.

The first part in the series concentrates more on production Transformers from various countries, and I would like to thank Mijo, Jon Krause, Martin Lund, Heroic Decepticon, Eddie Renzulli III and Marco Salerno for their fantastic contributions and for sharing their passion and knowledge.

Enjoy!

In Their Own Words – Part 1 | TF Source News <- CLICK TO READ



All the best
Maz

interesting but it got better towards the end with rarer toys and not just toys that are rare because its a package variant.

Well it depends on what you collect. If like the collectors featured you've been around for some time and are done actually finding the toys/moulds/recolours themselves, it's very possible for someone to start focusing on their own country's history of releases. I've started collecting UK gold boxed classics for example

All the best
Maz

Excellent article, but, man, am I incredulous towards AFA stuff. I consider it totally artificial price inflation and it feels like it's now created a sort of artificial rarity to boot.

Also, seeing that Doubleclouder really makes me want to see it side-by-side with the Taiwanese Tercel Metamorphs bootleg from the '80s, which is mostly the same but the dominant color is either white or olive drab.

I'm also curious to know what year Brandon Yap got D-319 Guzzle, since I was beaten in an auction (darn you, bad timing!) for one in exactly the same condition a while back.

I've always wanted a Doubleclouder.

He looks great.

Another awesome article Maz.

Agreed. I really do not like AFA.

2010, but in a set of six from a shop in Hong Kong; http://heroicdecepticon.blogspot.co.uk/201...zle-sizzle.html.

I was completely unaware of Guzzle's existance, even with owning a copy of Generations. I certainly hadn't appreciated the name issue. How interesting.

I'm certainly not a fan of the AFA and in private with my friends have always criticised their influence in the hobby and disagreed with people like Curt who would take figures and grade them for purposes that I understood, but didn't truly agree with. Grading loose toys was really ridiculous in my opinion.

However for the purposes of the article, after clearly rubbing some the wrong way by using my position in being able to publish my thoughts and feelings through a medium that reaches a significant number of collectors through TFSource to express how I felt about hoarders, I just felt it better to stick to the facts, show more respect for the contributors' preferences and let the reader decide how they felt about the whole thing

I would love to have a completely separate private blog where I rant and rave about what grinds my gears in the hobby, but clearly as shown here a few weeks ago, TFSource blog is not the place to do it.

All the best
Maz

I think that's fair enough. It's an article about what a group of other people consider interesting. Some of them seem dull choices to me, but some were gems.

Phazer

I didn't realize Guzzle was supposed to be particularly rare. I'd think fewer US collectors would have Sizzle, considering you'd have to be stupid enough to pay many times the cost of a Flamefeather to get one.

(I have one, of course. Curse of the Firecons.)

(Firecons used to be a lot cheaper.)

(Also how sucky is it that pretty much all my Sparkstalkers yellowed despite lack of exposure to light?)

(Pretty sucky.)

Hah, okay. I was fighting someone on Yahoo Japan for one in January of 2011, so I wondered if it was him. I've wanted a guzzle since I saw one on PrimeSaber's site years and years ago, because nothing is cooler than a tiny firebreathing Transformer Godzilla to fight my existing American Firecon kaiju.


It's probably the best approach. As for the hoarder thing, troop builder collectors don't like it being pointed out that there's not much difference between that and hoarding. And they're vocal about it.

What, did I miss drama on the internets?

I'm not sure if we're referring to the same thing, but I disappointed a few readers with my attempt to discuss a few of the kinds of collectors that populate the G1 fandom. They gave strong feedback, I made excuses

All the best
Maz

And here's Part 2 of the "In Their Own Words" series, again featuring some really fantastic contributions from the likes of Hydra, Ras, Paul Hitchens , Morgan Evans, Might Gaine and Arkvander.

We move a little away from standard G1 Transformers toys and explore some more recent stuff and even peripheral TF products. Enjoy!

In Their Own Words – Part 2 | TF Source News <- CLICK TO READ






All the best
Maz

That Star/Lord KO has taunted me for years. I haven't even read the article yet, but, just... AAAAARRRGGGGGHHHH.

EDIT: Should've read first. Kmart Legends Bumblebee and Jazz were sold with their weapons swapped? Huh.

Yup. It was a surprise to me years and years ago when I got Legends Jazz and Pretender Bumblebee and they had the same gun.

Also, any chance of Hydra taking a picture of the Microns with something bright and colorful beside to illustrate that those pictures aren't in grayscale? That team always looks like someone just turned off the color.

So Scorpia actually replaced "Takara Kronoform" with "Transformers Generation 2". Interesting.

That seals the one I have as being the Kronoform watch then, which I assume is in much less demand than the Generation 2 watch.

ah the destruction team.....I've owned 2/3rds of the set and the set, plus sold off a set. ( still only one full set have i owned)

Took me 7 years to grab a complete set for 500. Sold it for 550 i think. I dont know if i would have gone with those being the rarest, granted they are basically the rarest set. I might have gone with Runner-up Lucky draw minicon Emergency team set. I haven't even SEEN the other ones, and only own the makeshift version out of dumb luck. ( paid like 50 for it)

I havent even seen pictures of this set all together either. I just know they exist and only Hydra and Duce are the only other two i know of seeking them.

But i understand why you would go with these. They are uber hard to find and well least you can get all three together in a picture.

I would agree that the Runner-up Lucky Draw Hazard team (Emergency team) is probably more rare. I own the Makeshift of the set, I have seen Kingbolt in one picture outside of the magazine they were featured in.

Also another elusive Minicon would be Dragonyell, that little guy fetches a hafty price.

moving beyond that the UK 8 pack was pretty limited, as well as the UK sweets recolors/retools of the Kmart 12 pack are very hard to find.

Just my 2 cents.

Greg

Actually, the article specifically excluded lucky draw or unreleased toys. In the text, I also describe it as the rarest among generally released Microns (as in, purchased items). I'd say that's definitely the case.

-Hydra

Everyone who contributed picked good choices--nice variety, too! Didn't know KO Mega had boobs

Sadly some lucky draw are less rare than some of these toys....

Oh I totally missed that Hydra. Totally my bad. Yes the destruction team would definitely be the most rare.

Ignore my previous post.

Greg

I think Takara definitely needs to correct this if they ever do a reissue. I mean, she is a woman!

I've been hugely thrilled with the contributions over the last 2 weeks, absolutely everyone suprised me with their choices and they needed virtually no input from me on photography or written content, so it's a bit silly for me to take any credit for these if you feel they turned out well.

Just on a related note, I found the UK Minicon recolours packaged with sweets one of the most enjoyable (and tasty) things to collect in memory! I even managed to get a sealed box of 10 direct from a retailer which most supermarkets and petrol stations always ripped open and dispensed with to display the toys...



The above sets were all spares, I didn't find it too taxing to get a complete set. I certainly would not have included it among the kind of things in the last 2 articles.

All the best
Maz

Does anyone have any pictures of the opened and assembled Takara 7 kits? Especiallty Brawn and Reflector.

Phazer

Maz has the Brawn and Windcharger set covered on his site.

And a very old little piece on the Micro Change Series Microx kit here:
http://www.tf-1.com/articles/pretf_frame.php?art=microx

Not hugely helpful though as it was written long before I knew the true nature of the kit configuration or anything about Microx/Reflector moulding changes. My Joustra Caméra Robot article would be a better reference for that.

All the best
Maz

Part 3!

In Their Own Words – Part 3 | TF Source News <- CLICK TO READ!



All the best
Maz

seriously i'd think about continuing, this is some awesome stuff.

The price on that pre-Omega Supreme, I can't... just... Wow.

Part 5, Lucky Draw edition:

http://tfsource.com/blog/in-their-own-words-part-5/ <- CLICK TO READ



All the best
Maz

Jesus Christ. 3500 dollars for Green Unicron. Granted, if I'm reading the prose correctly, Gold MP Convoy came with it. But still. My body would rebel and stop me from paying that much for anything.

These guys are hardcore.

It's a little vague, but it's gotta be just for Green Unicron. For the two together would be a ridiculous steal.

Some of these items really don't "fit" on a list like this.

I mean, if you're a fan of Doubleclouder, congratulations for getting a MIB Doubleclouder. But it's not an extremely rare item even by foreign-toy standards. I've seen several of them at every Botcon I've ever been to. It was produced in the high tens or even hundreds of thousands just like Phoenix and Blood and God Ginrai. It'll cost you some money, but you WILL find it - sort of like Soundblaster a decade ago. Same thing for K-Mart Legends.

They're simply not in the same league as Only Known Specimen Weird Second-Box Pre-Omega-Supreme or One Of Five Trasformer Ciclones.

Both of which I'm hugging drooling over.

I don't really have anything anywhere near this caliber, myself. The closest I came was in finding on eBay a specimen of the unreleased 1987 Super Hybrid Model Galvatron about 11 years ago... and then not bidding on it. The guy who did buy it is a poster here and there was a thread about it not too long ago.

I also held Lucky Draw Superlink Black Galvatron in my hands for a long, long time, while having the cash in my pocket to pay for it. It would have been an entire months' rent, but I could have spent it. Agonized over it for a long, long time... and left it there. I admit, I regretted it for years. Once I started a family I didn't regret it anymore, as I'd have felt like an bunghole in retrospect having spent that much money on any toy.

make that 9 that are left........

The rarest thing I've come across was a Lucky Draw gold King Exkaiser. It was actually a pretty good price, but I passed on it. I don't care how rare something is. If I can't touch it, it doesn't belong in my collection.

Because that makes it so much easier to swallow. 3500 as a steal.

(Note: No disrespect to the collector. Like I said. Hardcore)

3500 for just Unicron isnt a steal. Thats about average. There has been Two Unicrons for sale as of late. One went for 3000 and the other was set at 5 grand and never sold. ( which was on ebay )

Now if it was 3500 for both ( which i dont think it was) then yes that was a steal.

There's one sitting in Mandarake Nakano right now for about $7500. Not happening...

Hahahaha. I love that guy.

Hmm, you misunderstand me. Prices like that really put things in perspective. Here we are complaining about Deluxe and Cyberverse price hikes, when there's rare 3500 dollar Transformers out there. I keep the hobby within a specific budget that is definitely many, many times less than 3500 total.

Mind you i havent been watching Japan yahoo and such for these things for awhile now, but last one i saw on there went for roughly 3000. for 7500 its just going to sit there for a long time. Its not worth 7500.

Although if people knew one was basically destroyed then the price might go up a little.

I agree with Hydra, $7500 is too much. Most of the LDs that I own have been in the 600-1300 range