Transformers??? Wanted for my 3.5 year old son.

[Joshchisox08]

Anyone collect Transformers of any kind? Post em if you do!!! I used to have a bunch when I was a little kid. The G1 figures that is as well as some of the micro ones. My son has started watching the early (original) 80s cartoons. He's pretty into it and we're on season 2 part 2 of the dvd box set put out by Rhino.

He likes Optimus, (of course) Bumble Bee, Wheeljack, and Grimlock and he knows Megatron as the only bad guy. I got him the newest Optimus Prime with the "rescue trailer" and Heatwave. His grandmother just got him Chase the police car. These are all characters from the new show Transformers Rescue Bots. But he asks to watch the older one way more. I want to try and get him some of the older toys. He likes and wants Grimlock.

There's literally 85,000 different kinds from the early 80s to present. Anyone with any general knowledge ?

[Tripredacus]

Originally Posted by Joshchisox08

There's literally 85,000 different kinds from the early 80s to present. Anyone with any general knowledge ?

Close! 13,706 is a closer number not counting mold revisions which a lot of people don't care about.

This is my favorite pic so far, but its a tad outdated by now.

[pawpawdiv9]

Back in my days, I wasn't too much for Transformers, but more into the ThunderCats.
YEP!! Ol Chi-tara or whatever it was pronounced. She was H-O-T hot.
While us folks were thumping our wood, you can have your Captain Planets.

[Joshchisox08]

Originally Posted by Tripredacus

Close! 13,706 is a closer number not counting mold revisions which a lot of people don't care about.

This is my favorite pic so far, but its a tad outdated by now.

Is that yours? I can make out quite a few Gen 1 characters on those shelves.

[steve B]

Impressive collection.

My nephew is into transformers, but more for playing. The new ones have some impressive engineering. I've been a mechanic of one sort or another for a long time and trained in CAD/CAM, and one of the bigger ones still took me around 20 minutes to figure out. Probably would have helped to know what it was supposed to turn into

One thing to recommend would be picking up extras/damaged ones at yard sales etc. One of his favorite ones came apart a bit and the head got lost. They had a very long week before they finally broke down and bought a replacement. Now there's a box of parts figures tucked away, far cheaper than replacing a couple of them.

Steve B

[Tripredacus]

Originally Posted by Joshchisox08

Is that yours? I can make out quite a few Gen 1 characters on those shelves.

Yes. That shelf (at that time) was all G1/G2 mold toys and later releases of same mold under other series. While that is my primary collection focus, I do actually have the Optimus Prime your son is playing with in the pics you posted above. I did not see any pics when I replied.

Here is an example of a variation of original release Ratchet. The toy and instructions are the same as the regular 1985 release, but this particular one is the mailaway version. It comes with the white paper part on the right.


Here we can show an example of standard mold revisions. It is difficult to take pictures of these stamps, let alone more than 1. At first glance to my collection, a person would just see 3 of the same thing and wonder why. But here we can see there are 3 different toolings:


I currently focus on 80s toys and their mold-mates, mold revisions, artifacts (non-toy items), comics, books, videos and video games, and a few of the newer released ones. Everything else I've gathered over the years sits in bins.

Some exception would be more recent ones where a variation exists. Here is an example where at some point, Hasbro changes how the packaging was designed and changed it after being for sale. It was initially an un-noticed change, but once it was confirmed I knew I needed to have both types.


If you have any questions about them, or need help to identify something, feel free to ask.

[4815162342]

That is really cool, Trip. I've thought about going back and buying toys from my youth in the 80s. Transformers, He-Man, Thundercats, Ghostbusters, GI Joe, Domino Rally, Teddy Ruxpin, Casey, I could go on and on. My wife and I are expecting our first child, and I think it would be fun to show him/her what my childhood was like.

[Tripredacus]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

That is really cool, Trip. I've thought about going back and buying toys from my youth in the 80s. Transformers, He-Man, Thundercats, Ghostbusters, GI Joe, Domino Rally, Teddy Ruxpin, Casey, I could go on and on. My wife and I are expecting our first child, and I think it would be fun to show him/her what my childhood was like.

Finding those old items in good shape and with all the parts is often difficult and/or expensive. One thing I really like is old advertisements. Catalogs or cardbards for the toy series, old store catalogs like Sears or Brand Names, old advertisements. And then books like Tomart's Action Figures and Collectibles guides.

[benderbroeth]

and all i have are the original dinobots... photo to come.

[benderbroeth]

Here they are!!!