Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Silver Wind wrote:Thanks for sharing your story, Seibertron. I always love getting to read up on backstories, whether it be Real Life or some fiction work.

I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Thanks for reading it!

you know honestly, the names aside those MC Donald's beast wars figures would actually do well design wise if they were upgraded to a voyager class toy, especailly the manta Ray, Beetle, and megatron croc.. those drawings really bring out the best in those designs, and man I would love to see a well done beetle, those extra legs coming off the arms are fantastic..!!!! Nice story Ryan, your a fan like no other, and I'm definately glad we have your dedication to the hobby.. your cool in my book, plus you tinker in the sketch department like me, though my Computer art, and coloring skills suck, but I'm pretty handy with the pencil and pen..

also if you follow my myspace link, it leads to my page and my real name, but you have to send me a message in order to get more info, i had a stalker ex girlfriend so i had to set it on private..

Seibertron wrote:

Spooner wrote:I had no idea you were from the Flint area - I've lived in and around Flint (Grand Blanc currently) since '95; we had probably crossed paths in the toy aisles more than once.

I grew up in Fenton and attended school in Linden (graduated in 1995). I moved to East Lansing in 1997, moved to Grand Rapids in 1998, then moved to Chicago in 2002 where I've lived ever since. I still make it back to that neck of the woods now and then. My Dad lives in the Milford area (he works as a car salesman at the Al Serra Auto Plaza) and the rest of my family lives in Holland, MI. My Grandma lives in Grand Blanc off Fenton Rd.

Cool. I moved here mainly because my wife's family is here, and this is where she wanted to stay. I'm from a backwater town in the SW corner of the state, went to U of M Ann Arbor, met her while working a summer at Cedar Point, finished school, got married, and the rest is history.

Oh, and I dig Transformers, too.

I used to own a lot of the first wave Beast Wars figures. Sadly, I either lost them or we gave them away. Stupid parents. Oh well, I still have several of them...but I'll always miss my Bat Primal and Gator-tron. And Terrorsaur...and Cheetor.

That was a really cool read! Impressive artwork as well!

Uhm, nice flash back, really nice, (reminds me of the transition between g2, and beast wars, and ironically enough your story of the bat primal and croc megs is indentical to mine, however I was like okay cool, a bat and alligator. ) But I was about 7 when beast wars came out, and I was psyched to see this after seeing g2 sadly end.

one problem though, the new story is mislabeled, panther and beetle are switched around above the picture of the toys.

Woo hoo! My Dad just sent me the photos of McDonald's and the Big Kmart in Fenton to go along with this article. Man, talk about a blast from the past for me! Heh heh. What a great Dad I have.

He also sent me this picture of the Transformers at the Big K. Looks like they got the Movie figures in today as well.

I have no money...I'm putting those protoforms on my credit card. YES! MY FIRST STEP INTO DEBT!

Head Shot wrote:Uhm, nice flash back, really nice, (reminds me of the transition between g2, and beast wars, and ironically enough your story of the bat primal and croc megs is indentical to mine, however I was like okay cool, a bat and alligator. ) But I was about 7 when beast wars came out, and I was psyched to see this after seeing g2 sadly end.

one problem though, the new story is mislabeled, panther and beetle are switched around above the picture of the toys.

I'm glad you liked the flashback, Head Shot. Thanks for pointing out that I had the text flipped for two of the galleries. I've updated the story to reflect this change.

http://www.seibertron.com/news/view.php?id=10200

GetterDragun wrote:That was a really cool read! Impressive artwork as well!

Thanks GetterDragun! And to think that it was my artwork that made me start this website 7 years ago. Funny how I never got around to using it to showcase my artwork like I had originally planned. Ah well ... I think I'm enjoying this route a lot more. One day I'll get back to drawing again!

cool to learn some background info.

Great read, Seibs. I had always wondered how sites like this get started, and now I know. Very cool.

Great Story! I had similar thoughts about the beast wars line at first as well. Somehow though I couldn't resist buying quite a few right from the beginning in 1995. The first beast wars figure I got was the bat Primal gator Megatron 2 pack. Today I find myself struggling to get those That I didn't buy initially.

Nice art.

D-340 wrote:Great read, Seibs. I had always wondered how sites like this get started, and now I know. Very cool.

Ah you know but a small part of the origin of Seibertron.com. The McDonald's Beast Wars story is what got me excited enough about Beast Wars to start Trans-Forum, my pre-Seibertron.com contribution(s) to the fandom. One day I'll tell you guys the actual story behind Seibertron.com though I don't think it's all that exciting.

I was 8 years old when those toys came to McDonalds and I still remember getting Manta Ray in my Happy Meal. Once I saw those, I had to get Dinobot and from there on, it was all about Beast Wars, but still, even though I wasn't around for G1, I still prefer them over the Beast Wars and still wanted Soundwave and Megatron the Gun as I called him.

BTW, those are really good drawings.

EDIT: I just picked up the preview TFs at my K-Mart haha, just thought that was interesting since you posted the pic of K-Mart with them hanging

So dude, Ryan, tell me 2 things:

One: What is the secret sauce?! Is it really thousand island?
Two: Why the hell was the arch deluxe bacon round?

On another note, that's a really cool story. Seriously.

Beast Wars was my first tf series. I still have all my original, most with their shiny paint still applied ( I don't really think this coating could be called chrome).
My first tfs were Laser Rod Prime and G2 Grimlock. Then I got the Bat Primal and gator Megs figures.
It seems so long ago now; and that's cos it is...

Thats amazing! I can tell nearly that same story.

I had a bunch of TFs as a kid and (foolishly) gave them away when I thought I outgrew them.

After I did that I got a couple Machine Wars planes who sadly fell to the dreaded Bic Lighter. Then I pretty much gave up on TFs also Thinking that was it, they where done.

When I got my first car I drove to a TRU o n a larf looking for some TFs and the clerks didn't even know what I was talking about. Leaving I stopped at a McDonalds and got a HappyMeal (being broke sucks) and in it I got the Rhino toy.

Not even knowing what Beast Wars was, I dubbed him Captain Crap, and he still holds that name and a place in my collection to this day.

Still, McDonalds does these toys to promote new stuff, so it dawned on me that there must be more out there. I went to a KBToys and found a BW Scorponok and bought him on site.

From there it spread!!!!

Shortly after I also found a Laser Prime(the KB by me still had many G2 and MW toys that I sadly didn't get). Then the hunt was on, Inferno, a show favorite of mine was next. Then I had a score at a flee market in PA, a guy selling his entire G1 collection for next to nothing.

I got the Devastator gift set, Scorponoc, Wreck-Garr, Grimlock, and a ton of little guys for $60 from a sad man who had his wife lording over him.

But from these beginings it just snowballed into me now having 2 rooms filled with over 4000 bots boxed, loose, and ever growing!

Very interesting read. I think its safe to say that most of us G1 diehards were actually pulled into adult collecting by BW. I've grown to accept (some of) the beasts, but I will always prefer the machines.

Amazing story I never collected the beast wars figure I always thought they were cool.

Looks like it's time for me to look for my Beetle-tron.

Godmodule wrote:So dude, Ryan, tell me 2 things:

One: What is the secret sauce?! Is it really thousand island?
Two: Why the hell was the arch deluxe bacon round?

On another note, that's a really cool story. Seriously.

That's a good question. It does taste a little different than thousand island dressing to me, but for the most I'd say it's the same.

As for the Arch Deluxe bacon being round instead of strips? I don't know. Ironically, I quit on the day that McDonald's rolled out the Arch Deluxe (May 9th, 1996). I hated our new store manager and wanted a new job. So I just walked out the next time she was a bitch to me. I had had enough after 2.5 years ... enough was enough.

Thank you for the story Seibertron. I really enjoyed it and the artwork. I never knew that McDonald's did a promo run of Beast Wars before the actual series came out. My family rarely ate out, and I didn't even know about Transformers.

By the way, thank you for the article link crazyfists. I always wondered about how my oldest sister's transforming french fries toy came to be. I've tried to locate it, but alas I think it is another casualty of our room.