The Energon Pub

Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:05 am

I am a huge fan of Transformers toys. However, having only gotten into them as recently as 2007, I look at them from an objective point of view. As such, I really don't like most pre-Cyberjet toys. They might have been great toys back in the 1980s, but to me, they look like museum pieces.

Please, please, please don't think I only like the movies. I read the comics, I watch the cartoons, I buy toys from all eras, even a few from G1. So don't crucify me for saying I wouldnt spend $100 on

News Credits: 16 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 11:18 am

If you're going to criticize G1 toys for being expensive museum pieces, then you could at least pick one that does regularly sell for $100, unlike that poor throttlebot who you're dragging through the mud. Poor fella'. Now, here's a good one to criticize: G1 Bludgeon. Now there's a toy that's insanely inflated in price and a total brick to boot.
Cheers

Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:03 pm

I'm an 80s kid and g1 was my life. As an adult I'm not so thrilled. Robot modes have gotten so much better. But nowadays they are so darn plasticy. So I wish we had old school die cast on new molds.

News Credits: 241 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 12:38 pm

SN95 Cobra R wrote:I'm an 80s kid and g1 was my life. As an adult I'm not so thrilled. Robot modes have gotten so much better. But nowadays they are so darn plasticy. So I wish we had old school die cast on new molds.

And have prices go through the roof and broken toys all over the place, are you kidding me? :shock:

News Credits: 402 · Updated Oct 21, 2022

I personally don't go for many of the G1 figs, the exception being some of the combiner figs who don't look too bad in combined mode.

Personally I prefer more articulation in my display.

Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:35 pm

And have prices go through the roof and broken toys all over the place, are you kidding me? :shock:

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I just sold my Soundwave on eBay for 45 dollars. I told them he has loose joints, so much so that he hardly stands up, and they still payed that much. Started at .99 cents.

News Credits: 3 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:36 pm

I've bought a few G1 reissues. Mostly for the nostalgia factor, and a few to own figures that I feel no collection would be complete without. I got G1 Prime, Megs, Soundwave, some tapes (Encore Cassette Big Mission 3) Starscream, a few of the Autobot cars, and a personal favourite of the bunch: God Ginrai. HE's a brick, a very expensive brick, but I wanted him all the same.
Overall, however, I'm by no means a G1 collector. There are a ton of G1 figs that given the choice between them and their newer more flexible Classics styled counterparts... well it's no contest. Give me something I can pose and take pictures of any damn day. There's a whole lotta nothing going on in those older 1980s era toys, I know. As a kid I owned most of them.
Transformers as a toyline has evolved and they're capable of doing some amazing things these days. I gotta give the G1 stuff credit for starting the ball rolling, but I prefer to look ahead instead of behind.

News Credits: 1235 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:51 pm

One thing those bricks of the 80's did do was spark the imagination of kids. It took a whole lot more imagination to play with those toys than I suspect it does today. Now get off my lawn you good for nothing kids.

News Credits: 226 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 2:07 pm

LOST Cybertronian wrote:One thing those bricks of the 80's did do was spark the imagination of kids. It took a whole lot more imagination to play with those toys than I suspect it does today. Now get off my lawn you good for nothing kids.

Same.

I actually like my bricks. They were simple, easy to play with, and triggered the imagination.

In the last few years I never liked the Animated aesthetic and the movie figures can be overly complicated to transform and not only that, look like a pile of plastic mashed together.

Am I willing to spend up to $100 on a G1 figure? Yes. Because that's what I want in my collection, and I take pride in my collection. I collect for myself, not the approval of others. So if spending $100 on a brick makes me happy then i'll spend $100 on a brick!

Tue Dec 14, 2010 2:08 pm

Even though the toys keep getting better and better every year there are a few G1 figures I would like to get. Particularly the city bots since they don't make anything like that these days. Unfortunately I don't want them enough to pay the outrageous prices for them.

News Credits: 129 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 2:08 pm

The Dude wrote:I am a huge fan of Transformers toys. However, having only gotten into them as recently as 2007, I look at them from an objective point of view. As such, I really don't like most pre-Cyberjet toys. They might have been great toys back in the 1980s, but to me, they look like museum pieces.

Please, please, please don't think I only like the movies. I read the comics, I watch the cartoons, I buy toys from all eras, even a few from G1. So don't crucify me for saying I wouldnt spend $100 on

I don't have a problem with your opinion, but showing a $5 G1 toy and saying you wouldn't spend $100 on it (like the rest of us would), is a big fat straw man.

Most G1 toys are in the range of $40-$100 and the reissues are all very reasonably priced for collectables.

I mean, you really need to know what you're talking about before you condemn the whole lot.

What would $100 get you in a G1 toy?

Either one of these guys:

Or this guy and some of his pals:

Double it and you can get this:

News Credits: 241 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 2:18 pm

SN95 Cobra R wrote:
JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:And have prices go through the roof and broken toys all over the place, are you kidding me?

I just sold my Soundwave on eBay for 45 dollars. I told them he has loose joints, so much so that he hardly stands up, and they still payed that much. Started at .99 cents.

But the bidders were probably all collectors. I don't think the kids or their parents would want to pay that.

News Credits: 33 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 2:23 pm

The thing with the G1 toys is this -

No Diaclone or Microchange toys = No Transformers.

They are the base for all that followed. True, engineering has come a long way since then, but modern toys still try and hold onto that original aesthetic whilst giving things a modern twist.

I happen to like the Diaclone\Microchange figures, personally - their greek\roman classical faces with the odd splash of samurai\knight combined with the slighty awkward humanoid proportions really gives them an alien look, and having some of the kibble hanging off enforces the idea they're robots in disguise as opposed to cars that turn into robots (which is where I felt that the modern movies made their design error).

On the front of paying $100. Brushing the fact you've used Wideload (one of the cheapest G1s) aside - I think that for a notoriously delicate toy that has survived 25-odd years, retained all its accessories and its box (because $100 puts us squarely in the MIB territory) that $100 is a fair price and I have personally spent double that on some purchases.

You are of course, entitled to your opinion.

*edit* I should proof read my stuff fist.

News Credits: 226 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 2:25 pm

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
SN95 Cobra R wrote:
JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:And have prices go through the roof and broken toys all over the place, are you kidding me?

I just sold my Soundwave on eBay for 45 dollars. I told them he has loose joints, so much so that he hardly stands up, and they still payed that much. Started at .99 cents.

But the bidders were probably all collectors. I don't think the kids or their parents would want to pay that.

Just after the first movie came out I sold an incomplete G1 Prime which i'd "restored" (didn't quite match the red and painted the chrome) for $50AU to a woman who was getting it for her grandson.

So there are some non-collectors out there.

Tue Dec 14, 2010 3:41 pm

Ok, ok, ok.

When I said that thing about Wideload fetching $100...

That was exaggeration. For humor.

I mean, seriously, get a life.

That was also a joke.

Tue Dec 14, 2010 3:54 pm

i was there back in the 80s & had a couple hundred of the original transformers, & sadly, lost them to the ages... a couple decades went by before i got back into collecting figures, & i have to say, i really don't go after many G1 bots, & its not a matter of cost... its a matter of design.. most of them just don't hold up to the articulation & design factor of today's figures ('plasticky' or not).. that's not to say that they don't hold a special place in my collection & that i have none at all though... i have the G1 reissue of optimus prime (seemed like a must-have), & recently acquired the predaking reissue, because he's just a damned beast, if you'll pardon the pun

the bulk of my current collection begins with some choice robots in disguise series & picks up from there....

beyond that, the WSTs are a great way to populate G1 designs without spending all the bucks for reissues or vintage bots, & take up a lot less space, too...

otherwise, the only other G1 set i'm planning on acquiring is devastator, which i plan on upgrading with crazydevy parts... maybe metroplex which would be a great platform for legends class bots...

Tue Dec 14, 2010 4:00 pm

It depends on the figure for me... but a lot of them are damned cool.

News Credits: 129 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 4:06 pm

The Dude wrote:Ok, ok, ok.

When I said that thing about Wideload fetching $100...

That was exaggeration. For humor.

I mean, seriously, get a life.

That was also a joke.

I dunno...

I think you were doing some back-handed hating on G1 and got called out on it. :KREMZEEK:

News Credits: 60 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 4:06 pm

@ Dude, maybe you should have added the word Joke after Wideload's pic or add MISB. Understanding that you were trying to make a point.....but for an admitted non G1 fig fan, it's kind of throwing dust at our faces........so the quip get a life kind of boomerangs back if you know what I mean.

Now, based on your opinion, if I was loaded with moolah, I'd pay MISB prices, but not blindly. Recently, I managed to get lots of bargains for G1 figs at less than US$100.00.

So in the end, it depends on your preference. Poor Wideload btw, for being used as point of humor hehehehe

News Credits: 5749 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 4:15 pm

If were just talking about design, then beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If were talking about price, TF's are still one of the more affordable collectibles. You can get most of the original figures complete and in decent shape for less that a bill. Not bad compared to a lot of other hobbies.

Speaking of the Throttlebots, I just got all six in mint condition with their cardbacks for $37.00 including shipping!

News Credits: 1 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 4:37 pm

i recently started buying g1 figs and encores and i love them. they rock, simple yes, but the die cast has no equal.

Tue Dec 14, 2010 5:12 pm

chrisc4 wrote:i recently started buying g1 figs and encores and i love them. they rock, simple yes, but the die cast has no equal.

i'm not knockin' your choice, but what took the spot for modern design with diecast content for me were binaltech... just a few... wheeljack, laserwave, hound, but most importantly-- silverstreak-- he's representative of my very 1st transformer purchase way-back-when, bluestreak

(plus i'm a subaru owner now

) i remember i chose that bot because a guy down the street owned the exact make & model (then) datsun 280zx silver fairlady & i loved that car as a kid

streaks1.jpg

Tue Dec 14, 2010 5:26 pm

I collect G1 figures because they hearken back to the day when I became a Transformers fan. I joined the fandom in the Generation 2 cartoon era, and I have a few of the toys from then - the G2 Optimus Prime was always my favorite. Since I got back into Transformers a few years ago, I focused solely on the Classics-styled figures, but have since expanded into the G1 reissues thanks primarily to the 25th Anniversary reissue Prime. Since then I've gotten the recent Comic Con reissues and the Perceptor and Insecticon reissues, and now I'm looking for the Commemorative Series figures. Plus, I decided I wanted the figures enough that I wanted the new Predaking and the Encore Omega Supreme and Sky Lynx.

Basically, it takes me back to something I loved as a child. Sure, they're bricks, but it brings back fond memories, and I wouldn't be a Transformers fan today if it weren't for those figures all those years ago.

News Credits: 7 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 5:46 pm

I really liked the diversity of G1. Sure, they didn't have articulation, but there was all kind of transformers to choose from, from purple space wolf to black t-rex that turns into a base, an ambulance with a gun turret as big as the car, to a giant effin scorpion. And they had mass.
Nowadays, most transformers turn from realistic family cars to wimpy skeleton-formers. There are minimal to none accesories, so tfs can actually pose, but otherwise have no play value; transformations mean adjusting panels like a Rubiks cube; no stickers, no battle pictures on the back of the box, and I can continue my complains for a while.

Transformers lost so many fun factors since G1, and gained only little.

News Credits: 9 · Tue Dec 14, 2010 5:50 pm

I stopped collecting G1 when I was about 10 cos I was frustrated by lack of articulation. When I got back into collecting a few years ago I picked up a few G1s that I wanted when I was a kid (like completing the cartoon dinobots) but other than that I don't care for them any more. I love my G1 collection and they're in a sturdy glass fronted display case but I don't play with them.