The Energon Pub

Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:25 pm

What has been the hardest to come by, hardest find or complete toy in your collection? I want to hear your stories.

Have you ever been obsessed by an idea or a toy? Have you ever found a toy so captivating that you can't get it out of your mind? Have you ever loved a toy? There's a few toys out there I'm like that about and Jetfire is my biggest one. I've wanted one since I first saw them in the booklet that came with Soundwave. I managed to find one in a junk for sale bin in 1992 at the Jessamine Jamboree. I bought it for 10 dollars, but one wing was bent and wanted to get the other one that was with it as well, but didn't have all the money at the time. When I came back with the money it was sold. It didn't have any of the accessories and I've never seen them in person.

I've searched every flea market, every yard sale since then only to have missed out on them or not find them at all. The closest I came to one I could use to fix mine was about ten years ago with the same damage mine had minus the bent wing. One flea market I went to someone was selling their son's old toys he didn't care about anymore and I picked up a G1 Shockwave and Megatron for thirty, still in their boxes, but missing accessories. The woman said to me, "I'm surprise these are selling. I just sold a plane in the box. A white one about an hour ago. These are the last one he had. I just brought them in this morning." You can't imagine how much deep of a cut that was. That was about three years ago.

Just recently I've picked up a Jetfire that was missing his arms off of ebay. The guy that sold it to me was fantastic. I can't thank him enough for what he did, because he sold me a Jetfire that was in good enough shape to help fix mine and within my price range. Now all I have to do is get the accessories.

Trying to get the accessories makes me very nervous. I hate getting them off of Ebay, because it's so stinking expensive. $30 for the leg clips? Really? Oh well, I'll continue moving forward.

Fri Sep 23, 2011 8:01 pm

cant say ive got a grail but i look forward to completing my bookstyle reissues. and mix in a little encore in between as the current leave much to be desired.

News Credits: 22 · Fri Sep 23, 2011 8:16 pm

Tough one. It's between Car Robots Brave Max (with Grand Sword and G1 Maximus gun) or Masterforce Overlord.

News Credits: 1 · Sat Sep 24, 2011 5:03 am

Several, actually. My MIB Masterforce Lander ranks pretty high and my MIB Dinofoce dudes as well. Uh, there's my flawless snowwhite Skygarry and my boxed and carded Firecons.

Sat Sep 24, 2011 2:24 pm

I've gotten some of my grails. The G2 Stormtroopers were the hardest to complete but I did last year.

Others I've obtained include:

Oversized Korean Bruticus

Oversized Robotmasters Wingstun and Wrecker Hook. 2 euro each, I couldn't believe it.

Botcon Leozack

Junior Chromedome was bought this week and I'm awaiting his arrival.

The grails I've yet to obtain are:

Oversized Machine Wars Thundercracker or Skywarp, not sure which one I actually saw.

Oversized Classics Astrotrain.

Botcon Astrotrain. Saw him for 20-30 euro on Ebay, missing his shield and Minicons. I hesitated but when I finally went to buy him in the last minute, my modem went down.

Machine Gun Robo that inspired Actionmaster Treadshot.

Kabaya Weirdwolf. Passed him up a couple months ago because he was so expensive but I really regret it.

Windcharger, at a decent price.

News Credits: 101 · Sat Sep 24, 2011 3:32 pm

Windsweeper wrote:I've gotten some of my grails. (way too many)

Come on, dude, a "grail" is something UNIQUE that is HARD TO FIND. You can't have over 9000 grails. It's like saying every TF you like is a Grail. If you can find it easely on Ebay, it is NOT a Grail. No matter how much it is.

I, personally, have no Grails.I managed to have every TF I wanted at a decent price, even with all that extra shipping cost. 2010 Primus, Armada Unicron, complete Doubledealer, MP-01 Last Shot, and so on. And if I cant have the original or the original is too expensive, a re-issue is fine too. Like God Ginrai, G1 Prime (modded smokestacks), G1 Starscream ect.

The only possible grails for me would be Shattered Glass Starscream. He was a botcon exclusive. I would really want that figure, but that much money for a deluxe/voyager toy is too much. Beside, I already have Supreme Starscream. Still, I want the SG Screamers. But 150$-300$ for it will give me some serious buyers remorse.

There's could be Fortress Maximus, complete of course. Just for the honnor of having the largest TF ever. But he's so, SO expensive. I have the opportunity to have it locally for 600$. It is too expensive?

Anyway, I don't have that much money for a transformers...

News Credits: 241 · Sat Sep 24, 2011 3:41 pm

I have a list of grails in my signature, and surprisingly enough, two entries were actually removed upon acquisition:

1: Wedge Shape
Wedge Shape is a redeco of Classics Dreadwing of the Predator Attack Team, and one of those rare Japanese giveaways. I was pretty surprised when Diem, who lived in Japan at the time, had a spare and sent it to me for free! He wasn't even that long on the list, only when I acquired Gredator and Apexus, Micron Booster repaints of the other two members.

Yes, I like Mini-Cons, the more the better.

2: Sky Garry
This one I had to get when I saw him. Actually, I may have seen him twice. This guy is a must have if you have Star Convoy. Now I'm missing only Grandus and am eagerly awaiting that day.

My third grail is not a Transformer item per se, but still related:

3: Gekion Gattai Big Volfogg
This guy's from Yuusha-Oh GaoGaiGar, part of the Yuusha/Brave series that replaced Transformers. Volfogg is a Ferrari police car, and a ninja! He also has two drones, GunGuru the helicopter and GunDober the motorcycle, and they combine into Big Volfogg.
Basically, anything Yuusha/Brave is a grail to me since they're so hard to get at the moment. Especially Fighbird and Da Garn has caught my eye.

Sat Sep 24, 2011 7:32 pm

Energon Omega Supreme, I will get you my pretty (insert cackle here)

Sat Sep 24, 2011 9:26 pm

godzillabot wrote:Energon Omega Supreme, I will get you my pretty (insert cackle here)

That's it. Keep a positive thought. I'm looking to get him too, but he's not as big a priority as finishing off my Jefire, She-ra, G1 Optimus Prime, Battle Armor He-man, the chest lid, weapons rack, key and door for Crystal Castle and a couple of others.

Sat Sep 24, 2011 9:32 pm

JelZe GoldRabbit: Yikes a Japanese fandom collector. Please don't hurt me.

I couldn't pass that up. Most of the Japanese fandom people I've met remind me of Comic Book Guy as the "Collector" from the Simpsons.

Sat Sep 24, 2011 9:39 pm

-Kanrabat- wrote:The only possible grails for me would be Shattered Glass Starscream. He was a botcon exclusive. I would really want that figure, but that much money for a deluxe/voyager toy is too much. Beside, I already have Supreme Starscream. Still, I want the SG Screamers. But 150$-300$ for it will give me some serious buyers remorse.

I've got a knock-off of that Starscream I could repaint to look like that if you wanted. Here's my first and last custom so far:
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/ ... 3i1yfv.jpg

-Kanrabat- wrote:There's could be Fortress Maximus, complete of course. Just for the honnor of having the largest TF ever. But he's so, SO expensive. I have the opportunity to have it locally for 600$. It is too expensive?

Anyway, I don't have that much money for a transformers...

You know, I've seen a lot of them you could rebuild for much cheaper on Ebay. It's just a matter of do you need to have the box or not.

Sat Sep 24, 2011 9:39 pm

knightedfeline wrote:
godzillabot wrote:Energon Omega Supreme, I will get you my pretty (insert cackle here)

That's it. Keep a positive thought. I'm looking to get him too, but he's not as big a priority as finishing off my Jefire, She-ra, G1 Optimus Prime, Battle Armor He-man, the chest lid, weapons rack, key and door for Crystal Castle and a couple of others.

I try!

Another one is Classics Prime and Powered commander upgrade

Sat Sep 24, 2011 9:41 pm

godzillabot wrote:I try!

Another one is Classics Prime and Powered commander upgrade

I wouldn't have the Powered Commander upgrade unless it was given to me. That's just too much for my tastes.

News Credits: 1452 · Sat Sep 24, 2011 10:25 pm

Of which I own...

X-Dimension Air Military team;

Micron Crysaber/Beacon, Quantum and Lens

Ones I still have yet to acquire...

I'll get linkage Twirl eventually, and BotCon Dreadwind

Sat Sep 24, 2011 11:05 pm

ROTF Skystalker. Never found him in Massachusetts.

G2 Hooligan. I wanted a complete set of the Cyberjets, some of my favorite molds.

G1 Skywarp. Found him relatively cheap, complete. Still he's my favorite character, so he's up there.

News Credits: 1 · Sun Sep 25, 2011 7:08 am

G1 Reflector.

News Credits: 241 · Sun Sep 25, 2011 7:40 am

knightedfeline wrote:JelZe GoldRabbit: Yikes a Japanese fandom collector. Please don't hurt me.

I couldn't pass that up. Most of the Japanese fandom people I've met remind me of Comic Book Guy as the "Collector" from the Simpsons.

I don't collect everything Japanese, I have my limits. I just want Transformers, Yuusha, Super Sentai (Think Power Rangers) and Kamen Rider.

Sun Sep 25, 2011 9:40 am

knightedfeline wrote:
godzillabot wrote:I try!

Another one is Classics Prime and Powered commander upgrade

I wouldn't have the Powered Commander upgrade unless it was given to me. That's just too much for my tastes.

I know but I am just enamored (I think that is how to spell it) with the figure

Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:20 am

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I don't collect everything Japanese, I have my limits. I just want Transformers, Yuusha, Super Sentai (Think Power Rangers) and Kamen Rider.

I know Super Sentai. I've been looking for a message board that's as good as Seibertron.com to join, but haven't found one yet. (not that I've looked terribly hard after meeting a lot of the great people here)
How can people be fans of giant robots and not love Sentai/Power Rangers. It goes together like apple and pie.

godzillabot wrote:I know but I am just enamored (I think that is how to spell it) with the figure

I know what that can be like. I'm that way about Jefire and his armor. It's just one of those things where I want many, but have to force reason to come in and beat want up.

MightyMagnus78 wrote:G1 Reflector.

That one I can majorly see. I ended up getting a (what's referred to now as a gashapon) one out of a gumball machine years and years ago, but he was never complete. He's only about the size of a quarter, but I love him.

TheDownshift wrote:ROTF Skystalker. Never found him in Massachusetts.

I don't think I ever saw him in my area either.

TheDownshift wrote:G2 Hooligan. I wanted a complete set of the Cyberjets, some of my favorite molds.

Plenty of likeness licenced reproductions (aka knock-offs) around. I could customize one for you?

TheDownshift wrote:G1 Skywarp. Found him relatively cheap, complete. Still he's my favorite character, so he's up there.

Cool. I like his colors, but never cared too much for him.

Blurrz wrote:Of which I own...

X-Dimension Air Military team;

Micron Crysaber/Beacon, Quantum and Lens

Ones I still have yet to acquire...

I'll get linkage Twirl eventually, and BotCon Dreadwind

No offence, but you've got strange tastes. I like it.

Nice to meet you.

Mon Sep 26, 2011 9:26 pm

For me it's Trypticon. I wanted him SOOO bad back in the day but got Scorponok instead Christmas of 87. I was shattered but made the best of it and chose to not be one of those whiney kids and be gratefull that i got a TF of such magnitude at all! I had a very poor family.

But deep down i was crushed. Now 25 years later i have finally acquired a Trypticon!! I got him about a month ago but haven't opened him yet.

He stll needs all the bits and bobs so i'm actively hunting for them at reasonable prices so i can open him for Xmas this year and have a complete Trypticon to finally add to my collection. Gotta tell ya it's a pricey figure to piece together even with the deals i;m getting.....jeez.

But it's gonna be great!!

Mon Sep 26, 2011 10:59 pm

fortress maximus for me. he is the biggest TF ever. i remember seeing him at kmart back in the early 90s(1991 maybe)? i wanted him so bad....but my parents said if i bought him i couldnt get a super nes. so...i got the super nes. fast forward 10 years later....my brother came across the takara brave max in chinatown san francisco. he passed it up for 80 bucks! he told me about it the next day and i drove all the way there(40 miles each way) to get him. i was able to bargain with the clerk and got him for 50 BUCKS OUT THE DOOR! if it wasnt for dumb luck....i would have never got him

Mon Sep 26, 2011 11:05 pm

monstergrotusque wrote:For me it's Trypticon. I wanted him SOOO bad back in the day but got Scorponok instead Christmas of 87. I was shattered but made the best of it and chose to not be one of those whiney kids and be gratefull that i got a TF of such magnitude at all! I had a very poor family.

But deep down i was crushed. Now 25 years later i have finally acquired a Trypticon!! I got him about a month ago but haven't opened him yet.

He stll needs all the bits and bobs so i'm actively hunting for them at reasonable prices so i can open him for Xmas this year and have a complete Trypticon to finally add to my collection. Gotta tell ya it's a pricey figure to piece together even with the deals i;m getting.....jeez.

But it's gonna be great!!

I know the exhilaration. It's so much fun putting together something piece by piece. I love the feeling when you finish.

Tue Sep 27, 2011 11:23 am

I guess Fort Max would be a grail for me due to the cost. I want him, but not enough to justify that kind of money. I am not too broken up about it though.

Tue Sep 27, 2011 4:46 pm

As with all holy grails, it is journey to get it that teaches us. It's not really a grail if it's easy. Each of us have different challenges with tests that the quest has for us that test us. Achieving the grail isn't always about obtaining it. When it comes to quests for the series we like it's about the fun that comes from the search, the stories we're able to tell. It's about making friends and exploring the fandom. It's also about that feeling we got when we first saw the items we decided to pursue, because it helps keep the fire of innocence, purity and wonder we had as a kid and keeping it alive in our lives no matter what happens to us or how old we become. The quest for a certain toy is in part the connection to those that follow after us as well, and not forgetting that they too have feelings, and if lucky, maybe they too will have a grail.

Tue Sep 27, 2011 10:31 pm

knightedfeline wrote:As with all holy grails, it is journey to get it that teaches us. It's not really a grail if it's easy. Each of us have different challenges with tests that the quest has for us that test us. Achieving the grail isn't always about obtaining it. When it comes to quests for the series we like it's about the fun that comes from the search, the stories we're able to tell. It's about making friends and exploring the fandom. It's also about that feeling we got when we first saw the items we decided to pursue, because it helps keep the fire of innocence, purity and wonder we had as a kid and keeping it alive in our lives no matter what happens to us or how old we become. The quest for a certain toy is in part the connection to those that follow after us as well, and not forgetting that they too have feelings, and if lucky, maybe they too will have a grail.

Poetic, innit?

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