The Energon Pub

Living in earthquake-country, having my shelves right above my bed might not have been the most intelligent choice… But “Death by Transformers“ wouldn’t be the worst way to go.

Right now I’ve got my Generations Collection up there—Fall of Cybertron, Thrilling 30, and the Prime Wars Trilogy. Here’s the (hopefully...not sure I know what I’m doing yet) Panoramic Shot and the Top Shelf...

...AND here’s the bottom shelf...

Nice setup. Thems alotta toys
Welcome to Seibertron! And to our collectors corner!

Did you collection start with Generations?

Thanks!
I’ve been lurking on Seibertron for a good decade at least now...just finally had something worth sharing.

I started collecting in earnest either with the first RiD line. I’ve got boxes all over full of Unicron Trilogy, RotF, earlier CHUG stuff, some I’m forgetting... but the only ones worth showing off are my Aligned collection (a lot of which I haven’t even opened yet) and my Shiny Takara-Animated collection (which is boxed up sitting between Metroplex and Voltron up there). I’ll pull those two out one day for show-and-tell.

Very nice! However, I don’t see any stickers on the Trypticon!

meekus3 wrote:I started collecting in earnest either with the first RiD line. I’ve got boxes all over full of Unicron Trilogy, RotF, earlier CHUG stuff, some I’m forgetting... but the only ones worth showing off are my Aligned collection (a lot of which I haven’t even opened yet) and my Shiny Takara-Animated collection (which is boxed up sitting between Metroplex and Voltron up there). I’ll pull those two out one day for show-and-tell.

Ahhkay. Nice. Thoughts/feelings on the Beast era and G1 toys?

lakebot wrote:Very nice! However, I don’t see any stickers on the Trypticon!

I despise stickers. Even nessesary ones. My city-bots don't have any either

That last picture makes me trippy.

lakebot wrote:Very nice! However, I don’t see any stickers on the Trypticon!

Dude ... the guy has just started sharing his collection, you don't want to inflict such trauma on him! He's likely to go nuts and stop sharing!

I love the Parking Lot.

In Italian, we call dumping something on the floor 'putting it in the bottom drawer'.

That's a lot of stuff right there, but even in the density, all seems to get its own place in the spotlight! Do you rotate the figures? Any criteria for which goes where?

Burn wrote:That last picture makes me trippy.

lakebot wrote:Very nice! However, I don’t see any stickers on the Trypticon!

Dude ... the guy has just started sharing his collection, you don't want to inflict such trauma on him! He's likely to go nuts and stop sharing!

Just giving him grief as I know how much of a pain they can be. That thing had a billion stickers(seriously though it was like 160 or so I think). Wasn’t all that bad but took forever.

Seriously nice collection and the display is rockin! I’m thinking of doing bookshelves with a plexiglass cover with hinges so it can be opened like a little curio cabinet. I just know as soon as I finally unbox what I have, and get them displayed, I’ll subsequently bump into them and have a mess. At least this way, it’s a slightly contained mess.

lakebot wrote: Just giving him grief as I know how much of a pain they can be. That thing had a billion stickers(seriously though it was like 160 or so I think). Wasn’t all that bad but took forever.

I know, I started, did maybe half a dozen stickers, then took a nearly 6 month break. Sat down one afternoon for about 5 hours and finished it. Never doing that again!

Y’all’re awesome!
I knew I posted here for a reason...and it wasn’t because more than a couple of the Bots on display came from Seibertron via eBay... I’ve drooled over (ew) many of your collection pages; your kind words are high praise indeed.

I’ve survived multiple assaults by folks thinking it’s funny to rearrange my shelves when I’m not around (strange how my toddler-nephews understand and respect the “No Touch! Rule” better than their parents), so some playful ribbing about Trypto’s stickers won’t scare me away.

The big guy actually IS stickered up, but I had the light at a bad angle (a photographer I am not). He was a two-day chore getting stickered up for me. I hate stickers.

On that note, I’ve been thinking about getting some Reprolables. Boy, they sure are pretty, but...I hate stickers...but they’re really pretty... Thoughts?

As for how I decide what goes where, I wish I could give you a short answer, but to understand the methods of my madness is to understand the mind of a Loony Toon.

The unlearned say I’ve got really bad OCD, but in truth it’s mild at best; I function just fine in the real world. I try to focus all my silly urges to control onto my Transformers. I’ve made up sortable lists (plural) of my collections so I can arrange and rearrange them in different ways that still satiates the need to put things in order. Recently, I discovered MPNs and that’s my new favorite way to sort...for now...

Actually fidgeting with them can be quite therapeutic getting through anxiety attacks. And going through the ritual of First Opening— getting the tools ready, cracking the seals, tossing the instructions and taking my sweet time puzzling out the designers’ intended transformations (speaking of which, I think I’ve figured out a better way to do PotP Optimus’ cab mode)— all very satisfying.

As for what goes where, I originally had this master plan of having one single “ALIGNED|GENERATIONS” collection displayed, with them intersecting at that grey-area that is Fall of Cybertron. But part way through setting that up I realized that the shelves weren’t big enough for the both of them. So I mapped out my shelf-space, ultimately decided on only Generations, only combining Combiners from box-sets, so both forms of a mold get shown off, plus Deluxes are easier to mush together than Combiners...but the Combiner Hunters needed to be surrounded by combined Combiners...and I still might push the Titan Force set back a row so they’re touching Fort Max.... Tried to keep it it MPN-order-ish going L-R/T-B, but also pushing bigger figs in the back and pulling smaller figs up front...-ish...all while not having any “holes” in my map (thank the Lords of Order I could stretch TR Soundwave’s arm out and perch Laserbeak on it...that happy happenstance of arrangement solved a remainder of 1 in my mapping equations that was wracking my brain for days!). I’ve got twelve spots left; PotP is going to be big; I’ll need to either retire FoC or combine the Combiners and retire the G2 reprints...or both...I don’t know yet...

Feelings on G1, BW, and other lines: Brothers and sisters, I’ve got nothing but love in my heart...even TF figs or entire lines I’m personally not fond of for whatever reason, I try to find something to appreciate about it (I grew quite fond of RotF Arcee as the ugly duckling that never quite got to turn into the 3biner-Swan with her sisters)...and if I can’t find anything to appreciate about it I’ll love it for the simple fact it’s promoting a brand that genuinely has meant quite a bit and more to me and my sanity, and say no more—I figure someone somewhere probably digs on it; who am I to trash their thing?

I’ve many fond memories of G1. I remember my dad taking me to see the Movie at the theater (I must’ve been 4yo), and being blown away by Ultra Magnus saying “dammit” (I was completely oblivious to Spike’s potty-mouth until the DVD). I had a PM Prime that was so special and awesome (read: expensive) it lived in my dad’s room so siblings wouldn’t destroy it. Had a few awesome finds garage-saling with Grandma, too...scored Blaster, ‘84 Prime, Brawn...

Beast Wars, not-so-much of a toy-fan, but I dug on the show when I was actually able to catch it (high school at the time...some things—not many—but some, are more important than Transformers). Beast Machines was trippy but in a good way. But I’m not a huge fan of organics-to-robots.

2001 RiD got me into collecting and using them as OCD outlets. Firetruck-Prime and Purple Dragon-Megs were the only two in the collection for a while. Never saw the show.

I tried to resist Armada, but the Mini-Cons won me over. Y’know? I’m just going to say it...NO SHAME—I loved the hell out of all 3 of those lines. Galaxy Convoy still just might be my favorite Optimus ever (although Evolution Optimus just may finally usurp the title).

The Prime: RiD and BH lines are my favorite as far as aesthetics go. For a bit this was ALL I collected and very selectively. These lines gave me the appreciation for retools that I never had before, and also gave me full tech-specs, which...I’m sorry but there’s no excuse for ANY Transformer to lack a full tech-spec. And the characters were well specked too...all 10’s for Optimus is just plain silly.

With the exception of the RotF toys, the Movieverse offerings just aren’t for me. Many of my earlier Chugs didn’t survive a hasty move. Peaugh got me into the Animated stuff...loaded up on most of the mainline Takara figs when I found out Blackout and Jetwing Optimus wouldn’t be released State-side, and I just can’t have Takara and Hasbro toolings together. Couple this with an expensive LEGO habit and even more expensive Bandai Japan Super Sentai DX mech addiction (both since kicked)...And that all became a problem...over-saturation after the Bayverse films and I couldn’t even hope to keep up. Actually quit collecting EVERYTHING for a bit...but then my wife surprised me with CW Ultra Magnus and it was all over...started collecting Generations in both directions at about the same pace. Decided to make FoC my “beginning” point because—c’mon now—it marked a completely different aesthetic than the earlier Classics 3.0 and just logically made sense to start there. Money restrictions have dictated I couldn’t go further back to complete out the ultimate Chuggy-collection, and now I need to stick to one toyline at a time (exceptions being made to “complete” my Aligned collection with some select 2015RiDs), so it was a good place to say “Good enough” and be happy that with T30 and Prime Wars, I can construct a pretty darn good G1-tribute display without earlier Chuggerts.

WOW! I sure have a lot of pent up nerdness...I could talk about Transformers forever! Rather than try to edit this down into something more...er...reasonable, I’m just going to leave it so y’all know what kind of a nutbag yer dealing with here.

So this is something else I do with my toys...

Should I post more things like this here? Is there a dedicated-dork-art forum I’m just missing?
Thanks in advance

Sounds like you are having fun which is all that matters. If you are OCD about it, so be it. We all need our outlets. My line of thinking when it comes to what figures to buy was there's simply too many transformers out there and too many molds and/or repaints for any one character. I do have my guilty pleasures(more skywarp figures than one sane person should posses) but I really try to find a figure that represents what I want to have for that character. Sometimes I'll do two(or more, depending on the character and the various molds available), sometimes I'll just have one. But I try to get my favorite mold(s) for that character and then I stop. I don't really want all the molds. I also don't like collecting an entire line of anything(although a complete g1 collection wouldn't be something I'd pass up if I could pull it off)or being a completist. I really want my collection scattered and varied.

That said, I do like your collection and how controlled it is from the placement to the vastness. Very neat to see someone put that much dedication into it.

meekus3 wrote: On that note, I’ve been thinking about getting some Reprolables. Boy, they sure are pretty, but...I hate stickers...but they’re really pretty... Thoughts?

Repro's and stickers in general, if you're gonna do it (or have to to do) then go Repro. I plan to replace all the official stickers from the POTP figures when Reprolabels makes them. If I can't have him painted proper, I'll at least have some high quality stickers.

meekus3 wrote: Actually fidgeting with them can be quite therapeutic getting through anxiety attacks. And going through the ritual of First Opening— getting the tools ready, cracking the seals, tossing the instructions and taking my sweet time puzzling out the designers’ intended transformations (speaking of which, I think I’ve figured out a better way to do PotP Optimus’ cab mode)— all very satisfying.

Very therapeutic. I keep a couple at work for that reason. TR Kup is my current favorite to fiddle with when bored/stressed.And I also ignore instructions, and can honestly say I've only needed help transforming anything less times than I can count on one hand. Which includes MP's and 3P's. And speaking of, I just free-handed MP Sunstreaker, what a freakin work of art he is!

meekus3 wrote: Beast Wars, not-so-much of a toy-fan, but I dug on the show when I was actually able to catch it (high school at the time...some things—not many—but some, are more important than Transformers). Beast Machines was trippy but in a good way. But I’m not a huge fan of organics-to-robots.

BW was huge for me, especially when you get to Season 2/3. The G1 tie-in blew me away. And I loved the dark tone of BM, even though the toys were a letdown. Luckily this was before I discovered the internet so I knew nothing of people's hatred for these at the time

meekus3 wrote:Galaxy Convoy still just might be my favorite Optimus ever (although Evolution Optimus just may finally usurp the title).

GF/Cyb Prime is easily in the top 5 Primes ever.

meekus3 wrote:Money restrictions have dictated I couldn’t go further back to complete out the ultimate Chuggy-collection, and now I need to stick to one toyline at a time (exceptions being made to “complete” my Aligned collection with some select 2015RiDs), so it was a good place to say “Good enough” and be happy that with T30 and Prime Wars, I can construct a pretty darn good G1-tribute display without earlier Chuggerts.

S'not bad, the original Classic's have pretty much all been replaced and redone over the years. There's very few that I'd say are "necessary" to track down.

meekus3 wrote: WOW! I sure have a lot of pent up nerdness...I could talk about Transformers forever!

So could we all, but the "normies" can't relate. S'why we come here

lakebot wrote:Sounds like you are having fun which is all that matters. If you are OCD about it, so be it. We all need our outlets. My line of thinking when it comes to what figures to buy was there's simply too many transformers out there and too many molds and/or repaints for any one character. I do have my guilty pleasures(more skywarp figures than one sane person should posses) but I really try to find a figure that represents what I want to have for that character. Sometimes I'll do two(or more, depending on the character and the various molds available), sometimes I'll just have one. But I try to get my favorite mold(s) for that character and then I stop. I don't really want all the molds. I also don't like collecting an entire line of anything(although a complete g1 collection wouldn't be something I'd pass up if I could pull it off)or being a completist. I really want my collection scattered and varied.

That said, I do like your collection and how controlled it is from the placement to the vastness. Very neat to see someone put that much dedication into it.

Lots and lots of fun! Too much!
I have “rules” that I “follow” as to what I can and can’t buy. My problem is...especially with Generations...once I have one of something, I have to complete it. The only reason I have the G2 Combiners is because I needed Computron and Victorion and Liokaiser and they fell into the same “box-set” category...and at the end of the day I didn’t need the Combiner Hunters or Titan Force sets...so I don’t let myself hunt down SDCC exclusives anymore.
A decade ago I stuck to strictly retail releases and only one of each mold...older collections are very piecemeal...Then with the Prime: RiD line following those rules meant only hunting down a couple more Bees (and honestly Hot Shot is my favorite use of the mold) and a Skyquake and OHEMGEEWUN IT FEELS GOOD TO HAVE A “COMPLETE” COLLECTION!
Apologies for the excessive use of “””’s” ...I just know we each define “complete” in different ways. I have different definitions depending on collection: Prime was strictly RiD mainline retail revealers and powerizers;
Beast Hunters was similar, adding Hardshell and the Legion Terrorcons to fill out the beasts; Robots in Disguise is JUST the main retail Warriors with Fixit and the more animalistic Legion ‘Cons cuz their cute ...but I’m a sucker for Mini-Cons so I only got the single packs...but then I had to get the Deployed for them...and I’m also a sucker for combiners so I regretfully had to add the team and crash combiners (thankfully I have nephews that will appreciate them more than I do)...and the activator combiners cuz more cute mini-cons); my Animated collection was just main Takara release single-packs + Fight to Start – L&S Optimus...I told myself I would never do that again but lately when there’s a lull in TF releases I pick up a Diaclone Reboot set...going back to my old rules of only one mold each, so none of the IMS variants...just the colorful stuff.....

I think it was two factors that fell into place simultaneously that let it get too massive: first laying out the Parking Lot on the floor with all the redecos side by side made me just want to add more (9 CW Dead End/Streetwises ), and the realization that, as an adult if I want to buy important things that I need good credit...but I don’t have any credit...what to buy ...so in the course of a couple years my credit is just about usable AND I have more damn toys than I can reasonably display

I AM due for a major culling...just waiting for the weather to warm up so I can dig through storage...

Thank you for the kind words. Indeed a LOT more mental effort goes into my collecting than is probably necessary, but it is very therapeutic...

shajaki wrote: Very therapeutic. I keep a couple at work for that reason. TR Kup is my current favorite to fiddle with when bored/stressed.And I also ignore instructions, and can honestly say I've only needed help transforming anything less times than I can count on one hand. Which includes MP's and 3P's. And speaking of, I just free-handed MP Sunstreaker, what a freakin work of art he is!

I absolutely love this! Nice when you realize you’re not the only one
I gotcha beat, though...I work from home...I get to keep a few more at work than you do TR Kup is amazing! There’s...like...ZERO kibble! LESS kibble than Animated Rodimus...it’s...UNNATURAL ...sometimes when I stare at him too long, I have to plug his guns into his back just to give him a little kibble, remind me that he IS just a Transformer like e’erbody else.

So I mentioned this grand \ALIGNED|GENERATIONS/ mega-beast collection, but I just don’t have the shelf space for it...
I think I’ve got it: A movie! A slideshow of the collection...with music! But just pictures of my toys would be boring...I can get those here or on a Wiki or anywhere else. So I’ve been tossing them through the Prisma Photo Editor, CARTOONIFYING everything!

As of this morning I’m about half way through with what I currently have. It’ll ultimately include everything I have from the Prime: RiD & Beast Hunters, Robots in Disguise, and Generations: Fall of Cybertron through Power of the Primes lines...although I might hold off on the PotP for now...wait and see what else comes out waves 4+... While I’m okay with the hodgepodge natures of Ultra Prime and Galvatronus, I’m not quite digging on it for Combiner ‘Scream or Elita-1...see if we get more Seekers or Fembots.

I’ve been uploading everything at DeviantArt. Here’s a link:

https://meekus3.deviantart.com/gallery/

I’m at the point where I need to decide how I shoot the G2 Combiners and I’m not sure if I want to do their individual modes individually or as team shots, like I’m going to with the Combiner Force stuff Thoughts?
And when I’m caught up with the video, I’ll share that too. It’s a combination meditation aid / “hey look at all my s***!”...with music!

So after spewing out my ideas on “complete” collections, I’m rethinking my goofy little art project here...I think I can do better pics...and I’m rethinking what all NEEDS to be on display...I don’t really care all that much for a few pieces on the shelves...and I’ve been NOT adding in my Platinum Unicron cuz it wasn’t REALLY a Generations figure...but was...but it’s an ARMADA retool...but I got it specifically because it’s I neeeded a Unicron... but I DON’T display him ...so yeah...rethinking everything...

I think the pics are pretty dope!

I have no problem shoehorning 'Cron into my Generations lineup. He's remolded a bit and painted better (I've got the Amazon one and the Takara 2010) so they'll do until we get a new mold.

Whadya mean "needs" to be on display? Are you saying you have stuff in the collection that you won't display? If so... you should think about liquidating. When I get myself to the point where I can finally display stuff proper, I'm sure I'll be trimming some fat...

shajaki wrote:I think the pics are pretty dope!

I have no problem shoehorning 'Cron into my Generations lineup. He's remolded a bit and painted better (I've got the Amazon one and the Takara 2010) so they'll do until we get a new mold.

Whadya mean "needs" to be on display? Are you saying you have stuff in the collection that you won't display? If so... you should think about liquidating. When I get myself to the point where I can finally display stuff proper, I'm sure I'll be trimming some fat...

Well thank you!
The problem I’ve run into is that I have too many...taking the photos, running them through the editor, posting them to DeviantArt, adding them into my video and doing those edits...it’s going from fun to tedious fast. And I’ve been limiting myself! These things are highly poseable; why am I taking the same pose for everything...the series has become static...these guys are not their G1 counterparts.
The other problem is I’ve let my OCD-ness dictate my collecting...I’d buy sets I personally wasn’t too interested in, but would hunt it down just because it was part of the wave or line or whatever. For example: I grabbed CW Armada Megatron not because I had any special sort of attachment to the character (in fact, for some odd reason I never picked up the original despite my twisted love for Armada in general), but because he was part of the CWLeaderWave1 line up (I oddly enough found regular CW Megs before ArmMegs, so it’s not like he was a placeholder or anything).
Second, more recent example: I originally wasn’t going to pick up box sets or exclusives...but I really wanted Computron (mostly for Scrounge) (exception #1), then I found Victorion for $40 bucks or something absolutely absurd (exception #2), then I landed on good deal for Liokaiser (exception #3)...at that point my neurotic brain can’t handle all the exceptions...now I have to have ALL the box sets. So the 3 G2 Combiners sat in their boxes until I pulled them out, put them together, and stuck them up on the shelves right before I took that first shelf-pic I posted. Those three dudes have never even been their individual modes. The ONLY thing I enjoy about them is how colorful they are and it looks neat in my periphery. But when I’m all “Hey I’m gonna finagle with Superion!” I don’t reach for the big bright blue one. I don’t NEED them.
But then I ran into another problem—I’ve been posting my pics in MPN order. I’ve reached the point where G2Superion is up...so I dig through the accessory box, 2 bright blue flamethrowers and a grey double-barreled whatever...but no bright blue double-barreled whatever. It probably never made it out of the box...and that box is long gone. A tiny little missing uncared-for accessory has completely derailed my goofy little art project.


I’ve let it get out of control. So I’m taking a bit of a TF break...by the time PotP wave 2 start showing up at my door, methinks I’ll have a new, smaller, more dynamic plan for showing off something that feels more like “my” collection than a Hasbro toy catalog photo.

I changed my FB profile pic to this in response to someone telling me to “quit posting so much nerd s***!” ... intended messages aside, I REALLY like how the filters turned out on this guy:

I’m wondering if I can replicate this look with all my Gen figs...