I was a kid during the 80's, so I grew up with G1 and had a few of the toys. I'm actually hoping at least some of them are still in my parents' loft - I had a G1 Menasor which I don't remember ever selling which I'd love to put on the shelf with some of my newer ones

I stopped collecting, as such, when I "outgrew toys"; I think my last TF at the time was Pretender Starscream.
Didn't see any of G2, and only caught one or two episodes of Beast Wars, I think on reruns. Working in a shop, I saw a lot of the Beast Wars & Transmetals figures, though, and they just didn't grab me. The idea just didn't make sense to me as far as my concept of Transformers went

Saw a few eps of Armada and thought it was silly, and the toys didn't look like realistic vehicles, so I passed on those, too.
I actually started collecting again just over a year ago with Boba Fett and ARC-170 from the SWTF lines, which I'd put off buying for ages because I'm "too old for toys". Since then I've picked up some Alternators, a few Classics and a lot of the movie line.
I think it was when I was carrying my first movie line figures home that I really considered myself as hooked again