The Energon Pub

I think it goes along with the topic, but my generation also has very fond memories of poring over the JC Penny catalog every year, staring in wonder at all the transformer picture. As well is M.A.S.K. and G.I. Joe and The Real Ghostbuster, and He-Man, and he'll, even the Go-bots.

Being a son of a single mom, without any support from a dead beat dad, I didn't get a lot (although she still got me more than she should have) so I spent many hours day dreaming over those catalogs.

Ironhidensh wrote:I think it goes along with the topic, but my generation also has very fond memories of poring over the JC Penny catalog every year, staring in wonder at all the transformer picture. As well is M.A.S.K. and G.I. Joe and The Real Ghostbuster, and He-Man, and he'll, even the Go-bots.

Being a son of a single mom, without any support from a dead beat dad, I didn't get a lot (although she still got me more than she should have) so I spent many hours day dreaming over those catalogs.

Yes, the catalogues were both loads of fun and excruciating torture for times when the toys would always be just on the shelf in shops or on the pages of those things. (I had similar experiences with the LEGO ones, too.)

I'm trying to remember if the ones I had were from the shops, or if there was an actual BW catalogue included with some of the toys.

My mom actually stopped getting me the Lego catalog for a time, I would make such a fuss about it.

You are dead on about the torture part.

at least here in canada, theres the long standing tradition of the (sears?) wishbook. its a massive christmas time catalog. pretty sure they still make them too.

I think the internet killed the Sears catalog in the US. At least I haven't seen one in a couple of decades. That or Sears not doing well in general. I mean, they got bought out by K-Mart, freakin K-Mart, and that was after K-Mart had already gone bankrupt once. That's not a good sign.

Actually, the Sears stores here don't even sell toys (except an occasional special display) anymore. Same for JC Penneys.

Birthdays I remember fondly. Veery fondly.

One year it was Action Master vehicles Optimus Prime and Wheeljack, one a little further down, I was so happy when I got Thunderclash, and then for my sixth I got G2 Prime and Megatron.

It's one of those things I think back to and I'm really kind of touched that my parents went out of their way to get the biggest thing from that year's assortment of my favourite toyline to give it to me for my birthday. I just wish I'd taken better care of them or shown more gratitude at the time.

One year all my birthday cards even had the package art from the headmasters toys on. The card from my mum and dad had brainstorm on it. I found him in a thrift shop brand new in package a few months later and I was super excited.

It's kind of weird that Brainstorm and Thunderclash are 2 of my favourite characters even to this day.

My mum usually bought me all my Transformers toys. Though the first I can remember buying was Brawl, alongside Bumblebee. It must've been around 1988 or so. Possibly later. Mum had got a large redundancy pay and gave everyone some money from it. I still have Brawl - complete.

I can firmly remember getting money from basically everyone that gave presents one year and promptly got my older brother to take me to Woolworths - I bought Wildrider, Deadend, Breakdown and Dragstrip. They had Motormaster, too - but for some reason I chose the yellow UK Constructicons without the combiner parts - Scavenger, Scrapper and Mixmaster.

Skip forward a few years and the next time I remember buying Transformers (because usually Mum came home with one as a gift, completely unasked for or unknown about) was getting G1 Sideswipe in the Spanish Gold Classics box. £5 from a store up the road from me called Dulcet Discount Store, which was like an Alladin's Cave of everything from toys to knick-knacks to lamps. He was flung up high on a shelf and was the only Transformer in the shop.

I can remember buying Wheeljack, too - Woolworths had the full selection of Classics figures in his price range. It was a struggle to choose between Wheeljack and Ironhide. By then I was actually getting pocket money, so every month after that I was about to afford a small toy - Skram, Groove, ECT. Lots of memories after that.

My first real collectors memory was finding G1 Megatron at a bootfare (think of a garage sale in a field with lots of cars instead) for £4. That was kinda the moment I realised I wanted a nice big collection of G1 toys. I was about 18 then, so there was only ever a 4 year break or so in me buying Transformers.

MemphisR56 wrote:Birthdays I remember fondly. Veery fondly.

One year it was Action Master vehicles Optimus Prime and Wheeljack, one a little further down, I was so happy when I got Thunderclash, and then for my sixth I got G2 Prime and Megatron.

It's one of those things I think back to and I'm really kind of touched that my parents went out of their way to get the biggest thing from that year's assortment of my favourite toyline to give it to me for my birthday. I just wish I'd taken better care of them or shown more gratitude at the time.

One year all my birthday cards even had the package art from the headmasters toys on. The card from my mum and dad had brainstorm on it. I found him in a thrift shop brand new in package a few months later and I was super excited.

It's kind of weird that Brainstorm and Thunderclash are 2 of my favourite characters even to this day.

Yeah I can understand you loving Brainstorm. Yeah he was a cool looking Transformer alright. I always was partial to the Headmasters line. I would would that my favorite line of Transformers was the Headmasters. Them and the Powermasters. Sadly I only have a few Headmasters or Powermasters. Maybe someday I will have all of them. Right now the only ones I have are the first ever Transformer I got that I mentioned in my starting post Skullcruncher (head missing now) and Nightbeat. I also have an incomplete Scorponok (missing a few accessories but have Zarak and helmet and Fastrack) I wanted Fortress Maximus but couldn't find one that wasn't out of the ball park in price so I settled on a incomplete Brave Maximus which is fine since if anything I like his color scheme the best out of Fortress, Grand and Brave Maximus'. Someday I am hoping to get Siren since I like his vehicle mode the best since I love police cars and with him being a fire car is close enough. Hosehead would be the second one I want the most. Followed by Chromedome, Hardhead, tossup between Brainstorm and Highbrow, Apeface (always thought he looked cool especially his face in robot mode), Snapdragon, Mindwipe, Weirdwolf, Fangry, Squeezeplay, and Horri-Bull. Maybe even get the Japanese counterparts to Siren and Nightbeat Minerva and Go-Shuta. The only two Powermasters I have are Optimus Prime and Darkwing. The ones I want to someday get in order are Double Dealer (or even Double Clouder if I found one in mint condition at a good price), Getaway, Dreadwind, Slapdash and Joyride. Shame that Takara or those counterfeit companies in China don't make more reissues of the Headmasters and Powermasters. I guess that has to do with the fact that they are not in as big of a demand as the 1984/85 and 1986 Transformers are. I would say my favorite years speaking of which in order are 1987,1988,1986,1984/85,1989,1990 and to a much lesser extent Generation 2.

Brainstorm was a awesome character in Rebirth and especially in the Marvel US and UK comics. Hated it when he got eaten by Unicron. Seemed out of character to for him to just yell "No No No!" and fire his gun at Unicron. before being eaten. But I guess it would be easy to have your mind shut down from fear of seeing something huge and evil like Unicron.

That was funny two how in the first US Headmaster toy commercial how his head was completely different. Looked real ugly. "A Transylvanian Vampire Zombie look" like someone said on tfwiki.net. Lol

Hey fellers, is it cool if I come drop something in an old thread? So I don't seems completely random (which I am, BTW); I was about to create a thread and I searched to make sure there wasn't already one. I searched for "wishbook" and got a couple hits here.

If any of you want to take a trip down memory lane click here.


Edit: Now that I've had a chance to read the thread more thoroughly. My found TF memories were obsessing over the Sears wishbooks and staring at all the pretties at KB Toys store at the mall.

You fellas/gals were lucky! Back in my time, when money was tight, I just had to settle for the figure catalogs I could score from my buddies who owned a G1 TF.

It was only after college that I managed to start treasure hunting for a lot of G1 stuff. Ohhhhhh the memories! (My Fortmax actually was a gift from my dad, same with the headmaster Autobots which came from my mom after college graduation)