The Energon Pub

Hi everyone,

This is my first new topic on the forums and it's actually gonna be a bit of a vent. I'm hoping I can dig up some information here; essentially, last year (before I started re-buying TFs) I held a bootsale and got rid of some of my TFs from years past, specifically including what I now know was the entire range of the late G1 series the Predators, including all of the smaller jets and Skyquake, as well as the entire range of the Autobot 'rival' brand, including Rotorstorm and Thunderclash, for what I thought at the time was a pretty stellar £90.

Now, tonight, I decided to have a look at the value of these toys on ebay as I figured that they would be pretty common, only to discover that some of them are virtually unfindable on ebay, a worldwide auction site. Those I did discover that had boxes were valued at what I consider to be fairly astronomical prices, and my stomach essentially hit the floor as I saw what some of these guys could have been worth and now utterly regret selling them at all, especially Skyquake. I have a Machine Wars Starscream redeco which I kept between the two because I prefer Starscream's character, but....good lord the regret is too huge, haha.

So I suppose the point of the topic aside from the rant is to request any information t all on this line - how comes it seems to be so rare? Did they not sell particularly well at the time? I remember being bought some of them by my parents after dentist visits as a young boy, for instance, and they were actually most probably some of the very first Transformers I ever owned.

So yeah, any information that anyone can offer me would be nice - as well as a big slice of sympathy please haha.

Thanks for reading guys!

The problem is not really their rarity: they're just hard to get. They were released only in Europe, Canada and Australasia, making them desirable for the US collectors. I don't know how the distribution was in Canada, but we had plenty in Europe. you could looking at local European auction sites and/or shops, but shipping will be murder, let me warn you. Also, the Dollar to Euro conversion rate works terribly against you.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Generation_1_%28 ... ne%29#1992

Check out the above article for more info on the European exclusives, including the ones you have mentioned. Unfortunately the line was winding down at that point, making those toys fairly hard to come by now

BTW, welcome to the boards.

Well you can also get these toys in VS. two packs from Japan. They were released over there that way but Skyquake, Thunderclash, and the others will cost you.

bvzxa wrote:Well you can also get these toys in VS. two packs from Japan. They were released over there that way but Skyquake, Thunderclash, and the others will cost you.

Only the smaller toys were. Skyquake's silhouette was used in a magazine to depict the Decepticon leader of that era, Scrash. His name is only one letter off from Skyquake's alternate European name, Crash, so it's possible Scrash is indeed Skyquake. He was released as a mail-order item, in EU packaging though.

I sometimes think that 20(ish) years down the line, we Euro fans are paying for having those excluisves or am I just being a cynic? ;-p

On topic, thye can be tracked down with a bit of funding and patience but you have to be really "targeted" in your buying.

Make sure you are up-to-speed on GPS too.

Pretender Skywarp wrote:I sometimes think that 20(ish) years down the line, we Euro fans are paying for having those excluisves or am I just being a cynic? ;-p

On topic, thye can be tracked down with a bit of funding and patience but you have to be really "targeted" in your buying.

Make sure you are up-to-speed on GPS too.

Only Skyquake (what's with this guy?) is on the list, and for good reasons. Thundeclash and the Predators' missile launchers are not GPS per se, but they do break a lot. Just be careful then. Me? I'm staying well away from them, even if I'm missing out.

The predators are fairly common here in Europe, especially Stalker, which is found on an average level of 2-3 per collector. Now their rockets and rocket launchers are what are really rare.

Turbomasters, especially Thunderclash (whose gold plastic is a pain even to look onto, knowing it will crumble to dust as soon as you touch it - hell, I opened mine only once, and at the first transformation, one of the hinges broke to 5-6 pieces) are what are very rare.

I'd imagine the red jet whose name escapes me, may have slightly increased in value due to his role in the Wreckers comics. To say nothing of Rotorstorm.

Well, I've managed to recoup some of my loss. The day after I made this topic I decided to have another sort out in the garage and discovered Thunderclash, Rotorstorm, Talon and a pinkish red Predator jet still there, so I hadn't completely thrown away my brains! Bit annoyed that Rotorstorm's blade isn't there anymore, same for his landing gear but eh, I'll have to deal with it. Also have bagloads of accessories and weapons that I need to match up to their owners so I'm hoping I've got a fair majority of their ammunition, as I still have Skyquake's gun and one of the other Predators.

Also rebought Skyquake on ebay for about 15 pounds, landing wheels were missing and one of his back feet so a bit of a downgrade from my last one, but I feel a little bit happier than I did! Who knew the goodies that my garage would hold, so much stuff I forgot I had :-p

I'm also very intrigued by the backstory of the Predators now - the whole 'Scrash = Skyquake' idea seems to match up quite well in my eyes, which is one of the reasons I wanted to repurchase him if he's essentially the final (?) G1 Decepticon general. Awesome awesome awesome.

Sammo1987 wrote:Well, I've managed to recoup some of my loss. The day after I made this topic I decided to have another sort out in the garage and discovered Thunderclash, Rotorstorm, Talon and a pinkish red Predator jet still there, so I hadn't completely thrown away my brains! Bit annoyed that Rotorstorm's blade isn't there anymore, same for his landing gear but eh, I'll have to deal with it. Also have bagloads of accessories and weapons that I need to match up to their owners so I'm hoping I've got a fair majority of their ammunition, as I still have Skyquake's gun and one of the other Predators.

Also rebought Skyquake on ebay for about 15 pounds, landing wheels were missing and one of his back feet so a bit of a downgrade from my last one, but I feel a little bit happier than I did! Who knew the goodies that my garage would hold, so much stuff I forgot I had :-p

I'm also very intrigued by the backstory of the Predators now - the whole 'Scrash = Skyquake' idea seems to match up quite well in my eyes, which is one of the reasons I wanted to repurchase him if he's essentially the final (?) G1 Decepticon general. Awesome awesome awesome.

That pinkish jet must be Skydive (no kidding, he stole the Aerialbot's name!). And good job on finding your old toys, even if they're broken and/or incomplete. I wish you luck with the rest