WreckerJack wrote:I didn't get interested in Transformers until I was 25. My first line was Prime but I still went straight to youtube to watch and learn. I'm spoiled.
I, too, immediately went to seek out more Transformers stuff pretty much as soon as I got into it (albeit at the age of 7-8 rather than 25). In fact, the first Transformers media I properly owned was an old set of G2 tapes I managed to bum off a friend, less than a year or so after discovering the franchise through Cybertron - so in some weird way, G1 still feels like my childhood Transformers fiction as much as Cybertron does (and more-so than the Unicron Trilogy as a whole)!
*ahem* Sorry bout that, where were we.
WreckerJack wrote: Most the time I try to figure it out on my own but the instructions sometimes lie and you can break a toy. I really look at a figure before I move any parts for the first time. I'm probably too careful with my toys but I really get a lot of enjoyment out of them so a little extra TLC is worth it.
I honestly think the worst instructions of any line I have collected are the ones that come with the RID toys. IIRC Thunderhoof had some missing steps in his plus you have to save the box to save the instructions (which suck anyway). Youtube is better.
I've never really had much trouble with breaking any of my Transformers (except for, to bring it back again, Cybertron Overhaul whom I broke by jumping on but that's a story for another day/thread) but I've usually found that the instructions tend to lessen the chances of breakage. Though it can vary depending on one's nature I suppose - if you're that cautious type you're less likely to force something if you don't "know" that's how it's supposed to be (and thus never transform it properly without the instructions), but alternately a reckless person might think they know what to do and force something that actually isn't supposed to move that way after all.
Ultimately, while a Youtube video is indeed pretty much always the best way to work out how to convert a figure, Hasbro hasn't yet worked out a way to include embedded YT videos in their packaging so for now we'll have to make do with what they give us. (And while RiD's instructions aren't fantastic, at least you can see the things they're showing you - and printing them on the box does save paper, so, hooray for that!)