by Rodimus Prime » Wed Apr 15, 2020 1:42 am
- Motto: "Individual freedom above all else."
The story of my 1st Beast Wars figure.
In 1997, my first paying job ever was as a furniture mover for my uncle's private business. He had a big box truck and we hauled furniture for people who were moving. It was a fun job and paid well, even if it was physically demanding.
One day we got to a customer's house and the easiest way to move and load all their stuff was through the double wide sliding back doors that led to their backyard. We just pulled the truck back there and started loading. Once we were finished, I was to wait in the truck while he handled the paperwork.
So as I walk to the truck, I noticed something sticking out of the ground. It had been raining, so it was muddy. But I saw enough of the object to pique my interest. It was black, with what looked like a gun barrel with a red tip sticking out. So I bend down, scrape away some mud, and pull this thing out.
It was an original Optimus Primal figure. Black all over, white feet, gray chest, some red parts. He was dirty and muddy, and missing every accessory, except the springloaded gun in his arm, and the red skull/mace in the other arm. But miraculously he wasn't broken anywhere.
At this point, I hadn't known about Beast Wars. I hadn't paid attention to TFs since the end of the G2 comics, which was a few years before. But I took 1 look at this action figure's head and immediately I was reminded of Optimus Prime. I was intrigued by Optimus Prime having a beast form, and instead of setting the figure down on a table or something outside, I just took it with me. Yeah, I technically stole it, but he was abandoned into the dirt for what looked like a long time, and with some parts missing, so I didn't think anyone cared.
After getting home I cleaned up the figure and was having a lot of fun posing him. It prompted me to find its origins and it turned me onto Beast Wars and back onto Transformers in general. I began to build my collection (which at this point consisted of a few G1 figures) and revisiting the brand as a whole. I never did get any other Beast Wars figures until 2006 when Primal and Megatron were reissued in a 10th anniversary 2-pack, but to this day, Beast Wars is my favorite TF TV series, and along with the Marvel comics it's the main reason I'm in the fandom.
In the last 10 years or so I moved a few times and unfortunately lost that Primal along the way. I can't even remember when. One day it was there, the next it was gone. But once in a while, like now, I think of it fondly, and remember a good memory from my teens. I just didn't realize until now just how important that figure was to my being a Transformers fan. If I never found it, I don't know if I had gotten back into Transformers. I was in my mid-teens and had a lot of other things going on. Just got my first job, I was in high school, interested in girls, learning to drive. But because of that figure I opened my comics again, took out my old G1 figures, and I was off back into Transformersland. And 23 years later I'm still here.
........
I am still upset about that. So you can see why I have mixed feelings about what you did.
