The Energon Pub

Hi everyone!! Long time TF fan, first time posting here. Grew up in the 80s watching Transformers on Sky Channel (a pan-European TV channel that used to broadcast in the good old days).

As I understand it animation cells from the G1 80s cartoon are pretty rare (I've seen very few on eBay). You can imagine my delight when I managed to obtain a Megatron cell somwehere in 2002 from a fellow eBayer that desperately wanted a Peter Cullen signed trading card I had won for 10 euros. He offered his Megatron animation cell as a trade which I gladly accepted. Now, I wonder. Are TF G1 cells still scarce and is the cell I've got a real one? What would be its approximate worth? It looks really authentic to me, but I'm not an expert. Please note, I'm not looking to sell it. I'm just curious. Here are some pics I took. Maybe an expert would be so kind as to comment.... Thanks in advance!!!

Second pic...

.....and the rest. Sorry for spamming. If I've posted to the wrong section please tell me. <:-)

BTW, the cell itself is wrapped inside a protective sheet. The scotch tape you see in the photos is not on the actual cell itself, but on the protective sheet. The logo on the green paper looks pretty Japanese... Anyone recognize it?

That's incredible! Who cares if it's a fake, it looks awesome!

That's incredible! Who cares if it's a fake, it looks awesome!

LOL. Thanks! That's what I was thinking too. I'm looking forward to framing it. I had this cell laying in my parents' attic and totally forgot about it until recently. I'm glad it's still in such good shape.

It looks like it might be one of the episodes where megatron is holding spike or some other unlucky person, his hand is a bit strangely drawn to be making just a fist.

You should turn it over and show us the other side of the cell (the painted side)

I must say that's pretty sweet.

diablien wrote:It looks like it might be one of the episodes where megatron is holding spike or some other unlucky person, his hand is a bit strangely drawn to be making just a fist.

You should turn it over and show us the other side of the cell (the painted side)

You're right! I always thought his fist looked kinda weird. It'd be really cool to know what episode this frame is from. Any G1 fan with a photographic memory recognize it? Guess I'll have to revisit all G1 episodes soon.

Here's some shots I took of the other side. I also (carefully) removed the cell from its protective sheet. If I look closely I can actually see bits of paint that were spilled on it during the painting process. It's not very noticeable in the pics I posted here, because I resized them to a smaller size before posting, but if you look closely you can see a yellow spot in the top right of the cell that looks like it's the same paint that was used for the yellow rectangle in Megatron's lower torso. The spilled yellow paint at the top looks darker, but that's due to the flash used when I made this photograph. IRL it looks exactly the same.

There are two letter/number combos written in black ink at the top of the frame. From what I can see those are '293' (I think) and 'B5'. I can also see two rectangular perforations along the top on each side of the cell and a circular perforation in the middle. This would probably allow for the cell to be held in place accurately during photography?? (just guessing here, I should probably do some Wiki'ing on how 80s cartoon were actually made).

edit: @ megagene: Thanks !

If my memory serves me right, it looks to be from the season 1 episode "Fire in the Sky".

Jedi Kermit wrote:If my memory serves me right, it looks to be from the season 1 episode "Fire in the Sky".

I just checked that specific episode and I couldn't match it to this cell. It does have a scene that looks like it around the 8 minute mark where Megatron says "Hail Cybertron" to Skyfire. Maybe that's what you remembered.

so far this is the closest I can come up with so far, it is from "War of the Dinobots". research will continue....

Jedi Kermit wrote:so far this is the closest I can come up with so far, it is from "War of the Dinobots". research will continue....

Jedi Kermit, you rule! It is just a few frames after the one you found. It's around 13:39 minutes into episode 10 of season 1. I made a screen cap. I was frantically scanning all season 1 episodes (including this one) but totally missed this sequence.

In the mean time I got in touch with the owner of the Transformers Cel Arkive. (I hope he doesn't mind me mentioning his comments or his site). He basically confirmed it was an authentic cell and that he had seen other pieces from that sequence. He has a very nice collection of very rare TF G1 cells. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post URLs here, but if you Google "Transformers Cel Arkive" you'll find it as the first hit. If you're interested in TF G1 cells, it is one of the very few places on the internets to find some background info on them (and the cell gallery itself is a trip).

Thanks for thinking with me!

Transformers G1 animation cell (identified!!)
I am a private collecter of 80's animation cels. I Drop me a line anyone else collects. You can email me at productioncels@gmail.com
Thanks
Frank