The Energon Pub

For me it was a re-awakening of a love I had as a child. Growing up as an only child, having the toys that I had gave me that companionship I was missing not having a sibling. I would spend hours playing with my TFs', transforming them and having them crush my Micro Machines in their huge robot wars. More countless hours spent watching the cartoons and then, along comes the movie! Wow I was in love. I can still watch it to this day and feel the same way i did 20 some odd years ago. Time went on and like most I lost my beloved collection(if I remember correctly, I had about 75% of them)to probably the biggest childhood killer of toy collections the world knows...divorce. Everything gone. Not even a mini-bot left. That did it, I lost all interest in the one thing that brought me the most joy.
Flash forward to 1995(I believe), enter the Beast Wars. Now being in high school, watching cartoons was the most uncool thing you could do, let alone collect toys, but there was something special about BW.
Compelling storylines and characters, it was great! Yet I hid my liking for this show, there were more important things to do like impress your friends and so on, so again my interest faded...
More fast-forwarding, and BAM!, I find my self in a Target with my fiance(yea we jumped quite a few chapters there )looking in the action figure aisle, looking for a toy for my soon to be step-son,
and there hanging on a peg hook was Classics Rodimus. WOW! I instantly felt like a kid again! I never had Hot Rod
I was hooked, but not quite reeled in. Don't get me wrong, I still bought the figure but, I was about to start a family, can I really see myself collecting again? Rodimus sat on a shelf w/TIT Unicron for quite sometime. Alone. Then with talks of a new live action movie and confided in my wife the love I once had for these..robots.
And you know what, she encouraged me to get back into it!(yup she's cool like dat!). After seeing the movie for the first time, on the big screen, all those emotions of a time forgotten all came flooding back. So here we are today, I'm in love again with something I thought was gone forever(like my G1s ).Well I think I've bored you all enough,so that's it. Call it what you will, an attempt to be a kid again,the smell of a fresh, minty fig, the enginering, it's all of that and more.So thats why I collect...why do you?

When I was a kid I had several Transformers but I never got them often enough to complete a combiner set. That was something I always wanted to do. So when I was much older and R.I.D. Ruination came out, I bought the whole set and from there kinda got hooked.

the real reason I still collect them: I just like to play with them.

I use Transformers in all of my interior decorating. I like it. It's nice.

Because I'm a child in a man's body, and I have never lost the sense of excitement I get on buying a new TF.

I was given my first transformer on my first day of school in 1985, I haven't stopped collecting since.

I love the engineering involved in the toys (the masterpiece/alternators knocked my socks off), and the characters bring me back to my childhood.

Ever since I was a kid I've always loved things with multiple functionalities. Whether that stems from my love of Transformers or vice versa, I don't know. I was born a bit too late to enjoy the boom, but I still had a bunch of toys and loved the animated movie. I still remember being 5 years old, wanting Powermaster Optimus Prime more than anything in the world, and finally getting it on Christmas morning.

Eventually those toys got broken and lost or buried away in boxes with the rest of my childhood toys. My Ninja Turtles were given away, but luckily not the Transformers. They just sat, hidden away, forgotten.

Beast Wars came, but that wasn't Transformers to me. Sure they were robots that changed, but into furry/scaly animals? Munky? Optimus Prime was a trukk, everyone knows that.

Several years later, when the internet (or rather my access to it) was still fairly new to me , I searched Transformers, and discovered the Robots in Disguise line. Transformers had finally returned to what I had loved! But alas, the resurgence of interest was not to be satisfied. I was a young high school student from a poorer family with no job of my own. All I could do was print pictures of the toys I wished I could buy, and dig out my old battered G1s from their hiding.

More years passed (luckily passing by Armada), and I eventually moved out on my own. Once again the internet proved a useful tool, and I discovered 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime, and the beginning of the Alternators line. I was blown away. 20th Prime was the epitome of a perfect Optimus Prime, everything any kid had ever wanted. I didn't think I'd ever find it, or be able to afford my own. I began making trips to my local Toys R Us and collecting the Alternators and G1 Reissues, which were in full swing. I had missed the first couple waves of the latter, but it was still enough, and I was hooked. My collection went from a few broken old G1s to several more brand new Alts & Reissues within months.

Then finally one day I was visiting the TRU to see if there was anything new, and there he was... 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime in all his glory. Mine for the taking. I had rent to pay, and this figure was a lot of money. I knew I shouldn't, but I had to. I couldn't pass this one up. That same 5 year old kid who wanted his PM Prime so badly just couldn't let me walk away. And so there he was, the newest addition, still the jewel of my collection to this day, despite many more rare, impressive or sentimentally-valued figures.

Soon the Reissue line dwindled, and my attention turned to Energon. The rest is history. 120+ figures and counting!

To this day, every new purchase is full of anticipation and excitement, whether it be waiting for that package in the mail or getting home fast to open and start transforming. That 5 year old kid is still alive and well inside me, and I suspect he always will be.

My life changed when I was given Hound for Christmas back in the 80s. I saved all my pocket money for more figures (they last longer than sweets) and always asked for as many TFs as poss for birthday and Christmas. I even got TFs at easter instead of eggs. I stopped collecting because I was frustrated at the lack of articulation.
Beast Wars intrigued me but I didn't like the robot modes much - it's only recently that I've realised you have to treat them as beasts with beast-like robot modes. I picked up four toys and left it. I won a Beast Machines Mirage from a prize draw card in a VHS Beast Wars video (the q: name the leader of the Decepticons) but as his legs are so badly out of proportion I still wasn't impressed.
Over a year ago I heard the TF 86 movie theme tune, downloaded the soundtrack, accidentally bought reissue Soundwave (I never had the original cos he wasn't available in UK) and then I discovered Classics Starscream. The poseablity astounded me - finally they make TFs how they should be.
I still have my 42-strong G1 collection, mostly mint, despite all the playtime we had together but now my collection is over 100-strong and growing (five more winging their way from Asia as I type).

kirbenvost wrote: That 5 year old kid is still alive and well inside me, and I suspect he always will be.

Dealer wrote:
Seems silly to stop what I've been doing for so long now.

I'm hoping I'll always keep my love for them cos otherwise I've spent an awful lot of money on something rather silly...

Impulse.

I loved the show as a kid, but grew up in a very poor family so never had the toys - fast forward abit and I'm 23 with abit of disposible income each week, I spot the 20th Anniversary Prime in a store - bought it just as a silly thing to have, next thing you know I get curious about what TF's are like these days, go on the net and see that classics and G1 reissues are avalible and start buying a few each month.

I was 14 when Transformers came out. I saw Skywarp in the Kay-Bee Toys at the mall and HAD to have him! I was a HUGE fan of the F-15, and a purple and black one would look great with the rest of the ones I had. As soon as he came out of the box, I was hooked! That bad boy NEVER saw alt. mode much after that! Then the show aired for the first time! The hook was now set! I watched it religiously (would even play hooky from church to watch it, since it came on at 8am on Sunday mornings at that time...a HUGE sin in my parents' house!)....then came the Marvel comics, and by this time I was hopeless for Transformers! I did the unthinkable to get them...I watched other peoples' spawn for money! It's a dirty job, but I needed my "plastic crack"! I was a RABID collector of the toys til 1989..when I started noticing what I saw as a decline in quality TFs...alt. modes got intolerable, robot modes seemed downright hideous to me, and the gimmicks (HeadMasters and TargetMasters specifically) were insufferable to me!.....The colors set my teeth grinding the most! Those day-glo colors just were WRONG! Thus ended that realm of my collecting, and all my TFs went from shelves into storage boxes.

Fast forward to 1993. I saw no point in keeping all my G1s just rotting away in boxes, so I started selling them...en masse...for CHEAP! I sold all the ones that I really could not care less about...the ones I kept were either sentimentally charged for me or I just liked them in general, and this number was about 20 or so that remained with me.

In 1996, when Beast Wars came out, I still found myself wandering the toy aisles at the stores, scanning the new crop of TFs to come out. I saw the Beast Wars line and about threw up a bit in my mouth! They were HIDEOUS! I hated every single one of those bastardized versions of TFs (I still do not care for the BW toys, but some of them actually grew on me....my ex-husband was a BW toy collector)..and never purchased ANY of them. Still disillisioned was I!

2006. Once again, I find myself wandering the toy aisles at Wal Mart and saw some of the figures in the newer lines (Classics perhaps, memory foggy.). Not bad, I thought....maybe, just maybe there was life left in TFs for me. I didn't buy the figure, though! Instead, I went home and started scanning the net for TF-related stuff, in toys, shows, and comics...and, once again, that hook set!

Present day. I am making up for all those TF-less years by buying TFs as often as finances permit..My collection is small, but I am loving each and every one of them as I did with all my beloved G1s as a young teen. It's kinda strange, being almost 40, having a living room that is being slowly overrun with Decepticons! My friends and family think I have gone 'round the bend! Some people collect angels, John Deere memorabilia, sports stuff, and whatnot....I collect robots that turn into neat stuff with a few motions and, sometimes, a touch of cursing!

I grew up poor and my friend had a optims prime I wanted so bad. He wanted to sell me the toy for 13 dollars and I could not afford it. I grew up always remembering that toy and how badly I wanted it. Fast forward to late 06. A guy on the Evolution boards was selling about 10 of the Takara book reissues. I bought those completed the takara collection and have not looked back. Recently I have been buying Diaclones but they are wallet drainers. I collect because I have never stopped loving the toys. Plus it is alot of fun!

In 1984, I turned 7 years old. On my birthday I got a G1 Mirage, Wheeljack, Gears, Brawn and Windcharger. I instantly fell in love with the idea of changeable robots. By 10 years of age, my father gave all of my toys away because he said I was too old and I needed to concentrate on girls. I bought my last G1 TF. Action Master Starscream and quit collecting for over 15 years, when I noticed Classics Voyager Class Optimus Prime at Kmart. I bought it and decided to start collecting again.

Mykltron wrote:
Over a year ago I heard the TF 86 movie theme tune, downloaded the soundtrack, accidentally bought reissue Soundwave (I never had the original cos he wasn't available in UK)

Soundwave was definitely available in the UK. My parents wouldn't have known how to import him in the mid-80s. Mine came from Argos, IIRC.

I was almost 6 years old when G1 came out. While I was a kid, I had 7 Transformers. My first one was Skywarp, which my mom mistaken for Starscream but oh well. I still accepted the figure. Slight fast forward to 1986, the movie has killed my love because my region took the series off the air. There was no more for me but the 7 figures were placed in the attic.

Fast forward to March 2007, I was doing a project for a college class about what movies that teenagers would like to watch. This is when I came across Transformers again. You can probably guess what I found. Then in June, I am across an Alternators Bluestreak/Silverstreak on Amazon and I got him for several reasons: 1) my love for TFs was resparking and 2)I thought it was kind of cool that they made one into a Subaru, which I have in real life. I started collecting a few every month. In September, I went home to visit my parents and I went straight to the attic and got the original 7 that were in my family. The figures were placed in my collection.

I love jets, planes, helicopters and robots. I got sideswipe as a child and I love starscream. So, I collect mostly things pretaining to him. It's just a love and a passion.

I was born in the middle of the "Beast" era of TF's (mid-1990's), and I just thought that Transformers were stupid (yes, I said TF's are stupid, but I was probably 3 at the time!). Then I went with my mom to the local Hollywood video (against my will) and discovered the complete G1 series on VHS. Instantly deciding that this "new" series looked alot better than BW because one of the covers had a steam-locomotive robot (Astrotrain), and I liked trains ever since I got a little Brio set, so I asked my mom to borow the tape for me. Turns out the staff at the video rental place got the G1 tapes mixed up, and so the very first episode of G1 I ever saw was "S.O.S. Dinobots". My 5 year old mind had absolutley no clue what the hell had happened except robots duking it out to the death, and so I became a little Transfan for a little while, although I still had no toys, and I gradually lost interest in TF's.

Untill Armada. When I saw the adds for Armada, my love for TF's came back into focus. I also was kinda into pokemon, too, so the whole "mini-con collecting" thing really apealed to me. Then I went and bought my first TF: Hot Shot. The articulation really didn't matter to me, because it was a transformer, and he had a bazooka straped to his back. I got a few more Armada figures, and even an Energon Omnicon (the Jeep one), but the increading crappidity of the show put me off, and the last figure I bought for a long while was Alternator Hound.

THe seccond rebirth of my Transfanism was when I discovered my Bio-lab-partner was a TF fan too, only he had a TF from EVERY line. He also gave me my first G1 figure: 2003 Re-issue Prowl. Since then My collection has grown tremendously to the great number of 62 individual figures. I plan on getting even more though

For me collecting is about reliving memories of the show even though I have them on dvd and have since their release it's fun to relive them in my mind too.

I never had but a handful of the toys when I was growing up as we lived five miles outside of town and it was a one red light town in the center of townin the beginning and living where we were was and still is considered "the sticks".

I would ride my bike downtown to see if there were any more TF's on the local store shelves but they were always picked clean and getting anything more took weeks or months at best.

I've been collecting for over four and a half years now, mostly a G1 collection and I want nothing less than a complete G1 series of figures although the animated show and toy line looks pretty interesting.

It was just something different in the beginning, something unique so I was hooked on it.

I can easily credit my love for the Transformers to my older brother, i myself was only one year old when Transformers arrived in the Western world whereas my brother was eleven years old. He taped almost every Generation One episode, some of which my dad still has stored away somewhere and subsequently made sure to drum a love for Transformers into me as i grew older. My favorite Transformer is and always has been Optimus Prime.

As far as the toys were concerned, my brother was more into his football (soccer) than playing with toys, i on the other hand loved toys as a child but can not recall having very many Transformers. I have memories of having Dragstrip, Targetmaster Crosshairs (stolen by a cousin) and what i considered the best toy ever, Powermaster Optimus Prime. I didn't care that he was a brick, he was my first Prime and i still have him to this day but sadly he is in pretty poor condition. I recall my dad coming home with Grimlock in a bag but to my disappointment he was not for me, another cousin had been hit by a car and Grimlock was for him, i did not begrudge my cousin getting him.

Fast forward through my teenage years and into 2004 where all my toys disappeared into storage or destruction my biggest urk being my entire Visionaries collection which i cannot recall ever throwing out but alas, i have never seen any of them since i was about twelve years old. I was in a Forbidden Planet in my city center (Glasgow, Scotland) and spotted the Transformer that i had ALWAYS wanted and here he was in absolutely amazing Japanese packaging was the Takara book reissue of Optimus Prime, myself being a graphic designer, i loved everything about the book collections' packaging, the art was exceptional, easily the best reissue line (although Encore is quickly catching up due to the figures on their way). Sixty pounds later and going by todays prices for Book #0 a snip later and i finally had Optimus Prime.


Book Reissue Soundblaster and Rodimus soon followed, my girlfriend at the time adding Tracks in 2005. I went to University in England but had quite a torrid time of it due to deaths in the family and my relationship breaking down completely, i was off back to my family in Scotland, i immersed myself in a nightshift job and freelance graphic design, giving myself disposable income but no personal life. At the time, i was pretty down but something was about to totally take my mind off all my troubles and just give me a bit of enjoyment amidst a lot of hard times brought on by bad luck and unforseen circumstances, that of course was the Transformers.

I had missed Beast Wars, RID, Armada, Energon and Cybertron was the series at the time, it was having a look at transformers.com that showed me the Transformer that got me back into collecting, 20th anniversary Optimus Prime. My Powermaster Prime had always had a place in my childhood but here was quite simply the greatest Transformer i had ever seen, so i ordered him from Toysrus.co.uk and was subsequently blown away, i then discovered the Alternators and thus began collecting.

Now i have changed jobs, back on daytime, working a part-time job to pay the rent and bills, doing some freelance design work and definitely content in my life. Just about to reach the 150 mark, i am currently on the hunt to complete the Alternators/Binaltech lines (expensive but 3 away from finishing Alts, just about halfway BT) I own a variety of Transformers reaching from Generation One, Micron Legend, Superlink, Robots in Disguise, Galaxy Force and the Movie and to be honest could not be happier, i realize that this has been quite a looooong retort but in all honesty i collect Transformers because they are something that bring me great personal enjoyment and to be honest i would not change the way things were when i began collecting because i probably would have spent my money on therapy instead lol

Well it started when I had a bad case of the flu the kind were your puke up your guts and a friend of mine who happens to be a girl brought me a gift to make me feel better it was armada unicron. Well I have been collecting ever since and when there aren't any tf I want I move over to 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe.

i grew up in the end of RID. i wasn't interested. i didn't watch the show and i had just moved. i wanted what i now know as skybite. my mom went to the toystore and ask the clerk about it. he said they break a lot. so she didn't buy me it. so i 3 (or 4) years later (energon time) i saw a spychanger mirage at CVS. so i asked my mom to buy it, she did. ever since then i have been hooked. i bought them to play with, but now i buy them for display and stopmotions, too. i recently bought a MP skywarp and i got a THS02B for my birthday. yaya! i love G1. i also got Grimlockbot (member here) hooked on TFs. cool.

greencobra65 wrote:i grew up in the end of RID. i wasn't interested. i didn't watch the show and i had just moved. i wanted what i now know as skybite. my mom went to the toystore and ask the clerk about it. he said they break a lot. so she didn't buy me it. so i 3 (or 4) years later (energon time) i saw a spychanger mirage at CVS. so i asked my mom to buy it, she did. ever since then i have been hooked. i bought them to play with, but now i buy them for display and stopmotions, too. i recently bought a MP skywarp and i got a THS02B for my birthday. yaya! i love G1. i also got Grimlockbot (member here) hooked on TFs. cool.

I caught a little bit of the show but could never really get in to it but Skybite was so screwed up but in a good way...I mean a flying shark that looked like he was made of scrap metal junk...wow they were on some drugs when they thought that character up lol but it was so bizare I had to get one and Skybite is still sealed in his box and part of my collection.

As a kid I was a huge fan of transformers, I was also interested in dinosaurs as well so the dinobots were huge favourites of mine.

I managed to get Slag, Sludge and Grimlock as presents and I remember going to Woolworths and looking at Snarl every week until he was sold. I had no hope of getting Swoop as he wasn't released in the UK.

Fast forward several years and a CD and video sale at Uni and they had a few of the original episodes on tape. I snapped them up and it became a weekly tradition for me and my housemate to trawl through second-hand shops trying to find more episodes.

Then I made the leap - I decided to complete my set of dinobots that I had so wanted as a child. That was it, the Takara reissues started coming out, 'I'll just get Prime and Megatron' lasted about 5 minutes and so I ended up getting them all.

I've now extended my interest to other lines but I'm a G1 fan at heart. I think ultimately I collect because I needed a hobby, something to distract myself with and those cool transforming dinosaurs from my childhood fitted the bill perfectly.

It beats smoking crack. Oh, that and I really like Transformers.

Sledge wrote:Because I'm a child in a man's body, and I have never lost the sense of excitement I get on buying a new TF.

Wow, so true, couldn't have said it better!