The Energon Pub

When I first got back into collecting Transformers it was at the end of Beast Wars/Machines ... that little gap between the Beast era and R.i.D.

Like every generation, kids got older, they toys got thrown out. But back in those days, people were starting to cash in on E-Bay. And that's where a lot of my non-G1 collection came from. I remember finding a MASSIVE Beast Wars auction one day. It was a big box, all of them in various states of dismemberment. Suffice to say, I spent many hours putting them back together. It was great fun!

Fast forward to today, another box of junk Transformers arrived today. Actually I should be specific, it was a BAG of junk Transformers. The woman couldn't even find a box for it, she dumped all the parts in a garbage bag, wrapped some bubble wrap around it, then dumped it in another garbage bag and posted it to me. Amazingly it arrived intact.

I knew what it was, my five year old Bumblebee crazy nephew didn't so I let him sit on the bed and emptied the entire bag out in front of him.

The eyes went wide ... he thought it was great.

And then proceeded to grab the TF's he liked!

Suffice to say, we're talking a few kilograms of TF parts here. And my nephew swooped in and grabbed up those that he thought looked in tact.

Three hours later i've finished sorting. This little bag of TF junkers and parts set me back $80.\AU or so. And you know what I got of it?

Leader Class Cybertron Optimus Prime (one of the greatest Prime molds ever)
Alternators Silverstreak and Hound (missing their weapons)
Classics Bumblebee (missing jetski)
Cybertron Scattorshot
Cybertron Defense Hot Shot
Cybertron Landmine
Half a dozen complete mini-cons

Plus other Cybertron TF's that were missing a few parts, but my nephew still loves them, and some that can be used for spare parts later down the track. A few mini-cons that were missing limbs, again, good for spare parts.

All in all, a great haul and I had a blast sorting through all the bits and pieces putting them all back together.

Who needs to buy new when you can have so much fun like this?

@ Amelie.........are you willing to part with that Wheeljack? I'm game (seriously)

Though I haven't come across those types of goodie bags, I have recently made purchases from ebay that are pure win, not MISB but still in great condition under US$ 50.00

Examples: (all under US$ 50.00)all G1, with the exception of Fire Convoy.)

Car Robots Fire Convoy
3 Protectobots
Double dealer with some rusty pins and screws
2 Jumpstarters
Blurr
Countdown moon rover

Last year at Auto Assembly I bought a mint Best Wars Insecticon with weapon and all for 1 pound of the junker table.
Best purchase I did the whole weekend.

I Bought a week or 2 ago, A Huge box of junkers, and I got a total of 99 Transformers For 160 Bucks. 44 of them were complete, 45 were missing some parts here and there, and I also Got about 7 Complete Balls out Junkers. I Wont post the list unless you guys REALLY want to see it, but here are the pics. I can fit inside the box

Stixx

Buying lots rules. I'm not much for junkers myself, but I'll pick up parts lots for G1, keep the parts I want, and then sell the rest. I once won a G1 parts lot for less than $50, kept the pieces I needed (Menasor and Superion parts) and then sold the rest. All told I made about $300 between trades with Transformerland.com and eBay auctions, which of course I used to buy more toys.

Man I'd love to buy just a huge box like you guys, just for the fun of figuring out which part goes where and building the suckers.

Not really into junkers myself, I usually just buy the individual parts I'm missing.
I've seen a lot of 'junk' Lot's on eBay recently and they seem to go for stupid money in some cases. Can't really justify that kind of outlay on spare pieces. However Transformers restoration is personally rewarding, so I can certainly see the appeal.