My Generation 1 Transformers Collection

[shadowz]

This thread is amazing, Mar could you tell me why the version of Slag I've had since a kid is green?

[DeeK]

It's probably regular slag, and not Canadian slag.

[Mar]

Originally posted by shadowz
This thread is amazing, Mar could you tell me why the version of Slag I've had since a kid is green?

It's Generation 2, not Generation 1. In the mid 1990s Hasbro re-released some of their Generation 1 figures with different colour schemes, including 3 of the 5 Dinobots:
Grimlock - grey
Grimlock - dark blue
Grimlock - turquoise (extremely rare)
Snarl - gray (rare)
Snarl - red
Snarl - green (rare)
Slag - red
Slag - green

Sorry but it's very common, just another regular toy. Without weapons maybe worth $15-$20. Still a neat display piece though. And that Grimlock on your bed would sell in an instant, there is no shortage of people looking for that figure. Everyone that comes to check out my sale lot always asks me if I have one.

[403Gemini]

Looking at this makes me sad for seeing how many of these I had as a kid and treated like complete crap while playing with them.

Snapped one of Scorponok's claws, broke the guns on Trypticon's shoulders, Ripped the yellow tape deck cover off Blaster's chest, etc.

Amazing collection man!

[Mar]

Thanks! I'll post a couple of more I picked up at the Calgary Expo 2 weeks ago. I specifically went looking for Transformers and Nintendo games, it didn't disappoint.

I found a guy with a couple of plastic bins of stuff and his prices seemed reasonable so I stood there for about 20 minutes and went through every figure in the bin, most of which I already had. However I didn't have any of these, they're called Minispies. In 1985 Hasbro re-released their Minibots (Cliffjumper, Bumblebee, Brawn....) with little smaller cars called Minispies. They were called that because you had to rub their symbol in order to tell if they were an Autobot or Decepticon. They came in 4 different vehicle types (only 1 type pictured here) and multiple different colours (2 colours pictured here). And of course each one could come in either Autobot or Decepticon so there were quite a few to collect. I managed to get these for $5 each, they're worth about $10 - $15 each. Oh and when you pull them back, they'll race across the floor!





Then I found a guy selling the cassettes, he must have had 50 of them. One in particular I didn't have (the only one) was Overkill so I picked him up too. He originally came with 2 guns for the same side but I had a weekend pass so I went back the next day and exchanged for 2 proper guns for him.





There was another table where a guy was selling all knock offs, you can buy pretty much any Transformer new in the box but it was a knock off, reverse engineered by third party companies in China. So I bought this Bumblebee for $16.



And then I spotted this, my haul of the weekend. There are 3 Headmasters I don't have. One is a $1000 Fortress Maximus, and the other 2 are triple changers, Snapdragon and Apeface. I picked up this Apeface figure off a table and even though it was missing the most expensive part, the head, I asked him how much and he said $20. I figured the shield on the back is worth at least that (actually it's worth $40-$50) so I said I'd take it. Just at that moment I shook it and heard a rattling inside. When I looked in the cockpit, there was the head! SOLD!

Plane mode with the head:



Robot mode:



Ape mode:

[shadowz]

Thanks for letting me know I've just always wondered throughout the years. Like yourself I have no interest in selling

[Mar]

I finally got it, the mecca of Transformers collecting. If anyone has one of these sitting in their basement I'll buy it from you right now. This is the one I picked up yesterday from the post office.

[Khyron]

Snapdragon? I had him - pretty sure he was on the table when you were over. Doh!

[Mar]

Originally posted by Khyron


Snapdragon? I had him - pretty sure he was on the table when you were over. Doh!

You probably sold it for $30 and now I'm trying to find it for under $100. There are a lot of things I wish I had bought from you. And a lot of things I'm extremely glad I bought which got me closer to completion, Megatron was one. Many of my friends have asked me to try and find them a Megatron, he's a hard one to come by because you can't ship it across the border. Also Sunstreaker, Mirage and Bruticus. I know I passed on Menasor and Broadside, I ended up paying a lot for those after. And Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime. Oh man, don't remind me. Do you still have the comics? I've been thinking I should buy those from you and actually sit down and read them. Then of course add them to the collection.

[Khyron]

Well at least I put the ones I wanted to keep on a shelf instead of in a box in the garage. Jetfire stays with the Robotech stuff. :P

[em2ab]

Nice collection

[Wakalimasu]

I got some of my own as well lol But I collect every line so I have like 70% - 90% of everything transformers.

[AudiPWR]

What would this collection sell for on ebay?

[Mar]

I decided to do some photo shoots of everything for a web project I'm working on, if people here enjoy them I'll keep posting more. Let me know, so far I started with Optimus today. I don't have a proper lighting box nor do I have a proper camera. This is a piece of bristle board taped to the wall and my phone.

Name: Optimus Prime
Release Year: 1984
Rarity (1-10): 2
Alternate Mode: Mid-90s Peterbilt 4964EX Tanker Truck

So here he is with all his weapons. There's the main figure, the trailer, Roller with gas hose and 4 missiles.


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A front view of the trailer. It opens up to feature a repair bay as well as attack pod and Roller, a small 6 wheel vehicle which hides inside Prime's trailer.


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Top down view. The black missiles plug into the front of the attack pod and you can press release mechanisms to get them to fire out. This was back when toys still had spring loaded mechanisms, that has since changed after too many kids got hurt. Even the later Transformers had them removed.


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There is a black plastic piece at the base of the attack pod which can push Roller out of the trailer but sadly since it has been compressed for 25 years, the spring no longer works on mine. I press the button and nothing happens, this is common for old toys, this and corroded batteries in the battery compartments.


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This is how it's meant to be displayed though a lot of people have never seen it set up this way.


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Transformed with all weapons.


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A lot of people don't know this but Hasbro is still making Transformers and more importantly they're still making variations of the original versions. Here is one from the Masterpiece line released just a couple of years ago, all the die-cast pieces are still die-cast and it is very heavy.


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The miniature one on the end is one which was originally sold on Ebay by a Chinese member named HeroToyMaker but I haven't seen him around Ebay in a while, my guess is he was sent a cease and desist letter. The total price for this toy was $1 + $14 shipping. The transformation is nearly identical. There is also an official Hasbro released miniature almost the same but it doesn't have the trailer and the gun is slightly different. I like this one more.


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That concludes my collection of Optimus Primes, now I'll show some variants which were available back in the day and are very rare now. I don't own any of these.

Pepsi Prime available as a promotional mail away order:





There was also a very early version where they were using red feet instead of blue, the only picture I can find of this one is a broken one missing its head:



And lastly there was a version with die-cast inner parts in the trailer, I've never seen one of these. They look exactly like the original except the trailer sides are metal.

And a side fact, Optimus Prime was modelled after its Japanese counterpart whose name was Convoy. Here is a photo of Convoy:



If anyone was wondering what the cockpit in the attack pod was for, it was because the Japanese Diaclone line where our Transformers originated originally came with little drivers to go in there. Many of the Transformers had these little cockpits, most notably the cars and the backs of the Dinobots. When they were brought to North America the drivers were not included.


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Let me know if you want to see more.

[Ven]

This reminds me I need to sell all my Gen 1 stuff.

[Mar]

Originally posted by Ven
This reminds me I need to sell all my Gen 1 stuff.

I'll buy it depending on what it is. Or tell you a value for it.

[Ven]

Originally posted by Mar


I'll buy it depending on what it is. Or tell you a value for it.

JetFire
Mirage
Thrust
Grimlock
And I'm sure a few others. I'll get them all out of storage soon, along with my StarWars stuff, and post it all up so beyonders get first pick.

[Mar]

Originally posted by Ven


JetFire
Mirage
Thrust
Grimlock
And I'm sure a few others. I'll get them all out of storage soon, along with my StarWars stuff, and post it all up so beyonders get first pick.

Jetfire can be as high as $150 but that's only if it's white, most white Transformers have turned yellow/brown from UV light over the last 25 years. It's very hard to find a white Jetfire. It would also need all parts including the black gun clip which is the most expensive part. It will also lose value if it has been stored for too long with the landing gear retracted and it doesn't spring out any more.
There is also a very rare version of Jetfire which has missiles for the gun, the consensus from the collector community is that it was available only as a Consumers Distributing exclusive and is extremely rare.

Mirage is often broken in half at the waist, there's a small peg connecting the two and when people rotate it at the waist they often force it and break it. It's so easy to do that I broke mine a couple of years ago and had to replace it. If yours is unbroken and has all the weapons with good chrome it can go for $70.

Thrust has a lot of detachable weapons including lots of little wing pieces and varying little missiles and lasers which often get cracked off. If complete it can go for $45.

Grimlock has a gun, missile launcher, sword and 4 chrome missiles. If he's complete and the chrome is good it can go around $70.

It's unlikely that you have al the weapons but if you do, I'll give you half price for all of them, and yes I will be reselling them for a profit. I'm being completely honest here. All of them except Jetfire, I have a friend whom is willing to pay full price for one if it's in good condition.

If you have the boxes for any I'll take those and put them straight into my collection. I don't have boxes for any of those.

[Ven]

Originally posted by Mar


Jetfire can be as high as $150 but that's only if it's white, most white Transformers have turned yellow/brown from UV light over the last 25 years. It's very hard to find a white Jetfire. It would also need all parts including the black gun clip which is the most expensive part. It will also lose value if it has been stored for too long with the landing gear retracted and it doesn't spring out any more.
There is also a very rare version of Jetfire which has missiles for the gun, the consensus from the collector community is that it was available only as a Consumers Distributing exclusive and is extremely rare.

Mirage is often broken in half at the waist, there's a small peg connecting the two and when people rotate it at the waist they often force it and break it. It's so easy to do that I broke mine a couple of years ago and had to replace it. If yours is unbroken and has all the weapons with good chrome it can go for $70.

Thrust has a lot of detachable weapons including lots of little wing pieces and varying little missiles and lasers which often get cracked off. If complete it can go for $45.

Grimlock has a gun, missile launcher, sword and 4 chrome missiles. If he's complete and the chrome is good it can go around $70.

It's unlikely that you have al the weapons but if you do, I'll give you half price for all of them, and yes I will be reselling them for a profit. I'm being completely honest here. All of them except Jetfire, I have a friend whom is willing to pay full price for one if it's in good condition.

If you have the boxes for any I'll take those and put them straight into my collection. I don't have boxes for any of those.

I'm fairly sure I'll have all the missiles and guns, I was fussy about that as a kid. My Jetfire is white and shoots missiles. He was from Consumers Distributing in Brentwood, as were all the others. That was my favourite store as a kid, loved that catalogue haha. My Mirage is't broken. Anyway I'll put up a bunch of pics when I have all this shit ready.

[n1zm0]

This thread makes me think about a transformer I got as a kid, both of them are somewhere in a box in my basement, probably a bit scuffed up, but can anyone tell me what it's worth in terms of mid grade condition?

This particular one I remember, the transformer could fit into the car carrier after the fact that it became a transformer, a transformer in another transformer essentially like an exoskeleton, it was bought when I was a kid so afaik not a reproduction according to brief google research on it:


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edit: the blue and red one in the top right in Khyron's post!


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