Aren't Transformers nice!

Figures, collectables, customs and collecting.
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Auntie Slag
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Aren't Transformers nice!

Post by Auntie Slag »

Were you ever put off buying a Transformer because of something superficial? I was:

Wheelie's gimpy hunchback. Arms that looked like his mum had knitted his jumper sleeves too long and a toilet seat lid to cover his face... And that was before seeing the movie.

Kup similarly was too pastelly blue with a bored expression and a dull helmet.

Blurr was a top-heavy triangle in robot mode.

The Pretenders were the nail in the coffin of Transformers for me. I hated, HATED those things. It was like your favourite band losing all credibility.

... And Misfire was pink.

To counter this, I had a fascination for Gnaw, despite his pinkness and oompa-loompah stylings. He'd gone so far off the deep end of crapness he'd come back around and looked rather endearing and fun.
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Denyer
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Post by Denyer »

Not so much superficial... the movie designs were mostly big chunky tat, viewed against the engineering of earlier moulds. Still have a soft spot for TM Hot Rod, though.

I love Repugnus. He's crap, in a YS funky skillo sort of way. Wouldn't have looked twice at the figure as a kid, although liked the Marvel profile.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Some of the Autobots are fairly nice, but the Decepticons are, on the whole, mean and nasty.
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Clay
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Post by Clay »

Yeah! I had the full set of Stunticons back in the day. They were cars, like the Autobots, but they were bad guys! And they combined together into one huge bad guy! Wheeljack had to look out then!
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Thunderwave
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Post by Thunderwave »

Not so much as a kid, but there have been a few that put me off since I started collecting again. Never the colors though, but I'm partial to mental color schemes as it is (Prime Dead End, Generations Dreadwing, the FoC Combaticons).
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Dead Man Wade
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Post by Dead Man Wade »

I passed on a lot of the stranger toys when I was younger, a la Headmasters and Targetmasters, because they seemed strange and upsetting and I just couldn't handle it. These days, I love all the gimmicky stuff, and I regret not picking them up when I had the chance.

Actionmasters, though, have no excuse. They're scum.
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Tetsuro
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Post by Tetsuro »

When I was a kid, I passed on a Diaclone Browning, thinking it was a crappy Megatron knockoff. :(
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

I don't think it was the colours or gimmicks that put me off so much as Transformers stopped looking good around 1988. The stock market collapse a year previous and the recession - then as now - really impacted on the quality of Transformers. The chunky but fun colourful designs of 1987s Headmasters and Targetmasters gave way to smaller, more cheaply produced and less detailed versions of the same and Hasbro went on a gimmick spree seemingly to cover up that Transformers had stopped looking as good as they used to.

That said, I have a huge soft spot for Submarauder, the only Pretender I ever owned as I thought he was great and it was quite neat to have an accessory that didn't have to set around in a heap.

In later years, I've not been put off because of superficial reasons, but often wished I had been. BM Mega Cheetor was awful, as was RiD Bruticus, a ton of the Movie toys all toys that outwardly sold how crap they were but I still picked them up to confirm that, yes, they really are as terrible as they look.
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calvin_0
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Post by calvin_0 »

Bayformer Arcee.. nerf say.. as much as I love Arcee, I'll never touch that abomination with a 10 foot pole..
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electro girl
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Post by electro girl »

As a kid Beast Wars Fuzors really irked me, they just didn't seem right. Its an opinion I don't hold now but I distinctly remember standing in a toy shop and being disgusted at Silverbolt and was perhaps the nicest looking one.
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Skyquake87
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Post by Skyquake87 »

You've just made Injector cry with that remark.
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another tf fan
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Post by another tf fan »

Skyquake87 wrote:I don't think it was the colours or gimmicks that put me off so much as Transformers stopped looking good around 1988. The stock market collapse a year previous and the recession - then as now - really impacted on the quality of Transformers.
You know, I never considered the recession part.

Fascinating the ramifications it may have had.
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Vehicon Mike
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Post by Vehicon Mike »

I have the Kreo version of Misfire, and he's red.
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