Seibertron.com's 4,000th Transformers Toy Gallery will be posted Friday: which toy will be featured?

Stalker and the rest of the Predators!

The Motorvators including Big Motorvator

I'm more interested in what Seibertrons 1st gallery was.

[BW] Rainmaker wrote:I'm more interested in what Seibertrons 1st gallery was.

Just ask, and I'm sure you'll get your answer!

Gallery number #1 in the database is the following one, but I'm not sure if that is the actual first gallery uploaded.


Transformers Masterpiece Optimus Prime (MP-01) (Convoy (MP-01)) Gallery



As for the 4000th gallery, I knooooow already.

G1 Sixshot!!!!!

A non-specific lucky draw figure!

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:G1 Sixshot!!!!!

That would be pretty cool, actually.

SpikeyTigertron wrote:

All the Action Masters?

HA! I'd like to see that happen at some point, as I know we have some serious supporters of the line on here. Hiding.

Microraptor wrote:A non-specific lucky draw figure!

Oooh. Anything in mind you have specifically?

Dr Va'al wrote:

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:G1 Sixshot!!!!!

That would be pretty cool, actually.

SpikeyTigertron wrote:

All the Action Masters?

HA! I'd like to see that happen at some point, as I know we have some serious supporters of the line on here. Hiding.

Microraptor wrote:A non-specific lucky draw figure!

Oooh. Anything in mind you have specifically?

Gold Convoy maybe?

Also, I love action masters, and I shall hide no more!

Voyager class CW Alpha Bravo

Kyleor wrote:Voyager class CW Alpha Bravo

YEeeeeesssssss...

A whole gallery of Va'al's modeling portfolio?

I'm hoping for something Beast Warsy!

Cobotron wrote:A whole gallery of Va'al's modeling portfolio?

I'm hoping for something Beast Warsy!

How are the two different? (Rawr.)

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cobotron wrote:A whole gallery of Va'al's modeling portfolio?

I'm hoping for something Beast Warsy!

How are the two different? (Rawr.)

Good point there, Tiger!

Cobotron wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cobotron wrote:A whole gallery of Va'al's modeling portfolio?

I'm hoping for something Beast Warsy!

How are the two different? (Rawr.)

Good point there, Tiger!

The thread does say 'toy gallery' though, so probably not. I'll PM you.


What would be the most out-there suggestion for a gallery..?

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cobotron wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cobotron wrote:A whole gallery of Va'al's modeling portfolio?

I'm hoping for something Beast Warsy!

How are the two different? (Rawr.)

Good point there, Tiger!

The thread does say 'toy gallery' though, so probably not. I'll PM you.


What would be the most out-there suggestion for a gallery..?

The Transformers edition Chevy Camaro.

Grimlocks pretender shell!

Or maybe it's someone critical to both bw and the overall franchise, like... Retrax

Definitely, gotta be it, know it

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cobotron wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cobotron wrote:A whole gallery of Va'al's modeling portfolio?

I'm hoping for something Beast Warsy!

How are the two different? (Rawr.)

Good point there, Tiger!

The thread does say 'toy gallery' though, so probably not. I'll PM you.


What would be the most out-there suggestion for a gallery..?

Battle Beasts?

Microraptor wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cobotron wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cobotron wrote:A whole gallery of Va'al's modeling portfolio?

I'm hoping for something Beast Warsy!

How are the two different? (Rawr.)

Good point there, Tiger!

The thread does say 'toy gallery' though, so probably not. I'll PM you.


What would be the most out-there suggestion for a gallery..?

Battle Beasts?

OOOhhh ROCK LORDS!

Dr Va'al wrote:

Microraptor wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cobotron wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Cobotron wrote:A whole gallery of Va'al's modeling portfolio?

I'm hoping for something Beast Warsy!

How are the two different? (Rawr.)

Good point there, Tiger!

The thread does say 'toy gallery' though, so probably not. I'll PM you.


What would be the most out-there suggestion for a gallery..?

Battle Beasts?

OOOhhh ROCK LORDS!

Straight Gobots maybe?

One of those Takara releases that are near-identical to the Hasbro versions that already have a gallery!

The eerie Radz candy dispenser things that showed up at Five Below last year!

Something on the wiki's unfathomably obscure Holy Grails list!

Party supplies from after G1 but before G2 that for some reason uses really janky "new" art from an artist that clearly has no idea what they're drawing!

One of those weird looking plushes you can win at a shoreside arcade!

Some of these are really great suggestions. Sixshot is definitely on my short list for the ol' gallery treatment. I own all of the original Battle Beasts (complete!) and they are on my master plan for how to get to gallery #5,000 sooner than later, along with the Goldie figures, the Tiny Titans, and the G1 Decoys. All of those together should get me to gallery 4,200 pretty quick.

And Retrax. Definitely on the short list.

I think its gonna be Devastator. He was one of the biggest deals of all time in terms of hype and we got 2 different versions. We have yet to have a Seibertron galley fully comparing each component with the Takara one. That would be an epid 4000th gallery, at least I think so.

Also, while Sixshot wont be it, that would have been awesome too.

Bummed it's not Sixshot.

Um, I'm going with Grandus!

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Bummed it's not Sixshot.

Um, I'm going with Grandus!

WOW, that would be one heck of a gallery. I would love tosee a shot from Seibertron of the return fo convoy bases all connected.

I guess I'll take a stab in the dark and say advance copy of Titans Return Fortress Maximus. I feel like those Decepticon Headmasters were pulled out for a looming comparison gallery so it wouldn't surprise me if Hasbro sent over some early samples.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:I guess I'll take a stab in the dark and say advance copy of Titans Return Fortress Maximus. I feel like those Decepticon Headmasters were pulled out for a looming comparison gallery so it wouldn't surprise me if Hasbro sent over some early samples.

Emerje

Now that would be really cool. We've had it happen in the past, so I wouldn't put it past them!

Dr Va'al wrote:

Kyleor wrote:Voyager class CW Alpha Bravo

YEeeeeesssssss...

The limbs will be all AB repaints/remolds.

I'm pretty sure I was told what it was and forgot. I'm serious. That's actually cool, because now I can be in suspense!

I'm going to take "Conspicuously Absent Companion Gallery" for $200, Alex, and go with Artfire. The original.

Lucky Draw Arms Micron Hades

Actual guess: Prototype G1 Unicron in all of rotundity.

Some version of Bumblebee. It's obviously what the people want!

Mr Skram wrote:Some version of Bumblebee. It's obviously what the people want!

The HIVE will RETURN.

In a thrilling twist of events it's just a pile of figures that suffer from GPS. The many souls that were sacrificed to reach this point will be memorialized. Let their gold dust join Seibertron's greatest.
In all reality I feel it's going to either be the first Transformer that Mr. Seibertron himself got or some Lucky Draw figure.

Razorclaw0000 wrote:Lucky Draw Arms Micron Hades

Wait, he does actually own that, doesn't he?

It'll be a Gobot. Loco or Zod.

Dr Va'al wrote:

Razorclaw0000 wrote:Lucky Draw Arms Micron Hades

Wait, he does actually own that, doesn't he?

Yep, and we teased him for not assembling it himself. Scotty and I endured the anus-clenching terror of clipping off gold chromed plastic from sprues. His was preassembled and in top shape. At the end of the day, he's much smarter.

Razorclaw0000 wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:

Razorclaw0000 wrote:Lucky Draw Arms Micron Hades

Wait, he does actually own that, doesn't he?

Yep, and we teased him for not assembling it himself. Scotty and I endured the anus-clenching terror of clipping off gold chromed plastic from sprues. His was preassembled and in top shape. At the end of the day, he's much smarter.

You all got one?! Wow, where did you find yours and was it ultra pricey?

Flipping amazing! Keep pushing Ryan! Thank you for all you do. Seibertron til we die!!!!

Seibertron.com's 4,000th Gallery is none other than ... my actual very 1st Transformer!



Here we are at Seibertron.com's 4,000th Transformers toy gallery. No prototype. No rare figure. Nothing new. Nothing of particular interest, except maybe to me. It has historical significance to Seibertron.com and much personal significance to myself. Lo and behold, it's my first Transformer from 1984 who is none other than G1 Bumblebee. He's battle damaged, worn, has some extra paint apps, rust, a flat tire, a missing tire, a damaged tire, a stress mark, and more. You might be wondering what's so special about this run-down Transformers toy. Well, he's my very first Transformers toy that I got way back in 1984 at the age of 7. It marks the beginning of something major in my life which ultimately has led to this very moment years later with you reading an article that I'm writing on Seibertron.com, a website about Transformers toys that I created 16 years ago. It is the earliest physical representation I possess of the moment Transformers became of interest to me. Here all of us are on Seibertron.com, which winds back to that moment in time.


Pretty unremarkable, huh? Well, let me tell you a story or three ...

Like all of you, my collision course with our favorite robots that convert from one thing to another and back, has a beginning. With me, it was one fateful Saturday morning when I woke at the crack of dawn, turned on the television to discover another weekly installment of Saturday morning cartoons, when I came across a cartoon about those very robots. I was mesmerized by the Transformers. I don't recall much about watching that first episode but I swear I remember flipping the channel to Wheeljack and Bumblebee's opening scene in the first episode. Later that day, I begged and pleaded my Mom to take me to Toys R Us to get a Transformer toy. She did, and she bought me the Mini-Bot Bumblebee toy you see featured below and my brother took home a Windcharger (thanks Mom!). My earliest connection with the Transformers comic, that I remember, was my Dad buying me a copy of Transformers #4 at a Perry Drug store. Transformers had fully captivated my childhood imagination.

As you'll see from the pictures in this gallery, there are some "artistic" shots showing the wear in detail. Some of my favorite photography shots that came out of this were of the rust on the screws and the diecast piece on Bumblebee's back as well as the shots of the tires. It's not perfect and that's the point. It was interesting photographing a toy for Seibertron.com that wasn't as close to perfection as I normally strive. Capturing this detail helps tell the story.

While I don't understand what happened with his tires, which appear to have melted at some point, I'm assuming the rust was caused by Bumblebee's many water adventures he went on. As a child, we lived on a lake in mid-Michigan about 1/2 way between Flint and Ann Arbor. I fascinated with taking my Transformers in the lake, playing with them on the sand, in the bathtub ... I had no long term plans for these toys at that time but I sure had about as much fun as a kid could have with them. They were buried in sand, entangled in covert missions amongst seaweed, had forest hideouts among leaf piles, wood chips, tree branches, shrubs or whatever else I could think of. On vacations up north, the Constructicons dug holes from the shores of the Straits of Mackinac all the way to "the other side of the world" (wherever that was) or they entombed their Autobot captives in sandy embankments.

Ryan's 1st Transformer: G1 1984 Bumblebee (121 images)


Bumblebee's running a little flat these days.


His tech specs said "He can go underwater for reconnaissance and salvage missions" but didn't mention anything about him being rust proof.


Minimal bumper paint wear and the head is still attached amazingly and even has the decal on the back of his head still. Not bad 1980s-Ryan!


Rotted tire not included.


Does this mean that I didn't actually get Bumblebee in 1984 like I always thought? Shhh! Don't tell anyone!!!

Here's where memories can get the best of you. I swear on all that's holy that I got into Transformers during 1984. Yet, there's my original Bumblebee's copyright stamps staring me in the face with 1985 on it clear as it gets, aside from a little dirt from back in the day. Is it possible that Transformers toys in late 1984 were shipping with 1985 stamps on them? Can anybody help assure me that I did get Bumblebee in 1984 or is this proof that I probably didn't get into Transformers until 1985? I remember clear as day seeing that first episode of More Than Meets The Eye, which could have been in reruns already, but I know I got Marvel Comics Transformers #4 (which came out in December 1984) after I had Bumblebee, though it's highly possible that the comic had been shelf warming prior to my discovery of it.


C'mon! That's a cool photo you'd see in some art gallery somewhere or in some fancy art book about vintage toys.


More battle damage.


Gold paint remnants from "The Golden Lagoon" reenactment. You should see what happened during the Scraplets reenactment months later.

Yes, you read that correctly. I actually played out the Golden Lagoon cartoon episode complete with painting Transformers with gold paint. If you look closely at the copyright stamps on the bottom of his feet, you can even see one of my fingerprints from the gold paint. I was inspired to do this after my Dad introduced me to model cars and the paints that go with them. 10 year old me saw gold paint, I had Transformers, seemed like a great idea at the time. An idea that was superseded by the Scraplets week when I decided that I would take apart all of my Transformers with screwdrivers while playing out a Scraplets storyline, inspired by the Marvel Comics. My Transformers had much fun during my childhood and this gold paint remnants brings a smile to my face thinking about those fun days.




Minty collector owned G1 Bumblebee on left, Childhood Battle Damaged War Veteran version on the right


"Oh man, you've even got a nice rubsign still? I lost mine during a reconnaissance mission in Lake Ponemah."




Primus has been busy. Those Transformers are like petro-rabbits!

Hard to believe how many G1 Bumblebee toys I own now, not to mention the other 150+ Bumblebees I've photographed so far from my collection. What's even crazier is how many more Bumblebees are in my collection that I've never photographed, or how many Bumblebees I don't even own (such as the Estela ones). On the left side of the photograph: Encore Bumblebee, BotCon Glyph, e-Hobby Bug-Bite, near perfect rubsign Bumblebee, and Fun-4-All Keychain Bumblebee. On the right: G2 Bumblebee, G1 Bumblebee red version, Collection Bumblebee, and the G1 Bumblebee replacement I bought at BotCon 1996 (the rubsign came off and was replaced with an Autobot sticker from the Autobot sticker sheet included with Takara's New Year's Convoy set).


Ryan's 1st Transformer with Lost-and-found Soundwave from 2nd grade

One last early childhood memory of my Transformers. In the above photo, my 1st Transformer is pictured alongside Soundwave. One day in 2nd grade, I saw Soundwave sitting in the Lost-and-found window of the school office in my elementary school. I went into the office and asked the secretary if I could have it. She asked if it was mine and I told her no. She said that if the toy was still there in 1 week and on one claimed it, that I could have it. Every morning and afternoon for the next week, I went by the Lost-and-found to see if Soundwave was still there. The level of anticipation and excitement that built over the course of that week was probably more than I could handle. One week had passed, Soundwave was still there, and the Secretary let me take him home. For the next year and a half, Soundwave led my Decepticons against Perceptor's Autobots until Santa Claus brought me Ultra Magnus and Galvatron in 1986.

Side note: The Decepticon symbol on Lost-and-found Soundwave was made on my parent's inkjet printer way back in 1995. Man was I excited that I could make reproduction symbols. Unfortunately, I lost interest in that and was very content with what I had created.


Ryan Yzquierdo's 1st grade picture from 1983 - 1984 school year


Ryan's Autobot forces around Christmas 1988


You can see G1 Bumblebee, Ryan's 1st Transformer, on the left side of Metroplex


Ryan's Decepticon Forces around Christmas 1988 with Lost-and-Found Soundwave


Here's my amazing drawing of Bumblebee that I drew back around 1984 or 1985!**

Share Your Childhood Transformers Stories

So that's my 1st Transformer toy, everyone. It's been officially photographed so that it can continue to endure the sands of time. I hope all of you will share your own personal stories about your 1st Transformer(s) related memories on our forums so that others can enjoy hearing about what captured your imagination. While I love collecting Transformers toys, the memories of my life that come along with these toys are one of the greatest parts about collecting Transformers, and thanks to events like BotCon, the memories continue to be one of the parts that I cherish most from this hobby.

Awesome! I kinda called it, too.

My brother's first Transformer was the shiny chromed Bee. Mine was the shiny red chrome Hubcap. Your collection as a kid put mine to shame. Thanks for the site and all the work you put into it, Seibertron!

(Another edit to include pics!)




I think my saddest Transformer memory as a child was when my brother and I got Grimlock and Snarl. We loved the dinobots and my favorite dinosaur was the stegosaurus so obviously my favorite dinobot was Snarl.

Well, we had them a couple days and then my mom told us we had to return them. I'm not sure why, but I presume it was around the time my dad was laid off and the family was hurting for money. Anyway, we were sad but we repackaged them as best we could(minus a couple accessories we replaced with some Ninja Turtle weapons for some reason). I think I still have a dinobot sword floating around somewhere. I have yet to replace my long lost Snarl, but maybe one day.

This is awesome! Childhood history with Ryan!

Gold paint remnants from "The Golden Lagoon" reenactment. You should see what happened during the Scraplets reenactment months later.

Haha, things kids do to their toys. I remember when I 'mummified' TMNT Dinosaurs with masking tape... cleaning that up was the first time I stayed up past midnight.

Noideaforaname wrote:

Gold paint remnants from "The Golden Lagoon" reenactment. You should see what happened during the Scraplets reenactment months later.

Haha, things kids do to their toys. I remember when I 'mummified' TMNT Dinosaurs with masking tape... cleaning that up was the first time I stayed up past midnight.

What I would do was give plastic dinosaurs weird-looking and colorful hairdos and beards with Play-Doh.

I remember when I got my G1 'Bee but it was far from my first Transformer. I was in 4th grade and the teacher (Mr. Herbert) would hold these auctions every Friday with stuff people would donate. We would get these currency stamps in a folder for things like perfect attendance and getting good grades on tests etc. to bid on items. I don't remember how much I "paid" for Bumblebee but it was absolutely the most exciting thing I ever bought in the auctions. I couldn't believe anyone would give up such a wonderful toy.

This ... this put a smile on my face!

Not because it was Bumblebee, but because of the story behind it. We all have THAT story, they're all different, but at the core they're the same.

Thank you Ryan, not just for the look into a young Ryan Yzquierdo and what began this long journey of being a Transformers fan, but thanks for the 4,000 galleries, the forums for us to talk about those galleries, thanks for giving us all a place to share such stories like these.

That was great, Seiber. Really cool you still have him after all these years.

Great write-up Ryan! Seibertron has the most comprehensive TransFormers galleries anywhere. Congratulations on your 4,000th suite of EXCELLENT pics! Your photography is crisp, clear, professional, and thorough, well done!

Your article brings back treasured memories of my first G1 TransFormers so very long ago...

I fondly remember a late weekday afternoon back in 1984 (I was 8yrs old) when my Dad said he was going out to run a quick errand. My little brother & I wanted to go, but Dad said he'd be back quick and that we had to stay with Mom and finish our homework.

When he got back, he had a little surprise for us. For my kid brother, a brand new red jet, an A-10 Thunderbolt named PowerGlide. And for me, a fresh mint-on-card Red Bumblebee! I had no idea that it was more than just a toy car, as I was into Trains, Hot Wheels, and anything Space Shuttle related. I hadn't even known about the G1 cartoon until weeks later when my classmate David Reyna told me about it on UHF channel Fox35 (remember the UHF dial on the old TV's?).

VW Bugs are a favorite of mine, and Dad had bought me my first orange Smokin'-Bump-n-Go VW Beetle when I was about one year old. My first transforming toy ever was a small but important beginning and entry into the Transformers Hobby and also to my now sizable Collection. He remains a battered but treasured center-piece on my shelf today, and a reminder of my Dad always. I have "restored" him with newer parts like arms with intact rubber tires, and a new shiny rear-end plate for his original head. I used a silver-pen to cover his wheel rust, and a Sharpie for his die-cast back-plate, and I tightened his loose feet with a drop or two of dried Gorilla-glue and added a ReproLabel Autobot symbol for his bot-belly. He is now a hybrid, but more original than not and fully functional; I couldn't leave him tire-less, floppy, with a broken neck. Now, once again, he stands proudly as the Center-Piece of my Collection.

Go-Bots followed (Spay-C, Loco, & Scratch), and Zy-Bots (the black trailer), some pull-back Dyna-bots, and then Long Haul, and my first boxed Transformer Shrapnel! Then glory, Wow, I got Astrotrain for my Birthday from Mom & Dad!! I will always recall when my Dad got back from a TDY and took us to ToyBox in South Park Mall and bought me Springer, and that year they rewarded my report card with Rodimus Prime, and then on Christmas I got Ultra Magnus! And how I miss Winn's, where my Mom put Galvatron for lay-away for another Birthday and Albertson's where she bought me Hun-Gurr...ah the feels, the Memories!!

Later, once I started working and earning my own money, I could really go wild and buy more and larger figures and expand my Collection, so that now I have around 300 (most of which I bought myself). But those old "firsties" are dear to me, and I'm fortunate to still have most of them now.

Though we had our struggles financially growing up, I have been blessed with loving, generous Parents who sacrificed of themselves so that my Brother & I would have everything that we needed, and most of what we wanted. Now Dad is gone, and it's my turn to take care of Mom, and I am grateful for the great childhood & awesome memories that they gave me and even for the fun hobby they helped me start. 30 years have passed, but the memories tied to these wonderful transforming robots remain, and I'm thankful and even joyful that the whole thing is still going stronger than ever after all this time.

Long Live The TransFormers! Long Live Hasbro/Takara-Tomy! AND Long Live the Loyal, Energetic & even Quarrelsome TransFormers Fandom!

My very first Transformers were the Air Military Mini-Con Team from Armada but I was not really interested in Transformers at the time since I was a major Bionicle fan boy which is what my Childhood mostly was (Transformers was only second until Bionicle ended in 2010)


But my second Transformer toy and my most treasured childhood possession is none other then Transformers Cybertron Hardtop and I got his brother Swindle very soon after and the first movie figure toy was the repaint of Hardtop as...movie Hardtop and I loved his first bio which stated he was the reason Bumblebee lost his voice.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hardtop_(Cybertron)



So short story is I slagging love Hardtop and still have him and always will.

I updated the news story to include a piece of artwork I found of mine of good ol' Bumblebee. I thought it would be appropriate for this news story and discussion.