Transformers the last good year?

[den82]

Are vintage Transformers better with poor stickers (worn, poorly applied, half-peeling) or with none at all?

I've been sorting through my Transformers finally and noticed a lot of them are somewhat junked, but might look better without the poor stickers.

..............................................

Also, I've come to realize I'm not very big into Transformers made after 1987. What year do you think Transformers jumped the shark? I think '84-'87 were the prime years.

[10incher]

Up to about 1987 - really like the 1986 movie figures and the headmasters & targetmasters. After that their were still some good figures but I always felt the Pretenders were out of place, which is also around the the time I stopped reading the marvel comics.

[comics2figures]

I really like them all up untill G2, i do like the Pretenders, i'm currently watching the japanese godmasters series, awesome stuff.

[Megatron]

I've ordered from Reprolabels and they are 100% dead on to the original stickers

[comics2figures]

Some of my bots have reprolabels as well, i had some transformers with terrible stickers, so i pealed them off and put them in the dishwasher, incredibly clean and they look great with new stickers.

[bowheadwhale]

1985 was certainly the best year.

[den82]

100% dead huh? Got a link as to where I can grab some?

[brcthrift]

I wish I had stickers for my Six Shot and Scorponok. I have the things complete, but I didn't apply the stickers abck in 87 and they have since been lost. I think 87 was the last good year for TFs. I hate most of the modern ones and the last runs of G1 were pretty terrible.

[sf1378]

Modern Movie transformers are on the whole SHIT. Crap quality, they become loose after transforming them the first time and suffer stress marks. I hate the movie likenesses on the whole. I do like the Classics, Universe and Reveal The Shield stuff thats more akin to the classic looks of the characters...but then again some do suffer from stress marks like the latest Prime and Wreck Gar in Reveal The Shield. I do like original TF's from the 1980s and reissues of the originals.

[countzackula]

I think they came with the smaller TMNT figures paired with weird bug monsters and dinosaurs in two-packs...off the top of my head, can't remember if the creatures had proper names, though!

[anna]

Yeah the new ones are insane to transform (and I can't stand the wheels for feet the bay used) that's why g1 is soooo much better.

[kylefromdirtnapp]

Jun 17, 2011 17:00:50 GMT -6 den82 said:

100% dead huh? Got a link as to where I can grab some?

www.reprolabels.com/

[den82]

It seems like 1987 was the beginning of the end for a lot of the great toylines.

[bowheadwhale]

Jul 6, 2011 14:34:07 GMT -6 den82 said:

It seems like 1987 was the beginning of the end for a lot of the great toylines.

Yeah, many toylines released unpopular stuff after 1987: neon G.I.Joe, untransformable Transformers, futuristic MOTU (what is He-Man supposed to do with an intergalactic vehicle?)... it seems the manufacturers were starting to panic seeing their fans growing up into teenagers and tried to keep their interests "en beurrant épais" (by buttering thick, litterally said in french) on their new stuff. They seemed to think that the more butter is on a muffin, the better the muffin is...

[den82]

Masters of the Universe pretty much remained cool right till the end, although there were a few lame things in the last line, like Meteorbs. I actually like some of the New Adventures stuff. Some of the figures were cool, like Slush Head.

The problem with Transformers (and GI Joe too) is that they flooded the market with way too much. The early Transformers had the most personality and distinction. It got very boring quickly. Thundercats got silly too.

[shaxper]

'84 to '85 were the Golden years in my opinion. High quality diecast and clever transformations.

I like Headmasters and Powermasters too, but the designs were a little too simplistic for my tastes.

I really like the Japanese only lines that continued after G1 ended in the US, like Victory, Zone, and the Brave Police (so clearly intended to be designs of Prime, Magnus, and Devastator, only changed once Takara decided to take TF in the Beast Wars direction).

After that, Beast Wars/Machines largely bored me with the exception of a few truly cool figures (Lio Convoy and the Godzilla-style Galvatron rocked!).

RID had a semi-cool Prime/Magnus combiner, the awesome black recolor of G2 Prime, and Brave Maximus, but the line was stopped short when Takara found itself near bankruptsy. Never really found its footing.

Armada -- Minicons were a cool idea, but they didn't take the concept far enough. There were so many opportunities for bots that turned into cool playsets for them. Additionally, I liked Overload and the Seekers, but most of the rest was unimpressive.

Energon, Cybertron, and all that other stuff sort of flow together for me. I remember liking the Energon Megatron, but that was about it.

Alternators were a cool idea, but I just wasn't into TFs that took 5 minutes to transform.

The movie stuff wasn't/isn't my style at all. They're less like robots and more like metallic organic aliens. That's fine if it's your thing, but it doesn't feel like Transformers to me.

I'm half into the Classics at this point. Prime/Magnus rocked, and so do Jetfire and the seekers, and you've got to love the Fansproject add ons. Not as sold on the rest yet.

So I'm not sure TF ever really jumped the shark. The 1986 movie toys, Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and the new movie toys don't interest me, but even now I'm still lingering over the Classics figures when I see them in stores.

[skywarp408]

First post!

I think they jumped the shark after g1 ended. I like several of the other newer lines except for the movie stuff, but It really was never the same after the first original line. Everything is so much faster now and lines last 1-2 years at most with multiple lines going all at once. It's just too much for my taste now.

[figuremod73]

When Transformers went to headmasters that was about the time i lost interest in the generation 1 transformers. some of the gen 2 are good but even then its only because they are modified remakes of the originals.
The first few years were steller (the movie figures were fairly good) I really like the original cars and planes. I also really like the combined robots. Devestator is still one of the best big robots.