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[Fighbird]

May not look like much, especially with the larger shot in an earlier post with all my MIB/MOSC G1 stuff, but this is something I've wanted to do for quite some time, and - since I've gotten a few new pieces since last time - I always wanted to see what I had that was released in 1988.



1988 is the year that I *really* got into Transformers - the cartoon was going strong on Super Channel, the danish comicbook had recently started and I soon discovered that, too, and my firends and I were really into these fun robot toys.

One of my sub-goals of collecting is getting all 1988 releases in MIB/MOSC condition. I have no count of how many I am still missing, but it's not really something I'm actively scouting for to complete. Besides, with MIB Double Dealer fetching the prices he is these days, I really need a VERY good bargain, before I'll get him! Oh, and no Chinese 90s reissues here or bootlegs or European nor Canadian bi-lingual stuff here - pure US/UK.

And yes, I haven't mentioned that black piece of Micromaster logos on the left yet.



Obtained from a known proto-dealer, this is the original presentation piece used internally at Hasbro for determining what the logo should look like. Hand-crafted on thick board, the single-colored "Micro" on both halves are actually reflective foil much like the final production design. Only real difference I can see is that the presentation piece is a bit more "rough around the edged" being hand-made, and that the top Micro section is wider on the board (look at the alignment of the vertical foil bars above the first and the last R's in Transformers).



I love the designs Hasbro was using at this point for packaging. True, at the heart of it all, there weren't that many differences on the surface from 1987/1988 and the 1984-1986 stuff (besides the back-of-box battle), but being the ones that I grew up with, I prefer the latter designs better (pixelated star-burst behind the character art, brighter TF logos, better character artwork etc.).

An angle that is rarely shown, is the bottom of the boxes. These days, Hasbro use the box bottoms to hide copyright stuff and international addresses and stuff like that. Not so back in the day - vibrant graphics, insuring kids to be drawn to these colorful boxes, no matter what angle you saw them from.



Likewise with the side graphics. Perfectly mirrored on both ends of the boxes, this is another great way to display the contents of the boxes clearly if you have limited space. Heck, with my shelve space running more and more low, I might just go up and place them sideways now instead!

[Sir.Grimlock]

very nice collection Martin

[Fighbird]

Right, since I was in a "1988" kinda mood, I decided to pull all my 1988 toys out and do what I've always wanted to do as a kid: Place them all in a giant battle!

Granted, I don't have all the 1988 toys yet, but I'm slowly getting there, and if I may say so myself, that even incomplete, they make for quite the display!





And robot modes:




Dang... forgot to take a straight-on shot of the Decepticons in robots mode...

OTOH, Marie manage to snag a little peek at what happened afterwards...


Me: "Hey, wait, wait! I need to transform Squeezplay! THEN I'm ready to battle!"
Cat: "Come on now already - I ain't got all day!!"

[SureShot]

Aww that last picture is EPIC ! Lovely black cat - any kind of specific breed ?

[Fighbird]

Yup - pure-bred British Shorthair. Carlo's the name (and his brother's name is Walter! - but I guess that's only funny if you're danish ).

[SureShot]

Yup - pure-bred British Shorthair. Carlo's the name (and his brother's name is Walter! - but I guess that's only funny if you're danish ).

cool. Brit's are great and fun cats.... Amos is also a British Shorthair... pure (teddy)bear cats
How old are they ?
Amos has b-day 26/2, so in a few days he turns 6years old.

This post has been edited by SureShot: 16 February 2010, 21:04

[Fighbird]

Yup - teddy-bear cats with a streak of ninja in them! And very mom-dependant!

We only have Carlo - we don't really know where his siblings are these days... Carlo is 2½ years old (birthday in August).

Congrats to Amos! And thanks for the nice words on my pics, BTW.

[Fighbird]

Hey, pop quiz: Which toys am I missing in my battle scene above to have a complete 1988 European(!) collection?

[SureShot]

Hey, pop quiz: Which toys am I missing in my battle scene above to have a complete 1988 European(!) collection?

Windsweeper (decepticon) is the only one I can think of.

[BigPete]

Errr... good question, haha. I can only think of US figures you're missing.

Submarauder? Groundbreaker?

[Fighbird]

Close for both of you!

Correct answer (spoilerized for those who still want to guess):

Autobots: Six-changer Quickswitch, Headmaster Hosehead
Decepticons: Pretender Submarauder, Triggercon Windsweeper, Powermaster Dreadwind, Pretender Beast Snarler

Only half of the Pretenders were available in Europe, and techincally, the Triggerbots/cons and the Micromasters were part of "wave 2" that year.

[vmv-81]

I noticed you're missing Dreadwind, Hosehead and Snarler.

[Thunderclash]

OTOH, Marie manage to snag a little peek at what happened afterwards...


Me: "Hey, wait, wait! I need to transform Squeezplay! THEN I'm ready to battle!"
Cat: "Come on now already - I ain't got all day!!"

Oh dear... So that's what you do in your spare time ? I hope I never get pictured in a similar situation; someone could "blackmail" me .

[DkConvoy]

The picture with the kitteh is epic

[Jorgo]

You're missing:

Decepticons:
Snarler
Iguanus
Submarauder
Dreadwind
Windsweeper
Finback
Bugly
Squawkbox
Squawktalk

Autobots:
Splashdown
Sky High
Groundbreaker
Raindance
Slamdance
Hosehead

This post has been edited by Jorgo: 9 May 2010, 12:37