Super Haul: Transformers Everywhere

So today my colleague and I did the unexpected.

Yup, that’s a giant bin of Transformers figures.

This venture originally came out of going to the local Swap Meet down the street to grab a mannequin to throw Operation Virtue on. After the Expo, we really had no idea what to do with the armor, so we figured the best thing would be to put it all on a mannequin and display it…

…but then when we couldn’t find a mannequin at the Swap Meet so we turned our attention to other things…

So basically there was this guy at the Swap Meet who had a massive bin of just Transformer figures, and he wasn’t selling them individually. The entire bin was going for $200 flat. My colleague and I took a quick sift through the bin, and saw quite a few interesting figures…

I noticed straight-away that most of the Transformers in the bin were from the old Unicorn trilogy, and are in mostly complete condition. After some quick notes, we left real quick to do some research on eBay before going back…

After a quick price check online at home, I determined that I could make a sizable profit off of these figures if I resold them individually on eBay. A little more consideration and money-gathering later, my colleague and I headed back down to the Swap Meet and took the plunge.

Walking with this stupidly heavy bin of plastic and metal figures was quite the toil. Just imagine two meek high school boys walking down the street carrying a giant bin of toys between them. Strange looks from the passing cars were the least of our worries. Didn’t want an Optimus Prime to drop out and merge with the street traffic after all.

There was…a lot, to say the least. We didn’t even think there was this many when we saw it at first and sifted through it. Only when we started sorting them in my room did we really discover just how many Transformers there were…

Not gonna lie, figuring out which parts went with which was actually fairly enjoyable…as well as figuring out transformations and the like. My colleague has never been much for Transformers before, but he managed to figure out a good amount of transformations on his own.

Now, I did buy these with the intention of reselling them to gain profit, which I will do for the majority. However, the Unicron trilogy was my childhood. Especially Armada; I have my own sizable Armada toy collection on my own, but there are a few missing gems here that I’ll gladly keep for myself…

Included was a massive bag full of extra parts, accessories, and the like. My comrade had the sense to start sorting and grouping them, of which I was very grateful, especially for the missiles…anyone who’s been into the Transformers toys know how much of a hassle it is to keep track of missiles and sort them with the correct figure.

Fortunately, however, due to my own previous experience with many of these toys and the ever so helpful Google Images, we managed to sort most of them out with their respective figures. I’m very pleased that most figures are actually complete, and not missing too many parts.

Plenty of Cyber-keys, from the Cybertron series…

What’s even better is that just about every instruction booklet for the figures were included. These are extremely helpful when locating missing parts or finding the name of a figure I’m unfamiliar with…

The respective character cards and extra booklets like comics and catalogs are also included. Looks like the seller just threw whatever he had together into this giant bundle. Fortunate for me, as with these and the instructions resale value just went up.

Funny thing, there were also a few role-play weapons included in the lot. An Autobot nerf-gun with a single bullet and Light and Dark Star Sabers, from the Armada series.

My comrade wielding one of the universe’s most deadly weapons yet.

I was also pretty excited that there were so many complete Mini-Con teams included. I’ve finally got the Requiem Blaster and Skyboom Shield! Energon Saber is there, but no actual Star Saber, unfortunately…

There was some big stuff in the bin…most of which I would never buy on my own, but it’s actually really nice being able to fiddle with some old toys and still make some cash of them later.

Primus and Unicron! I’ve had Primus on my own before, but I’ve never gotten the chance to fiddle with the infamous Unicron toy from Armada. Not gonna lie, I think these guys are pretty cool on their own. Kind of debating on keeping them as a collection set…

After clearing out the bin, I have to say I’m kind of torn…there’s legitimately whole collections in here, and I could easily keep them and have them all without having to start a new one from scratch. The Armada, Energon, and Cybertron collections all have their headpieces, and I’m seriously considering keeping the Optimus Prime’s of each just to have a cool display…

One of my personal favorites in this collection. As I mentioned before, I grew up with Armada, and I have to say I think this incarnation of Prime is my favorite. He’s been my childhood idol and hero. This was actually the figure I intended to buy individually from the lot before we found out it had to be bought as a set. It’s entirely complete too, with Over-Run included as well.

But this…this takes the cake. I’m honestly so pleased to have this in the loot. This Optimus Prime has been my staple childhood toy, my Holy Grail from ages 5-10. I have my original version, but it’s beat up as heck…the figures in the bin are actually in surprisingly good condition. I’m likely going to replace my old collection with the newer complete ones I got here. A little lower for resale value if I sell my old beat-up versions, but totally worth it.

At the end of the day all of this was worth every penny and bead of sweat put into it. A special thanks to my colleague who helped me out in carrying this behemoth home, and helping me sort things out. Look forward to many, many Transformers reviews ahead…