COLLECTOR INTERVIEW #89: TF_Moments / “Crazy Ass Moments in Transformers History”

We’re back for another Transformers collector interview!

If you’re a Transformers fan who has been on Twitter in the last few years, the chances are you’ve come across today’s collector in the form of their account “Crazy Ass Moments in Transformers History“, known for posting daily facts and trivia to do with the robots in disguise! Today, we’re hearing from the fan behind it all – take it away, Maxx!

Who are you and what do you collect?

I’m Maxx, and I’m from Singapore! Most of my followers in the Transformers fandom will know me as the one behind TF_Moments on Twitter, but I’ve been part of the fandom ever since about 2015 or so, when I started posting on TFW2005, under my username BattleUpSaber (which is also my Twitter handle on my personal account). Apart from Transformers, I also collect Gundam, Kamen Rider and Ultraman figures.

I’ve been a TF fan for as long as I can remember. It’s practically the only thing that I’ve consistently liked from childhood til now. My first exposure to it must have been in 2007 when the live-action movie was released. My parents simply told me it was about “evil robots attacking Earth” when I saw a newspaper ad for it. Around the same time, they bought me a DVD from a nearby CD shop containing episodes 7 and 8 of the Cybertron cartoon.

My first TF toy was Cybertron Red Alert – which I only have vague memories of, because by the time I actually saw the 2007 movie and started getting toys from that movie as presents, I no longer had it. When I saw the movie, I don’t remember, but I do remember fondly all the ’07 Movie toys I had – thankfully, most of which survived my rough childhood.

Animated was when I got hooked – I distinctly recall seeing the premiere episode on a local kids’ TV network that no longer exists today. I got the “Battle Begins 2-pack” shortly after. Local secondhand book fairs were then where I got ahold of books from the Armada and Energon eras, thereby how I learned of the series that came before my time. 

ROTF and DOTM were magical times. The plots of the movies themselves were too much for me, but the junior novels and reference books helped me understand them. Having gotten hold of pirated DVDs, I would watch the fight scenes repeatedly on my family’s tiny 4×3 TV. I got to play the DS and Wii games thanks to being able to share ownership of those consoles with a neighbour. I had a mail subscription to the Transformers magazine, and looked forward to reading the comic and filling in the activity pages every month. And I once got into a heated argument at school with some kid who insisted that Sideswipe from ROTF was actually Jazz from the first movie in a new body. In hindsight, that might have been where my pedanticity when it comes to TF trivia began…

I was exposed to the G1 cartoon after seeing reruns of it on TV at some point. I asked my parents to buy the DVD set online. They complied… by buying DVDs of the Chinese dub instead. They insisted on this as a means of forcing me to learn Chinese (which is my mother tongue). Of course, this greatly upset me as a kid, but I’ve come to have an appreciation for the Chinese dub of the cartoon now. Whether or not this actually helped me with my Chinese, though, I can’t tell you.

Around this time was when I got my first iPad, which I would use to watch Transformers flash animations and toy reviews on YouTube. Hours spent watching videos of toys I would never own, dreaming about magically finding them one day.  I discovered TFWiki some years later, which then led to me browsing the wiki every day after school and discovering all manner of obscure facts. Scratch what I said earlier, THAT’S where TF_Moments was really born.

More importantly, though, YouTube was where I discovered the Japanese Transformers animes, Headmasters, Masterforce and Victory. Victory was where I would meet my all-time favourite, Star Saber, and where I would realize that I love watching anime characters dramatically yell their attacks. This was the gateway that then led me to discover what would become my new interests- super robot anime and tokusatsu. So when you look at it this way, Transformers really was the genesis of who I am today, as pretty much all of my interests are in some way a domino effect that Transformers started.

Of course, I was still getting the toys. I fondly remember the ROTF Leader Optimus/Jetfire set and Supreme Devastator, just to name a few. As a former Lego fan, I also loved Kre-O and Construct Bots when those were a thing. But I also equally have strong memories of the knockoffs, which were everywhere back in the late 2000s and early 2010s. At the pasar malams (that’s kinda like our local equivalent of flea markets), there were cheap knockoffs of Legends class toys selling for mere dollars in plastic bags, at stalls run by old Chinese aunties and uncles who would call you “ah boy”. I’m sure I must have had more of those than I did real Transformers – hard to say since, as you might expect, most of them didn’t last very long. While even back then I could understand the difference between those and real Transformers, what did confuse me as a kid were the ones that came in packaging similar to real Transformers, but would say things like “Taikongzhans”. Christmas 2011 is one I will always recall, because I’d been expecting to receive DOTM Ultimate Optimus Prime- only to open the wrapping paper and find a “Taikongzhans” Optimus Prime, which was actually an oversized ROTF Leader Optimus, with the DOTM Ultimate’s cannon thing. I was very confused, needless to say. Then there was the time I got really into G1 toys and reissues, so I had my folks buy some “reissues” off a website called ioffer for cheap. It was only later that I realized that these were actually high-quality Chinese knockoffs of G1 toys. Too good to be true, I should have clocked it.

I joined TFW2005 as a teenager after lurking for several years. The catalyst for this was when I saw an RID’15 episode on the telly that hadn’t yet aired in the US and thus hadn’t been documented anywhere. My favourite thing about that forum is the Radicons section showing custom figures. I was frustrated by the lack of show-accuracy in the Prime Beast Hunters line, so I was inspired by a post I saw there to try and paint up the Voyager Optimus from that line in more accurate colours, using a bunch of Sharpie markers I had on hand. Feel free to judge how successful this was.

I grew up in a middle-income family. We weren’t poor by any means, and we are doing better nowadays, but I’ve never been well-off enough to get every toy that I’ve ever wanted. Even now, while I can afford to buy my own toys, I’m also a twenty-something who has just gotten their first job, and am still living with my parents in a 4-room flat (as most people my age in this country do). Taking into account my other hobbies too, there’s only so much space in this house for Transformers. I always have to be selective and get only the figures I absolutely must have. So this often rules out toys of characters I already own. Waiting for sales and buying secondhand is also a big part of my collecting, as is having to sell figures to make space for new ones. It’s always tough to do this, because I treasure every single piece in my collection in some way or other, but these are the choices that have to be made…

Truthfully, I can’t help but feel rather out of place being interviewed on this column, because I probably don’t own anywhere near the amount of toys people likely think I do, given my online presence. But if nothing else, I hope that people will find my story and history with the hobby interesting.

What do you love most about Transformers and the hobby?

As one might tell from my account, it’s the rich history and deep-cut lore. Transformers has spanned decades and has had many different variations across the world, and there are so many fascinating and obscure pieces of trivia to discover. From the franchise’s real-world origins, to rare foreign merchandise, to obscure Japanese manga that have never been translated, to toy-only characters who have never appeared in fiction, I truly feel that there is no end to things about Transformers to learn about. (of course I have to shout out TFWiki since they’re the true heroes responsible for cultivating this repository of knowledge)

The wide variety of characters and settings is also another big appeal. Of course the mainstream animated shows will always feature the same core cast of Autobots and Decepticons. But then you watch something like Beast Wars Neo, and the main characters are guys like Break, Saberback and Mach Kick. Or you read something like IDW’s Lost Light, in which James Roberts and co will take a random one-off who appeared in an obscure Marvel UK comic one time 40 years ago and make them into an overnight fan favourite.

Transformers is a series that you can never be bored of, because between the toys, cartoons, movies, comics, games and more, there will always be something new to discover, some part of the franchise that you’ve never even heard of before. Watched all the cartoons? Why not start reading the Marvel comic from start to end? Heck, just go to TFWiki right now and click ‘random page’ and you can learn all about (for instance) that one time Burger King turned their mascot into a Transformer.

As for the hobby itself, a Transformer toy is essentially three things in one- an action figure, a vehicle/animal and a puzzle. So you’re basically getting thrice the value that you would a regular collectible. While regular action figures can get stale, Transformers are different because rarely are two toys ever alike- even two toys of the same character can function, feel and transform completely differently. You never know what you’re getting when you get a new TF for the first time, and that’s exciting.

Then there’s the fiddle factor- I have ADHD and autism, and thus have always been the fidgety sort, and prone to stimming. Having a Transformer on hand and changing it back and forth between modes, I find to have been a good way to help with concentration and an outlet for restlessness and relieving stress (kind of what the kids these days use fidget spinners for). Indeed, back in my school days, I would often sneak in a small Legends class figure into class to help myself stay focused and not start drifting off.

And of course, it’s fun to meet other people in the hobby, be it through online or in-person. Thankfully, most people I’ve ever interacted with have been very nice. It’s always funny to see people treat me like I’m some kind of celebrity just because of the Twitter account, because I’ve always seen myself as nothing more than another person in the fandom, and no greater authority than anyone else. Most of the people I admire and follow have been here for far longer than I have, and yet have much smaller followings than I do.

How has the collecting scene changed since you joined the fandom?

Oh dear, I think I might be a bit too young to answer this! By the time I joined the fandom proper we were already knee-deep into the modern era of internet access, so I can’t tell you about ye olden days. 

I often hear the gripe of “kids don’t buy toys nowadays”, but honestly for me at least I still see plenty of kids in the toy stores, so I honestly don’t think that’s as true to the extent that people think. But there is no doubt that kids’ tastes in toys are changing, so I don’t envy Hasbro having to constantly throw darts at the wall to see what sticks.

As far as the adult collecting scene goes, probably the biggest change has been seeing Hasbro and Takara embrace social media and reveal their new toys in livestreams, which I have to say is a welcome change from having to be drip-fed info from conventions. I also enjoy how approachable the current Hasbro team is when it comes to talking to fans. 

For the toyline itself, I do miss the era of MechTech, Scout Class, and light-up/missile firing gimmicks. It could be my nostalgia speaking, but I do think the 2005-2011 era might have been the best era for toys in the brand’s history. But sadly, as manufacturing costs get higher, toy designs have to get simpler. The sad reality of the world we live in. I do wish we could get away from constant 80’s nostalgia and slavish G1 cartoon accuracy though…

I suppose modern social media has made it easier to be exposed to people’s dissenting opinions, which can sometimes lead to very strange takes indeed. Outrage and arguments have been a thing since the message board days, of course, but social media exacerbates things. I’m sure you don’t need a lesson on social media etiquette from me, but this is a fandom about silly transforming robot toys at the end of the day, so you know, don’t get too heated about something that ultimately is pretty trivial in the grand scheme of things.

Apart from that, I’m happy to have seen many women and LGBTQ folk join the community in recent years, notably after the release of TF One. Diversity in fiction and behind the scenes is important too, so I’m happy to see media like the latter run of IDW and Earthspark play a part in this. 

How do you see, or hope to see the scene changing over the next 5 years?

The biggest thing I want to see is more global diversity. As a western-born series, Transformers will always be rooted in its American and British fans, I understand that. But Transformers is a franchise that is popular worldwide. Throughout the years, I have met many wonderful people from Japan, China, and many more, whose experiences and perceptions with the brand are no doubt completely different. My childhood and toy collecting experience is probably very different to what Western fans would have had, so I’m sure there are many out there who have even wilder stories to share, given how differently things would have been marketed across different cultures. (For example, the strange Brazilian G1 toyline, which contained almost none of the actual Transformers toys and was instead mostly a hodgepodge of toys from other lines, is one I find fascinating, as is reading the stories from Brazilian fans who grew up with that version of Transformers.)

Even today, there are still many people who think I am American just because I speak in English. Granted, this is also a problem with just the internet and our world in general, but I hope for the day when English-language media is less homogeneous and less prioritized on Western culture and experiences. English is the most spoken language in the world; I don’t think one should be assumed to be from the West just because they speak English.

But getting back on topic, I want to see less of a divide between the western and eastern parts of the TF fandom. We’re already taking our first steps, as I can see from the amount of fan art from Asian artists going viral on Twitter/X. But we can still be doing more. I want to see collectors globally be able to share their stories, the same way I am doing right now. More importantly, I want to see less prejudice against our Asian brothers and sisters, as I sadly still see it on occasion. I don’t expect change to be immediate; heck, it will probably take more than just 5 years. But I still want to see it.

Transformers is, amongst many other things, a story about different races- Cybertronians and humans, working together and learning from each other in spite of their differences. I want to see this mentality reflected in the real world and our fandom, too.

What has been your single biggest success as a collector, or your greatest ever find?

Two come to mind- one was when I came across a MISB Galaxy Force Autovolt (Korean ver.) selling for $5 SGD, in a store that sold mostly board games and had no other Transformers available. I still wonder how they got that.

The other was the pink Blokees Optimus Prime, which was an exclusive to last year’s Singapore Comic Con. I joined the queue at the con, only for the person in front of me to get the last one they had! I was dismayed by this, but luckily, the day after, someone contacted me and offered to trade for it. 

If you could pick one item from your collection to keep, what would it be?

It’d have to be my reissue Powermaster Optimus Prime set. See, there used to be this one place in Singapore called China Square Central, where all the toy vendors were located. While it was quiet during most of the week, on Sundays, they would go all-out and set up tables everywhere, taking over the whole building like a mini convention. It was during one of these Sundays where I came across a vendor selling the reissue Powermaster Optimus Prime. I exclaimed “it’s God Ginrai!” in surprise (this must’ve been after I saw Masterforce on YouTube), at which point someone (either one of my parents or the seller) said “no lah, that’s Optimus Prime what!” Of course, I didn’t feel like explaining the Ginrai/Optimus Prime thing, so I didn’t say anything about that. It was selling for $250 SGD, and I somehow was able to pester my parents into getting it. The China Square Central flea market is now a thing of the past, so it serves as my memory of what used to be Singapore’s best place for toy hunters.

Apart from that story, God Ginrai/Powermaster Prime is just a cool toy. It’s a robot that combines with a trailer/base to form a super robot, then combines with another toy to become an even more powerful robot. And isn’t that what dreams are made of?

If you could have one item out of someone else’s collection, what would that be?

The only toy of my favourite character, Star Saber, I own is the Robot Masters one, so I’d love the Masterpiece or the HasLab (both of which I can’t afford). Then there’s also Generations Metroplex, which I actually do already have, but is in poor condition, as the only place in the house in which I could keep something so big was a place that left it exposed to direct sunlight, so it has accumulated ten years’ worth of yellowing, not to mention the loose joints. I’d love a copy of that toy that is in pristine condition, the way it was back in 2014.

What advice would you give a new collector starting out today?

It’s simultaneously easier and harder than ever to get into the collecting scene- easier due to the vast number of options available and the ease with which one can get information, but harder due to the ever-increasing prices and distribution issues. Buying online solves the distribution issue but has its own share of problems too, since you can’t inspect the quality in-hand.

I’d see my biggest advice is to fight the urge to impulse buy – we all have disposable incomes, and most modern Transformers simply aren’t worth the high prices they command at retail, so no need to rush out and get it as soon as it’s new. Be patient, wait a year and get it on sale. Differentiate between what you’re feeling the urge to get right now just because you’re holding it at the store, and the essential figures you absolutely have to get. Decide on the characters and toys that appeal to you most – if you feel more drawn to a silly one-step changer than an expensive Generations figure, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with getting that, prejudice of them not being “real Transformers” be damned.

What you should do, though- if you’re convinced that collecting will be your full-time hobby – is to invest in a nice shelf to display everything. Having to clean your figures after they accumulate dust is rather troublesome, so if you can pick an enclosed shelf with a glass cover. If you live in a hot and humid country like I do, you have to be wary of the sun all-year round turning your white toys yellow. So pick a place in your house that isn’t exposed to sunlight.

Also, a reminder that your hobby is supposed to be fun and enjoyable – if you start to feel burnt out or are getting buyer’s remorse for having spent too much, there’s no shame in taking a break and trying out another hobby, until you feel ready to rejoin the collecting scene.

Special thanks to TF_Moments for their words & photos! Be sure to give them a shout on Twitter!