COLLECTOR INTERVIEW #97: Big Angry Trev

We’re back for another Transformers collector interview!

It’s time to go down under today, as we meet one of Australia’s most well-known Transformers fans — the man known as Big Angry Trev, and his legendary ‘Transformatorium’! Few collections will inspire as much awe as this one…

Who are you and what do you collect?

In the collecting world and online I’m ‘Big Angry Trev’, a hangover from my stand-up comedy days. On my weekly radio show I’m ‘Big DJ Trev’. And at home I’m just Trev, Dad, or ‘that guy that’s always barbecuing’. I collect Transformers, though I do dabble a bit in Ghostbusters merchandise as well (wasn’t 1984 a fantastic year!). I’ve been collecting Transformers for four decades now, the passion starting when a lady my mother used to babysit for gave me G1 Dirge as a birthday gift. I was so excited that my family took note and when Christmas rolled around I got given Mirage and Cyclonus as well, and it all kicked off from there. I also collect hot sauces, though ‘collect’ may be the wrong term. I get sent hot sauces by people because they like to watch me make videos where I eat them, then scream in pain for a while.

What do you love most about Transformers and the hobby?

By far sharing the hobby with my son Orion (yes, the reference is intentional). He is now 13 and has been into Transformers since he was about five years old. He is the only one that has complete unfiltered access to my entire Transformers collection and could easily name near every single one of the 6000 or so action figures in The Transformatorium (my collectors shed on my hobby farm). This was a godsend for his mother Sarah who now happily no longer has to feign interest in my hobby (she persevered for so long, bless her). I never open a new toy without him and he accompanies me when I get invited to official Transformers events like the preview screenings of the last few movies or the Beasts Base Camp experience at the Sydney Zoo. We might not get out to the shed as often as we would like, but every Sunday afternoon for a few hours it’s Father/Son time in the Transformatorium as we work through the ever-present backlog of figures waiting to be opened. I did try to get my daughter Acacia into Transformers as well, but she is far more a ‘Hello Kitty’ kind of girl.

What do I love most about Transformers themselves? Well, the moment I first saw the cartoon back in 1984 it captured my imagination. This wasn’t muscular guys with their underwear on the outside catching bank robbers, or a bunch of teenagers in a van solving mysteries – this was an intergalactic civil war between two factions of giant shape-changing alien robots! I was hooked from the first episode and I guess I still am. I love that it’s forty years later and we are still getting new incarnations of those classic G1 characters, both in toy and screen form, as well as new characters introduced to the franchise. Like the Transformers themselves, the brand keeps changing and evolving, which means there is always something fresh to enjoy.

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

I really didn’t engage with the collecting scene or online fandom until maybe 2011 when I moved from Melbourne back to the bush here in Australia. All my flesh-and-blood friends were now hundreds of kilometres away so I started socialising online and came across fellow TF collectors; before that, as far as I knew, I was the only person in Australia that remembered the G1 cartoon! I’ve subsequently made very close friends with quite a few fellow Aussie Transformers collectors, and each year a bunch of them bring their families out to stay at my farm for a few days and we have a grand old time playing with figures during the day and sitting round the bonfire of a night.

The collecting scene has changed massively since the first live-action movie and Transformers were once again propelled to the forefront of mainstream pop culture. It used to be I would go for long periods without ever seeing a figure I was interested in; now I don’t have the budget to keep up! I believe we are really spoiled for choice these days, with there being options for every ilk of Transformers collector out there, no matter their preference.

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

Personally I would like to see better distribution of figures here in Australia; we often miss out on entire waves of figures and have to hope that they appear online somewhere to purchase. Some of the store exclusives can be annoying as well because we don’t have those stores on this continent. I hope the collectors scene also keeps evolving to become more inclusive, which I believe it has been doing over recent years. There used to be a lot of people that believed that the brand and the fandom had to conform to certain stereotypes and ideas, but now there is so much variety in the toy lines and so many different places to socialise with other collectors online that you can always find a friendly place to have a chat about your particular interest in the hobby.

What is the most surprising or outrageous collecting story you have heard?

Surprising was the deal we got on HasLab Unicron here in Australia at a national chain of gaming stores. It was available for pre-order 18 months in advance, which meant you had plenty of time to pay it off piecemeal. They were selling it for the same price as HasLab were, and you could pick up in store, which meant no postal costs. This is the only way I was able to afford two Unicrons; if I’d had to pay the entire cost upfront and pay for postage as well, I’d definitely only have one of the big guys. I was also a bit sneaky. I kept telling my wife, “Oh, I’m just going to pop in and pay some more off my Unicron(s) pre-order”. Then, when I came home with two, I was able to turn around and say, “But I always said Unicrons – plural”. She could see my subterfuge but was pretty forgiving.

Outrageous was a theft that happened to a fellow Aussie collector. He had a huge amount of rare Japanese Transformers taken from his garage. Thankfully for him the silly thieves didn’t know how rare they were and immediately tried to sell them on social media, meaning they got tracked down pretty fast and he received the majority of his items back.

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

My biggest success would be the construction of ‘The Transformatorium’, my specially built shed on my farm constructed specifically to house my ever-growing collection – a lifelong dream in the making. What became so surprising was after it was all set up and I started posting pictures and videos of it online, all the incredible feedback I received from all over the world. I routinely get contacted by people from all corners of the globe, telling me how much they love the Transformatorium, and it’s appreciated every single time.

Here in Australia I’ve given interviews in newspapers, on television and national radio, and routinely get interviewed on various YouTube channels (and now on TFSource – yay!). I give tours of The Transformatorium; people have come from as far as Sydney to see it and sometimes fathers bring their sons for their birthdays. A few years ago I was contacted by one of the higher-ups from Hasbro in the US, asking if they could use photos of the shed for a conference presentation they were doing about adult collectors, and after I agreed they subsequently passed my details onto Hasbro Australia, who often invite me to special events and movie screenings. It’s all been a bit overwhelming at times; I thought people might be interested but not to this extent, and it brings me much joy that something I have created brings other people happiness. A lot of people have either donated their time to the shed (helping with shelving construction, installing lighting, etc) or else have donated old figures they don’t want anymore but would still like to have a good home – I find it really nice that it’s become an ongoing project so many have wanted to be a part of.

My greatest ever find? Well, I’ve been sent a few rare items from people over the years. I got sent a T-shirt from the visual effects crew of the 2007 movie, a fan in the US last year sent me some G1 mylar balloons from 1985, and two years ago Hasbro Australia sent me a Bumblebee TF One figure signed by the voice actor. But I’d have to say my greatest actual find was very tiny but both welcome and unexpected. I went into a second-hand store out here in the bush and promptly found a G1 Bumblebee and a G1 Yellow Cliffjumper (no, not Hubcap) for 50 cents! Considering this was 2023, I never expected to find these figures in a tiny opportunity shop in the middle of nowhere.

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

Well I still have my very first Transformer – G1 Dirge – so it would be gut-wrenching to have to give him up. If I was to choose a figure for play value I would find it hard to go past the original G1 Powermaster Optimus Prime/Super Ginrai with Godbomber – all the modes are so fun and it is so satisfying to transform. If I was to pick based on just impressiveness then I’d have to go with the big fella himself – HasLab Unicron. But then there are Transformers that are of sentimental value such as those given to me by my mother who has now passed away – it’s just so hard to choose, don’t make me give up any of my babies!

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

I’d give my eye teeth (or at least someone’s eye teeth – I’m too pretty to go without them) to get my hands on a complete G1 Overlord. A G1 Grandus too would certainly be welcome in my collection, despite the fact he is essentially a box. A friend of mine just sold me his Nautica, which is a character I’ve wanted a figure of for a long time. A Nemesis Breaker from Cybertron and a Beachcomber from Energon would be good too. I collect pretty much every Transformers line, meaning none of them are fully complete so I’m always on the lookout to fill the various gaps.

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

You do you – you collect what you like and how you like to collect. It’s all about your enjoyment. Beware of how some social media groups operate; there can be a lot of elitism out there and no one deserves to be made to feel bad for their collecting habits. Don’t worry about having the most, or having every single variant (unless that’s what you are into). If you miss a figure don’t stress, there’s a good chance it may be reissued at some point. Watch out for online scalpers. Never put buying a figure before paying your bills or feeding your family – remember, as blasphemous as it may sound, they are just action figures. Oh and never eat anything blue — that’s not specifically Transformers-related but a piece of good advice all should heed — you listen to your Uncle Trev!

Special thanks to Trev for the words & photos! Be sure to give him a shout on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or his website!