COLLECTOR INTERVIEW #92: Rotorstorm Sam

We’re back for another Transformers collector interview!

Many fans in the UK Transformers collecting scene will know Rotorstorm Sam. He’s a regular at conventions and is one-half of the customising double-act Shins of the Wreckers, making some incredible tailor-made toy overhauls! Today, he’s also here to offer some wise words and a tour of his shelves.

Who are you and what do you collect?

My name is Sam, going by Rotorstorm or Rotorstorm Sam most places online and I am a Transformers collector and half of Shins of the Wreckers Customs alongside my friend Ash (AKA Nemesisspringer). My collection is varied due to collecting since childhood, but has a main focus on Beast Wars show characters (with a love for Season 2), characters from Transformers Victory and moulds that made the jump from Diaclone to the Transformers line, focusing on Season 2 appearances.

I’ve also been trying for years to put together a collection of Wreckers based on the IDW comics rosters. I’m just about there, thanks to customisation, though at some point, I really need to go in and do some renovation work to a couple like Pyro and Rack-N’-Ruin to bring them up to a standard I’m happy with.

Outside of Transformers, I’ve got a decent computer games collection spanning Nintendo consoles from the SNES onwards, a few bits of rare Red Dwarf merchandise and a decent collection of vinyl records.

What do you love most about Transformers and the hobby?

This has changed over the years; at some points, it has been the toys themselves, while other times it has been fiction. The toys and fiction have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, having never left the fandom or grown out of it, but in later years, it has been the people I have made friends with through the hobby. I’ve found that those friendships often last longer than a toy stays in my collection, and without them, I wouldn’t have stayed in the fandom for as long as I have. There are some people out there who are real gems, and life is better having gotten to know them through the hobby.

The people who have worked on Transformers have also been friendly and incredible to meet, there is a saying about never meeting your heroes but having met the likes of Dan Gilvezan, Gary Chalk, Aaron Archer, Steve Blum, James Roberts, Nick Roche and Andy Couzens, there are few fandoms out there where those involved in the creative processes are such a delight to meet and interact with.

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

I first started with Transformers in the early 90s when I inherited my eldest cousin’s G1 Hot Spot and Optimus Prime, so you can imagine how much has changed since then! 

Personally, the most notable point was probably joining some internet forums as a teenager around 2003/2004 and finding out that I wasn’t the only one still interested in these toy robots, leading to attending meetups and now the big TFNation convention every year where I am able.

The biggest change I’ve witnessed was probably the 2007 movie. Before that, Transformers wasn’t doing badly by any definition, as Beast Wars, the Unicron Trilogy, and RID 2001 did very well here in the UK despite no regular terrestrial TV airing, but when the movie happened, the brand’s popularity exploded! It was everywhere and affected everything from the style of toy engineering and aesthetics to the funds the brand was able to gather for Hasbro for better or worse (Transformers Animated’s fourth season was perhaps the biggest casualty of the movie’s success with Hasbro choosing to drop it in favour of Prime on, I don’t think I’ll ever get over that one!).

Also notable is just how much the purchasing has moved online. Back when I was a kid, there were stores like Toys’R’Us, Toymaster, Jolly Giant, etc, but now it is far easier to go online and find exactly what you want. I feel this is especially so as physical stores close and distribution continues to be a big headscratcher for toy hunting in general.

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

I think the brand is approaching a crossroads, sadly.

Whilst the Legacy lines seem to do quite well, it is clear that the nostalgia is starting to eat itself with little in the way of reinvention and a reliance on classic designs across new media in a way that wasn’t as prevalent even 10 years ago. 

Don’t get me wrong, I love the old G1 stuff and still want to see some characters get remakes that haven’t (I was really excited at the opportunity to see Rotorstorm get his second ever figure and hope to see more homages to Turbomasters and Predators down the road) but the brand seems to rely a lot on the Classics/Generations/Legacy lines in order to stay relevant.

Something will have to give in order for the brand to grab newer generations, Earthspark did great in that regard with the introduction of the Terrans and there was some good fun in that cartoon and Cyberverse before it also has its new breakout characters such as Clobber and Nightshade, but accessibility has been a big issue for some people due to issues such as shows being locked away behind exclusive streaming services. Hopefully, the new Cyberworld series is able to connect to its audience and engage with kids in a way that will see them wanting to come back for more.

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

The stories that really astonish me are those people who make those really large adult-sized Metroplex and Fortress Maximus figures and then have space to display them. I don’t have space to have my Encore on display in the house, let alone something that would need an actual piece of human furniture to support itself.

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

Every Friday in my home, there is a flea market, and on occasion, I have been able to come across some really good finds, things that even I wouldn’t believe if I hadn’t found and bought them myself! 

Perhaps the best was in 2019, where I found the six Landcross multiforce reissues with four of their guns, World’s Smallest Optimus and Soundwave (with tiny Ravage still in his chest!) and picked them up along with some Micromasters for what is now the regular RRP for a single deluxe figure in the UK! 

I may have spent more than that in order to actually be able to form Landcross, but it was a great find that led me to actually go after representation of all the Victory robot cast (just need a Blue Bacchus of some kind now in order to complete that lineup).

Honourable mention has to be the Beast Wars Metals figures I got off eBay. X-9 Ravage was expensive, but paying £160 for a complete boxed set back in 2017 to complete that collection, as opposed to the £250 it regularly goes for now, feels like a win!

I also managed to snag a boxed Vs pack of Metals Optimus and Megatron for relatively cheap back around 2013 or so, definitely nice having a version of that shiny T-Rex that isn’t prone to just breaking through transformation or daring to move an arm joint.

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

It would have to be my boxed Rotorstorm (currently on display with my other Turbomasters in vehicle mode). I first bought a Rotorstorm from the local Toymaster with money I received on my sixth Birthday, and that awesome helicopter has stayed in my head ever since. 

I’m so grateful I went and spoke to the late Andy Couzens back at TFNation 2022 and found out about aspects of how the Rotorstorm toy was designed. I made sure to buy a print of some of his design sketches he drew back in the early 1990s, and I only wish I had bought more, as they are beautiful in their own right. 

I felt really privileged getting to speak to Andy about how special that figure felt to me as a child and still does to this day. It definitely felt like a unique experience meeting one of the people responsible for the design work on some of the last G1 and early G2 toys I experienced in childhood.

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

This is going to sound really sad, but I would love to be able to get one of the custom figures that I’ve painted back! I’ve found that when I paint something up for other people, I put a lot more effort into it than I do for anything for myself.

Over the last few years, we’ve painted up some G1 Stunticons and Protectobots in their G2 colour schemes, and they turned out absolutely incredible. I was amazed at how much I prefer the colours on G2 Motormaster, so it would probably be him. 

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

Spend within your means, and that it’s okay not to have everything. Don’t pick stuff up simply for the sake of it.
 
For many years, I was chasing and buying things on sight, trying to pick and buy what I wanted as it came out, while it was available. I racked up credit card debt that I was only able to pay off by making serious cuts to my spending and selling a lot of what I had bought in the first place.

 
Unless it is a HasLab or some other kind of exclusive, the figures you see on shelves will still be around for a good price for a few years before the aftermarket prices start to creep up out of reach. Think about the purchase. Will you enjoy owning it? If it is outside of your focus, ask yourself if it would really add to your collection.

The other bit of advice I will say is keep it fun, a hobby is supposed to be fun and something you really enjoy and are passionate about, so as long as you are having a good time, go and enjoy it.

Special thanks to Sam for their words & photos! Be sure to give them a shout on Bluesky and be sure to check out Shins of the Wreckers on Facebook and Twitter!