Continuing on my showcasing and blogging of my "All Sidespwie" mold,I've decided to just go ahead by reviewing "Red Alert" first since they are from the same mold after all. I've often wonder why these two bots aren't the twin brothers instead of "Sunstreaker" as the other twin brother. However, i guess it worked out just fine... because Red Alert is a little bit of a worrywart and it would have driven Sideswipe insane if he was his twin brother LOL!!!
Anyhow... like most of the Season 1 of the G1 Transformers toys, they belonged to a Pre-Transformers line of toys called "Diaclone/Microman". I'll most probably do a short intro on the Diaclone/Microman toy lines and history in the next few entries of this blog.
CGI Red Alert/Prowl by Iaconcity
Anyhow, as I've mentioned in my previous post... this particular mold holds a very special spot in my heart and memory of owning a Transformers toy. Now I'm not sure if i've mentioned this before because I've told this story so many times... I can't keep track of it anymore LOL
Red Alert
Red Alert hold an important spot in my heart and journey with my love affair with all things Transformers because this was the very first TF toy i ever got!!! The thing is that... i got it before even knowing that there's actually a cool cartoon show about them!! All i saw was a cool Lamborghini that transforms into a very cool looking robot. But getting it wasn't easy. It was selling for about 40 bucks and back in the 80's for a 9 year old boy..it might as well be 4 million bucks LOL!!! Especially when I'm the youngest of 5 siblings coming from a below average income family of a veggie stall owner in the local vegetable market!!!
Gathering whatever savings i had, i brought em to the small toy shop at the corner and poured out my coins and whatever dollar bills that was in the mix LOL. The caretaker of the toy shop was a very surly lady that just scoffs at my ragtag clothing and my pathetic amount of scrunched up dollar bills and coins. She sat at the counter and counted whatever amount i had looking very uninterested and by the time she finished counting, she just looked up and me and said...
"You don't have enough money, ask your mother to give you more money to buy this toy"...
Yeah right... like it was that simple LOL. If that was so, would i be here in your shop with a handful of scrunched up dollar bills and a mix of quarters and pennies?? LOL
Anyhow, i ended up going back and forth from my mum's stall to the shop. Fishing out coins from my mum's change bin. Hehehe yeah i know it's wrong.. but i was only 9 and the seduction of a cool transforming toy is too much for me to resist LOL.
After going back and forth a few times... the lady from the toy shop was getting a bit annoyed with me as i was no way near the amount needed to buy the toy. Finally running out of time as it's almost 1pm and it's time to help my mum to close down the stall and go home for the day. Feeling defeated, i left the shop with my head held low and teary eyes. As i was leaving the shop.. a man walked into the shop and i could hear him asked the woman in the shop why is the boy (Me) looking so sad. She must have told him about my pathetic attempt to buy the toy, because soon after hearing their conversation... i heard the man calling out to me. He waved at me, signaling me to come to him with one hand while holding the "Red Alert" toy in the other.
I rushed back to the shop where he was standing and he told me.. "Here, you can have this toy". It was the the single most kind thing a total stranger have ever done for me for as long as i could remember. Ofcourse i grabbed the toy from his hands with glee and thanked him profusely.
But because this toy is bought with very questionable means... I had to open up the toy at an open air car park. Ripping up the box to get to it's contents and hurried back to my mum;s veggie stall to help her pack up. In an attempt to explain for the possession of this toy i told everyone that my friend gave me that toy... Yeah RIGHT.. like anyone actually believed that LOL
So, there you go... a true life story of my adventure or rather misadventure of owning my very first Transformers toy.. "RED ALERT"!!!
Cheers!!!
N_M
1 comment:
Awesome history and adventure.
The story of a stranger who gives to a sad child the toy of his dreams, is seen in movies but never thought would happen.
By the way, $ 40 dollars? I don't remember their prices, but I thought it was close to $12 and $20
Congrats, good blog, at last I could see all vintage figures :')
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