Back in 1984 I had just turned seven years old. One of the presents I opened was a brand new Transformer that changed from a robot into a little red race car; Cliffjumper. I carried that guy all over with me, and he's still in my collection to this day, albeit now with a broken-off head and very loose joints. Fast forward to 2010, the Christmas season. New on the pegs, just in time for the holidays is a brand new Transformer that changes from a robot into a medium sized Cybertronian race car; Cliffjumper!
There's some very nice symmetry in that, so it's the version I'll probably stick with. But there's also the second version:
Cruising through my local Target during the 2010 holiday season, I find a lone new figure hanging from the pegs; a single Cliffjumper, all by himself. I figure, I'd better grab it now, since I may not find another until after the Christmas rush goes away. After checking out and driving home, I realize that he's my 999th figure in the database... so close to 1,000! But I've always loved the character, so I couldn't have just left him in the store at the time... oh, well. That leaves me going to a second Target store two days later. Hanging on the pegs I see at least two Cliffjumpers, plus: Thunderwing!
So, technically, my 1K figure is Thunderwing, which still isn't bad. He was a very cool G1 figure, and had some great plotlines in the G1 and later comic books. So, he's worthy of the title if necessary. But I still like to think that, since they were both purchased close together and both released in the same wave, Cliffjumper is the deserving 1K winner.
So, 1,000 figures right at the end of 2010... only took me 26 years to get here. Here's to at least 26 more! (years, not figures) :)
