However my collections leap to the small screen has now officially been made! On Sunday night myself and my Transformatorium were featured on Channel 10’s The Project, a nationaly aired television program here in Australia.
They interviewed me about my years of collecting Transformers and some of my various figures. They also featured my wife who looked beautiful on camera and my son who was an absolute star!
As well as airing it on Television, The Project also uploaded the video to their YouTube Channel. So check out Trev & The Transformatorium below!
Shelf Lighting by Aguirre Electrical
Trev’s hair by Mick of Cutthroat Barbers
Makeup Mentoring by Sherie
Disappointingly all the footage with my daughter was cut, so I feel compelled to put a photo here of my darling daughter Acacia who deserved to be in the spotlight too, and who is more special to me than all the Transformers in the world.
Thank you so much to all the people on social media that gave a truly staggering amount of positive feedback after the show aired! If you would like to see more of The Transformatorium, head over to my personal YouTube Channel, or check out the link below.
“What’s the strangest reaction you’ve had when people see The Transformatorium?”
(Or as Adam put it: ‘the nerd shed’)
Well that’s a toughie, I’ve had at least a few hundred visitors to the shed since I first got it set up nearly 4 years ago. Some people travel hours to specifically tour the shed and sometimes fathers contact me, wanting to bring their sons for their birthdays. Conversely, sometimes it’s an unsuspecting tradesman visiting our farm, such as a mechanic or labourer, getting dragged in with a ‘Hey, you want to see something cool?’ line from yours truly. Usually I do the lighting start up sequence, where shelf after shelf gets lit from the bottom up, ending with ignition of the ceiling light. There is usually a lot of ‘Oh wow!’s followed by that moment of stunned amazement as people try to visually process what they are seeing, being completely enveloped by Transformers on every wall and even the ceiling.
Their subsequent reactions tend to be based on who they are and why they are seeing it.
People that know about The Transformatorium
Jason, Trent and Dallas – all travelled 3 hours to come hang out in the shed.
Reactions from people who have specifically come to see the Transformatorium, or at least are aware of its existence before visiting our place on other business are pretty standard:
Those coming to see the shed tend to go very quiet after their initial excitement, wandering around getting lost in the thousands of toys surrounding them. They methodically work their way through shelf after shelf, seeing if they can spot any figures from their childhood.
Those who were aware of the sheds existence, but didn’t come specifically to see it, show bemusement a lot of the time. This is often the mothers of the friends of my children, who are dropping their kids off for a playdate or party, and have been taken in for a look. They seem impressed but also have a ‘why would anyone do this?’ look upon their faces.
People that don’t know about the shed
Lachlan came to clean an underground water tank – ended up getting a full tour he wasn’t expecting!
It’s the people that aren’t even aware that The Transformatorium exists (how that can be I do not know – the level of ignorance in society can be shocking sometimes!) are ones that give the most varied reactions, though the first reaction is always surprise as no one expects to see such a thing on a farm in the middle of nowhere. In fact only last week my daughters new singing teacher (a very talented young woman who has appeared on The Big DJ Trev Show before) saw the shed for the first time, as did her mother later when she came to pick her daughter up.
The mother was extremely impressed and spent a long time looking around the shed. In fact when her two other younger daughters were asking to leave after nearly half an hour she said ‘No, I haven’t finished looking yet’.
However when the singing teacher took a look, her reaction was almost accusatory. ‘How much did all this cost?’ I believe were her exact words. In that scenario I was the one that was bemused.
People online
Most people on the internet are very complimentary when they first see a photo. I’ve received all kinds of compliments, and sometimes comments such as ‘I want come live there’ or ‘will you adopt me?’.
Some people say it looks like a store which I’ve always found a bit odd, though I take it as a compliment as to how they are displayed. Other people react with questions, often about dusting but sometimes other things such as how many Transformers I have or the dimensions of the shed.
We used to have a carpet cleaning company come out once a year that was run by a husband and wife. When I showed the husband the shed he swore a lot (in a good way), looked about, then went and got his wife from inside our main farmhouse ‘Ya gotta f*cken look at this!” I believe were his exact words to her. It was actually his suggestion for me to get a visitors book. Let’s have a look at just some of the reactions people have recorded in it over the years:
“Wow, that’s a BIG collection. Dayam” Brendan – 15/11/2020
“Wow! Just wow, and I want to play with them” – Ronnie – 19/12/2020
“All I can say is WOW!! Just completely blown away” – Brett, 24/01/2021
“Incredible!! You da bomb Trev!” – Lisa & Scott, 03/02/2024
“Mind instantly blown, it took me back to my childhood. Amazing” – Michael & Wyatt, 24/04/2024
“WOWSERS! Oh my HAT!” – Petrina, 12/06/2024
The Strangest Reaction Ever
The strangest reaction I ever got, ever, would have to be from one of the operators of Dry Creek Farm, an awesome company that uses goats in order to clean out noxious weeds like blackberries in an environmentally sustainable way in the best traditions of permaculture. His reaction was – nothing.
Complete indifference. Could have been saying to him ‘Hey, look at this brick that looks exactly like those 27,000 other bricks over there, isn’t it great?!’ Didn’t like it, didn’t dislike it, just didn’t care.
I’ve encountered wonder, awe, shock, confusion, bemusement, amazement & joy. I’ve had people visibly impressed, dumbstruck, stunned and surprised. But never, before or since, have I had someone look inside the shed and have the same expression one would have looking at a piece of grass – just complete disinterest. Even people that aren’t into Transformers are either impressed with the scale of the collection they are seeing, or at least kinda curious in how it came about since its not something you see every day. But nope, not this time.
So Adam, the strangest reaction the nerd shed ever got was no reaction at all.
I’m a Transformers collector. For quite a while now, people have been asking to see more than just photo’s of The Transformatorium, my specially built shed housing over 4000 Transformer figures! But doing a quick few vids with a camera phone to post online didn’t seem like it would really do the scope of the shed justice.
So in conjunction with Able Media Productions, for the first time we have proper footage of The Transformatorium in all its glory, as well as questions about the shed answered by yours truly.
The following video is the extended cut with 12 extra minutes of footage, showing through my personal collection a history of Transformers toys going back nearly 40 years!
I’ve been collecting Transformers for nearly 40 years. For quite a while now, people have been asking to see more than just photo’s of The Transformatorium, my specially built shed housing over 4000 Transformer figures! But doing a quick few vids with a camera phone to post online didn’t seem like it would really do the scope of the shed justice.
A film 39 years in the making
So in conjunction with Able Media Productions, for the first time we have proper footage of The Transformatorium in all its glory, as well as questions about the shed answered by yours truly.
Since pictures of the The Transformatorium have begun to circulate on various social media around the globe, I get asked a lot of questions. Much of the time, these are questions I have been asked many times before.
This picture tantalizes the curiosity!
So to address this, I put the call out on FB and Twitter for people to put forth their queries that I could answer in a Frequently Asked Questions blog, so in the future I could quickly direct people to it rather than type out the same answers yet again. Don’t get me wrong, I love people taking an interest! This will simply be a bit of a time-saver all round 😉
Find below the list of FAQ’s I received, and thank you to everybody who submitted one!
The Transformatorim – FAQ’s
About the Shed itself:
Q: OMG your house must be soooo big! Is it?
A:The Transformatorium is actually a separate building to the main house – a specifically designed shed to store my collection. We live on a big farm though, so there was plenty of space to construct the shed.
Q: How tall is that ceiling?
No wasted space, not even the ceiling!
A: At it’s apex it is 4 meters high, at it’s lowest it is 2.6 meters.
Q: Why did someone who is so obviously genetically related to hobbits build shelves so high?
What’s the point of having all that space if you don’t use it?
A: (Sigh… yes I know the questioner and yes he is significantly taller than me) I built the shelves myself to scale with the shed, and to maximize shelf space I made them all 2.6m high. Of course that means if I want something off the top shelf them I need a ladder to get it.
Q: What are you going to do when you run out of room?
A: There is a second part to the shed behind the big main back wall. If I ever run out of room I guess I will need to knock out that wall and utilize the storage space behind it. Lets hope that’s a looong way off in the future though, as it would necessitate taking EVERY single Transformer off the shelves for the reconstruction and that would be such a huge job!
Q: How do you deal with heat?
Shady
A: The placement of my Transformatorium Shed is such that during the worst parts of the day it is shaded by tree’s (though I have genuine fear of one of them falling the wrong way one day). The ceiling is also quite high and well insulated so heat doesn’t build up much. The only part of the shed that gets particularly hot is the West facing wall around mid-afternoon. Thankfully I only have MISB crossover figures on that wall which affords the figures some extra protection, and I am growing plants in the garden I made out front that should adequately shade that wall within a few years. I also have thick heavy curtains across the glass door to keep out heat and light.
About me and my collection:
Q: What is your evacuation strategy for the figures in the event of bush fire/flood?
Picture from 3 years ago – would need a bigger trailer now
A: Back in late 2019 I had to evacuate my entire collection due to bushfires. Thankfully the majority of them were still boxed so I was, with the help of a mate, able to load them all up and take them to a friends house in a nearby town that was not as threatened. They lived there for a month until the danger had passed.
If a bushfire or flood came out of nowhere now, I’d be far more concerned with getting my wife, children and pets out safely. Toys can be replaced, loved ones cannot.
If I had time I might dash back and grab as many G1 and Masterpiece toys as possible though 😉
Q: WhErE iS “insert figure obviously missing from your collection here” I dOnT sEe iT.
Oh Timelines Counterpunch, where art thou?!
A: If you don’t see it, chances are I don’t have it. My collection is big, but I can’t think of any specific Transformers toyline that I own every single figure from.
Q: I noticed you’re in Australia – has that ever caused problems with adding to the collection? Import costs, local distribution, environmental damage etc?
A: Yes it can be a real pain in the arse to get certain figures here in Australia, especially for me since I live in the bush and there are no stores that sell Transformers within 50 kilometres of my location. Occasionally here in Aus we luck out and get a figure before the rest of the world, like Legacy Motormaster, but in an age where more and more figures are becoming exclusives to chain stores that don’t even exist on this continent, sometimes the choice is to either pay a ruinous price and postage to get the figure, or to just accept fate and let it go. I certainly think my collection would be bigger if I lived in the US or Japan.
Q: How much of your collection has had to be replaced due to damage or wear, things like Gold Plastic Syndrome, yellowing, sticker damage etc?
Poor Pipes… er…. pipes.
A: I’ve had to replace the odd G1 figure over the years, like Omega Supreme and Mirage, who were too damaged to repair. In fact with my G1 figures I am loathe to touch any of them anymore as they are so old even with a gentle and perfectly executed transformation they can break – poor old Sludge will spend the rest of his life in dino-mode because a hip broke! I need to get around to sourcing a replacement G1 Silverbolt too due to hip damage. For the most part I haven’t had to replace much, I’m pretty careful with my figures. My son broke a few when he was younger, but is much more careful now, to the point I even let him transform my MP’s sometimes.
As for replacing figures which have suffered from Gold Plastic Syndrome or yellowing, its pretty hard to do because any other figures out there on the secondary market usually suffer from the exact same afflictions mine do.
Q: Have you ever had a problem with figures falling over for whatever reason? Does it cause a domino effect, or are they all spaced out enough that you can more or less avoid a catastrophe?
Figures 5 rows deep – what could possibly go wrong?
A: Oh dear Primus yes, this happens way more often than I would like! Some shelves are fine, whereas others I feel like I have to perform some kind of delicate surgery to remove a figure without knocking over a dozen of its brethren. My son has given up now, if he wants a toy he asks me to get is as the domino effect is a shocker! But yeah, it happens, and considering the floor is concrete I’ve had a few heart-stopping moments when a bunch of figures have tumbled and I’ve had to check if they survived.
Q: So many toys! Your wife must be very understanding/ hur-hur yOuR oBvIoUsLy SiNgLe…?
Through thick and thin and Michael Bay movies
A: I’ve been with my wife for nearly 20 years and married for 14 of them. She is extremely understanding of my hobby. She is also relieved that my son is so into Transformers, as it means I have him to share my passion with so she no longer has to fain interest 😉
Q: Is there any third party or customs in the collection or all official HasTak stuff?
Leftovers from the days when official Quintesson toys seemed to have no chance of ever being made
A: I have very few customs or 3rd party stuff. I have nothing against them or those that collect them, they just aren’t for me. I’d say far less than 1% of my collection is not official merchandise. Most I had bought in the past were of characters that had never had an official toy at that point. These days it seems no matter how obscure the character they are probably going to get an official figure at some stage, so I don’t bother with 3P stuff at all anymore. I do have some tiny custom figure made by the talented Michael I am very fond of.
So tiny, so fragile, so perfect…
Q: TWO Unicrons?! What are you, a billionaire!?
They do add a certain gravitas to the room don’t they
A: Heh heh – far from it. Here in Australia we got about the best deal possible through a chain store. You could order the items at cost, then you had a full 18 months to pay them off before they arrived. Plus you could pick up in store so no postage costs! Because of this, I was able to slowly pay off my order of two Unicron’s without breaking the bank, and then take the ute to pick them up – it was a sweet deal!
Q: What are you going to do with your collection when you’re dead? (Obviously the answer is nothing, because you’re dead. But hopefully you put a plan in place prior to your fateful attempt to fit 16 tomahawk steaks in your mouth at once.)
I’m afraid the wounds are fatal
A: My son gets all my male Transformers, my daughter gets all my female ones and BotBots. Before anyone argues this is supremely unfair due to the disparate numbers between male and female Transformer action figures, it should be noted my daughter isn’t really into Transformers so wouldn’t really want many (if any). She also gets my complete collection of Rarity figures from MLP as well.
I’d let my family pick a few for me to be buried with (not that I would have a say in it at that stage). If as a family they decided to simply keep a few each to remember me by, then sell off the rest of the collection to pay off the mortgage or go on an overseas trip, more power to them.
Q: Can I, a complete stranger located on another continent, come and see your collection?
Q: How much are the Tickets?
A: I happily give tours of The Transformatorium to locals, and if people are willing to trek all the way out here to outback Australia to see it, then they get in for free 😉
Q: How do you keep the shelves clean? My own collection is getting fairly dusty but they’re packed too tight to a shelf to just pull’em down and start wiping
The dust, oh the dust…
A: Ah, now this is easily the question I get asked more than any other. Yes dust is an issue in the shed, though not as bad as one may think. It is its worst near the glass door, so my Movieverse figures cop the brunt of it, and there are figures there in their alt-modes there that need to be wiped off monthly.
In the rest of the shed its not too bad. This is where its handy to have an explorative son who wants to check out all the toys. Whenever he or I get a figure from the shelves I give that figure a quick wipe down. In the long run though, I’ve had to resign myself to the fact that, unless I somehow magically become a millionaire and can buy gigantic glass cabinets, my shelves and figures are never going to be dust free and I am just going to have to continue to mitigate the worst of it as best as time allows. Good thing the shelves themselves are brown eh!
Thank you to everyone that submitted questions for The Transformatorium FAQ. If you have any further queries, pop them in the comments section below!
