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KB Toys had a big sign up, "Buy 1, get 1 half off: Everything in the store". So I saw the brand new Alternators and was floored at how amazing they looked.
I went back a little later, and picked up one of the clearanced out Armada Unicrons. Shortly thereafter a friend gave me Armada Optimus, since he saw I had some transformers.
It kind of snowballed very quickly.
Pic related: I still have the photo from my collection's humblest beginnings, before I even owned a digital camera. Smokescreen is standing like a goob because it took me almost two weeks to realize he even HAD heel spurs.