Rare 1980s Transformers toys are helping children in poverty

It is a toy that has delighted children for decades – but for one charity, Transformers really are more than meets the eye.

A group of fans of the robots in disguise – a pop culture franchise that has spawned films, TV shows, comics and even stamps – have been hunting for rare and obscure collectables for the past 15 years.

But they aren’t hoarding the items for themselves – they sell them on to other fans every year and then donate the proceeds to a good cause.

Since starting in 2009, the Toy-Fu group have earned an estimated £178,000 for Mary’s Meals, an organisation that aims to provide free school meals to children in countries with high levels of child poverty.

Toy-Fu was born when Nicholas Davidson, a long-time Transformers fan from Glasgow, became aware of Mary’s Meals and decided to try and help.

The group’s efforts culminate every year at TF Nation, a Transformers fan convention in Birmingham which this year runs from 9 to 11 August.

About 1,500 fans of the robots from the alien planet Cybertron are expected to gather – or transform and roll out – for the event.

“It takes something that’s very commercial – of just buying new things – and does something good with it,” says Gavin Spence.

The graphic designer from Airdrie has been a Transformers fan since childhood and a Toy-Fu member for several years.

“Nick’s the sort of person that others gravitate towards and because it’s a noble cause there has been a huge influx of people supporting it and bringing their own talents.

“It’s not just selling toys now, but making magazines, bringing in other merchandise, making their own custom toys for raffles and things like that.”

Toy-Fu’s work is not as simple as buying up some old toys and selling them.

Thousands of the robots have been released over a 40 year span. They range from the diecast metal originals of the 1980s through to exclusive toys only released in Japan and Europe, to lines based around the popular Michael Bay films and the most recent cartoon, called Earthspark.

Some can be valuable, some much less so.

The Toy-Fu team scour the internet to try and find rare items they can sell to other collectors, mixed with cheaper toys for younger fans who might not quite have parental approval to spend hundreds of pounds on a toy robot.

“It can be really challenging to find stuff,” admits Gavin.

“But we all have our areas we focus on. One of the team, Andy, always finds really cool Japanese stuff for example.

“Sometimes we have to talk Nick into a higher price because he wants to raise money for the charity but also sees this as a way to service collectors in the community.”

That community has given back, beyond just buying off the Toy-Fu stall each year.

According to Andy Brown, another long-standing fan who works with Toy-Fu, others involved in the fandom have become involved through donating their own unwanted items, or contributing in other ways.

The TF Nation organisers hold a charity raffle at every convention, with funds once again going towards Mary’s Meals.

“There’s so many people that will just come up at the convention with a box and say: ‘I’ve got toys to give you for free’,” says Andy.

“You’re maybe thinking you’ll get two or three things but these are big parcels that they’re just giving us. It’s mind blowing.

“It’s like you don’t really buy something from Toy-Fu, you just rent it. Then you’ll give it back again years later, so this one toy can be generating money again and again.”

The Transformers brand itself has been through various iterations and series over the years, but is usually centred around warring robots dived into two factions – “heroic Autobots and evil Decepticons” – who find themselves battling on Earth.

For disguise purposes the characters, with names like Starscream, Cyclonus and Ironhide, can switch to alternate forms from cars and planes to animals, weapons and – in a sign of its 1980s roots – cassette players.

It enjoyed huge sales for toy company Hasbro upon launching in the 1980s, with Autobot leader Optimus Prime becoming a must-have Christmas present.

A new animated film, Transformers One, will be in cinemas this autumn.

“It’s like football or something, it’s just always been with me,” says Gavin.

“Even in my teenage years – where you tend to say: ‘Oh I’m not into that anymore’ – I’d still be looking at them out the corner of my eye.

“Then as an adult you’ve got disposable income of your own and I went right back to Transformers.”

Mary’s Meals says the donations from Toy-Fu over the years have been “wonderful”.

The Argyll-registered charity began in Malawi in 2002 by feeding 200 children a day, and now works in 17 countries.

It estimates about 67 million children are unable to attend school because of poverty.

“I am so grateful to Toy-Fu and the incredible amount of money they have raised for Mary’s Meals over the years,” the charity’s executive director Matt Barlow told BBC Scotland News.

“Their donations are providing life-changing daily school meals for thousands of children living in the world’s poorest countries, providing them with energy, education and hope for a brighter future.”

Another donation will be coming after this week’s convention, and Gavin believes the fundraising is as key to the weekend as anything else.

“I love the shows, I love going to TF Nation, I love the panels and seeing everybody every year, but I can’t imagine going to it and not being involved with Toy-Fu.

“It makes me feel less bad about wasting my money on plastic toys at 42 too!”