I recently came across an animation key cel from the first aired episode series. Although I have dealt in animation cels before, I am a bit clueless about their values and rarity these days.

 

I was wondering if any of you have some experience with them (grading their condition, going rate of value, their history, etc.)...

 

I know that some are more difficult to find than others and it hinges a lot on the specific shot as to it's value. I also know that Transformers cels are more difficult to find than a lot of others because of a problem that they had at the warehouse that they were filed and stored in.

 

Anyway, this is a picture of the cel in question. -

 

 

 

The background has been trimmed to the size of the key cel and the key cel is stuck to the background, but it hasn't affected it's displayability any.

 

If anyone has any opinions and/ or information, all are appreciated.

 

Thanks!

 

Dave

I'm really more interested in history than value, if anyone knows some interesting stuff. I've done some research and found that the Japanese made original episode cels are some of the only ones out there of the first television series. After the first episodes, they switched to Korean animation and all of those cels were cleaned and recycled for other animation productions.

 

I have also been told that only 20 animation cels from the original movie were ever sold from the animation company that did the movie.

I've seen some on eBay over the years...

 

The only person I know to have a real animation cell (the ones that came with the Rhino DVDs were fake) is Raksha. You can see it under "Soundwave Artifacts" here. Its near the bottom.

 

http://www.plumed-serpent.com/soundwave.html

 

The website she says she bought it from has a section for Transformers animation cels but it says it is currently sold out of them.

 

http://www.vegalleries.com/old_site/other4.html#tra

 

Here are some other links to check out:

http://transformers.rubberslug.com/gallery...p?SeriesID=8586

http://users.animanga.com/malaryush/cels/Transformers.htm

 

Actually, this site seems to have a lot of galleries and such about all sorts of animation cels, including Transformers. It seems to have some sort of member system, of which the link above is part of.

http://www.rubberslug.com/