It's fun in a campy, over-the-top way, but it also touches upon deeper concepts and themes from time to time, even if all Transformers fiction is meant to sell toys.

It can be bizarre. Time travel. Rumble turning into a tree, or Rumble collecting bird poop. Dinobot Island. Galvatron going completely insane. Quintesson wizards. Wheelie having a crush on Papika. Shadow parasites. Rhinox farting. Transmutate. Robot heaven. Blitzwing's multiple personalities. Starscream's clones. Stupid drones. Hey, those last two kind of rhyme!

Additionally, all of those things I just mentioned don't belong in this narrow category. They're all strange, but they're also quite broad, and Transformers as a brand can include any of those things and much more.

Finally, the idea of thinking, feeling, alien robots who are life as we don't know it, but who also struggle to survive and make sense of an often dangerous universe resonates with me, and the toys can be cool, too.

 

I saw my first glimpse of tf when my dad let me see the bumblebee vs. barricade scene in the 2007 movie and from then on i was hooked. It wasn't until around 3-4 years after that till i got really hooked and realized that there was more than just Micheal Bay, but now I am beyond just hooked. I'm addicted. Its unhealthy how much I love this series, and it is hard to explain why because i never really had to do it before. I guess a simple answer is, how could you go wrong with giant robots fighting each other with big guns and ships and swords. But it is truly more than just that. The way that the different series went through the pre-war life and culture, religion and beliefs of the transformers, the writers and artists and everyone who worked on transformers really made us fans feel for the characters like he/she is real. It makes us want to get every comic and read them all in order. It makes us want every action figure and pose them all on our shelf. It makes us want every show and movie and to watch every single episode without end. And i can guarantee that at least once in everyone's life, they have thought how cool it would be to be an actual transformer, to fight alongside optimus or megatron, to live for millions of years. So long story short, the character development and action and story and pictures and script and cliffhangers and surprises and everlasting community is why I love transformers.

 

Honestly? That transforming noise.

 

Transformers takes me away from the everyday rat race of mundane reality. Love the stories(when there good), the toys are good therapy for my arthritic fingers, and just an all around great form of sci-fi/fantasy.
Plus what's not to love about GIANT EFFIN' ALIEN ROBOTS beating the crap out of eachother.  

 

Figure this is as good of a forum to introduce myself. (Couldn't find any specific forum or topic related to it, but maybe I just missed it...) Anyway, I've been a fan since the day I got home from school (I'm guessing it was 6th grade?) and saw the first episode of G1 Season 1 on TV in my family's living room. The animation style, the characters, they all just "spoke" to me in a way that other kids' cartoons of the era didn't.

Add to the fact that they were robots that actually changed into other things??? My 12-year old mind was blown! I was hooked then and begged my parents for literally every G1 toy I could get my grubby little hands on. (Little did I know then what some of them would be worth today if I'd just left them in the boxes, but on the other hand, they wouldn't have had the immense play value that they did.)

I was already sold by the time "The Transformers: The Movie" came out in theaters, but that was/is still one of the defining moments of my childhood. I remember vividly going with my uncle (I was on vacation, staying with him and my aunt) on opening day back in 1986. The theater was probably mostly empty, but I couldn't have cared less. The story was so good, and despite a lot of people's opinons, I kind of loved that they killed off Prime. I wanted all those new toys and couldn't wait to find them all. (as my avatar suggests, Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime is one of my favorites).

I will admit my fandom waned a bit during college and the years that followed. However, once Takara/Hasbro introduced the Masterpiece line, my interest was re-kindled. I've picked up (almost) all of the MP figures (most of the time, I shy away from re-paints of the same mold unless it's a character I feel particularly strongly about). But having a number of those characters in versions that so closely represented the actual animation versions was a dream come true.

As I made my through the MP line, I started hearing about "3rd-Party" pieces - which in my mind (originally) equaled knockoffs. Of course, at the time, I didn't realize how wrong I was. A couple of years later, I've become a huge 3rd party collector. One of my goals has been to essentially re-create the 1986 Transformers movie poster using MP-scaled figures since the day I started collecting again.... (come on Fan Toys and release Apache and Koot already!!!), but at this point, I find a ton of 3rd-party stuff that really interests me more than the "official" pieces coming from Takara. (I can't imagine how long we'd have to wait for an official Masterpiece Point Blank, but MakeToys Contactshot is possibly one of the best figures I have that I never even knew I wanted/needed until I saw it!)

I attended my first TFCon just this past weekend, and it was a lot of fun being able to have discussions with people that "get" the desire to have certain figures/characters in a collection. My wife (barely) tolerates my collection - new items end up on the shelf and 9 times out of 10 she has no idea they're even there. (Don't think that'll be the case when Terminus Giganticus 20B shows up - hopefully soon!) Anyway, just thought I'd share why I love TFs and why I keep collecting now....  

 

Welcome aboard!

 

I always loved the premise: sentient alien robots that can disguise themselves as anything. Household objects, vehicles, animals, even *plants!*

The fiction and characters that populate their universe hooked me at an early age.

The toys are the least important to me, but I do still have a small collection & love every piece in it. I'm almost always amazed by the engineering of them. It's like a crazy logic puzzle figuring out how to get this shape out of that shape. It's pretty cool.

 

You should post pics of your collection on the collection forums

 

If we develop technology that would allow our consciousness, our minds to be transplanted into a computer, i’d Like to be a Transformer. That’s why I love them aside from the characters.

I love that they’re a different kind of life form. We’ve seen the usual alien trope from the typical carbon-based grey aliens to human looking aliens like Thor or Superman or the life forms from Star Trek and a Star Wars. Sets them apart from the rest.

They’re the most alien concept amongst all alien tropes, but are relatable because of their human-like traits.

 

In super god master force(or it might have been headmasters) humans become transformers but they are two weird decepticons. I feel like that was a good touch to add to the show because like you said, it lets kids believe they can become a transformer

 

Another interesting angle would be one of the ideas of another member here. He mentioned the twist that the reason why Transformers have mostly human traits and characters was because Transformers evolved from humans and Cybertron really was Earth.

 

IDW somewhat did that but with the people on gorlam prime. In the future, Gorlam prime's once flesh inhabitants become cybertronians. It was in the end of chaos

 

Because transforming robots.

 

The first thing that attracted me to transformers was, yes, that they were giant robots. That they could transform into animals, vehicles, and other cool mundane things or that they were fully sentient alien beings where the robots of most franchises were dependent upon their creator only helped them to stand out from the crowd.

The thing that got me really hooked was the quirky memorable characters. For me, it was Beast Wars growing up and I remember that Dinobot and Waspinator were my favorites, but I loved them all. I grew up, and that hasn't changed. New characters emerge to become new favorites for myself and new fans.

Which brings me to the real staying power behind the brand; the reason I'm still a fan after twenty years and transformers is stronger than ever. The brand -much like its characters- keeps changing and evolving in new ways. What other franchise out there offers such variety? While I may not enjoy every individual interpretation, I love the creativity that goes into making them and can honestly say I find something inspired even in my least favorite series. Can't wait to see where we are in another twenty years.

 

As a toy line I like them because they're not just one thing. Typically three toys in one, some times more. I use to get super heroes and Star Wars but after a while they got boring. With Transformers if I ever get board with one mode I can just change it into something else.

The fiction I like because even though it's an over glorified toy commercial, if the story is good and the characters are good then I can just forget it's all to sell toys. I've seen some other cartoons that are way more obvious about it cause the story constantly tries to shoehorn different toys in. Transformers does that some times too but usually not as blatantly obvious.

 

Transformers was a great part of my childhood. What makes them so cool is that they can transform into anything; cars, animals, weapons, etc. They were also great stories such as Generation 1, Beast Wars, and Armada, as well as great characters.

 

Transformers has always been one of the best things about my childhood, I was practally raised up with Transformers. I always loved the toys as a kid and I still do now even though I stopped collecting for reasons such as not enough spsce and for me deciding its not what I want my life to be about. Besides that I still love to watch any new "GOOD" shows that may come out. Transformers will always be apart of me.

 

It has cool toys, characters with varied/fun personalities, and a lore that has lot of potential for storytelling. Kinda makes me sad that I wasn't born in the eighties. I consider the pop culture of that era to be as good as it will ever get. Also, the original G1 cartoon can be a hoot because of how bad/cheesy/funny/weird it was at times.

 

Well, I love giant changeable robots. Toy-wise, I loved it because growing up, I usually could only get just a figure here and there but vehicles had to wait for Christmas or Birthday but with TFs, I could get a figure AND a vehicle in one purchase.

On a deeper meaning, it's reminds me of simpler and easier times. In this complicated world of being an adult, it's nice to have a little reminder of that time occasionally when things in the adult world get too stressful sometimes. I loved alot of different toy lines growing up, but Transformers was always my favorite and why I collect to this day.

 

Im younger than most here, at 20 years old, but the first Bayformers movie literally changed my life. I was 9 at the time, and at first I thought it was strange. Then a friend of mine hwo had seen it brought one of his toys from the new movie, a voyager Ironhide, and I saw it and it was actually pretty cool. Soon enough, I picked up my own, deluxe Scorponok. When the movie came out, I went to see it with my parents and my mind was blown.

After that, I began to look into other franchises like comics and superheroes, and Star Wars. I had enjoyed these before, but after Transformers I realized just how amazing the science fiction genre could be. I am now an avid comic book reader, toy collector, and I still love these characters. I have deep knowledge of these characters history and the stories that surround them. But Transformers is the one that started it all. Even though it was a pretty bad movie, it was my favorite movie at the time and holds some sentimental value for me.

As I became obssessed with these characters I learned more and more, and I began to get more and more Transformers, whenever my folks would let me. Something about this franchise, maybe it was the epic scale? the vast array of great characters? The fight scenes? The transforming nature of the toys? Just keep me coming back.