Why are you in to Transformers at all? Came up in casual conversation the other day and it's generally something I answer with "Cos I like robots." Which is True, any sort of mechanical entity I like, your cyborgs, androids, mechs etc...but then I wondered why I've continued to be really invested in the brand since an early age?

I was born in 1985 so a year after Transformers came out, one of earliest memories is watching an episode of "Generation 2" i.e. the Generation 1 cartoon with random CGI "cybercubes" flitting in an out. I think it was the Girl Who Loved Powerglide. I dunno why THAT episode sticks in my mind, possibly because of how daft it was. My first Transformers that I remember were hand-me-downs from my cousin. Hot Rod, an incomplete Ultra Magnus (so not able to make him into his full mode), a broken Blitzwing (no turret), Springer, and the Aerial Bots which were complete but I never figured out how to put him together as I didn;t have the instructions and was about 4-5 at this time and nobody told me they could do that. I later acquired a pretender Starscream, who was my favourite, and an Action Master circuit. I may have had more but those are the ones I remember.

I kinda forgot about them as I grew up, but watched Beast Wars when it was on CITV at the weekend and bank holidays. The toys were passed on/lost I moved on, got really into gaming on my Mega Drive etc...and I didn't really start to notice or get back in to Transformers until Robots in Disguise/Car Robots came back. Started buying the toys again etc, and from then on I never really looked back, just got more and more in to it again.

I can't really remember what drew me to the franchise when I was so young, I assume it was the start of my "robots are cool" thing, but as I've I've started to appreciate it more. The idea of an alien civil war was intriguing, different to the standard "aliens are bad" shows you tended to get most times, even though a lot of those did kind of follow a similar route.The fact that the Transformers are more alien than your typical organic aliens. These guys live for millions of years, the entire span of human history is like a summer holiday to them. In IDW they've fought battles that have lasted longer than some civilisations!

I think what also draws me to them is the fact that in terms of characterisations, the Decepticons seem to get a lot more attention than your typical villians. Oh sure in the carton they had their typical "scheme of the week" deal, but as time has gone on they've had more and more development. In the shows and especially in the comics. Hell if you would have told me ten years ago that in the comics, Megatron would actually be repentant about the war, and he was written with these feelings being believable, I'd have laughed.

From a less plot based perspective I love the toys because of the engineering involved. Yeah talk about your 3rd parties and everything but I find it amazing how HasTak can consistently come up with new designs etc. that all work and they're far better than their competitors for the most part. I mean there's a reason GoBots don't really exist on their own any more (having being bought by HasTak ages ago). I mean after vehicles, Transformers did dinosaurs, animals, combiners, headmasters, targetmasters, etc etc...GoBots did rocks.

So yeah, I think that covers it for the most part.

 

Because I am about 95% sure that in the right hands, Transformers has potential to be done very, very well.

That might take some waiting though...

 

I was 7 years old when Gobots toys came out. I was immediately hooked on all transforming robot toys there on. Gobots, Transformers, Godaikins, Voltron...you name it, I liked it or wanted it.

Between 1987 and 1992, my interest waned a bit. I sold off my Gobots. But I was eventually lulled back into the fold via friends in high school...started buying Constructicons to complete a green/yellow Devastator...bought more after that...never looked back.

 

Because the franchise continues to turn out toys and fiction that I find engaging and enjoyable.

 

I grew up with the original cartoon/toy line in the 80's. Beast Wars/Machines had a big part in rejuvenating my love for Transformers during the 90's. And then Transformers: Prime did the same after the 4Kids Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, as well as the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited series had been my big action cartoon/action figure passions from about 2002-2008.

 

For two very big reasons that make it such wonderful fun to me.

One, the toys. I love the toys. I love how they look, how they feel, flipping them between modes, posing them, playing with them, painting them up to make them look more realistic/more accurate, collecting them! I can't imagine not having Transformers toys to play with anymore, because I love them all to pieces (used to be sometimes literally). I'm not sure if I'll ever stop collecting, because there's an entire species of shape-changing robots, and multiple versions of almost every one of them.

Two, the fiction. The fiction is what got me interested in Transformers in the first place. You have comics that are building their world, their history, their backstories, their personalities, exploring their anatomy and spirituality, and even exploring what the rest of the universe thinks of them. And then there are cartoons like Transformers Animated and Beast Wars and especially Transformers: Prime that made me feel so much for the characters before I even flipped through a comic. Even the Michael Bay movies have enough explosions, complex robot designs, and robot fight scenes to inspire some interest in them, for me. As long as there's good fiction, I'll be coming back for more, and even if a cartoon or a comic (or a movie, which is often the case) doesn't appeal to me, there are still bound to be at least some great toys that'll appeal to me.

 

Great question and I think there's probably two answers for me! The first is that I think I was born a huge nerd/geek and lets face it, Giant alien space robots are awesome!!

Second one is that I was pretty ill as a little boy and sitting in hospital is never a particularly fun thing and my parents used to bring me these amazing toys, I loved robots and I loved all types of vehicles! They just lit up the darkness and brought an extra ray of light. Not wanting to get overly sentimental but they took my mind off things and with the toys and the Cartoon I could escape into a completely different world! It might sound crazy but think they helped me get through it all, I actually feel very grateful to have had them as an outlet.

Since then with the world building and development of the characters I can't see me ever losing that connection. I'm just thrilled that something that gave me so much joy as a child should prove to have such longevity and staying power. The fact that my little boy seems to have absorbed that wonderment only makes it better!

Just for the record, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was the other Toy line I kind of lost myself too. Great stuff!

 

Because they keep putting out awesome figures and movies.

Also because its a lot like RWBY and has kept me on the brink of sanity, dealing with depression and stuff like Transformers really has helped me coupe with it better.

 

Because the franchise is immensely fun. G1 exploded because the character designs and the character personalities were so engaging. If Hasbro and Takara continue that magical formula of interesting character designs and engaging characters then there is no reason why this franchise will ever lose steam.

Just look at how much dialogue gets quoted from TF:TM. Even Beast Wars has dialogue that regularly gets quoted. The characters are super memorable. Almost every series has at least one memorable character.

 

I can definitely agree with this, to me a lot of the G1 characters are iconic pieces of pop culture and its all thanks to Hasbro creating memorable characters that will last for a long time. And I didn't even grow up on the original cartoon, I was brought in through the Bay films!

 

Because it's coooooool, dude.

 

Because I never truly stopped liking it.

 

Because I'm obsessed with G1 since my childhood.

 

As a kid I loved the show and toys. I had many original G1 toys but not a huge collection as we weren't a rich family. For my 8th birthday party we all went to see the Movie in the theater and that was absolutely magical. My parents kept all my original toys while was off doing the Army thing and I now have all of them back. Many battle scars and none of them are in great shape but decent. I did not bet back into Transformers until a few years ago. The movies were 'eh, alright but it was the new toys coming out that sparked my interests. The G1 looks of the excellent Masterpiece line and Combiner Wars hit me right in the nostalgia and it has ever since.

 

Same here

 

The lore and series, it speaks to the author part of me. As someone who wants to eventually write a novel, I just love sinking my teeth into a good plotline. It's kind of why I still like to use the Aligned Continuity, it maybe messy but it sure is fun putting pieces together to make a more coherent plot line.

 

The toys, the characters and my personal own head canon i'm working on.

 

Part of it is because in general I love robots, cars, aliens, and dinosaurs. All of these things are melded together beautifully in Transformers to create a unique and imaginative fictional characters.

Even before the live-action movies, I'm already into fictions like Terminator, A.I., Short Circuit, etc.

But what brought me even closer to Transformers is pretty much the lore and how unique, creative, imaginative and different it is from the rest of the other superhero/ robot fiction. Who would've thought an 80s line of toys with robots shape-shifting to different kinds of vehicles would spark my imagination about their world.

I keep comparing them to these other stories and Transformers pretty much represents what humans could be if we become blessed with having their same abilities and features. In that way, it is more inspiring. Time and time again I wish I could be one of the Cybertronian fliers & sparks my curiousity if such forms of life could be possible to create in real life.

I'd mentioned this before and saying it again: Unlike other stories told about superheroes - although I don't consider Transformers as superheroes, simply different and unique forms of life - the Transformers have their weaknesses. They're not some carbon-based forms of life that is impermeable to death or being hurt or injured or that could fly at will because of a planet's gravity. All the features/capabilities they have are because of the uniqueness/exoticness of their species. I find it more believable that a species like the Transformers being capable of x-ray or night vision than, say, an over-powered carbon-based alien humanoid because the anatomical and physiological make-up of Cybertronians seeing them from the outside one would conclude is more complex than any other forms of life, seeing as they're made of mainly metal, nanotechnology, DNA computers, electronics. It is more believable for them to be having such capabilities than flesh, meat and blood forms of life.

Unlike other robot fiction, the Transformers are their own entirely different species. We've seen various fiction of humans fighting machines when machines rise up to take over, etc. but Transformers is different in that they're not necessarily machines, but a different kind of living organisms. And within their world, just like within our world as humans, there are many factions that influence their motivations and decisions.

If you shot at Transformers depending on the power of the weapon, they can be injured or killed. They can feel pain. They have emotions, feelings, thoughts, dreams, personalities like human beings so, even if they are living metal life forms with badass capabilities, we can relate to them easily. We can also relate to them in that they're not invincible, although they can take heavy hits and heavy punishment because of their bio-mechanical metallic make-up and their gargantuan size relatively speaking to Earth humans.

Their bio-mechanical make-up and shape-shifting abilities are what sparks my sci-fi interest in them. Unlike other robot stories, they're not just a collection of wires, microchips, computers, electronics put together to create artificial intelligence. They are living beings that can change their shapes into something. Up to a certain point, shape-shifters were always depicted as humans turning into another carbon-based life - most commonly bats, wolves, birds, etc. - and is mostly commonly found in horror/sci-fi.

The newer efforts to tell a story to portray them as an entirely different species with their own genetic make-up brings out the sci-fi geek in me. I mean think about it. From the beginning of the genre til now, aside from the Gobots (which is now Hasbro property), there's really never been a myth or lore that tells the story of metallic beings - let alone giant metallic ones that can shape shift - made of biomechanical, bioelectronics and bio - quantum computer parts which tells of their struggles, wars, culture, etc.

Main focus to a certain point has always been humanoid aliens or little green men or tall green men (the aliens for example in Close Encounters of the Third Kind) or carbon-based life with tentacles blowing up various major cities on Earth (Independence Day) or alien reptilian humanoids (V, Enemy Mine) or other alien humanoids (Superman, Thor, etc.). Nothing quite like the Transformers - sentient biomechanical living organisms - has ever graced or been told in past popular culture, not in ancient mythologies and certainly not in most recent popular culture until they debuted in 1984. So my main point is, until their appearance in 1984, all the aliens we've basically come to know are the greyps, humanoid reptilians, alien humans and the shape-shifters we've only known were werewolves, dracula, humans that turned to birds, etc.

And I emphasize that that is uniquely very creative and imaginative. I don't even think sci-fi anthologies like The Twilight Zone have come up with any episodes where they introduced the idea of giant sentient biomechanical beings that could shape-shift into cars, trucks, boats, television, etc. We've had talking cars in the form if KITT in Knight Rider, but even that was an artificially intelligent software installed in a super-car.

Unlike other stories, the Transformers still have their planet and not completely destroyed. It's totally ravaged by war, but the newer stories of revival, restoration, hope & redemption again sets it apart from other stories of sci-fi alien beings where their planet has been completely destroyed (Superman, Dragonball Z).

Also many stories can be told about the Transformers, major reason why I adore the Rescuebots. Again, it sets it apart from other stories, because with Transformers, you can make stories about them & their relationship with each other or with humans, stories that don't have anything to do with war or their internecine conflicts (again, why I love the easy-to-the-senses nature of the Rescuebots). As long as there are Cybertronians & other related characters, world-building is exciting and could be expanded on.

You can have buddy cop story with, say, a Prowl or a Chase paired with a human detective. You can have stories taking place on a revived & restored Cybertron from a human point of view during cultural exchanges between Earth and Cybertron. There are many exciting stories yet to be told. We haven't even scratched something like a Twilight-like version of the Pretenders lol.. if that ever comes to fruition. And with Transformers, there's stories for everybody to relate to.

But overall, I guess from my point of view, Transformers is probably the only franchise where you can create stories that do not have to do anything with war and humans and Earth are still connected to it intimately.

look at it: can you see a Star Wars story where they can just hang around their house watching TV with Earthlings, playing video games, watching movies at a drive thru and goofing off? By the same token, can you see that with star trek where they can be separated from their ship for a long time and enjoy a time at the park or beach with their friends?

So that's why I'm a big fan and I'm invested with it.

 

"Gigantic space robots are cool"- your average child.
And I am very in touch with my inner child!

 

I've always preferred the idea of sentient robots as opposed to piloted ones, personally.