So, so many things...

The characters are the best. You have a whole universe of diverse and interesting personalities, with ,and I know some will disagree with me, some of the most enjoyable personalities at the front. (What can I say? Bumblebee was always my favorite.)

The universe is so expansive and huge. Yeah, Earth and Cybertron are the center stage, and the Autobots, the Decepticons, and (ideally to a lesser extent) the humans are the major characters, but you still also have other worlds like Nebulos, Eukaris, Caminus, and Quintessa. You have other factions like Maximals, Predacons, Minicons, Junkions, and Sharkticons. You have greater threats like Unicron and the Quintessons. You even have a mythology for the Transformers with Primus and the Thirteen original Prime's.

I enjoy the stories. The big universe of the Marvel and IDW comics, the compelling characters and escalating stakes of the Prime, Beast Wars, and Animated cartoons, and even the enjoyable silliness of the G1 cartoon and fast-paced action of the live-action Tramsformers movies. While not every cartoon is a winner, and the movies aren't exactly going down in history as cinematic art, there's room to like everything.

The toys are amazing. When I first saw them, I couldn't believe that they could actually transform. I don't know of any other mainstream toyline can boast fully articulated action figures that can be changed into convincing real world vehicles and (somewhat) articulated insects, monsters, and dinosaurs. Then you get into gimmicks like Combiners and Headmasters that incorporate the ability to form a larger robot or have their heads turn into pilots for their vehicle modes.

 

The fact that they transformer, the battle and the fact that not only they're sentient, but also living beings. There's also the story and charatcers too and how their world and universe works.

 

For me it's mainly the designs and basic premise of robots that change form. It's a cool idea, and there's a lot of variation in the design work. I'm a very visual person, so design work is very important to me. The Transformers are just generally cool looking robots. There are some incarnations that don't appeal to me visually (mainly the Beast era and the Unicron trilogy), but most of them do.

I'm sure nostalgia is a big factor too. If I had grown up with Ninja Turtles instead of Transformers, I'd probably be on a Ninja Turtle forum.

Finally, I like the simplicity of the story. I've never considered storytelling a particularly strong aspect of the brand, but I like the simple setup. Transformers isn't really out to explore deep themes, it's just trying to tell a classic timeless story of good vs. evil.

 

But with giant robots. I love giant robots.

 

History.

First, the history in the story.
My fave episodes of the G1 cartoon was whenever they'd talk about the millions of years waging war, or travel to Cybertron, finding out how the war started, what it was like before the war, the huge backstory that we only got a glimpse of.

Second, the history OF the story.
Then there's the other backstory. The story of Diaclone toys and Marvel comics. And how it was three things at once: the show, the comics, the toys. All different. And then the story of how the show went on in japan, and changed. And then changed again in Beast Wars. And then kept going. And going. So many different incarnations and so much to it. More shows, more comics, more toys. And the variety is staggering.

 

Amen to that! You took the words right out of my mouth.

 

As seen by its many incarnations, Transformers is a franchise where you can change a lot and still do great things with already established well written characters. It's very versatile in that respect.

 

The mythos.

Transformers have been around as long as I've been alive. They've reinvented themselves numerous times through lots of different media from many different sources. There's the US and Japanese cartoons, there's US and UK comics, G2, Regeneration 1, Dreamwave, IDW, Live Action films, Unicron Trilogy, Prime, animated, beast wars, and so on. Meanwhile every toy has a bio about the character, just a little blurb to give the character relevance. While I don't feel any one iteration outshines the others, there are good ideas scattered all over and nearly unlimited potential. Every figure I look at I start working out his/her story in my head and adding it to the rest, thinking of how they interact with the others, what kind of teams they can form, and so on.

Meanwhile the analytical part of my brain enjoys the engineering. Each one a little puzzle to solve and seeing what kinds of scenes I can stage.

And lastly I think I enjoy it because it's always been a part of my life, like coming home to an old friend. Even when G2 died out and I thought transformers was gone Beast Wars brought it back in a big way. Then when things got stale again RID2K happened just as I was wondering what a transformers anime would be like. Then Unicron Trilogy and the live action films. I've been enjoying the ride through the ups and downs and don't plan on getting off the ride until it stops.

 

Well said. I can't claim to have been around during G1, but still, well said.

 

I love the mix of fanciful concepts with delightful thrills.

And robots punching each other.

 

After watching all the US G1 episodes as an adult, one of the things I love is how crazy they all are.

It became so apparent to me, so obvious! Every single Transformer is batsh!t crazy.

4 million years of war with no end in sight has made all of them nuts. They have all lost touch with anything else. Their answer to every question is Pew Pew Pew, shoot it.

Need to clear a path through the jungle? Pew pew Pew. Need to bury the Dinobots? Pew Pew Pew. Saw a rock? Pew pew Pew Shoot it shoot it!!! (that rock kinda looks like Megatron!) Brawn sees the actual Megatron, an opponent he has no hope of besting? Dives right into combat, is nearly killed. Megatron's ship is leaving Earth? Certainly a hand blaster will do nothing to stop it Prowl even says so but who cares PEW PEW PEW!! There are dozens and dozens of examples and it's hilarious once you start seeing it.

 

You're right! I've noticed that sort of thing after rewatching S1.

 

Designs is a huge part of why I like the TOYS... More specifically anything isn't BM Maximals, Micheal Bay, or Animated.

I also like the puzzle aspect of trying to figure out how to transform them. I don't generally look at the instructions unless I feel like I might break something. I can see something looks like it's suppose to move but if it's not moving then I figure there's probably something locking it in place then I'm going to check the instructions rather than trying to force it.

Fiction however... I can easily over look terrible designs as long as there's a good story with good characters attached to it.

Beast Machines, ugly to look at but was generally a pretty good story and it provided some more character development for it's characters.

Animated, even though I'm not a fan of the art style it's still a pretty good series with some great characters.

Micheal Bay... well it still sucks...

Prime being really good kinda proved the movies could of been better if Bay wasn't involved. They share the same writers but Prime actually treated the Transformers as the main characters rather than set pieces.

 

I like the episode where the robot man turns into a car and goes eeh ooh ah ah ahh when he transforms

 

As a child, it was the G1 designs and the tech specs that elevated them above other transforming robots by giving them personalities.

If I'd been a child in the last decade, I don't think the modern stylised aesthetics like Prime, Animated, Rescue Bots or Baybots and the lack of bio would have appealed to me.

Nice looking as the G1 cartoon was, the much better written UK comics really drew me in.

 

The toys! The rest is just gravy.