I was born in 1984, the year G1 first came out. But, other than catching a few episodes on repeat early before my main cartoons came out, I have almost no memory of G1. I remember one episode because it is the only one I saw twice... I think either Spike had to go back to Cybertron by himself because the autobots were sick. Ratchet was guiding him. That's it.

I owned a single Action Masters Bumblebee, a Skywarp my grandma gave me, and later when I once got sick REALLY BAD with the flu (to the point I was actually hallucinating and my father almost took me to the hospital because I was so bad and my mom got sick too) my Great Aunt gave me a Doubledealer action figure (which I still have and thus why Dealer is my favorite of Transformers, natch).

It would have been real easy for me to miss out on Transformers... except for Beast Wars. THAT is what brought me into the franchise. My first Beast Wars figure was, oddly enough, a Snarl figure because he was a Tazmanian Devil. I almost never got him because I passed on him once and couldn't find him for 6 months... it was only through dumb luck I found him again. After that I, oddly enough, never got show figures... I always liked the non-show stuff, like Torca (who I still have), a yellow dog, Bantor, Skyhammer, so on. But me and my brother loved that show... I remember us watching the Season 2 two-parter at Thanksgiving and being enthralled.

Then, when RID came out, I fell out of the fandom again. Really didn't care... until the movie sucked me right back in. I loved the realistic alt modes, the alien designs, everything about it... just was so cool. I also started my career at a retailer around that time so I saw when the new toys came in so I was able to snatch up the concept camaro bee, things like that.

Since then I have been damn near steady with Transformers. Why has kept me in the fandom is Generations and the films. I don't really like Prime or RID 2.0, and Animated was okay, but now most of my collection is movie stuff and Generations because I am heavy into the IDW comics, since about 9 years ago I really got into comics and now am friends with a bunch of people in the industry (Case in point... booster gold is my sig image. I have talked to his creator several times, gotten stuff signed, so on).

 

Pretty much this. Sure, the toys when enginneered right are fantastic, I have a few hundred of them and spent way too much money in the process, but the fiction has potential to be simply unlike anything else in sci fi. The Autobot-Decepticon conflict is in essence a galaxy spanning civil war in the vein of the Russian Revolution, which I simply loved the fact the black and white morality of the situation was blurred by the Autobot organization as a whole actually being corrupt as fuck, giving the Decepticons an initial justification for the uprising. The corrupt bastards are deposed but Megatron rose to power so fast he's become addicted to it and so he's gone totally evil (or in MTMTE trying to repent for going over the edge, a nice twist given somehow in 30+ years nobody thought of doing that). I normally hate politics behind war but with Transformers, the dynamic in the politics over their inherent transformation ability can be taken to facinating extremes. A nuanced class system based on what you turn into and what value the alt. mode has at the same time there is supposedly some form of democratic government, the role of the Prime being a tarnished legacy, and the occasional times they touch on what the culture of a race of giant transforming robot lifeforms would be before or even during a war that destroyed their planet as the opening act.

As for the toys, I do like how they engineer them to be reconfigurations of vehicles and whatnot. The more creative a choice of alt. mode and execution, the more I love it.

The fact almost all media these days takes a nice big dump on that aspect in favor of ass kissing the role humans/Earth somehow play to the point of marginalizing any development of Transformers - and even then there's FAR too many similar profile supercars for me to bother giving a damn about - that things just feel hollow and self-serving on a commercial basis instead of actually telling stories worth a damn. Probably why I've seriously cut back on spending for this franchise because as little good as it will do, speaking with my wallet is all I can do to show my protest.

 

Pretty much my thoughts. I used to play with the toys a bunch, but now, the story is what keeps me invested.

 

For me, I was born in 1986, but because my brother was into Transformers when it first came out... I can fondly remember playing with him and his figures, as well as watching a few of G1 season one episodes and the 1986 movie on VHS growing up. I don't know why, but the overall concept of Transformers was intriguing... and to this day, it still is.

And seeing how the franchise is always evolving with new stories, new versions of characters (plus some new ones here and there)... how can anyone not stay invested/interested in Transformers?

So... yeah... I guess that's why I continue to be invested/interested in Transformers.  

 

I was looking at fanfiction a couple years ago and ended up finding Transformers fanfiction. For some reason this got me addicted to the franchise and ultimately I think the premise is a perfect fit for me.

 

I've been collecting since I was... 4? I have nearly a 1000 transformers. I sometimes look at my collection and wonder what I've been smoking all these years, but I'm still in love with the toys, and I plan to continue with it into the foreseeable future. Granted, I might not be collecting as much in the coming years, but I don't think I'll ever stop buying these little pieces of crack completely.

 

Well, for starters, giant robots are cool, and Transformers cuts out the middle man by making them alive, so we don't need to bother with humans in all the scenes wasted on things other than robots fighting. In fact, I'd say the lead characters being aliens is a big reason why I've remained interested since my childhood. That, and child me, heck even adult me, loves things that can be made into other things, so that makes the toys especially fun. Not to mention, even as a kid, I was drawn to the years of lore that existed before I got into the franchise in 2007. I'm still working my way through all of it to this day.