Coming across the Spider-Man issue of the Marvel G1 run at the local drug store. Then I found out there were toys. Squee.

 

My neighbor....who, by the way was an only child, and treated as such...got a Diakron Sunstreaker...and I thought, being a little kid...that it was sooooo awesome...months later Transformers arrived en masse...with the cartoon and comics....hooked ever since.

 

As a little kid I loved Shogun Warriors and Micronauts. After those left American toy shelves I stumbled into an import toy store that had, among other things...Microman. i was older and had some disposable income so i started collecting Microman and the occasional Diaclone figure...then Transformers combined the two and hit the scene.

 

I first saw the G1 cartoon as a kid and was instantly hooked. Alongside He-Man and Knight Rider, then Thundercats and Ninja Turtles, toys were awesome!

 

I can live out having to buy comics at 7-11. What's a shame is that comics don't cost .75 cents anymore. I stopped once they passed the $2.50 threshold.

 

Caught the first episode of Beast Wars by chance when it first aired in the UK but eventually grew out of TFs before Beast Machines. Fast forward to 2007 and the first Bay movie reignited my interest as a casual fan, though it wasn't until ROTF that I really delved into the franchise at large, and I didn't start collecting until 2012.

 

When I was four my parents got me Powermaster Optimus Prime, G1 Ratchet, and Battletrap for my birthday. Two months later I got Pretenders Jazz, Bumblebee, Grimlock, and Sky High for Christmas.

 

I happened to come across Revenge of the Fallen on TV one day and liked it, then my dad went to his old house and brought me one HELL of a collection of G1 toys, then I scoured the internet for more Transformers material and I’ve just been hooked ever since!

 

When G1 came out in the 80's, I vaguely remember looking at some of the episodes en passant. I was a teenager back then, had just started my first job, had my first constant friend (and later husband), etc. and therefore a lot of other things in my mind...

I watched the first live action Transformer film when screened in theaters, found it quite interesting, but "the spark did not jump over" even then.

Then, about ten years ago, I rummaged a bit around in the internet for scifi movies and TV shows and, I do not know how, but eventually I ended up in deviantArt, saw the first Transformers pictures and comics. Later I read the first fanfictions (all in English, the first time was damn hard because my english was pretty rusty), bought Tf figures now and then...and my excitement grew. One by one I bought all the more familiar Transformer series (except Beast Wars), all Tf comics from Dreamwave, all from IDW, etc. Also, I have lots of fun to commission artists (and writers) for pictures / stories. Until today, my enthusiasm is unbroken.

 

Wee ol' Sodium Chloride got his start back when him and his dad were browsing Walmart's toy section circa 2005 and he saw one of the ongoing toylines from the Unicron trilogy. "What's that?" I said, pointing to the robot. "They're Transformers. Robots that turn into things. I used to be a fan of them." he explained, offering to show a few of the old cartoons he had. After I watched the show I was hooked. Who wouldn't be? And wanted some Transformers of my own. As I remember it started with a knockoff G1 Inferno and Devastator at Christmas, and now I'm collecting knockoff Masterpieces from Amazon because I'm not rich.

 

My dad was looking for a show for me to watch one morning when i was about 5 or 6, he saw "Transformers: Cybertron" and was like "Oh i had Transformers as a kid" and flicked it on, and i was hooked instantly... he had no idea what he was getting me into

 

Saw Megatron on the shelf back in ‘84 when I was 8. Mom got it for me. The toon started shortly after that and I was hooked.

 

2 factors for me: 1984 television and grandma (best year ever plus her buying me Starscream at the toyshop).

 

When I was 10, my brother brought home some Burger King kids meal toys of Bumblebee, Ratchet, and 2x Megatron promoting the first movie, and gave me Bee and a Megatron. I took to Bumblebee because of his design. Then over the course of 2007, I saw the trailer for the first Michael Bay Transformers movie with Bumblebee on Mars and was intrigued, my brother bought the Voyager Class Blackout and I was even more intrigued, and finally in December we watched the pilot for Transformers Animated on the Cartoon Network website, leaving me hooked. I started out getting the Legends Class toys, but got my first Deluxe figure (Bumblebee, who else?) in March or April of 2008. I saw the movie and loved it, even if I was wondering who Ironhide and Jazz were, and where Prowl and Bulkhead had gone off to.

Now, years later, I'm enjoying Transformers in toy, comic, cartoon, and yes, even movie form as a 20 (almost 21) year old man in 2018. My, how time flies.

 

It's not just about a single event. it's about the journey.

G2 commercials in the 90s got my attention.

Beast Wars got me actually started. I watched it somewhat casually, but I still greatly enjoyed it.

The 2007 movie and RotF got me back into it with their visual spectacle and goofy humor and Megan Fox; I was a young twenty something at the time, so of course I didn't complain about Fox being in Transformers. "A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur's Court" got me into G1. G1 and Dark of the Moon cemented my love for Transformers fiction. Thrilling 30 and Age of Extinction got me into collecting, and the latter movie further cemented my love for the brand's fiction and made me take a look at a lot of the lesser appreciated cartoons, cartoon seasons (like Sunbow Seasons 3 and 4), and comics.

 

I watched the Unicron Trilogy and read the Dreamwave comics as a kid. After the first Bay movie came out, I began indulging in all previous media.