TF Views

Just to kick off this section, I thought I'd post a few thoughts.

I love G1, as it's now known. Back in the day it was just The Transformers, and from what I remember, it was huge. The closest thing I've seen to the level of promotion and fanfare since then was the hype over the live action movie. But back when I was 13, it seemed like you couldn't go anywhere without seeing a Transformer somewhere.

Transformers succeeded Star Wars in my and my two younger brother's affections as the toys we all loved. We always wanted the newest ones, but rarely had any money to buy them. Mostly they were given as birthday and Christmas presents, and occasionally just as random gifts from grandparents. We did manage to buy a few here and there, but never as many as we wanted. I still have memories (possibly my memory cheats, but who knows?) off seeing an entire aisle devoted to Transformers at Toys R Us, and large sections at K-Mart, or Wilsons's 5 and 10c store, or even the local Revco and Sears.

All three of us would get together in my room and have battles, trying to imitate the voices we heard on the cartoon, which we watched every afternoon after school. This resulted in the toys being worn out, with stickers coming off and chrome being rubbed away, and joints getting loose. The toys were actually treated like toys.

We used to love pulling out those old checklist posters with all the Transformers that were available and wish we could have them all. The battle scenes on the back of the boxes also did a lot to make us want the newest Transformer.

It only took a few years to grow out of them as I hit high school and my interests went in other directions. But I did remember the Transformers fondly, and I kept all my old figures boxed away. I also collected the Marvel comic until it was cancelled. I bought the occasional new figure even if I didn't play with them any more. I got Powermaster Optimus Prime just because I was excited to see a new version of Optimus Prime. I got Legends Starscream at K-Mart, and Action Master Starscream as well.

When I started buying figures again in the late 90s, I discovered Ebay, and discovered that those original Transformers I remembered so fondly were once again obtainable. It enabled me to go back and get so many figures that I had wanted at the time, as well as pick up boxes to store the old figures in, because of course when they were just toys, who cared about the packaging?

I don't know why this particular toyline has stuck with me as something I still enjoy collecting today. But it has, and it's a hobby I enjoy tremendously. And it all started with those low-articulated metal and plastic G1 Transformers that I enjoy to this day.

My first Transformer was Bruticus. Five in one! What a fool my brother was!

And what a good place it was for me to start. Even if I did find Brawl's arm-peg prohibitively difficult to pull out. So he just always had to be a leg.

My first non-bootleg TF was Windcharger. I destroyed that toy with general play. (I hope the toy gods of collecting can forgive me.) I know have a Windcharger keychaing. it is almost as good.

I never really outgrew the hobby. When it waned, I waned. But, if the hobby has been live, I have been involved with it.

Gah, it is tough to choose a favorire. I like Ratchet for the comics, but despise the toy. Soundwave had those way cool tapes. Starscream was a mean SOB. Wheeljack had blinking ears. Optimus Prime....... Gah, I cannot put into words my elation when I first saw Steeljaw at retail. Shockwave was a yard-sale purchase.....never did complete that toy. Bluestreak was enough of a favorite, until it broke. (Damned fragile roof/neck piece.)

Dom
-still wonders what happened to that Red Alert figure I lost all those years ago.

My first Transformers were birthday gifts in August 1984; Sunstreaker and Wheeljack. Sunstreaker became my favorite, as he had the coolest vehicle mode of all the Autobots between me and my brother.
My brother's birthday was a month and a half later, and by that point everyone knew we were into Transformers, so he got loads more than I did: Bluestreak, Brawn, Starscream, Trailbreaker, and Rumble/Ravage set.
The only Transformer that survived intact out of all the dozens we had was Dirge, and that's because we had two of him.
My first year of college, I was happy to see G2; I picked up a Starscream that today is only missing the annoying sound FX box.

Onslaught. Definitely. The design is just so massively cool, and the colours are kickass too.

When I was a kid, though, I had PM Prime--incomplete--Cosmos and Wheelie. And some Gobots.

Onslaught had one of the best cartoon intros ever. I still remember it fondly.

Dom
-still wonders what Onslaught could have done to land in a Decepticon prison.

Que?

I thought the Combaticons all got built on that island...?

And if they did, the Challenger blew up around that time, and that's the only space shuttle I can think of that NASA would have quit using 'round then...Blast Off's more evil then we thought!

Quick Combaticon origion recap:

Megatron exiles SS to a deserted island. (Starscream had recently failed in yet another coup attempt, and Megatron had simply had enough of Starscreams shenanigans.)

Starscream finds abandonded WWII vehicles lying about. He notes that an old tank (which I am not sure would even have been used on such an island in the Pacific) remind him "of that two faced loud-mouth, Blitzwing", and that gave him an idea.

He made a trip to Cybertron, and broke 5 brains out of a Decepticon detention center. The brains were kept in file cabinets. Starscream seemed to know whose brains he was looking for. He then blew up the remaining file cabinets.

After installing the brains in bodies he built from the WWII era scrap, the bodies transformed, and through the miracle of *really* bad animation, became the Combaticons. Vortex started as a prop-plane. I think Blastoff was a bomber. Not sure though.

Now, anyone care to guess why Blast-off was a shuttle in a military themes set. (Americans over the age of 30 should know this intuitively.)

Dom

Ooooohhhhhh...

See, I done forgot about the "detention center" bit. I just thought he'd slapped 'em together outta the crap on the island.




...Wait, how does exiling someone to a desert island work when the person to be exiled can fly?

Well, he was exile on a hostile planet, with no supplies or infrastructure. In theory, if he did not get back to base, he stops being Megatron's problem.

Dom
-how well did *that* plan work out?