TRANSFORMER HISTORY

Credit Hasbro. In a boundless toy universe where the toy gods practice both creation and evolution, it was Hasbro who gave the world perfection. Face it, to 80s children everywhere, Hasbro was the Prometheus who gave us fire. It was like creating a toy with the child’s imagination already inside. After that, everywhere children went, they saw them in a van, a patrol car, a helicopter. And the toy gods have mercy on the mother who drove past an eighteen-wheeler. The possibilities were endless: Toy vehicles that turn into toy robots that fight each other. Toy robots that turn into toy vehicles that you can actually drive. Toy vehicles that turn into laser-toting robots. Laser-toting robots that turn into… Initial credit lies with a Japanese company called Takara, little renowned for the Diaclones and New Microman toy line. What Takara invented, Hasbro perfected. Expanding upon the concepts and adding a backstory, Hasbro unleashed Transformers (short for Transportation Formers) on America in 1984. Two warring robot factions from the mechanized planet of Cybertron seek to replenish fuel sources and crash on prehistoric earth. Millennia later, a volcanic eruption powers their depleted cells and their war is reborn in the modern day. The heroic Autobots – VW bugs, ambulances, and other cars – battle the sky-domineering Decepticons. The success was so immediate that Hasbro partnered with Marvel Comics to create a comic book line and a syndicated cartoon. Every week, the metallic voice of Megatron (the Decepticon leader who could transform into a hand cannon) threatened earthlings everywhere with the help of duplicitous jet Starscream, ghetto blaster Soundwave, and others while Jazz, Prowl, Bumblebee, and other Autobots sought to thwart them. And of course, for children everywhere, nothing seemed quite as iconic as the voice of Peter Cullen bringing Autobot leader Optimus Prime to life with the words, “Autobots Transform!”
As the war waged and popularity soared, new Transformers joined the toy and cartoon ranks. Dinobots, Aerialbots, Terrorcons, Constructicons and more, surrendered allegiance to either side and joined the fray, each with their own unique abilities. Constructicons (Decepticons who transformed into construction vehicles) could unite to form one gigantic robot. T-shirts, video games, and every other trapping of pop culture brought Transformers into the public conscience For over twenty years, the popularity of Transformers has waxed and waned but never actually died. New lines have been released every year since 1984 (not all in the U.S.), with reincarnated characters and concepts. Generation 2 rose in 1992 to be followed by Transformers: Beast Wars in 1995 and Robots in Disguise in 2001. Dreamworks has announced production of a Transformers movie slated for summer ’07 starring Shia LaBeouf and featuring the indelible voice talents once again of Peter Cullen. Though trends and fashions come and go, Transformers has remained a fixture not only in toys but popular culture ever since its inception. Whether it’s due to the solid concept or creative reworking over time is debatable, but the theme song by Lion perhaps summed it up best by saying, “Transformers… more than meets the eye.”