Are we becoming jaded or more discerning as Transformer fans?

[GoktimusPrime]

I think the truth is "a bit of both." We have become both more discerning and in some ways more jaded than we were as kids. And why should we not? We're not children any more. But this doesn't mean that our opinions about toys shouldn't matter any more either.

I think what's happened is:

a) We've become a lot more experienced. In say, 1990, we only had 6 years' worth of Transformers knowledge and experience. Now we have thirty years of TF knowledge and experience. We're by no means "Noobs" when it comes to all things Transformers.

b) Adults are fully rational agents. We are more critical and evaluative thinkers than we were as children. Sure, we were less critical and more accepting of our toys when we were kids, but we were also a lot less critical and more accepting of a whole lot of other things like society, politics and the world around us in general. We were blissfully ignorant of many, many things. Children are quasi rational agents. This is why they're not allowed to vote, drive, consume alcohol, sign legal contracts, marry, purchase vehicles or real estate, join the military, leave school, live on their own etc. As a child, I was never aware of the "hidden racism" in some Transformers stories (i.e. portraying goodness and evil as being 'racial' characteristics of being Autobots & Decepticons, as well as the whole blue/red eye colour physical racial trait) -- it's a far cry from say the IDW comics which doesn't necessarily paint the Transformers as good or evil... they simply make decisions that may be deemed as good or bad depending on who's looking at it (or from the POV of neutralists like Metalhawk, equally bad). There are noble Decepticons (e.g. Cyclonus and now Megatron), as well as ethically questionable Autobots (e.g. Prowl, Whirl etc.). The G1 Marvel Comics gave us similar characters too (e.g. Flame, Scorponok), and even the G1 cartoon gave us morally dubious characters in Season 3, such as Blitzwing, Octane and arguably Sandstorm.

A good story is one that both children and adults enjoy, often for different reasons.
e.g.
+ The Simpsons. Kids quote things like, "D'oh!' "Aye carumba!" and "Eat my shorts!" Adults quote things like, "Ich bin ein Springfielder."
+ When I was a kid, I loved Star Wars because of the robots and spaceships and lasers etc., I still love these things, but as I got older I came to fall in love with the story and characters. As a young child my favourite Star Wars character was R5-D4. That's right, the Astromech droid with a bad motivator. Just because I thought he was a really cool looking robot.
+ Beast Wars: kids would love it because of the fun and action -- I was a uni student when it came out, but I loved it because of the characters, stories and the nerd in me absolutely loved the world building and how it expanded and enhanced G1/G2 lore!
+ Monty Python. Kids who watch it like the sheer silliness of many of their gags, but adults also like a lot of the more mature commentary that they make. e.g. the scene from Holy Grail where a woman is accused of witchcraft and flimsy pseudo-evidence is used to prove her guilt. Kids laugh at the silliness of the whole process, but adults can see that it's a metaphor for the way that some people will adjust facts to fit conclusions, rather than adjusting conclusions to fit facts (e.g. Holocaust deniers, claims that immunisations cause autism etc.).
"So, if she weighs the same as a duck..."

And toys work similarly. A good toy is one that you love as a child and continue to love and appreciate as an adult. Take the original G1 Soundwave toy, to this day I still think it's an absolute marvel of a toy. I love the way that it transforms from a compact life size microcassette player to an imposing looking robot. I love how the batteries can be removed from the battery compartment and become the weapons, and I love little details like a movable volume control dial, movable side-switch tab, pressable buttons, working eject button, and the toy can hold microcassette tapes which also transform into robots! Except for the missiles, every part of the toy is self-contained. It is a toy that I still absolutely love to bits even 30 years later, every much as I did back in the 80s. Masterpiece Soundwave is - IMHO - fundamentally fairly similar to G1 Soundwave, and I think that's a testament to just how well made the original toy was made.

On the other end of the spectrum are Firecons. These are toys that I liked to some degree as a kid. It shot sparks! That made them really cool as fire-breathing monsters. And yeah, we all laughed at the "turn around" transformations that reminded us of Monkey Magic. In fact, we sometimes voiced the Firecons with that cheesy Asian-dub accent that they used in Monkey. "Sparkstalker, you swine!" But the toys really haven't aged as well, and I certainly don't feel the love for them now as I did back in 1988.

So IMHO the key to a good franchise -- toys, movies, comics, cartoons etc., is the test of time. Are kids going to continue loving them as they get older, or are they more likely to lose interest and "grow out" of them? Many of us were hooked onto Transformers during G1 and have never let go for 30 years. I wonder how many kids are similarly hooked by say Bayverse and becoming lifelong fans... fans of tomorrow, not just fans for today. Yeah sure, kids today may be enthralled by the visual spectacle and excitement of the Bay films, and I agree that they are very visually exciting... but will they continue to be as equally or increasingly engaged as they get older? When I was a kid, I watched the original Star Wars trilogy countless times. As I got older I found myself loving those movies more and more because the stories started to make more sense to me and I was able to engage with the characters, not just the visual spectacle (which still also thrills me too). Visual effects are just a story telling tool, at the end of the day the characters and story are the "meat" that really makes you a long term fan.

Likewise with toys, basic engineering and gimmicks can engage you in the short term, but it's the better made toys that can keep you engaged forever. Many of us still love the original Constructicons... I wonder how many kids who played with Combiner Class ROTF Devastator will continue to increasingly love and play with that toy well into their adolescent and adult years.

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P.S.: I think another thing we're more acutely aware of now that we weren't as much as kids is value for money. Children can be more forgiving of a poor toy or badly written movie because they had the toy or ticket purchased for them by someone else (e.g. parent). It's different when you're paying for these things from money that you've earned yourself.