Transformers Venting thread!

[GoktimusPrime]

I most definitely remember Machine Men coming out here in 1983, because in that year I was in hospital for several days from food poisoning, and during that time I received Helicopter Man (Cop-Tur) as a gift. And I distinctly remember purchasing Brawn (and Huffer for my brother) in late 1984 from a toy store (either HobbyCo. or Uncle Pete's) in Sydney CBD on the way to a piano concerto which neither my brother or I were remotely interested in watching. So those toys placated us during the performance that we were being dragged along to watch.

[Sky Shadow]

I most definitely remember Machine Men coming out here in 1983,

Correct! People may (or may) not remember the first "now you see it, now you don't" commercials that accompanied the first line of Machine Men in 1983, (Cycle Man, Tank Man, Aero Man, Copter Man, Train Man and Racer Man.) Which is - yes - why it's always pissed me off when people call GoBots/Machine Men knockoff or rip-offs of Transformers. 1. Transformers came out second. 2. G. I. Joe was a rip-off of Barbie, which was in turn a rip-off of Bild Lilli, but nobody feels the need to bring that up all the time. And that one's actually true. Toys have evolved organically through the years and nobody needs to call one a rip-off of the other. If we didn't have the toys of the past, we wouldn't have the toys of today. Without Bild Lilli we wouldn't have Barbie, without Barbie we wouldn't have G.I. Joe, without G.I. Joe we wouldn't have Henshin Cyborg, without Henshin Cybrog we wouldn't have Microman, without Microman we wouldn't have Micro Change and Diaclone, and without Micro Change and Diaclone we wouldn't have Transformers.