30 years ago today-ish - Happy 30th Birthday to Transformers

[BigTransformerTrev]

each of us here can be proud at helping make our Australian Community one of the longest-running online Transformers Fan community or club... in the world (longer than TFW2005, TFormers and Seibertron). That's almost two-thirds of the entire Transformers History, thanks to all of you guys contributing and interacting, making this one of the most inviting fansites (based on the feedback of new members).

Thanks goes to you Griffin, and your crack team of setion mods, for providing all of us such a great, informative, inviting and fun site to interact on and indulge in our shared joy of our giant, transforming objects of affection

[Ravagecat]

I didn’t hear about Transformers until early 1985 (when I was 9). I’m not sure if it was because Australia was late to get the cartoon and toys or because I lived in a small country town. We only had one small Toyworld and a combined newsagent/toy outlet and that was pretty much it for getting toys there. For TV we had a combine channel 10/9 commercial station and the ABC and that was it, so we didn’t always get the new stuff straight away, also when I was younger the TV rarely went on so I missed a lot of the first two seasons run anyway. However I do fondly recall watching season 3/4 TF's on sat mornings religiously at some point in the late 80’s… I also remember coming home from a friends Birthday party with my jaw to the ground and eyes wide open telling (I'm not sure how coherent I was ) my older brothers about this awesome transformers movie I’d just seen and Optimus Prime died ...( sad but true I used to be able to recite the animated movie word for word from beginning to end.) Comics, I didn’t start collecting until issue 59 or so but a friend had most of the earlier ones that I would often flick through when I was over there.

My first memories…

It was some time in the beginning of 1985 when some school friends of mine were talking about a cartoon they had been watching where this massive orange truck could turn into a robot and would fire lasers at the bad guys specifically a robot called Soundwave who had this cool metallic voice and could turn into a tape player
They also claimed to have seen toys of these Robots at Toyworld. When I inquired more, they were sure the show and toys were called transformers…
Well I had to see toys specifically this Soundwave guy, so I started pestering my mum to take me to the shops to see the toys.

One of my fondest memories about Transformers was going into Toyworld with my mum later that year (1985) and the store owner bringing out this large cardboard box chock full of the G1 transformers so many of us know and love today .
I was only allowed to pick one for my birthday (which is towards the end of the year) and one for Christmas , oh and my older brother wanted Sideswipe for Christmas so I had to make sure I found that for him.(apparently he had seen a few of the earlier episodes at a friends place and loved SS's cool-headed reckless attitude...and he was a Lambo )
I remember pulling out all the G1 cars, Bluestreak, Sunstreaker, Mirage etc etc. I finally found Sideswipe and handed him over - that's my brother done. Then I found Soundwave and handed him to mum…that was Xmas sorted for me now for my bday. I couldn’t decide…I probably would of went for Sideswipe myself because I have loved Lamborghinis from the moment I saw my first picture of the Contach, but my brother had already layed dibs…I remember contemplating Sunstreaker but at the time didn’t really like the air intake thing on his roof so settled on Red Alert

I got my first Transformer – Red Alert – towards the end of that year (1985) for my 10th Birthday (it felt like an eternity of waiting since the visit to toyworld earlier that year) and Soundwave for the Xmas of 1985 (the same year). I am told by my mum that that for at least the next year of getting my first I didn’t go anywhere without a TF in my hand. Sadly those first few TF’s I owned are landfill now as they were played with so much to the point of wearing out and breaking .

I too spent many hours drooling over the Catalogue that came with the bigger TF’s showing all the ones available . Wishing I could get them all…specifically the Dinobots, Jetfire, and the Decepticon Jets, but like a lot of the older Transformer community I only ever got two or three gift opportunities per year so I wasn’t able to get as many of them as I would of liked in the first few years of this awesome brand coming out. However shortly after Xmas of 1985 I remember saving up enough pocket money to get Ravage and Rumble and sent away in the mail for Downshift.

Well I could reminisce for hours but lets just say the rest is history for now…bring on the next 30 years as I am well and truly Hook, Line and Sinkered to this amazing brand and will continue to be for as long as I can…

[griffin]

Apparently there was enough activity on what was to become the "World Wide Web" (internet), that someone was already posting online their thoughts on that first issue of The Transformers comic... yes, 30 years ago this week.

It seems that the first recorded internet posting about Transformers in May 1984 was not a favourable review...

My vote for worst comic of the year would have to go to Marvel's TRANSFORMERS #1. Has anyone out there seen it? I'm still trying to figure out why I wanted to spend $.75 on it in the first place, but any reason I may have had was inadequate.

[griffin]

While on the topic of the birth of Transformers, I feel this is a suitable place to share an excerpt from a book published in 1990 called "Toyland - The High Stakes Game of the Toy Industry".
Thanks to Sky Shadow for recently mentioning this book, as it was worth tracking down and has been hard to put down. It is just a shame that it is focussed mostly on the 80s (which was really the golden age of Action Figure toys and the birth of their marketing through TV shows), and ends in 1989.
The book itself centres on the creation and development of the Dino-Riders toyline by Tyco, but draws in history and statistics of the major Companies and Brands during those years in the 1980s... including a chapter focusing on the creation of Hasbro as a Toy Company, and its success in the first half of the 80s.
This is a scan of just that chapter.
There is just so much in this book that I wanted to share, but even though the book is out of print (and a bit of a challenge to find), it is still protected... so an excerpt for promotional or personal purposes is all I want to risk.
As such, I heavily recommend tracking down one of these books if you are a significant/dedicated fan of toys, as it gives a huge insight into the industry and Brands that exist even today.


.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

[griffin]

On the Good Morning America news this morning was a note that the "father" of GIJoe had died... so I looked up their website article, and it seems that it was the Hasbro Executive (Donald Levine) who developed the line, not the person who created the soldier doll idea (Stan Weston as noted on pages 112-113 above) and sold it to Hasbro.

It's kinda like with Transformers - the toys were first designed and created by various Japanese people (some of whom are known by fans), but it was a Hasbro Executive in 1983 that would ultimately be credited as the "father" of Transformers by creating the storyline and Brand of Transformers (putting together a team of people to create characters and bible).

This 50th Anniversary of GIJoe is not shaping up to be too memorable, as Hasbro stopped the toyline, and, we have one of its creators dying.

[Lint]

Can't believe I didn't stumble on this thread earlier, a very interesting read! I also didn't realise how close this Australian community came to not being what it is today on multiple occasions! :shock:

[octopunchshotfisrt]

I was very late compared to many here, but I was born during the RID era, and I ever so vaguely recall a Hightower toy, but I don't think they were mine. My first proper Transformer was Energon Inferno, purchased in the states when I was a wee one, and I still hold him dear to my heart, and my first Decepticon was Scorponok of the same line, which I got for christmas in 04. Love those figures to bits.


My interest took a bit of a dive when I was six and seven, but by the time the new movie came out I was frothing at the mouth for them, whihc still continues seven years later.

Happy birthday transformers.