The Transformers Love Thread

[BigTransformerTrev]

Transformers, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

1: I've loved them from the beginning - since the first episode of the first season of the first iteration of Transformers aired in Australia. Still remember sitting there on a Saturday morning and my jaw just dropping at this super-cool new cartoon full of giant alien robots that turned into jets and sports cars and trucks!

2: I love the toys are lots of fun, I'd go into more detail but you all play with them - you know how cool they are ANd I love that so many toys they make now are homages to characters and toys I've loved since getting them as a kid

3: I love the characters that I've become so emotionally invested in over the last 32 years. Still can't watch Optimus die in the animated flick without getting all teary. Wept openly with joy when I saw Optimus transform for the first time in the first live action flick. Felt heartbroken when Pipes died in MTMTE. And the hijinks of the Lost Light crew just make me laugh and laugh!

4: I love that The Transformers pretty much beats every other sci-fi continuity!
*Death Star vs Unicron: Unicron EATS Death Star
*The Enterprise-E vs The Nemesis: The Enterprise could almost dock in The Nemesis' shuttle bay - no contest!
*Avengers vs Transformers: they did a 4-part comic of this and it was pretty accurate. Even 3rd tier grunts like Runabout took out the likes of Spiderman with ease. Basically all the goodie and baddy humans were just kinda in the way while The Transformers got on with the proper fight.
*Godzilla vs Trypticon: Trypticon picks up Godzilla in one claw and bites his head off
...and so on and so on

5: The people I've met. Living so remotely I don't get to meet a lot of other Ozformers members but I've still managed to meet up with Krayt at a toy launch, go see TF4 with M-bot, catch up with Reflector to trade toys and buy comics from Mechbiter. Plus I've made great online friendships on here and FB so I have lots of people to look forward to meeting in real life (you know who you guys are )

6: My son. Orion Samuel Hopkins. Not only homaging my love in his name but watcing him play with his RescueBots the other day reminded me why Transformers are fun. He kept loading and unloading Chase and Heatwave on and off Optimus' trailer while he had Bumblbee, Blades and Boulder working at Bumblebee's garage. I love my son more than Transformers - no question - but I take a certain extra joy watching him play with them as well as how when I get a new toy for me he helps me unbox it and give it a once-over play. It's that extra bonding experience that is just wonderful.

Thanks for all the joy you have brought me over the majority of my life Transformers - you rock!

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

I wouldn't say I love them per se, but I do enjoy them a lot and they're definitely a more interesting hobby than, say, collecting postage stamps.
That and the engineering is often pretty cool, it's kind of awesome to have-and-be-able-to-do hundreds of unique puzzles, and a lot of my (not-Transformers-fans, Japanese) coworkers actually find them pretty interesting when they encounter them.

I got the school nurse at my main elementary school a QT Snoopy, 'cos she likes Snoopy, and she actually seemed really happy when she was showing me how she could transform it. I can pretty much count the number of times I've seen this woman really smile on one, maybe two hands - she's remarkably reserved, even by Japanese standards - and that was one of them.
Anything that can put a genuine smile on [name redacted] Sensei's face has got to have something going for it.

[GoktimusPrime]

Hasbro's MP often cops a lot of flak, and often not undeservingly so. But let's reflect on some of the more positive aspects of Hasbro's MPs where you think their MPs are either on par or may have even exceeded Takara(TOMY)'s.

* MP2 Ultra Magnus. Released here as a Target exclusive, it was a pretty decent price for a special import. This was also the first special import that Hasbro did for the Australian market. This was later followed by the Target exclusive release of MP4 Perfect Convoy, but I seem to remember the price being expensive to me (but maybe also because I also had MP1).

* Starscream (MP3). Takara's "Greenscream" received much criticism for its colours, but also the relatively less durable model kit like plastic. The tip of one of my Greenscream's stabilisers has already snapped off. Hasbro's version on the other hand features G1 accurate colours and uses more durable plastic. It also retailed here at a pretty reasonable price of $99.99.

* Grimlock. Almost the same colours as the original MP Grimlock but comes with the crown that originally came with the limited version in Japan. This was ideal for me as I wanted the crown, but I don't care for the Yomtov inspired colours of the Japanese version.

* Rodimus Prime. Okay, the Japanese version is visually superior, hands down. But it's also significantly more expensive than what we had here. I had the opportunity to purchase Rodimus Convoy while overseas, meaning that I wouldn't have to pay for postage, but I still couldn't justify paying the base price for the toy alone. Okay, granted that Rodimus Prime did sacrifice the trailer and there are way fewer paint ops on it than Rodimus Convoy (although the paint on RP's spoiler is more scratch resistant than RC's), I think that all things considered Rodimus Prime is at least on par with Rodimus Convoy (relative to each other's RRPs). I personally like the more toy-accurate inspired colour scheme, but I do admit that the execution was really quite lazy compared to TakTOM's. And yes, I know that many people will argue that MP9 is now outclassed by MP28, but I'm judging this by how I felt about this toy around the time of its release when none of us had the clairvoyance to know about MP28's existence (or if you did, please PM me with the names of the winners of the Melbourne Cup for the next 5 years, kay thanks )

* Soundwave & the Cassettes. Okay, I prefer the chrome on the TakaraTOMY version, but the metallic paints on the Hasbro ones still look really nice. I personally love the G1 toy/comic/storybook accurate yellow visor on Soundwave, although the application of that paint op (leaving circles) was unfortunate. But I still cannot believe that Hasbro sold this set for just $150! Amazing value! My Soundwave & cassettes cost about $200 all up, and that from Amazon Japan and using cheap SAL postage; getting Soundwave and all the Cassettes from other sources may have costed up to $300. How often these days do we see MPs being released locally at a price that we would consider to be superior value to pre-ordering it from Japan? Strangely enough, although I'm a RIRFIB man myself, having RIRFIB on this set feels wrong to me. Given the obviously cartoon-accurate colours on the purple Cassette robot, it really should've been called Rumble. TakaraTOMY calls it Frenzy because the Japanese dub 'corrected' the FIRRIB oversight (so in Japan it's only ever been RIRFIB). An unfortunate oversight, but still, it's hard to argue at that price.

* Skywarp, Thundercracker, Sunstorm & Acid Storm. Again, despite what you may think about these toys, at about $99.99 (or less) each, they were pretty good value for money. Thundercracker also gave fans an opportunity to own this character in the new MP11 mould, matching up with anyone who owns an MP11 Starscream.

I got the school nurse at my main primary school a QT Snoopy,

Fix'd.

[Jetfire in the sky]

Loving some Hasbro love there Gok

As a bit of a pre-TF nut I am loving the MP Diaclone action we are getting.

If only I can find my Powered Convoy gift set on my next trip to Japan

[Jetfire in the sky]

So this TF loving nut has more love !!!

I love Transformers because it has taken me to go toy hunting in Japan, now for the second time, and find some amazing JP G1 toys. Communicating to a person with a different language and totally different culture but (from what I can tell) being able to understand each other and the passion that toys have brought us.

Also I love Transformers because for the first time I went on a mini-toy hunt with a fellow Ozformer and I didn't feel my semi-convulsions when being shown a store I had never been to before were out of place.
This has been a great week in my TF collecting life.

[Jetfire in the sky]

So as somewhat of a professional thread killer around here I thought I would try to resurrect one of my own. (baby steps )
Reading in the threads I know there are those of us who have fallen out of love with the hobby in the last 12 to 18 months thanks to a certain saga involving chargebacks and no toys. Well its time to fight back and its a good time to do so! I feel I have recently fell in love with The Transformers again for a number of reasons.

Looking forward to what is coming, we are getting a Masterpiece Beast Wars Megatron! I, by chance, purchased Cheetor and Primal and was amazed at how good they are, yes the price of the Megs and Dinobot will sting but they are two amazing pieces.
Secondly, we are getting a new MP Prime!! Yes I here the cries of not another one, but this has been a work in progress since MP-1. I have MP-1, 4 and two versions of 10, I've always thought the earlier two are superior in bot mode thanks to the relative dimensions and 10 is perfect in alt mode. But now finally we are getting (at a minimum) the perfect bot mode Optimus Prime. We only have early pics but it looks the goods to me. Cartoon Prime in all his glory in toy form scaled to the modern line, who knows what kind of ad-on bits we will get
This is a great time to love The Transformers.

Also the Bee film looks like worth going to see at this stage.


So lets hear is Ozformers………….. give the greatest toy line ever some love!!

[M-bot]

In the last couple of years there have been toys released that I would have never thought we’d see - like CHUG Headmasters and Monsterbots, genuinely good modern combiners and even the minibots like Seaspray and Beachcomber that have been awesome. I am seriously jazzed for what is coming up next, can’t wait for some announcements about the next line after POTP!

The MP line is going from strength to strength too.

There’s a lot to love as a TF fan right now!