Current interest taking up about 45% of my thoughts! help!
I’m not super well versed in the history, but according to beautiful wikipedia Transformers as a franchise began in 1984 with the rebranding of Takara Tomy’s toys for american audiences along with the creation of a tie-in cartoon. Since then, Transformers has become a pretty big franchise with many different reboots/continuities. It’s about big robot people turning into vehicles among other things and then they fight each other. It’s sick.
I’m mostly familiar with G1 stuff because all of it is incredibly silly and I can’t take anything seriously, but I’ve been trying to get myself invested in prime or animated to varying degrees of success...
I’ve also never been in a fandom with so much readily available merchandise (at least while I’ve been an active member) so Transformers has been like a delicious sweet treat to me. I’ve invested far too much money into hunks of plastic that decorate my shelves. I will be buying more.
why YOU should get into transformers
1. THERE'S SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY
Because there are so many different movies, tv shows, comics, etc. There is absolutely a version of Transformers out there with the right tone and plot for your tastes!
2. LOTS OF MERCH AND EXTRA CONTENT
I usually find myself in more dead or less popular fandom spaces, but it’s been very refreshing seeing the huge amounts of merch available for Transformers, even for the less popular versions.
3. THERE'S COOL ROBOTS
Everybody loves cool robots, but if you’re not into cars and planes, try beast wars and watch a CGI gorilla fight a t-rex.
4. IT'S FREE (MOSTLY)
You can find most of the series up on youtube for your viewing pleasure.
FAVOURITE CHARACTERS
some of my favourite robots from what i've seen so far.
MEGATRON
g1
Megatron is terrible but unfortunately I’m obsessed with him and his stupid bob. There are more complex, sympathetic, or villainous renditions of Megan out there but G1 Megatron will always be famous to me. He’s at his best when he’s just stupidly evil imo lol.
I love that he (and the rest of the G1 cartoon decepticons) are so goofy and horribly incompetent most of the time, it’s amazing. I also love that he turns into the littlest gun in the entire world and then lets his second in command, same guy who tries to kill him at least 5 times a week, wield him. Him and Starscream are hilarious together in G1, love their dynamic they’re very fun.
I think it's very interesting that in G1 he turns into a weapon rather than a weaponized vehicle, and that he must be held and used by someone else when he's in his gun mode. It's interesting characterization and a cool contrast to him being the leader of the decepticons.
I don’t have any intelligent or groundbreaking takes about Megan, I just think he’s goofy and cool on the odd occasion. Here’s a bunch of gifs of him I like.
STARSCREAM
g1
I honestly don’t have a ton to say about Starscream other than I think he’s very funny and I like him best when he’s goofily evil. He’s so dramatic and I think how he’s constantly trying to kill Megatron is very entertaining. G1 wouldn’t be half as fun if he wasn’t in it.
Desperately trying to get my hands on his galaxy version blokee lol.
Mandatory silly gifs.
N THIS SECTION CONTAINS SPOILERS! N
DINOBOT & RATTRAP
beast wars
I’m combining these two into one thing here because I have more to say about them as a duo than as individuals lol. The way these two hate each other got me invested in beast wars, they’re both so childish and annoying when in the same room and they hate each other sooo much lmao.
I like how they’re opposites but also compliment each other in a way and it was very interesting to see how their dynamic changed from genuine hatred to weird frenemies as the show progressed. Rattrap holding Dinobot’s hand and them insulting each other one last time while Dinobot died was devastating to me... absolutely tragic.
I’ll forever be salty that "dark glass" never got into the show, or at the very least a scene where Dinobot II and Rattrap meet/acknowledge each other’s existence.