Transformers! More than meets the eye!
The Autobots were mainly cars and were the good guys.
The leader of the Autobots was Optimus Prime a big rig truck who in his robot form was only the main engine part of the truck. Where the trailer portion of his truck form came from I never knew. Just when he would transform it would come out of nowhere.
The Decepticons were the bad guys and were a bit more versatile in their forms, although they had a large fleet of jets that was probably their core transformation.
The leader of the Decepticons was Megatron, a robot that transformed into a gun that was like a hundred times smaller than his robot form. He would transform into the gun, and one of the other Decepticons would shoot the gun. In addition to the jets there was also a guy who changed into a tape recorder (Soundwave), and he had some little mini-decepticons who were the tapes and would come out and turn into a dog or a bat and attack the Autobots.
Soundwave
Somehow these robots came from outer space and were here on the earth battling each other. There were always some humans around for us to relate to, and I remember learning from this show that being inside a car during a lightning storm is good because the rubber tires keep you grounded.
Eventually, to keep the interest of the viewers, some new subgroups of robots were introduced. The ones I most remember were the Dinobots, who were autobots who turned into dinosaurs; the Constructicons, decepticons who transformed into construction vehicles, but also could merge all together in Voltron-like fashion to make one super robot; the Aerialbots, Autobots who were jets, and who also formed some uber-robot; and the Insecticons, Decepticon insect robots.
The Constructicons
Transformers was a great show and I really enjoyed it until perhaps they got too successful for their own good. At some point, a Transformers movie was made for theatrical release. I remember we were really excited about it, but never actually went to see it. (We usually only went to 1 or 2 movies a year when I was growing up.) I've still never actually seen this Transformers movie, but there must have been some huge plot points, because after the movie came out, the entire cartoon changed a ton. Most notably Optimus Prime had been replaced by a robot named Rodimus Prime, but also there were some new weird space robots and we never could really figure out what was going on and who everyone was. So we lost interest and stopped watching it. I'm not sure whose idea it was for the movie to completely change the plot of the TV show and leave some of us lost and bewildered.
As I've been reliving this memories from my childhood, I find that a lot of the shows I used to watch were thinly veiled commercials for the toys that were affiliated with the shows. But apparently the veil was thick enough that I never really felt that way about the show. In fact, I always felt that the toys were just a way for us to relive our favorite moments from the shows. That said, the Transformers were by far the coolest toys ever associated with a cartoon. Toys that transformed from robots into jets, cars, guns, tape recorders, even dinosaurs and insects.
I remember one year making a list of Christmas gifts I would like that included probably 20 different transformers. Not that I expected to get them all, just that I would have been happy with any of them. The only drawback I can remember to the toys was that you had to put all the stickers on yourself, and it was no easy task to get them all lined up in the right spot without them getting stuck misaligned. Getting those stickers right could make or break the look of your Transformer and it was a stressful first 30 minutes of having the toy as you got it all set up. I remember my older brother got the whole set of Constructicons one year, and one of the pieces was kind of tricky to transform, at least tricky enough that I broke it once and had to pay to replace it.
The Transformers truly were a great show with a great line of toys associated with it. And for that they have earned the #1 spot on my Classic Cartoon Countdown.
***********************************************
Here's the final countdown:
#10: Underdog
#9: Thundercats
#8: G.I. Joe
#7: Superfriends
#6: Scooby's All Star Laff-a-lympics
#5: Voltron
#4: X-men
#3: Looney Tunes
#2: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
#1: Transformers
Stay tuned next week for a brand new Friday feature.
4 comments:
Are you kidding me?! I mean sure, even I saw the commercials for Transformers, but please, X-men or Loony Toons should have been the #1. They survived long enough that the youngest of our generation today still recognizes them. To add to it all, both Loony Toons and Xmen have made it to the silver screen. What about Transformers? I think not
Well I don't even know where to start with this one. First of all, neither of those cartoons had the double threat of great show plus great toys. Secondly, Transformers was more of a supernova, shining brightest as it died, rather than dragging on into mediocrity.
Thirdly, and most important, I've already mentioned in this post that there was a Transformers movie on the silver screen during the height of their popularity, and if you'd been to see the new Superman movie, or just been around the web, you'd know that a live action Transformers movie will be coming out next summer.
Finally, the fact that you've never even seen Transformers completely disqualifies you to make this judgement. The point of the countdown was not to say which has had the most impact on today's youth, but to relish and reminisce on the classics of yesteryear.
its a pretty good countdown, i think you got all the main highpoints EXCEPT fr the Emmy award winning 90s Batman the Animated Series. In any case, the Transformers is a worthy winner of the #1 spot (ah those poor go-bots). now are you going to bring back the fast food favs?
I like how Natalie's arguments are so off base that they actually become sort of difficult to rebutt. But not that difficult. Loony Toons may have an argument but Xmen was more of a comic book thing success turned cartoon to capitalize on a good idea. While Transformers must get bonus points for its original source material.
Post a Comment