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Some Solar Cycles ago on the planet of Earth...

In honor of Transformers week here on Pixlbit, I'm going to tell you about my history about the Transformers, or how I got into them. I said in a previous blog that I got into Transformers thanks to Armada, but looking further back, I actually knew about them in the 90's. I think I was in kinder at the time and got a Mc Donalds Happy Meal and they were giving some Transformers toys as the toy for the meal. I think it was Beast Wars and I know because they were robots that Transformed into animals. The happy meal box even had some cut-out cards that I shared with my friends at the time.

                                     

 

I don't remember the names of the toys I had from Mc Donalds but I remember it was a Scorpion and a Spider and they were pretty neat. As for the show, I don't remember much about it, I think I did watch a bit of it aside from a talking gorilla robot and a dinosaur robot and their voices, but that's all I remember. But that eventually led me to discover my love of the series years later.

 

Years later, around 2002 I was looking for something to watch and heard about a new show on Toonami called Transformers Armada. I decided to give it a go and I was hooked. I was also surprised at how good it looked for it's time, certainly much more better than the cartoons we had here. It had an anime-ish style to it. But when I first heard Optimus Prime and Megatron talk, it all came back to me: this was that cartoon I watched at the time with the robots that transformed into animals, now just with cars and tanks and stuff.

I couldn't wait to see the next episode and I watched it everyday, along with Dragon Ball Z. The first thing I would do coming from school was wait for it to start or if I was late, I would just go and turn on the tv and watch the Transformers. I loved it so much that decided that I want some toys out of the show.I got a toy from my brther for christmas that year and I got a Demolisher, it was awesome.

The next year my dad gave me a burned copy of Transformers the Movie, he said a friend of his gave it to him. I took it since free is free after all. I watched it and after the opening, I was greeted by an awesome rock-styled Transformers theme intro. I loved the movie, it's like a took a step back in time to see how the franchise was back then,  and I witnessed possibly one of the most saddest moments in that movie, which I'll speak about it in my next blog. I loved the movie and loved the songs so much that they were stuck in my head for a while that I hummed and said some of the lyrics at school. My friends would say what are you singing, it was funny. I also wanted an Optimus Prime that year for xmas, my bro got me a deluxe Armada Optimus and then my folks got me an Armada Prime that transformed with his trailer, it even became a base.

 

After Armada ended I moved on to the next series, called Transformers Energon. I wasn't a fan of the cel-shaded cgi but it grew on me. I never really finished watching it all the wat, which is why I never got into Cybertron, the series that comes after Energon. I did finsih Energon earlier this year and just started Cybertron. These 3 cartoons were part of a trilogy of sorts dubbed the Unicron Trilogy, I loved the first one, Energon was good, not as much as Armada but not sure on Cybertron.

Later on I saw alot of promotional material for the live-action Transformers movie, I was excited but didn't got to see it. I did play the game based on the movie and thought it was good though. Around that time a new cartoon was to air called Transformers Animated, and japan was said to take place before the movie, but it actually doesn't. I loved the cartoon but never finished watching it because of 2009. If you know me, I absolutelty hated that year, but it was then that I watched the first live-action movie and thought it was good. Also Revenge of the Fallen was in theaters at the time, I did try the DS game based on the movie and had fun. 2010 came along and was better, and was then that I got the dvd for RotF and liked it, not as much as the first movie though.

I also saw alot of Transformers War for Cybertron stuff on stores and wanted to try it so badly, I just couldn't because I only had a Wii and a DS at the time. My brother had the Decepticon version of WfC on the DS so I got the Autobot's version. I had fun, sure the game is not as big in scope of the console versions but I took what I could get. I also saw toys based on the game's Transformers, I regret not getting Optimus Prime, he is pretty expensive now for a toy that was 10 bucks at the time.

I eventually did try WfC in 2011 and had a blast with it, it had it's fair share of flaws but I had fun. If it wasn't for Arkham Asylum, War for Cybertron would be my favorite licensed game on the PS3. I've yet to try Fall of Cybertron though. 2012 came along and netflix had Dark of the Moon and decided to watch it. The movie was probably the longest movie I have ever seen, I think it was around 3 hours long! I did like it more than Revenge of the Fallen, and I think as much as the first. If I were to rank them I would say 1 was good, 2 wasn't as good as 1, and 3 was as good as 1 imo.

I also started watching Transformers Prime on Netflix and I loved it, I think I watched season1 in under a week! It certainly is the best cartoon out there as far as I can tell from this generations cartoons. I just like it how alot of the plots were carried over to the next episodes, they didn't brush past events aside unlike other shows. Everything came together nicely and they finished up the show this year. Also it was the first time in years Peter Cullen and Frnak Welker reprised their respective roles as Optimus Prime and Megatron in the same cartoon, to me they will always be Optimus Prime and Megatron. I heard they were making a movie out of Transformers Prime alled Predacons Rising, and there hasn't been an animated movie since the original movie from1986, it has me excited though.

I also wonder how Transformers 4 will be, I heard that the Dinobots would be in the movie, it has me excited but since it's a Michael Bay movie, it has me a bit worried but curious to see how they'll be in the movie.

As for now, I don't know what it in-store for the Transformers, this year is the 30th anniversary of the series, it certainly is an impressive milestone and glad to be a ble to celebrate it. I'm proud to be a fan of this series, I have loved it from since I was a kid, even though alot of this may seem convoluted, and am glad to be a part of the fan base. It may just be a show about advertising toys, but it has taught me many things, mostly from Optimus Prime. Alot of the things he says could be used in real life, his quotes are so inspirational that I life by them in real life.

How did you get into the Transformers? What are your favorite memories about the series? Any opinions? And if you have some opinions about Michael Bays adaption of Transformers, save them for an upcomming blog about that. Thanks for reading and Till All are One!

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