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Transformers stole me away from He-Man. I think the merchandising that Hasbro planned was implemented flawlessly with me. Toys with double play value as a robot or a car/jet/dinosaur/microscope/city? Interesting bios? A Saturday morning cartoon? A comic book that I feel taught me how to read? T-shirts? School supplies?

10ft to 3 mile tall robots that can turn into stuff and shoot each other with lasers...how is that not cool?

To tell the full story would be getting into a lot of details I'd rather not say outside of a confidential audience, but I will try to sum up here:

Though he wasn't my favorite character way-back-when (that belonged to the Coveted-But-Never-Received Jetfire), Optimus Prime was one of the few beacons of hope I had as a little kid, and my absolute hero. All the little things I saw as a kid...how he always seemed sad and broken-hearted over the war in those rare moments...how he still treated every human and Cybertronian as respected equals, despite his position and power...how he would never send anyone to do what he himself would not do, and the almost paternal concern for the lives he sought to protect and defend...he was human. Not many cartoon characters in the late 80s (reruns, remember?) had that.

Optimus Prime was the reason why I even bothered with the cartoon that was in reruns on the telly when I was four, why the toys my parents had bought the year I was born meant anything. And it's only been strengthened by seeing Beast Wars in junior high, reading the UK and US comics in high school, and the movie and IDW now. But it all started with Optimus...

...damn. Nearly 23 years later, and he practically was the dad I never had. I guess that'd be my reason why.

transformer changed my life