The Energon Pub

Hi Everyone,

Am i wrong in thinking that most transformers fans are around 40 and don't get too excited for new releases, now that we have basically seen a new version of our favourite character 5 times?

With my nephews I see that they like the transformer toys, but they don't really latch on to the transformers series.

Has the transformers fandom peaked?

That would be said.
The toys are better than ever, but there seem to be very few children to enjoy them.

Oh, we're in the nostalgia brand death spiral, 100%. Might only be at the start of it, but we are there. The cure for nostalgia poison is to make something new that kids think is actually cool. It'd probably help if their parents (folks like me in their 40s, or 30s) don't like whatever that is

To get there, I think they need to start by respect kids a bit more in their design philosophy for the toys aimed at them. Things seem to go from "simple enough for kindergarteners" to "Generations" without much gap in between. The shows have also skewed too far towards a younger audience to have any true "cool" factor. I can enjoy and appreciate Cyberverse, Earthspark and Cyberworld but in no universe were those ever going to be the latest big cool thing for kids. The Netflix stuff had potential, but it sucked instead. There's got to be a formula for making something cool enough for the big kids that's still accessible for the younger audience. I don't know what it is, but someone somewhere should be (I hope) getting paid to figure that out.

I feel like the fandom has had multiple peaks over the years and will have continue to have more peaks so long has Hasbro keeps putting more time, energy, and effort into growing the brand and appeasing a majority of the fans. Yeah, often that type of satisfaction with the fandom is exceedingly difficult or there are very large missteps outside of Hasbro's control with retailers. Some of those though? Hasbro's fault ultimately. Hasbro does tend to put more value and effort into their own IP than their licenses though. It goes merely beyond at this point of seeing the series as popular, they see it as a way to maintain dominance with their brand since it is their own. That's not to say fans won't benefit from this. I know I have been amazed myself by the number of improvements over the years for the transformations as well as character likeness where it just doesn't "sorta" look like the character, but it does look like the intended character.

As for the interpersonal part, I think the fandom outside of this has moments where it is chaotic, turbulent, but then it has moments where things are stable there is a status quo. This fandom tends to police itself a lot better than other fandoms I have been apart of with many even taking more care to provide a better experience for newer members so they stick around. I admit you have your bad eggs, all fandoms do but a lot of the landscape for fandoms has changed over the years while this one does feel more tighter-knit. A lot of fandoms get caught up on the 'member berries and idolize a form of nostalgia that is really only captured by the innocence/ignorance of childhood. It's the "everything new sucks" crowd, and this fandom has elements of that, but they also have elements of "just enjoy what you enjoy and be excellent to each other while doing so" which I think a lot of fandoms could and should do in practice.

So, yeah, it has peaked and continues to peak at points so long as effort and time is being put into it by both the IP holders and the fans that love it.

Hasbro Exec A: We've been closely monitoring the Transformers franchise. Our analytics show the fandom had peaked over 5 years ago. We're in a slow death spiral.

Hasbro Exec B: It's been 40 years since we wiped out a bunch of Transformers G1 characters. We're overdue to kill off another posse of characters.

Hadnro Exec C: Let's pull out our top shelf draw card. KISS PLAYERS.

I think we all want to see KISS Players forgotten.

Tyrannacon wrote:I think we all want to see KISS Players forgotten.

Speak for yourself.

Anytime anyone mentions Kiss Players, this image appears rent-free in my head.