Well, originally, I watched the Generation Two cartoon as a kid every morning and LOVED it. Of course, when I was five or so, I got my first ever Transformer (who I still have today), that being blue Grimlock. Such a beautiful figure, that was the only thing I played with that Christmas. (At some unknown time I had also acquired a G2 Brawl as well, but I can't remember having him, and only found him when I was throwing all the garbage in my basement away and I found him in a box of mostly old dolls and baby toys (glad I checked EVERYWHERE.))
Anywho, Transformers were great, but in my day, Power Rangers and Pokemon were the big thing. They were what I had, and they were what everyone else had. I got out of Transformers, but still played with my G2 Grimlock and Brawl, and my older brothers' old G1 Outback (who is no longer with us), Hot Spot, and Motormaster (who STILL doesn't have a head). Also had Shackwave, but he was gotten rid of by my mom

)
Fast forward, 1996, Power Rangers were still big, but now Beast Wars was too. Honestly, I never realized that Beast Wars was Transformers (I completely forgot Megatron and Prime, clearly, though I don't know how). But it was a great show, and so was Beast Machines. Power Ranger eventually ended becomin Zeo, then Turbo, then In Space, and so on and so forth, and lost interest, for the most part, when Lightspeed Rescue showed up. But Beast Wars was still going.
When RID came on in '01, I LOVED the cartoon, as I had G2, and made the connection between it and the Beast Era. I never had any of the toys, though I was tempted many times by the Commandos, which I just couldn't afford. (I suppose somewhere in my head I remembered Brawl, because I loved Armorhide.) Then Armada came, and I was in love. I the first Transformers I ever bought on my own was the Land Military Minicon team, and I was so happy to have them.
So yeah, Armada had a large part in making me the Transformer collector I am today, with my 300th figure, a G1 Blitzwing coming shortly in the mail