The Energon Pub

My 4 year old niece made tonight an adventure.

She's very good about not touching things that aren't hers and has never gone after my figures unless I've handed them to her. Tonight, however, she asked if she could play with my plane - ie: Armada Thundercracker. I thought, what the heck. He's a brick.

She had an absolute ball with that thing, running from my room, down the hall and back more times than I can count. She had him "soaring" through the "sky" and shoot objects with his "water gun" (the noise button) for quite a long while. I was even shot at one point! Of course I should mention Thundercracker wasn't "a boy." Nope. He was girl. A mommy in fact! RtS Starscream was her daughter and don't you dare take her away! It spawned a great rescue effort

When at last the seeker-baby was safe with Mommy-Cracker, my niece took allegiance with Barricade and chased Movie 1 Bumblebee (played by me) around because he was being a "bad boy" and needed "to be punished". Bumblebee won a few races, but found himself snatched and flipped more frequently than not. Barricade later banished him under the dresser for being "bad" and saying "mean things." Because police men are nice people and only do good things. Even Barricade.

The bot shots - Optimus 1, Trailer Optimus 2, Prowl, Roadbuster and Megatron - later convened for a top secret meeting and invited RtS Optimus to join them (so there were three Autobot leaders in attendance). They discussed how to save "the little one" (ie: McDonalds Animated Bumblebee) from danger, but never actually got to the job... My niece became too infatuated with transforming the bot shots and forgot about the entire meeting

She was rather upset when her mom said they had to leave. She wanted to stay and play.



Have any of you guys ever played Transformers with kids?

Oh yes. My wife and I don't have children, but we frequently watch our neice. I started her in early on Transformers and TMNT. Between her collection and my own we have had many battles, hell Optimus has even hauled some of her MLPs around. We took her out to BotCon this year and she loved it, she about peed herself when she got the My Little Pony Micro Series #5 Convention Variant Cover with Optimus Prime and Pinkie Pie comic. As much as I know much some people would hate it I hope there are some MLP crossover toys created, especially before she gets too much older.

I remember playing with Transformers like that AS a kid. That innocent, imaginative magic is what I miss most, and keep trying to recapture with my toys. I don't think I ever will until I have kids of my own one day, though.

Both my kids sometimes enjoy the TF's. My youngest daughter likes the botshots, as she's able to transform them. My oldest daughter likes one TF in particular: Fortress Maximus. Needless to say, she gets no playtime with the big bot.

Usually they dont really care about TF's. They rather go coloring or play with the Nintendo.

I've been putting aside TFs that I've designated "expendable", so when nieces/nephews/friends with kids come over, I've got a box of TFs they can play with.

Arucard wrote:I remember playing with Transformers like that AS a kid.

This is what I was going to put down. None of my nieces touch my Transformers, and my nephew hasn't gotten a chance, 'nor have any of my neighbors touched 'em. The closest a story I could tell like that is one that starred my 6-year-old self.

My baby sister and Cybertron Blaster aka her baby were fun to watch She'd take him everywhere when I let her get him. he is currently with me, but I will never foget the day Baby beat up Pwimey aka Optimus Prime