The Energon Pub

I was originally going to post this in the toys forum, and just make it about the toys, but I realized that our love for this franchise goes much further beyond just the toys.

So, the Transformers came out in the 80's, and seeing as they are now 30 years old, its pretty say to say that many of us, through some sort of sorcery, have managed to grow up, and start families. Well, maybe not grow up.

Kids change everything about your life. Every. Single. Thing. Thats how it should be. One of the biggest effects it can have is on your hobbies. I know speaking for myself, my buying habits have been greatly curtailed. My displays are mostly put away in storage to keep them safe, and I haven't been able to see the last two movies in theaters.

Okay, that last one doesn't count, I just didn't want to pay for a ticket for them.

Then, the question arises, will your children like Transformers?

This is the stage I'm at with my 2 year old. I'm happy to say, he loves them. He constantly asks to play with my Masterpieces (only figures I still have on display, very much out of reach). I have a few chests filled with transformers I don't care about. Some are broken, most are from the Unicron trilogy. I've given him a couple of those, Armada Sideswipe, Cybertron Hotshot, a broken Animated Ultra Magnus, and a broken Alternators Prowl. He loves them, and will not go anywhere without at least one of them, usually two. I love seeing the joy on his face as he tries to figure out how to transform them, and love playing the hero when he brings them to me to fix.

Then there is the cartoons. He is too young for the movies yet, but I've started him on the cartoons. He likes the original, he likes Beast Wars, but he loves the new RiD show. I've only got two episodes on DVR so far, but he watches them each day. He asks for them (he says cars) and giggles happily as soon as it starts. I've gotten him a couple of figures, Drift, Longarm, and Grimlock, to give him when he is older.

When I was a kid, watching my cartoons (M.A.S.K. and Transformers) filled me with a sense of wonder, excitement, and even magic. Its why I've stuck with them over the many, many years since I was a little boy. I now get to see this joy and magic reflected in my son's face, and that my friends is the greatest feeling I've ever gotten, the greatest reward, from this franchise that we all hold so dear.

A couple of pics of him with two of his 'cars":




Passing it on makes it even better. Thats what I've found anyway, how about the rest of you?

You've dumped Armada Side Swipe on your kid?

I've got two daughters. My oldest is 9 and likes TF's, I think, mainly because I do. Her favorite is PRID Arcee. My youngest kid (5 years old) does not give a flying crap about it and just plays with her ponies and seems to be in to cooking.

My little one who is just short of 2 years old loves my Transformers. I purchased him some rescue bots (thankyou Hasbro for making some toddler transformers) and legend figures to go with his hot wheels and matchbox cars. I also let him have a little play with any in my collection (under supervision) he can't transform them yet but makes his version of the transforming sound before handing them to me to transform for him. He once found his way into the room I store them in and when I discovered this I found him sitting in there making jet noises whooshing masterpiece Starscream around which made me smile.

After getting the wave 2 combiner wars deluxe figures I left them on the floor for him to find and loved the excited expression and yell he made when he found them. Once he gets into watching cartoons I have a reissue G1 Optimus Prime to give him along with every Transformer cartoon ever released on DVD which I can't wait to watch with him.

I wouldn't mind giving my toys to kids to play. Probably something I'll do after I'm old enough to marry and have kids

Aww, he's so cute!

Both my boys like TFs, oldest (6) isn't quite into them much. Only on occasion. He's more into fantasy rather than Sci fi.

Youngest (4) loves everything Transformers. He sleeps with them, I have to tuck the TF in with him. He has a Bee costume he'll wear constantly until I force him to take it off to wash it, though he moved on to pajamas, he wears his Bee/Stinger jammies everywhere.

He loves Rescue Bots and now RID has captured his attention. He loves Chase (for a week before Christmas it was all he talked about,... wanting a Chase toy, fortunately I had one for him) and has become a Sideswipe fan.

Recently he claims only to like Autobots, however, he loves the seekers best (more than the Aerialbots).

Of course I get him his own toys, however, he's constantly raiding my collection, fortunately, I don’t have any really expensive ones, though there have been warnings about touching my Soundwave.

It makes me happy G1 came out when I was 12, but yeah, was like the only girl in school who liked giant robots :/ (And we still have my Jetfire toy around), so it's great having one of them share my love... so much love that when my new Starscream came the other day, I didn’t get to see the darned toy until I managed to sneak it away from him 2 days later :p

Mine's 15. A girl. And while I love mine she could care less. I had hoped that one day I'd have a boy but that doesn't seem to be in the cards.

I like this picture of your son

no kids 4 me!!

i can barely afford my plastic crack.

I hope I have a son instead of a daughter so he I can share toys with him and he can carry my last name