The Energon Pub

Greetings all! First of all a quick hello since I've not been here before *waves*

I am currently writing a review of the new Transformers movie and to put it in context I am looking at the whole franchise. So my question is this: What makes Transformers (be it comic, animation, toy, whatever) so popular? What do you think is the mass appeal?

Personally for me it's the boyish sci-fi combination of cars (at least for the Autobots), robots, big guns, and articulated toys. Throw in the storylines and you get something special!

But what about you guys? What makes TF so good for you?

~Shiv

That is a good question. I have often asked myself that question over the decades, and have never been able to formulate a single answer. I am guessing it has to do with multiple factors, but nailing it down to one is next to impossible for me! First off, the toys are just cool...can't get much better than cool vehicles that you can change into cool robots! Second, the comics weren't bad in the beginning (I quit collecting a LONG time ago, when Marvel had the franchise). The cartoons were cool too, seeing those same vehicles actually transform into those robots: can't get much better than that! But the most perplexing thing of all to me was why was I, a GIRL, attracted to an obviously male-targeted toy/comic/cartoon (I bet many of the lady-fans have asked that very same question!)?

Can't wait to see what other answers come of this!

Transforming robots are the main attraction to me. A toy that doubles as a robot and something else is very appealing.

Pyrostrata wrote:But the most perplexing thing of all to me was why was I, a GIRL, attracted to an obviously male-targeted toy/comic/cartoon (I bet many of the lady-fans have asked that very same question!)?

Pfft, that's easy. For one, boy stuff is cool because it's not all cutesied/trendied up to the point of saccharine overdose/lameness. Far too many marketers seem to think that stuff being pitched to girls must be pink and fluffy or "hip and trendy" (or sometimes both, for maximum pukeage).

For two, boy stuff usually has mostly male characters, which equals at least a few cute guys. (OK, so that doesn't quite apply here specifically, the scarier variety of TF fangirls notwithstanding...)

On a more serious note, a couple major factors for me personally:

One, TF has a pretty unique depiction of giant robots. Consider, most portrayals of robots in fiction tend towards one of the following:

• Piloted mecha. Gundam, Voltron, Robotech, etc.
• Servants of some sort, whether in the Asimovian "Three Laws of Robotics" vein, or tangenitally inspired by such a la Robbie, B-9, Marvin, C3PO and R2-D2, etc.
• Singular robotic characters in the mold of Data from Star Trek, one-off creations trying to become "real boys". Then there's the Replicants, which are a combination of this and the previous concept.
• Bad guys trying to kill off humanity. Think the Cylons, Daleks, etc.

But TF's concept of an entire robotic species with individual personalities, varied non-android bodies, complex moralities, etc.... I'm actually having trouble thinking of any other fiction that's really done that, outside of the movie Robots or maybe Futurama might qualify. I'm sure there's gotta be *something* else, but it's not coming to mind at the moment. In any case, I find the idea rather fascinating.

Added into this is the whole concept of transforming. Aside from being a great toy gimmick, it adds a new twist to the "aliens among us" trope. Except now instead of being your boss, next-door neighbor, or potential girlfriend, they're your car, tape deck, or that jet that up until a little switchover flew over your house regularly *without* shooting at it. Doesn't it now suck to be you.

Two, characters! I am a big character junkie, and the TF mythos is like being handed a whole ton of character candy. There are no real "red shirts" in the sense of disposable, nameless characters... thanks to the tech specs, even minor/obscure characters usually have some kind of developed personality. Among the ones who do get more screentime, there's enough focus episodes and varied interactions between all of them to make life interesting. Finally, there's so many characters that you're bound to find at least one that suits your "favorite character" tastes. (Which makes me wonder why thinking up original TFs is so popular... I know that for any given character idea I've been able to think up there's almost always an existing one that fits. But that's another tangent.)

Those are the things I can think of off the top of my head. Maybe more later when I ponder it further.

If you look at the list to the left that says "Forums" you can see that it appeals to a wide variety of people. See which has the most activity. You may want to post the same query in the other forums if you want a fair point of view. Each forum attracts a certain type of person. Like you won't find me on the video games forum - I have never played one in my life though there are zillions of them at my house.

I am female and just got into Transformers after the movie came out. I love to make costumes and am into making transformers costumes presently. Some of the cartoons were written well and it is fun to collect TF stuff. It is also fun to transform the toys as I have also recently found out.
Besides the comics, cartoons, toys, and fans there is a whole world of people who put TF together who I find interesting. I am interested in the real people, the authors, illustrators and voice actors. I am not impressed by real actors so they are not on my list.

It's like a Swiss knife compared to kitchen knife.
Or a Smartphone compared to a regular cellphone.

Which will you buy?

I like vehicles
I like robots
I like big guns

so vehicles that transform into robots and pull out huge guns? Psh, no brainer.

For me it's the toys. I look at them as little puzzles with small secrets and hinges to find and exploit. When you buy one usually it's in it's vehicle mode, you know it's going to have 1 head, 2 arms, 2 legs, so you start turning it over and looking all over at it. Where are the arms hiding? Where are the legs? What's the first thing you have to move that will 'unlock' the rest of the figure and give you space to move more parts. Looking all over at the figure and what will move and what wont move, which direction will it move in? Where are the hinges so I know I'm not forcing anything? It's a puzzle.

That's why I like the Classics and the newer figures like the movie line so much. They're very detailed and intricate. There's alot more to them these days then just: Pull down the legs, pull out the arms, fold down the hood. Done.

For example when I bought the Hasbro 20th Anniversary Prime, I spent easily over an hour looking it over to figure out how to turn him into a truck. I spent half an hour just figuring out how to turn his feet around. When I got his chest all opened up and his arms out of the way I thought it was really neat that I found his front wheels hidden inside his stomach. Then the question becomes how do I swivel, rotate, and revolve the wheels into it's proper position? They're just awesome puzzles for me, that's why I keep buying them. Once I've figured out all the little secrets of a particular transformer, the mysteries gone, and I have to go find another one that I've never touched before.

I'll tell you, you'd be really really surprised at just how many different ways they can design a car to transform into a robot. Is the hood his chest? His stomach? Maybe the hood becomes his legs? You don't know until you start playing with them, but except for repaints, most transformers aren't too alike.

On that note, I absolutely love it when you can look at a Transformer in either robot or vehicle mode, and not see the vehicle. When you look at the robot and can't tell if it's a car, plane, jeep, whatever, that's my favorite. Those are the ones I think are truly "robots in disquise."

Sometimes you'll look at a Car/Plane/Tank/whatever and it's really almost hard to believe that just a few minutes ago it was a robot on 2 legs, since now it looks nothing like a robot.

It's a neat trick.

I am a female that was born in the early 1980s so I have been around TF at that time. I got back into it with the movie. Why are they so appealing to me? Why did I get into TF after 20-year absence? Good question. For one, they are like 2 3-D puzzles that you have to figure out. Also, I am sure that we all can relate one or more of the characters personality-wise. A third thing for me is that if I ever get a chance to have kids, I can show them what I grew up with and get a chance to play with the kid at their level. Another one for me is that I am currently a student teacher. I have my WSTF figures in my work bag...one of my students saw it and asked me about it. The figure that he saw was a G-1 Jazz. He had no idea about it until I explained it to him. So, there is a connection between us. They learn that I can be a kid at heart even though I am an adult.

Classics and Movie toys are my favorites.

They're like little puzzles. Way before i even bought the toys, i'd look at the pictures in the internet, and spent hours trying to figure out which goes where. It helps loosen up some rusting bolts in my brain. It's like a fun brain exercise.

And this all builds up to the climax when i finally got the toys. They provide the ultimate answer to the puzzles. If i was right or wrong. And i get to discover even more delightful little secrets inside the toys.

If regular toys are the arithmetics of fun, TF toys are the exponentials of fun.

Auto Bot wrote:They're like little puzzles. Way before i even bought the toys, i'd look at the pictures in the internet, and spent hours trying to figure out which goes where. It helps loosen up some rusting bolts in my brain. It's like a fun brain exercise.

And this all builds up to the climax when i finally got the toys. They provide the ultimate answer to the puzzles. If i was right or wrong. And i get to discover even more delightful little secrets inside the toys.

lol, you said that so much better and with so fewer words then I did.

For me, it's not about the puzzles of the toys. Sure, I love them and I have a little collection of them. But they are to look at for the most part. My Alternators, I hated transforming them into robots and chances are they aren't going back into vehicular mode anytime soon. They are just neat to have.

It's partially about the cool factor of it...it's a neat gimmick that never really gets old. But for me, it all boils down to the characters. They have human personalities but they are war machines. And cars. Usually really beautiful cars. I guess that's what I find appealing about it. If you ask me what forum I like my Transformers in best, I'd probably say the comics. Their characters are best explored in that way and it usually isn't targeted towards the little kid crowd, so it's a bit more complicated story-wise as well.

Like so many others rightfuly did, I can go on and on!

But to sum it up(and steal a phrase) They're AwesomeSauce on IceCream(I jazzed it up a bit).

A regular action figure is one thing with accessories, and thats it.

TFs are one thing thats realy 2(or more) things that are also accessories

The possibility in the line up is endless, we've had everything from Cars, to Planes, to Microscopes to Shoes, and that isn't even the tip of the iceburg.

Not only that, even though alot of things like repaints get repedative, each figure is unique with it's own bio and reason doing what it does.

They're challanging, intricate, personable, good, and evil, they're from beyond the time and space and in your own back yard.....

YEP, AWESOMESAUCE ON ICECREAM!

they are just that dam good!

Cuz it's frikkin 2 toys in one! A car etc. and a frikkin robot! It's frikkin sweet.

man I say frikkin alot.

The whole transformers exp. for me I guess, there's not really one thing inparticular. The cool toys were also like puzzles, and had a connection to me as well because of the characters in the G1 series, and throughout the rest of the animated shows. The toys the connection to the characters and now the good memories and cool people i've met because of them!

Malikon wrote:

Auto Bot wrote:They're like little puzzles. Way before i even bought the toys, i'd look at the pictures in the internet, and spent hours trying to figure out which goes where. It helps loosen up some rusting bolts in my brain. It's like a fun brain exercise.

And this all builds up to the climax when i finally got the toys. They provide the ultimate answer to the puzzles. If i was right or wrong. And i get to discover even more delightful little secrets inside the toys.

lol, you said that so much better and with so fewer words then I did.

Think of it as a transformation. Both compositions are equally delightful.

For me it was a creative outlet with at first a tv show to watch that was different in a lot of ways but I could still identify with the characters or most of them unless they were completely irritating to me.
They are robots, alien robots but they still have human like emotions and thoughts and that's where we identify with them as individuals.
I like robots and technology in general, it's "a guy thing" mostly.
I also like most types of robots from nano types to the macro types or even one's "less intelligent" for lack of a better phrase.
It's like studying an ant and then an elephant and seeing what the differences are between the two types of robots and how they handle the same situations or environments.
Why do they have such differing ideologies,what's their histories etc etc.
On another level I enjoy the puzzle of trying to transform them, most of the G1 toy line is very simple, Sixshot is probably the hardest to transform and todays transformers are getting a bit too complicated for my taste but it's still fun to figure them out.
I only had about six of them at best when they first came out, they were almost impossible to find anywhere in my pretty small town and when I did find the shelves where they were supposed to be they were always empty.
I've been collecting them, mostly G1's for a little over four years now and the HOC or heroes of cybertron line started my collecting up then the Armada Unicron really got me going and my collection fills a room now mostly.
My bills are always paid first,food on the table etc etc, then collecting is last but still very important to me and my goal is to collect no less than a complete G1 line plus whatever else I have acquired along the way.

It's been about reliving happier memories and times, not that my life is bad now it's much better in most ways but I guess just happier "childhood" memories.

For me its because of the cool robots and the cool cars and I love the feeling of when it fits together as a car.

It's a robot that transforms into something else. How is the NOT cool!

(also the theme is very catchy)

Just to let you guys know I've finished the review and put it up here, I've also put a special thanks to the members of this forum for helping me with my questions. I hope I've done the movie and the franchise at least some justice!

Thanks all!
~Shiv

shiv379 wrote:Just to let you guys know I've finished the review and put it up here, I've also put a special thanks to the members of this forum for helping me with my questions. I hope I've done the movie and the franchise at least some justice!

Thanks all!
~Shiv

Not bad it looks like you have done your homework. Thanks for giving us at Seibs credit on your site.

I forgot to add (quote from page one of this thread)
I like vehicles
I like robots
I like big guns

so vehicles that transform into robots and pull out huge guns? Psh, no brainer.

Again thank you for giving us credit in your review and on your site.

I'm always glad to help out! Plus it was interesting reading the reasons why different folks like Transformers.

Four things.

First, brilliantly designed robots that can turn into vehicles, weapons, devices, etc.

Second, brilliantly designed personalities for our beloved transforming friends. Brilliantly designed stories, too. Stories that actually included male characters openly hugging each other, a boy getting all weepy, and even romance, believe it or not!

Thirdly, brilliantly designed characters drew in fans OUTSIDE the targeted audience. Fans of any age and gender from AROUND the world, too!

And last of all, humanity meets friendly aliens and develops a special bond between them, too.

Mix all of that above and that is pure MAGIC.=3

shiv379 wrote:Just to let you guys know I've finished the review and put it up here, I've also put a special thanks to the members of this forum for helping me with my questions. I hope I've done the movie and the franchise at least some justice!

Thanks all!
~Shiv

Nice article! Thanks for the shout-out!

Cars-nice cars
Robots-giant freaking robots
Toys-two toys in one!
voice actors-Peter Cullen made me cry
Also what makes these bots different is that they're from an alien planet, aren't artificial intelligence, they have minds of their own, they don't need humans inside to move, they have a lot of character unlike most robots that beep and shoot lazers.