What are the Animorphs?

As much as the fans of Transformers would like everything to be black and white, Autobot and Decepticon, we all know and must accept the fact that the Transformers will and are going to take turns here and there.

The toy giant Hasbro, makers of the ever popular Transformers toy line, released its newest addition to the Transformers in March called the Animorphs. Many people may know the Animorphs from the popular series of books published by Scholastic, Inc aimed at roughly the Junior High School reading level, and has since branched out into television and a toy line.

The Animorphs are a young band of teenagers who were given the power to change into any animal they touch. Together they battle against the Yeerks whose ultimate goal is to enslave the human race.

While the Animorphs concept has nothing to do with the Transformers mythologies, it certainly has a similar concept to the current Transformers toy line. Each character in the Animorphs toy line "morphs" or transforms into a beast mode such as Jake who turns into a tiger.

Most fans will remember other turning points in Transformers history such as the Pretenders, Action Masters, and even the whole Beast Wars series. For fans who are not thrilled that the Animorphs are being marketed as Transformers, at least be happy that Hasbro didn't try pawning off the Animorphs concepts as part of the actual Transformers mythos such as the Autobots and Decepticons or Maximals and Predacons.

Future plans for the Animorphs toy line will include a combined Tyrannasaurus Rex figure, consisting of three of the Animorph human characters. Episodes of Animorphs air on Nickelodeon and books are available at most book stores.

This article was originally published in TRANS-FORUM #10 (May 1999) by the owner of SEIBERTRON.com