Happy 40th Annaversary Transformers!

[ZacWilliam1]

My memories of Transformers from 40 years ago. 1984. I was 8.

The first transforming toy I ever got was the GoBot Spay-C, the space shuttle. She was a gift from my Grandmother on my Fathers side IIRC. I don't think I knew she was a girl in the cartoon as a kid but I dearly loved that toy.

The first actual Transformer I got was Brawn from my other Grandmother. I carried him around in my coat pocket all the time to school and everywhere. Eventually one of his arms fell off but I swung the door wing forward and used that as a stand in arm.

These are the other 84 toys I had in 84:

Bluestreak - Instantly my favorite. Loved the bio and the silver car. The roof broke off the car fairly early but he was still useable in robot mode after that and I played with him a lot.

Ironhide - A weird Ironhide but a fairly fun toy. Lots to fiddle with. Eventually fell like completely apart. Still have a bag of his pieces somewhere.

Sunstreaker - But not really. Had the Diakron red "Sunstreaker"

Starscream and Skywarp - Had to have Starscream and Skywarp was my favorite visualy. Great colors. Honestly never missed Thundercracker at the time.

A million Laserbeaks and Frenzys - Only had these two but had them a bunch. On top of getting an official set the small independent toy store in the middle of my town got in a ton of "ko" or at least asian stock of these as singles in little plastic cassette cases and since they were easily the cheapest TF toy I could get I had a pretty decent flock of Laserbeaks and at least a couple Frenzys.

Not-Soundwave - I had "Casette Man" from the same little toy store. Still have him. The weird thing was he was supposed to come with KO Ravage according to the package but someone had taken it out of the package and replaced it with a REAL Buzzsaw complete with Decepticon symbol. No complaints here.

And lastly I got Optimus Prime for Christmas 1984 from my Grandma on my mom's side. I remember being super excited and opening him all up and putting the trailer together on her couch.

I also got Hound for that Christmas but he was missing his robot head right out of the package. So he did not get played with much.


-ZacWilliam, I didn't get into the Comic till the 85 characters were out, but I remember seeing the Cartoon talked about on the evening news before it aired and catching the miniseries excitedly.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

My parents were dirt poor so I was a KO kid. First transforming robot was a KO G1 Bonecrusher. First real G1 Transformer is Sunstreaker. It's actually not in bad shape today. Paint is okay and the tires have only minor cracks.

 

[The Predaking]

My Dad was on the road a lot in the early 80s for his job. He would be gone for a week or two and always come back with presents for me and my older brother, which was something that he started with my brother before I was even born that he carried on when I arrived. So we got a lot of Gi Joes, Star Wars, and Transformers along with an assortment of other 80s toys. So I was 3 and my brother was 8 when Transformers came out, and we watched all of the first three seasons on the wood grain family console tv. It looked a lot like this:

We watched all the 1980s cartoons sitting on the floor in front of that tv. I specifically remember watching the final episode of season 3 when it first aired. I didn't know it at the time, but that would be the last new TF episode that I would see until Fox Kids starting airing Beast Wars in the late 90s. However, if you had to end the series as a kid with the last episodes you saw, Optimus Prime returning to life and stopping the hate plague following with Galvatron standing down, that was a great episode to end it on.

I didn't discover the TF comics, until much later in the mid 90s. I don't even think that I was aware of comics as a medium until 1988. I did eventually pick up most of the original Marvel run though.

Toy wise we had some good ones. I don't know which TF we had first, but the first time I know that we got any TFs was Christmas of 1984. We went to my Grand Parents house for Christmas(Halfway across the country) and we got a ton of TFs! My brother and I got G1 Megatrons (As well as my cousin who was in between us in age) and Optimus Primes! Between that and the GI Joe haul we were definitely spoiled. My parents always found it easier to get my brother and I the exact same toys, so we wouldn't fight over them.

During the two years of 1984 and 1985 we got Prowl, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper(lots of variants of those), all of the Decepticon cassettes(yet never got a Soundwave or Blaster), Brawn, Huffer, Shockwave, Bluestreak, Swoop, Warpath, Devastator, Kickback, Bombshell, Topspin, Twintiwst, Blitzwing, 1 Ramjet and 1 Thrust( According to my older brother, we got those as a Christmas presents at Sunday School when we went to the rich church for a short time period), Perceptor, and our big Christmas item in 1985 was Omega Supreme! It was during this time period that we also got the awesome Starscream KO from four star:

In 1986, we got a ton of Tfs as well. Some of which we got new, and a few we just got one offs that we would find at garage sales etc. The one offs in my head were Onslaught and Silverbolt, which we oddly never got any of the limbs for, and Ultra Magnus. My most vivid memory of getting a TF at this point was when on my 5th birthday that year, my mom had decorated the cake with lots of cool little toys and decor and on the top was a G1 Swerve! We got a lot of toys that year as well: Wheelie, Dragstrip, First Aid, Groove, Streetwise, Ratbat, Hotspot, Rodimus Prime, and oddly enough we got one Galvatron and one Metroplex.



In 1987, we moved and my parents both changed jobs so we had a completely different lifestyle. (we were living in a large capital city with over half a million people and moved to just outside my mom's hometown that had a population of around 2500 people. ) And we didn't buy that many TF toys at that point. As most of our stuff was in boxes from the move and we still had plenty of toys. The only 1987 release that we got was Rollbar. I do remember my cousin getting the Computron giftset as well as Flywheels though, so I did get to play with those as a kid when I went over there.


1988 was a similar year in that my brother and I only got one TF toy for Christmas and it was just for me at that point as he was 11 and focusing on other toys at that age. (Legos, video games, etc). However that one toy at Christmas time was a big one! I got Power Master Optimus Prime! It was awesome!

For 1989, I talked my mom into getting me Bristleback and Slog from a discount retail store near the outlet mall that she loved to go to. Think a mix between Ollies and Dollar Tree. Sadly we never got back to get the rest of the set as the place was somewhere we drove to only twice a year. And that was the only TF toys that I got that year.


In 1990 things picked up again! Micromasters and action masters were out that year, and I got a slew of them. Action master wise, I got Soundwave and shockwave, as well as Axer. Axer was a present that my dad got me out of the blue after a really tough dental operation. That toy still makes me smile to this day. Micromasters, I got two of the teams Air patrol, and Race Track patrol. Those little guys were fun to play with as a kid. They scaled well with other toys of the era.

Sadly that was all of the G1 toys that I would get as a kid. Most of my toys survived, but they were all pretty well played with as, heck, I wasn't even 9 when I got my last TF ever. So with that in mind, I am happy that a lot of my TFs survive to this day. Years later when I had started my first job in high school, I went to the local walmart during my lunch break and discovered Beast Wars toys! I should note that in my rural area, G2 and Machine Wars didn't happen. No tv episodes, no toys, and I don't remember the comic but I knew it was around as my buddy got some of them back when they were new.

 

[Sciflyer]

I was between 7 and 8 years old in 1984, and was primed (pun intended?) to really lock in with Transformers. I had a few Gobots and continued to buy them throughout the early-to-mid 80s, but I had a much stronger and instant connection to Transformers.

I recall that my first ones were Prowl and Trailbreaker, purchased off of an endcap at Walgreen's. Optimus Prime followed shortly thereafter (for my 8th birthday), then Soundwave, Megatron, Sideswipe, Bluestreak, Sunstreaker, Ratchet, a host of Minibots, Thundercracker, and then Skywarp. I never could find Starscream and it always bothered me!

I then proceeded to collect them to the best of my ability until 1988. 1987 was my last epic Transformers year, but over time, I grew to appreciate most of the "1988 and beyond" G1 toys. In 1988 though, I began to turn my attention toward Nintendo, G.I. Joe, comic books, and skateboarding.

Then in 1992, I happened upon the G2 comic, and began thinking about tracking down some G1 Transformers. I began buying some of the G2 toys and slowly buying back G1 toys here and there. But in 1994, I dubbed myself a Transformers collector, and began my mission in earnest. I loved the toys but was missing the fiction, then Beast Wars happened. It felt great to be tapped in to something that was then-current and very exciting, and I enjoyed collecting those toys. I loved Beast Machines too, then Car Robots/RID, Armada, and Cybertron. Energon was a little hit-and-miss for me, but then a little line called Classics brought me back.

So yeah, since about 7 years old, Transformers has been a major presence in my life, and a big part of my identity. Here's to 40 more years!

 

[tec]

85 all I had was what we would call now days would be a Junker Soundwave and Twintwist my friend across the street had Prime

Later around that time I would get the non transforming Prime Toothbrush that was good enough for me

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Doesn't even transform, and he still loses his fists?!

 

[Stepwise]

Doesn't even transform, and he still loses his fists?!

That's funny. Just like the real thing.