INTRODUCTION
30 Years of Transformers...
It was thirty years ago when Transformers
first hit the market. Many of the diehard fans around today bought
their first toy thirty years ago! Where were you then? Still a
kid? Just finishing high school? Perhaps you were in college
already? Heck, maybe you weren’t even born yet!
Anybody looking back on 1984 today would agree
we all live in an entirely different world. Technology rockets
along. People, fads, concepts...all have come and gone. Sometimes
change is a good thing. A way to refresh things, to start anew.
Sometimes it’s bad. Sometimes we lose something or someone we
loved and we can never go back.
The only constant in life is change. Our
beloved Transformers even embrace this philosophy at their very
core. Of course they can change between two or more forms. Some
can combine into bigger robots or merge together. But the concept
has been changing form from the get-go as well.
Consider Generation One. We started out with
the Earth years (1984-86), the future era (1986-87),
Head/Targetmasters (87-88), Powermasters/Pretenders (88-89),
Micromasters and Action Masters (89-90). Of course these changes
were necessitated by corporate marketing concerns–a desire to keep
the concept fresh so kids would keep buying the product and not
get bored because it had gotten stale.
G2, Beast Wars, RID, the Unicron Trilogy, the
Movieverse, Animated, Generations, Prime... Transformers is a
constantly evolving entity in its own right. Very much reflecting
the axiom that change is a constant.
We may not love every gimmick or story concept
but constant change keeps things fresh and interesting. If we
don’t like something we can always wait for the next thing to come
along and take its place.
Of course, we all have our favorites. Many
people love G1 and without it we wouldn’t have anything that came
after. One has to wonder, did the early creators of Transformers,
such as Bob Budiansky, Flint Dille, Simon Furman, etc. realize
what they were a part of back then? Did any of them imagine this
thing would still be running strong three decades on? Even today,
people are still building on what they started, interpreting and
reinterpreting their concepts in the modern era.
Where do we go from here? Can future
generations of writers, artists and designers keep the concept
going in new and exciting directions? Will the fan base still be
there in ten years? Twenty? Another thirty? Only time will tell,
of course, but it seems likely our favorite robots in disguise are
here to stay.
Congratulations on thirty years, Hasbro!
Til All Are One!
Thunder
Transmasters Magazine. Issue #20, WINTER 2014
REVIEW: Recent TF
toys (part one)
REVIEW:
Recent TF toys (part two)
REVIEW:
Third party toys - Warbot Assaulter, Mania King
FICTION: Crimson Destiny,
part three
REVIEW: Transformers: The
Movie Intrada soundtrack
PROFILE:
Fishface (by Jay Gutzman)
PROFILE: Fractl (by Jay Gutzman)
PROFILE: Freestyle (by
Jay Gutzman)
PROFILE: Fuzzbuster (by
Jay Gutzman)
PROFILE:
Hypermerge (by Jay Gutzman)
PROFILE: Void (by
Jay Gutzman)
PROFILE: Coleonoth (by
Jay Gutzman)
Comic
Round-up
Unless noted, this issue was produced by Tony "Thunder"
Klepack. Contributions for future issues are welcome and
encouraged!
(Some stock graphics were designed by Peter Phelps. Thanks
to him for his many efforts).
The TransMasters are a Non-profit club for and by
Transfans. All content appearing in this issue is copyright its
respective contributors and published with their permission.
The Transformers are Copyright and
Trademark 2014 Hasbro/Takara Tomy. All rights Reserved.
This publication is not affiliated with nor endorsed
by the above companies nor any of their licensees.
Magazine
Index