The Transformers franchise is one of many that made up a lot of people's childhoods, especially those living in the mid to late 1980s when the first Transformers series was brought to the small screen by toy companies Hasbro and Takara Tomy, per Medium.com.
However, what made the franchise so popular in the modern world?
A Brief History Of The Transformers
The animated series started in 1984, with the airing of the first Transformers animated series thanks to Hasbro and Toei Animation's collaboration, according to the Transformers wiki. At this time, the Transformers in the series were based on the playground toys manufactured by the two companies.
Nonetheless, they were still similar to the original Japanese Diaclone and Microman releases, which were the toy predecessors that laid the foundation for Transformers to step into the international spotlight.
Hasbro and Takara Tomy deliberately designed the heroic Autobots as trucks and cars and the villainous Decepticons as everything else to give them a clean and clear division of who's the good robots and those who are not.
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As time passes, these automobile divisions will gradually turn animalistic with the introduction of insecticons and mundane thanks to the appearance of the Autobot Communicator, Blaster, being a radio. These changes would soon be reflected in the first animated series.
What made the transformers so popular with kids is because of their ability to transform into cars and any other mundane item at will, combining two things that kids normally like at that age: robots and cars.
A Few Noteworthy Toys
The transformers starting as playground toys is a convenient excuse for toymakers like Hasbro to develop, manufacture, and sell toys of them. As such, here are some of the best toys that are guaranteed to take you on a Transformers nostalgia trip:
Helmet Replicas
Let's start with the basics. Any kid or a kid at heart would want to have a helmet in the shape of Optimus Prime's or Megatron's heads for roleplaying purposes. What's cool about these helmets is that their eyes have LEDs and that they can play various voice clips from their respective character, according to Screen Rant.
Transformers Collaboration/Crossover Toys
As previously discussed, the transformer robots can transform into anything. As such, imagining them transforming into Star Wars' The Millennium Falcon or the time-traveling DeLorean isn't a stretch of the imagination.
Hasbro made these toys in the past, specifically following the release of Star Wars' third episode, the Revenge of the Sith, in 2005 for Star Wars-related transformers and the DeLorean in 2020, per Nerdist.
Masterpiece Bumblebee
Bumblebee may have gone through a glow-up in recent depictions, especially in Michael Bay's Transformers movies, but for some, the classic can't be beaten.
Bumblebee's classic first-generation look (the generation that started the series) may be as flashy as its modern-day counterpart, but its appearance is still something that evokes massive waves of nostalgia, according to Mashable.
Tiger Handheld Transformer Games
Nothing evokes a deep sense of nostalgia more than a video game because of active participation in an otherwise passive experience.
These Tiger handheld games may not offer much in the way of gaming, but these handheld games came from a time when the only way you can face a Decepticon as an Autobot is through a handheld video game.
