Transformers are a unique phenomenon. Appeared in 1984, a series of toys for young children in a couple of decades has grown into something more. The saga of robots capable of changing their shape has matured and become insanely popular around the world. The colorful Transformers universe is a story of the war between two factions of robots who came to Earth. In this article, we’re going to dive into the depth of the history of Transformers to figure out how it started.
First Arrival
In 1980, the Japanese company TakaraTomy released a series of toys called “Diaclone”, they were robots of humanoids, which could transform into various objects, vehicles, and other things. There were also released toy collections called “MicroChange”, these are the same robots, but they could be transformed into objects of natural size.
But already in 1983, at a Tokyo toy show, Diaclone and MicroChange were presented at Hasbro’s booth, where they were noticed by the head of the toy giant. Hasbro bought the rights to these toys and brought them to the American market. That’s how it all started.
Having weighed all the pros and cons, the companies decided to combine and refine Takara’s popular products “Diaclon” and “Micro Change” into a new series intended for release in the United States. The series changed its name to Transformers.
For the new toys, a storyline was developed by Marvel and the characters of all the characters were painted as they were reflected in the animated series.
Comics
The comics told of a war between two warring factions of robots, the Autobots (who represented good) and the Decepticons (who represent bad guys). They have their leader – Optimus Prime, and the leader of the Decepticons is Megatron. They came to Earth millions of years ago. The ship on which the Autobots and Decepticons were fighting crashed on a prehistoric Earth. In the collision, all of them passed out and lay dormant for 4 million years until a volcano awakened them in 1980th. The Decepticons immediately tried to take over Earth’s energy resources and Autobots tried to prevent them from doing it.
The idea of two warring races was suggested by Marvel’s editor-in-chief – Jim Shooter. The main characters were invented by Dennis O’Neil, but he failed the first time and refused to redo the work. Then Bob Budiansky became the character’s creator and soon the first four issues of the comics and three pilot cartoon series were released. If you would like to read the comic books, you can use a comic book price guide to start collecting them in order.
Japanese designer Sohei Kohara and designer Floro Deri were also involved in creating the characters. Kohara’s work was not used immediately, but only in the creation of the cartoon in 2007.
Transformers movies
Due to the popularity of comic books and cartoons, the creators of the Transformers universe decided to turn to the movie world and make a full-length “Transformers” movie, which fully met their expectations and the audience.
The first movie came out in 2007. The director was Michael Bay, who was never a fan of Transformers. It was he who designed the robots, but at the forefront, he brought people and their peaceful existence on Earth. By the way, the contract with GMC by the U.S. Army was made to save the budget. Such cooperation made it possible to use cars like Chevrolet that become an icon of Transformers and equipment and to use the saved money for spectacular special effects. By the way, you can rent Chevrolet in Dubai to feel yourself riding a real Bumblebee, because Chevrolet made a limited number of transformers look-alike cars around the globe.
After that, there were 4 more films made based on the Transformers saga and the 6th one is still in production.
Conclusion
Transformers is a multifaceted universe with a myriad of characters and alternate stories. Each story is a full-fledged saga, each character is a full-fledged personality. A simple series of toys has surpassed all expectations and turned into a whole world, which has become close to millions around the world. After all, Transformers is much more than it seems at first glance.
