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You remember the theme tune. You know who the big red good-guy one is. At least one boy in your class at school had an enormous one. Go on admit it, you're reading this full of 80's nostalgia and thinking 'yeah that new movie trailer does look awesome' and making 'krrr-krrr-chh-chhht' noises with someone looking at you like you've just arrived from a small metallic world from light years away!
Yeah, thought so. You see deep down, everyone's a Transformers fan.
Transformers should have been an 80's flash in the pan like Rubick Cubes, Spandau Ballet and very bad hairstyles. But somehow toy cars, planes and even dinosaurs made their way from Japan (Or Cybertron orbiting Alpha Centauri, depending on which mythology you subscribe to) via Hasbro Toys in Pawtucket, Rhode Island to the hearts of millions where they've stayed for over twenty years now. Mullets, Mohawks and Martin Kemp have been and (almost) gone but the Autobots and Decepticons are forever.
Boy's toys are all well and good, but the robots in disguise have something more than die-cast metal and moulded plastic in their armoury. In the 1980's Transformers had their own comic book and animated series to augment the toy line, a first pioneered by Hasbro way before the days of Teenage Mutant Turtles and Pokémon. This 'triple-play' is what really got kids hooked; they could flick through Marvel Comics series and read of cunning and ruthless Megatron's latest plan for 'galactic domination'. Afterwards, switch on Saturday Morning TV and watch the Autobots thwart the Decepticons once more before retiring to the toy box to re-enact the moment where Optimus Prime, striving for peace truth and justice the Cybertronian way, explosively transforms from a truck to a giant robot and twisting through the air, laser rifles half a dozen Decepticons to the ground. Bringing back memories eh? Let's access the data archive.
Like the warring robots it features, Transformers animation has taken many forms over the last twenty years. The most recognisable and memorable version is referred to by fans using the retronym 'Generation One'. It's the version even your mum would recognise because you wouldn't eat your breakfast and get ready for school until you'd watched the end of the latest episode!
Pilot episode 'More Than Meets The Eye' introduces such Transformers staples as metal homeworld Cybertron and the factions' respective iconic leaders. Optimus Prime and a crew of Autobots leave Cybertron in their giant space cruiser in search of new sources of power and Megatron and his band of nefarious mechanoids are not about to let their foes gain an advantage in the bitter civil war. A battle in orbit of a small planet ensues and damaged in the fighting, the autobot's giant vessel hurtles towards the planet's surface and crashes in to the side of a volcano rendering all aboard inert; four million years later the ships onboard computer repairs and re-formats the occupants with disguises suitable for this time and place. The time is now and the place is Earth! The Autobot versus Decepticon battle begins anew...
Throughout the first two season's sixty-five episodes, many memorable (and some not so memorable) characters were introduced. This was necessary in a cartoon that, it has to be remembered, was more than partly designed to shift toys off the shelves and in to kid's bedrooms; great voice over work from some incredible performers helped give the robots in disguise something more though. The characterisations established in this first season are most likely at the heart of why The Transformers popularity endures to this day.
Peter Cullen voices Optimus Prime and with a deep resonating timbre, he not only commands his Autobot troops but the hearts and minds of thousands of fans around the globe. Prime exudes authority and wisdom; you get the feeling he has seen and done a fair bit in his however-many-million years! He is Transformers' John Wayne; standing up for what is right but still able to mix it with the bad guys when the time comes - though for my money a laser rifle and transforming in to a Freightliner Cab-over-Engine dual axle Semi Truck beats a six shooter and an old nag any day!
Frank Welker's snarling malevolence and maniacal cackling brought life to Prime's opposite number, the Evil Decepticon leader Megatron. You shouldn't want the bad guy to win, but Megatron is a piece of nasty that you can have a grudging respect for! With his arm mounted fusion cannon and equally hard hitting arsenal of one-liners, he was evil par excellence. Frank Welker is the king of cartoon voices and Megatron is his prize creation; let's face it, no other character he voiced transformed in to the most bad-ass gun this side of Iacon! Although another of his characters did transform in to something slightly less useful.
Soundwave often had the honour of being deployed by the Decepticon army in his awesome... erm, cassette recorder mode. Yes kids, a cassette recorder - it's what we played music on before iPods! Mind you, the Decepticon Cassettes under Soundwave's command were a little more lethal a mix tape! Laserbeak, a robotic condor, could spy on the Autobots from above. Rumble was the punk-con with pile-driver arms that could start mini-earthquakes and the sleek and stealthy Ravage was one bad Decepti-kitty. Despite being a few years behind the times in terms of their 'alt modes', Soundwave and his cronies are still firm fan favourites - just a step or two down in the popularity stakes from Megatron's other devious lieutenant.
Starscream was hammed up in superb style by comedian and voice artist Chris Latta. When he wasn't dive-bombing Autobots in his F15 Jet mode, he was plotting and scheming behind Megatron's back, always looking for a way to usurp his leader and take control of the Decepticon army for his own ends.  You wonder why Megatron didn't just put the screeching, power obsessed lunatic out of his misery at his earliest convenience; like Blofeld with James Bond, it was bound to cost him in the long run wasn't it? Ah - Now that's a story, one that was resolved in...
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