From: rjung@aludra.usc.edu (Robert A. Jung)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics
Subject: Re: What ever happened to the Transformers?
Date: 12 Aug 1992 23:41:22 -0700
Organization: Southern California Lynx Enthusiasts
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu

In article <Bsvs3z.BBF@news.cso.uiuc.edu> tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Deus Imperator) writes:
>In article <1992Aug11.235041.2050@tsoft.sf-bay.org> meiboy@tsoft.sf-bay.org (MeiBoy of UCU) writes:
>>	Whatever happened to the Transformers?  It seemed to me like they
>>were very popular back in the mid 80's.
>
>It died of marketing overload.

  You mean the toy line, or the comic?

  IMO, the comic died because of totally boneheaded writing by Bob Budanski.
With juvenile plots like "The Mechanic" (a potbellied car thief outwits
thirty-foot-tall robots with advanced technology?) and "The Space Circus", it
takes serious Drooling Fanboyism not to gag.

  IMO, the toy line died because (a) Hasbro moved away from the original
gimmick, and (b) the gimmick was doomed to a short life anyway. Yeah, it was
really neat to turn the car into a robot, but after the forty-forth
incarnation, it gets repetitive. Some of the toys were obviously recycled with
changes in paint jobs, but you knew the execs were desperate with the
Powermasters (Transformers that don't transform?). Switching from die-cast
metal (which allowed for smaller, more intricate designs) to all-plastic
(bigger, bulkier, clumsier) didn't help, IMO.

  Sidebar: This is one reason the G.I. Joe toy line continues to draw steady
money for Hasbro. There is no fundamental gimmick, so the toy can continue to
be produced indefinetely without alienating the audience.

>Vehicles that looked futuristic so thaty  their robotic forms would be
>stressed.  (Note in the first run, transformed mode ALWAYS looked better
>than robotic, with the exception of Shockwave.  After the movie, it was
>the other way around).
>	This drive for futurism led them to institute a leap in the timeline,
>as well as make the series more gritty.  Marvel Angst-o-rama infected
>everywhere, and no Autobot was sure of their power.  The decepticons
>kept on winning.

  Funny, I think angst-o-rama, no guaranteed victories, and character growth
would make the comic more interesting. And it did, too; again IMO, Simon
Furman's TRANSFORMER comic stories (at least the American ones, I never got to
see the UK stuff) were very nice...  If only he started work a few years
earlier...

                                                --R.J.
                                                B-)

P.S. I still have some VCR tapes of the television animated series. Maybe
they'll be worth something someday.  B-)  I'd also practically KILL for
some of the "original" die-cast-metal TRANSFORMERS toys. If only I had a job
when those things first appeared...  >Sigh<

P.P.S. As a States-bound Transformers fan, I was surprised to see some
never-released-in-the-US Transformers toys on my trip to Hong Kong. How many
American TF fans ever saw "Overlord", the "Decepticon God"? (A PowerMaster
with jet and tank components that combined to form a robot and a battle
station, with the most mega-hyped powers ever written...  B-)

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