From: tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Deus Imperator)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics
Subject: Re: What ever happened to the Transformers?
Date: 12 Aug 92 17:19:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: news.Bsvs3z.BBF
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

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.  They had their own Marvel
>comic book, their own TV series and a motion picture in the theaters.
>How did something that was popular just suddenly disappear?  There
>hasn't been a cartoon show for years, and I can't even find any video
>tapes of the old cartoon series in video stores.  It's as if they
>never existed.
>	I collected the Transformers up to issue number 50, but my 
>subscription ran out and since I didn't have much time to read the comics
>anymore, I just sort of forgot about them.  But recently, I had some time
>and I read my collection over again and I still love the whole concept
>and brought back lots of fond memories of the TV show for me.  Since the
>comic is discontinued now, I was wondering if any of you comic fans in
>net.world can enlighten me on the subject of what happened to the
>Transformers.
>

It died of marketing overload.  Any toy tie-in must keep up to date with the 
latest characters, and these are determined by how feasible the concept
is.  In other words, my _favorite_ transformer (i.e. the only one I ever
owned) was Jetfire.  Called "Skyfire" in the comic and show, it looked nothing
like the toy.  There was the exception:  the concept for the toy outdid 
the concept for the comic.  In all other ways, the comic and tv Transformers
did so much more than the toy did.
	The problem lay in getting the most bang for the buck.  How could
you make a cool transformer that tred the chasm between too complex, and
too simple, that was at the same time easy to manufacture?  "Pretenders."
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.  And with the headmasters and quickchangers, as well as
the aforementioned Pretenders, Hasbro lost their one loyal market:  Those
who collected them because they LOOKED like a Porsche, or a magnum (megatron
was ONE DANGEROUS TOY!!!), rather than a lump of plastic that went EWEWEWEW,
and led the decepticons.  It died an agonizing death after that.  The movie
was excellent, but the leap killed the line.  The last final gasp was
the return of Optimus Prime, an excellent idea with a cheesy premise.
	BTW, for those of you who are interested, I finished the series
where it SHOULD have been finished.  Email me if you want details... 
-- 
Thanatos, DeathUrge, Master of Everything But Love tgt33358@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu
"Oh God, does this mean we have to fight?"
			-Selina Kyle, _Batman_