The Transformers: More than meets the eyes.  This was perhaps one of the largest line of toys in the eighties that spawned off a number of comic series, not one but a number of cartoon series on both sides of the Pacific, not to mention an animated movie.

So why would kids want to play with electrical equipment?  No, these were definately not electrical equipment for stepping up or down the voltage of current, but rather, a line of mechanical warriors which can transforms into cars and planes and guns and such.

There were two factions.

The good guys were known as the Autobots.  Protectors of the earth, of humankind, of all that is good, yadda, yadda, yadda.  The were from Cybertron, but exiled to Earth, having lost control of their home planets to their enemies, the Decepticons.  They were originally limited only to ground vehicles, well, in the first year or so anyways, until the Dinobots came along and then the Aerialbots, and, well, as the years went by, we got more and more of these guys.

The bad guys were known as the Decepticons. Well, the usual story applies here as well.  Plunderers of the earth, evil, conniving, backstabbing, scheming, well, you get the pictures.  The Decepticons controlled the Transformers homeworld of Cybertron.  As opposed to the Autobots, these were mainly jets and guns and other equipment and differentiate from the Autobots by their ability to fly.  Or in the first year or so anyways.  Later on in the line they also got a set of cars called the Stunticons, the card of which is pictured below.

That card above is the European one.  The Tech Specs, or the bit below the card is simply a bar chart.  The American and Asian cards were slightly different with lots of red lines and one blue line running on the Tech Specs.  The boxed sets included a red piece of plastic which you can put over this Tech Spec to "decode" it.

The above Tech Spec shows that of Spinister.  He (It?) was a Targetmaster.  Well, after about 2 or 3 years down the line, the powers that be introduced Nebulans.  These were the partners of the Transformers who could transform in to the heads (Headmasters), weapons (Targetmasters) or engines (Powermasters) of the Transformers.  It was also around this time that the Transformers catchphrase was rephrased to "More... much more than meets the eye".

So this was the first major reinvention of the transformers mythos, and we are still talking about what is now know as the G1 (Generation 1) Transformers.  Another two years later, they tried to reinvent the transformers yet again by introducing non-transforming Transformers.  That failed big time.

Meanwhile, over in Japan, the Japanese company Takara has also been producing Transformers for the Japanese market.  The backstory is slightly different, the cartoon series was in Japanese and things were just a whole lot different.  They weren't called Autobots and Decepticons, they were called Cybertrons and Destrons (I think). Interest in Japan lasted till the end of the decade as the Japanese added new Powermasters like Overkill and the new Breastmasters - yes, you guessed it, Nebulans who can transform into the breastplate of the transformers (and to their weapons as well).  Only the Japanese didn't call them Nebulans.

Well, there were the Generation 2 (G2) transformers, then there was Transformers: Beast Wars, then Beast Machines, then Robots in Disguise and now Armada.  Waaaay too complicated for me to explain so I won't.  You can check out the cartoon and toy links at one of my favourite Transformers site - Transformers at The Moon.

You should also look at the official sites, and yes, there are two sites - a Hasbro site for the American market and a Takara site for the Japanese market - if you are interested.

I'll leave you with the cardback of one of my favourite Transformers - Bumblebee.

Go back to Duke Nostalgia's Kaleidoscope Page.
Go back to Duke Nostalgia's Front Page.