Generation Two
September 1984. I was five years old, and all I wanted in the world was Optimus Prime.
Commercials for the brand-new toy line, the Transformers, were playing on every television station in town. They looked so cool - not just cars, not just robots, but both! There were lots of toys shown on the television, but I wanted the big red truck guy most of all. He had a trailer that opened and all sorts of cool parts and bits, and a face that stuck in my mind. No mouth, just a big face-mask and yellow eyes... he was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
I didn't get him straight away. My first Transformer was Gears, a little red-and-blue truck. Not that I called him Gears, of course. He was Optimus Prime, as far as I was concerned - perfect to re-enact all the amazing things I saw on the new Transformers cartoon that had just started. I lost count of how many times Gears/Optimus rolled down hills in my backyard, propelled by the explosion of a Burmese ruby mine. He was so easy to use, too... a couple of quick twists and you had a robot, a few more twists and he was a vehicle again... and I wanted to play with him all the time.
The following year... one special day... my Mum picked me up from school and handed me the real Optimus Prime toy. What had been, until that point, a strong interest (that had seen me snap up Thundercracker and Bumblebee also) verged on the point of obsession. A Christmas later, Ultra Magnus and Galvatron made sure I'd be a Transformer fan for life. These toys were a little more complicated than Gears, but not so much so as to discourage me. My five-year-old hands were more than equipped to deal with each and every mech that came my way.
----------
June 2008. LJ is four years old, and all she wants in the world is Bulkhead.
It's one thing for Daddy to have lots of Transformers in his comic room. That's all cool. LJ's grown up around them, never thinking much about it. She's able to talk Transformers with the boys at school (making her the envy of the other girls) and knows an Autobot from a Decepticon. Then, one fine day, Transformers: Animated came on the television... and another generation of this family was hooked.
Times, however, have changed. I maintain LJ's far smarter than I was at the same age, but she's unable to handle the modern Transformer toy. That's not a slight on her - rather, it's a sad indictment on the figures themselves. The cartoon, the concept, the designs and the line itself are marketed toward the youngsters... most of whom lack the dexterity needed to transform these highly-detailed, uber-poseable mechs. So much emphasis has been placed on collectibility and "style" that the simple play value has been lost.
Sure, there are sub-lines geared toward LJ and her friends. But there aren't spring-loaded versions of every character, and the "bumper battlers" don't have discernable robot modes (or, for that matter, legs). LJ wants to have the same sort of show-accurate fun we all enjoyed, back in 1984, but there's no toy capable of joining her imagination to her manual dexterity. She can transform the original G1 Optimus toy with her eyes closed (and likes to do so to prove the point), but not the modern equivalent.
As happens in such situations, Daddy came to the rescue.
We made our way out to the shed, this morning, and started digging through the stored Transformers. LJ needed poseable, playable, accurate toys of her new favourite robots. If Hasbro won't provide them in the present, then the time has come to strip-mine the past.
Much to LJ's delight, it didn't take us long for Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ratchet and Prowl to line themselves up, ready to roll out. Within seconds, they were off on the trail of Blackarachnia, herding rampaging Dinobots and dodging Starscream's attacks. A spare house key looped on a length of chain gave LJ her own personal connection to the Allspark, and the repairs and upgrades began. They even joined in on the latest Monkeygirl and Monkeyman adventure (where Bulkhead, it must be said, acquitted himself very well indeed).
----------
It's sad to think it'll be a while before LJ can cope with the official-release Animated figures. She may have even lost her interest by that time. It's disheartening to note just how much things have changed, and how toys are rarely geared toward kids anymore (even if their advertising and fiction is). But, beyond all that, it's fantastic to see my daughter smile, to see her wish come true and to watch her play and have fun just like I did, 24 years earlier.
Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF
(cross-posted here at They Are Among Us.)
Commercials for the brand-new toy line, the Transformers, were playing on every television station in town. They looked so cool - not just cars, not just robots, but both! There were lots of toys shown on the television, but I wanted the big red truck guy most of all. He had a trailer that opened and all sorts of cool parts and bits, and a face that stuck in my mind. No mouth, just a big face-mask and yellow eyes... he was the coolest thing I'd ever seen.
I didn't get him straight away. My first Transformer was Gears, a little red-and-blue truck. Not that I called him Gears, of course. He was Optimus Prime, as far as I was concerned - perfect to re-enact all the amazing things I saw on the new Transformers cartoon that had just started. I lost count of how many times Gears/Optimus rolled down hills in my backyard, propelled by the explosion of a Burmese ruby mine. He was so easy to use, too... a couple of quick twists and you had a robot, a few more twists and he was a vehicle again... and I wanted to play with him all the time.
The following year... one special day... my Mum picked me up from school and handed me the real Optimus Prime toy. What had been, until that point, a strong interest (that had seen me snap up Thundercracker and Bumblebee also) verged on the point of obsession. A Christmas later, Ultra Magnus and Galvatron made sure I'd be a Transformer fan for life. These toys were a little more complicated than Gears, but not so much so as to discourage me. My five-year-old hands were more than equipped to deal with each and every mech that came my way.
----------
June 2008. LJ is four years old, and all she wants in the world is Bulkhead.
It's one thing for Daddy to have lots of Transformers in his comic room. That's all cool. LJ's grown up around them, never thinking much about it. She's able to talk Transformers with the boys at school (making her the envy of the other girls) and knows an Autobot from a Decepticon. Then, one fine day, Transformers: Animated came on the television... and another generation of this family was hooked.
Times, however, have changed. I maintain LJ's far smarter than I was at the same age, but she's unable to handle the modern Transformer toy. That's not a slight on her - rather, it's a sad indictment on the figures themselves. The cartoon, the concept, the designs and the line itself are marketed toward the youngsters... most of whom lack the dexterity needed to transform these highly-detailed, uber-poseable mechs. So much emphasis has been placed on collectibility and "style" that the simple play value has been lost.
Sure, there are sub-lines geared toward LJ and her friends. But there aren't spring-loaded versions of every character, and the "bumper battlers" don't have discernable robot modes (or, for that matter, legs). LJ wants to have the same sort of show-accurate fun we all enjoyed, back in 1984, but there's no toy capable of joining her imagination to her manual dexterity. She can transform the original G1 Optimus toy with her eyes closed (and likes to do so to prove the point), but not the modern equivalent.
As happens in such situations, Daddy came to the rescue.
We made our way out to the shed, this morning, and started digging through the stored Transformers. LJ needed poseable, playable, accurate toys of her new favourite robots. If Hasbro won't provide them in the present, then the time has come to strip-mine the past.
Much to LJ's delight, it didn't take us long for Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Ratchet and Prowl to line themselves up, ready to roll out. Within seconds, they were off on the trail of Blackarachnia, herding rampaging Dinobots and dodging Starscream's attacks. A spare house key looped on a length of chain gave LJ her own personal connection to the Allspark, and the repairs and upgrades began. They even joined in on the latest Monkeygirl and Monkeyman adventure (where Bulkhead, it must be said, acquitted himself very well indeed).
----------
It's sad to think it'll be a while before LJ can cope with the official-release Animated figures. She may have even lost her interest by that time. It's disheartening to note just how much things have changed, and how toys are rarely geared toward kids anymore (even if their advertising and fiction is). But, beyond all that, it's fantastic to see my daughter smile, to see her wish come true and to watch her play and have fun just like I did, 24 years earlier.
Greet the Fire as Your Friend,
SF
(cross-posted here at They Are Among Us.)