Analog Mutation: Transformers

I loved Transformers. I watched all the shows, eventually got a bunch of the toys and saw the movie in the theater. I was a fanatic, and still am to some point.

But now, going back and watching those shows, they have mutated. Yes, of course they bring back nice memories, but they are almost unwatchable, and it’s because those shows and movies were just designed for kids to buy the toys. They didn’t need to have any kind of quality, story, characters, or even be entertaining.

Today it’s different, the industry has changed. Thankfully. I don’t know if I could have worked on a show like that. See today, because of competition, and the laws that changed the way toy companies can advertise, shows have to have to be at least entertaining. We are making shows for ratings, not just to sell toys, well mostly.

That’s what’s really weird about Transformers now. They are definitely made to entertain, but they are slowly inching back to their roots and not in a good way. See, Hasbro has co-funded the movies and have launched their own network. They are producing the next Transformers show themselves. This way they can once again advertise for their own products during their own show. They are making them more entertaining, but do they have to? When they realize that as long as they sell toys, quality won’t matter. They will go back to their roots, bland soulless commercials.

Maybe that’s what they always have been, and my childhood mutated them into something “more than meets the eye”.