AUTHOR COMMENTS:
Not too long ago, I was presented with a series of questions, which gave me cause to elaborate on some of my thoughts about the course of the TF toys and their mythology. Call it a bit of a personal overview of 13 years of fandom....

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1. How did you first become interested in Transformers?

Through my brother. He'd watch the cartoons and chat about them delightedly with his friend from across the street, and he had one or two of the toys at the time, but I never paid it much attention - until one summer weekend I happened, quite by chance, to catch the end of part one of "The Ultimate Doom," which, being a several-part miniseries, ended on a nice, exciting cliffhanger. From what I'd glimpsed of the characters prior to the end, I was intrigued - and when it ended on the cliffhanger, I absolutely had to come back the following week to see how it ended. I was instantly hooked. To answer the question in brief, it was the cartoon that caught my attention; the toys came secondary, and the comic was an afterthought even to that.

2. What was the aspect of them that you found most interesting?

The way the characters were portrayed on the cartoon, with strength and depth and diversity; these were characters whom one could relate to, who had varying aspects to their personalities, believable interactions, hopes, fears, loves, hatreds. I compare it very much to the strength and excellence of characterization in Star Trek. It was the cartoon that really brought the characters to life and by extension made the toys interesting; not the other way around. Of course I could narrow this question down further - the characters who really affected me, whom I felt instantly drawn to, were the Decepticons. It was their nature, as portrayed on the cartoon, that clicked with many of my own worldviews, and it was from them that I learned, by example, to Never Surrender, to always be true to myself and my dreams, no matter how badly maligned I might get for it from the rest of the world. In the Decepticons I saw the character traits I value above all else: loyalty first and foremost, then directness, honesty, courage, indomitability, and warriors' honor. And this in the face of the overlying labels that kept trying to present the story from one side only, namely that of the so-called "good guys," the Autobots. But enough characterization went into the Decepticons, enough care taken to make them and their cause realistic rather than just cardboard-cut-out "bad guys," that it was very obvious that theirs was simply a philosophy counter to that of their enemies, slandered as "evil" simply by those who didn't agree. Against all of those odds, the Decepticons persevered. Very powerful role models, there.

3. How have they changed, from Gen1 to Gen2 to BW?

G1 (at least the two pre-Movie years) was really the "golden era." It never was and probably never will be that good again. It was in the first and second season where the most compelling characters existed, the ones that, to this day, I cling to when I'm disgusted with the state of the TF universe and the accompanying fandom and am just about ready to walk away from it. Those early characters and stories were so excellent that, even after all this time, they still outweigh all the bad stuff that has come after them.

The Movie basically killed G1, as a story and as a source for characters who could mean a lot to me. Most of the first and second season characters whom I'd come to view as personal friends, were thoughtlessly cast aside in the interest of advertising the new toys; and apparently I wasn't the only one who didn't take kindly to it, because the Movie really marked off the end of the TF mania. The third season following the Movie was abysmally badly written, with only a single character (Cyclonus) being reminiscent of the pre-Movie universe (though he was excellent enough to carry the entire third season, just barely, all on his own). After the cartoon ended, the toys dwindled into greater and greater absurdity in the vain hope of recapturing something that was long gone; you'll recall that the "craze" was at its height during the time that the toys were direct and straightforward, and once things got more and more convoluted, interest slipped more and more also. There were a few flickers of bright spots - one or two of the Pretenders (Thunderwing, for instance) were excellent (though he was carried by the strength of his characterization in the comic more than anything else), and the Action Masters overall were a brilliant revival of the old characters and perfectly beautiful toys, often unjustly maligned in the fan community. Some of the Japanese toys in the closing years of G1 were exceptional also, and the European "G1/2", the Predators and Turbomasters and their immediate followers, were some of the nicest toys ever made. So it didn't all die out, just that the good stuff became fewer and farther between.

G2 -- well, I liked G2, up until the very end. Didn't mind a few recolors of the old molds -- and there were few enough so that it was manageable, few enough that the recolors were neat collectors' items rather than blatant cheapskate rip-offs (those came later). I loved the orange Constructicons, and even loved the garishly-colored Combaticons. While some of the new molds weren't the greatest (I never really cared for the Laser Rods and Laser Cycles, too floppy and spindly), some of the new molds were again among the nicest TF toys ever made. I refer in particular to the original 3 Cyberjets. Both the green and purple tank Megatron were excellent, and for Optimus Prime fans, Laser Optimus must surely have been the pinnacle of what an Optimus toy should be. G2 innovated articulation and poseability, and added some neat new looks to the toy line. Pity that those new characters had personality profiles that were written even more poorly than the old G1 tech specs (and that must have taken some conscious effort!), and that aside from a brief glimpse in the comic, they never were brought to life in a story, which might have redeemed the lackluster personalities. Towards the end of G2, it was clear that Hasbro had sold out. No longer were the names and characters important as characters, no longer sacrosanct was the integrity of what those names stood for. In a truly deplorable cheapskate move, the names of respected old characters were slapped onto utterly inappropriate toys, for no other reason than to preserve the company's trademark. I'm sorry, but those old names mean something -- they stand for the characters, and there is a certain combination of look and personality that makes up who that character is. To take that and mutilate it in the name of profit, when with just a little bit of additional care it could have been done right, is an insult to Transformer fans everywhere and to the universe that was built with G1. (Incidentally, all of this applies to Machine Wars as well.)

Beast Wars -- heh. Well, expanding on the poseablity and articulation started with G2, and adding very realistic animal modes, initially was a good idea. What was not a good idea was to re-name the factions and still recycle old character names through these new toys, as their forms and personalities were once again utterly inappropriate. The totally new look of the toys took a little getting used to, but as a zoologist I could hardly complain about nicely-done animal-mode Transformers (except that they made some amazing blunders in their tech spec/profile write ups; for instance, cheetahs are not jungle animals!). So the toys themselves, I could welcome. Not so the story that went with them. The magic that the G1 series and characters had, was completely destroyed in the BW cartoon. Remember what I said about the G1 Decepticons, how they were captivating and multi-faceted and realistic characters whom one could admire and look up to? Well, no such thing existed in BW. It was a story about one faction only, the so-called "good guys" (who retained all the loathesome hypocricy of their Autobot predecessors, incidentally), and the Decepticons("Predacons") were entirely thrown by the wayside. They were portrayed as being nasty for the sake of being nasty, a nest of vicious backstabbers among their own with a pompous incompetent for a leader, who could only obtain obedience from his troops by brute physical force (an insult to the name he pretended to, if there ever was one) - never mind that no team or group or faction could exist that way, never mind that there are two sides to every story. But the BW writers didn't feel they needed to give the same amount of attention to the "villains" as they did to the "heroes," and so the very essence of what was excellent about Transformers was thrown out the window. No matter how anti-'Con biased the old stories were, no matter how desperately they tried to swing the audience's sympathies toward the Autobots and away from the Decepticons, it was none the less a story about two factions, who differed in their philosophy and were only "good" or "evil" depending on your perspective. You had two factions full of realistic, believable characters, who cared about one another as much as they despised their enemies. With BW, you had none of that. The charm was utterly gone.

4. What are the good points and bad points of these changes?

Lots of that, I've already gone over in the question above. But I do need to say one more thing. BW has not only destroyed the magic that the TF universe once held, but it has also destroyed the TF fan community. What once was a fairly small, close-knit, "family" type of fandom, is now a seething miasma of bandwagoners, drawn by the momentary popularity of BW. It's resulted in more infighting than I've seen anyplace outside of 2005 Mush, to the point where "old-timers" like myself want only to get away from all the BW trash that has sullied so much of our enjoyment, and are trying to put our efforts into reviving what was once good about the TFs. It's resulted in long-time friends laying into each other over whether or not BW is a good thing, or taking offense when some of us point out that it is in fact an insult to everything the Transformers stand for. It would have been better, far better, if the toy line had died out at the end of G2 - better for the integrity of the characters who are being dragged through the muck (BW you see isn't content to just present its own sickening picture of a TF universe, it has to go back and try to meddle in the G1 universe as well, spreading its filth to what still remained good), and better for the fan community as a whole. I know there are a hell of a lot of people who will disagree with me, who will say that BW injected fresh blood into a dying concept and saved it - but I don't see it that way. Better to see it die with honor, than to see it survive under these conditions.

Say it loud and say it proud: BEAST WARS SUX!

The End