Tuesday, 30 May 2017

34 Years of Transformers Franchise


It been 34 years of the transformer's franchise and look to be going on a lot longer, according to the new's transformers movie franchise look to be going on for a whopping 14 films. But lets take a look back at the very beginning of the franchise starting from 1984, ya i know makes you feel old special if your a late 70 to 80s child growing up with this franchise.

Transformers creators Hasbro and Takara Tomy first created transformers toy-line based on Diaclone which was created in 1980 along with Micro man, these toys were designed by Shoji Kawamori and Kazutaka Miyatake who were both contracted from Studio Nue), who designed the mecha and the figures respectively.

the toys were describe as "full-scale" toys of its 10-centimeter-tall alien cyborgs, the figures in Diaclone represented full-sized human (and enemy alien Waruder) pilots, and were in approximately 1/60 scale toys. Later in 1982 these line of toys like car robots where transforming like transforming robot toys, invented by Ōno Kōjin with some initial designs by Kawamori and others in to 20th century contemporary vehicles, which in 1984 Hasbro licensed these toys along with mircoman toys from Takara which became the toys we know today as transformers.

Probable what you didnt know is that certain transformers were design from original toys before them, like the dinobot and Insecticons were inspired by Diaclone line toys with the from the enemy Waruder toys. Decepticon planes we're inspired by the original two "jetrobo" toys which is where  Decepticons "Starscream" and "Thundercracker" where originally inspired from.

Constructicons came later from the Car-Robots set. The Constructicons came from near the end of the series, at which point Takara was starting to abandon the Inch-Man pilot figures and being limited the toys to a 1/60 scale. The six TrainRobo were also produced in the same sub-line as the Constructicons, but would only become Transformers (as the Trainbots) in Japan's 1987 line.

It wasn't until 1985 the transformers mini series hit our tvs from the franchise, this was during the late 70 and 80s Federal Communications Commission had regulations that prohibited toy companies from broadcasting cartoons based on their products until 1985 when this regulation was scraped.

Thank to this transformer began it three-episode miniseries as a trial test to see if it work which introduced "Optimus Prime" and "Megatron" with the auto bot and Decepticon, as they traveled from the metal world of Cybertron to Earth in search of new sources of energy which the all-spark gave them.

This is the standard practice of tv series to put out 3 to 6 episode just to see how the audience react to the series, with transformers being aired for the first time its audience rating sky rocketed which gave the go ahead for a standard season's worth of 13 more episode. This is when the franchise just became this iconic cartoon for kids around the world, special for me being a big fan of transformers series.

This became the first generation of fans that grow up on the first original transformers, which got a second season with a whooping 49 episode's in 1986, which introduce more characters to the series including "Triple Changers",  "Aerialbots", "Stunticons", "Combaticons" and "Protectobots" with a few new autobots and decepticons to the series which created more new ideas and concepts which added to the history of the cartoon universe.

Then in late 1986 transformers took a big huge change from the small screen to the big screen with its first animated film "Transformers: The movie", which hit the cinemas in the usa on 8th august 1986 and in the uk on 5th December 1986 time travel the series twenty years into the near future of 2005.

Which introducing one of the biggest transformers bad guys in the history of transformers franchise the ultimate planet eating "Unicron", which later in the film transforms the broken body of megaton into Galvatron. Which also introduced new characters Ultra Magnus and hot rod which cause alot fo shop a few problems with the toy departed to store their shelves to make room for these new character.

Unfortunately this film didnt make it budget of $6 million it fell short of making only $5.8 million which is a shame as the film was actually good, but the film did spin off the third season of the transformers series right off where the film ended. The series start off the miniseries called five faces of darkness which brough back Galvatron from the film and also brought multi-faced alien Quintessons who created the transformers,

Unfortunately the american version series in 1987 marked the end of original american series, which mirrored its being with a three part miniseries called "The rebirth", which was written by David wise (who had previously written several of the series' mythology-building episodes).
This last final series introduced Headmasters and Targetmasters, as well as several other characters, concluding with the restoration of Cybertron's Golden Age with the Decepticons who stole the final scene of the series to prove that their threat still lingering.

It unknown why the exact reason for the american series to end after the movie although it is assumed that sun bow lost its contract on running the series by 1987, the final episode "the rebirth" finished with the final G.I.Joe: the movie.
The series when on to make "Transformers: Super-God Masterforce" which was a Japanese exclusive animated series in 1988 and "Transformers: Victory" in 1989, which there was a "Transformers: Zone" which unfortunately was cancelled after one episode.

Over the years the cartoon series turn into a C.G.I series with the second generation with Beast wars which followed with a few more series of this type, introducing  "Beast Wars II", "Beast Wars Neo", "Beast Machines" series. Then in 2001 "Transformers: Robots" in Disguise introduced "Unicron Trilogy", "Transformers: Armada" in 2002, "Transformers: Energon" in 2004. "Transformers: Cybertron" in 2005.

Then in 2007 we're were introduce to the live action film transformers directed by Micheal bay which grossed over $1 billion , despite the negative reviews and reception this film got from people with positive reviews. It became not only the forty-fifth highest grossing film, it became the fifth highest grossing film of 2007, which i actually through was good despite the comment from people saying bay ruined their childhood.

Which is so stupid because the original animated series was back in 1984, it has changed so much from cartoon to c.g.i series over the past years so how can this really ruin your childhood with a live action film. I mean if you gonna complain at the live action film, why arnt you complaining at the way transformers has changed in the animated series? This leads me to believe people are just complaining for the sack of complaining.

So far we have had 3 more films "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" which was released on June 24th 2009, then we had the third film "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" which was released on June 2011 which was that bad, in 2014 we were introduced for the first time in live action the dinobots in "Transformers: Age of Extinction" which also made over $1 billion which again got mixed reviews.

Now in 2017 we are wait on the latest transformers the last knight which will hits cinemas June 23rd 2017 which is the fifth film in the live action franchise , which we are wait on see how plays out and there is a rumor and screen shots that the big boss could be unicron but whether this is true is your best guess.

But as a surprise to everyone to everyone which has been confirmed Michael bay announced that the franchise could be seeing 14 more films in the live action movies, which further stories in development will focus more on the war between the auto bot and decepticons.

But dont go thinking that "oh Michael Bay will ruin more films" Michael Bay will not be directing them all, as we know the bumblebee spin off film is in the works and being directed by Travis Knights (director of Kudo and the Two strings).

Where this franchise goes in the future no-one knows but it has alot of room to explore and expand the universe, even though this film franchise has ignored the 1984 tv series and the 1985 animated movie.
 We can only speculate if unicron isnt in the 2017 last knight transformers film that somewhere down the line in this franchise will come to a massive climax in the story-line with unicron or the Quintessons bring the franchise to a good end.
With several inspired games from the franchise:

1.The Transformers original released in 1985 on Sinclair spectrum and Commodore 64
2.Transformers: The Battle to Save the Earth original release in 1986 on the Commodore 64
3. The Transformers: Mystery of Convoy original released december 5th 1986 on Famicom and 2008 on virtual console.
4. Transformers: The Headmasters original released August 28th 1987 on Famicom Disk System
5. Transformers original released October 30th, 2003 on the playstation 2
6. Transformers G1: Awakening original released November 12th, 2008 Mobile phone and ios 2010.
7.  Transformers: Devastation released on October 6th, 2015 on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.


These are just a few to mention with Many more all included at least over 33 inspired games from the franchise.

Question for everyone where do you think this franchise should go in the story line? or do you think this franchise should just be rebooted?

Give us you're opinion on this, this has been "Movie Knights" giving you 34 years of the transformers franchise.

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