I found this article on the Wired blog to be particularly entertaining. Mainly for the reason that I was one of those kids in 1985 that begged, sang and cajoled my parents (mainly my Mum, my Dad had no say over what money was spent on) that I needed Transformers. I’d collected Star Wars figures up to 1985 and boy I’d had a fab time with them. But Transformers, as a toy atleast, we’re simply amazing. I got Sideswipe (a red Lamborghini Countach) for my eleventh birthday in 1985. I still have the toy today. It’s a bit beat up. Had I not played with it for hundreds of hours going on dozens of adventures it would be probably worth a tidy sum.
The thing is about the Wired article is that it now explains to me as an adult what the marketing people at Hasbro were thinking when Transformers hit the stores. I can honestly say that they trapped me big style. I never owned more than fifteen Transformers, compared to the seventy or so Star Wars figures, but their complexity and delicacy was what drew me to them. “Let me see if I can transform it”, was always the first thing you’d say to a friend who got a new one. It’s like today’s equivalent of “I’m going to construct this IKEA four-hundred piece cabinet without looking at the instructions”.
What brought a smile to my face as I read the article were the things I used to do to convince my Mum to spend my Dad’s hard earned cash on these things. When Zoids hit the scene I simply had to have the largest one resembling Godzilla called, imaginatively, Zoidzilla. I distinctly remember singing “Wouldn’t it be good have have a Zoidzilla” to the tune of “Wouldn’t it be good” by Nik Kershaw walking around the house. It was far more annoying than simply saying “Please can I have a Zoidzilla” over and over repeatedly.