Transformers
Transformers is a toy line that acquired a mythology backwards. Hasbro licensed two existing Japanese toy ranges from Takara in the early 1980s, needed a story to sell them in America, and hired Marvel Comics — where Jim Shooter and Bob Budiansky invented the Autobot and Decepticon war and named most of the characters, in some cases writing a personality profile for each toy on the packaging.
About Transformers
Transformers is a toy line that acquired a mythology backwards. Hasbro licensed two existing Japanese toy ranges from Takara in the early 1980s, needed a story to sell them in America, and hired Marvel Comics — where Jim Shooter and Bob Budiansky invented the Autobot and Decepticon war and named most of the characters, in some cases writing a personality profile for each toy on the packaging. The animated series that followed existed explicitly to advertise the toys, at a point when American regulators had recently relaxed rules on programme-length commercials for children. What was not expected is that the 1986 animated film, which killed off much of the existing cast to clear shelf space for new products, would traumatise a generation and become the property's most-discussed instalment.
Marvel Comics wrote the entire mythology as work-for-hire to give an imported toy line a story.
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Key eras
| Era | Years | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Toy line and cartoon | 1984–1987 | Marvel writes the fiction; the animated series sells the toys. |
| Successor lines | 1993–2005 | Beast Wars and a series of continuity restarts. |
| Live action | 2007– | Michael Bay's films make it a global box-office franchise. |