The Transformers (1984) TV Show Discussion

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I'm back with another blog post. Today I'm going to be talking about the 1984 animated series, The Transformers and my history with the show itself, rather than my history with the entire Transformers franchise. So let's get right into it.

Airing in first run syndication from September 17th, 1984 to November 11th, 1987, The Transformers is a show I had no connection to when I was a kid as it ended before my first birthday, and it didn't appear on any of the channels I got when I was a kid that I can remember. I remember seeing the commercials for the Generation 2 toyline in the early to mid-'90s during Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and other shows on YTV and Global, but I never actually watched the show. Not even the Generation 2 repackaged versions that aired from 1993 to 1995. That version aired on YTV in 1994, but I wasn't able to watch YTV all that much because we had an antenna and rabbit ears at home at the time, not cable. So I really only watched YTV when I was in the hospital or at my grandparents's houses. And with Rugrats replacing Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on The Zone in the fall of 1994, I was really only watching YTV for The Zone and shows like The Big Comfy Couch and PJ Katie's Farm. So I didn't really have much access to YTV from 1993 until 1996. And being that I was watching shows like Ghostwriter on the TVO Kids block on TVOntario after 6 o'clock in the evening, as soon as Rugrats was over I'd change the channel, I really wasn't watching YTV later in the evening when I was in the hospital. So The Transformers completely passed me by when I was a kid.

Sometime between 2009 and 2012 I picked up the first season of the show on DVD, as the 25th Anniversary DVD sets had just been released by Shout! Factory in 2009. I don't remember when I bought it exactly. It was either after I'd seen Revenge of the Fallen in theatres in 2009 or after I saw Dark of the Moon in 2011. It was actually the first two or three live action Transformers movies that made me interested in watching the original cartoon series. So when I found the season 1 DVD set from Shout! Factory for a reasonable price at either Walmart, Futureshop or CD Warehouse (I'm pretty sure it was at Futureshop), I bought it and watched the entire season. I thought it was good, but being that I was an adult by the time I saw it, it didn't catch me the way it might've had I been alive when the show first aired in 1984, while the toys were initially coming out. I'd watched Beast Wars when it was on in the late '90s. I ended up not getting the remaining DVD sets for the series either and eventually gave away the season 1 DVD, because I'm not a big Transformers guy, and I knew I was probably never gonna rewatch the first season anyway. So I got rid of it.

Then sometime in 2019 I picked up the original 2000 Kid Rhino DVD release of The Transformers: The Movie (1986) for $1 at the Ottawa Geek Market. I eventually watched it, but, again, because I didn't see the movie when I was a kid, I ended up not getting why people love it so much, so I eventually got rid of the DVD as well, because I knew I was never gonna watch it again. Especially because I bought it for a dollar, so it's not like I spent $20 to $30 on it like I would've if I'd bought a newer edition, or if I'd bought the 2000 edition when it first came out.

That's my brief history with The Transformers. Just a quick, short, blog post for a Friday where the sun is shining brightly here in Ottawa. I'll be back next week for more blog posts, including my review of book 2 in the Jedi Academy Trilogy, Dark Apprentice. So until then, have a great weekend and I will talk to you all again soon. Take care.