Yours truly around 1987, pictured with my collection.
When starting something like this it’s always where to begin? For me, I should start things off around 1984… I was a 13 years old kid that had been bullied constantly since the fourth grade and would continue to be bullied until the 11th grade when I finally had enough of the torment and dropped out! I took a two-year break, worked a full-time job, found I wanted to go back to school, and eventually graduated at the age of 22.
Honestly, though, it was the torment in school that inspired my reading and collecting comics. It was my escape from reality, to believe in something else, to forget about those kids that bullied me so. Transformer wise, the toys and the animation would eventually follow that first comic I read, which was issue 19 of the Marvel Comics.
The Comics… For those that don’t know, issue 19 was the introduction to of Omega Supreme and Devastator or at least the first transformation of Devastator, there had been hints of the Constructicons beforehand. [For you long time Marvel fan’s Shockwave had enslaved a group of humans to design him a Decepticon army, the Constructicons had been designed during that time period, along with Jetfire]. On a side note, I wasn’t originally in there for a Transformer comic, I went to pick up a new Thundercat comic and it wasn’t in stock, so I bought the next best thing, something that would surpass my Thundercat collecting.
Animation Favorites… Of course, Transformers wasn’t my first experience in animation/cartoons, I was 14 years old and I had been watching cartoons most of that time! Animation wise my first love was Scooby Doo, along with The Flintstones! I also loved The Jetsons, Tom and Jerry, Woody Woodpecker, Heckel and Jekyll, and The Bugs Bunny show! I also watched some Strawberry Shortcake specials, the Charlie Brown specials, and I loved the Disney movies too! But since this is gearing more towards Transformers, I won’t drift far from the story at hand.
My first memory of watching Transformers was with More Than Meets Eye, I was flipping through the Saturday morning cartoons when I hit the tail end of the cartoon’s three-parter. Mirage had just landed in front of his fellow Autobots, after sabotaging the Decepticon’s liftoff, and the Autobots were cheering! I most likely was looking for something to watch, on a boring Saturday morning and turned to that channel, channel 43 in Cleveland, for you Akron/Cleveland Ohio fans. That first time I hadn’t paid the show much attention, it wasn’t until I read that first comic, that I revisited More Than Meets Eye, and by then it had been released on VHS and I could rent it.
Even though the cartoon hadn’t caught my interest at the time, it’s my first memory of it, and it would eventually be a huge part of my life, along with those wonderful talents involved with the series.
Image courtesy of a google search!
Collecting the toys… I wouldn’t have that first Transformer toy until May of 1986. I had been reading the comics religiously and had started watching the cartoons, but I was a bit slow on buying the toys. Again my parents were poor, and I was a teenager by then, so it wasn’t something I jumped right into. My first Transformer was Wildrider, my favorite Stunticon. Starscream would have been my first choice, he was my top favorite at the time, but the seeker jets were scarce, Hasbro was pushing the new toys. But my allegiance would soon turn towards the Autobots, as I would trade that Stunticon off to my best friend at the time, for a Sunstreaker who was no longer on the market, and harder to find. That Sunstreaker would be followed by the Autobot scientist Wheeljack.
More G1 memories later, I’m just getting started! Voice actor memories in the next blog, along with collecting and Christmas memories.
Sharing these G1 memories was inspired by a couple of my friends, Mark Bellomo included. Maybe someday I’ll make this into a book, for now, though I’ll share my stories here… These G1 memories are also for you Jesse and in memory of a supportive Dad.
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Note to my fellow fans and bloggers: I’ve been extremely busy of late, I know I’m always busy! So many things I want to do and never enough time to do it! But I’m still that loyal Blogger, and I still have so many things to share!
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And for those that know of this Blogger’s Retro Convention… I’m doing it again next year!
The Date Has Been Announced For Retro Con 2019!! Hope to see you there!
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