TRANSFORMERS (the cartoon)

I've been re-living my childhood

and watching the classic 1980's Transformers cartoon season 1 and 2.  I lost interest after the animated movie and they went an fucked with all the characters and killed off Prime.

Anyway I've noticed a few things now about the cartoon that I didn't before, and i've come to the conclusion that it was really nothing more than a 30 minute commercial to sell toys.  In the latest Transformer movie, i couldn't hardly tell who was who but in the cartoons you almost always know who's who because they all refer to themselves and use their own names when talking quite frequently.  And if a character isn't saying their own name, usually one of the other characters are refering to them. 

WHy is that important?   Well it helps create a bond between the viewer and that character I think, so you know when you go to the toy store the exact name of the Transformer you wanted to buy.  In the new Transformer movie, i dont' think i could name more than a half dozen of the characters and sure as hell couldn't pick them out by looking at them on the shelves other than the leaders and some unique characters that stand out.

The other thing that i've noticed is that in the original cartoon, they just randomly introduce new characters.  It was a pretty solid cast through season one and half of season 2 but then new random characters starting appearing and they're kind of bad about names for some of them.  Like all the new jets the Decepticon's have, i know one is Thrust, i don't know what the other two's names are or if they're just animation errors.  But where did these new robots come from?  No back story, nothing, they just show up.  The toy designers must have designed and produced some new transformers and then had those toys worked into the story line to get kids to buy more transformers.

Ah well, it's still good times watching these old episodes..  funny thing is i want to hit ebay and buy some of the original toys.  I guess the forumla still works !  :lol: