It’s been 35 years since the launch of The Transformers, a property that took the 1980s by storm with a hugely successful toy line, Saturday morning cartoon and comic book series featuring the heroic adventures of the Autobots and their battles against the evil Decepticons.
In the decades following, the Robots in Disguise have gone from strength to strength, with a host of animated shows, comic series, video games and a hugely successful live-action feature film franchise. And of course, throughout this all, we have the beloved toy line, which has now enthralled generations and remains one of the biggest selling toy brands of all time.
To celebrate the 35th anniversary, the lovely people at Hasbro were kind enough to send us over a free sample of some of the latest Transformers toys – and there’s certainly plenty to love for old school Generation One fans here this year.
Last year’s Bumblebee movie brought many original Transformers’ fans childhoods to life before our very eyes, particularly with its awesome Cybertron battle sequence. The film also delivered a near-perfect representation of Optimus Prime, which – rather excitingly – means we’ve now got a near-perfect representation in toy form thanks to the Voyager Class Studio Series Optimus Prime.
I’ve spent a long time wanting to get my hands on a G1-style Optimus Prime to display, and while there have been several wallet-bursting options over the years, this Studio Series figure – at this price point ($30 / £30) – well, you simply cannot go wrong. If you’re a fan of the character, you need to get your hands on this.
Next up we’ve got a ‘Matrix Mega Shot’ Optimus Prime and ‘Rocket Roar’ Grimlock from Transformers: Cyberverse, the new CG-animated series that premiered on Cartoon Network last year (I’ll confess – I’m yet to catch Transformers: Cyberverse, but I do like these designs), as well as an ‘Energon Igniter’ Bumblebee based on his VW Beetle appearance in his solo movie.
And last, but certainly by no means least, we have the War for Cybertron: Siege version of Soundwave, along with his spies Laserbeak and Ravage in a Micromasters two-pack. The Soundwave figure in particular here is really impressive; sure, he doesn’t transform into a cassette deck (I get it – it’s not 1984 anymore), but he looks great, the battle damage paint work is awesome, and I’ll definitely be looking to add a few more of his Decepticon buddies from this line to my collection.
Gary Collinson
