Transformers

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Fandom
Name: Transformers
Abbreviation(s): TF, TFA, G1, BW, RID, MTMTE
Creator: Takara Tomy & Hasbro
Date(s): 1984 - present
Medium: toys, television series, films, comics, books, video games
Country of Origin: United States, Japan
External Links: Transformers on WikipediaArchived Version
The Transformers WikiArchived Version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Transformers is an entertainment franchise owned by Hasbro that began as a toy property and expanded into television, comics, books, video games, and film. Most series in the franchise are about Optimus Prime and his Autobots fighting Megatron and his Decepticons, although the reasons, stakes, and supporting characters vary depending on the series.

Transformers Universes

Generation One

"Generation One" includes the 1984-1987 animated series The Transformers and the 1984-1991 comic book series published by Marvel Comics. Three direct sequels to the animated series were produced in Japan from 1987 to 1989, "Headmasters", "Super-God Masterforce", and "Victory". These series were first released in the US from 2011 to 2012. The Generation 2 comic book, the Dreamwave comics, the Beast Wars TV series and its sequel Beast Machines, and various spin-offs are also part of this same universe. Material continues to be produced in this universe to this day with the IDW comics, and it is still the most popular part of the franchise to write fic for.

Robots in Disguise

Robots in Disguise was imported from Japan, where it was known as Car Robots. It aired from 2001 to 2002 in the US. It was intended as a placeholder between the end of Beast Machines, the last series set in the Generation One universe to air in the US, and the Unicron Trilogy.

The Unicron Trilogy

The "Unicron Trilogy" is made up of three TV series, Armada, Energon, and Cybertron. Between them they aired from 2002 to 2006. The entire Unicron Trilogy, although especially Energon, is widely considered awful among the fanbase. This link provides a summary of the criticisms.

Live-Action Film Series

The live-action film series, usually called the "Bayverse," began in 2007. It consists of Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and Transformers: Age of Extinction, among others. The films are directed by Michael Bay, and display many of his hallmarks. They are often maligned among the fandom for giving too much screen time to the humans, but despite this they made incredible amounts of money at the box office. Some fans consider the 2018 live action film "Bumblebee" to be a part of the Bayverse, even though it was directed by Travis Knight and had a different, arguably softer, tone.

Transformers Animated

Transformers Animated began airing in late 2007, months after the live-action movie came out. It is set in Detroit, many years into the future. It aired for three seasons, until 2009, before being canceled. The creators of the show have released a pair of books, The AllSpark Almanac and its sequel The AllSpark Almanac II, which provide background material.

Transformers: Prime

The Transformers: Prime TV series began airing in 2010 and ended in 2013. It is set in the same universe as the 2012 Transformers: Rescue Bots TV series, the 2010 War for Cybertron video game and its sequel Fall of Cybertron, and the books Transformers: Exodus, Transformers: Exiles, and Transformers: Retribution, making it one of the few Transformers series to have a true expanded universe. In 2015, its sequel series Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015) (not to be confused with the earlier series of the same English name, known in Japanese as Car Robots) aired.

Transformers: Combiner Wars

Transformers: Combiner Wars was an animated web series created by Hasbro Studios and Machinima that aired in 2016. The series seemed loosely based on the IDW comic series of the same name. There are two sequels: Titans Return (2017) and Power of the Primes (2018).

Transformers Earthspark

Transformers Earthspark is an an animated television series which was released on the Paramount Plus streaming service in 2022. Its second season is in production as of 2024.

Fandom

Despite the size of the fandom, it is proportionally under-represented in fandom circles. There is a trend more towards discussion and cataloguing of the canon as well as toy collection and customization. A dramatic increase in store prices and corresponding decrease in toy quality, both in construction material and resemblance to the character, has led to a number of high-quality 3rd party Transformers toy creators. Fan-made plushies are popular, several well known seamstresses sell out in minutes and have lotteries for commission spots.[citation needed] The main wiki for the franchise, TFWiki, has roughly 20,000 articles; the "Transformers - All Media Types" tag on AO3 has over 60,000 fics. Being an old fandom, it also has fandom-specific forums such as Transformer World 2005,[1] which tend to be more popular than multi-fandom sites such as Livejournal, Dreamwidth, or Tumblr. Some attribute Transformers' relatively small transformative fandom to its higher ratio of male to female fans.

While there is less than the size of the fandom would suggest, there is fanfic for Transformers. As usual, it covers the whole wide range of character popularity, ship popularity, genres, and ratings. Despite the fact that most of the characters are giant robots, there is plenty of porn in the Transformers fandom. Although the majority of fan-approved sexual methods of intercourse are either non-cannon, or not expanded upon in universe, the fandom has many agreed upon ideas of what make up the xeno-biology of these robots. There is a 2009 overview of the ways fans make this work discussed in a Livejournal entry by Dunmurderin.[2] The most common of these is stickyfic, found under the tag "Sticky Sexual Interfacing", which roughly makes up one-tenth of all fics tagged under "Transformers - All Media Types" on AO3,[citation needed] although stickyfic often incorporates one or more other potential methods of sex.

A list of fandom resources (fanfic, conventions, MUSH, fan clubs) can be found on archives saved on the Wayback Machine.[3][4]

Conventions

BotCon was an officially-recognized fan convention. It was a mono-fandom convention, often featuring reveals of new series or products, exclusive products available only at the convention, and panels featuring the people behind various Transformers series and products; it was essentially a fandom-specific version of San Diego Comic-Con. In 2017, Hasbro discontinued BotCon in favor of HasCon[5] which featured all of its franchises. As of 2023, the website for Hascon redirects to the Hasbro store.

Other Transformers conventions include:

Fan Polls

Hasbro started fan polls in 2010. The first fan polls were to nominate and elect Transformers into the Transformer Hall of Fame, announced at Botcon. Fan polls were conducted on various large fan sites. Hasbro would make videos featuring the top contenders, which once included a Transformer named Erector,[25] then announce the winner at Botcon/Hascon. This poll occurs every year.

In 2013, Hasbro created a fan poll allowing fans to vote to create a brand new Transformer, who would get a toy and a 4-issue comic miniseries with IDW. The first round of voting was for faction, vehicle mode, signature weapon, color scheme, and personality. Fans wanted a valiant, red and black Autobot jet who wielded a sword.

The second round of voting asked fans to decide the new Autobot's name, gender, city of origin, and specialty. Fans declared Windblade[26] was a telepathic female Transformer from Kaon. This posed a bit of a problem for IDW. Writer Simon Furman, fandom-famous for writing many of the Marvel Transformers comics and semi-controversial person among the current fandom due to his views on women and their inclusion in Transformers canon, had already written into IDW Transformers canon that female Transformers didn't exist. And now IDW was contractually obligated to write a 4-issue miniseries starring a female Transformer. The miniseries debuted in 2014.[27] The miniseries was so popular Windblade got a second series and became Starscream's co-star in one of the ongoing series. She also made appearances in two cartoons and various other Transformers media.

The second fan built Transformer poll was conducted in 2015. This time, the poll would create a 6-member team able to combine into one giant Transformer. Fans refer to such teams as "Gestalts". The resulting team was female, Autobot, cyan/red/white, had an independent personality, and was from the Sea of Rust. Her name, when combined into the larger Transformer, is Victorion[28] and her rival is Galvatronus. Victorion and her 6-member team were made into toys and introduced into the IDW comic continuity.

Shipping

The original cartoon introduced male/ female Transformer couples (Optimus/Elita One), male Transformer/ human woman (Powerglide/Astoria), and male Transformer/ mermaid couples (Seaspray/ Alana). Many American-produced Transformers cartoons have featured at least one male/ female Transformer couple. One of the most contentious of these being Starscream/Alexis, a human schoolgirl, from Transformers Armada, which verges close to loli.

A Japanese manga tie-in to Victory introduced the idea the Decepticons have wives and children. Radio show and manga Kiss Players began a trope that the Transformers are 'powered up' through physical contact with underage-appearing girls.

The IDW comic More Than Meets The Eye introduced the first official homosexual Transformer couple (Chromedome/Rewind) as well as the first trans Transformer couple (Anode/Lug). The comic also gave the fandom the term "conjunx endura", meaning "spouse", and "amica endura", meaning "best friend", ritualizing friendship and making the idea of 'marriage' a trope.

Sexual intimacy is a subject of interest in the fandom that has led to the creation of a variety of fanon types of sex between Transformers. The most popular types are sticky, plug'n'play, and spark merging (see Transformers Sex).

Popular ships

Example Fanworks

Fanfiction

Art

Vids

Kitbashing/Customization

Doujinshi

Zines

More zines are listed offsite.[29][30]

Podcasts

Archives & Communities

Fansites

References

  1. ^ Transformer World 2005, tfw2005.com. (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Jan 8, 2023)
  2. ^ How Transformers Have Sex -- Teal Deer Alert (Updated 01/30/2009), Livejournal. Jan 30, 2009 (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Jan 30, 2021)
  3. ^ Transformer Links Dec 10, 2004 (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Dec 10, 2004)
  4. ^ Transformers Fanfiction, Open Directory Project. Apr 14, 2002 (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Apr 14, 2002)
  5. ^ hascon, hasbro.com. (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Oct 21, 2016)
  6. ^ Auto Assembly. (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived May 31, 2022)
  7. ^ Auto Assembly Europe. (Accessed 1/8/2021) (Archived Feb 21, 2015)
  8. ^ B.O.T.S.. (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Jan 8, 2023)
  9. ^ C.O.N.S. (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Sep 27, 2022)
  10. ^ CybCon (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Jan 26, 2021)
  11. ^ Cybercon Expo (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Nov 28, 2020)
  12. ^ Cyberton Con (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Feb 24, 2016)
  13. ^ CybFest NW (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived 1/10/2023)
  14. ^ Dairycon (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Apr 23, 2005)
  15. ^ DutchBotCon (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived May 23, 2003)
  16. ^ Iacon One (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Jun 7, 2017)
  17. ^ OzFormers (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived May 15, 2022)
  18. ^ TFcon (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Mar 21, 2022)
  19. ^ TFcon Canada (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Jun 2, 2005)
  20. ^ TFExpo (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Mar 29, 2013)
  21. ^ TFNation (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Apr 22, 2022)
  22. ^ TraFest (Accessed 1/8/2023)[dead link]
  23. ^ Transforce (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Mar 20, 2004)
  24. ^ TransForMarket (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived Apr 20, 2014)
  25. ^ Erector, tfwiki. (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived 1/10/2023)
  26. ^ Windblade, tfwiki. (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived 1/10/2023)
  27. ^ The Transformers: Windblade, tfwiki (Accessed 1/8/2023) (Archived 1/10/2023)
  28. ^ Victorion, tfwiki (Accessed 1/8/2023)
  29. ^ TransMasters Fan Media Collection, Geocities. (Accessed 1/12/2023) (Archived Jan 12, 2023)
  30. ^ Transformers, DMOZ. (Accessed 1/12/2023) (Archived Mar 4, 2017)
  31. ^ IN REPAIR - a Drift x Ratchet Fanzine, Big Cartel. Accessed 1/12/2023 (Archived Jan 12, 2023)
  32. ^ [www.autoassembly.org.uk The Cybertronian Times], autoassembly.org. Accessed 1/12/2023 (Archived Jan 12, 2023)
  33. ^ World’s First Transformers Zine?, Tumblr. Accessed 1/12/2023 (Archived Jan 12, 2023)
  34. ^ [transtech-zine.tumblr.com Transtech Zine has gone digital!], Tumblr. Accessed 1/12/2023 (Archived Jan 12, 2023)
  35. ^ [tfcommunityfanzineproject.tumblr.com TF Community Fanzine Project], Tumblr. Accessed 1/12/2023 (Archived Jan 12, 2023)
  36. ^ Transformers Zine, Twitter. Accessed 1/12/2023 (Archived Jan 12, 2023)
  37. ^ An annual Transformers zine project., Tumblr. Accessed 1/12/2023 (Archived Jan 12, 2023)
  38. ^ [https://linktr.ee/detroitdaily Detroit Daily A Transformers Animated ZIne], Linktree. Accessed 1/12/2023 (Archived Jan 12, 2023)
  39. ^ The Collected Myths & Legends of Cybertron, Carrd. Accessed 1/12/2023 (Archived Jan 12, 2023)
  40. ^ Transformers Femme zine 2k16, Itch.io. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  41. ^ Towards Peace - A MTMTE/LL Fan Zine, Dropbox. (Accessed 1/16/2023)
  42. ^ REDACTED, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  43. ^ More Than We Realized - A Dratchet Fanbook, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  44. ^ The Power of Love - A Cygate Zine, Itch.io. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  45. ^ TF Lifelines Medic Zine, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  46. ^ Transformers Rarepair Zine, Twitter. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  47. ^ Takes Two - A Driftrod Zine, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  48. ^ Tempered Steel - an idw rodimags zine, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  49. ^ Rise Up: A Decepticon Anthology, Kickstarter. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  50. ^ Reruns Transformers Fan Zine, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  51. ^ Snapshots Transformers Fanzine, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  52. ^ Fractured: Transformers fanzine, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  53. ^ In Repair - A Drift X Ratchet Fanzine, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  54. ^ Proximity: A Starscream And Friends Fanzine, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  55. ^ TF-OC Zine, Twitter. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  56. ^ Specialties from Maccadam's - Transformers Drink Fan Book, Twitter. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  57. ^ HOMEMADE: A Transformers AU Zine, Gumroad. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  58. ^ Equinox MegOP fan zine, Tumblr. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  59. ^ Transformers Zine Jam, Itch.io. (Accessed 1/16/2023) Archived 1/16/2023
  60. ^ Femme Metale: A TF Girl Fanzine, Tumblr. (Accessed 2/13/2023)
  61. ^ Doctor, I Love You!: A Ratchet Ship Fanbook, Itch.io. (Accessed 2/13/2023)
  62. ^ Monochromantic: A Jazz/Prowl Zine, Tumblr. (Accessed 2/13/2023)
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