What does 'The Transformers' have to do with writing my novel?

Post 18

Bear with me for a brief skip down memory lane.

40 years ago, on Sept. 17, 1984, ‘The Transformers’ aired on US TV for the first time. This show would define my childhood more than any other. I watched it without fail, even skipping Sunday morning Mass to do so (though that wasn't hard).

Transformers dominated my birthday and Christmas wish lists for years. My sister used her own money to buy me my very first Transformer - the Autobot Mirage - because she somehow innately understood just how much the show and toys resonated with childhood me. Old Mirage doesn't have his box anymore, but I've still got him.

I loved the TV show as much as I did the toys. I didn’t care much about continuity or animation errors at that time. I just liked the characters. That led to me making up stories of my own using my toys. The Decepticons were horribly outnumbered by the Autobots, though they were represented by Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, and the Constructicons/Devastator, so they could still hold their own. Mostly, however, my Transformers worked together, because that was more fun.

Some of those playtime Transformers stories I actually wrote down! Most of them were only scenes, and - honestly - weren't very good, but I started to learn about continuity and characterization and motivation in those little vignettes. I always lamented the lack of feminine representation in the toys, though. That left me with compromising. Imagine, if you will, a twelve-year-old writing robot/human romance. (Actually, you don’t have to imagine, because I wrote it down and transcribed it here.)

I basically left Transformers behind when I went away to university. I had studies and extracurriculars - and human/human interaction - to concentrate on.

I didn't like the look of the CG cartoons in the 1990s. I saw the first Bay movie and left the theater mad. But I couldn't give up the precious metal-and-plastic toys of my youth, or the original universe - and the alternate one I'd created in my head - they inhabited.

In 2021, my love for Transformers was rekindled. I saw a Cybertronic Spree video and was blown away by how much it felt like they'd stepped into my head and my heart and brought to life what I'd loved about Transformers for so many years so long ago. I finally got to see them live this year!

Now, I hear you asking: “What does all of this Transformers nostalgia have to do with writing a novel?”

Inspiration for characters and stories can come from the strangest places. The Transformers stories with which I’m most familiar are at their cores Hero’s Journeys. The conflicts of Good vs Evil, Compassion vs Tyranny, and Justice vs Corruption are perennially resonant, especially in fiction. Even fiction concerning factions of giant transforming robots.

I wanted to try and capture some of the excitement, gravitas, and grief that ‘The Transformers’ exposed me to as a child. What young Transformers fan doesn’t remember the way they felt the first time they saw Optimus Prime die?

Not Prime but Prowl, whose frankly horrific death was my first emotional gut-punch from ‘The Transformers: The Movie’

I’ve touched on those aspects of the human condition in stories before, but always stories set in somebody else’s universe. I’d never tackled the topics with original characters and situations.

After a few false starts, Isa came to me, with Rory quickly after. Then Jim, Britt, and the rest. When I write for them, I see young heroes seeking justice, albeit on a smaller scale than the destruction or enslavement of Earth or Cybertron. They fight. They love. They want to make a better world. Just like the Transformers did.

40 years after the first day ‘The Transformers’ aired on US television, I'm in love with them all over again. From Masterpiece toys to rock band embodiments, they inspire me to write and imagine in ways I haven't felt in years.

It's good to be a Transformers kid right now. Even if you're one as old as I am.