Onomonopia. Words that literalize sounds. TRANSFORMERS was a lot of that for me. And I'm sure for you too. That little consecutive series of noises which spelled out the mechanism for these alien life forms as they unveiled themselves to each other. We spent countless hours on the playground mimicking that noise. Didn't matter what we were doing. Could have been surfing, playing basketball, baseball, skating. Whatever. All of it. We applied the "jeek juke blop o beep" to almost every activity from 10 years and on. I still hear it. I secretly still do it. I loved TRANSFORMERS as a kid. I mean, LOVE!
I remember Sears being the TRANSFORMERS outlet. One of them. Whenever I walked into Sears with my father or mother, I went straight to that section. It was sensory overload. The same feeling that I got when I went into a baseball card shop. Everything smelled, looked, tasted and sounded like dessert. Frosty, sweet, decadent, heavenly, beautiful. Too many adjectives. An overwhelming feeling of positive possibility wrapped in boyhood appetites. If my father caved and bought me a TRANSFORMERS figure, it's as if everything good in the world had been condensed into this object which I could hold. I remember the red packaging for the Autobots. The Purple for the Decepticons. Eventually the lime green for some of the new Decepticon characters. I was attracted to purple. I found myself collecting more Decepticons. Not because of affiliation, just because of the color. The window box and those figures tucked snug inside. Wow. That was love.
I had STARSCREAM, SOUNDWAVE, SHOCKWAVE, TRAILBLAZER, JAZZ, RATCHET, OPTIMUS PRIME...oh man. I loved MEGATRON. He was a gun. He was so cool. If you had OPTIMUS PRIME you might as well owned a Pete Rose Rookie card. Caste systems developed based off one's TRANSFORMERS collection. This was serious business.
I can remember the die caste parts. I loved the shape of the faces. The uniquely expressionless faces. They were perfect. Like greek statues. Expressionless but powerful with all the ideal, chiseled neo classical profiles. They even had Roman noses. Like they were Gods of some sort. And then the Transforming - oh man, that was mind blowing. I loved JAZZ, I love those car doors that swung open and how the legs locked into place with the fold down die cast feet. He was perfect. A long time friend of our family came over to our house one night. Consequently I was playing with the TRANSFORMERS figures. He had asked to see the toy. It was JAZZ. He took it. He was an adult, he didn't understand the nuances. The imagination was essential. Some adults lose that part. They try to intellectualize what is purely creative. You can't do that. He looked at JAZZ, tried to force parts into parts. He broke JAZZ. I was bummed. He did not "have the touch".
I can write about this for hours. TRANSFORMERS and myself have connected memories. They always will.
Now, I make TRANSFORMERS collectibles and other items. Can you imagine? It's like being the Third Base Coach for the Dodgers. WTH! Amazing. I wish I had these tees when I was a kid. I would wear them. Not just because I made them but because I would wear them. We make what we like. I love all of our creations. The TRANSFORMERS is like turning TLS into Wonka Chocolate. Absolutely mind blowing. I am the first to wear these tees (pic below). I love them.
T-Shirts are available now @ www.theloyalsubjects.com for $25.00. Shipping inside US is FREE! Character designs by the ever so talented Les Schettkoe. Sweet! It's exciting to see your dreams come true, even more exciting that I have great people who are participating in this adventure with me. Thank you Hasbro and thank you, all the TLS customers, for making this a reality.
"Autobots, Roll out!"
