Transformers

Car or robot? Why choose? Transformers gave you both in the same toy.

A car that turns into a robot, a truck that turns into a robot, a jet that turns into a robot. Half the fun of Transformers was figuring out how to twist, fold and rearrange all the pieces until the vehicle you started with suddenly had arms, legs and a head. Then, of course, you had to figure out how to get it back to its original form.

Transformers arrived in the United States in 1984 after Hasbro obtained rights to transforming robot toys from Japanese toy maker Takara. Hasbro modified the characters and story for the American market, basically dividing them into the heroic Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, and the villainous Decepticons, led by Megatron. Marvel Comics helped develop the characters and backstory, and comic books and an animated TV series arrived alongside the toys.

That made the Transformers seem like much more than just clever mechanical toys - Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron and Starscream were actual characters, and the cartoons and comics gave you a whole war between Autobots and Decepticons to recreate once you'd finished transforming them.

Since 1984 the Transformers figures have gone through countless versions, along with cartoons, video games and blockbuster movies. Some modern Transformers are amazingly elaborate, but the challenge with the toys themselves is still familiar: “Okay, I know this thing turns into a truck. Now how do I make that happen?”