Transformers Figures: An Autistic Person's Favorite Comfort Items.

I’ll admit that these past few blog posts have been emotionally heavy. Sure, the outcomes of each story have been positive—I finally got my blood sugar under control, and I came to terms with a loved one’s death—but surely there was something that helped me keep going throughout all these bad times.

Truthfully, there were many: YouTube content for me to peruse as I saw fit, digital art to help me express my emotions healthily, and my neighborhood walks. But today, one form of escape stands above the rest, one hobby—one hyperfixation—that has held my attention for many years, but I’ve never broken down why that is.

I want to tell you about The Transformers.

It is a franchise that needs little introduction, as the basic premise is quite simple to grasp: alien robots of all sizes that convert into other things--machines or creatures--to wage war against each other. Despite this, the lore runs deep, and some of the stories run even deeper with their themes, depending on which you frequent. However, when it comes to Transformers’ storytelling media, I haven’t consumed that much of it. 

There are certain stories I’m interested in—the first few chapters I’ve read of IDW's More than Meets the Eye comic are utterly wonderful. But I tend to glean enough to understand the characters of the Transformers toys in my collection, where most of my consumption of this franchise lies. These are my many comfort items; their engineering consistently astounds me, and the character designs appeal to me as an artist. As you can expect, the latter significantly influences how the figures convert. This means the transformations frequently inform a Transformer’s character, just like their choice of alternate mode(s) and how its parts are worn (for lack of a better term) on their robot modes.

It is a unique experience that forms a consistent, joyful structure for an autistic person like me. The core appeal of the figures never leaves, even as the formula is shaken up a bit. Some Transformers combine, some can turn into two different vehicles, some turn into distinctly alien creatures and machines alike, some have transforming heads that turn into little pilots, some of them have keys that activate hidden weaponry….

But at the end of the day, you’re still interacting with a bunch of deeply personified puzzles. All of them contribute to an ecosystem I preside over and can curate to my liking, to serve as an inspiration when I need creative inspiration or comfort during difficult times.

I have been consistently collecting Transformers figures since the early 2000’s, only taking a short break around late 2014, as I felt I had grown out of them. By that point, I had hoisted the collection up to my attic, perhaps never to be seen again until one fateful day in mid-2016. Upon revisiting them, I found that I appreciated these figures a lot more as an adult—and I couldn’t have chosen a better time to reinvigorate my interest in them.

When it comes to building my collection, I primarily focus on the Generations toyline. It has gone under multiple different names since 2010, but its purpose has always been clear. Compared to seasonal assortments, namely the toylines meant to accompany the Transformers films, Generations is significantly more evergreen. Its stated goal is to reinvent characters from across the franchise, improving their durability, their articulation, and their aesthetics, reintroducing them to younger fans while appealing to nostalgic adults. I was part of the latter demographic in the mid-2010s, which was quite perfect for me; in only a few short years, the toys would experience their biggest watershed moment in ages.

Late 2018 saw the announcement of War For Cybertron: Siege, another chapter in the Generations line of toys. The premise was that of a retelling of the first Transformers series’ inciting conflict on their home planet. At first, it seemed to be yet another excuse to create more toys based on that era—an era that was already well-represented by the time Siege was publicized. And don’t get me wrong: it was. Generation 1 is, by far, the most popular and iconic iteration of the franchise, but like many other fans, I value its later entries. To see them be once again ignored was a little disheartening…

At the time, I quite liked the figures of remade G1 characters I had up to that point. But in hindsight, it’s easy to see they were a bit rough around the edges in some ways. Most of them came from the then-contemporary Prime Wars Trilogy toylines, in which each of the three entries had a unifying play feature shared between nearly every figure. Combiner Wars focused on combining smaller figures into larger ones, Titans Return gave almost everyone that aforementioned transforming head feature, and Power of the Primes was a bizarre mishmash of the latter two. And unfortunately, this was a point in the franchise when the overall figure quality had dived. Plastic quality was noticeably weaker than usual, design compromises had to be made for the sake of those unified features, and some of those features were not successful—especially the Combiners, whose construction was weak at best and downright flimsy at worst.

But for me, the most egregious issue was the fact many of these figures were limited in how they could pose. Their feet were completely static; depending on the shape of said feet and the figure’s weight distribution, it was a gamble whether they could freely stand without support or topple over to the slightest nudge. And that toppling could be loud, especially if the first figure kickstarts a domino effect of other figures falling after it. And there I am, agitated by the sudden sharp noise and scrambling to clean up the mess…

But something was different this time with Siege. Based on the stock photography alone, a lot of attention was devoted to streamlining how these figures looked and functioned, and a few figures either revisited concepts long-forgotten or concepts that were never physical toys to begin with. The most striking, unifying feature of all was the fact that nearly every single one of these figures, save for the very smallest, was given ankle rockers. Essentially, their feet were now designed to remain flat against whatever surface they stood upon. Not only would these have an easier time standing up, but they’d also be able to pose more expressively than ever before.

That one seemingly small addition was the definitive sign for me that the designers’ gloves had come off, and that conclusion was validated the second I got one specific figure in hand, the one many fans credit for defining how Transformers engineering would be from then on:

Siege Sideswipe. Forgive the lighting; I don't have a good camera setup yet.

This Sideswipe reinterprets his original Lamborghini Countach mode into something more alien, but still familiar to its basis, thanks to its sharp, aerodynamic shape language. It’s a very attention-seeking car, befitting Sideswipe’s personality as a glory-seeker, but it does not sacrifice how he would operate in combat. The robot mode, in turn, is similarly streamlined; there are very few vestigial parts left over from the car mode, as they all mostly integrate into his humanoid figure. Most striking is how he wears his chest car hood, as, unlike many of his contemporaries, it faces downward, giving him a broad-shouldered, athletic appearance. Combined with his light arsenal, this implies someone who values speedy movement and maintaining momentum in combat, an implication that’s carried into the quick, but engaging transformation.

And this is all I could gather from just one of these characters. And thanks to the engineering improvements made since 2019, it’s a lot easier for me to grasp and articulate my praises for these figures. It’s not always perfect. Occasionally, I’ll encounter a figure that has a mechanical issue to fix, and if I can’t do that, I’ll have to exchange it for another. It’s not a great feeling, as I care about these figures and want to give them a good home.

Even still, it’s extremely rare nowadays for me to find a figure I actively dislike—even ones from the concurrently running Studio Series line, which releases designs from the Transformers films under the same principle as Generations. It took a while for the former’s engineering to become consistently on par with what the latter brought to the table, but those quality-of-life enhancements eventually became the norm for the movie characters, too. Now, I can guarantee myself a great time with whatever the franchise puts in front of me, and autistic folks like me love this kind of consistent structure and stability.

Even more great changes were yet to come. Siege was only part one of another trilogy, which eventually ended with Kingdom, which saw the return of the Beast Wars characters at long last. Now, I could enjoy the enhancements of the previous figures under a slightly tweaked aesthetic… And the immediate year after, Transformers: Legacy began. And it was then that even more iterations of the franchise were becoming represented, including the one version of Optimus Prime that got me hooked into the hobby in the first place.

Legacy: Evolution Armada Universe Optimus Prime. I only just realized while taking these pictures that this copy has a duplicate smokestack, but it doesn't affect very much.

In response to the increasing complexity of Transformers toys from its predecessors, The Armada toyline's design philosophy sought to simplify the transformations of its figures, but it compensated by giving them more action features than ever before. This greatly influenced the figures' aesthetics; the alt-modes dropped their real-life bases to accommodate those action features. They were still readable as earth vehicles, though; they were just more fantastical, which, for some, was a deal-breaker, as the "disguise" aspect of these robots in disguise wasn't as convincing.

No design embodies everything about Armada like its take on Optimus Prime.While this remake loses out on some of those action features, the consequences of their presence are still felt. But that does not diminish how much personality oozes from him, though. His alt-mode is beefy, brutalistic, and almost militarized, encapsulating the essential vibe of a truck while being personalized to characterize him. The transformation's simplicity implies a similar battle-readiness to Siege Sideswipe's, but even more straightforward in execution. The normal robot mode carries over that harsh shape-language, giving him a much more muscular, battle-ready appearance than most other Primes. The fact the smokestacks appear on the forearms rather than the shoulders, as per the norm, emphasizes the arms, pegging this Prime as a grappler, and not just a marksman.

He still reads as friendly, but he's also clearly not one to be trifled with--especially not in his super-mode, which cranks up the brutalism up to eleven. It departs somewhat from typical Optimus Prime aesthetics, and even some super-mode aesthetics; it's one of the few achieved by Prime combining to form a larger body with his trailer, rather than the trailer augmenting the otherwise minimally changed core robot. It almost implies that the Autobot-Decepticon War is transforming him physically as much as it is mentally. The fact he now has a missile battery permanently deployed on his back is... quite telling.

I won’t go into too much more detail about this, but as you can imagine, I am feeling very content with how things are going with the Transformers toyline. I foresee them offering me even more comfort as I continue navigating through life’s difficulties. They’ve been here for me since I was a child, and they will likely be here for me when I’m in my twilight years. I cannot wait to see where this hobby will take me next...

If you're one of the neurodivergent folks in my audience, let me know about your comfort items, too. I appreciate your perspective on things.