Transformers:
These automatons are More than Meets the Eyes! Yes, I know, here we have yet another 80s ‘toon in the list, but I can’t help it, the 80s just had lots of awesome ‘toons! However, it isn’t just memories of childhood heroes that inspires my love of the Transformers. I did watch the show as a kid, and I do still have that nostalgic connection. What really made me love the Robots in Disguise is the incredible comic series that Dreamwave put out in the early 2000’s. I stumbled across their series in the comic book store back in my college days, and, inspired by that same desire to rediscover my childhood that drove my purchase of G.I. JOE, picked up their G1 series .
It was absolutely fantastic. Both the art and the storytelling were stellar. The crew at the ill-fated Dreamwave seemed to really get the potential in the characters, and they told compelling stories that were more than simple fan service to the original show. I enjoyed them so much, that I actually picked up the their prequel series, “War Within” as well. Having never read the original TF series, I didn’t know the history of Cybertron (outside of the little that ended up in the show), so it was all new to me, and I really enjoyed the extra depth this book added to the mythos.
Of course, we’ve already seen one excellent Transformers mod by the great Valandar, whose meshing skill brought the Autobots and Decepticons to FF. His was a good distillation of the setting and characters, providing a fun story, but what made me think about taking my own crack at these guys was a desire to try to capture something of the Dreamwave story. The concept that I’ve toyed with would join the Autobots shortly after landing on Earth and spend a few missions covering the general arc of the show before joining the main storyline of the G1 series. One thing I’d really like to do is focus on the original cast of the show, realizing them as fully as I can in FF, and then expanding the recruitable characters as the story progresses. I have a real soft spot for the original Autobots and Decepticons, although I do also love some of the movie characters as well. (Kup is a favorite of mine…but then again so is Ironhide. I wonder what that says about me, that some of my favorites are old codgers…..)
I would love to try and bring this particular dream to life, and hopefully I can do so one day. In the meantime, I hope y’all enjoyed this rumination.
The Greylands 
