Talking Brands: Why has TRANSFORMERS survived – and thrived – for 40 years?

Brian Wilk, Toy & Game Designer, WilkStudio
When I spent time as head of the design team on TRANSFORMERS, we often asked this question as we would always look to innovate on the brand and keep it relevant. We always said the brand was here before us and it will always be here after us. It was our privilege to be its custodian and leave it in a better place. It was through the great story and relatable characters that so many fans developed an emotional connection with it – and that kept it meaningful. Everyone could relate in some way to the heroic journey and all the personalities that were brought to life. But, all this was not possible if not for the passion and visionary leadership of Brian Goldner who took this brand from just an innovative toy brand to a world class franchise. He knew there was… More Than Meets The Eye.

Scott Ham, Co-founder & Creative Director, The Zeros
Nostalgia plays a big role. Adults who loved the original series and toys are drawn to high-end collectibles, while new generations of kids love the action-packed movies and toys. The brand keeps evolving, collaborating with new partners and reinventing itself – all while keeping the main characters and lore intact. Its universal themes and multi-generational appeal have made it super resilient and globally loved.

Oliver Dyer, Founder, Skew
Skew has been fortunate enough to work a number of TRANSFORMERS projects over the years. For us, the popularity of the brand is rooted in play. The play pattern of TRANSFORMERS is fundamental to its success, and there are layers of play inherent in every character. You can battle, it’s aspirational so you can role-play characters and there’s an ecosystem that makes for collectability. The more complex variants could even be considered to have a puzzle element. Layered over that you had a cool new aesthetic that’s sophisticated but simple enough to doodle on a school book and be instantly recognisable. From a brand perspective, start with a name perfectly describing the IP’s DNA – all the way to good vs evil icons of the key protagonists – and you’ve got an irresistible package.

Adam Colp, Director, Vize Creative
TRANSFORMERS is one of our favourite brands that we’ve had the privilege to work on. I still remember the excitement of opening a gift for Christmas – this must have been in 1987 or 88… A Transformers Decepticon Scorponok action figure. A badass giant robot that transformed into a massive mechanical scorpion. I still have it to this day on my shelf in my office!

And that’s exactly what the brand is all about. In the Eighties, we all had posters of Lamborghinis, Ferraris and other cool cars on our walls. We watched cheesy action movies – often underage – with robots and guys blowing things up. So, when an animated series came out featuring classic and futuristic cars, planes and vehicles that turned into epic, giant robots locked in a timeless war – we were hooked! The storylines took it even further when, in the 1986 movie, Hasbro was bold enough to kill off Optimus Prime – sorry for the spoiler! I remember my jaw dropping when that happened. It was all so captivating, and we loved the larger-than-life villains too. Megatron, an evil robot who turned into a gun or a tank, was superb!

“It’s truly a generational brand.”

What made TRANSFORMERS so great was that, although it started as a Marvel comic, its true destiny lay in becoming a toy line. The execution of the transformations – from vehicle to robot – was so well done, and that perfection is what’s kept the toy line going for so long. As you can see, I’m mega passionate about TRANSFORMERS, and that’s where the nostalgia kicks in. The collectability will always be there; multi-coloured, Japanese-inspired robots are timeless, especially for boys.

As fans of the series, Vize have had so much fun working alongside the Hasbro teams. We’ve developed a wide range of creative from style guides, character art, product lines and retail executions. One of our all-time hero guides is the Noir Ink guide we did… It was full of storytelling comic art with bold characters on a limited colour palette – perfect for fans and retailers! And it’s not just the OG characters we love – the newly reimagined ones are just as awesome!

With evolving CGI, the recent movie franchises were inevitable. Seeing these robots come to life, battling and fighting on the big screen, has brought the brand to younger audiences. Kids will always love action movies, and with TRANSFORMERS, their parents will happily take them to see it! It’s no surprise that, 40 years later, the brand is still going strong. The fact that these robots transform into everyday vehicles and machines is what will keep them around forever.

Ian Downes, Director, Start Licensing
Some 30 years ago I worked on a TRANSFORMERS comic with the publisher Fleetway, who was absorbed into Egmont at some point. The comic was a new launch and Fleetway decided they wanted to do something different, with an eye on making an impact at retail and to galvanise fans. They invested in a gatefold cover for the first issue, so the comic literally transformed as you opened it. They embraced the DNA of the brand and recognised that this was a large part of its appeal to consumers.

“Nostalgia plays a big role.”

It’s a great example of a licensee realising that one of the values in licensing is taking a bespoke approach to product development. Make products that are on brand. TRANSFORMERS has a rich story arc and is full of creative possibilities. Hasbro and their partners have made the most of its creative potential by, in part, being tuned into it. Fleetway were encouraged to be creative and re-write the playbook. I am sure this attitude still operates with TRANSFORMERS and has been a key factor in its success.

Alex Churton, Creative Director, Windle
For me, TRANSFORMERS were the best toys… I really liked Action Man, I really liked Action Force, I really liked He-Man, I really liked M.A.S.K, I really liked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – but absolutely loved TRANSFORMERS! They were probably the only toys to rival my love of everything Star Wars! It’s probably the perfect storm for a toy brand – cool robots, cool vehicles, a cool cartoon, cool backstories and so on! As a young child and toy fan, what isn’t there to like about a laser blaster firing, laser sword swinging, robot, dinosaur!?

There is something so strong about the G1 side of Transformers that has spanned decades of my life… So much so that when the new movies came out, although I enjoyed them, I felt as though something was missing. I was delighted to see them go back to taking more of a nod to the original set up with Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts and now with the new TRANSFORMERS ONE.

We at Windle have been lucky enough to have been working on some TRANSFORMERS designs for Hasbro recently, and as a lifelong fan and closet TRANSFORMERS nerd, this is life at its best! I am now the proud father of a seven-year-old TRANSFORMERS fan and get to live it all again through his eyes… I love them and my son loves them… Although I didn’t love my son when he broke my original Jetfire toy, but we’ll move on from that… One day… Eventually… And below is a picture of a young me with TRANSFORMERS toys Topspin, Sludge and Kickback… Please ignore my hair, teeth, garms and choice of garden furniture!

Stephanie Griggs, Founder & Creative Director, Studio Griggs
I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t into TRANSFORMERS as a child. But as an adult, seeing my five-year-old son playing with his Bumblebee and Optimus Prime toys, I gained a new-found appreciation of the play pattern that was so clearly capturing his imagination.

Thinking about the secret sauce to its 40-year popularity, the franchise’s toy-first origin is an impressive success story and, I think, testament to using a can-do, collaborative approach to building an IP. Hasbro took the hugely popular TRANSFORMERS toys by Takara Tomy to Marvel, who created a narrative universe, backstory and character names, publishing the first official TRANSFORMERS comic book in 1984. This was the perfect way to solidify the characters in pop culture, while providing a springboard to a cross-media licensing strategy that’s stood the test of time.

“The play pattern of TRANSFORMERS is fundamental to its success.”

Hasbro continues to nurture two important pillars brilliantly – maintaining the brand’s global appeal through broad, accessible themes, and artfully flexing the creative and stylistic approach of its content to suit an evolving audience.

Robert Bedford, Creative Director, Juiced
TRANSFORMERS has managed to extend across multiple sectors because it’s truly a generational brand. The brand captured the hearts of kids in the Eighties – slightly before my time! – and has continued to reinvent itself for each new generation. I was actually a huge fan of the Beast Wars era of Transformers in the Nineties. Big robots will always be cool, and now that TRANSFORMERS is a legacy brand, not only does the ‘big robots’ appeal still resonate with kids, but previous generations get a great nostalgia kick out of it too. When I saw the new classic-style Beast Wars toys on the market, it took me right back to smashing these transforming dinosaur toys together. I still think the brand is awesome because, honestly, big robots fighting will always rule!

Lana Zoppi, Design Director, Studio Noel
TRANSFORMERS was a brand created for merchandise, with brand licensing almost baked into its DNA. It was created to work as action figures as well as in a narrative format with the comics and the movies. It’s similar to Pokémon in that way; starting as a card game that had all the elements of a bigger universe to narrativised. It’s a brand made for showcasing jaw dropping special effects and so its popularity is similar to that of Marvel – you don’t need to create the most interesting storylines because it’s all about impressive action. It’s accessible fun and escapism. Something we all enjoy.

If you think about that 40-year mark, it’s an interesting time for a toy brand. You will have kids today still playing with you if you’re able to remain relevant to them, as well as the adults who are now nostalgic for the toys of their youth. As a brand it can tap into both that excitement for the new, as well as the love for the retro and nostalgic.

To me, it feels like a brand that stands somewhere between Marvel and Stranger Things, mixing fantasy, play, science fiction and nostalgia in one exciting universe… So it has a huge amount to keep offering it’s really broad audience.