Transformers #1 (September 1984) – The Commercial, Not the Comic

Gene Kendall returns again -- I guess I threatened to do this, so here we are. Having exhausted the known archives of animated G. I. Joe commercials for the Marvel series, it does make a certain amount of sense to cover the other Marvel/Hasbro collaboration of the day, those wily robots in disguise.

For a while there, it seemed as if Marvel's role in developing the Transformers lore had been overlooked. By this, I mean Marvel as in New York's "Marvel Comics," and not Los Angeles' "Marvel Productions," which produced the Transformers and G. I. Joe animated series. In the early 1980s, the two entities had little to do with one another, although they did share an owner.

 

While G. I. Joe fans tended to view the 1980s Marvel comic book as sacrosanct -- the franchise's true mythology, never to be confused with that silly cartoon -- Transformers fans held their '80s cartoon in unusually high esteem. Marvel's Transformers comic book was that puerile continuity, with the never-ending coloring mistakes, and silly story arcs with brainwashing car washes and indefensible choices like killing Optimus Prime off via Nintendo and having Ratbat lead the Decepticons.

 

This is, of course, an oversimplification. Enlightened fans were more than aware of Simon Furman's work in the Transformers comics, and some elements of the canon he developed did make their way into later animated adaptations. But beginning with Dreamwave's 2002 relaunch of the comic, the bulk of contemporary Transformers media drew upon the 1980s animated series for inspiration. The starting point of the Dreamwave comic was pretty much "We're doing the '80s cartoon as a comic now! Check out our cool colors!" The slickness of the animation (or at least, how people remembered the animation) and the genuinely talented voice cast consistently overshadowed those quarter bin comics.

 

The comic book -- not only the Simon Furman issues, but the entire run -- has received a more generous reappraisal in recent years. The majority of the 1980s issues were written by Bob Budiansky, who also named most Transformers characters and penned their bios. Budiansky's issues tended to be well-plotted action-adventure stories that gave young male readers just enough characterization and just enough robot-on-robot violence. Budiansky was a penciler-turned-editor with an engineering background, who apparently had to be talked into writing the comic -- the earliest issues burned through a few writers before Budiansky stepped up to take the job.

 

Jim Shooter's role in developing the core concept, something he says he did for no pay and no credit, is also more widely known today. The central premise behind most Transformers media -- a warring faction of transforming robots, one good and one evil, crashing onto Earth and bringing their conflict with them -- was something Shooter penned himself when he had no one else left in the Marvel Bullpen to turn something in. (And Budiansky ended up continuing the development because no one else would take on the job.) Without Shooter, Transformers as we know the concept doesn't exist. So, these "bad" comics do have a place in the mythology, and there's more of a consensus now that the cartoon and comic can co-exist in peace.

 

But, per the post's title, I'm not talking about the comic, am I? I'm discussing the animated commercials for the comic. These ads were created with the same reasoning behind the G. I. Joe comic book ads -- let's skirt FCC regulations on the amount of allowable animation in toy commercials by advertising issues of the comic book...which just so happen to feature the latest toys.

 

There aren't nearly as many commercials for Marvel's Transformers as there are for G. I. Joe, and I don't know how well their production has been documented. I do recall an interview with a one-time Hasbro employee stating that as soon as the commercial for Transformers #1 aired, Hasbro received calls from excited kids, wondering when these toys were going on sale. The ad for Transformers #1 doesn't mention anything relating to Hasbro or action figures...but it does feature the same animation style seen in the G. I. Joe ads. Most American animation was so dreadful in this era, the splash of color and fast-moving action featured in these commercials (storyboarded by Marvel Productions and presumably animated in Japan by Toei), absolutely had an impact on kids.

 

Transformers archivists date the debut of this ad as early as April 21st of 1984, for a comic that went on sale in late May. Much like G. I. Joe, we have the Marvel Productions' "East meets West" animation look utilized to promote the Marvel Comics series. It's not a perfect match -- Marvel's cheaply printed comics and primitive color separations were at least superficially inferior to the higher-quality Japanese animation -- but most kids didn't seem to mind.

 

I believe this commercial marks the debut of the 1980s Transformers jingle, months away from appearing on the animated miniseries and assorted toy commercials. Brand consistency between ads for the toy, cartoon, and comic was a hallmark of Griffin-Bacal, the advertising agency Hasbro tasked with promoting the Transformers and G. I. Joe lines. In retrospect, it's impressive how the two brands feel unique, but still somehow compatible.

 

Victor Caroli, the voice of 1980s Transformers in all media, provides the voiceover. While Jackson Beck exuded a grandfatherly demeanor in his G. I. Joe commercials, presenting the battle between G. I. Joe and Cobra as something charming and almost whimsical, Victor Caroli makes the world of Transformers sound vaguely menacing and dangerous. (The TFWiki lists Time Life, HBO, Showtime, and Energizer commercials as some of Caroli's credits...I'm also positive he did several MTV promos in the late '80s, making the brand a little edgier as the network found its identity.)

 

The fully-animated commercial features eight of the early Transformers, in addition to the large Autobot and Decepticon spacecraft...which weren't even toys a kid could buy, but essential aspects of the lore in these early days. Quick sweeping shots move from Cybertron to Earth, where a Decepticon vessel assaults the Ark, causing it to crash-land on Earth. These are early designs that predate the cartoon's finished models -- the Ark is fairly recognizable, though colored green. But this design for the Decepticon craft never appeared again, I believe.

 

Starscream, Skywarp (with red highlights instead of purple), and Thundercracker swoop in, transforming into robots and launching an assault on a power station. Three vehicles swiftly roll onto the scene, transforming into Prowl, Jazz, and Sideswipe. Megatron then enters the fray, pressing the Autobots to take flight. Optimus Prime emerges from an explosion, transforming and firing his weapon. A visual of the first issue then covers the screen. "The Transformers from Marvel Comics," the voice-over artist tells us, almost as if he's announcing a new horror movie.

 

Saying there's a story here would be generous; it's more of a "greatest hits" of the early Transformers lore -- the crash-landing on Earth, Decepticons targeting human energy resources, and Autobots taking a stand to protect humanity. There's no dialogue, possibly because no actors had been cast yet. (I also wonder if Hasbro/Marvel were still working out just how "robotic" the characters would sound.) Also no appearances from the Witwicky family, no human identification figures to make the world more "relatable." The animation looks nice, probably on the same level of quality as the original Transformers miniseries, but it seems the G. I. Joe commercials were a little more polished by 1984.

 

What any Transformers fan will notice immediately are the early, early character models. The Seekers have dark-colored faces, and Megatron is sporting his black helmet, both "off-model" looks that remained standard throughout the Marvel series' lengthy run. (Megatron's helmet deeply confused me as a kid. Revising it seems to have been a last-minute decision during the cartoon's production.) Optimus Prime is a little more familiar, but this emphasizes the commercial's final curiosity -- the producers redrew the cover to Transformers #1!

 

Bill Sienkiewicz's design for Optimus Prime was a source of fan confusion for years, but it looks as if the artist was using an outdated Diaclone character model from Japan for reference when painting the cover. ( Check out this link for more info.) A painted Sienkiewicz cover in those days meant Marvel was serious about promoting a comic, although you have to wonder why anyone thought he'd be a great fit for Transformers. It seems as if he was given the basic idea of "alien robots here to disrupt life on Earth" and did what he could with it. I wonder if he was even told the red and blue robot was meant to be the hero?

 

The animated series would've been at some stage of production when this commercial was made, and clearly someone decided it was worth the effort to "fix" the off-model Optimus Prime on that cover. I'm curious about how that was executed -- was a physical copy painted over by a Marvel Productions staffer, or was this somehow done in post-production? And I've yet to read an explanation on why there were so few Transformers comic commercials. Clearly, it was a successful promotion for the G. I. Joe brand -- why didn't the Robots in Disguise receive an equivalent campaign?

 

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