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By now, you’ve survived the Age of Extinction and once again succumbed to the lure of those Robots in Disguise, despite the presence of Mark Wahlberg and excitable directorial presence of Michael Bay. But where do you turn after you’ve realized that the 10-year-old inside you can’t stop wanting more Transformers?
Luckily, there is a lot of Transformers material out there, as only befits a franchise that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year (Happy Birthday, Optimus Prime! You’re one of the few who have made it this far relatively unscathed—the guy doing your voice now is the same one who started it all the way back in the 1980s cartoon series). If this weekend’s fourth cinematic installment of the rock ‘em, sock ‘em robot saga wet your whistle for more, here’s where you should start.
The Transformers: The Movie (1986)
For a certain generation of Transformers fans, no amount of visual effects or Michael Bay-hem will be able to match the overwhelming appeal of this mid-1980s spin-off from the original animated series. It took full advantage of the increased scale afforded by the format to dramatically change the status quo, replacing the entire cast of the series (in the process, killing off both Optimus Prime and Megatron, although the latter was rebuilt as new villain Galvatron), introducing a new threat that just happened to be a Transformer that turned into an entire planet, and giving us possibly the only movie in existence that featured contributions from Weird Al, Orson Welles and Casey Kasem. For those who want to know just how strange and epic Transformers media can get, this will be your jam.
How to watch it: Somewhat surprisingly, the movie isn’t currently available on DVD or Blu-ray, with the most recent release (the 20th anniversary edition from 2006) having fallen out of print. If you don’t want to pay impressively expensive prices online or hit up a local video store if one still exists near you, there’s always YouTube.
The Transformers: Best of UK — Dinobots (1986)
There’s no denying that the Dinobots were definitely one of the high points of Transformers: Age of Extinction, if only because the simple math of “robots + dinosaurs = awesome” still holds as true today as it did nearly 30 years ago when the characters first appeared. The characterization of Grimlock, Snarl et al is something that’s been anything but consistent through the years, however—sometimes, they’re mindless monsters, something brutish idiots, or simply surly heroes. Some of the best portrayals of the characters came from the much-lauded Marvel U.K. run of the original Transformers comic book series, in which writer Simon Furman treated them with enough respect to give them a modicum of intelligence but ensured that their social skills kept them outcasts from the rest of the good guys. Imagine a team of robot Wolverines from the X-Men, essentially, and who wouldn’t want to read that?
How to read it: Available in the Transformers: Best of UK — Dinobots collected edition.
Transformers: War Within (2002)
One of the givens in any version of the Transformers mythology (and there have been many across the last three decades) is that there was a war between the Autobots and Decepticons on their home planet. But the backstory of that war is something that’s rarely been explored beyond the occasional flashback setting something up for a particular plot point in a contemporary story, which is what makes War Within such an interesting read; it’s a comic book series set entirely prior to the Transformers coming to Earth, and one that deals with the war on Cybertron. If you’ve found yourself wondering just what the robots in disguise have been fighting about (or what they were like before they were in disguise, for that matter), then this is the best place to look.
How to read it: Available in the Transformers: War Within collected edition.
The Transformers: All Hail Megatron (2008-2009)
What if the Decepticons won? More to the point, what if the Decepticons won, and managed to get the Autobots off Earth entirely, letting them rule the planet with nothing to stand in their way? That’s the concept behind All Hail Megatron, a comic book series that sent Optimus Prime and his comrades back to Cybertron to lick their metallic wounds while Megatron got on with his dream of running the world. A surprisingly subtle series, with the characters forced to grow now that the status quo they were used to is taken away from them, AHM pushed the franchise into new directions that are still being explored in the current Transformers comic series today.
How to read it: Available digitally and in the Transformers: All Hail Megatron collected editions (four volumes in total).
Transformers: Prime (2011-2013)
While the Transformers movies pretty much stand alone in terms of their continuity, Transformers Prime is the closest thing you’ll find to a direct spin-off of the Michael Bay version of the characters. Co-created by movie writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and featuring Peter Cullen, again, as the voice of Optimus Prime, the 65-episode series certainly doesn’t lack for ambition, setting Autobots against Decepticons against humans, and revealing that Earth isn’t what everyone thought it was. (Spoiler: Earth is a Transformer. No, that’s not a joke.) Will Optimus Prime sacrifice humanity to save Cybertron? Will Starscream finally take over the Decepticons once and for all? And, seriously, the Earth is a Transformer? All manner of insanity is on offer here—including voice cameos from the likes of John Noble, Gina Torres, Michael Ironside, George Takei, and Clancy Brown. Not only “more than meets the eye,” Prime also kind of has to be seen to be believed.
How to watch it: Available on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as digitally on Netflix.
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